Chapter 140 – I Die, You Die, Everyone Here Dies! Do You Understand?!

Aland's Enomeil, torn open by a sharp diagonal slash, narrowly avoided exploding outright, but drifted limply through space, spraying sparks and coolant gas violently.

"Aland--!"

Grain's cry echoed hollowly inside his cockpit.

The unidentified green machine moved to bring its blade down on the now-defenseless Enomeil for a finishing blow -- and that was when a pure-white Makina cut in with furious force.

"Waaaaaaah--!!"

It charged in with tremendous thrust and slammed directly into the green machine in a full-body tackle.

"Steshia--?!"

It was Steshia's Rasta, her emotions boiling over.

"How dare you... how dare you do that to Mr. Aland--!"

Enraged, Steshia slammed Rasta's large shield into the enemy with brute force, shoving it back, and without a moment's pause opened fire with her Photon Rifle, trying to empty every last round into it.

-- But the green machine, with turning speed on an entirely different level, evaded every single shot.

"Fall back, Steshia! You can't keep up with it, you can't win!"

Grain's Riese intervened, cutting in between her and the green machine.

"But! I cannot forgive this--!"

Steshia still tried to press the pursuit, but she couldn't keep up with the enemy's overwhelming speed at all. An instant later, the green machine circled into her blind spot and slammed a vicious surprise kick into her.

"Kyaaaaah--?!"

Her armor shattered, Rasta was sent flying, its balance completely broken.

"Damn it!"

Grain unleashed a rapid burst of fire from the Arcian, throwing up a fierce screen of suppressing fire to keep the enemy from closing on Rasta.

"Steshia! I'll pin this thing's attention -- you finish it!"

"Eh--?!"

"Listen, fall back! You want to avenge Aland, don't you! If you don't get your head straight, I die, you die, everyone here dies! Do you understand?!"

Grain's rallying cry, one that could only be called a shout from the depths of his soul, reached Steshia's ears over the comm. At those words, the wild, ragged line of Rasta's movement smoothed out, quietly regaining its composure.

"Captain... I-- I understand. I'll calm down... and avenge Mr. Aland... myself!"

Rasta pulled back, putting distance between herself and the range of the hyper-mobile combat unfolding between Riese and the green machine. She began quietly charging her Arcian's output to its absolute limit.

Grain drew Riese's Photon Saber. Pushing the thrusters to their absolute limit, he swung his blade while chasing the arc the green machine traced through its turns.

A razor-thin exchange of attacks. The green machine dodged the blade of light with a sharp counter-turn and unleashed a beam of terrifying density from the triple rifle in its damaged arm. Grain evaded it while immediately using the Arcian's suppressing fire to crush off the direction of its turn.

Riese's generator output kept climbing, and tremendous G-forces and strain bore down on Grain in the cockpit as well. But Grain's eyes had begun to catch a faint "habit" in his opponent's movements.

Grrgh... this thing... it's Arden -- no, it's a Crafid. An Escado Crafid...!

The old-model machine Letaria had once piloted, before it was refitted into the current Arden -- the Crafid. The silhouette was subtly different, but he couldn't help but think of it.

That speed, those reactions -- there was something tremendous to them. ...And yet, while it certainly resembled Arden -- resembled Letaria -- there was one decisive difference. This thing wasn't "reading" the telltale signs or presence of an attack. It was simply muscling through on the abnormal reaction speed of its system and its machine's raw performance, nothing more.

Maneuvering built on reaction speed alone, without any precognition -- if that was the case, there was no end to what he could do about it!

Grain fired the Arcian in continuous bursts as he pressed back into extreme close range once more, steadily narrowing his opponent's evasion routes bit by bit with the rain of light-rounds.

And then, at the green machine with nowhere left to run, he brought his Photon Saber down with everything he had. The green machine drew its own Photon Saber at once, and the two blades of light collided fiercely head-on, scattering golden sparks through the surrounding space.

The two machines froze in perfect equilibrium -- and in that instant!

"Now, Steshia--!!"

From far behind, where she'd been lying in wait, Steshia's Rasta fired a shot from her fully max-charged Arcian. The massive beam, unleashed at a terrifying muzzle velocity, blew the green "Arden-wannabe's" upper body to smithereens, giving it no chance to evade at all.

"I-- I did it..."

Steshia murmured, sounding utterly drained.

Before anyone quite noticed, the mass-produced machines that had surrounded them had all been suppressed by the Vigilante Corps members, and quiet had returned to the surrounding space.

"Mr. Aland... I avenged you..."

Steshia murmured this in a tearful voice, sniffling. Then, immediately, an exasperated-sounding voice came through the comm console.

"Don't go killing people off on your own, now."

"Eh--?!"

Her face still a mess of tears and snot, Steshia let out a dumbfounded sound.

"Man, I really owe Syn-Fibra's automatic ejection system one... honestly, even I thought I'd bought it."

The voice on the comm was, without a doubt, Aland's. The ejection system had triggered right before the fatal blow, and his escape pod had already been safely recovered by the other Vigilante Corps members.

"Good to know you're safe, Aland."

Grain said this with a wry laugh mixed in, and Aland grinned broadly over the comm.

"Captain, you knew, and you lit a fire under her anyway, didn't you."

"Well, yeah."

"Th-that's so mean, Captain--!!"

Grain breezily ignored Steshia's sobbing protest and let his expression harden.

"I'm heading out to back up Letaria. All units, don't let your guard down on the surrounding sector."

With that order given, he ignited Riese's thrusters and rushed toward the far side of the ominous structure.