Ch.147147. Space War

‘Angel.’ This monster, also known as the White Calamity, is a humanoid creature that stands just over 2 meters tall.

Its visible characteristics are limited to a white biological suit covering its entire body and wings of light—the source of its angelic nickname.

Despite this simple appearance, the monster is considered highly dangerous because, despite its small size, it moves faster than a speedboat and possesses firepower exceeding that of a battleship.

The photons composed of psychic energy emitted from its back allow this monster to reach a top speed of 300 kilometers per second, and a simple ramming attack at this velocity can destroy most vessels.

These photons can also be used for both offense and defense, giving it nearly battleship-level firepower and protection. Though equipped with additional armaments, its ability to single-handedly fire a planet-killer level weapon is not just famous but considered the quintessential example of its danger.

And despite being capable of such devastating firepower, it’s only human-sized and can perform short-distance spatial jumps through self-generated space distortion—

In extreme terms, it’s a being capable of destroying an entire fleet stationed in one of humanity’s core planetary systems single-handedly. That is the ‘Angel.’

This is why they—and more specifically, Theresia herself—were so shocked.

“Everyone to defensive positions! I’ll take the lead myself!”

If it weren’t for her—the very person who had reduced the number of named monsters with zero death experiences from eight to five—the fleet might be completely annihilated.

“Lady Theresia, good luck…!”

“Understood!”

Theresia, instantly changing from her pristine white captain’s uniform into a golden and yellow bodysuit, left the bridge and hurried to the hangar where her Titan Armor awaited.

“This way!”

In the hangar, her personal Titan Armor stood ready with its cockpit open, prepared by the maintenance crew in advance. She boarded immediately and completed launch preparations in just 41 seconds.

[Anchor detached! Launch in 10 seconds!]

After disconnecting from the hangar anchors, the Titan Armor was loaded onto the catapult and shot out of the ship like a projectile.

“…Callsign Gold Zero, launching.”

Thanks to the pre-activated power source, energy began pouring from the thrusters immediately upon launch. Gold Zero reached maximum speed in exactly three seconds and arrived at the site of intense combat activity, far from the command flagship’s position.

‘That diligent model student is still the same.’

There, amid floating debris of destroyed small and medium-sized vessels and disabled Titan Armors, stood the ‘Angel,’ motionless and staring in her direction.

The Angel displayed the second reason for its name—a massive ring of light made of photons floating behind its back, resembling bird wings—along with additional armaments consisting of dozens of metal feather components forming enormous wings.

Theresia gave a bitter smile toward her “mother,” whose appearance could easily be mistaken for an angel of the apocalypse from religious paintings. But that moment was brief.

Judging that a prolonged standoff might become awkward, the battle between the two legendary figures began.

The ‘Angel’ attacked first.

It detached dozens of feathers—each easily exceeding 4 meters in length—from its wings, forming a barrage of purple beams. Theresia effortlessly dodged or blocked them while retrieving her custom rifle—a modified ship’s main cannon—from subspace.

Woong!! Woong!! Woong!!

This rifle, nearly as large as the 20-meter Titan Armor itself, fired thick golden beams from its muzzle embedded with psychic crystals. But as expected of the Angel…

Despite its seemingly cumbersome mechanical wings, the Angel dodged the beams with ease. Theresia, having anticipated this, switched Gold Zero’s armament.

This time, she equipped a full-auto plasma shotgun.

Using energy from Gold Zero’s power source as ammunition, this one-handed weapon fired 200 plasma shotgun blasts per minute, creating a defensive barrage.

Her strategy was to use the shotgun’s knockback effect to form a defensive screen against the Angel’s approach while attempting to shoot it down with the laser pistol she had just drawn. But such a simple plan was unlikely to succeed.

The Angel detached more feathers from its wings, directing them to intercept the plasma shots while it advanced through the laser attacks, intending to settle the battle in close quarters.

It activated a psychic sword attached to its thigh armor, drawing a blue-flaming blade and charging toward the cockpit.

Though Gold Zero’s size—ten times that of the Angel—might seem advantageous, from another perspective, once the Angel attached itself to the surface, there would be little Gold Zero could do.

As the Angel flew in to close the distance and attach itself to Gold Zero—

—?!!

Suddenly sensing a psychic warning, the Angel dodged backward just as Gold Zero—displaying agility and maneuverability similar to the Angel’s despite its size—swung a laser-bladed tomahawk through the space the Angel had just occupied.

Though momentarily surprised, the Angel quickly assessed the situation and ordered its feathers to attack Gold Zero, but it was slightly too late.

Gold Zero had already equipped a plasma cutter knife in its other hand and thrust it forward to attack the Angel, which barely managed to evade—

—Slash!

The high-temperature, high-pressure plasma emitting from the knife’s blade forced the Angel to move its wings defensively, resulting in 4-5 feathers being severed from one wing.

Of course, the Angel’s main body remained unharmed, and dozens of feathers remained. The Angel detached the auxiliary wing armament from its body entirely, using the feathers to attack while attempting to retreat.

But Gold Zero’s movements were unexpectedly nimble.

Two psychic machine guns emerged from both shoulders, spewing fire at the Angel. While the Angel defended against this, Gold Zero used its melee weapons to shatter most of the feathers and crush the wing structure.

Immediately after destroying the wings, Gold Zero swung its tomahawk and knife. The Angel desperately used its auxiliary light ring armament to form hundreds of light spheres in the air to block the attack.

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAANG!!!!

The light spheres collided with the melee weapons, creating golden explosions that dramatically separated the two beings whose size difference exceeded tenfold—

KWAGAGAGANG—!!

KWAGAGAGAGAGANG!!!

More light spheres formed around Gold Zero, exploding in brilliant flashes upon the slightest contact, restricting its movement while allowing the Angel to approach rapidly.

Drawing blue-flaming psychic blades in both hands, the Angel used photon emissions from its light ring as propulsion to charge forward.

The Angel moved with angular precision, changing direction in sharp, defined turns, becoming like an arrow aimed at the cockpit, but…

What the Angel hadn’t anticipated was just how sturdy the Titan Armor—Gold Zero, created by “mother” herself—truly was.

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGANG!!!!

With just a light psychic barrier on its armor surface, Gold Zero defended against explosion damage, and its robust frame withstood the explosive recoil.

Theresia, understanding better than anyone the advantages of size, endured the minor attacks through sheer durability as she approached the oncoming Angel—

KUWOONG!

For interception, she switched her armaments to her specialty—a multi-barreled plasma machine gun (plasma minigun) and multipurpose plasma gauntlet—before engaging in full combat.

The battle pattern developed predictably. The larger Gold Zero, with its superior firepower and defense, would attack, and the Angel would respond defensively.