God?

James had changed into a black, double-breasted coat, as if he had anticipated this. He stood steadily on the front of the locomotive as the train barreled toward Adam and his group. Victor leaned out to look ahead and pulled the brake; the train screeched to a halt, sending sparks flying from the friction against the rails amidst a teeth-grinding metallic groan.

Victor also jumped onto the roof of the train. Bare-chested, his massive frame and ferocious physique exuded an overwhelming sense of pressure as he looked down at the vampires below.

"Hmm? Interesting." Adam stared intently at Victor, taking a deep breath as if he had discovered something, his eyes flickering with an unusual light.

Except for Vadoma, the other vampires slowly fanned out, surrounding the train; some leaped onto the roof while others slipped into the carriages. She retreated a short distance, vanishing into the woods by the roadside to watch from the shadows.

James said nothing, merely staring down at Adam from his vantage point. His entire presence was locked onto the vampire progenitor. He could sense that Adam was unlike any vampire he had encountered before. Since his martial arts had reached the realm of perfection, James's body had undergone a qualitative change; relying solely on his physical form, even without the mysteries of his fist techniques, he could utterly crush the vampire race. Yet, Adam left him feeling uncertain.

Bang!

Adam shot upward from below toward James. He felt a deep disgust for James's arrogant, high-and-mighty demeanor. In an instant, his face twisted into that of a ghoul—fangs sprouted, his skin turned a bruised black, and the elegant, exotic beauty from before vanished entirely. His right hand formed a claw, stabbing toward James's head.

With a dull thud, the two touched and immediately separated. James had executed a steady Drill Fist, meeting the palm of Adam's claw. What he hadn't expected was that Adam, despite his seemingly slender build, possessed immense strength. James was knocked back several meters by the blow, dissipating the force before landing on the carriage behind. Adam stood tall on the locomotive where James had just been, and in that brief moment, he reverted to his elegant, aristocratic appearance, as if that monstrous form had nothing to do with him.

Seeing Adam easily repel James, the vampires' confidence surged. Over these past days, many of them had witnessed James and Victor slaughtering their kind, casting a shadow over their hearts and even causing them to doubt the progenitor's power. Now, the strength Adam displayed so casually made them grin with cruel excitement.

Victor's pupils constricted. He knew exactly how strong James was. Over the years, no matter how much he improved or how exaggerated his physical training became, James had always been able to suppress him steadily, leaving him feeling as though victory was increasingly out of reach. That Adam could so easily knock James back only fueled Victor's craving for power.

Only Adam himself was not so optimistic. He maintained his confident, elegant facade while secretly and rapidly repairing the bones and muscles from his wrist to his elbow, which had been twisted and shattered inch by inch by that strange punch.

This Mr. Howlett, who looked less than thirty, had a spiral-like force hidden within his fist that had forcibly twisted his forearm into a pulp. Adam's mind raced, wondering what kind of background this young man could possibly have.

"Mr. Progenitor, you have already lost," James said quietly to Adam.

"Oh? Could it be that the ammunition you were transporting wasn't real?" Adam asked with a hint of surprise. He glanced at the vampires jumping out of the cargo containers, and they gave him an affirmative response.

"It is real," James continued, "but both sides are real."

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

"I warned the President about the situation with Joshua Speed. It didn't take much effort for him to discover that Speed was secretly in contact with the South. We took advantage of him, letting him believe that the entire North only had the capacity to rush the production of one train's worth of armaments." James smiled, watching Adam's complexion turn a bruised black, and continued nonchalantly: "In fact, my factory's production capacity is quite sufficient. Silver-infused ammunition will continue to be shipped to every war zone. Your failure was destined from the very beginning."

"Ha! 'You'?" Adam looked at James and Victor with a playful gaze, as if he had heard something utterly absurd. "Do you think you are different from us? Young Mr. Howlett, are you and this one beside you the same as Lincoln and his lot?"

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

"Because you don't need to drink blood? Hahahaha! Mr. Howlett, you haven't seen the essence of the problem at all!" Adam's face grew increasingly manic. He waved his arms excitedly, his voice rising in pitch as he continued.

"Our very existence is the problem! Our power, our longevity, our strength—everything these mortals cannot reach! These are the fundamental reasons why we cannot coexist with them! Humans... they have differences in status, wealth, appearance, knowledge, and so on, but they can never escape birth, aging, sickness, and death!"

Adam practically howled the last four words. This impassioned monologue left even James slightly stunned, lost in his own thoughts.

"But we cannot even grant them that equality; we don't even have the qualifications to be human." Adam felt inexplicably dejected, his tone becoming desolate. He became very calm, calm with a sense of inevitability, and finally said: "Therefore, we are gods. The destiny of a god is to rule over mortals. A god must do what a god is meant to do."

Adam finally ended his monologue. It seemed he had no intention of saying more, as if he had cast a certain choice before James.

"So, this is the god in your heart?" James suddenly looked at Adam with pity in his eyes.

"As long as one is powerful enough, one is a god. So, tonight, are you prepared to become a mortal? Adam." James's expression grew increasingly resolute. He looked into Adam's cold, indifferent eyes and slowly clenched his fists.

Boom!

Both men charged at each other simultaneously, the metal roof of the train beneath their feet buckling under the force of their sprint. Adam's speed seemed slightly faster; one claw stabbed toward James's chest, while the other raked at his throat.

James, however, struck after but arrived first. His fist techniques had evolved to the point where they no longer resembled the traditional martial arts of his past life. A fist was just a fist; a palm was just a palm. His attack trajectories were simple and direct, yet every contact caused his opponent immense trouble.

As Adam watched James's fist strike toward his forehead, his body shifted horizontally in mid-air, defying the laws of physics. He drifted left and right without needing to push off anything, his crimson claws thrusting even faster.

Although Adam, like other vampires, lacked a systematic fighting style, his speed and bizarre physical agility—which were on an entirely different level—combined with thousands of years of combat experience, kept James on the defensive for a time.

Yet, even like a ship caught in a storm, James remained as steady as a hundred-thousand-ton freighter. No matter how fast Adam was or how strange his angles, James always used the smallest possible physical adjustments to intercept Adam's attack path in advance.

Let the hurricane rage and the waves churn; this freighter would still break through the waves and forge ahead.

On the other side, Victor faced the assault of over a dozen vampires. After killing a few by trading wounds for kills as he usually did, the vampires switched tactics, using their speed and numbers to kite him.

Every attack was a hit-and-run; regardless of whether they landed a blow, they would strike once and quickly retreat. Victor became a target who could only roar and bleed. The battle on both sides immediately reached a stalemate.