Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 20 - Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: The Three-Way Fight and the Final Choice

Armored Pilot, Hugo Lesseps

The enemy was turning out to be far more trouble than I’d expected.

He’d used his lance to pin Rose through a gap in the armor of its right arm. I tried moving it and pulling the lance out, but nothing budged.

This was due to the immense gap between my unit’s output and his. While my Rose had a Pure-Dragon-tier output, his was clearly above that. It easily earned the title of “Dragon King-tier Magingear.”

“It’s above its specs on paper...and they were already high...” I mused. That must’ve been due to the pilot.

That Drac-Stinger mention brought a certain name to mind.

It was an MVP reward that had belonged to the most famous pilot in Dryfe—one who had made a name for himself before I’d even begun playing Infinite Dendrogram—Over Pilot, Curtis Eldona.

“Fran said that she didn’t know who took it during the civil war, but...” The answer to this mystery was now more than apparent—the one who’d taken the reward was the same person who had it now. And since he had a Superior Job from the pilot grouping, his unit’s abilities were greatly increased.

The situation was looking pretty bad for us. Curtis was far above us in both piloting skill and unit specifications.

The biggest advantage he had over us, though, was in the uptime. We could only fight for about ten minutes, and even that was halved if I activated the second battle mode and Boucliers Planetes. Meanwhile, his unit had a pre-ancient civilization energy core that could keep it running essentially indefinitely.

He could win this battle just by keeping me pinned like this.

“Still...” Despite that, I had three advantages.

First, there was White Rose’s incredible toughness—the combined result of its Mythical metal alloy construction and my own defensive skills. Second, there was La Porte de l’Enfer. As long as this skill was active, I could win by simply breaking his cockpit’s airtight seal.

And third, there was Niala. It was two versus one right now. If we used our numeric advantage and stuck to the strategy we’d agreed to before we came here, we could still win this.

“You’re going to have to remove the spear first if you want to do that, though,” said Cyco, in response to my thoughts.

“Yeah.” I couldn’t win this if I couldn’t move, after all. If it came down to that, in a worst-case scenario I could free myself by purging the right arm from the elbow down, but I really needed the hand for what would come next.

“Let’s start by separating you. Then we can talk.” However, while I was thinking of how to escape, the hostile unit aimed its left hand at the entrance we’d come through. “Missile Darts.”

And with those words, the left forearm’s armor rose up, exposing many holes—tiny missile tubes—which then fired. They all struck the ceiling right above the entrance, burying the door in rubble. That blocked Niala’s vision, making this a one-versus-one.

“Tch...!” With one of my advantages gone, I clicked my tongue. But...what did he mean by “then we can talk”? Why did he attack Rose’s elbow joints first? If he could target the tiny fault in there, he should’ve been able to find some fault in the cockpit and just kill me outright...

As I was pondering that, it seemed like Curtis had something to ask as well. “Now that we are ready, I have one...no, two questions,” he said.

“What?”

“They are simple. I’m certain you know the answers.”

What? What did I know that the leader of the terrorists who’d taken control of Eltram would want?

“First question...how do you disable this?”

“You mean La Porte de l’Enfer?” Well, I was the only one here who knew about that, so it made sense he would want to know. However, he then shook his unit’s head and spoke before I could answer.

“Not that. Not now. This question is about my unit,” he said. “Being from The Triangle of Wisdom, you must know the way to disable the limitation placed upon Imperial Glory.”

Hearing that made my eyes go wide. That thing’s already overpowering Rose. And you mean to tell me it’s doing all of that with some sort of limitation in place? I thought. What kind of beast did the guys create here...?

“Do tell me if you know,” he said as the golden unit’s draconic head came closer. “How do I turn off its voice-based weapon activation?”

“...Huh?” Voice activation?

“The nonsensical limitation that you must speak a weapon’s name in order to use it. The unit doesn’t even care who says it, so it cannot even act as protection in case of theft. What is the purpose of this feature?”

Curtis’s question reminded me that just a moment ago, he’d actually said “Missile Darts” out loud. Unless they were especially quirky, Magingears didn’t usually require their pilots to say anything in order to fire their weapons—the Marshall IIs I’d piloted before had been the same way.

Imperial Glory was different, though, and I actually knew the reason.

It was a one-of-a-kind super robot The Triangle of Wisdom had built around a pre-ancient civilization energy core. There had to have been at least one person there who’d said something like, “Hey, if it’s a super robot, the pilot has to shout the names of all its attacks, right?”

“Why must they be named to be used?” Curtis insisted. “It isn’t simply pointless—it’s a clear negative. There is absolutely no benefit to doing it. The direct link between the words and weapons makes it impossible to feint or bluff. What were its creators thinking? Was it a way of getting back at me? I thought we had a good relationship when Glory was being built, but was Reinhard involved even back then? I find that very plausible. Without this feature, I might even have won against Barbaros!”

Hearing his speech made me feel like the feature must have been a huge problem for him, but there had never been any real reason behind its inclusion. The Triangle of Wisdom was just a group of hobbyists—many of whom happened to be the sort to prioritize beauty of form over function.

“The unit was built before I entered the clan. I don’t know how to turn it off,” I said. Perhaps I could’ve cut some kind of deal for the answer, but I actually didn’t have it, so that was all I could say. Knowing the clan’s members, I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if it was actually impossible to turn it off.

“...I see,” Curtis said, clearly disappointed.

Had he only let me live so he could ask that question? In that case, my situation was now even more precarious than ever.

“Next question, then. The main one,” Curtis said.

Oh, so that was only a preface to the main question. I would get to live for a bit longer.

“Is the Freeze on my men removable? I confirmed their vital signs, but its state and waveform are different from a standard Freeze. Can it only be undone by your will? Will it vanish upon your death, or will your death make it permanent instead? You are still alive precisely because I have no idea which is true.”

So it really was all about La Porte de l’Enfer.

Cyco’s Freeze certainly was different from the normal version—as long as the target fulfilled the condition, it ignored resistance items and couldn’t even be treated by restoration items. And it stayed active for an entire hour even if I deactivated La Porte de l’Enfer or got the death penalty. The only way anyone could be freed immediately was if I removed the Freeze myself.

“Answer me—and be wise not to lie.” That seemed like he was implying that he had Truth Discernment.

“If I die, it will be undone in an hour,” I said.

“That is too slow.” The Frozen soldiers had been working to remove the core—probably engineers that had been brought here for that very purpose. If their goal was the core, they couldn’t get it as long as those people remained Frozen.

They probably couldn’t afford to stay here long enough for La Porte de l’Enfer to expire. “But the way you said that makes it seem as though you have other ways of releasing them,” Curtis added.

“If I will it, they will be freed right away.” I didn’t lie. I didn’t have to.

“So the only ways to free them are to kill you and wait an hour...or strike a deal with you.”

“Exactly.”

From his perspective, I’d essentially taken his people hostage. Waiting an hour wasn’t an option for him—he was already aware of the problems happening all over the vessel.

I didn’t know how much he knew about the situation exactly, but he must’ve been keenly aware that they had to hurry.

“I will ask just as a formality,” Curtis said. “What are your conditions?” he asked.

“Leave this ship immediately. Take nothing, kill no one—just retreat.”

He now had the choice to abandon his goal in exchange for saving his men. If he gave up here and ran, he wouldn’t be any worse off than he was now.

When they all got outside, though, they’d probably be attacked by Moneygold, and his explosive attacks would likely exterminate them all as they tried to retreat. It felt like I was leading him into a trap. It seemed like something Fran would do...but if I showed them mercy here, that might lead to the death of a lot of innocent people. And that would make it hard for me to sleep at night.

That was why I chose not to lie and presented this offer—or rather, this trap. I would free his men and they would retreat before...

“Hm...?” My train of thought was interrupted by a realization “‘As a formality’?” What did he mean by that?

“Yes, I expected an answer like that. I suppose I have no choice then,” Curtis said in a slightly annoyed voice as he aimed the unit’s left hand at his other soldiers. “Missile Darts.”

The small missiles spewed fire as they flew toward the Frozen soldiers at subsonic speeds, breaking them into pieces just like the ceiling he’d fired at earlier before the remains were burnt to ashes.

“Wh-What are you...?!”

“Paint Napalm.” When he said that, the dragon’s tail extending from the back of the unit—the balancer—swung around.

The tip of the tail was covered in some sort of fiber, dampened with some sort of liquid. As it moved, the liquid sprayed out over the two other Magingears—the ones with Frozen pilots in them.

Two seconds later, the liquid caught fire, thoroughly burning both the Magingears and the frozen statues within their cockpits.

“Wh-What are you doing?! Why did you—?! They’re your people...!” I didn’t understand what he was doing. I didn’t want to understand.

“You ask me why?” After I voiced my confusion, the dragon-headed Magingear’s strange-looking sensor-eye focused on me. “Because we fight for a cause that must be fulfilled even if it costs us our lives.”

Those words sent a shiver down my spine.

“If we fail—if we do not take this—we will not fulfill our goal. I will remove the core by force. That might damage it, but if a certain someone is as good as they say, fixing it should not be a problem,” Curtis said, looking at the core.

He’d eliminated his own subordinates simply so he could get his hands on that thing.

“Weren’t they your brothers-in-arms...?!”

“It is exactly because I command them that I must weigh their lives on a scale. The core and the weapon it would create is far more important than the people or machines we may lose during this operation.”

I was too shocked to speak.

Curtis, however, was still speaking. “I would sacrifice whatever it takes to end Reinhard’s reign. My men joined me in this assault precisely because we share that sentiment. The necessary sacrifice ended up being their lives, but there was no other option.”

The way he stood before the corpses of his own people brought back a memory. It reminded me of one of the two leaders of the Gouz-Maise Gang—namely, Gouz himself.

He was my enemy back then—and the kind of man who hadn’t hesitated to eat the remains of his own followers.

Curtis was nothing like him on the surface...but I felt like deep down, they had some similarities.

“You...!”

“I have no more questions. There is no more reason to keep you alive.”

With those words, he swung the tail balancer. It was clear he was going to incinerate me while I was still pinned and immobile.

“Ngh! Boucliers Planetes!” I quickly ejected the armor on both shoulders, turning them into floating shields I used as weapons to attack Curtis.

“I thought you’d have a gimmick like this. I could tell by looking.”

However, he caught both of them using his own unit’s arms.

“This too...?!” I thought I’d caught him off guard, but he countered it perfectly! I tried to control the floating shields, but his grip on them was too strong for them to move.

“Farewell, Pilot of The Triangle of Wisdom. I will get my answer to the first question once I make my triumphant return to the imperium. Paint Napalm.”

And so, the golden unit swung the tail covered in liquid fuel...

“Hm...?!”

...but then suddenly jumped backward, retreating with everything it had. He even pulled out the lance keeping my unit pinned.

A moment later, countless missiles rained upon White Rose.

“Huh...?!” Explosions battered the armor, shook the frame, and caused static to appear on the internal monitors.

“Nghh...” After Cyco let out that brief sound, the ice armor shattered and White Rose collapsed to the ground.

“Cyco?!”

“...I’m okay. We can still move...”

She was right—while a lot of the ice had broken, the monitors told me that White Rose under it hadn’t been damaged much. Perhaps due to the Mythical alloy plating, it could still function.

The explosive pressure had traveled through the insides, though, so fixing it would take a while.

“Turn off La Porte de l’Enfer. Keep the shattered pieces as they are.”

“Oui, ma’am.” Cyco obeyed my order and canceled the skill. Thanks to the shattered ice armor, anyone looking at White Rose would probably assume that it had been disabled due to heavy damage.

It wouldn’t convince anyone that I’d gotten the death penalty, but deactivating La Porte de l’Enfer would give the impression that I’d at least Fainted.

“But...what were those missiles?” I wondered. They clearly didn’t belong to Imperial Glory. And though they were primarily aimed at Curtis, the fact that whoever fired them didn’t seem to care about me made it obvious that it wasn’t an ally either. So...who could it be?

“What a quick reaction! I guess whoever’s inside has a Superior Job!”

My question was answered by a voice coming from a hole in the ceiling. That must’ve been where the missiles came from, and now a giant object used it as an entrance.

The voice was that of a cheerful lady, but what came through was nothing like you’d expect from hearing it.

It was a white and crimson mechdragon.

“That’s...” I recognized it right away—it was the thing shown by Niala’s owl’s screen.

The mechdragon that had been fighting Moneygold had arrived at the power block.

◇◆◇

Eltram, Commercial Area

It was shortly after Eldridge had shattered one Youaltepuztli.

Emily was silent. Her Superior Embryo was lost. She still had the one in her left, but if she lost that one too, she would be unable to come back and be in danger of actually dying. And her enemy, Eldridge, was using his ultimate job skill as King of Burglary to close the gap in their stats.

To Emily, still in her killing mode, this was both unprecedented and more dangerous than anything she had ever encountered before.

She’d already recognized Eldridge as something worse than a mere “minus”—a hostile. He was now “bad”—someone who had to be eliminated at all costs, even if it meant using her ultimate skill.

Thankfully, it was currently night. The conditions for the skill had been fulfilled, and having just one of the two hatchets wouldn’t stop her. And when she used it, this entire ship would be crushed by her wide-area extermination.

However, on this ship, there still was Zhang—an ally or “plus”—and Doris, whom she had temporarily marked as “good”—someone to protect. It was because she created such hard separations between her enemies and allies that she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—attack any of her friends.

But that didn’t change the fact that using the ult was the only way to deal with Eldridge—this natural enemy before her. If she wasted too much time, his ult’s cooldown would end, and he’d destroy her second Youaltepuztli.

This situation was worse than any she’d been in so far. But that was when...

“Qi!” That single word rang out—carrying the meaning of “rise”—followed by the sound of something large crawling on the mall’s floor.

Naturally, this caught the attention of both Eldridge and Emily.

There, they saw a monstrosity that resembled a giant worm—a Pure-Dragon-tier worm jiangshi with a Fu on its forehead. Eldridge understood with a single glance that it must’ve been on Emily’s side, come to help her out of this unexpected predicament.

Indeed, the Drac-Worm Jiangshi had been summoned by Emily’s ally—Zhang. He’d used one of the few powerful entities he’d put under his command after Mirage’s destruction. The jiangshi followed the order inscribed on its Fu, recognizing Eldridge as an enemy and attacking him.

However, not even this Pure-Dragon-tier jiangshi was a threat to him. He was greatly empowered by the stats he’d stolen from Emily. And...

“There you are.” Eldridge swung his right hand at the jiangshi. The skill set on it wasn’t Takeover, but Pickpocket.

A moment later, the Fu on the jiangshi’s head was gone. The creature crashed to the floor of the mall, causing the whole area to shake.

Jiangshi weren’t autonomous—they were undead controlled by the Fu placed upon them. Thus, Eldridge knew that it would be rendered powerless if he simply took that away.

The Drac-Worm Jiangshi ended up only buying a little time, which meant nothing when Eldridge had all the time in the world.

That would only apply if this Drac-Worm Jiangshi was the only one here, though, and the jiangshi that had attacked Eldridge wasn’t alone. The first one was merely bait meant to distract this major threat.

“What...? More jiangshi?” The second one was crawling on the deck and approaching the bridge where Moneygold was still battling Sardonyx to keep it at bay.

The jiangshi was approaching him as if it intended to stop him. Moneygold had the ability to destroy it easily, but he couldn’t do that right now.

The simple reason for this was the angle he was currently standing at—firing at the jiangshi meant firing down, which would mean destroying this ship.

“Zhenhuo Zhendao Xuanlongba.” And after his hesitation, the jiangshi in the mall and on the deck swelled up from the inside.

They then burst, releasing countless Fu.These were all the kind of Fu that daoshi made ahead of time in order to use their job ults. Filling jiangshi with Fu meant to activate his ultimate was Zhang Zangqi’s signature move as Great Soul Daoshi.

The skill he used was a powerful wind spell that cut apart everything in its range—Zhenhuo Zhendao Xuanlongba. The scale of this one was smaller than the one he’d used on AR-I-CA, but it happened in two places at once. One of them briefly kept Eldridge in place, while the other diagonally cut off the bridge where Moneygold stood.

With a loud sound, the bridge collapsed, falling onto the deck and the desert.

Thanks to his Superior Embryo, Moneygold was completely unharmed by this. However...

“Ohh, this is bad.” While he didn’t sound like he was bothered too much, he thought he was in a really bad situation.

The collapse was too fast for someone with his AGI to react to, and after he fell along with the remains of the bridge, he crashed onto the desert and found himself buried under a large pile of debris. It didn’t harm him, but it limited his movements. He couldn’t even use his attacks to blow the debris away, since he might accidentally hit the ship and its passengers.

Incapacitated and closed off in a cage of sand and rubble, he was effectively removed from combat.

This, naturally, removed the hail of attacks keeping the enemy at bay.

“...Now.” The obstacle in their path had been removed, and Machina wasn’t one to miss this opportunity. The vernier thrusters fired at full throttle, making it hard for her to even change course. Moving at supersonic speeds, the unit instantly closed the distance between it and the vessel, using the momentum to break through the wall and enter.

They headed straight to the mall, where Eldridge and Emily were fighting.

The mech’s sudden arrival would have startled anyone—Emily, Eldridge, or both of them—into silence.

Regardless, Zhang’s job ultimate had rendered Eldridge immobile. Not missing this chance, Sardonyx fired an incendiary shell at him.

Eldridge had defense that rivaled Mythical metal, as well as stats taken from Emily. But the shell hit him precisely in the stomach—opening up a gaping wound and incinerating everything inside.

Now the only thing linking Eldridge’s upper and lower bodies were the remains of his spine.

The wound was devastating, and Eldridge coughed blood as he collapsed backward. As he did, he used Pickpocket on the unit that had just broken in, but it didn’t work.

They countered it, huh? Must be pretty tough... he thought.

Though the wound was very close to fatal, he was still alive for the moment. However, that wasn’t exactly a good thing. If this attack itself had been fatal, it would’ve been negated by the Brooch. But since this was just a heavy wound that left him barely alive, the damage over time from the injury-based debuffs it laid on him made his death an inevitability. The Brooch was useless in situations like this.

However, this was no accident—Machina had done this on purpose.

“Guess this is it.” Eldridge tried thinking of something he could do before his time expired, but nothing came to mind. His ult’s cooldown wasn’t over yet, and with the crimson-white mechdragon standing between them, he couldn’t use Takeover on Emily.

Eldridge realized that he’d done everything he could do here.

Another loss against a Superior, huh? It was no doubt a defeat for him.

However, IF had only defeated him because they had two Superiors and one tian Superior Job. If even one of them hadn’t been here, Eldridge might’ve lasted until his cooldown expired and might have actually finished off Emily.

She was the strongest PK of all time—effectively immortal—and he’d come closer to actually killing her than anyone else.

In a way, that feat may have been more impressive than merely defeating a Superior.

“...King of Burglary, Eldridge, right?”

And there was someone here who acknowledged that.

Sardonyx’s high-speed movements had greatly damaged him, but he was still able to assess the situation through the outside monitors.

One of Emily’s Youaltepuztlis was broken. He knew that this man lying before him was the one who’d cornered her like this.

Eldridge’s name had been on his list, and he was aware of what King of Burglary had achieved thus far. Eldridge had led a notable PK clan, and his keen mind and leadership skills had brought them many achievements. However, his failures since the incident in Altar had left him mostly abandoned by his clan. Eldridge looked to be a man well past his prime.

It seemed as though Sardonyx’s pilot would have to reevaluate that impression.

“Eldridge. I’m Rascal—Rascal the Bloodonyx of IF.”

Eldridge was familiar with that name. He was a wanted Superior who was functionally in charge of the world’s strongest criminal clan.

“I have an offer for you.”

“What is it?” Eldridge was wondering what this man could possibly want from him.

“When your death penalty’s over...join IF.”

It was an invitation.

IF was causing all of these incidents in order to gauge the abilities of unaffiliated people. Given their compatibility, Eldridge had been able to gain the upper hand against Emily, who was far above him in status—and he possessed an instinct that had led him to this ship seeking something that very few could even see coming. There were many past achievements attached to his name, and what he’d done here was proof that his skills hadn’t dulled one bit.

Rascal caused these incidents to specifically analyze the participants, and he’d deemed Eldridge to be someone they should add to their team.

“To your clan?”

“You’d start as a supportin’ member, but we’ll make it official once you’re a Superior. Emily’ll see you as an enemy for a while, so I’d have you work somewhere other than Caldina, but we can promise to support you with all the funding and items you need.”

Eldridge said nothing as Rascal showed him the deposit he would receive. It was far more than anything he’d earned even when Goblin Street was in its golden age.

This wasn’t a bad deal by any means. If anything, this was much more than a man on a losing streak like him could ever expect. One could say that luck was finally turning in his favor.

“...Not a chance.”

However, he rejected the offer without hesitation, shaking his head.

The faces of two women came to mind.

“There’s only one clan...I’ll ever have.”

Fey and Niala had supported him all this time, and not even this excellent offer could begin to outweigh their value to him.

Rascal said nothing for a moment. He’d thought that Eldridge might refuse, but there was less hesitation in his voice than Rascal had ever expected to hear.

“That won’t change...even if I lose.”

After admitting defeat, Eldridge’s body dissolved into light, and IF were the only ones left in this devastated mall.

“Shame,” Rascal said as he watched the lights vanish. He truly believed that it was unfortunate they couldn’t recruit Eldridge, and at the same time, he felt a little defeated himself.

But then he switched focus. This wasn’t the time to wallow in feelings like those—he had something important to do.

After Eldridge vanished, Emily was standing there with an empty expression on her face. She was neither in her killing mode nor her normal mode. Instead, she was in a state Rascal had never seen before.

Maybe she’s mentally exhausted or something? On this ship, she’d done a few things she’d never done before, and Rascal didn’t know whether this would be good or bad for her.

Regardless, he thought it was best to prevent her from fighting any longer. The odds of it were extremely low, but if there was another person aboard with a weapon-destroying skill, it would be over for her.

And so, Rascal decided that she had to leave here immediately. He called Zhang over the comms and told him to take Emily and retreat. The escort vessels were all silent, and with jiangshi protection they could leave with no trouble.

“What about you...?” Zhang asked.

“I’m goin’ to the power block. This thing here was unexpected, but I still gotta do what I gotta do there.”

After such a disaster, this voyage would definitely be Eltram’s first and final one.

That made it likely that the Caldinan congress would seize—or even buy—the energy core, and that was something that Rascal wanted to avoid at all costs.

“Hurry up, Machina.”

“Aye-aye, sir!” And so, they went to the power block, where they clashed with two Magingears.

◇◇◇

Armored Pilot, Hugo Lesseps

“Master! That’s probably a really strong pilot!” The crimson-white mechdragon unit projected a cheerful-sounding woman’s voice.

“Imperial Glory...and Curtis Eldona...huh? That name was...on the list.”

The female voice was followed by the voice of a man who sounded like he was injured. It looked like there were two people inside it. It might’ve been a unit piloted by a Master-Embryo pair, just like ours.

“A unit that mimics a Prism Dragon...what are you?” Curtis’s voice as he asked the intruder to identify themselves was stiffer than when he talked to me. Maybe that was just his pilot’s instinct.

“It ain’t worth explainin’. I don’t have business with you,” said the man’s voice.

“Huh? He’s a Superior Job. You aren’t going to try inviting him?” the woman replied.

“We don’t need people who are just strong. We have Ideas for that kind of thing.”

That conversation made no sense to me and probably didn’t to Curtis either, but I could tell that they were being fairly disdainful of him.

That only made Imperial Glory’s intimidating aura intensify.

“Oh, Master! I just checked and noticed something!” the cheerful woman said as though she couldn’t care less how menacing Glory was. “That golden thing has a landdragon-type core too!”

“Ah, shit. This ship just can’t stop wastin’ our time,” the man said, displeased, as the mechdragon began to move.

“Intrusion, insults, and such hostility...I see no reason not to presume you are my enemy.” And with that, Imperial Glory also began to move.

The golden dragon-headed unit’s and the mechdragon’s cores roared as they faced each other...and clashed.

The tiny point of Imperial Glory’s lance stabbed forward into the mechdragon. As though seeing it coming, the mechdragon used its front left leg to push it aside. Imperial Glory then used that rightward momentum to swing its tail balancer to the side, releasing the still-active Paint Napalm onto the mechdragon.

As the liquid fuel flew toward it, the mechdragon lowered itself and activated its vernier thrusters to avoid the barrage, igniting the fuel as it sprayed behind Imperial Glory instead.

The golden mech, though, had already turned to face its opponent, and was now aiming its left arm at the mechdragon.

“Missile Darts.”

“Rush Missiles.”

The Imperial Glory unit fired countless missiles from its left arm, and they were answered by a multitude of missiles launched from the mechdragon’s back.

The two barrages clashed in the air, creating explosions that engulfed them both and drowning the area in an explosion of wind and destruction.

The fires were still spreading when they moved toward each other again. With thunderous sounds, they exchanged a new round of blows.

“Oh...!”

“N-Not bad!”

Over the sound of the clash, I could hear the rather gleeful voices of the pilots.

The two were equals—or at least, that was how it seemed to me. They seemed so evenly matched that I felt they might have exchanged countless attacks already that were just too fast for my eyes to follow.

Regardless, it was clear that I stood no chance against either in a proper battle.

“Hugo...can we win?” I was silent. The odds weren’t high, but they weren’t zero either.

If we could stick to the plan that Niala and I had laid out and use my advantages to their fullest potential...then yes. We could win this.

◇◆◇

Eltram, Power Block

“We’re at a slight disadvantage, huh?” While Machina used incredible piloting techniques to hold off the enemy, Rascal gave his evaluation.

When it came to their power cores, Imperial Glory lost out to Sardonyx even though it had been constructed without any regard to balance—Sardonyx, after all, was the work of Machina, the embodiment of the pre-ancient civilization. If anything here was unusual, it was truly Curtis’s skill—not many could pilot such an unbalanced and unwieldy unit so well.

“Normally, he wouldn’t have had a chance against us simply because of these power cores...but he’s got one too.” The biggest advantage the dragon-shaped Sardonyx had over other Magingears was its pre-ancient civilization cores. The energy cores of normal magic-based machines propelled them by transforming the MP of the rider into kinetic energy based on earth magic or electricity based on sky magic. They were more like converters than true energy cores, and that was why the output and uptime of those machines was strictly limited by the rider’s MP. Hugo’s White Rose was a prime example of this, being a true energy hog, but even normal Marshall IIs couldn’t last all that long in combat. Even the tanklike Geists only managed to extend their uptime by minimizing MP loss by employing crews where each individual focused exclusively on one area, such as movement or weapons. As far as modern cores went, the most efficient one was Blue Opera’s, but in exchange it produced an extremely loud noise while running—and it was an accidental creation that could not be reproduced.

However, even that one couldn’t compare to Flagman’s energy cores. Instead of converting people’s MP, they provided their own magic and converted it into usable forms. Only the first Flagman knew where the magic was being drawn from—not even the Flagmans that had followed him and supposedly inherited his knowledge had actually had the relevant theory passed down to them.

Despite knowing how to build them, not even Machina—or more properly, Agate Designer—knew why they came out the way they did. In fact, there was a safety feature that specifically prevented her from knowing.

Because of all that, it wasn’t just the large skydragon-type cores used in original Prism Dragons that were obscenely rare—even smaller landdragon-type cores were uncommon too, and Magingears equipped with them had an immense advantage over those that didn’t.

However, it just so happened that both units present were equipped with landdragon-type cores. One had a core created two thousand years ago, while the other’s were newly created by Machina, but the difference between their performance wasn’t significant.

“We’ll be at a disadvantage if he notices...” Rascal said. Though Sardonyx had more cores, they were more or less equal. In fact, Sardonyx was gradually being overwhelmed.

That was mostly due to the presence of a Superior Job.

Machina was incredibly skilled—in fact, she’d worked on the base piloting data for all of Flagman’s rideable pre-ancient civilization weapons.

However, she wasn’t human, which made it impossible for her to claim any jobs. Her piloting had absolutely no support from job skills or anything like that. She was riding with The Weapon, of course, but that was a job focused solely on making sure the unit’s offensive capabilities were up and running. It had little effect on anything else.

Meanwhile, Over Pilot, Curtis had skill level EX Piloting, as well as skills that boosted his unit’s stats.

If this battle dragged on too long, Sardonyx would win because it could be healed. However, if it was over quickly, Imperial Glory had a strong chance of defeating them.

Curtis had yet to grasp the full extent of Sardonyx’s abilities and thus didn’t try to finish things right away—but if the battle continued, he would surely begin to understand and go for the kill.

Rascal knew how bad it would be for them if Curtis used his ult first.

“Machina, we’re usin’ Heilige Trinität.”

That was why he decided to play his most dangerous card.

“Are you sure?” Machina said in surprise, still battling Curtis as she spoke.

“Do it. Both that tasteless hunk of golden scrap and the core here gotta be destroyed, anyway.”

Perhaps Deus Ex Machina—his Superior Embryo—might have been able to retrieve both with a touch, but that was impossible while Imperial Glory was active, and approaching the ship’s core wasn’t an option with Curtis here either.

No matter what he did next, Rascal had to destroy Imperial Glory first.

“Roger! And the limit is...?”

“Just stop before I die.”

“Aye-aye, sir!” And so, Machina gathered her resolve...

“Setting up melee mode! Heilige Trinität...activate!”

...and she entered something into Sardonyx’s console.

“To think that someone could match me at mobile weapon combat,” Curtis said. “Not even Dryfe had anyone of this caliber.” He didn’t show it, but the fact that Sardonyx could keep up with him had left Curtis astonished. He’d been piloting Magingears for nearly twenty years.

He’d sat at the helm of Geists that had been modified to be used by one person, Outrail—the half-humanoid, half-vehicle Magingear left in Eldona March—and the Marshall II HC that he’d given to Lieutenant Colonel Berlin.

And now, this Imperial Glory.

Curtis had controlled many units in his life, but he’d never met a pilot who was truly his equal. He couldn’t have imagined that he would run into one now, of all times.

It wasn’t just the technique that moved him—the unit itself was perfectly constructed. He’d found a tiny fault even in White Rose’s heavy armor, but he couldn’t spot anything like that in Sardonyx.

“If this were an ordinary battle, my heart would dance...” However, Curtis had to destroy this enemy as quickly as possible and claim Eltram’s core. He was weighing his joy as a warrior against the weight of his goal.

And when his goal was placed onto the scales, it was obvious to which side it would tilt.

He wouldn’t relish this battle as a warrior, but instead defeat his enemy as a soldier.

“And since it seems you have a core of your own...I will claim that as well.” Based on the output and the fact that it showed no sign of weakening, Curtis had realized that the enemy unit must have a pre-ancient civilization core too. This wasn’t a foe he’d expected to face, but if he could gain something from the confrontation, he would welcome it.

After that thought crossed his mind, he began to figure out a strategy that would defeat the mechdragon...

“...Hm?”

But then, a change in the enemy made his eyes go wide with shock.

The front legs...the claws that until now had only been used for anchoring the unit had grown in length, becoming obvious offensive weapons. The overall form had changed as well, with its limbs now elongated and its thruster placement adjusted to match.

However, the most obvious change was the color.

The unit was crimson-white before, but now, the white parts had heated up until they glowed, making it a mix of crimson and bright red.

“What are y—?” Before he could finish what he was saying, Curtis quickly tilted the unit to the side, acting on subconscious reflex.

A moment later, something red flew right by him, too fast to see—and there was now a claw mark on the golden unit’s shoulder armor, marking that the dragon had passed and touched him.

Curtis’s eyes widened. His enemy was now so fast he struggled to describe it, and the claw strikes didn’t end at just one attack, instead slashing at him many times over.

The unit bathed in bright crimson was attacking him at speeds that greatly exceeded anything he had seen so far. During this assault, Curtis had swung the tail balancer for both defense and retaliation, but that had left it damaged and rendered Paint Napalm unusable.

“Th-This is...!” The unit’s current level of mobility was so high it almost seemed as though it had been merely toying with Curtis before. A job ultimate?! An MVP reward?! Whatever it is, they pulled out a true trump card...! Despite this extreme change in the nature of his foe, Curtis cracked a smile as he reconsidered his earlier choice to finish this quickly. His conjecture was mostly correct. This power was undoubtedly one of the aces up Rascal and Machina’s sleeve, but it was accomplished by neither a job ult nor an MVP reward.

Heilige Trinität—the Holy Trinity. Just like their mother ship, Tetragrammaton, it used a concept from Earth’s most widespread religion as its name—and it was not a skill, but a combination. Emphasizing the concept of a “trinity,” this was a combo that employed Sardonyx’s power, Machina’s piloting, and Rascal’s job skills all to their fullest, all at the same time.

Both the cores ran at an output that could cause them to exceed their limitations and explode. The mechdragon’s control column was now being jerked to and fro so intensely that it had begun to shatter.

And all the damage this combination did was being fixed by The Weapon’s repair and error deletion skills, forcefully keeping the entire thing together.

Basically, they were stabilizing the unit within its danger zone.

As long as there was a balance between the self-inflicted damage from exceeding their own limits and the skill’s ability to repair, this functioned as an extreme improvement to its performance.

“Ngh...ghhh...!” However, the many quick movements and collisions at supersonic speeds would ultimately be fatal to Rascal and his frail body. Already he was spitting blood, and more of his skeleton started to fracture with every passing moment.

This combination couldn’t be used without Rascal and his job, The Weapon, but Rascal himself was its greatest weak point. Who would die first—their enemy or Rascal himself?

Heilige Trinität was a double-edged sword.

“Master...!”

“Don’t mind me,” Rascal said, swallowing a healing pill along with a mouthful of his own blood. “If you don’t want me to die, just beat goldie already.”

“...Aye-aye, sir!” Machina said with a nod as she continued the relentless, limitless barrage.

“Heh...heh heh...heh HA HA HA HA HA...!” Curtis could feel the armor on his limbs peeling away, but despite that, he found himself laughing.

His heart was dancing. This was an encounter with a powerful foe that was the same as he was. This wasn’t someone who wielded a spear in their own bare hands, the commander of a puppet army, the master of a powerful beast, or an entirely robotic killing machine.

This was his first time meeting someone who piloted a mobile weapon like he did—someone could match him at it.

Reinhard’s defeat. Claudiah’s salvation. Suddenly, Curtis found himself with a goal that matched those two obsessions.

His fighter’s nature had caused him to instantly fall in love with Claudiah and her unfathomable talents—and now, he was drawing close to savoring this battle with the primal purity of a warrior’s soul.

“Hah...hngh...!” But when he noticed himself laughing and enjoying this, he quickly restrained himself.

He wasn’t here to have fun. He had a goal he had to fulfill as both a soldier and a man who loved a woman.

That was the reason he’d killed so many people on this ship, including his own subordinates.

He couldn’t allow himself to fight for enjoyment alone.

The only words in his mind now were “Victory to the true Dryfe.”

“Man-Machine Interface...activate!” Gathering his resolve, he used a power that was restricted to one use per day—the ultimate job skill of the Over Pilot.

A moment later, Sardonyx’s claws approached Imperial Glory’s torso. However, Curtis used his spear to deflect them and sent a knee into Sardonyx’s chest armor.

This time, Machina was the one whose eyes widened.

Imperial Glory’s movements were nothing like before. And it wasn’t just in terms of pure speed. The golden unit’s steps and attacks seemed even more well-timed and elegant than they had a moment ago.

This was the power of the Over Pilot’s ultimate job skill—Man-Machine Interface.

It was an active—rather than passive—enhancement skill that tripled the STR and AGI of the user’s unit.

However, that wasn’t the skill’s most valuable effect by a long shot.

Man-Machine Interface was Piloting perfected—the ultimate form of the skill that allowed the user to control a war machine however they wished.

Now, the unit moved exactly as he willed it. He didn’t even have to touch the control column anymore.

At this moment, Curtis himself was Imperial Glory. He moved it as if the unit was his own flesh and blood. It followed his commands instantly, without any input lag.

“I can see! I can see them! I see your movements!” His mouth wasn’t moving—Curtis’s voice came directly from Imperial Glory’s outer speakers.

The metallic unit easily broke the speed of sound, yet its movements flowed more beautifully than any human being’s could.

“Adjusting enemy unit threat level. Forming patterns. Testing various counter plans.”

Machina responded to this by focusing all her processing power on combat and ran through all kinds of tactics meant to destroy the man united with the machine.

Once again, they were more than a match for each other, but both of them had time limits.

Though both units had cores that could keep them running semipermanently, there were certain things that couldn’t last. The damage sustained by Imperial Glory brought it ever closer to the limits of its endurance, while the vivid red mechdragon was at the risk of losing Rascal. Both of them wanted to end this as quickly as possible.

But if not even the trump cards they kept up their sleeves could create a gap between their capabilities, the two combatants had but one choice—an all-or-nothing gambit.

“Charge completed. Changing sniper cannon barrel to energy mode. Target...within range.”

The bright red mechdragon aimed the sniper cannon that doubled as its head straight toward the enemy...

“I will end it with this!”

...as the golden unit opened its dragonlike maw wide...

...these two dragons faced one another...

“Blast Flare!”

“Draconic Burn!”

...and both their heads released superheated energy beams.

As an intense light flooded the power zone, the immense heat exploded between them.

Both of them widened their eyes in surprise. They had both fired a weapon that converted all the magic provided by the landdragon-type core into heat and launched it from a close-range. The word “armament” hardly seemed appropriate for something so powerful, so they were each shocked to find that their opponent also wielded such a power.

Machina had installed it on Sardonyx as a secret weapon against those who assumed that the mechdragon’s head was only good for sniping shots, while the golden Glory had it simply because its creators were enthusiasts who felt that a super robot just wasn’t complete until it could fire a huge beam.

And as strange as it was, they were more or less equal in this area as well.

Sardonyx was clearly the superior unit in terms of conversion efficiency and output simply because it was equipped with two cores. However, Imperial Glory’s output was enhanced by the Over Pilot’s skills.

As a result, their equally matched weapons clashed, and instead of instantly killing the other like they’d each hoped, the balance was yet again maintained.

However, they couldn’t stop firing these beams. If either of them did, they would surely be hit by the enemy’s shot.

And as a result, they were both gambling on the enemy unit running out of energy before they did.

As this deadly balance was maintained...

“...Cyco.”

...the silent Rose saw its one chance at victory.

The pale unit stood up, covered itself in ice, and activated La Porte de l’Enfer once more.

The other two widened their eyes yet again. The third unit—White Rose—had more or less vanished from their thoughts by now. That was why they were in no position to counter it in a timely manner.

Neither Sardonyx nor Imperial Glory could make a single careless move while facing each other. White Rose, on the other hand, didn’t have much besides La Porte de l’Enfer and its toughness. It was undoubtedly far less powerful than the other two units here, and it was unlikely that it had anything that could take both of the other units out. Even if it did possess such a power, White Rose didn’t even reach speeds at the subsonic level, meaning that it could never hope to land a hit on these two mechs that had surpassed all limits.

That was why at this point, both Curtis and Machina saw White Rose as nothing but set dressing.

However, that soon changed...

“Niala!”

...when Hugo called out, causing a fourth unit to fly in through the hole in the ceiling.

All eyes widened yet again.

The two clashing units both spied a bomber plane that looked like a condor. The Genocide Condor was part of Niala’s legion—Winged Omnipotence, Simurgh—and it was the one with the highest firepower.

Niala herself was also at the edge of the hole in the ceiling. After Imperial Glory had destroyed the entrance, she’d gone through the ship’s hallways to arrive at that very gap.

And now, she’d fired her Condor, just like she and Hugo had planned.

“CAAAAWWW!” With a roaring engine that sounded like the shriek of a bird, Genocide Condor descended straight into the center of the power zone at an incredible speed...and exploded.

◇◇◇

Before Entering the Power Block, Eltram, Hallway

Just before Hugo, Cyco, and Niala entered the power zone and assaulted the DLG, they explained their combat capabilities to each other.

“My Embryo is a varied Legion,” said Niala. “Though only two of them are specialized in combat, and I already used one of them—the jet fighter, Fighting Falcon. That just leaves the bomber, Genocide Condor.”

“How destructive is it? Compared to, say, King of Destruction’s battleship.”

“Well, you could have picked a more reasonable point of comparison...” Hugo had looked into his memory and brought up the weapon Embryo with the greatest firepower that he’d seen yet, but it made Niala put on a strained smile. “It’s a sixth-form Embryo that’s also split among multiple functions, so it can’t really match a Superior Embryo. It probably wouldn’t do much damage to White Rose’s armor. That’s a Mythical alloy, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Taking defensive passive skills into account, the damage would be very light. That isn’t a bad thing, seeing as there’s the potential for friendly fire...but even if the target is made of lower-ranked material than yours—Ancient Legendary metal, for example—it still wouldn’t do too much damage if they assumed a defensive stance.” Niala had experimented with her Embryo in an arena, and she had a decent idea of how powerful it was. “It is powerful enough to destroy a regular Marshall II completely, though.”

“I see.”

“And that’s it for what I can use in battle.”

“Thank you. That makes it easier for me to come up with a plan.”

“So, what do you intend to do if your skill doesn’t work on these enemies just like it didn’t on the one in the mall?”

“I’ve mostly figured out how all of that works.” They’d already talked about what they would do if La Porte de l’Enfer didn’t work on the enemies. Hugo had already guessed that it was because of the units’ airtight seal, so he continued his explanation. “This is just a guess, but I think it didn’t work on the DLG Magingears because they were fully airtight. That’s why I believe I shall ask you to do something about that.”

“Me?”

“You can take care of that by sniping Marshall IIs. And if we encounter someone with stronger armor, please use the Genocide Condor you mentioned.” Niala did not immediately respond. “Holes made by sniping, damage done by bombs—if we break that seal, La Porte de l’Enfer should work...assuming I’m right about the reason it failed earlier, anyway.”

Niala’s face had twisted into a bitter expression when she heard Hugo’s plan. “I can do the first easily...but there’s a problem with the second. The Condor has a high cost, so I can’t use it carelessly. Our financial situation will be better now that we took some equipment from the terrorists, but I’m hesitant anyway.”

They still didn’t know if Eldridge would be able to actually turn their spoils into money—and even if he could, the money they’d earned here was meant to be used for the clan’s revival. Personal payout would be something they’d talk about later.

“How much does it cost?”

“About ten million. It’s already charged and I can use it, but...”

While significantly less than the costs some Superiors incurred, it certainly wasn’t cheap. They were already budgeting their meals, so Niala wanted to avoid using her Embryo.

“Please use it during our upcoming battle in the power zone. I’ll pay for it.”

“...What?”

In response to Niala, Hugo took ten million lir from his Inventory. This was part of the reward he’d split with Ray for defeating the Gouz-Maise Gang. He’d been using it to buy parts for repairs and the like, but even now could spare ten million lir.

“Are you sure?”

“I believe it will be necessary.” Hugo seemed to have no doubts.

“...Very well. I’ll take it, but I promise I’ll give it back if I don’t use it.”

“All right.”

“I’ll leave the timing to you, but how exactly are you planning to deploy Genocide Condor? Will you bombard enemies that have too much armor to snipe?”

“That is the plan. But...”

“But...?”

“I don’t think it will be enough.”

Holes opened by sniping. Damage made by explosions. Somehow, Hugo felt that even those measures might not be enough to overcome some foes.

“That’s why I’ll prepare a third assault.”

◇◆◇

Eltram, Power Block

With its crash, all the bombs within Genocide Condor were set off.

The power block was fairly cramped for Magingears, and the resulting destruction was enough to start a firestorm and drown everything in a chain of explosions.

However, the golden unit and the mechdragon were both made from Ancient Legendary metal. They could avoid fatal damage if they simply braced for it.

The blasts caused them to cut their energy beams at the exact same time and assume a defensive stance.

And White Rose was rushing toward them.

Plated in a Mythical armor stronger than the other two and controlled by a pilot with a job that boosted its defense further, White Rose could charge through the explosions without the need to actively defend itself.

And the other two didn’t—couldn’t—see its approach. The explosions engulfing the power zone had made optical and sound sensors unusable. Even Drac-Sight’s energy sensor was overwhelmed by noise.

The two units couldn’t see anything. They might’ve been the Over Pilot and Agate Designer—the two strongest pilots in the world—but even they couldn’t react to this. Perhaps AR-I-CA could’ve sensed something with her ability to foresee danger, but these two had no such ability.

However, the same went for White Rose. The unit’s sensor was overwhelmed, showing only pure white static as though it were plowing through a blizzard.

Despite that, White Rose knew where the two units were.

After all...

“Forward. Six steps.”

...Cyco’s unique sense could clearly see Curtis and Rascal’s immense kill count of their kin.

Even in this blinding, burning hell, this intuition that sprung from the core of her being allowed her to know the exact location of those she had to defeat—those murderers.

“Right. Seven steps.” Within this blinding, deafening blizzard of fire, the white unit charged without hesitation, led on by the words of a girl who was the pilot’s mount, friend, and true other half.

“Both sides. Now.” Thus, White Rose used a skill—its own ace up its sleeve.

This was its second skill, Purgatorial Slash. It used the heat gathered by La Porte de l’Enfer and released it as a heat energy blade—the Embryo’s only purely offensive skill.

It had been gathering heat since its last use in Gideon, and all of that would be released right here and now.

“Purgatorial Slash!” Blades of fire extended from White Rose’s both hands, piercing the cockpits of the other two units.

If sniping wasn’t enough to break the airtightness, they used bombs. And if that wasn’t enough...they’d use a Purgatorial Slash. This was the three-layered plan Hugo had thought up.

The difference in defense, the fact that Niala was with him, and Cyco—

Hugo had used all the advantages he had...and as a result, his blade reached his targets.

◆

In silence, Curtis looked at his blacked out external monitor, showing a reflection of his own body.

The black screen that now served as a makeshift mirror displayed him as a frozen statue...with a hole where his stomach ought to be.

The heat energy blades that had pierced the chest armor of his unit had burned it out. The Freeze that followed instantly stopped the bleeding, but once that was undone, he would inevitably die.

Curtis quickly grasped the uncomfortable truth—this was the direct result of his carelessness.

However, Imperial Glory was still moving. Man-Machine Interface made him one with his unit, letting him move it even if his body was frozen.

Curtis could continue this battle—but fighting and surviving were two different things. Even if he could move his unit, the wound he’d suffered was so grave that he could not hope to escape death.

Curtis was a soldier. He’d killed dozens...no, hundreds of people, so he knew full well what was going to happen. His life, suspended by Freeze, wasn’t long for this world. If the effect expired or Hugo realized that Curtis had been fatally injured, the Freeze would stop and he would die. Curtis already knew that Hugo was capable of that.

There was nothing that could be done—Curtis’s death was now assured.

This realization made several different feelings well up in his heart.

His desire for combat. His shame toward his subordinates. His yearning for Claudiah. His hatred for Reinhard. All of these emotions mixed and swirled within him, and the coming death narrowed his thinking.

The number of things Curtis had to weigh was rapidly decreasing. The exciting battle with his equal was over, and a dead man had no future with Claudiah.

That was why he made one final choice and placed it on the scales.

Perhaps this was inevitable. It was the goal he’d rallied for, and the flag beneath which his men died.

“Very well! I will die here! I accept it!” As his death was unavoidable, he accepted it. This beloved unit would be his coffin...

“I leave the rest to you, Glory! MACHINE SOUL, ACTIVATE!”

...and Curtis used the final skill of the pilot grouping.

◇◆

Machina saw that moment.

While all of Sardonyx’s sensors were overwhelmed by explosions from the bomber, a white unit had approached them. The heat energy blade it launched just barely surpassed Sardonyx’s laminated Ancient Legendary armor.

The energy blade entered the cockpit right next to Rascal’s seat and burned off his right arm.

“Master...?!” Switching back from her combat focus, Machina let out a scream.

However, a moment after Rascal lost his right arm, his entire body Froze.

A moment later, Sardonyx’s monitors were overwhelmed by errors.

With The Weapon, Rascal incapacitated, Heilige Trinität could no longer function.

“Ughh...!” Machina instantly returned the unit to its normal mode. Right after that, she quickly chose to leave the power zone entirely.

As a Prism Person, Machina was unaffected by La Porte de l’Enfer. However, Sardonyx required Rascal’s skills to function in its unoptimized state. With him incapacitated, continuing this fight wasn’t an option, and Machina cared far more about her disarmed and Frozen Master than any battle or core in front of them.

She fervently set the escape route and fled Eltram without showing any care for anything else, leaving behind the White Rose unit that had hurt her Master, the woman who had summoned the bomber...and Imperial Glory, which was about to become something else.

◇◆

After Sardonyx retreated, Imperial Glory—which now had a large hole in its chest—retaliated against White Rose with maneuvers surpassing those it had performed while Curtis’s ultimate job skill was active.

Imperial Glory was punching relentlessly. Combined with the damage Rose had already suffered, this was enough to break off the white unit’s right arm and damage the leg joints.

A destructive barrage with overwhelming speed and precision—its power had increased more than it had while Man-Machine Interface was active, and it was now great enough to destroy even Mythical metal.

“Ngh...?! Wh-What...!”

“Looks like my transformation has made your Freezing powers useless.”

Imperial Glory spoke with Curtis’s voice. However, it felt functionally different than it had when he was talking through the speakers with Man-Machine Interface.

It was as though the one speaking was the unit itself.

“Hugo...he’s already dead,” Cyco said, as though to confirm what Hugo suspected.

“What?!”

“His kill count is gone.”

Curtis had died within Imperial Glory’s cockpit. His Frozen vital functions had ceased completely, and even the Over Pilot job he held had been released from his body. He wasn’t attacking with the spear, Drac-Stinger either—because it was gone. Like all MVP rewards, it had vanished with its user’s death.

Curtis Eldona had most definitely died here in Eltram’s power block.

Yet Imperial Glory was still moving.

“Indeed! I have abandoned life as a human! I had to!” Imperial Glory itself responded to Cyco’s words, its voice full of conflicting emotions.

All of this was happening because of the skill Curtis used right before dying—the final skill of the pilot grouping, Machine Soul.

If Man-Machine Interface was what waited at the end of the road that was Piloting, this skill was what happened if you strayed from that road. The pilot gave up their life, inhabiting their unit with just one goal—one dying wish—and greatly enhancing its power.

Originally, it was a skill used by a pilot who was low on magic in order to complete one last job—a sort of final command that lasted until the unit’s energy expired.

However, the core was providing Imperial Glory with semiperpetual energy that erased such limitations. And as long as the unit remained indestructible, its goal would be as well.

“Now, I-I-I can control this body far better than I did befo-o-o-re!” The Imperial Glory inhabited by Curtis’s dying wish laughed as if to display its power, but its voice was starting to be overcome by static—though it was unclear if this was caused by the short-term skill being unnaturally extended or some kind of incompatibility between the skill and the core that sustained it. “I don’t have to make a new weapon with the co-o-re! I-I’ll incorporate it into this body, keep enhancing it, and kill everyone who stands in my wa-a-ay! I will become the machine-god protector of my homeland and defeat Reinha-a-a-ard!”

The one goal Curtis had granted to the unit while he still lived was Reinhard’s downfall. Even if Curtis himself died, the unit entrusted with his will would carry that out.

“I feel so much more po-o-o-owerful than when I was alive! I will de-e-e-finitely beat him like no-o-o-o-ow!”

As he was now, Curtis didn’t remember Claudiah. The unit had Curtis’s final will, but not his soul.

“KillKillKillKillKillKillKlililiilliliilil!”

As Imperial Glory kept moving, the consciousness within began to fade. Soon, it wasn’t clear who was speaking anymore—Curtis or the unit itself.

This was a machine given the sole directive of eliminating Reinhard. Carrying only the shattered fragments of a man’s grudge, it was a true monstrosity...

[Discovered a monster that fulfills the conditions to be set as a Unique Boss Monster.]

[Confirmed that there are no similar specimens within the records. Contacting UBM control AI.]

[UBM control AI’s agreement received.]

[Setting the target as a UBM.]

[Increasing target strength, applying post-death MVP reward transformation.]

[Target is Epic-tier. Corpse Dragon Mech, Imperial Glory will be its name.]

...a monstrosity that the world itself acknowledged as neither man nor machine.