Episode-833
Chapter : 1665
Ren rolled out. He looked annoyed.
"The silence is boring," Ren said. "Next time, play some music. Or give me a puzzle."
Lloyd looked at the twelve survivors. They were a mess. They were pale, shaking, and mentally exhausted. But they were there. They had faced the void and hadn't blinked.
"You look terrible," Lloyd said, a hint of approval in his voice. "Good. That means you fought."
He gestured down the hallway to the final, massive blast door at the end of the corridor.
"You have passed the paper test. You have passed the fear test. You have proven you have the brains and the guts."
He walked to the blast door. He placed his palm on the biometric scanner. The heavy locks disengaged with a series of loud, mechanical thunks that vibrated through the floor.
"Now," Lloyd said, "it is time to see why you went through hell."
The massive doors began to groan open, revealing a blinding white light from within.
"Welcome," Lloyd said, "to the Iron Womb."
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The blast doors parted slowly, revealing a metal catwalk that extended out into a vast, open space. As the twelve survivors stepped onto the grating, the air changed. It was no longer the stale, recycled air of the bunker. It smelled of ozone, high-grade machine oil, and the sharp, metallic tang of raw magic.
Lloyd led them to the railing. "Look down."
They looked. And they forgot how to breathe.
Below them was a cavernous hangar, illuminated by floodlights that cut through the gloom. In the center of the hangar, standing in two perfect rows of six, were the machines.
They were titans.
Twelve feet tall. Forged from matte-grey Star-Frost alloy that seemed to drink the light. They were humanoid in shape but monstrous in proportion. They had broad, armored chests that housed the Golem Hearts. Their legs were thick pillars of hydraulic muscle, ending in clawed feet designed to grip the earth. Their heads were sleek, angular helmets with a single, horizontal visor that was currently dark.
On their right arms were mounted rotary cannons, six barrels of death capable of firing depleted uranium slugs at speeds that defied imagination. On their left arms were retracted vibro-blades, jagged edges of tungsten that hummed with latent violence.
These were the Aegis Mark II Battle Suits.
They were not the custom, god-tier machine Lloyd had built for himself. These were mass-production models. They were rugged. They were brutal. They were built for war.
"By the gods..." Kaito whispered, gripping the railing until his knuckles turned white. "What... what are those?"
Vala stared, her mouth slightly open. She had wanted to be a knight. She had wanted to wear armor. But this... this wasn't armor. This was a castle you could wear. It was a metal god.
Ren leaned forward in his wheelchair, his eyes scanning the machines with a feverish intensity. "The joints... double-actuated hydraulics. The plating... it's modular. Look at the power cables... they're shielded. It's... it's beautiful."
Lloyd stood at the edge of the catwalk, looking down at his creation with the pride of a father and the cold calculation of a general.
"This," Lloyd announced, his voice booming in the acoustic space, "is the Equalizer."
He turned to face the twelve misfits.
"For your entire lives, you have been told you are nothing. You were told that because you lacked a high-ranking Spirit Core, you were fodder. You were told that bloodline and magic were the only things that mattered."
He pointed a finger at the silent row of steel giants.
"That machine does not care about your bloodline. It does not care if your father was a king or a beggar. It does not care if your Spirit Core is F-Rank or S-Rank. It is a machine. It is pure, cold logic."
Lloyd walked down the stairs to the hangar floor, the recruits following him like ducklings following a mother, drawn by the magnetic pull of the metal titans.
They stood in front of the first suit. Up close, it was overwhelming. The sheer mass of it made them feel like insects.
Lloyd patted the leg of the Aegis. The metal rang with a deep, solid sound.
"A King-Rank knight spends fifty years meditating on a mountain to gain the power to crush a boulder," Lloyd said. "He earns his arrogance. He earns his strength."
He looked at Kaito.
"Connect to this machine, and you have that strength today."
He looked at Vala.
Chapter : 1666
"This suit runs on a Golem Heart. It has infinite stamina. It has shields that can shrug off a fireball. It has a gun that can tear a dragon in half."
He looked at Ren.
"It gives you the power of a Sovereign. But it demands a price."
Lloyd’s expression hardened.
"It does not run on magic. It runs on your mind. The neural link connects your brain directly to the machine's core. You become the machine. But the machine is heavy. The machine is violent. It will try to overwhelm you. It will flood your brain with data. If you are weak of will, if you panic, if you lose focus... the machine will fry your brain. It will leave you a vegetable."
He stepped back, opening his arms to encompass the twelve suits.
"That is why I chose you. Not because you are strong. But because you are desperate. I need minds that are used to surviving. I need minds that can process chaos. I need people who are so hungry for power, so hungry to prove the world wrong, that they will force this metal beast to obey them."
He looked at them, challenging them.
"So. Who wants to be a Titan?"
The silence in the hangar was heavy, filled with the hum of the dormant machines.
Ren rolled his wheelchair forward. The squeak of his wheels was the only sound. He stopped in front of the lead Aegis unit. He looked up at the cockpit, located in the chest cavity.
"I have no legs," Ren said. It wasn't a complaint. It was a statement of fact.
"I know," Lloyd replied.
"This machine," Ren said, pointing a trembling finger at the massive steel legs. "It can walk?"
"It can run," Lloyd corrected. "It can jump. It can kick a hole in a fortress wall."
Ren swallowed hard. He looked at his withered legs, then back at the machine. The hunger in his eyes was terrifying.
"How do I get in?"
Lloyd smiled. He pressed a hidden rune on the Aegis's shin.
HISS.
The chest armor of the Aegis split open with a release of pressurized steam. A pilot seat descended on a mechanical lift, lowering to the ground level. It was a complex chair, filled with straps, wires, and a helmet that looked like a crown of thorns.
"Climb in," Lloyd said.
Ren dragged himself out of his wheelchair. He pulled his body across the floor, refusing help. He hauled himself into the pilot seat. He strapped his useless legs in. He pulled the harness over his chest.
"Interface helmet on," Lloyd instructed.
Ren put the helmet on. It clamped shut around his head.
"Retracting," Lloyd said.
The lift rose, pulling Ren deep into the armored chest of the giant. The armor plates slid shut, sealing him inside with a heavy, final CLANG.
"Initializing Neural Link," Lloyd shouted to the room. "Safety protocols at maximum. Output limited to five percent. Ren, listen to my voice. Do not fight the connection. Let it in."
The eyes of the Aegis flickered.
Inside the cockpit, Ren screamed.
It wasn't pain. It was... everything. Suddenly, he had sensors. He could feel the temperature of the hangar. He could feel the vibration of the floor. And then... he felt the legs.
He felt the massive, hydraulic pistons as if they were his own muscles. He felt the steel feet resting on the concrete.
Move, Ren thought.
The giant machine jerked.
CLANG.
The Aegis took a step. The floor shook.
The other recruits gasped and scrambled back.
The Aegis took another step. Then another. It was clumsy, robotic, like a toddler learning to walk, but it was walking.
The machine stopped. It looked down at its own hands. The massive metal fingers flexed.
A sound erupted from the suit's external speakers. It was laughter. Wild, weeping, hysterical laughter.
"I'm standing," Ren's amplified voice boomed, shaking the dust from the rafters. "I'M STANDING!"
Lloyd watched with a satisfied nod. He turned to the other eleven.
Kaito was staring at the machine, his cards forgotten on the floor. He saw the odds. He saw the power. He saw a game he could finally win.
Vala was wiping tears from her eyes. She saw the armor. She saw a shell that wouldn't break. She saw a way to stop running.
"Well?" Lloyd asked.
Kaito stepped forward. "Which one is mine?"
Vala stepped forward. "I want the one with the sword."
One by one, the misfits stepped forward. The failures. The rejects. The invisible people.