Episode-1016
Chapter : 2031
The green fog of the [Great Oxidation] spell rolled over the ten Aegis suits like a tidal wave. It was a spell designed to eat metal, a curse that had rusted entire armories into red dust in seconds during the old wars. Bael, the Merchant Prince of the Abyss, watched with a cruel smile, expecting the satisfying sound of crumbling iron and the screams of the fragile humans inside.
But there was no sound of crumbling metal. There were no screams.
As the corrosive magic touched the black matte surface of the Titan Squad’s armor, it didn't stick. It didn't burn. It simply vanished.
The "Null-Field" generators, designed by Lloyd and refined by the Devil Queen Leviathan, weren't just shields. Shields block things. These generators projected a localized field of anti-magic static. When the complex magical formula of Bael’s spell hit that static, the formula fell apart. The magic unraveled. It turned from a deadly curse back into harmless, dissipating energy.
The green cloud washed over the squad and disappeared, leaving the ten machines standing perfectly still, shiny and black and completely untouched.
Inside the cockpit of the lead heavy unit, Ren—callsign "Rook"—took a deep breath of the filtered, recycled air. He watched the green light fade from his monitors. He checked his diagnostics.
[Hull Integrity: 100%]
[Null-Field Status: Active]
[Targeting Solution: Locked]
"Magic is off the table," Ren said. His voice was deep and calm, amplified by the external speakers of his twelve-foot mech so that it boomed across the battlefield like rolling thunder. "Now, let’s talk about physics."
Ren shifted his weight. The massive Aegis suit responded instantly. For a man who had spent years paralyzed in a wheelchair, the sensation of moving twelve tons of steel with a mere thought was intoxicating. He didn't just feel like he was piloting a robot; he felt like he was the robot.
"Anchor mode engaged," Ren commanded.
On the heels of his massive metal boots, heavy steel spikes shot out. They drove deep into the bedrock of the Erza Plains, locking his suit to the ground. Hydraulic clamps on his legs hissed and tightened. He was no longer a walker; he was a stationary gun emplacement. He was a mountain of steel.
On his shoulders, two massive barrels extended. They were long, rectangular, and humming with a terrifying electrical charge. These were not cannons that used gunpowder. They were Railguns. They used powerful magnets to throw a solid slug of Star-Metal at speeds that defied belief.
Ren looked at his screen. The dust from their landing was settling, revealing the front lines of Bael’s army. Standing tall above the terrified infantry were the War-Beasts.
These were monsters bred in the pits of the Abyss. They looked like rhinos the size of houses, covered in thick, magically reinforced bone plating. They were living siege engines, designed to smash through castle walls and trample armies. There were three of them charging right at Ren, their horns lowered, roaring with a sound that shook the ground.
Ren didn't flinch. He didn't feel fear. The machine didn't feel fear, and right now, he was the machine.
"Targeting the big ones," Ren said. "Firing solution locked."
He squeezed the triggers.
The sound that followed was not a bang. It was a crack, a sharp, tearing noise that split the air itself.
KRA-KOOM!
The Railguns fired. The Star-Metal slugs, each the size of a loaf of bread, left the barrels at Mach 7—seven times the speed of sound.
At that speed, the air itself becomes a solid object. The slug pushed a cone of compressed air in front of it that hit like a hammer before the metal even touched anything.
The first slug hit the lead War-Beast.
It didn't just poke a hole. The kinetic energy transfer was so massive that physics broke down. The beast’s bone armor, harder than steel, didn't shatter; it liquefied. The slug turned the monster’s entire front half into a red mist instantly. The massive creature didn't fall over; it was erased from the waist up. The back half of the beast continued to run for two steps before collapsing into a heap of ruin.
But the destruction didn't stop there.
The slug was moving so fast that it created a sonic boom at ground level. The shockwave expanded outward from the path of the bullet like an invisible explosion.
Chapter : 2032
The Curse Knights standing ten feet to the left and right of the beast weren't hit by the bullet. They were hit by the air. The pressure wave hit them with the force of a speeding train. Their armor crumpled inward. Their bones turned to powder. Twenty elite undead knights were flattened instantly, turned into scrap metal by the wind of the passing bullet.
The slug continued, tearing a trench through the army behind the beast, vaporizing dirt and soldiers alike for a mile before finally burying itself deep in a hillside.
"Target one down," Ren stated, his voice devoid of emotion.
He shifted his aim slightly. The barrels whined as the capacitors recharged in a split second.
KRA-KOOM!
The second slug fired. The second War-Beast vanished in a cloud of red vapor and bone shards. Another sonic boom ripped through the enemy ranks, throwing soldiers into the air like ragdolls.
KRA-KOOM!
The third shot fired. The third beast was gone.
In less than five seconds, the pride of Bael’s heavy infantry—three monsters that could have destroyed a city—were gone. In their place were three smoking craters and a long, straight line of absolute devastation carved through the army.
The soldiers of the Abyss stopped. They looked at the red mist where their tanks used to be. They looked at the black machine anchored to the ground, smoke drifting lazily from its shoulder cannons. They looked at the Curse Knights who had been crushed without even being touched.
For the first time in centuries, the army of the dead felt something new. They didn't feel the hunger for souls. They didn't feel the command of their master.
They felt small.
Ren disengaged his anchors. The spikes retracted with a hiss. He took a heavy step forward, the ground trembling under his weight.
"Heavy armor is cleared," Ren said over the squad link. "Valkyrie, you are clear to engage."
Inside the command center of his suit, Ren allowed himself a small, human smile. For years, he had been the man in the chair, the man who couldn't walk, the man who watched life pass him by. Now, he was the hammer. He was the force that broke the world. And he was just getting started.
"Physics," Ren whispered, echoing the words of his commander. "It really is a beautiful thing."
The enemy lines were broken. The heavy hitters were dead. The formation was in chaos. It was the perfect moment for the next phase of the attack.
"Moving in," a female voice crackled over the comms. It was sharp, eager, and dangerous.
From the smoke behind Ren, a leaner, faster shape emerged.
If Ren was the hammer that shattered the rock, Vala—callsign "Valkyrie"—was the razor that cut the throat.
Vala’s Aegis suit was different. It wasn't built for standing still. It was stripped of the heavy armor plates that covered Ren’s legs. It didn't have the massive cannons on the shoulders. Instead, it had extra thrusters mounted on the back, the calves, and the elbows. And in its hands, it held two long, curved swords that hummed with a high-pitched, mosquito-like whine.
Vibro-blades.
Vala had been a street rat. She had survived in the gutters of the capital by being faster than everyone else. She had been kicked out of the knight’s academy because she wasn't strong enough to wear plate mail or swing a greatsword. They told her she was weak. They told her she didn't have the mass to be a warrior.
Now, she was piloting ten tons of Star-Frost Ore, and she was about to show them what "fast" really looked like.
"Dance time," Vala whispered.
She slammed her throttles forward. The engines on her back flared blue.
The suit didn't run; it skated. It hovered inches off the ground, propelled by the raw thrust of the engines. Vala shot forward into the gap Ren had created.
She hit the enemy line at sixty miles per hour.
A wall of Curse Knights raised their black shields, locking them together to form a barrier. They braced themselves, expecting a collision.
Vala didn't collide. She flowed.
Just before impact, she fired her left lateral thruster. The massive suit jerked sideways with impossible agility, spinning like a top.
She passed through the line of knights like a whirlwind. Her swords lashed out.
The vibro-blades were oscillating at a frequency that destabilized molecular bonds. They didn't just cut; they separated matter. When the blades hit the magical iron of the Curse Knights’ shields, there was no clang of metal. There was just a hiss.