A Lighthearted Cooking Time
Fortunately, I wasn't late. I kicked the wreckage of the enemy machine lying under my feet. The Advent that had become scrap metal rolled on the ground. When I turned my head, I saw Jack's Nimrod.
To think he held out this far in that state, without even a Covenant. It felt like I could catch a glimpse of the man who was once on par with the 5th rank in that silhouette.
"Mokjul. Take Jack and retreat."
{...Are you planning to take on 5 units alone? Your machine shouldn't be in normal condition either.}
Mokjul's voice was flat. It wasn't exactly a worried tone. It was purely a status check.
{I'll take care of the rest.}
I don't know about Mokjul, but Jack, without a Covenant, wouldn't be of any help even if he stayed.
{Ha, you bastard... Thanks. I owe you one.}
Jack's laugh cracked over the radio. His voice had half the strength drained out of it.
{You really like doing things that aren't cost-effective.}
Mokjul left only those words and retreated after retrieving the Nimrod. Pathos's four eyes scanned this side for a moment.
Cost-effective, huh.
Sorry, but this is a thoroughly calculated action. If I take out all the enemies left here, the credit goes entirely to Earl Grey. The achievement of saving the Timor front. Five tasty nutritional snacks were rolling right in front of my eyes, ready to boost her standing.
If not for that, there would be no reason to sacrifice myself for others.
"Evan... As expected, you have a beautiful heart... Going that far for those two..."
Earl Grey made a voice of admiration from behind me. The fatigue from just a moment ago felt like it washed away at those words.
...Cancel that last thought. Let's make it 100% self-sacrifice.
I am Earl Grey-nim's angel. Angel Evan loves his comrades so much, oh-ho-ho.
Stop with the moronic thoughts and scanned the dashboard. Since I hadn't used Dies Irae long ago, the recoil meant output was at 80% of normal. Overload warning lights were blinking on three joint drive systems, and it was hard to say I had plenty of ammo left.
It was a perfect handicap for a 6-on-1. Of course, the handicap was for their sake.
And Earl Grey in the rearview mirror caught my eye.
She was pretending to be fine. She held her back straight and showed a smile at the corners of her mouth, but she couldn't hide the sweat on her forehead and her pale lips. I had to finish this quickly.
"Earl Grey. Hang in there a little longer. I'll finish this quickly and come back."
"I'm... fine."
Saint-nim, the one watching over you is not fine. Two units blocked my front. A red one and a black one.
Jeoga. And Heukjo. I thought I'd meet them someday, but I didn't expect them to crawl out in a place like this. The guys who should have crawled back to their home country after losing Cheonrang at Nova Crux had drifted all the way to Timor.
Well, in the Kyungdanryeon, which worships efficiency as a god, revenge was the first inefficiency to be banned. They went to get revenge on their own, got beaten like dogs, and came back. With Cheonrang, the ranker who would have protected them, dead, there was no place for them. So did they roll to the front lines?
{You... to think I'd meet you here!}
The leaking intent was filled with malice. Hatred flowed through the Afterglow Field.
For a moment, silence flowed between me and them, and Jeoga and Heukjo kicked the ground at the same time. Sand soared like pillars, and the two machines dug into my range.
They must have seen Cheonrang's combat data. That the Logos's Apostle is weak at close-quarters combat. The intention is to rush in and settle it with punches and swordplay.
That won't happen. The two blades they held fell in a cross pattern. Slashes came in from the left and right with a time difference.
I stepped back and let the trajectory flow. And I pushed Jeoga's flank hard with my shield.
{Ugh?!}
"I let you hit me back then because I wasn't used to it."
The red machine, having lost its balance, retreated while grinding the sand.
"Logically speaking, would an Apostle of my level let the same thing happen twice?"
Jeoga and Heukjo pulled back significantly. And another machine stepped up. It looked like output was concentrating on its rear thrusters, and it rushed in a line so straight it was unnatural.
Afterglow Dash. But it was strange. Both hands were empty. A bare-handed charge without a blade or rifle. There's only one reason to close in at that speed without weapons. Just before contact, the guy's intent burst onto the Afterglow Field.
{Dies Irae!!!}
It seems the approval code had already been received from the Kyungdanryeon headquarters. Zero-distance activation. Not a bad move. Even a Sanctuary Field collapses inside the fireball of Dies Irae. A fairly sincere suicide attack, showing traces of having worried about how to catch me.
But if you're going to do that, you should have tried to hide it.
[Afterglow Dash]
I was one beat faster than him. By the time he activated Dies Irae, I had long since escaped his epicenter.
Kwaaaaaang!!!
The epicenter swelled behind my back. The red fireball swallowed the entire coastline, and the shockwave pushed the sand hundreds of meters away. Logos was already outside of it.
{How... how did you dodge it?!}
"You charge in with your bare body without a proper melee weapon, then it's obvious."
It means I had already read the movement. And the recoil of Dies Irae. I poured rifle rounds into the guy whose output had dropped to the bottom in the middle of the epicenter. The tattered Sanctuary Field turned off after a few shots. The bullets dug into the armor.
At that moment, one unit intervened to save its comrade. A charge to block the line of fire with its own body.
I pierced that chest with my shield. Something dark red flowed down from the edge of the shield.
"Amazing... already one unit..."
Earl Grey sighed.
"It's fortunate the guy rashly brought out Dies Irae."
I replied while changing the magazine.
"In an Advent battle, you should have approached and retreated at high speed. If you couldn't even retreat properly, you shouldn't have rashly attacked."
Didn't they just make their comrade's life a waste by attacking needlessly? Three units left. They will continue to fire while keeping their distance, surrounding me.
As long as you are stuck on the ground, the maneuvering space is narrow, so the angle of evasion is bound to be limited. Once surrounded on a 2D plane, it's hard to get out.
That's right. Vertical and horizontal axes are not enough.
...So I decided to add one more axis. Logos soared into the sky. The three enemy units stiffened at the speed, then chased after me.
Either way, Logos's mobility is superior. It's strange that a piece of junk 4th generation is superior in performance to later generations, but isn't a giant robot story full of things that don't make sense?
I turned off the ascent booster just like that. While hovering in the air with only inertia remaining, I detached the shield—and threw the shield at the guy flying in the lead.
{?!}
The guy flinched. Understandable. Most of the slaughter I've committed started with that shield. The guy's gaze followed his survival instinct toward the shield, not me—and
I slipped out of the guy's field of vision.
Kaaaaaaaang!!!!!
{I won't let you do as you please!}
The guy's blade hurriedly knocked away the shield. And in front of the cleared vision was me.
"You should focus on the opponent, not the weapon."
I twisted the wrist holding the blade. The enemy's joint drive system screamed and bent, and the guy's sword passed into my hand. At zero distance, the muzzle of the assault rifle touched the cockpit.
And I fired just like that.
Ta-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Now three units became two.
I pushed the machine, which had lost its Apostle and was hanging limp, toward Jeoga who was following from the rear. The scrap metal that was once a comrade now became an obstacle and covered Jeoga.
{Argh?!}
I covered the staggering Jeoga in the air from above. And I descended toward the ground while pinning the guy down just like that.
{Let go! Let go!!!}
The guy screamed.
{What is this... I knew you were strong last time, but now it's a different dimension! Weren't you weak at close combat, you bastard?! What, what the hell is your identity!!!}
There was no resolve for revenge anywhere. The fear of death flowed into the Afterglow Field in its raw form. Of course, it's different from last time. Back then, I was just getting used to operating the Advent.
To me right now, you guys are all small fry.
The descent continued. The numbers on the altimeter decreased like crazy. The ground approached right in front of my nose. Jeoga struggled and fired all the grenades from his wrist. I stepped back lightly and put my hand on the snatched blade.
Draw in the horizontal axis.
The grenades were cut in half in mid-air and exploded. Heukjo's dark red beam tore through that heat, but I rotated the axis to the left and let it flow. The following rifle fire from Jeoga was thwarted by drawing a zigzag path with Quick Thrust.
The guy landed, and soon I landed on the ground too.
"If you had survived, you should have played it safe."
{Hiiik... Don't come!}
Jeoga flew up to run away. I grabbed his leg. And slammed him into the earth. The 10-meter Advent was driven into the ground, and dirt rose like a tidal wave. I didn't let go of the hand holding the guy's leg until the end.
{Sa, save— save me! I was wrong! I was wrong!!!}
Jeoga struggled uglily. I looked down at the guy for a moment. When burning down the slums, had the human inside ever calculated the value of the lives of those he killed even once?
"..."
Probably not, right?
I raised my foot.
And crushed the cockpit just like that. Meat paste flowed out from the gaps of the messed-up cockpit. There were no regrets. This wasn't Logos intervening; it was entirely my own hand's operation.
Earl Grey grabbed my shoulder from behind.
Thin fingers trembled on top of the pilot suit.
Was it a hand trying to stop me? Or a hand clinging to rely on me? I didn't look back, so I couldn't know her true intentions, and I had nothing to say to her right now.
Because more blood will stain my hands for her in the future. I can't protect Earl Grey if I worry about such trivial things one by one.
{You... you monster!!! Cheonrang! Cheolgyeon! Jeoga! I'll take revenge for everyone!!!}
Heukjo wailed. The moment I heard that intent, I made up my mind. I had killed enough, and there was no time, so originally, I hadn't planned on killing that guy too. But now that guy mentioned revenge. If I let him live, he will definitely return. Just like Cheonrang did, and just like Jeoga did today.
There's no reason to unnecessarily increase our Saint-nim's death flag.
"...Since you chose this, I'm going to the end."
I drew the blade and ran.
Heukjo's Reverse Afterglow Cannon finished recharging and spat out fire.
Quick Thrust.
The dark red beam pierced only my afterimage. I stomped on the ground hard and leaped, stuck to the guy's side, and then cut off the barrel of the Reverse Afterglow Cannon.
{Hiiik?!}
Only now did fear permeate the guy's intent.
"Haha."
I laughed. This is unexpectedly fun. The sight of guys who treated others' lives lightly, cherishing their own lives.
This time, a laser rifle came out from the guy's waist. I dodged it, and cut it.
The missile container opened. I dodged that too, went behind him, and cut off the right leg along with the container.
Every time I stripped away the guy's weapons, the guy's thinking of finding a way to live intensified.
{Ku, ugh... Now that it's come to this—}
The jamming antenna on Heukjo's back rang at maximum output.
[Warning. Targeting system down]
[Radar down. Maneuver correction down]
[All support systems lost]
The auxiliary lines in my vision all turned off. A pseudo-EMP? It's fascinating that they brought such a precious weapon all the way here. They must be planning to slowly cook the blinded Logos.
"Evan..."
Earl Grey worried about me. No problem. Whether the automatic lock-on I don't even use disappears or not, I don't care, and there's no way I'd get hit by a guy like this just because there's no radar.
Let's measure the opponent's position with my eyes, imagine it, and derive the next move. Just like I always did when playing games. My machine moved without any awkwardness. I actually liked the clean field of vision with the auxiliary lines gone.
{This makes no sense...}
The guy's intent froze.
{To operate an Advent without automatic targeting or auxiliary programs, how—}
I let that astonishment flow by with a joyful heart, and cut off the arm of the guy who was reaching for the rifle on his back, starting from the shoulder.
{Hraaaaaaagh!!!}
It was then. One trap appeared in my field of vision. Kyungdanryeon's support ship. Since they lost the Golgotha, it seems they came running to recover even the strategic asset, the Advent.
{I, I'm saved—}
Heukjo threw away the resolve for revenge and flew toward that side using Afterglow Dash. Cheonrang's revenge, Cheolgyeon's revenge, Jeoga's revenge. All of them evaporated the moment one path to escape was created.
For someone who acted so high and mighty, it's a really cheap connection. Just before the guy's fingertips touched the hull.
[Afterglow Dash]
I overtook the guy with overwhelming thrust.
And I stuck the rifle into the support ship's bridge and fired until the magazine was empty. The heat swallowed the hull. The bridge collapsed, and pillars of fire soared one after another onto the tilted deck.
Heukjo's last hope became a fireball right in front of the guy's eyes and sank into the sea.
{Ah... Aah...}
"What's wrong. Weren't you taking revenge?"
Now there is nowhere to run. I slowly moved my steps toward the guy. The snatched blade glistened.
{I was wrong! Forgive me! I'll do anything! Please—}
The begging poured out beyond the Afterglow Field. I didn't stop my steps. There is no mercy. From the moment I judged that it would hinder my favorite character's survival, that guy's fate was decided.
The blade fell.
And a small fire rose on Timor Island.
The Timor battle, which was said to hold the fate of the Southern Cross, ended in the form of our victory.
6 Advents, 1 Golgotha. Not a bad harvest. I looked forward to what kind of reward I could claim from the Southern Cross based on this, and how high I could raise Earl Grey's status.
And above all, I felt my skills, which I couldn't fully display because I wasn't used to operating the machine, were slowly returning.