Dawnbringer: The Story of the Machine God

Chapter 19

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“I-I’m sorry. I’ve made a terrible mistake.” Admiral Luise apologized for angering the enemy leader.

“That’s alright. You wanted to dig intel out of her by making her angry, right?” Ensign Meihowa did not blame Admiral Luise. She understood that the Admiral taunted the enemy so that they might slip useful information.

“So, now what do we do, Lezirth? Sergeant Aroha is taken by the enemy, so…”

“We have to rescue her, of course.” I shrugged, and began some quick research on Saika from my PDA. It took only a single search with its name in a search engine to find information on the Kishin. Shouldn’t something like this be kept as a closely guarded military secret…?

I had no idea how, but it seemed like there was a lot of information about Saika available on public networks. There were many videos of it in action, and a few blogs for a.n.a.lysis on its machine specs. Some of the videos were fan-made compilations of Saika’s achievements.

“Saika has always been piloted by Asa’a princesses.” Ensign Meihowa spoke as she performed quick maintenance on her Colion rifle.

“Princesses?”

“The women of the Harakal-cla.s.s in their caste system, the ones who have not yet produced an offspring are called princesses. I don’t know the specifics myself, but what is known is that the pilots of Saika are the most powerful people of the Asa. The culture of the Asa is the survival of the fittest-- only the greatest of the Asa are allowed to pilot the Kishin.”

“Is that so? Would that mean the Asa have a very militaristic culture?”

As I asked that question, the city’s civil defense siren blared throughout the area. Only the sirens around the streets surrounding the casino were active.

[Attention! If you are currently situated within the hotel, you must relocate down to the end of Twentieth Street.]

With the announcement, multiple military cars entered the street. Admiral Luise looked through the security cameras around the hotel and found that at least a single platoon was transported there, and multiple Tri-Walkers could be seen.

“What is this? Trying to control the civilians themselves?”

“I found the Kishin’s location, Lezirth. Their Kishin is to the south of this street, down Twentieth, and stationed inside Hyondai Stadium.”

“Erk. A sports stadium?”

The rebels must have been trying to gather the civilians at the stadium. The stadium’s purpose may be for playing sports, but that was going to be changed if the rebels were sending people there; in places like a stadium or a concert hall, a small military force could effectively control a large group of people by blocking the key exits. Forty Tri-Walkers armed with Colion rifles could shoot down about fifty thousand people before they could escape the building. Perhaps the rebels were going as far as thinking about executing the civilians.

“I doubt they will try to kill the civilians. I believe their objective is to transport every single civilian on Critik-4 off the planet.” Admiral Luise a.s.sured me confidently.

I became curious. “Hmm? How can you be sure?”

“I asked her a few moments ago, remember, if they could guarantee my family’s safety even if I had a huge family. But she was very quick to agree to my demand, without asking how many people I had with me, as if the number of people was of no concern as long as they were on Critik-4.”

“Ah! Of course.”

“The Elcro army used a technique called the Gate to transport their troops from one place to another, yes? Maybe the Asa have another special way to do the same thing. Or maybe Kishin Saika was equipped with a special technology?”

I nodded. Admiral Luise’s plan from before seemed to be finding out from the enemy leader if any of those guesses were correct.

Ensign Meihowa had not yet understood that. “Hold on, why would they move the hostages? To where?”

“To the Alliance, right?”

“Then they’re aiming to kidnap civilians? What in the world?! That’s a serious war crime!” Ensign Meihowa exclaimed.

They were committing a war crime, admittedly-- however, they also did not have the same history as Earth’s humanity. Before the eighth century, humans went as far as having a culture of burying prisoners of war alive, but humanity’s culture had evolved to find that to be horrifying.

“Calm down, Meihowa. You can think of them as having an old human culture. The Alliance needs manpower the most right now. Their civil production should be severely weak with only the Replicant rebels and two factions that failed the s.p.a.ce race. You can see that from the way their weapons are mostly from Federation rebels.”

The Alliance was limited to weaponry from the Replicant rebels-- the same weapons and armours issued to the Federation. While they were certainly capable of producing their own equipment, they did not have the economy to support a stable production. They had to fight with severely limited ammunition and equipment, and so they were very willing to take dangerous shortcuts like using Duskbringer to wipe out the Federation fleet.

They had to do whatever it took to survive.

And to support their unstable production, they had to invest more manpower. The quickest way to do that was to kidnap educated people from the Federation who were exposed to high levels of studies in science and culture. By putting educated people into work, they could facilitate quicker growth in their infrastructures.

“What about the rebels here?”

“They’ll likely be sent off to the Alliance, too. I don’t know how, but…”

“Then Sergeant Aroha is in danger, too. Could she be taken by the Asa?”

“Probably.”

I sighed. It was foolish to fight Kishin Saika with my bare hands. I had to find an Alter-Armour of my own… “... What about Dawnbringer Minor...?”

“It’s currently being held at Ipis Sector.” Admiral Luise responded to my quiet grumble.

Dawnbringer Minor. It was originally a Minion-cla.s.s Alter-Armour that was a.s.signed to Ensign Meihowa, created from sampled cells from Dawnbringer. However, during the battle in the Azoran system, it was able to evolve to Minor-cla.s.s after consuming a part of Dawnbringer’s Alter-Core that was integrated within Kishin Diablo.

Admiral Luise’s studies found that the Alter-Armour had visibly grown to a Minor-cla.s.s size, but the potential power resting within was much higher than any other Minor-cla.s.s, and it could even use Dawnbringer’s abilities if it was for a brief moment.

If I could use that, then I had a chance against Kishin Saika. But I had no time. As long as Sergeant Aroha was taken hostage by the enemy, if she doesn’t get tortured and killed, she was going to be taken out of reach by the Alliance.

“Lezirth.” Admiral Luise called to me, as if she read my thought.

“Colorado.”

“Hmm?”

“If we can get Colorado back… we’ll challenge Saika then.”

“...” Admiral Luise lowered her head in thought.

Ensign Meihowa was shocked to hear what I said. “What?! Did you just… are you actually trying to fight Kishin Saika with your bare body? No way, Lezirth! Even with your powers, that’s suicide!”

“But we don’t have time to waste if we want to rescue Sergeant Aroha. I have to earn time for us until Dawnbringer Minor can get to Critik. And no, I’m not trying to fight Saika with nothing to help it.”

Take back Colorado, and use it with an Alter-Armour stolen from the enemy. That was my plan.

“But… hold on.” Ensign Meihowa fiddled around with her PDA. Soon, noises of gla.s.s shattering came from somewhere, and soon a big object climbed over the broken walls of the suite room. It was her bike that she had bought before, called over here remotely.

“”Let’s go together!”

“A-alright!”

We jumped out of the hotel. Outside, there were many armed soldiers and Tri-Walkers guarding the surrounding area… Hmm? Why are there so many soldiers here?

“P-put your hands up!” One of the soldiers shouted, his arms quivering. The soldiers’ faces here looked very awkward to me-- they weren’t familiar to me, yet I felt some sort of deja vu.

Wait a minute, these are the protesters from back then! William Mayer’s groupies!

“Y-you!” Mayer made his appearance, wearing a very unfitting black beret. He looked distraught that I showed up here. “Hold it, don’t shoot him!”

“But he’s holding a weapon!”

The soldiers were afraid of the Colion rifle that Ensign Meihowa had been carrying around.

Mayer jumped down from his military transport. “These guys and I know each other!”

“If chief comrade knows them, we’ll hold.”

Wow, what an embarra.s.sing choice of words! Who calls each other “comrades” nowadays? It makes me cringe just hearing them!

They weren’t rebels, nor were they the resistance, so they seemed to be inducted into the rebel forces after the government’s counter-attack reduced their numbers. I was wondering why the rebels were so devoted to Mayer’s words; he seemed to be Kasik’s mentor after all.

‘It took a guy like him to start this rebellion?!’

Well, the coup would have happened regardless of Mayer’s presence. The local population was clearly against the Federation’s rule, and the Federation was clearly corrupt in their dealings with them. At least, Kasik might not have become the leader of the rebellion and taken as a complete fool by the Federation’s civilian news team.

The strangest part of this moment was that I felt like I was talking to an actor in a perfect costume-- someone in a convincing outfit that was unmistakably a soldier’s, yet could not have been more apparent that he was only acting in the end. William Mayer was that man.

“I have turned my back against the Federation for the future of Critik and have joined forces with the Alliance. You… we’re far from strangers, so I will not stop you if you quietly went back into the hotel.” Mayer spoke coldly, but obviously with good intentions. He apparently kept in mind that I stood up for him last night, when he was working for us as a tour guide.

I suppose this is what they called the ‘tsundere’ archetype, but at the moment, exploring that side of the world wasn’t going to be any more helpful than going back to exploring the world of Shanghai mitten crabs.

“Eh, about that.” I raised my hands above my head. The bike broke through the hotel walls and dropped on my hands. It was a very light bike, weighing less than twenty kilograms, but it had dropped from sufficient height to create cracks on the surrounding ground below my feet.

“Whoa!”

Surprised, the protesters scrambled for their guns. These people were definitely unsuited to act like they were soldiers. Tsk. I almost worried for the state of the rebellion’s lack of proper military personnel myself.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“What? Wait, why not?!”

“What are you people going to do after transporting the civilians over to the stadium? You’re not going to kill them, are you?”

I definitely knew they weren’t going to, but I asked to seem like I was suspicious of them. Any stuck-up people like Mayer were guaranteed to reply in fury. He had great education but always felt underrepresented in society. He felt that he deserved more from this world, going as far as mentoring for a rebel leader to gain respect. It was obvious what he would say next.

“Don’t make such stupid a.s.sumptions! That’s not it at all! I am a part of this rebellion for a greater cause!”

“...”

“This is all for the future of Critik…!”

Just as planned.

Though, there was truth in his words. This man had gone through the trouble of acquiring a doctorate, yet he had to resort to a job as a tour guide that was not suited for him. For most citizens of Critik, their biggest source of income was the spending and tips from rich Federation tourists. Just to survive, they had to sell their smiles and souls, while their hatred for the Federation grew.

I wondered how strongly he must have felt that the Federation owed him. It wasn’t difficult to understand why he would have done the things he did-- but that was then.

I thought about Sergeant Aroha, and what kind of trouble she might be in…

Following that thought, a large digital sign on a distant building began displaying Sergeant Aroha’s face. She had bruises on her face and bled from a cut, likely injured when she was forcefully ripped out from the building before. Her injuries seemed pretty light if that was the cause, but…

[Smile, traitor!]

A young lady’s voice came from the speakers around the sign.

Sergeant Aroha was restrained to a chair with ropes, and multiple ladies surrounded her, armed with a sword each.

I was surprised at how beautiful the ladies were. They had amazingly pearly-white skins as if they were physically glowing, and their bodies were slender and enchanting like a white lotus. These stunning ladies surrounded Sergeant Aroha.

The camera turned around to then focus on a different lady, with silver-blonde hair and dark-brown skin, laughing at Sergeant Aroha. Her healthy tone, sizable chest yet thin waist, and her Alter-Armour pilot suit that tightly wrapped around her body to reveal every detail and curve were enough to possess any man. Despite all that, I found myself wanting to see more of the other girls.

W-wait, that’s not important right now!

[An Asa, willingly working for the Federation military?! I haven’t seen a more despicable thing!]

The silver-haired lady chopped the top of a bottle on a nearby table with the side of her hand. The top section of the bottle cleanly fell away, causing its content to bubble out and drip down. Bubble champagne? She picked up the bottle and began chugging it down voraciously.

...Huh? She’s going for a wild-wolf-style att.i.tude with an appearance like hers? It was cool how feisty she was, but she was failing at instilling fear-- I was confused, instead. Maybe because she had none of the elegance of her appearance. A quiet, gentle-looking girl appeared next to her and cleaned after her.

[Now, pay attention, everyone! Ahem. I am a princess of the Sentosa system and a pilot of Kishin Saika, Rear Admiral Riznah Eresiki-gal of the Alliance!] She shouted, pointing the broken bottle at Sergeant Aroha. Sergeant Aroha moved back in surprise, and the lady almost contacted the broken edge of the bottle onto Aroha’s face. If she moved the bottle further, it was sure to cut a new wound on Aroha’s face. But the Asa princess called Riznah played around with the bottle rather than cutting her, spinning it around dangerously. [This girl is an Asa just like us, yet she claims to be a soldier of the Federation. That is worthy of a punishment, yes?]

[Yes.] [That is correct, Harakal.] The elegant girls to the side simultaneously agreed.

Suddenly, a line of text appeared on the screen to accompany her speech.

---Harakal: Royal ranks of the Asa, the top of their caste system.

“....”

What was that for?! I thought this was a horrible public execution, but now it just looks like they meant it to be a reality show!

“Ugh.”

“Man…”

Even the protesters beside me groaned. I couldn’t say anything, either.

But the lady on the screen, Princess Riznah smiled in satisfaction, spinning the bottle on her hand.

Hey, lady, you can’t seriously be happy with that kind of acting! I wished I could have told her that, but she spun the bottle only an inch away from Sergeant Aroha’s face. If she slipped even by a tiny margin, Sergeant Aroha may have ended up with her face full of gla.s.s.

[Agh, what do you think you’re doing?] Sergeant Aroha began speaking. Unafraid of the situation, she looked at the camera and grinned. [If you’re going to show my cute face on television, at least dress me up first! And clean up these scars, while you’re at it.]

Her confident, smiling face gained a fresh, b.l.o.o.d.y scar at that moment.

The Asa princess grimaced, pointing the bottle at Sergeant Aroha’s face. [Are you trying to look brave?]

[Not at all, I’ll gladly beg for my life if you’ll let me live.]

[But?]

[But it doesn’t look like you’ll let me live regardless, you see? So, what do you want? My deepest, sincerest apologies? Or… a wild, hot show for the audience?] Sergeant Aroha took a look at the camera, and purposefully entwined her legs together. She was still in her hot pants, and her new pose accentuated her athletic, well-crafted hips.

--Gulp!

The bunch of hastily formed soldiers simultaneously gulped nervously. Men.

And the caption did not fail to show up again.

--Ooh~!

...What am I supposed to think of this?

[You seem to want to get something out of this, if you’re broadcasting all of it. Why don’t you tell me what you want, Harakal?]

[Hm.... yes, that’ll be nice. Umea!]

--Umea. The warrior caste of the Asa. Third highest rank.

Of course, the caption showed again. ...Also, Umea? I had little idea how the caste system worked, but it sounded like Sergeant Aroha was a part of a highly respectable rank.

[I remember you, Umea. Your father is a human, yes? And I have heard that the ‘Black Sisters’ have trained you so that you may join their ranks, is that not correct?]

[...] Sergeant Aroha flinched.

The caption again did not fail to explain this new development.

--Black Sisters: The highest level Asa Council of Elders. Controls the politics of all Asa nations.

[You’re not trying to say that you’re my little sister, are you?]

[What are you talking about? I’m only interested in the Umea that the Black Sisters once wanted to recruit. Now, become my handmaiden! If you promise to repent for your past with the Federation and become a part of the Alliance, then I will forgive your sins!]

--The Generous Harakal!

Terrible show! That act was so fake that I’d rather believe an Easter musical at a Sunday school was the real deal! And that caption ruined it even further!

But now it was clear-- they wanted to show that they would even take Federation soldiers into the Alliance if they intended to jump ship. Gross! This is the most blatant, up-front propaganda I’ve ever seen! They could not have expected Sergeant Aroha to accept that!

And Sergeant Aroha was a Federation soldier, after all. If she had said ‘Yeah, sure!’, she would earn a free ticket to the Federation military prison if she were to be rescued and returned. There were too many witnesses around to avoid that fate.

But if she made a mockery out of the Asa princess instead, then her life would be put in danger. What could she do? She may very well accept the Alliance…

[Can we talk about this again when we know each other better? We’re not at that level yet, I don’t think.] said Sergeant Aroha, smiling. She was expected to beg for her life and look cowardly, but she looked like she was enjoying the situation, instead. That was her charisma.

In any case, that was a great response. She had earned extra time for us

The broadcast went quiet as the tense moment pa.s.sed by.

“Eh…” Mayer turned back around, snapping out of confusion from the broadcast. He looked absolutely befuddled, as if he drowned in bottles of vodka not a second ago. “Anyway, you--”

But I was already on the bike with Admiral Luise in my arms, with Ensign Meihowa sitting at the back seat with her Colion rifle trained on Mayer.

“Wait, what?!”

“Sorry, friend, I have to go save that lady in the television. Could you kindly not get in my way? Or would you like to join me as a bargaining hostage?”

“Argh! You’re insane! You’re going to die if you go there! And it looks like she was that Asa girl after all!” Mayer warned me. The soldiers around him immediately pointed their guns at us.

“Thanks to that broadcast, everything is clear now. There really is a way to move an entire city’s population from Critik to someplace else, huh?”

My rhetorical question surprised Mayer. “H-how did you know that?!”

“Well, because they went through the trouble of doing that broadcast. If you guys are bringing people to the stadium while making a show like that one, you’re trying to convince them what a nice time they’ll have when they’re with the Alliance, right?”

“...”

“Are you sure you people are from this age? All these things are the oldest tricks in the book! You might have a better time convincing people back on eighteenth century Earth. h.e.l.l, the act was so hilariously bad, I have to give it to Sergeant Aroha for not laughing through the whole thing. No, wait, you guys will probably take it as a compliment if I said it was funny. Let’s just stop at ‘you suck’.”

Mayer ground his teeth after listening to my stream of insults. But soon, even he had to agree. “I-I can’t refute that. The Asa and the Elcro are culturally equivalent to sixteenth century Earth, so their sense of dramatics is… outdated. But she’s also the Rear Admiral of the Alliance…”

Ah, so he went unheard because of his inferior rank. The rebellion took on the full risk at the start of this coup, but it seemed that the Alliance took full control of the situation over time. So that’s why these poor people had to play along…

“You should think about quitting while it’s still early. Anyway, see you later!”

“Wait!”

I revved up the bike and spun around, and then I was off. The soldiers panicked and reached for the triggers on their guns, but I had already used telekinesis to accelerate the bike forward. We blasted forward at an amazing speed, while plasma sh.e.l.ls from behind harmlessly bounced off of my projected black barrier.

Normal force barriers were able to effectively deflect an average plasma sh.e.l.l. However, an untrained pract.i.tioner occasionally burned or blinded himself from plasma sh.e.l.ls creating powerful light and heat from friction with the barrier.

A black barrier, on the other hand, operated purely through the force of gravity, by creating a localized ergosphere. It wasn’t something that could be created on the spot-- I had to remember the universal location of micro-black holes created by the Sole Power of Heaven and Earth, and their ergosphere was projected at a location at my will. The black barrier ignored the limits of distance of a conventional teleportation.

“Whoa! What the h.e.l.l is that?!”

“A power user?!”

“No way! How can anyone use psionic powers at a casino city?!”

I continued onwards, leaving the shocked soldiers behind me.

“Ugh! What do those Asa think they’re doing?!” Ensign Meihowa groaned from behind, hanging onto me as the bike gained speed.

“How should I know?! Our first course of action is retrieving Colorado and Rabbitte the Rabbit! And we’ll rescue Sergeant Aroha after that! I can’t believe she has to deal with those insane maniacs alone!”

I felt like I was committing a terrible crime. Sergeant Aroha was a very strong woman, so that alone bought some time for us. I imagined that anyone else would have gone completely insane after being thrown into a reality show produced by writers from the medieval age. My own body couldn’t take it after taking a short glimpse of their act-- what would it feel like, being the center of attention within it?

--Haah… Haah…

I heard someone breathing roughly. I looked down in surprise, and there I saw Admiral Luise heaving deep breaths as she latched tightly onto me. Was it too hard to breathe at the speed we were going?

“Are you alright?”

“I’m not-.... I-I’m alright. Don’t worry about me.”

“...How can I not worry?”

I became overly conscious of Admiral Luise’s soft breaths brushing against my chest. Whoa, no way, I shouldn’t have become aware of it! I tried to separate away from her a little. But suddenly, Admiral Luise shook violently and hugged me tightly.

O-okay, so she was holding on because the bike was jerking around too much. No other reason, right?

By the time I came back to focus, we had already made our return to Chinatown. Even the Chinatown entrance was guarded by soldiers and Tri-Walkers.

“Should we make a forceful breakthrough?” I asked.

Ensign Meihowa shook her head. “No, that’s going to bring more of them here. I’ll lure them away.” She set her Colion to remote control mode and approached a worn car on the road. She struck the windshield with the back of her rifle and fit it between the broken bits. She opened the door to the driver’s seat, set the car on automatic driving mode, and held down the trigger to the rifle remotely.

--*Pewpewpewpewpew--!*

The Colion rifle sprayed its plasma sh.e.l.ls around Chinatown. The car drove itself on the road encircling the area. The stationed soldiers, Alter-Armours, and Tri-Walkers all turned their attention to it and dispersed. We used the opening to sneak to the antique shop, but its door was closed for the time being.

“One and a half billion credits… Is it really going to be okay for us to take them? Shouldn’t we at least get the owner’s consent?” Admiral Luise spoke nervously. She was worried that, instead of working up the proper quest line to acquiring these items, we were stealing it in the end.

I shook my head. “We can’t be choosy at a dangerous time like this. Necessity of defense! The laws of the world protect us with that reasoning.”

Ensign Meihowa had already begun picking the lock to the display case while I spoke. It was a traditional metal lock, rather than a modern, electronic lock, so Ensign Meihowa had to physically work it herself.

“Wait, when did you learn how to pick locks, Ensign Meihowa?”

“You know, I like to watch old movies from Earth. I practiced with it, but the real thing isn’t as easy as I thought.”

“Hmm…”

I could have gone inside myself by phase shifting, but it was meaningless for me to go inside alone. W-wait, what if I just brought everything out through the display window?

But then--

“Customers?”

A voice called out from behind us. Behind us was an old man, slouched down and staring at us.

“Erk!”

“Kyaa!”

“Ah!”

The too-suspicious trio ceased their burglary and jumped in surprise. How did the old man approach us without us noticing?

“Hm. Looks to me that you came here for Colorado and Rabbitte. Since you have an Elcro with you, I presume you’re the hagglers that William Mayer worked for. But-- I am not selling these to you. Please leave me be.”

The old man asked us to leave and turned around to leave, when it was obvious that we were trying to steal from him.

“But wait, there’s a price tag…”

The old man answered Ensign Meihowa. “They are my personal values for Colorado and Rabbitte the Rabbit. They are meant to show how much they’re worth to me! I do not mean to sell them off!”

“...But why is Colorado cheaper than Rabbitte?”

“Hmm?!”

“N-nothing.” I immediately shut up. Admiral Luise shrugged at me and smiled. She probably meant to look smug, but with her face, she just looked like a little girl doing a preschool exercise routine. In a good way, of course, not to make fun of her.

“Hold on, wait.” I came back to my senses and stood in the old man’s way. “I really, really need Colorado. A friend of mine is being held by a dangerous enemy…”

“Humph! You think you can use Colorado?”

“Of course.”

“Do you take that sword for a fruit knife, boy? That sword is…”

Ensign Meihowa sighed as the old man began a lengthy grumble. “Lezirth, you don’t have to deal with an old loony like him.”

“Hmm? ‘Lezirth’?”

The old man fell silent and inspected me from head to toe. Erk, what’s going on?! I felt like I was being touched by his eyes, like hardened prisoners looking at a fresh inmate at a max security prison…

“Hmm. Well-built body, and, hum, hmm…”

“E-excuse me?”

“Maybe? No, no, that cannot be.”

The old man muttered to himself, and pa.s.sed by me to the door. He produced a key from his pockets and opened the case to Rabbitte the Rabbit and Colorado.

“Try using it.”

“...”

I took Colorado. I felt a wave of nostalgia wash upon me. The heavy weight on my hand was exactly that of the last feeling I had, when it had fell from my grip a hundred and twenty years ago. My companion blade had been waiting for me for more than a century.

‘Even if it had become so arrogant and took upon such a ridiculous price for itself.’

The blade had gone from being a free, military-issued blade to being an antique worth five hundred million credits. What a promotion! Meanwhile, its owner had gone from being the Vice Admiral to a shopkeeper on a resort planet.

I sighed, and raised the sword above my head.

And then,

“Hey, there they are!”

“I knew they’d be here!”

A crowd of soldiers ran towards us. Even an Alter-Armour came after us, smashing into walls left and right as it staggered forth.

“Surrender now!”

[We’ll let you live if you do so!] The Alter-Armour aimed its rifle at us.

I smiled.

--Sacred Sword!

At that moment, Colorado became a crimson, blinding beam of light within my hands. It had been quantized, so naked eyes saw nothing but light. I gently swung the blade down, and cut apart the Alter-Armour’s rifle.

[Kwargh!] The Alter-Armour’s pilot screamed.

The soldiers reacted by aiming their rifles at me, but I swung my blade once more to destroy their rifles. Those who continued to resist found that their rifles were no longer operational.

Admiral Luise hugged the robotic rabbit like it was a child’s toy. Light emanated from beneath the rabbit’s face and projected comical expressions. It opened its enamel-red eyes.

Rabbitte the Rabbit-- it was the first reboot after more than a century of sleep.

From the robotic rabbit, multiple transparent lines flew forth and penetrated the soldiers’ weapons and the Alter-Armour. That was all it took to shut them down completely. Even reverting to factory mode could not get the guns to fire-- it was more than a digital shutdown.

[h.e.l.lo, mistress! Great to see you again! Our last meeting was a hundred and twenty years, twenty-eight days, and fourteen hours ago!] Rabbitte spoke in a robotic tone. Its AI was highly advanced, but most of the AI was designed for Admiral Luise’s convenience, and it did not have emotions or a personality. Yet, Admiral Luise calmly pet its head-- as if she was proud of it for staying operational after more than a century of our absence.

The old man was utterly shocked to see these events unfold.

“Whoah! Oooooooaahh!”

Take a breather, old man! The man suddenly ran towards us and held my hand. He looked pleased to see us, like looking at an old friend. Unfortunately, he looked like a decaying zombie when he lurched towards us, as if he was from an old horror movie.

“That was the real Sacred Sword! Th-then, you are…!”

“Ah…”

I regretted what I had done. I had revealed my true ident.i.ty to the old man. Admiral Luise had also revealed herself by having Rabitte call her its master.

But the old man’s next words defeated my expectations.

“I was waiting for you, Vice Admiral Lezirth! Admiral Luise! Finally, the Prophecy is set in motion!”

“...What?”

What’s going on?!

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