episode_0339

Beneath the cold fluorescent lights, the form of a knight slowly took shape. Amidst the whirring of power tools and various mechanical sounds, the distinct clicking of components combining echoed clearly.

All procedures unfolded calmly and methodically, like a pre-arranged script. The process of donning the field armor had long been deeply imprinted within the network, thanks to countless repetitions.

The internal framework was first connected to the arms and legs, followed by intricate artificial muscles and motor-integrated movable parts taking their places where joints, muscles, and ligaments should be.

“Connection complete!”

Assembly was the reverse of disassembly. The Restraid armor, despite its sophistication, had a surprisingly simple structure, allowing for immediate assembly even in the field.

Once the internal framework and motors precisely interlocked, solid armor plating was added over them.

“Verify connections!”

Two Violets simultaneously raised the armor’s gauntlets. As Violet extended her hand, the movable parts vibrated subtly, gently enveloping her hand.

Manipulators fitted onto each finger like rings. Violet marveled as the gauntlet’s fingers moved naturally, as if they were her own, and she ran her hand over them.

“Gauntlet connection complete!”

Next, the armor interlocked piece by piece: legs, arms, breastplate, and shoulder guards. Finally, the helmet enclosed her head.

Instantly, Violet found herself in pitch-black darkness.

A suffocating sensation, as if trapped in a sealed coffin, enveloped her.

“It’s dark!”

Inside the sealed power armor, there was no room for even a breath of air. This armor, plundered from a bandit gang in the dungeon, was quite spacious, yet now it felt suffocatingly tight.

Although the armor itself was bulky, now that it had been adjusted to her body during repairs, it felt like being trapped in an iron coffin.

Fortunately, even before the power was activated, the pressure from its weight wasn’t significant. This was because the armor’s structure allowed its weight to interlock and disperse itself.

Violet recalled her duel with Sebastian once more.

The sight of the Restraid Steel Guard confronting the Apostles in the Erosion Zone flashed through her mind. The armor was so cramped that even if her back itched, she couldn’t scratch it.

She wondered how anyone could fight wearing something like this.

As stray thoughts crossed her mind, the backpack containing the power core was finally connected to her back.

The iris shutter that had obstructed her vision clicked open, and a cascade of symbols and numbers poured across her head-up display.

“Activation… complete!”

The power transmitted through the armor enveloped her entire body.

With each movement, her muscle strength, which provided feedback for her actions, increased, and the flow of magical power intensified, wrapping around her body like a storm.

Although her total magical power remained the same, the force circulating and emanating from her body was like a typhoon. Violet instinctively sensed overwhelming power.

She stepped forward. First, cautiously, one step at a time, then she broke into a full sprint.

—Thud!

She launched herself out of the building. The steel knight faced the enemies with dignity immediately after landing.

A momentary silence followed her landing. As soon as the protocol signaled danger, the agents unleashed a volley of lethal attacks. Violet instantly concentrated magical power and channeled it into the circuits throughout her body. A low hum vibrated, and the ether-sensitive circuits and various defensive spells inscribed on the inner side of the armor plates activated all at once.

—Clang!

Electromagnetic bolts infused with magical power rained down. Sharp impact sounds, like hailstones, hammered the armor’s surface.

The carbonite armor grew even more robust, steadfastly enduring the merciless barrage. As her heavy footsteps struck the broken road, a loud rumble echoed.

As if sensing danger instinctively, one of the cyborgs turned its head.

A Stregonics, its attack algorithm activated, charged like a beast.

The force fields wrapped around its steel fists crackled as they collided with the air, and the display blared a sharp warning. A fragile human would instantly be reduced to a lump of flesh.

“Not now!”

The knight resolutely drew her weapon and countered. A lightning spear was gripped in her thick metal hand. Drawing on maximum magical power and output, she thrust her right arm forward with all her might.

Her target was the critical central point; behind the force field and armor lay a canister containing brain matter and nerves.

A decisive blow that would determine victory or defeat in an instant. The heavy, crude spear tore through the force field like paper. A small explosion erupted with a flash.

—Boom!

The magic-infused shaped-charge spearhead penetrated the armor a second time and exploded.

A third blow drove the dagger of flame and metal deep into the canister’s location. The brainless machine staggered, then crashed to the ground.

“Done for!”

The tiresome close-quarters combat indoors was finally over.

“Advance! Advance!”

Now, only the charge remained.

**

The clang of metal striking metal echoed down the road. As the Violet unit, led by the armored knight, advanced, the blockade enforcement squad’s elites scattered into their respective teams, engaging in delaying tactics.

The operations officer diligently pieced together the torrent of incoming information, calculating to find the optimal response.

[Suppression protocol active. Prioritize stopping the power armor straight ahead.]

The short, thick cannon on the Stregonics’ back aimed at the enemy. Soon, a dazzling laser beam erupted. Immediately after, the armored knight raised a large shield to meet it.

A torrent of heat. The shield glowed from deep red to white-hot, and the surrounding air swirled violently. Inside the armor, heat built up, which even the air conditioning system couldn’t stop.

“The armored knight won’t fall!”

The carbonite armor held firm without faltering. But that wasn’t all Violet had to offer.

“Assault team advance! Fire team flank!”

Outside, they wouldn’t have to worry much about collateral damage.

Violet decided to do what she did best.

“Heavy weapons deployed! All squad members, aside from the assault team, are to equip heavy caliber weapons and attack!”

A firepower battle, Ariel Group’s specialty, began.

While the knight drew all attention, the Violets, armed with combat rifles, dispersed orderly to the flanks behind the shield.

Using street obstacles and large riot shields as cover, Violet established a firing line with rifle-type autocannons and electromagnetic rifles.

Like a single organism, the Violet squad unleashed precise fire from angles calculated by their collective intelligence. A thousand brains intertwined as one, dominating the battlefield with optimal tactics.

—Tat-tat-tat!

Her shoulder ached and her hand tingled with each pull of the trigger. Crude, heavy metallic bullets intersected with monomolecular bolts accelerated by electromagnetic fields in the air.

At the moment technical precision met the artistry of biological consciousness, a chilling pronouncement was delivered.

[RF-A-06, unconscious! RF-B-10, instantly deceased! Casualties increasing!]

Operations Officer L3-OPS-3 struggled desperately in the face of the mounting death tolls. Why? He, they, had seen it. The direction those small enemy soldiers’ muzzles aimed with every shot.

The enemies’ gaze moved rhythmically like a metronome, constantly focusing and releasing their attacks.

—Bang!

“Concentrated fire!”

The network’s collective intelligence expanded its dominion over the world, much like a skilled painter adding brushstrokes.

The experience and tactical doctrines accumulated by one person over a long time spread throughout the entire network, aligning with Violet’s own experience, and Luminexa-style precision strike tactics emerged in an even more advanced form.

—Clank!

Unit 421, carrying a large ammo drum bag, pulled out a coiling belt of ammunition and connected it to the machine gun. As the charging handle was pulled and the trigger squeezed, a torrent of light erupted with a loud roar.

Suppressive fire from the machine gunners and autocannon fire from the heavy weapons team swept through the charging proxy horde.

—Thump-thump!

Another agent, using a meat shield to fire, collapsed again. Heavy metallic bullets and armor-piercing high-explosive rounds hammered like hail at decimal-point intervals.

The combat rifles filled any gaps that could be missed, and crossbow bolts flew in, burning red, piercing defenses. The agents were certain: the enemy was using the same tactics as them.

[Reviewing the last report. Is this mimicking the Inquisitor’s knowledge?]

[Yes? No. Similar but different. More precise—]

With typical Foundation composure and coolness, they struggled to escape the net.

[Proxy 80% casualties! All Mech Hounds destroyed. Stregonics count is—]

—Boom!

The knight, with another charge, brought down a second Stregonics. The agents desperately used every means at their disposal.

Once the city’s subspace activation concluded, they would be able to use the gateway again. Either retreat or call for reinforcements to stop that monstrosity. In any case, they had to buy time by any means.

While a tethered drone on his back rose, desperately collecting more data, some agents pulled can-shaped objects from their belts and pressed buttons. Their target was the knight.

“Stop the power armor!”

—Splat!

The armored knight staggered for a moment, then became sluggish. The collective intelligence recognized the sticky substance clinging to her joints and the floor as nano-adhesive fluid.

Sun-like shots rained down on the road. The agents poured fire until the plasma guns’ muzzles melted. The last barely surviving Stregonics deployed a folded rectangular gun emplacement on its shoulder. The Violets’ gazes behind their goggles focused.

[Target locked, scanning. Identifying, guiding!]

“Watch out! They’re micro-missiles!”

Tiny, magic-tracking missiles poured out in volleys. The machine gunners immediately turned their muzzles.

While the intercepted missiles exploded, agents sought to exploit gaps in the firing line to launch a counterattack.

—Thwack!

Everyone had a plan. Until their head was blown off by buckshot.

“Alright, Kalia, enter.”

Oppressive heavy metal interjected into the delicate symphony of the duel.

“All fire team members, switch to close-range weapons and enter. Cover your friend at close quarters!”

—Boom! Crash!

Kalia, who had descended the wall from the flank, tore through the oncoming cannon fodder.

She gave in to her instincts, pulling triggers and swinging her sword. Darting between agents, she unleashed a flurry of fiery bullets.

No calculations, no analysis needed. With superhuman reflexes and talent, she dodged enemy muzzles and rampaged.

“Reload!”

She tossed her guns into the air, one by one. Cocoa swiftly caught them and reloaded.

Two Magnum revolvers and a shotgun ripped through enemies in succession. Sword slashes flew above them. As two agents’ swords swished past her head, she abandoned her guns.

What flew into the mask of the agent calmly striking down was a fist. The trench knife in her left hand, imbued with magical power, and the knuckled grip glowed red-hot.

—Crunch!

The mask and jaw split open as if exploding. Her left hand brutally struck the neck, and the curved blade in her right hand stabbed the heart and pulled out.

Kalia retreated after eliminating two agents in succession. Behind her, Cocoa was visible, holding a grenade launcher.

“Ooh-ooh-ah!”

A flashbang grenade exploded. In that instant, the monkey quickly clung to Kalia’s back and escaped.

Immediately after, Violets armed with shotguns, maces, and one-handed shields stormed in. Like salt on a torn wound, the Violets butchered the retreating agents.

“Spread out! Tear them apart!”

One squad vanished.

While the Violets pressed the enemy with precise tactics, Kalia caused chaos with unpredictable ferocity. The Foundation’s agents fell into disarray before these two contrasting threats.

The enemy’s movements overwhelmed the Nemesis terminal’s calculations and information support, and the Awakened’s movements, intervening in that gap, brutally widened the wound.

‘Had the Nemesis Protocol ever been this powerless?’

[Most forces lost. All auxiliary troops lost. Only 1 Stregonics active…]

The information swirling in his vision was chilling.

Suddenly, the operations officer realized an even more disturbing truth. The protocol, which could see through walls and read particle flows, why…

‘…can I not see their faces?’

The operations officer couldn’t comprehend the enemy soldiers’ faces, distorted by a mosaic effect.

**

Lieutenant Colonel Biral gnashed his teeth as he checked the terminal’s signal.

The tactical display repeatedly flickered, indicating the presence of senators nearby, but amidst the building-shaking explosions, all escape routes had long been cut off.

“Report! What about the others!”

“Route 6 is also cut off! The enemy has seized all passages!”

D-team’s report was ominous. With the senators out of sight, these unknown mercenaries not only blocked all routes but also massacred their own forces who had entered.

Heavy weapon strongpoints had been established everywhere, seemingly out of nowhere. Continually roaring large-caliber autocannons tore through walls, and if they hesitated even slightly, mortar shells rained down from above.

“Let’s kill them quickly and move on!”

Violet’s collective intelligence ordered a quick clean-up. Though she herself didn’t realize it, as thousands of brains analyzed and reconstructed the tactics from the Foundation Inquisitor’s memories, Violet acted like Luminexa. Each individual moved like a single organism. They struck the enemy’s weak points, blocked escape routes, and suppressed with precise firepower.

Borrowing a hunter’s memories, anyone could become a hunter.

—Rat-a-tat-tat!

Electromagnetic rifle’s heavy metallic bullets tore through the wall and burst out. Team C, formed as a temporary cover unit, fiercely returned fire, but the enemy’s firing line was too meticulous. Precise shots, targeting weaknesses, continued.

“Damn it, how are they…!”

Another squad member screamed and fell. Team C crumbled one by one under precision fire that seemed to pierce even invisible walls. Watching the last makeshift covering Team C member incinerate from a mortar shell, the lieutenant colonel drew his last grenade.

—Boom!

With a deafening explosion, the upper floor collapsed. Amidst this, the air force mechs launched attacks in all directions.

“River 1! River 2! What are you doing!”

[We’re finished anyway! It’s because of you bastards! You incompetent fools! Go to hell, all of you!]

As the war machine struggled frantically, Violet issued a command to the network as if she had been waiting for that moment.

“Aim for weak points!”

The girls raised their muzzles in unison. Trajectories calculated by hundreds of brains sliced through the air.

The mech, with its jet engines active, evaded the bullet barrage with surprising mobility, but the precision fire penetrated the machine’s weak points. Its external observation cameras were shattered, and its jetpack exploded.

“River 1, going down…!”

The heavy chunk of iron slammed into the ground. Just as the mech tried to stand up with difficulty, anti-tank missiles and rockets poured down, tearing it to shreds.

—Boom!

The second battlesuit also plummeted helplessly under concentrated fire. It tried to hold on by deploying smoke screens, but…

“Here!”

“Aargh!”

A passing Violet threw a cluster of explosives. Silence once more.

The lieutenant colonel gnashed his teeth, watching the main force’s collapse. After dying like this, where was he supposed to go?

In front, Luminexa’s Stregonics fired lasers, and the retreat routes were seized by unknown mercenaries.

“Team B! Team C! Retreat while providing cover! To the underground parking lot…!”

An explosion swallowed his command. Mortar shells blew up the stairs, and successive explosions brought down walls. A cascade of debris and concrete buried the lieutenant colonel’s body.

“Aaaargh!”

The agonizing pain of a crushed leg. As his mind faded, he saw one last thing.

Beyond the rising smoke, soldiers in black combat suits were approaching.

‘What the hell are those bastards…?’

His consciousness gradually sank into darkness.

“This side is cleared! Rejoining the main force!”

As the Violet squad regrouped, the terminal shriek mixed with explosions from the Luminexa Blockade Enforcement Unit echoed not far away.

**

L3-OPS-3 confirmed the information appearing in his vision. Three minutes. The time remaining until the city’s subspace was activated.

[1 Stregonics active…]

—Crunch!

The Stregonics, its armaments destroyed, resisted then staggered. Kalia’s chain had bound one of its legs. The wobbling machine was struck by the knight’s sword and fell.

“What do we do…?”

All tactical windows flickered red. As the encirclement tightened, the operations officer pulled out his last card.

[Protocol, maximum output.]

L3-OPS-3 unhesitatingly lifted the terminal’s restrictions.

“Ugh! Something’s pushing!”

“Ah, ugh…!”

The Violets’ movements faltered. Their actions became sluggish, as if walking through fog. Others’ reactions were more immediate. Kalia staggered, then clutched her head.

The collective intelligence fell into disarray. A sudden, pressing sensation.

The operations officer and the survivors charged with seemingly much faster movements. The manipulators folded on the operations officer’s back unfolded. Weapons attached to each arm spewed lightning and poured out flames.

[Alert to all survivors. Gateway activation imminent. Resist with all your might—]

Four Violets, whose movements had slowed, were caught in the attack and fell.

“It’s no easy feat!”

However, Violet read the path of the pressure it exerted. The fluctuating network found an answer.

“There it is!”

The collective intelligence flashed. Naturally, as if it had to be.

The network recognized the protocol’s presence.

—Crack!

Suddenly, a flash of light ignited in the air. High above, a procession of intricately crafted, rotating rings of pure white metal appeared.

“Unit 7200! Is that it?”

“Yes! That’s it! The Nemesis Protocol!”

The device hovering in the air rotated furiously. The spinning rings whirled madly, releasing energy.

A metallic pillar floated amidst three concentric rings, spinning around each other. Blue energy pulsed.

That advanced war machine, the Foundation’s pride, moved continuously like a living organism, unleashing a tidal wave of information.

“Can’t we do it too?”

And so they did.

Waves of information clashed, and a storm of data surged.

“That’s… not just a simple machine.”

“It’s like an artifact, right? Anyway, let’s shoot it down!”

A torrent of fire poured from the Violets, but the device was still enveloped in a sturdy shield.

However, as the information to be processed suddenly surged, the terminal’s calculations began to overload.

Fine cracks appeared between the spinning rings.

Calculations reached their limit. The system was overloaded from simultaneously processing numerous pieces of information and threats. Gaps, overlooked until now, began to appear.

Violet saw it in an instant. Ordinary dust and air currents were passing through the shield. Fluttering paper scraps, debris, and smoke were passing through the shield. Why?

“If it were a normal force field, it would block everything…”

“That’s because it’s something that interferes with information!”

Violet realized it. The protocol had excluded ‘non-threatening’ entities from its calculations.

Violet wasn’t the only one to receive that realization.

Therefore, an unexpected blow flew through the gaps and cracks.

The most trivial, harmless attack.

“Here it goes!”

“Helping the boss!”

A crow, carrying a sewer rat on its back, flapped its wings and flew in. By the time an agent, realizing the problem, desperately raised a hand, it was too late.

“Huh? Lemon!”

“Boss! I’ll make us win!”

The insignificant beast passed through the shield. The young sewer rat, as if sucked in, vanished through the machine’s tiny opening.

The small heart, brimming with courage, made a decision. The rat, having infiltrated the terminal, bit hard into the wires and circuit bundles before its eyes.

Silence.

“Aaaargh!”

It was a very small flaw; only one or two wires, one circuit, were severed. But the overloaded terminal couldn’t withstand that flaw.

The circular rings shattered into pieces. Blue energy dispersed into the air. The shield broke.

The protocol’s restrictions were lifted.

Thousands of brains simultaneously shouted.

“The restrictions are lifted! Charge! Charge!”

The last thing reflected in the eyes of the surviving Foundation agents were the endlessly increasing soldiers in black combat suits.

The operations officer despaired. The last tactical data on that monstrosity would now remain forever in darkness.

[Operation failed. All survivors are…]

Smoke rose from the road.

**

The smoke cleared, and the battlefield fell silent. Violet walked, stepping over the fragments and debris that covered the walls and road.

Was it over? Everything happened too quickly. She looked around.

“Yay! We did it!”

“The barrier is breaking!”

The celebration was brief; familiar footsteps approached. Rats were carefully coming, searching for something among the debris. Violet froze.

“…Lemon!”

The small body lay limp and charred. It was a miracle that its body was intact amidst the terminal’s explosion.

Violet slowly knelt. The cold metal armor enveloped the small life.

“You fool! Why did you rush in!”

That idiotic little rat. She hadn’t expected it to rush in and do something the moment it read her thoughts.

Hot tears welled in Violet’s eyes.

But there was no time to fully feel the sorrow. The small body slowly began to glow, then dispersed like sparkling grains. Like tiny stars rising into the sky.

Kalia’s eyes, watching, widened.

“Violet, surely this isn’t…”

The remaining rats circled at her feet. Violet looked up at the sky.

As the barrier lifted and the blockade was released, the shimmering particles vanished beyond the revealed blue sky.

“Lemon is…”