Episode-994
Chapter : 1987
The red light on his chest flared brighter. The water around him began to turn into superheated steam. He was fighting back. He was burning his own reactor to push the water away. Slowly, inch by inch, the Sirius suit began to move again. The hand twitched. The leg kicked. He was brute-forcing his way through the singularity.
Lloyd didn't panic. He watched the struggle with the cold detachment of an engineer watching a stress test.
"Step one complete," Lloyd said. "Target is stationary. Target is struggling. Now, we close the lid."
He turned his attention to his other spirit.
Lloyd ignored the Anti-Mana field and reached deep into the 'Recycle Bin' of his own soul. Using his internal Void energy as a tether, he forcibly dragged Jasmin’s retreating essence back into the physical world. Under his absolute command, the scattered diamond shards and flickering blue light were violently pulled together, manifesting her once more. Because she had been 'forced' back before her data could repair, she appeared like a broken doll made of glass, her form held together only by the sheer pressure of Lloyd’s will.
Lloyd felt a twinge of guilt in his chest—a human emotion trying to break through his soldier’s mask. He crushed it. He couldn't afford pity. He needed her to be a tool, just one last time.
"Jasmin," Lloyd said. "Can you go for the second round?"
The broken diamond figure twitched. She pushed herself up on trembling arms. She didn't look at Lloyd with anger. She looked at him with absolute, terrifying loyalty. She knew what he needed. She knew the plan.
"Yes, Master," her voice whispered in his mind. It sounded like wind blowing through chimes.
She crawled toward the massive sphere of hovering water. Every movement caused more cracks to appear on her skin. Shards of diamond fell from her body, tinkling against the rocks. She didn't stop.
Anthony was gaining momentum inside the water. The steam bubble around him was growing. "I'm coming for you, Ferrum!" he gargled. "I'm going to rip your head off!"
Jasmin reached the edge of the water sphere. She stood up, her legs shaking. She placed both of her cracked, crystalline hands onto the surface of the dark, swirling liquid.
"Absolute Defense," Lloyd commanded. "Invert the polarity. Don't keep things out. Keep him in."
Jasmin’s eyes glowed with a blinding white light. "Diamond Coffin," she whispered.
The change happened faster than a blink.
One moment, the sphere was a swirling mass of dark, heavy liquid. The next moment, a flash of white light swept across its surface. It started from Jasmin’s hands and raced around the curvature of the sphere like frost spreading on a windowpane, but a million times faster.
The water didn't freeze into ice. That would be too soft. Ice can be broken. Ice melts.
The water crystallized.
The atoms of the magical water were forcibly rearranged into a rigid, carbon lattice structure. The entire massive sphere turned into a solid, flawless diamond.
It was beautiful and terrifying. It hung in the air, a perfect jewel the size of a house, glittering under the harsh desert sun. Inside, you could still see the dark blue swirl of the heavy water, and trapped in the very center, like a bug in a gemstone, was the golden Sirius suit.
Anthony froze.
For a second, he didn't understand what had happened. He tried to move his arm. He fired his thrusters.
Nothing happened.
The diamond shell was ten feet thick. It was the hardest substance in the magical world, reinforced by Jasmin’s will. It pressed in on the water, sealing the pressure. There was no room for steam to expand. There was no room for movement.
Anthony fired his red lightning. "Break!" he screamed.
The red bolts of anti-logic energy shot out of his suit. They hit the inside wall of the Diamond Coffin.
Normally, energy hits a wall and dissipates. But a diamond is a refractor. It is a mirror.
The red lightning hit the wall and bounced back. It struck the Sirius suit. Anthony screamed as his own energy fried his sensors. He fired again, harder this time. The energy bounced again. And again.
Because the coffin was a sphere, every single beam of energy was reflected perfectly back to the center. Back to Anthony.
"Warning," the Fire Fly computer screeched inside Anthony’s brain. "External energy spike. System feedback loop detected. We are damaging ourselves. Cease fire. Cease fire."
Chapter : 1988
"I can't get out!" Anthony yelled, panic finally breaking through his mechanical conditioning. He pounded his fists against the inside of his prison. It was useless. He was punching the hardest material in existence, while being crushed by the heaviest water in existence.
Outside, the diamond sphere began to glow. The red energy trapped inside was building up, turning the jewel into a pulsing, angry red star.
Jasmin slumped against the side of the sphere. Her job was done. The cracks on her body were deep now, running all the way through her form. She looked at Lloyd’s mech, her expression serene. She didn't have the energy to return to his spirit space. She just slid down the side of the diamond and sat in the dirt, a silent guardian watching the end.
Lloyd exhaled. He wiped sweat from his forehead inside the helmet. His hands were still steady, but his heart was hammering against his ribs.
"Target status: Contained," Lloyd said. "Mobility: Null. Defense: Compromised."
He moved the Aegis suit forward. The heavy footsteps crunched on the glass and debris. He walked right up to the Diamond Coffin. He was so close he could see Anthony’s terrified face through the layers of diamond and water. Anthony was looking back at him, mouthing words that Lloyd couldn't hear, but could easily read.
Let me out.
Lloyd didn't feel triumph. He didn't feel joy. He just felt the cold satisfaction of a math problem solved correctly.
"You wanted to be faster than thought," Lloyd said, his voice amplified so Anthony could hear it through the prison walls. "You wanted to bypass the laws of nature. But you forgot one law, Anthony."
Lloyd raised the right arm of the Aegis suit. The black metal plates shifted and slid back. The white-and-gold plating of the Nova spirit expanded, covering the mechanical limb. The cannon barrel extended, humming with a sound that made the air vibrate. It locked into place with a heavy, final clank.
He pressed the muzzle of the Nova Cannon directly against the surface of the diamond sphere. Metal touched crystal.
"In a closed system," Lloyd whispered, "energy cannot be destroyed. It just builds up."
Anthony saw the cannon. His eyes went wide. He shook his head frantically inside the fluid, screaming silently. He knew what was coming. He knew the math.
Lloyd began the charging sequence.
"Deep Charge," Lloyd commanded.
The Nova Cannon began to whine. It pulled power from everywhere. It drained the Aegis’s battery. It drained Lloyd’s own mana. It sucked the remaining heat from Iffrit’s dormant core. The white lights on the cannon turned blindingly bright. The air around the barrel began to distort from the heat.
"You’re trapped in a room of mirrors, Anthony," Lloyd said. "And I’m about to turn on the sun."
The charge reached 100%. Then 120%. Then 150%. The cannon was shaking, threatening to explode in Lloyd’s hand. The warning alarms in his own cockpit were screaming that he was about to melt his own arm off.
Lloyd didn't care.
"Checkmate," he said.
His finger tightened on the trigger.
________________________________________
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Location: Sky Canyon – The Solar Implosion Site
Time: Babylon Calendar Year: 2512, Month: Rain (May), Day: 27th
Characters: Lloyd, Anthony
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The barrel of the Nova Cannon was pressing directly against the surface of the Diamond Coffin. It wasn’t just touching it; Lloyd was leaning the full twelve-ton weight of the Aegis suit forward, driving the muzzle of the weapon into the crystal wall. The connection was tight. There was no air gap. There was no room for anything to escape.
Inside the cockpit, the heat was already rising. The air conditioning systems of the Aegis suit had given up five minutes ago. Now, it felt like sitting inside an oven set to "broil." Lloyd could feel the sweat running down his back inside his pilot suit, soaking the sensors that connected his nervous system to the machine. His breathing was heavy, ragged, and loud in the small metal box, but his hands were steady.
He looked at the digital readout for the Nova Cannon. It was screaming at him. The charge meter was past 100%. It was vibrating in the red zone, warning him that the weapon was holding back more energy than it was ever designed to handle. It was like holding a thunderstorm in a glass bottle.
"Warning," the Aegis computer said, its voice flat and emotionless. "Weapon containment is critical. Discharge recommended immediately. Structural failure imminent."