episode_0266

The Type 15 Recoilless Rifle Tactical Support System is the most powerful heavy infantry weapon that non-Awakened infantry of the Federal Army can operate. This weapon, commonly known as a tactical nuclear launcher, is used by infantry units of various formations, ranging from platoons to battalions.

Despite being repainted and repaired multiple times, its crude body showed an age that far exceeded half a century since its development.

The Federal Army favored this weapon. This was because even the influence of Aether, which could disrupt communication networks and jam or destroy complex precision sensors, could not break this simple, brutish hunk of metal.

With a few operations, it also had the advantage of being able to adjust its single-shot firepower from the level of an aerial bomb to thousands of tons of military explosives.

Simple and crude, yet it possessed an honesty that didn’t betray its master.

Perhaps that’s why they felt a similarity with it. Restraide, who had used connections in the Federal Parliament to replace the upper echelons of the special forces, eagerly utilized this weapon.

Due to the treaty signed with the Federation during the old civil war, the clan could not possess strategic weapons, but if political expediency was employed, they could be used with the support of the Federal Army in limited situations.

The indiscriminate barrage of tactical nuclear warheads devastated Asteria City.

Although the power was adjusted, the aftermath of the impact lightly reached even the convention center.

Thanks to this, disruptive obstacles could be cleared away quickly.

Of course, nuclear weapons alone weren’t enough.

“Code Omega is intact.”

This was a truth proven by their ancestors with blood at the end of the First Great War. They didn’t expect otherwise.

“Multiple monster forces are entering. Some are regenerating from the Apostle, while others are continuously entering through underground passages and temporary gates.”

The large and small multi-sensors attached to the armored knights’ helmets and armor gleamed.

Sonar, radar, infrared, and magic tracking systems transmitted the situation, where monsters seemed to surge from the ground, without filter to the users.

-Whoosh!

Once again, two nuclear shells flew in the direction of the Apostle as a test.

Another flash erupted. The helmet’s lenses automatically shut down, protecting the user’s eyes.

The tactical assistance system inside the visor constantly displayed rapidly rising radiation levels.

The knights dismissed it lightly. It was fine. This much couldn’t harm an Awakened.

The radio crackled.

“Neutralization failed.”

The first nuclear warhead exploded right beside the Apostle. Although a fireball comparable to a star temporarily swept through, the Apostle appeared unharmed from within the thick cloud.

Soon, the second shell flew towards it.

The Apostle turned its head, and with a light ‘pop’ sound, it shattered and scattered like a piece of paper.

The Apostle sneered. Thanks to the weapon the humans had just launched, Violet’s psionic stimulation vanished, allowing it to fully recover its physical condition.

「Crude nuclear fission, do you really think that can break us?!」

Once again, a wave of monsters, having regrouped, approached. Various grotesque beasts bared their fangs and weapons, supported by the large monsters’ covering fire.

“Confirmed. Nuclear weapons are indeed ineffective against the Apostle.”

As the report was relayed, the Royal Guard Captain, standing on the front line, issued an order.

“As expected. Proceed to the next phase. Advance!”

The armored knights advanced. Their heavy footsteps echoed on the shattered road, and the clanging of their metal armor vibrated through the air.

Could the legendary knights of the ancient Arnor Kingdom have been like this?

The armored knights advanced in formation, like medieval cavalry.

What they wore was not the full plate armor of their ancestors. Nor were they fragile mounts that would fall with a single musket shot.

Accompanying the knights was the pinnacle of cutting-edge science.

The lineage of Restraide’s armored suits, progressing from the first steam armor to internal combustion engines, nuclear batteries, and then to fusion reactors and energy reactors, could be compared to the lineage of superior warhorses.

They advanced like cavalry.

Walk, the lightest and slowest pace. The armored knights entered the battlefield. Each heavy step they took crushed the vitrified ground, making it crackle and groan.

Each knight maintained perfect stride and balance, moving like a precise machine.

Trot, their speed slowly began to pick up. Their hydraulic joints functioned smoothly, and their gait grew more lively. Hydraulic cylinders moved powerfully, and joint motors rotated, widening their strides.

Canter, the knights drew their weapons and prepared.

Artificial muscles powerfully contracted and relaxed. The reactor on their backs pulsed like a heart, infusing vitality into every intricate part of the armor.

A wave of roaring monsters, their blade-like teeth and claws glinted. The tactical support system screamed a near-panic alarm. The silhouettes of enemies filled the visor’s view. Prepare for the moment of impact.

「Charge!」

Like medieval heavy cavalry charging with their lances forward, the leading knights raised their lances high.

Gallop, now was the time to face death and sprint at full power.

A clanking sound as metal met metal. The armored knights’ backs opened up, revealing wing-like hatches. Boosters powerfully unfolded. At the moment the Aether-infused blue flames burned the air and propelled them forward.

Cavalry lances plunged forward at the speed of sound.

-Crash!

Impact occurred. A thunderous roar like an explosion, flesh splattering everywhere. The armor and shields absorbed the impact and blocked enemy fire, but the surroundings were enveloped in a sandstorm from the shockwave.

“Breach!”

The knights swept through the monster horde like a storm.

The claws of the lowest-tier monsters merely scratched and slid off the armor. In the first charge, their cavalry lances pierced the vital points of the large monsters blocking their path. The lances then exploded, obliterating the monsters’ bodies. Dropping the lances, blades were drawn without hesitation. The clang of metal and monstrous screams became intertwined. Artificial muscles contracted powerfully, and sub-motors shrieked and whirred as they rotated. Blades imbued with sword energy sliced through flesh, and hammers shattered bone.

The outcome was one-sided. They were crushed, torn apart, melted, and evaporated.

“Grroooaaar!”

-Crunch!

The armored knights’ charge thus split the monster forces in half.

The steel lions galloped through the battlefield stained with blood and gore.

The combination of swords and large shields stubbornly pushed back the wave of monsters, pressing against it and forcing their way upstream.

Like a steamroller crushing its target, Restraide’s charge was swift and merciless.

「Ah, no…?」

The Violets stared, mouths agape. The combined arms forces of monsters they had been fighting for dozens of minutes crumbled in the blink of an eye before these knights.

Then, the armored knights themselves became a wave, pushing back the monsters.

The charge continued. The front line cleaved through the monsters with swords and lances, and the slashes that cut through the air like a guillotine countless monsters with each swing.

They pulled out bolt launchers, puncturing the heads of mid-tier monsters, and dismembered the limbs of high-tier monsters with coordinated attacks.

-Boom!

As the trajectory of a merciless magic ray approached, the knights raised their shields.

A force field formed as the shields’ magic interlinked. The colliding ray scattered and dispersed into dozens of strands.

The knights’ axes rushed towards the heads of the monsters that had spewed the ray.

-Crack!

Monsters torn in two with a single blow. With every advance of the knights, rows of monster corpses piled up like furrows in a field. Crushed bones, gore, and pulverized flesh.

Violet blankly etched every scene into her mind.

The armored knights, who had been mercilessly slaughtering, halted.

Seeing the knights halt directly in front of the Apostle, Violet tilted her head.

「What is it?」

「At that distance, surely…」

Violet thought. The Apostle’s reality-manipulating ability’s range was precisely that far.

As the Apostle approached with the remaining monsters, small smoke grenades were deployed from their shoulders.

The surroundings were thickly obscured as if by fog. The armored knights darted back and forth within the fog. Instead of engaging in melee, the knights moved precariously, seemingly trying to pin down the Apostle, and continued their suppressive fire.

As Violet continued to watch, a slender finger poked her cheek.

“Just a moment, Violet. How long are you going to keep watching?”

“Ah, yes? They’re fighting incredibly well. I’ll intervene if it looks like they’re at a disadvantage.”

When Violet spoke, Sophieel shook her head.

“I clearly told you when we came here. There are two Apostles. We don’t know if the Restraide Clan will win or lose, but what about the other Apostle?”

“Oh, right…”

Only then did Violet recall the problem she had forgotten.

「Where’s the Apostle?」

「Arriving soon!」

The stunned Violet Mobile Unit moved once more.

A precarious standoff continued for a while. The smoke screen didn’t seem to offer much help in blocking the Apostle’s attacks. It was around the time Violet, who was watching, began to feel doubts about the knights’ actions.

“Look there.”

Countless black objects flew from the sky.

**

After the terror attack carried out by the Ariel Group last October, Magnavis fled to the continent.

Violet’s terror attack undoubtedly dealt a severe blow. Most of Magnavis’s assets were moved out of the academy city. Some of what remained either burned in acts of sabotage, or slipped into the black market through the hands of fools.

Not everyone who acquired them achieved great results. Magnavis’s peculiar magic-tech equipment and technologies were so precise as to be arcane, demanding a high level of understanding from their users. They couldn’t be used without clear manuals and accompanying technicians.

The first card Restraide played to capture the Apostle was such an item.

“During the standoff, casualties are continuously increasing. When will preparations be complete?”

The Royal Guard Captain contacted headquarters, which was waiting in the rear. Indeed, the Apostle was no easy opponent. The proud armored knights of Restraide were falling one by one, a harsh reality.

“Fired now. Stand by. Estimated arrival in 5 seconds.”

And with a thud, black objects plummeted to the ground.

Their size was slightly smaller than an adult male, and they had a round sphere attached to their ends. Their appearance resembled lollipops.

-Thud! Thump!

One, two, three—the number of objects embedding themselves in the ground near the Apostle continuously increased. In the blink of an eye, the area near the Apostle became a landscape dotted with dozens of black lollipops, as if they had sprouted.

Once deployment was complete, the devices inside the black spheres activated. The devices began injecting large amounts of drugs and electrical stimulation into the dormant grey matter masses within the spheres.

“Supernatural Suppression Stakes, activate!”

In an instant, the surroundings were filled with an eerie cacophony. Screams and wails that made even the knights, armed with thick armor and strong willpower, flinch and recoil.

‘W-what the—!’

The Apostle looked around in shock, and realized that its powers were not functioning properly.

A stimulus similar to the psionic shock Violet had used. Its gaze turned to the devices embedded in the ground, and it was aghast at the humans’ madness.

「These madmen, using their own kin as tools?!」

Within each stake, inside the black sphere attached to its top, was a human brain.

The hibernating brains, empowered by drugs and magical formulas, blazed brightly in their final moments, emitting eerie magical waves. The final, short screams, steeped in pain and nightmare, amplified as dozens of small waves intersected, disturbing the flow of magic throughout the entire region.

“Adriana Pattern Spikes, confirmed operational. Engage! Engage!”

The Royal Guard Captain gave the order with a voice mixed with exultation.

The knights charged at the Apostle without hesitation. Countless scratches appeared on it in an instant.

“Kill the monster!”

“For Restraide!”

Against the furious attacks of the knights, the Apostle swung its sword in defense.

“The stakes are operating normally! Its abilities have been weakened!”

Upon hearing the Royal Guard Captain’s report, the Commander-in-Chief laughed in disbelief.

“Damn it, Noctis, you old man! You really created something insane. To think it actually worked!”

The S-1281 Adriana Pattern Spikes, otherwise known as Supernatural Suppression Stakes. The inventory of inventions, created by the Archmage based on his fiancée’s incomplete magical formulas, faithfully performed their function as intended.

‘The problem is that they’re disposables with less than 10 minutes of operational time.’

Reports coming in minute by minute revealed that the situation was not at all relaxed.

“Spike number 2, number 16, and number 21’s brainwave readings are weakening. Adjusting drug concentration.”

“Spike number 5, destroyed! Spike number 9, weakened output! Damage confirmed!”

The stakes’ ability, operating by burning out individual lives, was merely to interfere with reality-manipulation abilities. They were nothing more than a net to catch a beast.

A decisive blow was needed to cut off its lifeline.

“My knights. I will enter soon.”

Cordo pulled out yet another ace.

The gasping Apostle’s gaze shot skyward.

A colossal shadow fell upon the ground. Everyone’s gaze turned skyward.

Exclamations, a mixture of surprise, awe, and terror, burst forth.

“He’s coming! His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief, is coming!”

-CRASH!

A steel giant flew from the sky and landed.

Its appearance was rather simple. Due to its nature as an experimental weapon, it wasn’t equipped with many firearms. Its only armament was a single, colossal sword. There were no decorations either. Its simplicity was far from tuned, the kind one might see in a new car fresh off the assembly line.

However, no one dared to disregard the oppressive aura emanating from that towering 8-meter steel giant.

Although it was an experimental model incorporating only a fraction of the original plan, its size was merely one-fifteenth of what it could be.

Nevertheless, Cordobado Restraide was satisfied. This much would be enough to capture that monster alive.

“I have arrived.”

As the Commander’s voice boomed across the battlefield, the knights cheered and raised their weapons.

“The Colossus is here! The Commander-nim has arrived!”

“Victory! Victory! Always victory!”

A flashing murderous intent. Breaking through the mental interference, the Apostle’s reality manipulation activated. Space warped, and immense gravity crushed the Colossus. The massive body creaked and swayed.

-Screeeech!

The giant ignored it with astonishing stubbornness and took a step forward. The Apostle’s mind was clouded with confusion. What was wrong? It had used its power, factoring in the psionic interference. Why?

It twisted reality once more. The armor was dented, melted, twisted, and scattered. It *should* have scattered.

Certainly, that colossal weapon was indeed swaying and cracking slightly.

But it stubbornly resisted the change.

The Colossus’s pilot scoffed.

“Yes, did you think I would crumble?”

The Commander sneered. Following every single movement of his body, the Colossus’s body stubbornly moved. The Apostle realized that this human weapon was stubbornly resisting the distortion of reality. It wasn’t a metaphor.

The armor, as if reflecting the spirit of the human within it, was so stubborn that not a single scratch appeared.

The Apostle’s brain, in crisis, rapidly computed, inferring and interpreting the phenomenon before its eyes.

The power contained within the weapon was overwhelming. It didn’t know what power source was used, but the power used in the knights’ armor was like a candle before the sun compared to the steel giant before it.

The answer came quickly. Though the Apostle itself remained skeptical.

Could it be that they forcibly amplified the user’s will by utilizing immense energy output? Was that even possible?

「Impossible. There’s no way such a crude method could form even a rudimentary reality distortion field—」

The next moment, the Colossus moved.

A strike descended like lightning. The Apostle’s sixth sense detected the attack. There was no room for complacency; all defensive measures were deployed. From the most basic Aether defense to high-speed movement disruption fields, magic shields, space distortion, refraction, and reflection. Every means it knew.

A sword of unyielding conviction, filled with stubbornness and overwhelming will, tore and crushed all the distorted reality.

-CRASH!

The greatsword slammed into the Apostle’s body. The moment the greatsword struck, heat and shockwaves spread in all directions.

“Kuaaagh!”

From the impact, the Apostle’s body was brutally driven into the ground. Dust billowed in all directions, and the earth cracked. With a terrifying blow that brought a storm, the vanguard of the otherworldly forces rolled on the ground.

The Commander smiled.

“It works.”

The Apostle’s mind was filled with bewilderment.

Just where did such humans gather from?

「What kind of human is *that* now?!」

The Colossus arrogantly raised its greatsword and declared.

“Get up, you monster. I’ll tear you to shreds.”

**

As Restraide’s experimental weapon confronted the Apostle, Violet’s search party, having escaped the shock of the nuclear attack, ran through the underground passage.

The Apostle’s thoughts continuously streamed into her mind in real-time, as if being sucked in by water.

「Ah, no! It’s coming! It’s coming! I feel it! Go away!」

Fear, anxiety.

「B-but if this passage opens, I can escape. I might even get reinforcements from other forces!」

Hope amidst desperation.

「What kind of machine is *that* now?」

Absurdity and shock.

Violet felt it. It was similar to the feelings of an office worker or student returning home. The scent that grew stronger the closer she got. The familiar aroma of dinner, the murmuring voices, the clattering noises.

To Violet, all the emotions emanating from the Apostle came so close.

「It’s here!」

Violet cautiously poked her head out of the underground passage. The female Apostle, turning its head, gasped in fear and recoiled.

In a corner of the dark temple, before a shimmering space resembling a gate, countless people were chanting incomprehensible words and repeatedly bowing.

「Ugh, no! The opening procedure isn’t finished yet!!」

Black girls poured into the temple.

Violet’s search party immediately knocked the people unconscious.

Feeling a sense of crisis, the Apostle finally revealed its true form. A grotesque giant, similar to its companion, rose with an aura of filling the entire temple.

「I won’t fall. I will definitely hold on!」

The female Apostle shrieked and swung its sword. At that sight, the Violets realized it even more strongly. They had to kill that one here.

「Somehow, it feels like we *have* to kill it there!」

「Won’t something good happen if we beat it down?」

They didn’t know why. Their hearts simply urged them to. A feeling that if they killed that one, they could move forward even more.

「Soon, the opening will be complete! Then—」

But there was no time to delay. Because the spatial rift, appearing to be a gate behind them, was gradually widening.

Violet Command issued an order.

「Dimensional Signal Beacon, activate!」

Number 141 quietly pulled out a flare-like object from her pocket and snapped it.

It was a pity that Violet’s tactical map couldn’t be shared with others, but now, a friend would come.

「What have you done?!」

「Oh, I called a friend. Let’s play together!」

A beam of magical light shot into the sky.

The beam of magic, transcending space, reached a helicopter beyond the barrier.

“Dimensional Signal Beacon detected!”

Hearing the crew member’s shout, Irene posed a question to someone.

“…Are you ready, Father?”

-All clear. Begin. Acting CEO.

After confirming, Irene gave the order without hesitation.

“All personnel, commence descent!”

As the ramp of the waiting transport helicopter opened, a fierce wind greeted them. Hunters, geared up, leaped out one by one into the gradually darkening sky. Breaking through the whirring noise, beyond the multi-colored barrier. Upon piercing the barrier, a grey sky welcomed them. Adjusting their course towards the signal’s location, the Helios Strike Team descended from the sky.

Simultaneously, a helicopter carrying a heavy cargo slowly reduced its speed overhead.

As the restraints were released, the cargo also plummeted to the ground.

「A friend is coming!」

「Irene is coming!」

The Violets held down the Apostle, which had revealed its true form and was desperately trying to escape.

It was time to end everything.