American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Rune ignored the soldiers; his most important task at the moment was to eliminate those beasts.

In the memory of the human Rubik's Cube in his hand, most high-ranking political figures and wealthy businessmen in the United States often held a banquet called the "Baptism Feast." At the banquet, they would gather together, dissect a living wizard, and then each person would take a piece and eat it.

These figures at the top of the pyramid believed that through this ritual, they could absorb magic into their bodies and thereby prolong their lives. This human Rubik's Cube had participated in several similar events and had even personally performed the procedures on several occasions.

They would even judge the freshness and magical content of "ingredients" by the volume of the wizard's screams. The louder the scream, the fresher the ingredient, the higher its magical content, and the more pronounced its life-extending ability.

But this was just the tip of the iceberg; the rest of the scenes were utterly chilling. Rune had initially thought the wizards on those islands had suffered terribly, but comparatively, they were relatively lucky. Other projects, like the "Ranch Project" and the "Renewable Magic Project," had names that sent shivers down one's spine—there were countless others. Rune even had to admire those people; he himself couldn't have conceived of a plan to mass-produce wizards by having ordinary people mate with magical creatures.

Colonel Carl wasn't far from the island; he was standing on the bridge of the warship, gazing at it in the distance. The island was shrouded in darkness, only its outline faintly discernible in the distance. Dozens of sailors were relaxed, casually observing the instruments before them, clearly enjoying the moment.

After all, not every unit can participate in the mission of transporting a lieutenant general's son. This is not only an easy job, but also a chance to build rapport with a subordinate who is destined to rise to the rank of brigadier general... no, not subordinate. After returning from the execution of the rebels, Karl will be the other party's subordinate.

Indeed, on the surface, the selection and promotion system for U.S. generals is not hereditary; it operates through a strict, transparent, and standardized procedure. However, in reality, there are many loopholes that can be exploited, and the system is quite exclusive. If you want to interfere with military spending, well, sorry, you'll just have to make a small mistake.

Carl thought the only regret in this line of work was that he couldn't get any credit for it.

While the other sailors relaxed, the colonel propped his legs up on the table, leisurely flipping through a Playboy magazine. However, a moment later, an alarm suddenly went off. A huge circle appeared on one of the radar screens, and the sailor suddenly shouted a curse, startling Carl so much that he fell off his chair.

"What the hell?" Carl stood up and yelled, trying to cover up his embarrassment. "What happened?"

"Reporting, sir!" The navy officer who had just been shouting stood up and yelled, "High-energy unit detected approaching!"

Carl immediately ran over and carefully examined the huge circle on the radar. Then, as if struck by an invisible lightning bolt, his eyes widened, his pupils contracted sharply, his mouth opened slightly, and he involuntarily gasped for breath.

"This can't be a joke, can it?" Karl glanced at the other radar. Radar technology had made significant progress in the 1990s, with accuracy greatly improved; air defense radars now achieved meter-level precision. But this precise air defense radar only showed something the size of a human figure. And this unknown thing was approaching at an extremely fast speed.

So the colonel resorted to the traditional repair method.

"Reboot it!" he snapped angrily. "I knew those nerds' inventions were unreliable!"

However, upon restarting, sweat instantly soaked Karl's forehead and temples, sliding down his cheeks and wetting his hair. The unknown entity was still approaching at an extremely fast speed, and his cruiser was completely obscured by the radar capable of detecting magic.

Karl nearly lost his voice. He seemed to say something, but even the nearest sailors couldn't understand him and had to ask again. Karl, flustered by this, raised his voice as high as he could, shouting, "Fire missiles! I said fire missiles and naval guns! Are you deaf?"

"But the target is too small, the hit rate might be..."

"Give it your shot! At all costs!" Karl swallowed hard. He knew how formidable those scientists were. Wasn't World War II ended so quickly thanks to those terrifying guys' invention of the Little Boy and Fat Man? Even if there was some error, it shouldn't be that significant…

The navy personnel around Karl heard his heavy breathing, but none of them dared to mention it.

"Hasn't it launched yet?" After waiting a while, Karl asked impatiently. The moment he asked, a tremendous sound rang out—not just missiles, but even the ship's guns opened fire. The loud noise completely drowned out the reports from the nearby navy, but with Karl's command, the cruiser was coming back to life.

Soon, a violent explosion echoed in the distance. A blinding light ripped through the darkness, followed by a massive fireball rapidly expanding in the air. Red, orange, and yellow flames illuminated Karl's face. The fireball then gradually dimmed, but debris and smoke from the explosion slowly dissipated in the air, while the shockwave created ripples on the sea surface, rapidly spreading outwards.

Carl quickly looked down at the radar, but the thing on it was still hurtling toward the cruiser with unstoppable force—and it seemed as if the trajectory of the incoming missile was guiding the thing, its trajectory no longer erratic, but became a straight line.

"Fire again!" Karl shouted, his eyes glued to the dot on the radar. He hadn't expected a mere mission to execute rebels to encounter something like this. Was it a secret weapon tinkered by the remnants of the Soviet Union? Or some kind of magical artifact from those wizards?

Missiles and naval guns couldn't stop the enemy for even a moment, leaving Karl somewhat desperate. He could only pray that the weapon was non-lethal. Unfortunately, this mission was classified, and all he could do was explain his situation to another fleet thousands of kilometers away. That fleet was the closest to him and also knew the relevant secrets.

"...A suspected high-energy object is heading towards us, its speed exceeds..." The navy officer beside Karl whispered a number. Karl nodded, then continued, "Its speed exceeds 500 meters per second..."

The next moment, the so-called high-energy object rushed into the bridge. Karl's eyes widened—he had thought it was a low-speed missile, but it turned out to be a supersonic human body?