A Prayer to the Angel

Marcus blinked, briefly. He'd only dozed off in the cockpit in the early dawn hours, yet he felt no fatigue at all. The thrill of his first-ever Abyss operation had his entire body coiled tight. "……" But that excitement didn't last long. Dawn had passed, then morning, then noon, and he'd spent the whole time checking his watch over and over. Because even well past midday, the little brat showed no sign of waking up. When is she going to start?

KOOM, KOOGUGUNG— KWAAAAANG! Even now, massive tremors and intermittent explosions rumbled from somewhere in the distance. A battle had clearly broken out somewhere far away. No doubt the Kingdom's expedition force had charged into the dungeon. It's already getting pretty late, though…? Still, it was a relief — because around two in the afternoon, he finally watched her yawn and crawl out of her Titan. So it's finally beginning. He tensed up all over again.

She stared into her mana panel, apparently working out some kind of strategy. It was terrifying to watch — the sheer focus. What on earth demanded that kind of concentration? She'd been glued to the screen for thirty minutes straight. "So when do we head out, then?" Curiosity got the better of him in the end. Whoever entered the dungeon — Kingdom army, Holy Theocracy, or any other treasure hunter — would be reduced to scrap metal if they dawdled. "Uh, probably… around eight or so?" "Excuse me?" But the answer came back without her eyes ever leaving the panel. And its content was utterly absurd. "Since… the moon hasn't risen yet…." …?

I have no idea what the moon has to do with anything. There was a more pressing problem anyway. It was already afternoon. If "eight hours" remained, that left only the evening. What are you talking about? If you start at eight, you've got one hour! Without a single exception, come nine o'clock sharp, you drop dead asleep and vanish into dreamland! Is she serious? She's going to loot the entire place in one hour? Honestly, he wondered whether there'd even be a single relic left intact by then. …!

Finally, the operation briefing. He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠swallowed dryly. Right — she was an Abyss Exploration Knight, in name at least. Surely she had some kind of plan. He hurried to press the accept button, but then— "Want to… play together if you're bored?" The download had completed before he knew it. What appeared on the screen was neither the operation details nor a map of the dungeon. What's this? It was nothing but an adorable second-rate chibi character waddling back and forth with little cries of effort. Occasionally bashing in the heads of the monsters it encountered with the staff in its hand.

So this was what she did when she was bored. There was nothing to actually pilot. It was an auto-hunt game — all you had to do was press a single button. "……" Marcus stared blankly at the screen. After blinking silently for a long while, he found himself — without quite realizing it — hammering the little witch's button over and over.

The interior of the dungeon resembled a temple dedicated to a machine god. It could equally have been a pyramid built by some alien civilization. Every passage formed a labyrinth lined with metallic statues of grotesque beasts. Examining each one individually would have taken even the Titans endless footsteps, so Karinne had no choice but to disperse her forces and explore in squads. "The sentinels in the western corridor have all been eliminated!" "The eastern gallery has just been breached as well, but there were no relics." ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ "Damage so far stands at one Titan heavily damaged, two lightly damaged." As the reports came in, Karinne's expression hardened. They'd suffered losses without a single accomplishment to show for it. "No captured spoils?" "None reported."

Physically stripping parts from the sentinels was impossible. The Abyss's metallic creatures had no real concept of "parts" to begin with. Some carried a mana-coalesced core, but the dungeon sentinels didn't even have that — just heaps of scrap good only for research or display. "You haven't found a single relic either?" "No, not yet…." "But we did discover numerous blocked passages throughout. It appears some kind of mechanism is required to open them." The original plan had been to claim as many relics as possible before clashing with the Holy Theocracy. Instead, the order that had entered the dungeon had come away with nothing. Night already.

Even in the Abyss, the celestial bodies were visible. She looked up to find moonlight pouring down through a fissure in the ceiling. But even within that eerily beautiful scenery, Karinne's mind churned with nothing but unease. Yet — where is the Holy Theocracy's movement? Half a day had passed since they entered the temple. And still the Theocracy hadn't made a move. Could they truly be this slow? Or had they abandoned the dungeon entirely? From the Kingdom's standpoint, that was the best possible scenario — but it didn't add up. Objectively speaking, their forces were stronger than the Kingdom's. There was no reason for them to withdraw first. Clunk—

The sudden sound rang out at the very moment she was lost in that unease. A grinding friction, like a key locking into place. That sound—? Some kind of mechanism had activated. Perhaps someone had turned the key to a vault of relics. If so, they'd finally made progress — but… In the next instant, everyone present instinctively knew something had gone terribly wrong. "What are these metal sounds…?" "Where are they coming from?" Clunk, clunk, clunk—! Not from one direction — from across the entire temple, similar metallic noises erupted simultaneously. Crunch-crack, CRACK—! Only when the grinding turned into the sound of things breaking apart did anyone understand. It was the noise of the sentinels decorating the walls and pillars all writhing at once. The metals they'd assumed were statues were, bathed in the pouring moonlight, beginning to open their eyes together.

"Oh ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no…." "It's a trap!" "All units, defensive formation!" And it wasn't just the sentinels that had woken. With a rumble, mist began creeping up from the river's edge as well. Tch—!HAAAAAH—! The fog crashed in like a wave and swallowed their vision whole. Visibility: barely five meters. By a Titan's stride, they couldn't even see what was directly in front of them! Faintly flickering red eyes began blinking into existence all around the squad in the mist. KAANG—! KWAGAGANG! "There's no way to gauge enemy numbers!" "Call for reinforce—!" "GYAAAGH!" Chaos swallowed everything in moments. The battlefield was smothered in fog, and no one could tell where the enemy attacks were coming from. Mistaken friendly fire soon began to break out as well.

"Can anyone hear me?!" "Anyone at all — answer me!" Karinne's calls to her troops were useless. The panel screen showed nothing but crackling static.

This is the most terrifying thing about the Abyss. The high-density mana severed all long-range communication between Titans. And the knights had scattered to search for relics — meaning the entire Kingdom order was now isolated, each one stranded wherever they stood. "Ughh…." A groan drifted from nearby. Karinne turned her head — and her face froze. There stood the adjutant's Titan, a steel spike lodged in its shoulder armor. "Adjutant! Are you all right?!" Even as she propped him up, she was assessing the situation. One careless mistake and they'd all die here. To escape this crisis, she had to gather the order in one place first! With sight and comms both cut off, there was only one way left to rally her allies.

"HAAAAT—!" Karinne suddenly let out a battle cry. In the same breath, a brilliant radiance burst from her Titan's blade — the mana light of a Royal Guard Captain unleashing her full power. "Everyone, gather to me!" She roared with all her strength. Her mana-laden voice thundered through the temple. The Captain's voice! Beyond the wall of fog, the eyes of the knights struggling on every side lit up at once. There!Break through—! Those who had lost their bearings, if only for a moment, began advancing again, taking the light and sound as their banner.

The Kingdom wasn't the only one in peril. The vanguard order of the Holy Theocracy had fallen into the very same trap. A divine oracle had clearly instructed them to wait until the full moon rose — but in their eagerness to strike the Kingdom forces from behind, they had pushed in far too deep. This is bad. Nothing but noise filled the cockpit. The leader of Shadow stared at the panel where mana communication had died. Because stealth was their greatest specialty, irony had it, they'd been flung into the jaws of death first of all. Everything's dead. There was no way to know what was happening outside. Had the main force sent reinforcements? Were they observing from a distance? Or had they tumbled into the same swamp? If he hadn't chanced upon a hollow between collapsed rubble, he and his men would never have made it this far alive.

No further combat is possible. He turned his head to find his crouching subordinates' Titans sprawled across the ground in ruins. Half-destroyed, or combat-incapacitated. Absurdly, half the damage bore marks not of enemy strikes but of blades from their own allies. The carnage of a panic-stricken squad turning on each other in the fog. "……" The Shadow leader's brow twitched. One Titan in particular had gone entirely still. "Siren." He called his subordinate's name in a voice scraped raw — but no answer came. That silence was deeply unsettling. Had she fainted inside? Or was she already dead? In this thick fog there was no way to even confirm whether she lived. And even if he somehow opened her cockpit, a pilot who couldn't withstand the high-density mana would die instantly. "Uuuh…."

Just then, a metallic rasp leaked from the Titan's speaker. So she was still alive, at least. He was just starting to feel relieved when— "I never… really believed… in the angel, you know…." Siren began babbling nonsense, punctuated by a laughter so hollow it sounded wrung out of her. "Heh… right now, though… I really… want to believe…." His brow furrowed on its own. Cracking jokes, in this situation. "Don't talk nonsense." …… "That's an order." A heavy silence settled again. He didn't check whether his men were alive any further. Siren's voice sounded too strained even to form a reply. "……"

In the deep darkness, the stillness summoned old thoughts. A sense of familiarity that had haunted him since the moment he resolved to retire. An accident striking precisely at this point — perhaps it was no coincidence at all. The sin of mocking the angel's mercy and stepping onto the battlefield anyway. How foolish I was. He had no intention of making excuses. If the angel meant to take back the lives he'd entrusted to her, he would accept it gladly — but… Looking again at his fallen men, he changed his mind. He alone had sinned. His subordinates were blameless. "Wait here." Then he would fulfill his duty as their leader. With that resolve, he set off once more. Over the rubble, into the thick fog. "I will find the exit and return."

The truth was, he had no idea where the exit was. He couldn't even guess the direction he'd come from. All he could do was surrender everything to fate and walk in one direction. Then, beyond the fog, a red light flickered. The burning gaze of a machine hell-demon, come to punish him. "Come at me." SHING! A cold blue blade tore through the fog and sprang out. The thing was a mantis-shaped armored beast, larger than any Titan. "KHAAAAP!" KAAANG! The instant he parried the enormous scythe, a monstrous impact slammed through his whole body. He had blocked the blow, yet his Titan was hammered straight back into the wall.

Armor crumpled, and the pain of grinding bones flooded in. …! But he was forced to snap back to his senses at once. The rhino-like beast came barreling through the fog without warning. I have to dodge! A Titan of dozens of tons performed an acrobatic feat. Reflexively, he kicked off the wall behind him and vaulted clean over the sentinel's head. KWAZIZIK— — and in the next instant, he saw the wall beneath his feet crushed to powder. A movement only the Shadows, whose bodies were trained to the absolute limit, could achieve. Even the Captain of the Order of Light would have clicked her tongue at the sight. Damn it….

But the crisis wasn't over yet. The recoil of his landing delayed his reaction for a heartbeat. Another sentinel burst out of the fog. Hurling itself at him, like a zombie lunging with its own body. Danger!KOOM, KOOM, KOOM! The leader's Titan tangled with the humanoid monster and began rolling across the temple floor. Worse than the impacts against the ground was the fact that the thing had him pinned. He couldn't move his arms or legs properly. And while he was held down, the other sentinels might carve him to pieces. "GRAAAAAGH!" With all his strength, he ripped the thing's head off. Incredibly, the creature seemed not to die even with its head torn away, Durahan-style. BZZT, SPARK-SPARK—! It crackled with sparks and scraped glowing across the floor.

"Hoo…!" He kicked the creature's head away and hauled himself upright, barely. Even now, the procession of demons showed no end. Footsteps drew closer beyond the wavering fog. Even from their silhouettes, he could tell — this time it was two mantises he had to fight. "Hoo, hoo…." Twin cold-blue foreblades aimed at his throat. He felt like a man pressing his nape against two scythes of the death god. "Damn it…." His breathing had hit its limit long ago. The machine was already broken, and the melee had left it refusing to respond at all. How was he supposed to break through two of them in this state? He was catching his breath, weighing his options, when— …! The Shadow leader's eyes went wide. KOOM! KOOGUGUNG! — the two mantises bearing down on him suddenly crumpled to the ground. Not friendly support. Behind the fallen sentinels stood Titans with swords drawn. He identified them by the lion crest etched into their frames. Kingdom knights, then.

By rights, enemies whose blades he should be crossing. But right now, it didn't matter either way. A severed arm on one, a leg with its power barely holding on, the Kingdom's crest shredded to ribbons with scratches. One look at their sorry state told him they were in exactly the same straits as he was. And they didn't seem particularly intent on killing him, either. "Please — if you know the way, tell us." "Is there an exit at the end of this passage?!" One of the Kingdom's Titans shouted in a desperate voice. A hollow snort escaped him. Asking that, while staring right at the cross emblem on his Titan. They must be every bit as desperate as he was. "Obviously not." Still, he gave a proper answer. And with that, both sides' hopes crumbled together. If two people who'd walked from opposite directions met and asked each other for the exit, it meant neither path led anywhere, didn't it? If he wanted to live even a little longer, he'd have to hurry and find some third way — but God, it seemed, wouldn't permit even that.

"Huh…?" "The floor…." The Kingdom's knights muttered in confusion. Rrrrrrr—! A sudden vibration, and with it a feeling of sinking. The Shadow leader, with his razor-sharp senses, noticed it first. The entire ground they stood upon was descending as one. "Where… where are we being taken?" Rrrr— rrrrrr— With a colossal grinding, the floor sank underground — deeper, and deeper still. As the elevator descended, a sight hidden in the abyss gradually came into view. "What in the…."

Below waited a hundred-odd armored monsters, jaws agape. In an open arena like a colosseum, they crouched like hatchlings waiting for their prey to drop. "That's… they're all war beasts?" Even the faintest will to fight evaporated. The enemy numbered roughly a hundred. The Titans atop the elevator: five in total. Counting the ragtag wounded mixed in, combat wasn't even possible, let alone victory. We've descended into hell itself. The leader quietly lowered his weapon. The moment the elevator touched the ground, everyone here would become food for those steel jaws. Heavenly punishment has come. Death, certain within seconds. And yet, strangely, there was no trembling. Perhaps because he had already faced death once before.

"For my sins…." He closed his eyes and took his sword hilt in both hands. Not to fight the demons — but to offer an audacious prayer. "…forgive me." You may take my life. I ask for nothing else. But the subordinates I leave behind — would you grant them the mercy of returning home alive? Yet the situation only plunged deeper toward despair. Thud, thud — a pounding was drawing closer from somewhere overhead as well. "S-something's coming from above too!" "Our retreat is cut off…!"

The eyes of the Kingdom knights, who had been searching desperately for any gap to flee, filled with despair. But the Shadow leader simply closed his eyes and listened. "……?" Thud, thud, thud. A strange sense of déjà vu. His senses could feel it — what sounded like a single set of footsteps was, in truth, the perfectly synchronized steps of many beings at once. This sound.KOOM, KOOM, KOOM, KOOM—! The tempo was a little faster than before, but the essence was identical. A sound he had definitely heard somewhere before. No way.

KUUUUNG! — a dozen or so metallic colossi landed simultaneously at the very center of the colosseum. Even the motion of their jump-jets cushioning the landing was perfectly identical, like a drill routine. …! An involuntary shudder ran through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠him. Even from a distance, he could make them out. Titans of every imaginable form, like chimeras assembled from machines. The moment he glimpsed those grotesque silhouettes, like the dungeon sentinels, the leader's body — which had stayed calm even in the face of death — trembled with dread. You…. At the heart of the chimera Titans writhed an even more grotesque one, its tail swaying. That metallic tail, like a living serpent — he could never, ever forget it. Forgive the traitor once more, will You? Meanwhile, the Kingdom knights still hadn't grasped the situation. Only two people here possessed skill enough to pierce even a little of the dense fog. It's him — the one from the trial!The angel!