Chapter 465 - 410: Efficient Boarding, Mercy Comes at a Cost

The Punisher.

This ancient Assault Boat, which had once fought alongside the Vengeful Angels and weathered numerous desperate situations, had undergone three major overhauls and technological upgrades personally overseen by Agate. Its current appearance was a far cry from its original form.

Inside the cabin, intricate gears and conduits glowed with a faint, eerie blue light.

The front section, once devastatingly damaged, had also been completely refurbished.

Perhaps the only thing that hadn’t changed was the cabin’s steel floor.

"[Machine Spirit] Verifying identity... Welcome back, Reinhardt, the Master of Vengeful."

After boarding, Matthias took off his helmet and looked around at the thoroughly repaired and upgraded Punisher, a nostalgic expression on his face. The bench fixed to the bulkhead on his right was particularly striking; the memory of Raphael sitting there in silence was still fresh in his mind.

Nelom was the last to board. Though he didn’t understand the technology, a man with his long years of service had been on eighty, if not a hundred, different ships.

Just from stepping aboard, he immediately realized this Assault Boat was definitely not the standard-issue model the Mechanical Order sold to the Military Affairs Department.

The fluctuations of Witchcraft Energy that filled the cabin were like a raging sea to his Knight Perception. Compared to a conventional ship, the Punisher felt more like an exquisitely crafted Extraordinary Creation.

No wonder the Honor Guard had been able to travel from Iberia to Cyrenaica in such a short amount of time.

Once everyone was aboard, Agate’s voice sounded through the cabin. "I’ve already planned your boarding and extraction routes. I’ll also be providing remote assistance for the entire operation.

If something unexpected happens, the Punisher’s Machine Spirit will take control and get you out of danger.

We lift off in thirty seconds. Get ready."

The three Holy Fire Guards had already witnessed the Punisher’s power on their way to provide support. They grabbed nearby handholds as a surge of eerie blue energy flowed across the steel floor, which was polished to a mirror shine.

Complex Mechanical Structures rose from the floor and locked securely onto their Power Boots, preventing the immense inertia of takeoff from flinging them about.

As the Machine Spirit’s cold countdown finished, the hangar bay doors of the Avenger Cruiser hissed with escaping high-pressure steam and rose swiftly.

Propelled by its engines, the Punisher lifted off the ground and hovered in the air. The next second, a massive field of eerie blue energy enveloped the hull, and without a sound, the Punisher vanished from the hangar.

This rapid, short-distance phase-shifting capability was made possible by the Phase Shifting Engine, which Agate had developed by using the power of the Ancient Black Box to reverse-engineer the Phase Recall technology.

Or rather, it dated back to when he merged with the Ancient Black Box on Kemola. To escape the pursuing Space Dragon Race, he had taken a huge risk and activated ancient technology for the Punisher.

From that moment on, the Punisher had been bound to the Ancient Black Box.

After years of fusion, the Punisher had, for Agate, become an extension of his own body—and the Knight’s Treasure that housed his Earth Ring.

In a conventional boarding operation, Agate would have had to pilot the Avenger Cruiser, break through the rebel fleet’s heavy blockade, and only then—after getting within a certain distance of the Tania Flagship—deploy the Assault Boat to begin the attack.

If they did that, trying to pierce the enemy’s defensive line and approach the Supreme Commander’s Tania Flagship with just a single cruiser would have been a hundred times more difficult than their current plan.

The risk would have been immense, and the prolonged engagement would also have given Claudius ample time to deploy defensive forces, potentially introducing countless unforeseen variables.

「And now.」

When the Machine Spirit’s cold voice sounded, and when the terrifying inertia—enough to place immense strain on the Physique of an Earth Knight Level warrior—finally subsided, the Punisher had already bypassed the rebel fleet’s heavy blockade. Like a streak of dark light, it crossed 90,000 kilometers in less than a minute, arriving at the assault point three kilometers from the Tania Flagship.

"[Machine Spirit] Adjusting course according to the planned route... The Destruction Main Cannon has been raised. Agate’s Energy Shield at 60% load. Prepare for boarding in five seconds.

Five... four..."

After a secret strategy meeting with the Vengeful Angels’ command to finalize the initial operational plan, Reinhardt had pulled Agate into an encrypted Spiritual Energy communication to discuss the feasibility of the boarding action.

As the Vengeful Angels’ only Technician Soldier, even Koller, with his thousand years of combat experience, had to respect Agate’s opinion on technical matters.

If he had deemed the boarding operation unfeasible, Reinhardt would have immediately scrapped their plan.

After all, in battles fought in deep space, a ship’s performance was often more important than the individual strength of an Imperial Knight.

Only after receiving Agate’s approval was the current plan put into motion.

Half the feasibility of the entire plan—to execute the rebel leader, Claudius, in a short amount of time—rested on the technical support Agate provided.

Nelom hadn’t been qualified to attend the Vengeful Angels’ high-level meetings. At first, he had thought, ’Reinhardt must be insane to even consider using a single Assault Boat to withstand the firepower of an entire fleet and charge the Tania Flagship. Such an act would be no different than an ant piloting a leaf across the water to charge a War Titan.

Before true war machines and weapons of mass destruction, the strength of an Earth Knight—even one wielding Domain Power—was no better than cannon fodder.’