Chapter 148 - SHOTA

“Fei, come in. Fei, do you copy?” 

I shouted again and again into the comms, my voice straining with desperation as if sheer willpower could summon a response, or perhaps a miracle.

Fei’s Frame Unit lay in ruins, its once-mighty form now nothing more than shattered armor and sparking wires. The machine twitched occasionally, spitting bursts of electricity into the air, but there was no sign of movement from within.

“Fei! Fei!” Myrrh’s synthetic voice called out, echoing my panic. Yet the silence that followed was heavier than any battlefield noise.

Then the ground quaked. From the massive crater she had clawed open, the giant mannequin woman: the Cosmic Goddess rose in full. Her towering body loomed at least a kilometer high, a figure so immense that even the smallest gesture threatened to unmake the world around us. With every shift of her weight, the alien soil trembled as though the planet itself feared her.

Her colossal left arm lifted, fingers spreading wide, and then descended in a sweeping strike toward Myrrh in her cybernetic phoenix form. Myrrh twisted into a barrel roll, wings cutting a brilliant arc through the sky. The attack missed, but the force of the passing wind slammed against us like a tidal wave, rattling our balance and nearly flinging me into the abyss below.

“Hold on!” Myrrh cried, her voice edged with urgency.

“I know!” I shouted back, clinging desperately to the cold steel of her armor. My hands dug into the grooves of her metal plates until my knuckles ached. If I lost my grip, gravity would claim me instantly.

Suddenly, the battlefield lit up with flashes of emerald light. Beam rifles discharged from afar, streaking green lasers across the sky and striking the Cosmic Goddess square in the face. But the spectacle brought no relief. The blasts scattered like sparks against her porcelain skin, leaving not a single mark.

When I traced the origin of the emerald beams, my eyes caught sight of an aircraft cutting through the clouds. Its frame resembled a B-2 bomber, but scaled down to the size of a family car. Despite its smaller form, it carried the same sleek menace, its wings sharp and predatory as it unleashed volley after volley of concentrated light. The barrage continued until the craft closed the distance and hovered near our position.

“A reinforcement?” I murmured, half in disbelief.

A flicker of static lit up before me, and then a holographic face projected into the air. The unmistakable features of Agent Steve filled the shimmering image.

“I have dispatched this Supersonic High-Output Tactical Aircraft for your use, Zaft Callahan!” Steve announced proudly, his voice ringing with confidence. “Climb aboard, so Miss Alicent can fight without restraint!”

His words struck deeper than I wanted to admit. Both Myrrh and I were painfully aware that her combat potential was severely hampered by my presence on her back. No one dared to say it aloud, but the truth was undeniable. I felt the sting of guilt coil in my chest, yet at the same time I knew separation meant certain death.

Even so, hesitation had no place here. Without a second thought, I leapt onto the aerial drone, perching atop it like some reckless rider out of a comic book. The wind tore at my face as the machine steadied beneath me. For a fleeting moment, I imagined myself soaring like the Green Goblin, minus the maniacal laughter.

“Thank you, Agent Steve! Much appreciated! You just removed a dead weight on my back!” Myrrh’s voice cut through the comms, sharp and teasing.

Before I could retort, her engines roared, and she streaked forward with renewed vigor, hurling herself back into the chaos of the battlefield.

“That bitch… calling me dead weight,” I muttered under my breath, cheeks burning as I gripped the drone tighter.

“SHOTA controls are for second years. Since you’ve never flown it before, I’ll handle the piloting.” Agent Steve’s voice carried a sharp, no-nonsense tone. “You just focus on supporting Miss Alicent!”

“Roger that!” I replied, my pulse quickening. The WEEB flared to life as I activated it, its holographic interface blooming before me in a cascade of luminous symbols and shifting diagrams.

Ahead, Myrrh’s phoenix Frame Unit streaked across the sky like a comet of steel and flame. She angled toward the towering form of the Cosmic Goddess, her sights locked on the goddess’s neck. With Lightning Storm Wings unfurled and the Particle Accelerator propelling her forward, her speed multiplied tenfold. The way she was moving, I knew exactly what she had in mind: an all-out, close-range strike that carried as much risk as it did power.

I clenched my fist and made my choice. This was the moment to unleash her Ultimate.

“Blade Wing, Equip!” I roared. Circuits etched across my left arm blazed with sapphire light, lines of energy coursing toward my fingertips. I thrust my arm in Myrrh’s direction, and in response, each of her six wings shimmered and shifted. Feathers folded, reformed, and elongated until they became colossal, aerodynamic blades that gleamed like swords of the heavens.

The Cosmic Goddess stirred. Her towering body shifted as two massive arms rose high above, their shadow swallowing the battlefield. She was preparing to strike, whether as a swat, a block, or a brutal counterattack, I couldn’t be certain. What I did know was that Myrrh would need every edge I could give her to land her finishing blow.

No hesitation. No second guessing. I switched back to the WMD Series and slammed my hand onto the [Timesphere] icon.

“Timesphere, Activate!” My voice thundered, and the circuits along my arm flared brighter, bathing the air in an eerie blue glow. 

Beneath the phoenix’s blazing head, a weapon materialized: an angular cannon forged of light and circuitry. It was the time-slowing gun, a relic designed to bend reality itself. With a sharp crack, it discharged, and a sphere of black and white radiance rippled outward. 

The world seemed to fracture as the distortion expanded, engulfing the Cosmic Goddess and dragging her movements into a crawl. Her immense gestures slowed until each motion was reduced to a tenth of its speed, like a giant trapped in tar.

“Yaaaaaah!” Myrrh’s cry pierced the air as she surged forward, a comet of fury and light.

Boosted by the Lightning Storm’s speed, the Particle Accelerator’s momentum, and the deadly edge of her Blade Wings, all amplified by the Timesphere, Myrrh became a living missile. Her cybernetic phoenix form hurtled toward the goddess’s neck, wings igniting the sky with streaks of brilliance.

With a devastating sweep, three of her blade-like wings cut across the colossal throat. Sparks and energy flared at the point of contact, and for an instant, it seemed as though the blow would sever the goddess’s head entirely. Yet something strange resisted. A force: alien, gravitational, and incomprehensible, pushed back against the strikes. Her blades only grazed the surface, carving shallow wounds instead of a killing blow.

“What the—” Myrrh’s voice wavered with disbelief.

Then the impossible happened. The shallow cuts warped, twisting like broken seams in the fabric of existence. From each gash bled a rift, glowing with unstable power, and before she could react, the rifts detonated. A burst of energy like a newborn star erupted outward, shredding the battlefield with a catastrophic supernova.

“Gah!” Myrrh’s cry was drowned by the roar of the explosion. Her phoenix form faltered, flames snuffing out as the blast hurled her across the sky. She crashed to the ground in a cloud of smoke and debris, her majestic beast form collapsing back into the humanoid Frame Unit. Sparks and steam hissed from the joints as the system shut down piece by piece.

“Myrrh! Are you okay?” I shouted, my chest tightening as I watched her fall motionless against the scorched earth.

“I-I’m fine!” Myrrh’s voice crackled through the comms as her Frame Unit staggered back to its feet. But even as she stood tall, the once-bright cobalt sheen of her armor flickered and dissolved like smoke in the wind. Warning glyphs flared across her plating before vanishing entirely.

“TSUN Armor is down!” she announced.

A spike of panic jolted through me. “Be careful!” I shouted. “Every strike from the Cosmic Goddess can crush you in a single blow! You only survived because the TSUN Armor absorbed it!”

“I know!” Myrrh shot back, defiant. Her Frame Unit sank into a battle stance, knees bent, fists clenched, optics blazing with renewed fire. “That’s why I’ll push into Overdrive Mode!”

Her vents roared to life. Steam hissed out in violent bursts, wrapping her machine in a heated veil. A glow began to shimmer along the seams of her frame—first a molten red that pulsed like smoldering embers, then shifting, surging, until it blazed into radiant green. From every vent, emerald flames erupted, twisting and writhing like living serpents. The battlefield around her shimmered in their heat.

“Uranium Blade, Activate! X2!” I bellowed, my left arm searing with blue circuitry as I directed the surge toward her.

Her arms lit up instantly. From her fists to her elbows, massive luminous blades extended outward, twin sabers of molten green energy that hummed with volatile power. And then something unexpected, something almost divine, erupted from her back. Wings of green fire unfurled, delicate in shape yet titanic in presence, like a butterfly forged from pure plasma. Each flicker shed glowing embers that floated into the night sky, painting the heavens with glittering trails.

The sight stole my breath. Myrrh, reborn in that moment, was no longer just a Frame Unit. She looked like a goddess of war.

With a thunderous flare, she launched herself skyward, emerald wings beating against the void. Green sparks cascaded around her as she cut a radiant line through the darkness, closing the distance to the Cosmic Goddess with unstoppable momentum.

She wasn’t holding back anymore. This was Myrrh, at her absolute limit, ready to give everything in one final clash.