At the same moment, the ghoul itself began to change. Its frame swelled, muscles corded beneath thickened skin, and its presence surged like a dark tide rolling across the battlefield. The bones beneath its torso popped and stretched, expanding as if something ferocious within was struggling to break free.
"The opposite side is starting." A scientist muttered, face shadowed with dread.
Yet there was nothing the Astra Militarum could do. Their electromagnetic rifles couldn't reach such a distance; they could only bombard with missiles. But the ghouls had already adapted, scattering like black ants across the wasteland. Each strike obliterated only a single target, reducing bombardment efficiency to a miserable trickle.
"Mok really intends to finish Sebastian in ten minutes. He's triggered the devouring so fast," Bru observed from the viewing platform.
It wasn't just one ghoul. Dozens were feasting, chewing on the bodies of their own kind with wet, bone-crushing hunger. With every corpse swallowed, their strength climbed like stacking iron plates upon a tower. One corpse, stronger. Two, faster. Three, brutal. As long as flesh remained, power would continue to rise without pause.
Hiss-!A ghoul that had gorged upon five of its kin shuddered violently. Its aura exploded outward, body doubling as thick, brutal muscle layered over its frame like armor plates. It released a shriek so sharp the air itself seemed to splinter.
Then, a missile carved through the sky and detonated against it with a thunderous explosion. Smoke rolled outward. When the haze thinned, the enhanced ghoul lay mangled in the crater, limbs torn loose like broken twigs.
"Is that weapon truly so terrifying?" Even Mok raised a brow, though his voice carried unsettling calm. "Then we simply force the others to evolve further."
"Ghouls, become your strongest form."His roar cracked across the field.
Hissing erupted everywhere. An astonishing transformation began, ghouls devouring ghouls, no longer waiting for their kin to fall. Claws tore living flesh, and frenzied consumption began from the first rank onward. First-class became second-class. Second collapsed into third. Third into fourth. The cycle spiraled upward like a twisted evolutionary ladder drenched in blood.
The Astra Militarum stared dumbfounded. They had never seen ghouls consume the living, only corpses in training footage.
"This… this…" Even spectators across the vast square were struck speechless.
"This ghoul strain Mok engineered, he really gave them this capability?" Patton whispered in disbelief. Then, grim realization dawning, he asked, "If so, hasn't he already sacrificed nearly two hundred thousand ghouls?"
"Ghoul creation differs greatly from other Supernatural species," Huo Kong replied, voice steady yet cold. "They burrow in darkness, thrive on corpses. As long as bodies exist, they multiply endlessly."
"200,000…" He paused. "With enough corpses, they could replenish that number within one or two months. And besides, they can't devour them all now. Second-level ghouls simply aren't strong enough."
His prediction proved true. Mok's swarm couldn't consume all 200,000; they peaked at a thousand before weakening. The rest threw themselves forward as cannon fodder, intercepting missile fire so the devourers could evolve unhindered. Growth accelerated, faster, darker, unstoppable.
Within moments, several ghouls ascended to Level Eight. Then more. Taller than an elephant, their bodies resembled the half-man mammoth encountered before, fangs curled like iron scythes, sinew rippling beneath hide like braided steel.
BOOM-!An AGM-62 Walleye slammed into a Level Nine specimen. But instead of disintegrating, the ghoul merely staggered, a deep cavity torn into its abdomen, nothing like the total obliteration seen before. For the first time since deployment, a missile failed to kill.
"So. As expected, tracking weapons has limits." Mok's eyes glinted with smug satisfaction.
"Impossible!?" A scientist in the command tent paled.
"It's normal," Another scientist said calmly, almost indifferently. "It could only go so far. The next step is obvious: he'll force an evolution into Level Ten. And missiles alone will barely slow them."
As predicted, Mok barked a command, and the frenzy resumed. Minutes later, three towering monstrosities emerged, Level Ten Ghouls, the highest point second-tier biomass could achieve through raw devouring. Missiles rained endlessly, but the ghouls pressed forward unfazed. Hundreds died, yet three giants survived, vast, brutal, defiant.
"Three Level Tens… more than enough to crush these weak musketeers." Mok smiled, satisfaction curling across his lips like a blade. He thrust his arm toward the distant horizon. "Strongest warriors of the ghouls, go. Tear them apart."
Hiss-! The three Level Ten ghouls roared in unison, towering over ten meters high. Bone and muscle formed natural armor, rendering the AGM-62 Walleye worthless. They thundered forward like living siege engines, their target unmistakable.
The Astra Militarum. Six kilometers ahead, and closing fast. And these Level Tens were still evolving. The speed was astonishing, blur-like, almost unreal. It crawled across the field like a phantom, silent and deadly.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Electromagnetic rifles rained shots like a storm, but against AGM-62 Walleye, they were already ineffective. How could electromagnetic rifles hope to do more?
"Hahahaha! I adore this, my mighty ghouls treat it like a gentle scratch!" Mok burst into triumphant laughter.
And indeed, he had reason. The three Level 10 ghouls didn't dodge. They welcomed the impact. Spiked rounds slammed into their bodies, only tearing skin, barely grazing flesh beneath. This injury… to such monsters? It wasn't worth a second thought. Their resilience was terrifying, and the attacks might as well have been raindrops.
Still, they charged forward, faster than cavalry, faster than beasts. One kilometer closed in under thirty seconds. Aside from aerial units, this was the fastest ground movement speed the Astra Militarum had witnessed in any Supernatural species to date.
"You really think we're helpless?" Lando stood watching those snarling, arrogant Level 10 ghouls closing in, their jaws wide, eyes blazing. He smiled, not fearfully, but with calm confidence, and shouted: "Execute the plan. Fire the Railgun Cannon!"
Long before this battle, the Astra Militarum had prepared. They had analyzed every second of ghoul combat footage. Days of study. Relentless simulation. One conclusion surfaced, terrifying, undeniable: Ghouls devoured to evolve. And a ghoul that consumed enough of its own kin might ascend into something catastrophic.
Just as the scientist team predicted, Mok had hidden his trump card. Those Level 10 ghouls were apex predators, immune even to missile and spiked-round bombardment. But the Astra Militarum was prepared. They brought something far more devastating: An Railgun Cannon.
The heavy vehicle that rolled in earlier, five times larger than a standard vehicle, carried this monstrous weapon.
Electromagnetic technology had existed for decades, its rifles once tested in real battles, though limited. Cannons, however, were different, colossal, power-hungry, and difficult to transport. Each shot drained an entire power cell. Energy consumption alone crippled development for years.
In the Imperium, energy was still a critical national bottleneck, but thanks to the Pikachu, the impossible became achievable. 3 Pikachu working together could recharge a depleted battery core. With that, an experimental theory became a realizable super-weapon.
The principle mirrored that of the electromagnetic rifle, but magnified beyond comparison, not gunpowder, but raw electromagnetic propulsion. Metal projectiles were accelerated by high-current magnetic fields to lethal velocity.
Unlike conventional cannons relying on explosive gas pressure, the Railgun Cannon launched shells faster, farther, and with greater kinetic force. Three main systems defined it: Energy, Accelerator, Switch.
The accelerator converted sheer electromagnetic force into projectile velocity, while the switch triggered an instant million-amp current flow. A metal slug became a lightning bolt, a high-speed extinction strike.
Since entering the battlefield, technicians had worked feverishly to calibrate it. Though built years prior, this moment marked its first real combat use. Would it succeed? Even its creators didn't know.
Seeing a weapon, Earth once only theorized, stirred something deep within Sebastian. In his old life, the Railgun Cannon belonged to ambitions, studied yet impractical, confined to laboratories and fantasies of the Star Wars–era arms race. A supposed nuclear countermeasure that never matured.
But here, in the Imperium, powered by electric mounds, theory became metal and thunder. Scientists were finally free to push the limits of power and possibility.
Advantages were immense, astonishing firing speed, no delay like cruise missiles, and with battlefield targeting systems, accuracy improved exponentially. More importantly, no gunpowder. Safer storage, ten-fold ammunition capacity, and a future foundation of warfare.
The cannon deployed today was the most advanced electromagnetic design the Imperium possessed. Massive, immovable by aircraft, thus, they built a dedicated heavy vehicle. A thousand scientists spent years on its engineering, a mobile fortress built solely to carry and maneuver this titanic weapon. As fast as the Scarab Walker, turning like a predator, it could adjust angle and fire direction in seconds.
"Aim," Lando's voice deepened with command, "Fire!"
The enormous cannon extended from the armored hull, muzzle glowing like the eye of a storm, aimed directly ahead. Three Level 10 ghouls.Charging. Unstoppable.
And the Railgun Cannon roared its first shot.