Chapter Forty-Four: "What Is Death?"

Moo—

Once the Dragon emerges, the world bows.

The heavy dragon mace, wielded with astonishing speed by Qiu Qiuchan, blurred into afterimages, encircling the Demon Doll like a dragon coiling around a pillar, fierce as a dragon shaking the river. Shards flew everywhere as the Demon Doll, suddenly assaulted, was being destroyed at a pace nearing the limit of its regeneration.

Enraged, the Demon Doll let out a piercing scream. Sacrificing the face that was smashed to pieces by the dragon mace, it slapped Qiu Qiuchan away. Qiu Qiuchan raised the dragon mace in a desperate attempt to block, but her stance was broken, and she found herself unable to catch her breath.

Cackling, the Demon Doll raised its hands to chase after Qiu Qiuchan, but Chen Tu suddenly flicked out silver threads, wrapping them around its chubby wrists. Though he could restrain it for only an instant, it was enough for Qiu Qiuchan to recover and evade a blow that would have carved a deep crater, diving back into the fray.

The heavy dragon mace was nearly indestructible; each strike carried immense force and martial will, making the Demon Doll howl in agony. If any living soul heard that mournful demonic cry, they would surely be driven mad in an instant.

The Demon Doll’s body shattered and repaired itself endlessly. The two humans and one demon were locked in a perilous tug-of-war.

“Ke-ke-ke-ke!” The Demon Seed sneered, “Struggle, humans. The harder you fight, the deeper your despair!”

Chen Tu felt a chill in his heart. He knew well that a demon capable of projecting such an entity was impossibly powerful, far beyond what they could possibly wear down.

Suddenly, a voice echoed within their minds: “Um, good evening. My name is Angsath, a superhuman from Amest—perhaps ‘former’ superhuman is more accurate.”

“Who?” Qiu Qiuchan managed a terse question amid the chaos.

“Don’t worry about who I am. Just tell me—do you have any way to defeat it?”

Chen Tu threw his silver threads, yanking the Demon Doll’s hand away from Qiu Qiuchan. “Yes, of course!”

Qiu Qiuchan replied urgently, “This projection is supernatural, but as long as it manifests in the material world, it must obey physical laws!”

“Explain more clearly!”

“Only immense energy—enough to annihilate it in an instant—can kill it!”

Angsath was silent for a moment. “Any kind of energy?”

Even as she gasped, Qiu Qiuchan’s voice remained icy. “Kinetic, thermal, electric, chemical—whatever you can manage.”

“I understand.”

In the distance, Angsath spoke to Adonsa, “Adonsa, do you truly wish to defeat this monster?”

When Adonsa survived his evolutionary crisis, the first thing he did was relieve Angsath and Arthur of their agony; at that point, they were barely more than mangled flesh.

Angsath quickly asked Adonsa to restore his own body, while Arthur fell into a deep sleep, continuing his evolution with the aid of mutated power.

To Angsath, as fellow monsters, Adonsa should have the least zeal for destroying another of his kind.

Adonsa, speaking through Tindalos, said, “I need more power, more supernatural force. I must obtain its sample.”

Angsath asked, “But you heard them—are you capable of unleashing such an annihilating attack?”

As Adonsa and Arthur’s splinter forms gradually suppressed the mutations of the second stage, they returned to normal. Angsath sensed Adonsa growing ever more inscrutable, but could not fathom what had changed.

Yet whatever had changed, Angsath still saw Adonsa as flesh and blood—incapable of anything like a cannon’s attack.

In truth, if not for the interference of Amest’s Thirteenth Fleet, the Tianjing military would already have launched an assault.

If Tianjing’s forces attacked, Amest would likely claim to sense the aggression and invade instantly.

As for why the missile was fired, and where it was aimed, that would be debated for half a century.

Adonsa glanced at Angsath, who felt a sudden sense of inferiority, reading a hint of contempt.

“You seem to misunderstand—I’m not a beast, I am a sapient being.”

Angsath paused. “You mean to use weapons? But where would you find such wide-area destructive arms?”

Tindalos, under Adonsa’s control, looked toward the distance—an abandoned amusement park, its massive roller coaster and Ferris wheel lost in desolation.

Angsath squinted, and suddenly saw a swarm of construction machines gathering swiftly beside the roller coaster, methodically rebuilding it at breakneck speed.

All these machines were controlled by splinter forms, their minds linked, operating massive hydraulic arms in perfect harmony, transforming the roller coaster beyond recognition in moments.

The huge iron tracks were dismantled and reassembled into a bent tunnel. Six long steel rails formed an irregular hexagonal pipe, its mouth aimed directly at the Demon Doll.

Angsath’s jaw dropped, awed by this industrial miracle, but still had no clue what Adonsa was planning—until dazzling arcs of electricity erupted between the rails, electromagnetic effects making nearby metal tremble.

“An electromagnetic railgun!?”

Adonsa had used the amusement park’s discarded equipment to build a crude electromagnetic railgun. Segments of the roller coaster awaited launch, ready for firing.

Boom!

A roller coaster segment was launched at nearly the speed of sound, obliterating dozens of buildings, shooting almost to the horizon, clearing an unobstructed line of sight between the amusement park and the Demon Doll.

Adonsa had hijacked an entire street’s power cables to supply the rails. Whether or not the shot hit, the street’s electrical systems exploded into a shower of sparks. The surging high voltage knocked out two more streets, plunging three districts into darkness.

The railgun was, after all, crude—a miracle it could fire at all, but accuracy was another matter. After a single shot, the rails glowed red-hot, clearly unable to endure many more.

Adonsa said, “No good. My firing angle is limited—I need the Demon Doll drawn to a position between forty-five and eighty degrees to the left.”

Angsath relayed Adonsa’s requirement.

Chen Tu and Qiu Qiuchan were already exhausted, panting heavily.

Chen Tu’s fingers trembled, and blood seeped from Qiu Qiuchan’s torn palms. They were obviously near their limit.

Chen Tu was baffled. “What? What’s this forty-five to eighty degrees?”

Adonsa: “…Zone 23 to 56 in East City District One.”

Chen Tu grumbled, “Why didn’t you say that earlier? Are you mocking me because I never finished grade school?”

Adonsa: “…”