Episode-902
Chapter : 1803
Six missiles streaked out of the shoulder pods. They left trailing ribbons of white smoke that spiraled into the air. But these weren't flying straight like arrows or cannonballs. They curved. They arced through the air like angry hornets, changing direction mid-flight as they locked onto Lloyd’s specific heat signature.
Lloyd felt the familiar, terrifying vibration of a high-tech locking system in his bones. It was a sensation he hadn't felt in eighty years—the feeling of being 'painted' by a guided weapon system.
"Missiles," Lloyd said, watching them close the distance. "Classic opening move."
He knew that a single hit from one of those warheads could liquefy a normal Spirit User. Even if he used a magical shield, the sheer concussive force of the explosion would turn his internal organs into jelly. He couldn't block them. He had to intercept them.
He didn't summon a spirit yet. Spirits took mana, and he needed to be precise. He needed something solid.
"Steel Blood," Lloyd commanded. "Flak Cannon Mode."
He raised both hands toward the incoming swarm. The air in front of him distorted, rippling like water. Hundreds of small, sharp steel shards manifested from the void, summoned directly from his bloodline storage. They were jagged caltrops, floating in a dense, glittering cloud in front of him.
"Fire," Lloyd said.
He clenched his fists, using a pulse of kinetic Void energy to launch the steel shards forward like a massive shotgun blast.
The cloud of steel met the incoming missiles in mid-air, about thirty feet away.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.
The impact was deafening. The steel shards shredded the delicate nose cones of the missiles. The warheads detonated prematurely, exploding in a chain reaction of fire and shrapnel. A wave of heat and smoke washed over Lloyd, blowing his hair back, but he was safe behind a hastily erected wall of Void Chains he had summoned at the last second.
"Good!" Liam yelled from above, his voice cutting through the ringing in Lloyd's ears. "Point defense is solid! But what about the main gun?"
The Mech burst through the black smoke of the explosion. It didn't care about the shrapnel. Its armor pinged as metal fragments bounced off it harmlessly. It raised its right arm, which ended in a massive, multi-barreled rotary cannon.
The barrels began to spin. Whirrrrrrr.
Lloyd smirked, though his heart was hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He quickly activated his [All-Seeing Eye]. The world around him shifted. Data flooded his brain, overlaying the physical world with glowing lines of information.
[Target: Executioner Mk. IV]
[Armor: Composite Nano-Weave (High Magic Resistance)]
[Power Source: Lilith-Hybrid Engine (Unstable)]
[Weakness: Heat dissipation vents on rear dorsal plate. Knee joint servos exposed during high-speed movement.]
"Okay," Lloyd whispered to himself, his mind racing through tactical options. "It's got heavy armor, but the reactor runs hot. If I can overheat it, the system forces a shutdown. Simple physics."
The Mech’s head—a sleek, dome-like helmet with no human features—tilted down. A single mono-eye in the center of its face flickered to life. It glowed with a menacing crimson light, focusing directly on Lloyd.
A synthetic, distorted voice erupted from the machine. "Targeting system online. Analyzing biological signature... Match found. Designation: Hostile. Ballistic solution calculated. Probability of kill: 98%."
"Only ninety-eight percent?" Lloyd muttered, cracking his knuckles. "I'm insulted."
The Mech charged. For something that weighed twenty tons, it moved with frightening speed. The ground shook with every step.
"I can't keep running," Lloyd thought, dust coating his face. "I'm playing its game. I need to change the rules. I need to hit back, and I need to hit hard."
Lloyd needed a heavy hitter. He needed to escalate the violence.
"Iffrit!" Lloyd roared in his mind, reaching into the depths of his soul. "Wake up! We have a big metal bug to squash, and I need fire!"
Deep within his consciousness, the fire demon’s voice rumbled, sounding both bored and eager. A golem? You woke me for a toy, Master?
"It's a spicy toy," Lloyd warned, jumping away as the Mech swung a massive metal fist. "Don't get cocky. Just burn it!"
Lloyd slammed his hand onto the ground, channeling a massive surge of mana.
"Summon!"
A pillar of crimson fire erupted in the center of the arena, momentarily blinding the Mech’s sensors. The heat was instantaneous and intense, sucking the oxygen out of the air. From the flames, Iffrit stepped out. The Demon King of Annihilation stood nine feet tall, clad in armor made of obsidian and magma, wielding a sword that looked like a solidified lava flow.
Chapter : 1804
He looked at the twenty-foot Mech and laughed, a sound like grinding tectonic plates.
The Mech detected the new thermal signature immediately. Its turret head swiveled, the red eye locking onto the demon.
"New Target Detected," the Mech announced. "High Thermal Output. Re-prioritizing threat."
The rotary cannon spun toward Iffrit.
Burn, Iffrit commanded.
He didn't dodge. He swung his massive flaming zanbatō in a wide arc. A wave of roaring fire crashed into the Mech, hot enough to melt stone.
But the Mech didn't melt.
Just before the fire hit, a blue hexagonal grid flickered into existence around the machine’s chassis. It was the Anti-Magic Lattice—the Firefly Corporation’s signature defense. The fire washed over the blue shield and simply... vanished. The lattice absorbed the mana structure of the flames and dispersed it into harmless light.
Iffrit paused, looking confused. It... ate my fire?
The Mech didn't give him time to process the insult. A panel on its chest slid open.
THOOM.
A repulsor blast—a wave of pure concussive force—shot out. It hit Iffrit squarely in the chest. The massive demon was lifted off his feet and thrown backward, skidding across the metal floor and carving deep grooves into the plating with his claws.
"Adapt!" Lloyd shouted to himself. "Physics versus Magic. Pure energy attacks won't work on the shield!"
He saw the Mech preparing to fire its missiles again. This time, the yellow hazard stripes were glowing. It was locking onto Iffrit.
Lloyd needed speed. He needed to be faster than the machine’s sensors.
"Fang Fairy!" Lloyd called out. "Partial Merge! Now!"
Azure lightning crackled around Lloyd’s body. His hair stood on end, turning silver at the tips. Ethereal wolf ears sprouted from the top of his head, twitching as they picked up the hum of the drone’s capacitors.
The world seemed to slow down. Lloyd’s nervous system was overclocked. He could see the individual rotations of the Mech’s gun barrels. He could see the missile bay doors slowly sliding open on the Mech’s shoulders.
"Iffrit! Distract it!" Lloyd ordered via their mental link. "Use physical force! Be a hammer, not a flamethrower!"
Iffrit roared and charged again. He understood. He didn't use fire this time. He used mass. The demon leaped into the air, bringing his massive obsidian sword down in a brutal, physical strike.
The Mech raised its armored arm to block.
CLANG.
The impact shook the entire arena. Sparks the size of fireworks showered down. The force of Iffrit’s blow made the Mech’s knees buckle slightly. The blue force field flickered under the kinetic stress—it was designed to stop magic, not a ten-ton sword strike.
"Now," Lloyd whispered.
He was a blur of blue speed. He used the distraction to execute a [Void Step]. He didn't teleport away; he teleported up.
He materialized directly on the Mech’s back, clinging to the crimson hull like a spider. The metal was hot under his hands, vibrating with the power of the reactor.
"Heat dissipation vents," Lloyd muttered, recalling the schematic he had seen earlier. "Let's see how you handle a clog."
He was positioned right above the main exhaust port on the dorsal spine. He could feel the waves of heat pouring out of it. If this vent was blocked, the reactor would have nowhere to dump its excess energy.
Lloyd channeled his [Steel Blood].
"Chain Bind!"
Thick, black steel chains erupted from Lloyd’s hands. He didn't try to crush the Mech; it was too strong for that. Instead, he wrapped the chains tightly around the vent louvers, lashing them shut. He poured his Void energy into the metal, fusing the links together, essentially welding a solid steel cap over the machine’s chimney.
"Warning," the Mech’s voice announced, sounding strained. "Cooling system obstructed. Internal temperature rising. 110%... 120%..."
The Mech thrashed violently, trying to reach behind its own back. A massive metal claw swiped at the air where Lloyd had been a second ago, but Lloyd had already dropped off, sliding down the leg and teleporting to the floor.
"Iffrit! Cook him!" Lloyd shouted. "Heat the air!"
Iffrit grinned, his jagged teeth glowing. He unleashed a continuous stream of fire, not directly at the Mech, but around it. He turned the immediate area into an oven.
The Mech was trapped. Its internal cooling was blocked by Lloyd’s chains, and the external temperature was rising rapidly due to Iffrit’s flames. The physics of thermodynamics took over. The machine couldn't shed heat fast enough.
"Temperature critical," the Mech stuttered. "System performance degrading."