Chapter 416
Chapter 416
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 416
Chapter Title: The Second Purgatory (3)
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Gaold, having barged into the Mecha Tribe’s formation like a robber, looked down on them imperiously and asked.
“You’re the rebels, aren’t you? Where’s your headquarters?”
Finding the rebel’s core base was one of his reasons for coming to the mainland. Hearing it from them would save him some trouble.
But contrary to his expectations, the woman’s face, which had been filled with terror just a moment ago, changed drastically upon hearing Gaold’s voice.
She shot to her feet, raised her Arc, and shouted.
“It’s the Logistics Community! Everyone, take up your weapons! We die here today!”
At their squad leader’s command, the members assumed fighting stances.
With their Signas and Exds at the ready, their expressions showed a resolve to face even death.
“Leave this place at once! Or you’ll become food for the Arc.”
The Arc’s laser aimed at the space between Gaold’s brows.
It was a Mecha long-range weapon that fired explosive pellets.
But the woman knew he wasn't an opponent it would work on.
*‘Since I’m putting my life on the line, I might as well try a bluff.’*
“Heh heh. Hehehehe.”
Wrinkles creased Gaold’s face as he laughed, his shoulders shaking as if his lungs were filled with air.
When he lifted his head again, his eyes blazed with a nonexistent flame.
“Stop your annoying chirping.”
The Great Heat Hell enveloped the Mecha Tribe.
Whether it was a misunderstanding or a mistake, it didn't matter. Gaold was not magnanimous enough to look kindly upon those who dared to challenge him.
Trapped in the Great Heat Hell, the Mecha Tribe members all turned pale, drooling as their legs trembled uncontrollably.
When the screams of hungry ghosts filled the air, the sensation was so chilling they wanted to tear out their own eardrums.
It was a terror beyond what a human could endure.
Even the woman, a squad leader who had overcome life-and-death situations many times, could only clatter her teeth and collapse helplessly.
“Huuuh. St-stop. Please…”
Only after the Mecha Tribe had lost their will to fight did Gaold release his technique.
Her face a mess of tears, the woman lifted her head and glared at him resentfully.
“Why are you tormenting us? We’re fighting against Heaven. Aren’t you human, too?”
“I don’t know what nonsense you’re spouting, but I’m not part of your Logistics Community or whatever. Besides, weren’t you the ones who always looked down on Boundary-men, calling them Imitations?”
“Th-that’s…”
Just as the woman was about to retort, trees began to fall in the forest behind the Mecha Tribe.
Everyone’s gaze turned in that direction.
Something massive seemed to be approaching at high speed, but nothing was visible yet.
-Magnetic field disengaged. Argon engine activated.
The forest scenery shimmered, and the boundary of an opaque form began to appear.
What finally revealed itself was a bipedal armored tank, standing nearly four meters tall.
Its upper and lower body proportions were a stable one-to-one ratio, with short, reverse-jointed legs and relatively long, thick arms.
Hydraulic cylinders pumped at different cycles in time with the engine's hum.
-Enemy sighted. Authorizing a preemptive strike.
The tank charged forward, extending a palm with four fingers.
As Gaold stepped back, it leaned its upper body forward as if to fall and slammed its hand into the ground. Earth rose like an iron wall.
The tank, struck by the cascade of dirt, seemed unable to right itself given its shape and weight. However, it continued to push its legs forward, shoveling away roughly two tons of soil until it regained its balance.
In the meantime, Shirone’s party had spread out, each maintaining their own combat distance.
Shirone, too, had activated his Adamant Suit, pulled up his hood, and was observing the situation.
*‘What is that thing?’*
Every time the bipedal tank’s waist rotated as fluidly as oil on water, the cockpit on top scanned the area ahead.
The cockpit was an oval-shaped sphere made of a glass-like material, glowing with a purple sheen as if electricity were flowing through it, making it impossible to see inside.
“A Kuroi. It’s a Mecha Tribe Combat System, Phase 2 equipment.”
At Gangnan’s explanation, Gaold’s eyes narrowed.
“Hoh, it certainly looks better in person.”
When he had only seen the schematics on paper, he had thought it was nothing more than a walking pile of scrap metal.
But seeing it in actual combat, it had excellent mobility and could be operated tactically depending on the pilot’s skill.
In particular, the method of erasing its presence by distorting the magnetic field was a cutting-edge technology not even listed in the most recent documents.
The upper part of the Kuroi swiveled around to face the Mecha Tribe.
“Second squad, is everyone unharmed? What about the Kergoin?”
The voice coming through the speaker was androgynous, but from the way it spoke, it was likely male.
“The Kergoin have been annihilated. But it wasn’t us.”
The Kuroi’s cockpit turned back toward Gaold.
“Who are they?”
The woman chose her words carefully for a moment.
The bearded man had clearly stated he was not from the Logistics Community.
But the illusion he had shown them was a form of intangible violence that couldn't be inflicted without blind enmity.
She felt it would be better to go mad than to enter that hell again.
“They’re enemies who attacked us.”
The Kuroi issued instructions through an internal channel.
-Eradicate them. Switch to attack mode. Increase Argon engine to gear five.
*Clank! Clank! Clank!*
The five advancing Kuroi units simultaneously changed the shape of their hands.
Four fingers folded outward, and from within, massive gun barrels with dark muzzles emerged.
-Open fire!
*KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG!*
As the iron cylinders, each weighing hundreds of kilograms, acted as firing pins and slammed back and forth with incredible force, a deafening roar erupted that felt like it would shatter eardrums.
Heavy projectiles shot out at a rate of three hundred rounds per minute, blasting rocks and splintering trees.
One of the Kuroi turned its body toward Gaold.
A black projectile flew rapidly toward him, stopping about thirty centimeters from his face before its speed drastically decreased, as if it had been buried in something.
*Thud! Thud-thud-thud-thud!*
The projectiles, unable to penetrate the air shield, piled up, creating a dark wall of steel.
“Hmm, iron balls.”
Gaold waited until a bullet lost its spin, then caught one in his hand.
The shock of the Kuroi squad was transmitted through the shaking of their machines.
-C-Commander! He caught a bullet with his bare hands!
-Keep firing! They’re presumed to be Boundary-men! Don’t judge the enemy based on past experiences!
Weighing the bullet in his hand, Gaold flicked his thumb and sent it flying upward.
“So it’s like an air gun. It would probably hurt quite a bit if it hit.”
Gangnan shot him a sidelong glance.
“If you’re going to do something, do it. If not, should I?”
Gaold snatched the falling bullet out of the air.
“Hold on to it. I need to ride one of those myself.”
At his nonchalant remark, Gangnan gritted her teeth, but she had no intention of overturning a decision made by her commander.
“That’s what he says. Can you capture one without damaging it?”
Gangnan asked, turning to Sein, whose Iron Wheel Eye began to spin.
“Calculating. It will take about a minute.”
Gangnan looked worriedly at the battlefield. A minute seemed like more than enough time for all five units to be destroyed.
“Dammit! Who the hell are these guys?”
The pilot of Kuroi Unit 3 was having a miserable time.
The AMOLED vision on the front of his cockpit displayed seven split screens covering a 360-degree view, but the man with the sword was as hard to track as if he were leaping between the screens.
*‘This world is full of strange things.’*
Kuan slashed at various parts of the Kuroi.
With each swing of his sword, the steel plates split open like flesh, and sparks flew.
*‘Thicker than armor. Where’s the person inside?’*
When he accidentally severed an engine artery, Unit 3’s output dropped, and it staggered, losing its balance.
“Grr! You bastard!”
The pilot raised both arms and regained his balance.
The Kuroi, being a Phase 2 Mecha Combat System, required the pilot to have already met the conditions for Phase 1.
Phase 1 was none other than the Piper, and because the Kuroi’s motor functions were connected to the pilot’s own body parts, someone without augmented strength couldn’t even move an arm easily.
After flailing his limbs and finally finding his stability, the pilot searched for Kuan’s position.
But what came into his view was not Kuan, but a cute girl with long brown hair and nerdy glasses.
“Cute, my ass!”
Despite her appearance, she was a martial artist. Every time she struck, the Kuroi’s frame shook, and a deafening boom echoed inside.
“Alright! I’ll crush you to the bone!”
The pilot gritted his teeth and swung his fist.
The Kuroi’s waist accelerated, and the thick gun barrel whipped toward Etella.
*WHOOOOOSH!*
The pilot realized his waist wouldn’t turn any further and turned pale.
Checking the multivision belatedly, he saw the woman had blocked the Kuroi’s barrel with her elbow raised to her face.
“H-how? Just one arm has 17 horsepower.”
“Huuuuu.”
Taking a deep breath to calm her arm muscles, Etella moved around to the Kuroi’s side.
Yin-Yang Wave Fist—Thunderclap Palm.
She struck the Kuroi’s leg with a palm technique. The vibrations traveled through the metal, and the resulting boom struck the pilot’s eardrums.
“Aaaargh!”
He instinctively covered his ears, and the Kuroi’s two arms mimicked the motion, causing it to fall forward.
-Damn it! Somebody do something about that big-chested woman! She’s not human! She’s a monster!
-I’m dealing with something first! He’s only targeting the engine arteries! Take care of the swordsman first!
“Seriously, who am I supposed to take out first?!”
Kanya yelled in frustration, swiveling the Kuroi’s waist to look left and right.
Both sides were in chaos.
*BANG! BANG! BANG!*
The impacts shaking the machine forced one of Kanya’s eyes shut.
With her remaining eye, she checked the vision display and saw a tentacled monster swinging through the forest, its tentacles embedded in the trees.
“That damn monster!”
*KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG!*
The Kuroi’s projectiles shattered all the trees in the area where the tentacled monster was moving.
Even so, the monster continued to fight, relentlessly firing beams of light.
*Thwump! Thwump!*
Each time a beam hit, the multi-ton Kuroi shuddered, and the shock was transmitted directly to Kanya through the Piper connection.
“This thing is so annoying!”
She was wasting an absurd amount of ammunition just to catch one monster.
With the Logistics Community’s interference causing the rebels’ weapon stockpiles to dwindle by the day, pilots were selected only from those who could execute the most efficient strikes. That was why she, a master marksman with the Arc, was able to pilot a Kuroi.
“Why is a monster like that…!”
What irritated her most was that the monster’s abilities resembled the magic of someone she missed dearly.
The incident where Shirone had stopped the Art of One Flower hadn't ended with just saving Kanya’s mother.
The hope he had left behind had since grown into a massive storm, becoming the core tenet of the rebellion’s First Principle.
The very idea of being reminded of such precious memories by that hideous monster was viscerally unpleasant.
“I don’t care how much ammo it takes, I will take you down!”
With all the surrounding trees destroyed, Shirone’s range of movement had become extremely limited.
Realizing he had no chance in a prolonged battle, Shirone threw back his robe and began to cast magic in earnest.
Light gathered along the Spirit Zone like a retina, converging into a single crimson beam that shot toward the Kuroi’s leg.
Destroying the torso would be the surest way, but to land a hit during combat, the leg’s drive joint was a more suitable target.
-Warning! Internal heat detected! Activating cooling system! Output has exceeded acceptable limits!
“What? What’s this now?”
Kanya’s eyes widened as she checked the instrument panel.
On the interface showing a frontal view of the Kuroi, the left leg was flashing red.
-Energy overload! Energy overload!
The output reading on the panel climbed endlessly.
240 percent, 370 percent, and finally, when it reached 600 percent, the drive joint at the knee shattered with a grinding roar.
“Kyaaah!”
The Kuroi’s body tilted, and the cockpit slammed into the ground.
The impact rattled her bones like a fall from a building, but Kanya held onto the controls until the very end.
“Die, monster… Huh?”
The noise-filled AMOLED vision cleared up, and the target in her sights automatically came into focus.
“Wh-what?”
Kanya couldn’t believe her eyes.
The face of a boy who had appeared even in her dreams was magnified on the screen.