The ancient Colosseum was trembling.
Miranda's Mold domain spread like a massive black spiderweb, locking down the entire city block.
The thousands of dark-gold monsters that had charged the front lines had completely lost the ability to move. Their dark-gold keratin layers were rotting and peeling away under the Mold's corrosion, exposing the grayish-white muscle tissue convulsing underneath.
The Ouroboros virus recoiled violently against the pure-black Mold, like a mouse cornered by a cat.
"Mechanized Assault Companies One through Five, targets confirmed." Heisenberg's voice transmitted via electromagnetic wave to the electronic eyes of every Star Fire mechanized soldier. "Free fire. No survivors."
The steel behemoths, each two and a half meters tall and coated in matte black, raised their six-barrel rotary electromagnetic cannons in unison.
The barrels spun up with a rising whine, then the metal storm erupted. Every depleted-uranium armor-piercing round left the barrel at several times the speed of sound. Under the suppression of Miranda's Mold domain, the dark-gold monsters were living targets.
The sound of flesh being ripped apart by high-velocity kinetic energy merged into a continuous roar. Electromagnetic rounds shredded dark-gold shells and reduced monster bodies to clouds of blackish-purple blood mist.
One advanced-stage mutant standing three meters tall took at least three hundred armor-piercing rounds in under a second. Its upper body disintegrated instantly, leaving only a pair of hairy legs standing rigid before toppling over with a crash.
"Flamethrowers, move up!" Ethan gripped two modified shotguns and walked at the head of the mechanized legion.
Dozens of Star Fire soldiers in heavy fireproof suits pushed past the mechanical troops and raised their projectors. Dark-red fire dragons swept across Miranda's Mold domain in an instant.
The napalm, infused with a specialized bioenzyme, burned at temperatures reaching two thousand degrees. The monsters tangled in Mold shrieked in agony as the flames consumed them. Dark-gold keratin melted and burned under the extreme heat, releasing an acrid stench.
Pure-black Mold and dark-red fire intertwined across the streets of Rome like a painting of hell being torn apart.
Heisenberg curled his lip. His gaze passed over the vanguard force being slaughtered and settled on the far end of the street.
Hundreds of Armored Beasts, each over four meters tall and encased in thick dark-gold crystal plating, advanced like moving fortresses of dark gold, crushing the ground beneath them as they pressed forward.
Behind them, dozens of slender Executioner commanders followed close, their hands having evolved into dark-gold blades several meters long.
These were the true elite forces under Wesker's command. Every single one possessed combat power on par with a G-Virus mutant at full strength.
"Now those big boys... that's more like it."
Heisenberg's eyes lit up. Cigar clenched between his teeth, he slammed the magnetic hammer into the ground.
"All things... shall become the crucible!"
The Abyss Enhancer inside him surged to full output. The space around him visibly warped from the sheer magnitude of his magnetic field.
The entire city of Rome groaned in pain again. Not just scrap iron. Rebar from high-rises, iron ore veins deep underground, metal atoms from wrecked coalition tank hulls... all of it was ripped free and drawn together under Heisenberg's magnetic power. An uncountable flood of metal poured toward the sky above him like a galaxy flowing in reverse.
"Combine! Reconstruct!"
Heisenberg's hands danced through the air.
As coalition soldiers watched slack-jawed, it took less than thirty seconds. Every scrap of metal ruin in Rome assembled itself mid-air into a colossal industrial god of destruction standing fifty meters tall. Its entire body was built from gears, tank treads, steel plates, and massive cannon barrels. A single footfall sent shockwaves ripping through the ground.
Heisenberg's form became a streak of light and vanished into the colossus's core cockpit.
"Hahahaha! Feel the power of industry, you mutant pieces of shit!"
The metal colossus took its first thundering steps, charging headlong into the Armored Beast legion. One four-meter Armored Beast roared and rammed into the colossus's leg armor at full sprint like a runaway train, its thick dark-gold plating leading the charge.
A sharp clang. The colossus didn't budge. Instead, the Armored Beast's prized dark-gold armor cracked from the rebound impact.
"That all you got? Get the hell out of my way!"
The colossus swept one massive hand down. Five "fingers" made of several tons of steel plate each closed around the Armored Beast's skull like a giant hydraulic press.
A sickening crunch of metal grinding through bone and flesh. The powerful Armored Beast was crushed into pulp with one hand. Dark-gold blood and crystal shards rained down from the sky.
"Die! Die! Die!"
The metal colossus plowed straight into the Armored Beast formation.
Every punch reduced an Armored Beast to scattered parts. Every stomp flattened several Executioners into the pavement.
The Executioner commanders slashed frantically at the colossus's hull with their dark-gold blades, throwing sparks with every strike, but each time Heisenberg's magnetic power instantly pulled surrounding metal into the wound and sealed it shut.
"Long live industry!"
The colossus's arms suddenly broke apart, reforming into two chain-whips dozens of meters long, each made of countless high-speed cutting gears. They lashed wildly across the boulevard. Blood and steel flew. Dark gold met scorched earth.
The main road of the southern European battlefield had become a crucible where nothing could survive.
Miranda hovered high above, the eyes behind her golden mask watching the slaughter below with cold indifference. She slowly raised her right hand. Deep black Mold gathered in her palm, condensing into a pulsing sphere of dark light.
"You've been hiding back there watching the show long enough."
She let out a cold scoff and hurled the black sphere toward the tallest ancient bell tower at the far end of the street.
The sphere didn't explode on contact. Instead, it released a torrent of high-concentration active Mold. The centuries-old bell tower was forcibly broken down and assimilated in seconds, transformed into a black tower of Mold reeking of decay.
The bell tower collapsed. A figure cloaked in a black robe leaped from the rubble and landed awkwardly on a nearby rooftop.
"Miranda... you're still as disgusting as ever."
The figure pulled back his hood, revealing a twisted face shot through with dark-gold veins, half of it already fully crystallized.
He wasn't Wesker. He was Andre, the Connections' European Theater Supreme Commander.
Andre looked down at the New Human legion being massacred and at Heisenberg's metal colossus steamrolling the battlefield. A crazed smile spread across his deformed face.
"But it's useless! Before the power of God, all your resistance is futile!"
He threw his head back and howled. His body began swelling violently. The black robe tore apart as massive dark-gold tentacles covered in suckers and fangs erupted from his back and abdomen.
And behind the metal colossus, Ethan Winters had silently slipped out of the mechanized legion's advance line.
[This novel is now COMPLETE. Read the entire series right now on Patreon: patreon.com/NiaXD]