Herta slightly loosened her grip, and the key in her hand flew toward the Flesh God of its own accord.
Even as countless fleshy tentacles erupted from the ground in an attempt to intercept the key, it passed through them effortlessly, as if existing on a different plane of reality. The key struck the space where the Flesh God's heart had been.
"Raise barriers of the unknown, and watch them crumble."
She had used this same technique on the Bird-Shaped Evil God before. With a gentle twist of the key, the surrounding space tore violently, and the heart vanished instantly from before Herta, leaving only a rhombus-shaped space rift in its place.
Yet even the complete erasure of the heart, the Flesh God's core, failed to kill it. At that moment, the entire African continent stirred to life. More "nutrients" were extracted from unknown depths beneath the earth and transported elsewhere, seemingly to reconstruct the heart.
It was as absurd as having one's head blown off, the entire skull obliterated, only for it to grow back again.
"Are all Evil Gods this hard to kill?" Herta couldn't help but pout. The main problem was that the Flesh God had been in this world for far too long, becoming completely integrated with Africa. If it had only just arrived, her initial strike would have been enough to finish it off.
Now, she had two options: either sink the entire African Continent to brute-force the Flesh God's destruction, or develop a specialized weapon against it, just as she had done for the Bird-Shaped Evil God.
Naturally, Herta chose the latter. She sent a Herta Puppet down to collect muscle tissue from the Flesh God, then set course back to Great Britain.
As she flew over European airspace, she spotted a few stray Featherless Birds and swiftly eliminated them. With the Dimensional Rifts no longer continuously spawning monsters, the Black Box's production capacity was freed up. The Second-Generation Gravity Self-Destruction Devices it churned out would soon wipe out all the Featherless Birds in the area.
In essence, the entire crisis had lasted barely a day. By the time British reinforcements landed in France, they discovered the disaster was already over.
In just a single day, France had suffered unimaginable losses. Napoleon II's Imperial Guard was virtually annihilated, the main army had lost nearly a hundred thousand soldiers, and the civilian casualties were impossible to quantify.
As Herta passed through the French capital, she took the opportunity to visit Napoleon II. With no Imperial Guard to impede her, she easily entered the castle and found the elderly emperor alone on his throne. "I've slain the Featherless Bird Evil Gods," she announced.
Napoleon II stared at her, his eyes wide with disbelief. "R-really?"
Herta nodded. "The Flesh God is next. From this day forward, no new Evil Gods will ever appear in this world."
Of course, the vast number of cultists still remained. Eradicating them would be a long and arduous task, so Herta left that burden to the people of this world to resolve themselves.
With that, Herta departed. As she crossed the English Channel, she noticed numerous ships still ferrying troops across the sea. Great Britain's response, she thought, was remarkably slow.
Finally back at her temporary residence in this world, Herta immediately began studying the remains of the Flesh God. Not particularly skilled in biological technology, developing a targeted weapon took her considerably longer than expected.
She had previously created the absurdly powerful "Gravity Reversal Bullet" in just twenty hours, yet this "Flesh God-Specific Virus" required a full thirty hours.
Accounting for sleep, the research wasn't completed until two days later. But... two days didn't seem like such a long time, did it?
On the day Herta was about to leave for Africa to inject the Flesh God with her new creation, she ran into Martin and his group, who had just returned from France. Both sides froze in surprise upon seeing each other.
Martin's group looked utterly exhausted, as if they had just weathered a fierce battle. In reality, they had rushed to France only to find not a single Featherless Bird. After circling the country and realizing the crisis was over, they immediately returned.
They had spent nearly the entire time on ships and trains, rarely stopping. Though they hadn't actually engaged in combat, the relentless travel had left them utterly drained.
After a brief conversation, Jonathan suddenly reappeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Since Herta refused to give him the formula for the Enhancement Potion, he asked if she could provide more of the potions themselves.
Herta once again refused. Before the disaster, she had considered manufacturing a batch of Enhancement Potions to leave behind in this world, hoping to strengthen its people.
But after witnessing the catastrophe and learning about the situation in France, Herta realized that this world was no helpless infant. Its people were capable of fighting and striving on their own, so she changed her mind.
One Super Hero like Captain Britain was enough; let Hector have his fun. There was no need for more to emerge.
Herta then departed, soaring to Africa on the Key. Through her recent research, she had finally understood why the Flesh God had stopped expanding horizontally after conquering the continent.
To be precise, it hadn't stopped expanding at all—its growth had merely shifted from horizontal to vertical. Its tendrils continued to burrow deep underground, eliminating the need to cross the sea. Given enough time, the Flesh God could completely assimilate the Earth's crust and mantle, transforming the entire planet into its own colossal body.
The perfect weapon against this Evil God was naturally a bioweapon. Based on the Flesh God's unique genetic makeup, Herta had developed a supervirus specifically designed to target him.
Gazing at the pulsating mass of flesh below, Herta retrieved a small vial from her pocket and casually tossed it down.
Smash!
Falling from a height of over ten meters, the glass vial shattered upon impact. The pink liquid inside slowly seeped out, staining the crimson flesh.
Within seconds, the surrounding deep-red flesh began to turn a ghastly pale white, the discoloration spreading steadily outward at a visible pace.
Africa was vast. It would likely take a month or two for the virus to completely eradicate the Flesh God, but Herta had no intention of waiting that long.
After deploying the toxin and leaving behind a Herta Puppet, she vanished into thin air.