Chapter 58 – I, Letaria Adeniam, Will Pass Judgment on That Arrogance Here and Now!

The deep-violet Arden drove through the sea of stars toward the malevolent colossus, the merciless god of destruction: Restful.

The extraordinary surge in synchronization rate had rendered the world piercingly, brutally clear to Letaria's gold-lit eyes. Before Restful could release its killing beams, she caught it - multiple shadows launching simultaneously from every part of its massive frame.

"-- I see you!"

Her cry and Arden's movement were one. An extreme redirection, minimum-path, zero waste - and a steel fist that hit the first incoming shadow dead on and blew it apart.

Sparks. A torso cracked open. One of the unmanned machines that had threatened them so many times before spiraled silently into the dark. Letaria didn't spare it a glance. She locked her eyes forward and accelerated.

But more than a dozen additional unmanned machines were crawling out from the gaps in Restful's armor.

Some closed for melee with mass weapons. Some blanketed the space with machine gun and gatling fire. Others opened up with precise photon rifles and missile barrages. Every firing line and every killing intent converged on the three machines driving in.

But the ones standing at the front were not the kind to be stopped by an encirclement like that.

Letaria, moving with something beyond human precision even as the passion burned through her. Grain, piloting Shuel past the physical limits of his body with manic high-mobility through sheer stubborn will. And Ethan, the corps' undisputed first. Battle-worn fighters all - they handled the waves of unmanned machines with something that looked like ease, carving them down one by one into scrap.

"For your scheming against me - your mockery of me - !"

Arden spun, adding the centrifugal force of the turn to a savage heel drop aimed at the next machine's head. The blow split armor and drove straight through to the generator. The machine went light and went silent.

Right alongside her, Grain's headless Shuel kept pace. In a single crossing, the Photon Saber drew one clean stroke and cut another unmanned machine in two.

"-- In my boundlessly magnanimous and ocean-deep heart, I shall grant you special forgiveness for that!"

Arden ran through the blasts. Letaria threaded the double machine gun torrent from a waiting heavy-armed unit with a zigzag that left no round touching her, closed the gap in an instant, and drove Arden's right arm forward. The photon blade stabbed deep into the enemy's chest and tore through it in a cross.

The explosion behind her became a beacon forward. She drove in closer toward Restful's throat.

At the rear, Ethan's Ribast kept intercepting the incoming missiles with pinpoint head vulcan fire, then drove the physical sword on its arm into the next enemy's generator with sharp precision. Absorbing the blast's edge on the shield, already bringing the rifle to bear on the next target.

"But - !"

Arden, still carrying forward momentum, grabbed the nearest unit's head with its manipulator and wrenched it around - then hurled it full-force into the one approaching from behind. The two collided and lost their footing. In the same instant, Grain's Shuel put a concentrated machine gun burst directly into the point of intersection.

Both machines detonated together.

"The countless brutal acts you committed against those who could not defend themselves - that, I absolutely cannot forgive!"

Letaria's shout and a full-force kick into the torso of a large-model unmanned machine landed together. The heavy unit staggered - and from both sides, Grain's and Ethan's Photon Sabers drove into it simultaneously and shut it down for good.

"-- Prepare yourself!"

The last of the unmanned wall fell. Letaria arrived at last before the red-black colossus, Restful, face to face.

The cold system voice filled her mind directly.

"-- 'Letaria'. Psycho-resonance rate with resonance-type unit 'Arden': 242% confirmed. Vastly exceeds 'Blang's' compatibility rate of 36% with resonance-type unit 'Zodan'. ...Judging that 'Arden's' systems have reached complete domain --"

As the voice finished, every weapon port across Restful's frame blazed with light, and the second ultimate storm was unleashed.

But for Letaria and the others, who had already closed to extreme proximity, getting inside its reach meant the field was reduced to reading the weapon platforms' firing lines. Letaria and Grain both slipped past the death lines without effort - a margin of almost nothing, but clean.

Through the curtain of light, however, countless unexpected shadows closed at speed.

"Missiles - ?!"

Ethan's sharp warning hit the line. These were not standard missiles. Not speed - extraordinary maneuverability, as though physical law didn't apply. High-mobility anti-Makina self-defense missiles, designed to evade interception and take their targets with them. Restful's own last-resort deterrent.

Trails of light converging on Arden from every blind angle.

"Go, Letaria - !"

Ethan's Ribast pushed forward. Head vulcan locking precisely, cutting down the incoming missiles one after another in front of Arden.

Fired by that shout, Letaria pulled harder on the stick and drove deeper into Restful.

"Take this - Photon Saber - !"

From Arden's right arm, a blade at maximum output surged out. It found the red-black chest armor, and tremendous sparks flew. But --

(-- It's not reaching...?!)

There was resistance. She'd carved into the armor, done real damage. But the blade couldn't reach the deep. The colossus's drive system didn't stop. She was nowhere near a killing blow.

In that instant, Restful's massive frame moved - at a speed that made a mockery of every hint of sluggishness it had shown until now. A backstep that left afterimages. The machine that had done nothing but sit like a colossal fixed gun emplacement suddenly demonstrated high mobility on an entirely different tier.

"...It was never just a statue...!"

Grain's voice cracked with shock as he swept down an incoming missile with a machine gun burst, barely in time.

The distance had opened in an instant.

◆

"It's coming - !"

Letaria's warning. That was all it took.

Restful, having put significant distance between itself and all three, spread open its massive chest and released a beam of incomparably greater density than anything it had fired before. An absolute heat that looked capable of splitting space itself rolled forward.

"Uwaaah - !"

Grain and Ethan dived clear - barely - saved by Letaria's advance call.

The distance had grown, but they could still close it. Still in the fight.

Letaria said nothing. She tilted Arden back toward Restful and pushed the cockpit's trace mode past its limit.

Even with Letaria's body - already naturally resilient well beyond normal - and with the Noble Lotus, designed to her specifications, the physical and mental feedback coming back from Arden in this moment had reached a completely abnormal level. Unsettling sounds. Creaks. Cracks spreading across her suit where the load concentrated, thin trails of white vapor beginning to escape.

"-- You creature of ruin!"

As though responding to her fury, the reinforced armor on Arden's left arm blew apart under the wind pressure and strain. Sparks burst hard from the right leg's joint assembly. The machine itself was reaching its limit.

"I, Letaria Adeniam, will pass judgment on that arrogance here and now!"

Arden charged Restful a second time. Ethan's Ribast laid down covering fire, punching through the remaining unmanned machine screen and carving out the one and only path forward.

But threading through the barrage from behind, the high-mobility missiles were back - closing on Arden's blind spot again.

"--!?"

No time to evade. Letaria braced for impact - and a tremendous explosion detonated right beside Arden.

But it was not Arden that was torn open by the blast.

"Grain...!"

In her field of vision: Grain's Shuel - battered beyond recognition, interposing itself as Arden's shield. Left arm gone. Head unit gone. Legs half destroyed by the latest strike. The last of its life burning.

Even so - the machine was still breathing. Through the comm, broken by interference but carrying every ounce of the intent behind it, Grain's voice came through.

"...Do it... Letaria...! You can... get there...!"

Those words struck the final fuse.

She took Grain's resolve. She took everything he'd put behind those words. She turned her face forward.

Restful's red-black bulk was right there before her.

In that instant, what Milea had told her before launch blazed back through her mind in perfect clarity.

(-- Letaria, I added one new weapon to Arden. Think of it as... a trump card. It's woven into your trace mode pattern. Use it the same way as the Photon Saber. And the way to activate it is --)

"-- Milea, I have it!"

Responding to Letaria's will, an extreme convergence of photon energy - incomparably greater than anything the Photon Saber had ever produced - began gathering in Arden's right arm manipulator.

Not a sword of light. A massive blade of guillotine light - a severing arc carrying the mass to collapse space itself.

Every last unit of energy committed to the right arm. Arden raised the enormous blade of light high.

"Cleave it asunder - Grave Arc - !!"

The supreme blade came down with the full weight of Letaria's soul behind it, and split the red-black colossus of Restful clean in two.

An instant later, from the body of the fallen god, a crushing light of absolute devastation was released - and the deep-field battlefield was painted, entirely, white.