Chapter 05 — Repent!
"Who's next?!"
Letaria's voice rang through the cockpit as she burst into open space.
Before her: a battlefield in chaos, light crossing light in every direction.
The Blang remnants, believed wiped out, had scraped together every mercenary they could find and hurled them at Seldia's defensive line on the strength of numbers alone.
Seldia's Vigilance Corps was skilled — but being swarmed from every angle was grinding them down. Then a single old Makina came crashing into the middle of it all. Arden.
Letaria, who had no real grasp of how to pilot, had essentially surrendered herself to Trace Mode. The violent, body-breaking movements that would have knocked any ordinary pilot unconscious — her body simply endured them. They hurt. She was slammed around the cockpit repeatedly. And she kept going.
The sense that had been useless in her old world was working, here, right now.
Dodge first. Attack second, and only if something was in range. Hit it.
The absolute strangeness of her movements sent both sides into a kind of chaos.
"What is that movement — I can't get a lock!"
"How is a wreck like that moving like that—?!"
Enemy comm chatter, fraying at the edges.
Every shot missed. Every approach ended with a massive physical impact.
And the Vigilance Corps wasn't faring much better.
"...That's not an enemy, right?"
"...That's the young lady from before, isn't it...?"
"I can't fire without risking hitting her—"
The formation had broken down. With Arden flailing through everything, taking a clean shot was impossible.
Into that chaos, Captain Grain's calm — if somewhat exasperated — voice cut through.
"All units — as Dr. Ichinose just informed us, that machine is on our side."
A breath of relief passed through the Corps. Then:
"But give it space. You may get caught in the crossfire."
"...Understood. (...What kind of ally is this...)"
At the captain's straightforward warning, the Corps quietly gave Arden a wide berth.
None of which reached Letaria. She was busy.
Without ranged weapons she could actually use, she had instinct and the machine's toughness, and nothing else.
First target.
Arden closed the gap and hit the Raider's hull from the side. The armor buckled. The machine spun away.
Second.
She pushed the thrusters and rammed the one trying to escape directly. It stopped moving.
She kicked a third aside, caught her breath, and looked up.
In the far reaches of the field, something sat heavier than the rest. A Makina in thick, layered armor — the kind that had never needed to move fast.
Mounted on both arms: enormous Gatling cannons.
Through her comms, a familiar voice reached her.
"...Cosplay girl! How are you still alive?!"
The pirate captain himself. Blang. The voice that had ordered her thrown into Arden as bait.
That twitch again, near her eye.
(...Cosplay. Again.)
The rage that had barely cooled reignited. As if in mockery, the heavy Makina opened fire.
A sweeping, unending storm of light. The sheer volume was meant to make approach impossible — overwhelming suppression from a machine that didn't need to aim, only to saturate.
"I'll send you to your grave this time! Fire until you stop moving!"
Blang's voice cracked at the edges.
But Letaria's instinct had already mapped every trajectory. All of them.
(Here it comes—!)
Arden slid sideways. Right, left, up, down.
(Again—!)
Beams grazed the hull. Not one direct hit.
Arden moved through the gaps as though the future were something it could already see.
"Why won't you die—?! That's my best Gatling—!"
Completely unraveling now.
Under constant crushing G-forces, Letaria held on and held to one thought:
(...Arden is angry too.)
Her own conclusion, reached by her own logic. And therefore true.
She pushed the throttle to its limit.
"So am I!"
She closed the distance and slipped into the one place those enormous guns couldn't follow — directly beside the hull.
The fist connected with Blang's cockpit. Full force.
"Oh, do stop saying cosplay—!"
CRASH!
The heavy Makina staggered.
"You!"
Second punch. Armor groaned.
"Had the nerve!"
Third punch. Warning lights were going haywire behind his visor.
"To use me as bait!"
An uppercut. The entire Makina went airborne.
"What is wrong with you—?!" Blang shrieked.
"Arden is angry too!"
A kick to the midsection, driven in deep.
"I'll make you pay—!"
Sheer desperation gave him a moment to recover. The mass advantage was real. He stabilized — barely. He swung the Gatling cannon like a club, bringing it down with everything he had.
A direct hit would have ended this.
But Arden was already moving.
Letaria's instinct had read the killing intent before the motion even began.
The cannon swept through empty space.
Blang was off-balance.
Arden's arms closed around his hull's head unit and locked on.
"Repent—!"
Arden's thrusters ignited. It spun. Faster and faster. The centrifugal force built into something violent, and at its peak, Letaria let go.
Blang's Makina launched into the dark like a stone thrown from a sling — and was gone.
A distant shriek faded into static and silence.
Letaria breathed, hard, and turned slowly to survey the field.
Nothing came at her. The sight of their leader's end had scattered every last one of them.
(...Is it over?)
Her body had nothing left. She'd passed pain and come out the other side.
Letaria sank back into the seat.
The posture drilled into her across a lifetime of noble upbringing didn't exist here, in this cockpit, right now.
But in her chest — something she'd never felt before. A satisfaction that was entirely her own.
She reached out and rested her hand on the instrument panel. It blinked and flickered quietly beneath her fingers.
"...Well done, Arden. You worked hard today."
No one heard her. Nothing answered. Only the quiet of space, and the cold light of distant stars, wrapped around her and held still.