Chapter 450 397: Maiden Battle of the Gift of the Machine God, Personal Gain in War, Corrupting Shadow (Part 2)

In that instant, Nelom leaped from the ship and sprinted for his life!

A Domain Powerhouse's Physique, augmented by the Ashen Battle Armor, allowed him to reach a terrifying speed of one hundred meters per second even on foot. He was like a flaming war chariot, charging toward the elevator platform a kilometer away.

Reinhardt glanced back into the distance and saw that the Titan, which had been rampaging just a moment before, was now aiming its three Harvester cannons at the slowly moving ship.

The next moment.

Muzzle flashes flickered once in the darkness as the shells erupted from their barrels!

Although the shells flew faster than the speed of sound, they weren't fast enough to escape Reinhardt's perception; he could still track the trajectories of all three.

However, the reaction speed of his Imperial Technology, Angel's Vision, was even faster than his own optic nerves. The instant the shells were fired, it had already simulated their flight paths in his field of view, marking them with clear, dark-yellow lines.

When he had used the Gift of the Machine God to upgrade his Avenger Armor, the description for the Angel's Vision Imperial Technology had been quite vague.

[Scans the battlefield in real time to provide detailed data.]

And now, this piece of Imperial Technology was proving its worth to Reinhardt in actual combat.

No matter how fast an Imperial Knight's neural impulses were, they could never compare to the reaction speed of a cold machine processing light and sound.

'Is that so?'

Even though the shells would hit the ship in less than two seconds, that was more than enough time for Reinhardt to react.

At almost the exact moment Nelom leaped from the ship, a stream of high-temperature Energy propelled Reinhardt's body. He shot out of the cabin with a WHOOSH, his left hand snatching one of the incoming shells out of the air and gripping it tightly.

Simultaneously, he activated the Fourth Earth Ring: Time Sand Flow.

Time itself seemed to expand, acting like a cage that ensnared the other two incoming shells. The massive, spinning projectiles suddenly decelerated as they passed by him, as if in slow motion.

After forcibly altering the shells' trajectories, a stream of high-temperature Energy propelled Reinhardt forward. Moving at three times the speed of sound, the five-hundred-meter distance was covered in what felt like an instant.

Even though the Harvester Titan had detected Reinhardt's trajectory and activated its Annihilation Shield, from the two pilots' perspective, the Imperial Knight who had been five hundred meters away just a second ago had now appeared before them without warning, like a specter of death.

Furthermore, he was still clutching one of the very shells they had just fired, and he recklessly slammed it into the Harvester Titan's Annihilation Shield with his bare hand!

The pilot, Sonam, stared at Reinhardt in utter horror, as if looking at a madman.

'This guy...'

Unfortunately, there was no more time for him to think.

BOOM—!

A fireball from the point-blank explosion instantly engulfed both the Titan and Reinhardt!

Sonam and Pulin were not rookies piloting a Titan for the first time. Although they were grieving the loss of a brother, experience from hundreds of battles had long since forged their nerves, allowing them to face the blast of cannon fire without flinching.

However, just as they thought the Imperial Knight who had appeared out of nowhere was surely dead, the smoke began to clear, revealing him still hovering in the air right outside their cockpit.

At the sight, even Pulin, who had been hell-bent on avenging his brother, felt his heart lurch in shock. A fine, cold sweat beaded on his back.

It was precisely because they were battle-hardened veterans that they immediately realized the reinforcing Imperial Knight's strength was far beyond that of the man they had just been fighting!

This was especially true when they noticed the Annihilation Shield protecting the outer layer of his Power Armor, which emanated an ethereal blue glow.

The two of them were profoundly shaken!

They knew that the Annihilation Shield was one of the few prototype technologies within the Mechanist Cult still in the research and development phase. For an Emperor's Angel to have his Power Armor equipped with such top-tier Imperial Technology, his status had to be sublime, far beyond anything they could imagine!

It was a privilege reserved only for the most powerful figures, those who stood among the clouds.

Soon, one of them realized just who this Imperial Knight hovering before them was.

Sonam, the senior pilot of the family, stared intently at the style of the Power Armor and the Battle Group Badge on its shoulder. He swallowed hard, his voice trembling slightly as he spoke.

"The Lord of Vengeful, Reinhardt."

Hearing that name, Pulin, who was still consumed by rage, felt his pupils constrict to the size of pinpricks!

Of course, they knew the Vengeful Angels had landed in Cyrenaica, but they never would have dreamed that the infamous Lord of Vengeful himself would appear at Mining Site 1!

And here he was, hovering right in front of them!

They had never seen Reinhardt, nor were they worthy of witnessing him in combat.

But they had heard Great Sage Cassio mention the name more than once, and whenever that great man spoke of the Lord of Vengeful, he always did so with extreme caution and wariness.

One could only imagine the terror of an enemy who could make even Great Sage Cassio so wary.

"Damn it! Pulin—! You've gotten us into huge trouble! I told you not to press the fight! He was clearly retreating, and you..."

Furious and alarmed, Sonam didn't want to waste another breath.

His brother was good in many ways, but he was impulsive and couldn't control his temper.

Pulin also seemed to realize he had made a colossal mistake. Just moments ago, he had been shouting that their enemy was retreating in fear. Bent on avenging his brother, he had ignored all advice and opened fire on the distant ship.

Now, he suddenly understood. The man hadn't been fleeing at all; he just hadn't wanted to get entangled with them.

If it weren't for their Annihilation Shield, they would probably be two corpses on the ground right now.

But unlike the level-headed Sonam, who was ready to de-escalate the situation, the hot-tempered Pulin saw that Reinhardt's War Axe was failing to damage their Annihilation Shield. The horror on the face of the gaunt, hairless pilot gradually twisted into a bloodthirsty, manic grin.

"And here I was, wondering how strong the Lord of Vengeful really is. Brother, did you see that? He can't break our Harvester's Annihilation Shield! Tell me... if we were to kill him here, how do you think the Great Sage would reward us?"

Hearing these suicidal, crazed words, Sonam's eyes widened in disbelief. "Are you insane?! We're up against the Lord of Vengeful!

Do you really think this is the full extent of his power?

I've heard stories that back when he was just an Official Knight, he obliterated an Abyssal Great Demon's head with a single punch! I will never agree to this!"

Without another word to his brother, Sonam activated the external speakers.

"We surrender! We surrender! We've already lost a pilot! The Titan lost control and fired those shots on its own! We have absolutely no intention of making an enemy of you!"

Unlike Pulin, Sonam's mind was perfectly clear in that moment.

He knew full well who he was working for. As members of a Titan Knight Family, there was no need for them to risk their lives here for Claudius's grand ambitions.

Great Sage Casio had already ordered them to evacuate the underground ruins; Pulin's insistence on staying was in direct defiance of that command.

This wasn't a battle against Space Aliens or Demons. There was absolutely no benefit in fighting to the death here. Even if they paid a heavy price to kill Reinhardt, in the end, they would just be handing the prize to Claudius on a silver platter.

If Pulin hadn't been so hell-bent on killing that Imperial Knight, they would have evacuated on the elevator platform ten minutes ago.

But in the end, they hadn't killed their target. Instead, their Harvester Titan's frame was damaged, and he had lost one of his brothers.

However, what Sonam never expected was that after he spoke these words of surrender, his own brother, Pulin, was staring daggers at him, his eyes bloodshot.

The fury and cruelty in that gaze looked as if he wanted to eat Sonam alive!

As a pilot from a Titan Knight Family, Sonam froze for a moment. He didn't understand why his brother was looking at him with such hatred.

But soon, he understood.