The others turned as Luca leaned closer to the screen, whispering under his breath. "Shiny carapace… thick legs… strong talons… those claws, so sharp… and that corruption—oh, it's so black—it must have a terrifyingly high CP yield."

The room went silent.

To everyone else, it was a terrifying display of the world's monsters attacking Outpost Four. But to Luca?

It suddenly looked like salvation, like answered prayers.

Ollie's ears twitched every time his brother whispered something new. Even his hair antenna swayed as if it were changing camps. "Oh, that one's got a reinforced hide… we could make armor out of that… and that one's blood vessels are glowing, must have high conductivity…"

Luca was practically sparkling now, like he had discovered a new treasure trove instead of a battlefield.

Ollie's jaw dropped. In his mind, he thought that sounded really nice. And really, his good brother didn't seem to be kidding when he said that one had a shiny carapace.

Oh, so shiny.

A shiny carapace.

But outside—or rather, beside the two dreamers—the others stared, horrified.

But Luca just smiled faintly, eyes gleaming like someone who had finally found something precious. "It's been so long," he murmured softly. And it had really been so long since he'd gone on to the field to the point that he had momentarily forgotten about what corruption looked like. But then seeing it like this all of a sudden? It was as if he had remembered why the contaminated zones sang to him!

The others didn't know whether to cry, laugh, or scream, while one blonde stood there as his mind did mental gymnastics.

Then, before anyone could stop him, Luca reached into the dungeon inventory and pulled out a huge box, setting it on the ground in front of his bigger brother's feet.

"Brother," he said brightly, "these are additional rations I've prepared for you. I remember you said you bought new space buttons, right?"

Ollie blinked at him, speechless, then gasped as realization hit. "Brother…"

Then it was as if everything clicked in the corruptible mind of one gremlin.

A moment later, he gaped—and then he screamed. "D-64!!!"

He bolted out, shouting as he ran. "D-64! Take out all the crayons, twigs, and rocks from your inventory! We're going shopping today!"

"???"

The entire room stared after him, confused.

But from the side, Xavier, who had been quietly calling Luca's name, finally got his attention.

Luca turned, his expression instantly softening.

And when he smiled at his husband, it was the kind of smile that could make a man forget that the world was on the brink of disaster.

A beautiful, radiant smile—something that definitely didn't match the screams of the soldiers in Sector One.

__

And speaking of the soldiers of Sector One, Captain Nico Kane had finally managed to wrangle different teams from nearby zones to help defend Zone Four.

He should've felt relief. He should've been proud.

But all he could think about was running straight into the ocean to look for his loved ones.

His sister. His fiancée. Both of them were still out there.

It was maddening. Every second that passed felt like a weight pressing harder against his chest.

The plan had been simple at first—arrive, secure the coast, and push toward the sea. But that plan didn't survive contact with reality.

The sudden land assault changed everything.

Now, instead of heading for the water, they were desperately holding the line just to keep the base from falling apart.

He felt he was going to go crazy, but without reinforcements, what hope would he really have of successfully rescuing his sister and fiancée?

However, for the group that traveled a shorter distance, how could they have prepared for the true magnitude of the ground siege?

The devastation was impossible to miss.

Outpost Four had always been one of the "quiet" stations—despite being unexplored, it had been too stable to draw trouble, and maybe a bit too peaceful for its own good. It was the kind of post soldiers half-jokingly called a "retirement spot."

But now?

It was unrecognizable.

Buildings that once stood tall were flattened, their walls trampled into the dirt. Scorch marks painted the ground where mecha units had fought and fallen. Crushed armor and sparking limbs were scattered across the broken earth like shattered toys.

For many of the arriving soldiers, it wasn't the first battlefield they'd seen. But the sight still hit differently.

Zone Four was never supposed to look like this.

It was supposed to be the calm one—the easy one. The place where overworked soldiers and dual-career specialists could breathe between rotations. Mechanics, scientists, pilots with research degrees… like Lieutenant Sera Rivers.

Now, there wasn't even a proper landing pad left.

"Captain!"

A comms officer called out, his voice tight. "We're still picking up faint signals from the control post!"

Nico's heart leapt. "Survivors?"

"Yes, sir!"

Static filled the channel for a moment, then a voice crackled through, barely audible. "—Captain Kane?—Is that really you?"

Nico's voice broke into a grin he didn't feel. "You bet it is! Hold tight, we've got you!"

Relief rippled through the room like a breath everyone had been holding too long. Even the soldiers nearby exhaled as if that single line had pulled them back from despair.

Their arrival was a godsend. The remaining mecha pilots, battered and nearly out of power, were able to switch out with fresh reinforcements so they could at least get the most crucial repairs.

"Alright," Nico ordered, "rotations in pairs. Change those power cores and have the mechanics repair what they can."

For a brief moment, it looked like the tide—at least on land—was turning.

Until it screamed.

The noise tore through the air, sharp and high, making everyone flinch.

"What the hell was that?!" someone shouted.

Outside the walls, the monsters suddenly went wild. The previously disorganized attacks turned frenzied.

"They're moving faster!" another pilot yelled. "We can't hold the line!"

"Shields at forty percent! Requesting immediate reinforcement!"

More and more reports came in. The monsters were slamming against the mechas harder than before, tearing through armor with claws that sparked on impact.

Then—

"Sir!" a soldier cried, panic lacing his voice. "The water—! The water's receding!"

"What?!" Nico whipped his head toward the monitor.

Sure enough, the ocean was pulling back, further and further, exposing long stretches of the sea floor they had been wary of even exploring. But why did the floor look like that?

However, before Nico could ponder on the odd-looking ground, another scream—louder this time, enough to rattle the comm lines.

Nico didn't hesitate. He fired a shot straight through the head of one of the lunging creatures before shouting, "Shit! Everyone, back up!" If his guess was right, they were fucked.

He didn't even have to explain.

Every soldier, every pilot, ran.

The ground trembled. The sound of crashing waves built like a living drumbeat, growing louder—closer—until it roared like the heavens splitting apart.

The sea was coming back.

Except this time, it wasn't a wave. It was a wall.

A tsunami.

"Move! Move!" Nico shouted, pulling his team's mechas back toward the satellite base. "Fall back! Get as high as you can!"

The horizon blurred into a white crest of fury.

The monsters were screaming too, some fleeing, others throwing themselves forward in desperation. Mechas were hit by debris and knocked off balance, one by one.

"Help! We're pinned!"

"Left flank's down! Someone's trapped under a wreck!"

Nico turned his mecha, firing his thrusters and grabbing onto a fallen unit, dragging it backward as sparks flew from those damaged limbs.

It wasn't enough.

The water was almost there.

The roar was deafening. Soldiers were bracing for the end, running or flying as fast as they could as the world went white with light and sound—

And then—nothing.

No crash. No impact.

Only the wind, heavy and trembling.

Nico blinked. His screen flickered.

The wave stopped.

"What…?"

Then he saw it.

At the shoreline, standing between them and the wall of water, was a single mecha.

White and gold, gleaming even in the chaos.

It stood motionless, one arm extended forward as the sea itself bent toward it—toward a tear in space—drawn in, like the ocean was being swallowed whole.

The massive wave twisted, pulling inward, the water spiraling continuously as if the very space was drinking it dry.

Soldiers froze, unable to breathe.

"...What in the stars," someone whispered, voice shaking, "is that thing?"

"!!!"