Chapter 69

Kwaaang-!

First collision. The glass ground flipped in chunks, leaving a massive scar.

Yet with no time to care, the colossus caught in Glaepnir's hand struggled desperately to break free.

- Ah! Aaaack!

Screams. The eyes of the Belkuth knights, who moments earlier had been defiling an Ancient relic, were now dyed with terror.

- We have to take that thing down at any cost!

- Charge! Chaaarge!

No-more precisely, the terror did not come from Glaepnir itself.

What they feared was Yaan.

It was terror born from the penal-corps knight who, right before the Belkuth knights' eyes, had declared himself Yanika's son.

Eujijik!

Even while dodging the incoming assault gun, Glaepnir's hand never stopped.

In an instant Glaepnir tore open the cockpit hatch and reached inside toward the pilot.

"Why, why!"

Crunch!

The sound of the entire cockpit being crushed.

The antique knight's uniform and medals crumpled in an instant, and the knight's body was grabbed and burst like an insect.

The final fate of a knight who marched into battle might never be peaceful, but no one had imagined it like this.

"Berkel! Ah...! No!"

"Crushed alive...!"

Smoke belched from between Glaepnir's armor plates; from its clenched fist dripped thick blood and the knight's entrails as the black beast turned its head to find its next prey.

"H-heek!?"

The knights who had been about to charge froze the moment they saw Glaepnir.

Clank! Clank!

Soon the empty metallic clatter of assault guns and machine guns.

Glaepnir did not even think of defending, took every impact whole, and yet walked toward them without a scratch.

Kwoong-!

With a heavy metallic sound the pilotless colossus collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Three to go."

Yaan, having muttered that, immediately hurled himself at the remaining knights.

- All units withdraw! This is outright fratricide! Yaan Verkut, you've killed knights of the main house...!

- Bullshit. Who says I was sent?

At Yaan's single word from right beside the knight who had hurriedly given the order, the soul of the knight gripping the control stick shuddered.

"Wh-when did he...?"

As if the speed shown earlier had been a joke, Glaepnir closed in at an unbelievable speed, power gathering in the sword gripped in its hand.

- N-not me! I had nothing to do with it! I...!

Crack!

Before the knight could finish, Glaepnir's blade swept sideways and bisected the colossus that had just been speaking.

Crunch!

The sword, unable to withstand the impact, snapped on the spot. But the knights watching felt chills run down their spines.

Split in half? The colossus, frame and all?

The knights stared in disbelief at the scene before their eyes, but they forced themselves to focus with all their might.

- Check remaining rounds!

At the knight's word, the Page colossus quickly swapped the magazine on its back and reloaded the machine guns in both hands.

- We can't take this lying down! Even one of us must fall back and report this to the main house...!

Kaang-!

As the Belkuth knight's colossus blocked the broken sword flying toward it and steeled itself again, Glaepnir immediately launched another charge.

- You think I'll fall for that a third time!

Another knight, having instantly read the path, sprayed machine-gun fire to block Glaepnir's advance.

- Damn it, without the Commander's guidance...!

Knight Bidel, in charge of the Kerdan front. One of the knights who had assisted Hiram since the days when the Count of Belkuth had been a nameless minor noble, he had been the linchpin who unraveled battle through flawless formation and coordination.

Yet right after the battle ended, he had been killed in an instant; from that point on they had no chance.

To Bidel's disciples, accustomed to fighting only by orders and commands, the sudden melee that had begun was far too cruel.

- Why are you trembling like that?

When the two Frames had opened some distance from Glaepnir, the one who spoke to them was Yaan aboard Glaepnir.

- There's only one knight bastard of noble blood here. No unit to threaten you, no pressure from the Church. Isn't this the perfect place to kill me?

At Yaan's question the Belkuth knights fell silent as one.

'Th-this man...!'

'Did he know from the start? Why?'

Recalling Bidel's hand signal moments ago, Yaan let out a snort of self-mockery.

Bidel had abandoned the assassination attempt, but that didn't mean Yaan intended to let him live.

"The only flaw is that you died without knowing who I was."

After that murmur Yaan set his stance toward them.

The moment they saw it, the Belkuth knights stepped back.

Now there was neither chance nor will to fight left.

All that remained was the ashen colossus before their eyes and the endless terror of Yaan inside it.

- W-we are Belkuth! The Empire's greatest knight house! Do you know what killing us will do to the Empire!?

- If you are an Imperial subject, set aside your old grudge...!

Driven to the peak of fear, the Belkuth knights began spouting incoherent sophistry. They would say anything to escape this situation.

- The Empire's greatest knight house? Harm to the Empire? Not my concern.

Each step they retreated, Glaepnir took one forward.

Like a beast gauging the distance to its prey, the black monster slowly approached-and with every repetition Yaan's words bored into their minds.

- Win or lose this war, whether the Emperor dies or the Empire falls, I don't care. My purpose is to wipe every last one of your bloodline from the earth.

- Th-that's...!

- Treason! An act against His Imperial Majesty's will!

Shocked by words no Imperial knight should speak, the knights retorted, but Yaan's voice from the cockpit remained perfectly calm.

- I know. So what?

And with those words, Glaepnir's giant frame leapt once more.

Twuaang-!

This time in a straight line. The upper body of the colossus that took Glaepnir's full airborne descent was crushed flat.

"Guek!?"

As the steel-and-bone upper body crumpled and the mana core was ground apart, the pilot's body could hardly remain intact.

The knight, lower half wedged into the crushed cockpit, could not even scream as he vomited his own guts from his mouth.

"One left."

Without even checking the mangled knight visible through the torn armor seam, Yaan turned his gaze to the last remaining colossus and walked toward it.

- I-I was wrong...! Sp-spare my life...!

Alone, with no one left.

The last knight, having watched the deaths of his master and comrades, his face twisted beyond recognition by fear.

Crack!

Yet from Glaepnir, whose arms now gripped the colossus's chest, Yaan's voice held not a grain of pity.

- When my mother was murdered by you, did she beg like that?

Whether it was a question or a lament, even Yaan who had spoken did not know.

Crunch! With that sound the knight's body, cockpit and all, was torn away and no longer retained its shape.

"Gueh!?"

Before he could feel the joy of revenge fulfilled, tension snapped and agony surged in-Yaan staggered, choking.

"Damn it... crazy...!"

[Thirty minutes since synchronization lock release. Pilot status check confirms nanomachine overdrive.]

Though he saw his blood vessels writhing and muscles swelling at will, the smile never left Yaan's face.

"Now... it begins..."

Repeating that, vacant-eyed, Yaan murmured-and before him appeared Ren's face.

Yaan's face reflected in the snow-white girl's eyes.

Seeing his own form twisting into a gruesome smile, Yaan merely laughed aloud as if it were absurd.

"Ha, hahaha!"

Crunch! Crunch!

While that happened, Ren, watching Yaan lose even more control, immediately embraced the laughing Yaan.

"No more. Stop."

Yaan, who showed only a faint smile while losing focus. Ren, hugging him, pressed his face deeper into her chest as if to restrain his body.

"...Ren."

"I'm here. Don't be swallowed by emotion."

His trembling body gradually regained stability.

The biological terminal made by humans. Artificial body heat enveloped him, soothing his spirit filled with the fever of revenge and regret.

[Nanomachine overload. Vital signs unstable. Switching to life support mode.]

Glaepnir, lowering its body on the spot, firmly closed the armor plates spread across its entire frame.

[Nanomachines forcibly halted. Administering neural stabilizer.]

Nill, having assessed his physical state, reclined the cockpit and began injecting drugs through the connector attached to the back of Yaan's neck.

"Aah..."

As anesthesia clouded his consciousness, Ren's face reflected in his eyes was the last thing he saw before his eyelids slowly closed.

"...."

Inside Glaepnir, wrapped in silence, the pilot Yaan had lost consciousness.

Soon an unfamiliar symbol appeared in one corner of the screen and began flashing red.

"Incoming from the international rescue channel. Content..."

Having gazed at Yaan's unconscious face for a long while, Ren finally turned her eyes to that corner of the screen.

The moment she read the name and content written there, Ren's expression, which had shown no change until now, began to crack with the thinnest fissure.

It was such a subtle shift that no one except Ren-and certainly not the unconscious Yaan-could have noticed.

***

"What in the world..."

It was two days later that the returning dig team and the wandering dwarf tribes formed a second expedition to rescue the knights.

When the expedition arrived at the site of the first battle, Prince Klaus, leading them personally, could not close his mouth at the sight before them.

"Th-That's it! The Frame that burst out of the defense program...!"

"Completely destroyed. Along with the Belkuth knights."

Before Prince Klaus, who had spoken thus, lay the wreckage of the battered Belkuth knights, a broken Pit Bull Terrier, and Glaepnir sitting amid them, gathering itself.

"Y-your Highness."

"What is it?"

An elder dwarf who had been examining the Belkuth knights' colossus called Prince Klaus over with a furrowed brow.

"Those traces weren't from fighting the defense program. No matter how I look at it, that ashen colossus..."

The dwarf who had spoken turned to the prince and then fell silent on the spot.

"Surely knights of the Empire fighting among themselves-must be a mistake, dwarf gentleman."

Prince Klaus spoke thus, smiling at him.

Realizing that every Greyhound in the company was now staring at him, the dwarf could only swallow dryly.

"...Ha, so that's how it is. That's what happened."

Yet even as his body trembled with fear, he felt no hesitation in voicing his thoughts.

This was the pride of a dwarf. The self-respect of one who stood closest to the Ancient legacy.

"I thought the damn pointy-eared Alfraian whelps had gone mad, but humans are worse. Waging war against each other even while the war of races is still on?"

Speaking thus to an Imperial prince was tantamount to a provocation.

Whenever he met the Greyhounds' eyes, their murderous glint made his knees tremble, yet he could not withhold the truth.

"I quite agree. If not for the infighting among the nobility, this absurd war could be ended within a year."

At those words, the cold killing intent swirling through the air vanished as if it had never been.

"Whew."

"Ten years' penalty accepted, elder."

The dwarves, reaching for their weapons from packs on their hogs, sighed as they spoke.

"Which is why I find myself even more troubled."

"Troubled by what?"

At the elder dwarf's question, Klaus looked up at the sky and smiled.

"His Imperial Majesty, possessed of wisdom beyond imagining-why does he persist in this wretched war like some mad war fanatic?"

In the prince's laughter as he spoke, deep fury lay buried.