Sweeping Away Every Last Trace

Two Cyclopes shoved a heavy shell into the breech. Four Skeleton gunners beside them immediately pushed the massive breechblock shut with a clang.

When this fortress cannon was designed, a mechanical crane had handled loading. The shell then had to pass through a five-meter loading mechanism before it reached the breech. That step took so much time that the enormous cannon could fire only once every twenty-odd minutes.

Now that it was in Green's hands, the Cyclopes served as living machinery and cut out much of that time. Its rate of fire rose dramatically to one shot every ten minutes, or six shots an hour.

But to Green, its rate of fire hardly mattered. Each shell cost eight hundred Psychic Energy. If he fired a few without killing the enemy, he would go bankrupt first.

So Green had made up his mind to give the Undead Fortress Cannon one chance. If its first shot failed, he would not try again. His remaining Psychic Energy could not take it.

When that happened, however reluctant he was, he would have to use the Divine Power Crystals.

The Death Angel Clone tightened his grip slightly on his sword, betraying Green's anticipation and nerves. He had no idea what a shell costing a full eight hundred Psychic Energy would do to Nightmare Castle's Defense Screen.

Would it break through in one shot, or be stopped? This was the moment of truth.

Boom!

The next instant, a Skeleton gunner swung a hammer down onto the firing pin at the breech, unleashing a deafening blast.

A burst of searing flame erupted from the muzzle. The tremendous recoil drove the cannon, which weighed more than twenty tons, and its flatbed cart three meters backward. The gun carriage's support legs sank deep into the ground, plowing furrows through