Chapter 405 361: Why Do We Fight? (Part 2)
Not a word was exchanged between them. The Technician Soldier raised his gun and fired!
Lu Jia clutched her Knight's Broadsword with both hands. Facing the rebels who stormed the bridge like ferocious beasts, her mind drifted back to her time on the Dark Side of the Empire Hiniya, when she had boarded the Demon Mother Ship.
As a new recruit, it had been a battle experience that was seared into her memory, one she would never forget.
Now, in her field of vision, the Mortal crew on the bridge were falling one by one under the enemy's broadswords. Heads rolled and blood sprayed!
The heart-rending screams of the dying Mortals echoed.
But the rebels showed no mercy. Instead, they descended into a frenzied Slaughter, cutting down every living person in sight!
She exhaled a long breath, and a dazzling, golden flame began to spread from the tips of her hair.
Divine Element·Punishing Fire.
Empowered by this Knight Power, her white hair stirred without a wind, transmuting into golden fire that blazed upward, suffused with a sacred aura!
In that same moment, her dark eyes ignited with the same holy, golden fire.
She leveled the Knight's Broadsword in her hand, engulfing it in Punishing Fire until it became a Flaming Blade.
In her heart, she began the same prayer she always recited before battle, a silent plea to the Divine Emperor: 'Faith is my strength, Loyalty is my weapon, and piety grants me courage.
'With this Flaming Blade in my hand, I shall strike down the enemies of the Empire.'
She faced her foe—an enemy as unstoppable as a human tank, wielding a Knight's Broadsword with thunderous steps, a powerhouse with the strength of a Five-star Official Military Rank. Lu Jia's expression was stern and majestic, and in the glow of her Elemental Power, she looked ever more solemn and sacred.
"The enemy is here! Prepare for battle!"
No matter how humble Lu Jia's origins, the very fact that she qualified to become a Battle Sister was a testament to her Knight Talent, Loyalty, and faith.
Her power only seemed weak when compared to top-tier powerhouses on the level of Reinhardt and Koller.
Facing an enemy whose strength vastly outstripped her own, Lu Jia did not flinch. With a roar, she brought her Flaming Blade crashing down against the enemy's Knight's Broadsword.
The collision of Knight Power erupted in a shower of sparks, brilliant and deadly.
Tulius, one of the three kings of the Ostia World, who was in a standoff with Koller, saw his men charge and bellowed, "By order of Lord Sipia! Kill those two Technician Priests at any cost! Seize control of the ship!
"Kill a Battle Sister, and you'll be promoted three ranks!
"Kill one from the Think Tank, and Lord Sipia himself will grant you the title of Lord of Ostia World!
"And the first person to seize control of the ship? After this is over, you'll be rewarded with a planet for your own private fief!"
The same battle.
The same pre-battle declaration.
At this moment, the words of Tulius, one of the three kings of the Ostia World, stood in stark contrast to the speech Reinhardt had given on the upper command deck!
It was as if the paths of the world had irrevocably diverged before them.
One path led to endless Slaughter in the Dark Cosmos.
The other led to a shared future for the Empire and the Human World.
What each side was fighting for was, at this moment, crystal clear!
Or rather.
The Administrative Region might only provide a meager salary—if they could pay it at all—and resupplying weapons and ammunition was a constant problem. Yet countless soldiers and Imperial Knights still marched to their deaths, one after another, for the sake of their ideals.
Because it was not just the Imperial Knights; for the common foot soldiers, the great ideal of the Human World was their ideal as well.
It was because of this ideal that the kingdom of humanity had been able to endure for ten thousand years in a Dark Cosmos teeming with powerful enemies, continuing to survive and thrive.
But for Governor Claudius and the rebels under the warlord Sipia, getting people to fight and die for them required a different approach. The promise of immense reward was the only potent tool they had to counter the Administrative Region's authority!
Spurred on by Tulius's promise of lavish rewards, the Imperial Knights who had stormed the bridge became like men on stimulants, throwing themselves recklessly at the defensive line formed by the two members of the Think Tank and the four Battle Sisters.
Behind them, the Technician Priest in charge of controlling the ship was deathly pale.
While combat erupted on the bridge, he had to control the Avenger Flagship's course, doing everything possible to evade enemy ships attempting to board.
At the same time, he had to coordinate the targeting of more than fifty onboard cannons.
Strictly speaking, perfect control of the Avenger Flagship required either a powerful Technician Soldier assisted by a full team of Technician Priests, or a high-level figure like a Mechanical Sage personally at the helm.
Otherwise, the neural strain of such extreme multitasking and system overload was something no single Technician Priest could possibly bear alone.
Moreover, the Witchcraft Power and Spiritual Energy within the ship's control systems were not things their mortal bodies could directly withstand.
The price for forcibly controlling the ship and coming into contact with these powers… was likely death.
Blood streamed from the Technician Priest's nose. In a daze, he heard the sounds of fighting on the bridge. He turned his head with immense difficulty and spoke to his colleague. "I… I can feel death, Pavlo…"
"Damn it…"
The Technician Priest named Pavlo was the youngest of the three men the Vengeful Angels had seconded from the Fourth Fleet. With only ten years of experience tightening screws, he had initially thought this would be a simple temporary assignment.
He thought it wouldn't be long before he returned to the Fourth Fleet to resume his holy life: day after day of prayers, blessings, and tightening screws.
Pavlo had imagined the Fourth Fleet being attacked, had pictured himself dying under enemy fire. But he never dreamed that this assignment—this honor of working alongside the Emperor's Angels—would turn into a death warrant for all three of them.
Gallik had been right. Taking high-intensity control of a ship that should be commanded by a Mechanical Sage was simply draining their Life Force.
And now, involved in a battle of this intensity, death was only a matter of time as long as their Neural Metal Wires were jacked into the ship's control systems.
As men of Mortal birth, they lacked the powerful Physique of an Imperial Knight, and they didn't have the noble blood of the great houses of the Forging Worlds.
They had no business being in fights like this. They were not meant to be here.
And now…
Pavlo used his robes to wipe, over and over, at the blood that stained Gallik's chin and dripped down his front. His hands trembled uncontrollably, a tremor born of his fear of death.
Because he knew that after Gallik died, he would be the next one to connect to the control system.
But he didn't want to die.
His life was just beginning…
Pavlo didn't know how to respond to his colleague. After a long silence, he asked, "Does it… hurt much?"
Gallik, who was still steering the ship, first gave a slight nod, then shook his head.
He could no longer speak.
Pavlo stared wordlessly into his colleague's Mechanical Eye. He could see faint blue streams of energy flowing within it, a sign that Gallik's neural pathways were now completely corrupted by the irresistible Witchcraft Power. He could drop dead at any second.
The fiery explosions of enemy ships crashing against the Zeka Energy Shield lit up Technician Priest Pavlo's face. The deck beneath them trembled intermittently.
But all he could do was keep wiping the blood from the other man's face, over and over…
Navy veteran Kurs saw the enemy running rampant, killing the command crew. He ordered his two subordinates at the gunnery controls to hold their posts, then drew his sidearm. He fought the urge to pull the trigger, to attack the rebel who was causing such carnage.
But in the end, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
As an experienced veteran, his reason told him that pulling the trigger now would only draw the enemy's attention, bringing certain death upon himself and his subordinates.
And it was not their time to die.
The bridge needed skilled soldiers to manually aim the cannons.
At the gate, Nelom was locked in combat with Anand. The two clashed, and with the instincts of a true veteran, Nelom managed to force Anand back out of the gateway, doing his best to keep their fight from spilling onto the bridge.
Just as Reinhardt was about to turn and support Lu Jia and her comrades, a figure shot into the bridge at high speed, charging right for him!