Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1595 The Lunar War (107)

The silver greatsword sliced ​​through the steam and pierced towards the falling behemoth.

The sword tip pierced Blackcard Burt's outstretched hand, which had been trying to grasp the deck, pinning it to the edge of a crack in the deck. Below, molten orange-red iron flowed slowly—the former cooling pipes of the plasma reactor. Maximus's eyes were filled with complex emotions. A remnant of humanity compelled him to reach out a hand, but his vicious subconscious made him clench his fist and slam it into Blackcard Burt's rapidly contracting throat, interrupting the sonic boom it was trying to unleash. Blackcard Burt responded by flapping its bat wings and using the severed bone spur of its other arm to stab Maximus in the calf. Even with Maximus's supernatural reflexes, the intense pain prevented him from reacting to the rapid footsteps behind him.

This result was fatal, especially since its opponent was a member of the Imperial Guard.

The spear's massive blade pierced Maximus's throat and jaw. Commander Constantine, his eyes sharp, immediately stepped back after the successful strike, dodging the beast's claws that instinctively lashed out in pain. He leveled the spear, and the explosive musket mounted on its tip fired two shots, striking Maximus's elbow. The flesh and bone, composed of supernatural energy, shattered within the special explosive ammunition. Then, Catherine, clad in steel wings, descended from the sky, slashing a longsword engulfed in white flames at Blackcard Burt's claws, which had just been pinned to a crack in the deck. Another guard, whom Constantine didn't recognize, also fired, striking the silver greatsword Maximus was trying to swing at Catherine—a sword covered in hardened veins and skin.

We have no time, so we must handle two things at once. No one witnessed Blackcard Burt's battle with Maximus; only those behind the veil watched—an arena where the victor will ascend the throne and become stronger than before.

"What should we do, my lord?"

Constantine stared into the dark tunnel, the roar of armored vehicle engines echoing behind the command vehicle. The surroundings were much brighter now, the strange little creatures and mutated species born of ethereal energy being incinerated by the Emperor's light. On the mortal soldiers' communication channels, Constantine heard various words of mutual comfort, including considerable adoration for the Emperor—the First Secret Regiment had participated in the Balkan unification wars and was once considered by many Western media outlets to be the result of foreign interference. However, when the Yugoslavs joined the force, many legends about the Emperor from the Balkan unification wars were brought in—the Regent hadn't suppressed these legends, because they were largely true; he couldn't silence the soldiers who had witnessed the Emperor pierce tanks with his sword.

"We don't have the manpower to deal with Blackcard Bertgang and Maximus right now."

[Through dreams, Constantine. The Aether, or the dream world, is a subjective, idealistic world where we can influence reality. Blackcard Burt's battle with Maximus didn't entirely take place on the material plane; the outcome was predetermined on the Aether. Unless we opened the box beforehand, we couldn't know the cat's fate. Now we can interfere with half-life, determining when radioactive material decays.]

Every conversation with the Emperor required an extremely rich knowledge base and divergent thinking, a mode of thinking Constantine was already accustomed to. He knew that the Emperor's mind was currently contemplating other issues, some of which were merely philosophical speculations without practical significance. However, this did not prevent the Emperor from using concepts from other issues to draw analogies to the present problem. Conversations lacking relevant knowledge would be difficult for the speaker to understand, but when Constantine severed Maximus's elbow, which had been broken by a bomb, he was able to understand what the Emperor meant by "interference half-life."

This is interference; they are interfering.

The behemoth, formerly known as Maximus, bared its fangs and bit into the edge of Constantine's shoulder armor.

The commander of the Imperial Guard clenched his fist and slammed it hard into Maximus's hyena-like muzzle from below.

Constantine smashed one of Maximus's canine teeth and skin, spurting out foul, filthy black blood, but Maximus still clung tightly to the edge of the shoulder armor. Each tooth, enhanced by supernatural energy, carried the most malevolent magic, something even the custom-tuned power armor and Asgardian-crafted plates couldn't completely withstand. Maximus was like a hyena biting its prey, refusing to let go no matter what, even as Constantine cleaved its skull with his spear, gouging out one of its eyes, it still resisted the pain.

But as it raised its silver greatsword, Catherine burst forth from below, her steel wings spewing flames, propelling her rapidly towards Maximus. She raised the sword bestowed upon her by the emperor, slashing at the silver greatsword burning with blasphemous flames. The pure white light clashed with the black supernatural flames, unleashing a tremendous reaction. In an instant, the shockwave blew Catherine away, knocking Maximus to the ground, and even causing the Royal Guard Commander Constantine to roll on the ground, his crimson robes stained with black blood.

Another unaffected guard immediately charged towards Maximus's massive body, his halberd aimed directly at Maximus's throat. His combat skills were so refined that he could seamlessly follow Constantine's attack without any prior arrangement. However, a piercing sonic wave erupted from beneath the deck. Even though Constantine and the guard firmly gripped the deck with their boots and their power armor gyroscopes constantly provided dynamic compensation, they still couldn't avoid being blown into the air along with the deck. The wounded Maximus hadn't been able to flap his bat wings in time to dodge the sonic wave and was hit squarely, instantly tearing open half of his body, along with the arm that was tightly gripping the silver greatsword. Blackcard Burt, covered in molten iron, had just flapped his bat wings and risen from beneath the deck crack when his massive throat rapidly contracted, spitting out a pool of crimson molten iron.

Catherine swooped down, grabbing Constantine and another Royal Guard by the shoulder armor to prevent them from falling into the molten iron of the plasma reactor below. "That greatsword and its arm are completely fused!" Constantine judged in a fleeting glance. The Royal Guard's fighting style was remarkably calm; they would gather intelligence, analyze tactics, and then strike at weaknesses. Although their primary duty was to protect the Emperor, this didn't mean they lacked the ability to turn the tide of war single-handedly. Constantine didn't know why he suddenly understood the importance of that silver greatsword—he couldn't explain the origin of this knowledge, as it seemed to have appeared out of thin air in his mind. Yet, he chose to believe it, because he had no other choice. "We must first sever Maximus's arm that wields the sword; otherwise, no matter how much we injure it, Maximus can regenerate."

The other guard, though still silent, nodded in agreement.

As one of the founders of the Royal Guard order, Constantine immediately recognized that this Royal Guard from the future possessed a remarkably high rank. The Royal Guard's system was highly structured; for a Royal Guard to advance, they had to excel in a specific area. Constantine, seeing the Royal Guard's shoulder armor, understood that this was a warrior with a rich resume and exceptional design and tactical planning abilities. Although he didn't know why he had encountered this Royal Guard warrior from the future in his dream, or whether the latter had fought alongside him in the future, Constantine still demonstrated the capabilities expected of a Royal Guard commander, utilizing his comrade's strengths in tactical arrangements.

Although the exchange lasted only a few seconds, the two colossal beasts below resumed their tearing at each other. The Imperial Guards, having finalized their tactics, launched their attack as soon as they landed. Two guards charged towards Maximus, whom they considered the most dangerous, for he gripped the silver greatsword tightly in his hand.

The silver greatsword was forged ten thousand years ago by an alien race that worshipped an ethereal deity. When he injured Maximus, Constantine glimpsed the scene of the silver greatsword being forged, with large amounts of blood being poured as a sacrifice onto the red-hot blade, and then the sword was placed before an indescribable, faceless idol.

The alien race was destroyed by the Kree Empire, but a cult within the Kree Empire's psionic department discovered that this alien race shared the same beliefs as their own. In the process of plundering the aliens' occult knowledge and history, the silver greatsword naturally became a trophy, studied by the Kree Empire's psionic department and the cult lurking within it. Finally, during the war with the Skrulls, the silver greatsword was lost due to "mismanagement" and other reasons. It was then given by a Kree wizard to a psionic combat squad of Inhumans to observe the sword's effects on psionicists. The squad leader was immediately captivated by the silver greatsword, but when the Kree Empire abandoned the Inhumans as war slaves, the Kree wizard's research project was interrupted. The psionic combat squad that obtained the silver greatsword went into hiding on the lower decks of Attilan Fortress and founded a cult.

The long history flashed through Constantine's mind, but had no effect on him.

Catherine flapped her steel wings and swooped down on the much larger Blackcard Burtgon. The battle sister, as lithe as an angel, finally revealed her fangs. As the sonic waves from Blackcard Burtgon's mouth reached Catherine, a flash of gunfire erupted from a dark corner, and a high-explosive bullet struck Blackcard Burtgon precisely in the eye. At that moment, another battle sister, who had remained hidden, leaped from the ruins of the steel deck, still holding a smoking semi-automatic sniper rifle. A spent cartridge had just arced through the air and landed on the ground.

The combat sister, wielding a high-explosive sniper rifle, moved and fired rapidly. The explosive rounds precisely struck the gap between Blackcard Burtg's fingers, which were covering his eyes. The pressure change caused the bullets to explode, releasing heat that scorched Blackcard Burtg's empty eye sockets. At that moment, Catherine, tracing an arc through the air, finally closed in on Blackcard Burtg. She pierced his throat and neck with her longsword, which burned white flames, charring and vaporizing his skin and muscles, reducing them to pure ethereal energy. The pain inflicted on Blackcard Burtg far exceeded all the damage from his previous fight with Maximus. Affected by the white flames, his undamaged organs seemed to return to normal—however, the material universe simply could not support such muscles and skin. His body, devoid of blood vessels and internal organs, began to collapse in the blink of an eye, and his regenerating arms stopped growing—though his throat was severed, Blackcard Burtg instinctively cried out for help.

"No! You lowly creatures!"

Maximus tried to move his broken elbow, but the next moment the blade of the Guardian Spear pierced his cervical spine. The Royal Guard mounted him like a wild horse, firing several shots from the back of his head with the explosive musket on the Guardian Spear, slamming his head against the deck. At that moment, Constantine charged forward, dodging Maximus's wildly swung silver greatsword. His spear, like a storm of steel, cleaved Maximus's forearm and wrist horizontally with precision, until it was stopped by something far harder than bone.

Without hesitation, Constantine pulled the trigger. Maximus's hand was shattered, and a massive silver sword covered in vine-like veins fell to the ground with a thud. The veins embedded themselves in the blade, still writhing like living things. Maximus let out an unprecedented wail, rolling on the ground towards Constantine, attempting to crush the guard riding on its back into a pulp. However, the guard nimbly leaped off in the opposite direction, firing several shots at Maximus's head. Constantine dodged the blade-like wing bones, and Maximus, now a behemoth, glared viciously at Constantine before charging towards the heavily wounded Blackcard Burt.

Catherine stood on the ground, firmly grasping the large horn on Blackcard Burtgon's forehead, pressing the mutated, enormous head to the ground. She raised her longsword, ready to decapitate Blackcard Burtgon. She saw Maximus charging towards her, but she paid no heed—a scorching ball of plasma hurtled towards him, colliding head-on—star-like heat vaporized Maximus's ribs, exposing his throbbing black heart and other organs not found in ordinary people. The unnamed guard immediately followed, plunging his garrison spear into Maximus's exposed chest, while Constantine thrust his spear, pinning another surviving shoulder blade of Maximus to the deck.

"You know nothing!" Maximus roared, his voice thick with blood and spittle. "We should return to Heaven!"

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(End of this chapter)