Blade That Melts Steel
"All units, battle stations!"
The moment I issued the order, I raised White Tiger and pulled the trigger, aiming for the Specters—the mechanical drones of the Astrals flying through the sky.
Rat-tat-tat—!!
Bastion's defense turrets also began pouring out shells with a roar that shook the very earth.
But it was nowhere near enough.
Concentrating as hard as I could, I managed to take down two by targeting the red lenses—the Specters' weak point—but there were still well over twenty Specters circling above our heads.
Still, if it's just these guys, I think we can somehow repel them.
Thump—! Boom!
Sure enough, a four-legged prosthetic mechanical monster that had leaped from the distant Mobile Aircraft Carrier was approaching us.
"Knight-class Astral unit confirmed! The bastard is charging from the front!!"
A monster far tougher and more threatening than a Specter.
It was a Knight-class Astral, a close-quarters combat unit that looked like a mechanical beast from the future.
"Eat this—!"
As the Specters and Knight-class Astrals began to close the defensive line, Pomen fired her minigun, Queen's Calamity, in a frenzied barrage.
However, Pomen's firepower alone had its limits in stopping the flood of mechanical monsters.
While she could hinder their advance, piercing through their sturdy Energy Shields was by no means easy.
Still….
Bang! Bang—!
Kabooooooom!!
Using the opening Pomen created, I succeeded in shooting down one more, but that was all.
"We can't go on like this, Commander! We have to deal damage to the Troller's main body!"
Arva shouted while swapping magazines.
She was a hundred percent correct.
If we didn't do something about that massive main body, we would inevitably be swallowed by the endless waves of Specters and Knights.
But how…?
Bang! Ba-bang!
I began to rack my brain while keeping the Specters at bay.
If I could stop their numbers from increasing further, I thought it might be possible to at least maintain the front line—or rather, just barely hold out.
To do that, I needed to attack the main body directly to make the Troller-class Mobile Aircraft Carrier feel a sense of crisis, preventing it from spitting out more Specters or Knights.
And in the current situation, the only means to break through this tight encirclement and directly strike the Troller-class vessel…
I scanned the battlefield quickly.
I needed an ECHO capable of dealing massive damage to the mechanical Astral monsters.
And realistically, among our Ark's ECHOs, the only ones capable of that were the melee squad, which included Arva and Moi.
But even if Arva and Moi give it their all, can those two alone stop a Troller-class Mobile Aircraft Carrier? That giant thing…?
Even for ECHOs, who were combat weapons, common sense dictated such an outcome to be impossible.
Of course, I knew that Moi was an ECHO powerful enough to eventually fight the Astral Named-entity known as the Harvester to mutual destruction in solo combat.
But that was a matter for later.
That was a story of the future, after she had undergone all sorts of trials and awakened.
The current Moi was not yet a full-grown tiger, but merely a cub with sharp claws.
Ah, are we seriously fucked…?
Just as I was failing to come up with a way to break this deadlock, something from last night flashed through my mind.
The heated time I spent rolling around with four women, including Podic.
And the Cash I received in return.
Because I had passed out halfway through, I hadn't checked exactly how much I got, but it seemed I had acquired a fair amount.
Please…! Please!
I hurriedly opened the Money Compass to check my Cash balance.
💰 Money Compass 💰
Owned Cash: 107,000C
"—!!"
It was a narrow escape, barely making the cut.
I had a bit more than the 100,000 Cash required to purchase an Exclusive Weapon. In this situation, there was no reason to hesitate.
The only hope to overcome this desperate situation lay with Moi, our Ark's Tier-0 Anti-Astral deck melee damage dealer who had not yet fully bloomed her potential—that is, had not grown her core in full.
Where is it?!
I began searching frantically through the shop list for Moi's Exclusive Weapon.
Fortunately, since I had bookmarked the Exclusive Weapons of our Ark's ECHOs while searching previously, I found the entry quickly.
⚙ ITEM DESCRIPTION ⚙
Surge Blade
> A dagger made of a smooth, obsidian-like ceramic Core that appears ordinary at first glance.
> However, ultra-fine surge heating wires thinner than a strand of hair are densely embedded inside the blade.
> When energy is supplied according to the user's will, it instantaneously forms a high-temperature plasma field exceeding 6,000 degrees, moving beyond the concept of a physical slash to sever by melting the molecular structure of any material it touches.
The moment I pressed the purchase button, the air above my hand distorted, and a dagger with an eerie aura dropped into my palm.
"Moi—!"
"Y-Yes?! Commander!"
At my call, Moi, who had been running around frantically while keeping the Specters at bay with her pistol, scurried over to me.
She then looked at the dagger in my hand.
"Take this, Moi."
As I handed her the Surge Blade, Moi's eyes shook in disbelief.
She seemed to instinctively realize that this weapon was no ordinary item just from the aura emanating from the pitch-black obsidian blade.
"An, Artifact…?"
"Yes. Like Pomen's Queen's Calamity, it's a weapon just for you. An Exclusive Weapon."
"A weapon… just for me? Given by… the Commander?"
"Yes. So, break through those Knight-class monsters with Arva and plunge this sword into the main body of the Troller-class Mobile Aircraft Carrier. Can you do it?"
"…Yes, I'll try."
To be honest, it was not an easy task.
But an ECHO is a being that follows the Commander's orders.
At my words, Moi nodded with a look of firm determination.
In her clear eyes, only a blind will to complete my order burned.
"Arva! Lena! Lapis—! Open a path and attack the Troller-class carrier! Stop it from continuing to spit out Astrals!"
"Understood, Commander!"
"Alright, I'll clear the way!"
As if she had been waiting for my order, Lapis readjusted her grip on the massive Saint Hammer and leaped forward first.
Simultaneously, the red lenses of the Astrals on the battlefield turned toward her.
"Cover Lapis!"
Bang! Rat-tat-tat-tat!!
While I, Cerberus, and all of Bastion's firepower worked to intercept the attacks pouring onto Lapis, she charged toward the Knight-class units, deflecting the rain of energy bolts with her hammer like an enraged rhinoceros.
And Arva and Moi began to follow closely behind her, moving as if they were one body.
"The armor of Knight-class units is hard, Moi. With the weapon you have, it won't be easy—"
"Don't worry, Arva. The Commander gave me something amazing!"
"…Is that so."
Seeing the obsidian dagger in Moi's hand, Arva soon nodded.
Feeling an unusual aura, it looked like an Artifact rather than an ordinary weapon, similar to Pomen's minigun.
And if it was an Artifact personally bestowed by the Commander, it certainly wouldn't be an ordinary weapon.
"I will provide cover."
Arva judged the situation coldly.
She concluded that it would be far more efficient to cover Moi, who had obtained a new weapon, than to step forward herself.
Then, Lena, who was running up from the rear, pulled something from her pocket and threw it forward while shouting to warn the others.
"EMP Grenade—! We have exactly 3 seconds! They'll be neutralized for 3 seconds!!"
The EMP grenade Lena threw exploded in a blue flash in the middle of the Knight-class entities.
Bzzzzzt!
The Knight-class Astrals, their power momentarily paralyzed, stopped moving for a brief moment.
And a single black shadow did not miss that split second.
"Die."
Moi slashed the Surge Blade straight down along the most vulnerable line of the Knight, visible only to her eyes.
"Ah—!"
An ecstatic gasp escaped Moi's lips.
It was a sensation on a completely different level from the blunt combat sword she had used before.
As the Surge Blade's plasma field activated according to her will, the sturdy armor of the Knight-class Astral split smoothly and without resistance, like a hot knife through butter.
There was no screeching sound of tearing metal, not even a single spark.
Only the searing heat that felt as if everything was melting—a sssssh sound—filled her ears with ecstasy.
This is…
The gift given by the Commander she loved.
Gush!
Was it because of the memories of last night?
Instinctively, a stream of love juices surged and leaked from her pussy.
Boom!
The ultra-high heat of 6,000 degrees created by the Surge Blade decomposed the super-alloy armor—the pride of the Astrals—at a molecular level, burning straight through to the heart where the Core resided.
"Insane! That Knight was neutralized in just one hit?"
Even the cool-headed Lena couldn't hide her shock, her eyes widening at the incredible sight.
The desire to immediately disassemble and observe that amazing Artifact filled Lena's mind.
"Moi—! We’re gonna give you some cover! Keep moving!"
"Y-Yes!"
Moi moved her body incessantly, following the words of her leader, Arva.
Like a pitch-black ballerina dancing a dance of death, she wove between the Knight-class Astrals recovering from the EMP paralysis, destroying their power sources one by one.
Unlike before, there was no hesitation in her movements.
It was because this new claw given by the Commander had instilled an absolute confidence in her.
"Now, Moi!!"
With Lapis's shout, Moi leaped and landed on top of Lapis's Saint Hammer.
Then, Lapis swung the Saint Hammer powerfully, akin to a baseball player aiming for a home run, and Moi's body flew through the air like a shell, finally landing on the deck of the massive vessel.
Thump! Boom!
Shortly after, Arva and Lena also landed on the ship with Lapis's help.
"What about Lapis?"
"She'll rejoin the main force. Unfortunately, she managed to put us up here… but she said there's no way for her to get up herself."
“…I need to hurry up and create flight equipment for times like this.”
Lena grumbled regretfully, but her eyes were already piercing through the ship's power unit.
"We have to destroy the Core in the bow first. That way—"
But before Lena could finish her sentence, the entire ship was enveloped in an unpleasant silence, as if it were a giant living creature.
Then, in front of them, the metal plates of the deck began to slide, and the metal, melting like liquid, formed a single giant shape.
"……."
It was a grotesquely shaped monster with the upper body of a beautiful woman and the lower body of a giant mechanical snake composed of dozens of sharp blades.
The loyal subordinate of the Named Astral—The Harvester.
And the commander of this Troller-class Mobile Aircraft Carrier.
It was the Astral named Aurum.
[Brave mechanical dolls, indeed. You will be sufficient to use as new resources for this ship.]
A cold, mechanical voice devoid of any emotion echoed toward the three ECHOs.
Then, Aurum's snake-like lower body slithered forward, beginning to approach them.