God?

James had changed into a black double-breasted coat, as if he'd expected this. He stood steadily atop the front of the train as it bore down on Adam and the others. Victor leaned out to check the track ahead, then pulled the brake. The train screeched to a halt, throwing off showers of sparks as it scraped against the rails, and slowly came to a stop amid the grating noise.

Victor jumped onto the roof as well, bare-chested, his massive frame and fearsome physique exuding overwhelming pressure as he looked down at the vampires below.

"Hmm? Interesting." Adam stared intently at Victor and drew a deep breath, seeming to have noticed something. His eyes took on a peculiar look.

All the vampires except Vadoma slowly spread out and surrounded the train. Some leaped onto the roof, while others climbed into the carriages. Vadoma retreated a little and slipped into the woods by the track, watching from concealment.

James said nothing. He simply stared down at Adam, his entire presence locking onto the vampire progenitor. He could tell that Adam was unlike any of the vampires he'd encountered before. After mastering his martial arts, James's body had undergone a qualitative transformation. His bare hands alone, without relying on the subtleties of his techniques, were enough to utterly overpower the vampires. But Adam left him uncertain of victory.

Bang!

Adam shot upward at James. He was deeply disgusted by James's haughty, towering demeanor. In an instant, his face became demonic, with fangs sprouting from his mouth and his skin turning blue-black. His previous, eerie handsomeness vanished completely. He thrust his right hand, clawed, toward James's head.

With a muffled thud, the two clashed and separated. James planted his feet and struck with a steady Drill Fist, meeting Adam's claws with his palm. What he hadn't expected was that Adam's seemingly slender frame possessed tremendous strength. The blow knocked James back several meters. He redirected the force and landed on the carriage behind him, while Adam stood atop the front of the train where James had been moments earlier. In an instant, Adam had returned to his earlier appearance as an elegant nobleman, as if that monstrous visage had nothing to do with him.

Seeing Adam effortlessly drive James back, the vampires' confidence soared. In recent days, many of them had personally witnessed James and Victor slaughtering their kind, and their hearts had long since been clouded by fear. Some had even begun to doubt their progenitor's power. Now, seeing the strength Adam had casually displayed, they grinned cruelly, their expressions alight with excitement.

Victor's pupils narrowed as well. He knew exactly how strong James was. No matter how much Victor had improved over the years or how astonishingly he'd honed his body, James had always kept him firmly in check, making victory seem ever more impossible. And now Adam had effortlessly knocked James back. Victor's hunger for power burned hotter than ever.

Adam himself was the only one who wasn't so optimistic. He maintained his confident, elegant appearance while rapidly repairing the bones and muscles from his wrist to his elbow, all twisted and broken by that strange punch.

This Mr. Howlett, who looked under thirty, had sent a spiraling force through his fist, twisting his forearm apart. Adam's mind raced as he tried to work out who this young man was.

"Progenitor, you've already lost," James said calmly.

"Oh? Was the ammunition you were transporting not real, then?" Adam asked in surprise. He glanced at a vampire who had jumped out of a cargo car, and the other vampire confirmed it.

"It was real," James continued. "But so was the ammunition on the other train."

Adam's expression suddenly turned terrifying. He realized he'd been played.

"I warned the president about Joshua Speed. It took him little effort to discover that Speed had been secretly communicating with the South. We took advantage of that and let him believe the North had only managed to arm a single train." James smiled, unbothered by Adam's gradually darkening face, and continued, "In fact, my factory has plenty of production capacity. Silver-plated ammunition will keep going to every theater of war. Your defeat was inevitable from the start."

"Ha! 'We'?" Adam looked as if he'd heard something absurd. His eyes roved playfully over James and Victor. "You think you're different from us, don't you, young Mr. Howlett? You and the man beside you—you're no different from Lincoln and the others?"

"Of course I'm different from you," James replied calmly.

"Because you don't need to drink blood? Hahahaha! Mr. Howlett, you haven't grasped the essence of the problem at all!" Adam grew increasingly frenzied. He waved his arms excitedly and continued in a raised, impassioned voice.

"Our very existence is the problem! Our strength, our lifespan, our superiority—all the things beyond the reach of mortals! None of it can coexist with them! Humans... They may differ in status, wealth, appearance, knowledge, and all sorts of other ways, but they can never escape birth, aging, sickness, and death!"

Adam all but howled those final four words. His fervent speech left James momentarily taken aback, lost in thought.

"But we can't even give them that equality. We don't even qualify as human." Adam's mood suddenly darkened, his voice desolate. Then he grew calm, as though stating the obvious, and concluded, "That's why we are gods. It is the gods' destiny to rule over mortals. Gods must do what they were meant to do."

Adam finally ended his monologue. He seemed to have nothing more to say, as if he'd left a choice in James's hands.

"So this is what a god means to you?" James looked at Adam with sudden pity.

"Anyone strong enough is a god. So tell me, tonight, are you ready to become a mortal, Adam?" James's expression grew ever more resolute. He stared into Adam's utterly cold eyes and slowly clenched his fist.

Boom!

They charged at each other at the same time. The sheet metal beneath their feet buckled under the force of their push-offs. Adam seemed a little faster. One claw thrust toward James's chest, the other toward his throat.

But James struck first despite moving second. His fighting style had grown so refined that it bore little resemblance to the martial arts of his past life. A fist was a fist, a palm was a palm. His attacks followed simple, direct paths, yet every time they made contact, they gave his opponent a terrible headache.

As James's fist shot toward his forehead, Adam's body shifted sideways through the air, defying the laws of physics. He drifted left and right without anything to push off from, his scarlet claws stabbing even faster.

Like the other vampires, Adam had no systematic fighting style. But his speed was on an entirely different level, his body moved with uncanny agility, and he had a thousand years of combat experience. For a time, he pressed James so hard that James could barely raise his head.

Yet even under the onslaught of a raging storm, James remained as steady as a hundred-thousand-ton ocean liner. No matter how fast Adam moved or how strange his angles of attack, James always needed only the slightest adjustment to cut off his attack in advance.

No matter how fiercely the hurricane raged or how violently the waves churned, the great ship still forged ahead.

Elsewhere, Victor faced more than a dozen vampires. At first, he fought as he always did, trading wounds for kills and taking down several. But the vampires then used their advantage in speed and numbers to wear him down from a distance.

Every attack was a quick strike followed by an immediate retreat, whether it landed or not. They lunged once, then swiftly pulled away. Victor became a target who could only roar and bleed, and the two battles quickly reached a stalemate.