Chapter 138 – How Rude!

Arden slipped through the falling rain of photons with minimal movement. In the darkened field of view, the shadows of multiple enemy Makina rose into sight, one after another.

A cluster of rugged, simple machines, each carrying a Photon Rifle. A few individual units mounted different weapons, but the basic frame looked to be the same mass-produced model throughout. Their number: roughly a dozen or more.

"To open fire without so much as exchanging greetings -- how rude!"

Letaria shouted this even as she fired her Photon Rifle at the nearest enemy machine.

The beam was blocked by a shield the enemy machine threw up on reflex. -- But at almost the same instant as the shot landed, Arden, having already closed in at hyper-acceleration, seized the enemy's right arm in a crushing grip.

"There!"

With that, she let the machine's output erupt and hurled it bodily at another enemy machine positioned beside it.

The two Makina collided with tremendous force, tangled together and scattering fierce sparks, before slamming into the outer wall of the massive structure behind them and falling quietly still.

But in the very instant she took down that enemy machine.

"...What is this? Something... is there..."

A powerful sense of wrongness, caught by Letaria's magic.

The presence rising up from deep within the far side of the massive structure gave off a sense of existence clearly different in kind from the faceless mob of Makina swarming in front of her.

"Grain! There is something deep inside the building! I am going on ahead!"

Making the call on pure instinct, Letaria paid no mind to the harassing fire the surrounding mass-produced machines threw at her, and vanished in a single dash toward the far side of the structure.

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"Hey, wait, Letaria--! ...Honestly, that young lady...!"

Watching the afterglow of Arden's thrusters as it shot off, Grain let out a great sigh despite himself.

"Ah, this is the Seldia Autonomous District's Vigilante Corps. A message to the unidentified group of machines: this may be neutral space, but there is a risk of encroachment on our Seldia territory. State your affiliation and intent immediately."

Grain sent this over a wide-area open channel, purely as a matter of formal pretense.

But what came back, in place of any answer, was a merciless full salvo of Photon Rifle fire and homing missiles.

"...Well, I figured as much!"

Grain slipped through the lines of fire with a smooth turn, then fired the Arcian in his hand in rapid succession. The beams he fired pierced the heads and right arms of the two machines blocking his path with pinpoint precision, forcing them out of the fight in an instant.

"All units, free engagement -- go! Everyone, watch yourselves out there!"

The piloting skill of the swarming attackers wasn't especially high. It was a level the Vigilante Corps members could handle without much trouble.

-- But the "something" Letaria said she'd sensed nagged at him. If a threat lurked there that was on a completely different level from the small fry in front of them, he couldn't just leave it to her alone.

"Aland, Retta! I'm leaving this to you! I'm going to back up Letaria!"

He gave the order and fired Riese's thrusters, moving to launch himself toward the far side of the structure -- and in that very instant--

Three beams of light, piercing through space with terrifying density, blocked Riese's path with pinpoint accuracy.

"--?!"

Grain twisted the machine aside with razor's-edge reflexes, dodging a direct hit by the barest hair. A cold sweat traced down his cheek.

This attack... was this the new weapon...?!

Breaking through the smoke screen, what stood blocking Riese's path was -- a Makina with a rugged yet ruthlessly stripped-down, slender silhouette, deep green streaked with unsettling black lines, a shape that struck him as somehow familiar.