Herta raised her pistol, tilted her head slightly, closed one eye, and took a moment to aim before pulling the trigger.
Logically, at this distance, even with the Bird-Shaped Evil God's massive size, hitting it shouldn't have been easy. Yet the bullet flew straight toward its target as if guided by an invisible force, unerringly homing in on its mark.
In truth, the Gravity Reversal Bullet could have launched itself without the pistol. Herta had insisted on adding the weapon purely for dramatic flair.
After all, an invention painstakingly crafted over twenty hours deserved more than a casual toss. Striking a dramatic pose, taking careful aim, and firing felt far more satisfying, didn't it?
Compared to the Bird-Shaped Evil God's colossal form, the bullet was infinitesimally small. But perhaps having learned from their previous encounter, the great bird had been vigilantly watching for the incoming "little trinket" and spotted the projectile.
Without hesitation, the Bird-Shaped Evil God swept its wing forward to intercept the bullet. It succeeded—the bullet struck the wing, creating only a tiny ripple, as insignificant as a pebble dropped into the vast sea.
"Yaaaaaah—!!!"
The next moment, the Bird-Shaped Evil God emitted a deafening, ear-piercing shriek. Starting from the wing that had just been struck, its entire body began to swell like an inflating balloon.
Herta's bullets were actually an improved version of her Gravity Modification Device. The first version, a handheld unit given to the France Imperial Guard by the Herta Puppet, evolved into a second model that could fly autonomously and self-detonate. The third version ultimately took the form of these bullets.
Herta speculated that the Featherless Birds exhibited numerous gravity-defying characteristics because their mass might be negative.
While this seemed utterly absurd, it was the most plausible explanation given the available evidence. The third-generation Gravity Modification Device was designed to reverse a target's mass!
In other words, it forced the Bird-Shaped Evil God's negative mass to revert to positive.
This violent alteration of a creature's fundamental properties inflicted unimaginable agony upon the Bird-Shaped Evil God. Screaming in torment, its body began to plummet toward the ground.
Both the Bird-Shaped Evil God and the Featherless Birds relied on negative mass for flight. When motionless, they would float upwards, and they had to flap their wings vigorously to descend. But now that Herta had reversed the Bird-Shaped Evil God's mass to positive, everything had been inverted.
The harder the Bird-Shaped Evil God struggled to avoid falling and gain altitude, the more it needed to remain still. Yet this stillness now accelerated its descent.
As the Gravity Reversal Bullet took effect, the Bird-Shaped Evil God plummeted like a meteorite, its speed increasing exponentially. Directly below lay Africa, the territory of the Flesh God.
BOOM!!!
A deafening roar shook the continent as a colossal impact crater, several kilometers in diameter, was carved into the heart of Africa. Simultaneously, an ear-splitting shriek echoed across the land—the agonized cry of the Flesh God himself.
The entire African Continent had become the Flesh God's living body. This devastating impact was undoubtedly a brutal punch to his gut—no wonder it hurt.
Herta sent a Puppet to observe the Bird-Shaped Evil God up close. Despite its grievous injuries, it hadn't crashed to its death. Instead, it twitched spasmodically, seemingly desperate to regain flight. But it was clear that no matter how hard it struggled, it would never soar through the skies again.
The once-mighty Sky Fortress had been reduced to a flightless chicken by a single bullet.
Neither the Bird-Shaped Evil God nor the Featherless Birds possessed claws. It seemed they had never considered walking on the ground from the moment of their birth, destined to be eternally airborne creatures.
This meant that upon losing its ability to fly, the Bird-Shaped Evil God would be completely paralyzed, unable to move from where it fell. Though technically alive, it might as well be dead.
Annihilating an enemy completely, leaving not even a feather behind, wasn't the only way to kill them. In this case, Herta had slain the Bird-Shaped Evil God in a different sense entirely.
Understanding an enemy's weaknesses and exploiting them with precision could make even a single bullet far more effective than a purely destructive weapon.
In fact, Herta had even used this opportunity to land an elbow strike on the Flesh God.
Herta turned her attention back to the dimensional rift in the sky. Four hours passed swiftly as she observed it, until the last trace of darkness was swallowed by white light, marking the complete repair of the rift.
"Success," Herta murmured softly.
She referred not only to the successful repair of the dimensional rift but also to the invention that made it possible. With this technology, she could simply replicate the process in the Main World to seal the rift beneath the sea.
The next step was to trace the origin of the dimensional rifts and eradicate this "infectious disease" once and for all.
But before that, Herta needed to deal with the monsters in this world. She dispatched a puppet carrying the Black Box to the skies over France, where it began mass-producing the second-generation Gravity Modification Device to assist in clearing out the Featherless Birds.
Meanwhile, Herta herself flew to the African Continent to devise a plan to eliminate the Flesh God.
When she arrived at the crash site of the Bird-Shaped Evil God, she was astonished to find the two Evil Gods locked in combat.
Countless colossal tentacles of flesh erupted from the ground, ensnaring the Bird-Shaped Evil God. The earth beneath it cracked open like a gaping maw, as if trying to devour it whole.
It was clear that despite both being Evil Gods, these two were no allies, much like lions and tigers. The Flesh God likely felt attacked and was now retaliating.
The Bird-Shaped Evil God certainly wasn't going to sit idly by and die. Jets of dark greenish slime erupted from its wounds, instantly corroding any tentacle of the Flesh God they touched.
In a twisted way, watching them tear each other apart was rather amusing. Herta observed for a while before leaving. The Bird-Shaped Evil God was clearly outmatched, but the Flesh God couldn't finish it off quickly either. The stalemate would likely drag on for some time.
Next, Herta arrived at the heart of Africa, where the Flesh God's heart resided. Even before she got close, she heard that ear-piercing screech again. Clearly, the Flesh God hadn't forgotten her dropping that "nuclear bomb magic" on its head earlier and was probably cursing her now.
Herta remained expressionless. Holding the Key, she aimed it at the pulsating heart.