What should I do now?
thought Roland.
A cage? An oriented mine? A power grid? A laser fence?
Roland had rejected all the answers that were constantly appearing in his mind as none of them could really confine Zero. The position after death could not be defined as it could be at the original spot or any corner of the roof. His energy had obviously hit bottom and constantly creating consumables was just wasting his remaining resurrections. The next failure might be his real death.
I have to deprive her of her mobility.
And, I have to also keep the roof intact.
I have to also kill her hundreds of time in a shot…
Is it… Is it possible?
Roland took a deep breath and asked,
During these 200 years, how many times have you fought such a battle?
Over 1000 times or more, however, only a few that really impressed me,
Zero answered,
They had a stronger will than you do, however, they were still defeated by the endless deaths. There are only a few people who’ll choose to continue being tortured while facing a hopeless ending.
She paused and said,
Are you still going to stick to your previous approach?
I indeed don’t have much hope, however, I simply want to fulfill my curiosity before everything comes to an end. You’ve never failed in over 1000 battles?
I would not be standing here if I failed.
How come?
Roland slowly sat down to save the little energy he had left.
Did no one think of creating lava or a deep sea to defeat you before you attained such great power?
This isn’t a new idea, but unfortunately, no one can do it.
Zero walked in front of him.
Just changing the place that we’re standing in consumes no lesser energy than death. Changing the world is just a delusion and only God can do it.
There’s no God in my world,
he said lamentably.
So, have you decided to give up?
The Pure Witch Zero bent down to lift up his chin and she said,
In this case, submit to me and follow me.
Sorry.
Roland smiled while holding on to both her shoulders and gently pushed her away.
I still want to try again.
Zero arose and pulled out her weapon, however, she found that the distance between both of them was constantly growing larger. Her expression quickly changed as she realized that she was unable to move any closer to Roland. Her body was still sliding backward even when she was running at full speed! Zero looked down and noticed that the floor beneath her feet had become as smooth as a mirror without her knowing. However, she would not slip even if the ground was so smooth which was contrary to her common sense. Her body remained relatively still as if it was nailed to the ground regardless of what she was doing.
Your amazing mobility doesn’t seem to work anymore,
Roland said,
Even a monster like you can’t move a step closer without the support of friction.
What did you do?
Zero bent down and tried to slow down or change the direction using both her arms and her legs. However, it was futile.
I simply made a small change to the battlefield.
He changed into a more comfortable sitting position and said,
It seems that the energy consumed for changing the environment won’t be too far off as long as the changes aren’t too big. Have you ever heard of the law of inertia?
Inertia…?
When an object is not subject to external forces, it will either stay still or be in constant linear motion. Of course, you can also call it Newton’s First Law.
The ground dramatically changed as soon as Roland hit the railing of the roof and stopped! The steel frame grew out of the ground and continuously extended into the sky followed by the metal sheet cover which was wrapping up the black frames. Soon, a monument with glowing cold light appeared behind Roland. Each layer of the monument was evenly divided into around 10 rectangular units which looked like an elongated Rubik’s cube. There was a black hollow steel tube coming out from the center of each of the rectangular units which were pointing towards Zero who was still sliding at a constant speed.
It’s my turn now.
Zero noticed something was wrong. She held up her longsword and the golden light appeared again. However, this time Roland was faster than her. The nearly 100 steel tubes roared at the same time. The burning gunpowder instantly heated up the air to over 1,000 degrees and the rapid expansion of the air generated by the high pressure pushed the shells out of the tube towards the Pure Witch, Zero with a speed of 1,900 meters per second. The loud roar was deafening and the campus which had just fallen into the night was instantly lit up as if the sun just rose from the roof. There were a hundred billion turrets and trillions of starlights! The night sky was lit up by the fireflies which just flew in. The densely-gathered light spots drew a dazzling track in the night sky and poured onto the ground in a crisscrossing motion one by one. The fireflies were making a shrilling noise while struggling to flap their wings as if they were announcing their arrival to the world. Then, they crashed to the ground. The light of the fireflies was magnified by tens of thousands of times at that moment, their bodies turned into broiling broken pieces which splattered all around… A roaring explosion noise was followed by the dazzling light which was combined with the echoes of a whistling sound in the sky. However, Roland was no longer able to hear the sonata formed by the intertwined metal and gunpowder as his eardrums were already broken by the high-pitched sound of the first flame that was emitted by the black monument. The gigantic barrel was roaring below him and the boiling hot air had hurt his cheek. However, he was very happy. The world had become quite different as he was standing on top of the square monument. The entire roof was divided into equal parts, like a chessboard. Each block was pouring with cannon. He could see that Zero was being thrown up and down by the explosive air currents, like the falling leaves in a storm. Nothing could live under the coverage of gunfire. The deadly fireflies would follow and devour her again once she was reborn. She was unable to avoid this as she could not even change her direction on the non-friction ground but helplessly she watched the numerous light spots with a long flame tail landed in front of her with a whistle.
It’s impossible!
Zero shouted incredulously.
You can’t create things that don’t exist out of nowhere, this… doesn’t exist!
The ground was still as clean as new without a trace of scratch after the wash of gunfire as if it had nothing to do with the flying fireflies in the sky.
It’s smoother than a mirror and stronger than steel. It’s impossible for such thing to exist!
The Pure Witch Zero hysterically screamed. Although Roland could not hear her, he could guess what she felt. He could not turn himself into Superman, but he could create a power that was no less than a superman. He changed the distance between atoms within the ground surface. Atoms were closely attached to each other with a strong interaction, like the soldiers who neatly lined up. This surface was almost absolutely smooth and incredibly strong. The tetrahedron carbide was as soft as water in front of it. Zero was completely confined as she could not run or hide and was surging up and down with the gunfire. It was nothing to do with will but the great disparity of knowledge. She had tried to activate the Sigil of God’s Will several times. However, the continuous gunfire would not give her any respite and she gradually lost the sustainability of her appearance.
Please, let me go!
Her voice was ringing in Roland’s heart.
Are you going to kill your sister?
It became Garcia’s plea after a moment.
Stop, you’re such a monster. You’re killing your family member!
Followed by the reproach of King Wimbledon III. However, Roland remained unmoved.
It’s time to end it all,
he answered in his heart,
I’ll defeat the demons on behalf of you. Rest in peace!
No, I won’t let you go!
A dazzling blue light lit up the entire night sky along with Zero’s scream. After that, the entire world fell apart.
