𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟕𝟓: 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 (1)
Knightfortress.
A special war machine continuously being developed by the Drake Star Nation. A war machine whose bipedal frame with a plasma cutter is connected to an AI that has been learning for over 20 years.
The Knightfortress brothers fighting at the Mega Tower site are always operated in pairs, and use a separate communications channel.
➖ Elite individuals capable of flight.
The Knightfortress brothers confirmed the Jiannettera and Elite individuals landing at the Mega Tower site.
➖ Brother. Do you think the individual at the center of the formation can also be considered Elite?
➖ Elite individuals tend to accompany the leader. So there is a high chance that the distinct individual is the leader.
➖ Then we can confirm the leader’s strength on this occasion.
➖ Drone Hive-nim. Please give the command.
At that moment, the Drone Hive fighting with them at the Mega Tower site gave a command to the Knightfortress brothers.
➖ Engage.
➖ Is it okay to kill the leader?
➖ If it’s a leader mobilized for the Drake invasion, it can be assumed that it was highly regarded by Kreion. Therefore, we shouldn’t rashly assume that we can kill it if the distinct individual is truly an outstanding leader.
➖ Even so, they are a race that has been in the palm of our hands since the very beginning.
➖ Let’s see how strong a well-grown leader is. Brother.
The Jiannettera and Elite pack advanced toward the Knightfortress brothers. At the same time, the Knightfortress brothers also took large steps toward the Jiannettera.
The two sides approached each other. In the meantime, the battle taking place on the tower site as the battlefield didn’t disturb them as if they had made a promise.
They stopped at the spot after getting to about 100m from each other.
“We came to destroy you. Human machine toys.”
The Knightfortress brothers were cold to Jiannettera’s provocation.
“It seems you don’t know who the real toys are.”
“Let’s cut off that ugly head. Brother.”
Creatures from both sides heard each other’s voices in the noisy battlefield and began to engage in combat.
Tadadat! Kwaa!
Elite individuals pushed off the ground while spewing flames from their wings’ boosters. It was a sight of them charging with threatening speed while holding cutters that looked very sharp.
➖ I will take care of the one-versus-many.
Among the Knightfortress brothers, the older one is called ‘first’, and the younger one is called ‘second’ for short.
Kiing!
The Knightfortress second was a war machine armed with a cutter that rotated like a cogwheel. Jiannettera instantly made a judgment after seeing the war machine come forward.
‘That guy is the machine that massacred a lot of children at once. It’s a machine that’s agile for its size, so be careful.’
Jiannettera’s Elites recognized the information they had received in advance in waves, and Jiannettera’s warning. And they shared all senses with the other Elite individuals charging together, and engaged in combat.
Kiiiiiing!
It was a cutter making a roaring noise like a Chaintrooper rotating. The second swung the cutter widely as if sweeping dust toward the Elite pack that was much smaller than its body.
Kakagagak. . . !
The grass on the ground that the cutter passed over was vaporized as if burnt by fire, and the dirt floor underneath revealed a deep, hot wound.
The Elite pack flew up all at once and barely avoided that attack.
In that state where their eye levels were momentarily aligned, the Elite pack shot extremely sharp harpoons or directly swung the cutters attached to their bodies.
Kiing! Kakakang!
At that moment, the second swung the cutters in both hands in an X shape at an astonishing reaction speed. Just that caused the air in a small area to become plasma, vaporizing the harpoons and causing burns to several Elite individuals.
It meant that even if the cutters didn’t make direct contact, they could exert their power just by passing by in a straight line.
Of course, Jiannettera already knew that fact.
‘Dodge it!’
The Elite pack shifted their bodies left and right in the air. At the same time, one of the four pairs of Levitation Weapons behind Jiannettera shot a high-output purple beam.
Kwaaaak!
The beam that was fired and hit at the same time collided with the second’s body, drawing flames and explosions in a straight line as if it were a long-range flamethrower.
➖ Are you okay?
➖ Scratches don’t even appear on the armor with this much.
The Knightfortress had a momentarily deployable shield technology.
‘To think it still had that much output left.’
Jiannettera’s surprise attack aimed at the Knightfortress second boasted firepower that was superior to even the Grounsecter, but it was blocked by just the shield output from that single war machine’s body.
‘The more I look at it, the more it’s a strange human force. . . .’
The Knightfortress first, who had been watching quietly from behind, began to run diagonally toward Jiannettera, slightly going around it. The stride of the 19m tall body was very large, and it had maneuverability that didn’t match its size, so the approach was instantaneous.
Large footprints dented the ground and continued until it reached Jiannettera. The first then swung the two 12m sword-like cutters in both hands.
Huung!
The air was startled and ran away at the giant body’s enormous movement, and Jiannettera, whose size and height were about the same as the giant body, didn’t run away and responded to the engagement.
Very hard and sharp cutters extended long like devil’s claws from the tips of Jiannettera’s long fingers. It swung the claws at the first right before its eyes.
Jjeoreung!
Was there a considerable gap in the quality level of the cutters? Jiannettera’s claws were cleanly cut off.
‘This side loses in a clash of cutters!’
Before the cut-off claws fell to the ground, Jiannettera burst the bio-barrier with the Levitation Weapon behind it.
Booooong. . . !
The first, swinging the long cutters in both hands, had its movements slow down for a moment inside the bio-barrier. Jiannettera aimed for that exact moment and shot a purple beam at the machine’s face with another Levitation Weapon.
It was a close-range explosion.
Peoreung!!!
However, the beam collided with the shield right before it and caused the air to become plasma more than necessary. The resulting explosion instantly blew away the bio-barrier.
Immediately, the first swung the cutters horizontally, aiming for Jiannettera’s neck and waist.
Teok!
“. . . It looked like hands, but they really were hands.”
“Judging from your reaction speed, you are an AI.”
Jiannettera’s thick hind legs supported its body weight. And the front legs, or the two hands that served as front legs, were now holding both of the first’s wrists.
“Leader. Name?”
“Jiannettera.”
“Jiannettera. It’s a name that doesn’t match that disgusting flesh.”
“Remember it, for it’s the name of the being that will destroy you from now on.”
Jjeorak!
Jiannettera extended its claws from its remaining two hands and pushed them into the first’s chest.
Then, a small shield was deployed in front of the claws and made a loud noise.
Jiiiiiing. . . !
Even though the claw attack was blocked, Jiannettera immediately chose its next move. The three tails of Jiannettera rushed past the shield and aimed for the first’s back.
However, a shield was also deployed on the first’s back.
“Do you plan to hold on with shields forever?”
“I just needed time to charge.”
“Charge?”
Peoreok!
The shield suddenly expanded and pushed Jiannettera away. Jiannettera, who was supporting its body weight with two legs, barely managed to balance itself using its wings’ exhaust ports, and at that moment, the Knightfortress swung the cutters diagonally in the empty air toward the direction Jiannettera was in.
‘. . . !’
Jiannettera’s extremely sensitive sensory organs captured that brief moment. The guy’s cutters had clearly slashed the empty air, but two diagonal lines were approaching just like the shape the cutters had passed through. As if it had shot out sword energy.
Jiannettera instinctively twisted its body and dodged the blue lines. However, one of its wings failed to escape the path the blue lines had passed through.
. . . Toodooodoodood.
One of the wings fell to the grass, revealing a very cleanly heated cut surface.
‘What was that just now?’
Jiannettera glanced at its fallen wing for a moment, and then faced its opponent again.
It seemed it couldn’t use the attack method it had just shown in succession. You could tell by looking at it running toward it again with cutters in both hands.
‘A weapon that needs to charge. What is it charging? Does the fact that it can be charged mean that there’s a generator inside that machine?’
Jiannettera engaged in close-range combat with claws, tails, the Levitation Weapon’s beam, and bio-barrier. The leader’s unique speed of thought was maintained even in the close combat that required extremely quick judgment.
‘Remote charging? What is the principle that allows it to charge remotely? Or was the charging talk just a strategy to trick me?’
The Knightfortress brothers continued to face the Elite pack and Jiannettera each.
‘But if it didn’t need to be charged, I could’ve used the same technique just now to finish it off. Looks like it can’t use that technique indefinitely.’
Jiannettera pondered as she fought.
‘A high-output beam. It definitely wasn’t the speed of light. A bit faster than a bullet. . . . But it didn’t have the shape of a bullet. At a glance, it looked like it clearly had the shape of cyan light.’
And then Jiannettera’s excellent mind quickly solved the mystery.
‘It was an attack that first rapidly expanded the shield to force me back, followed by an attack. The shield is composed of artificial particles, so it must have used them up, which is why it needs a moment to recharge. . . .’
‘Just now, it must have loaded some kind of offensive artificial particles into the plasma cutter and fired them in the direction of its swing.’
Fwooooosh!
In the middle of the fight, the shield expanded once again, knocking Jiannettera back a few steps.
‘Then this most dangerous moment is that bastard’s only weak point. . .’
Before it could even finish the thought into a sentence in its head, blue lines flew in in the shape of an X. Just before it hit its body, Jiannettera instead charged forward, and at the same time, exploded a pair of Levitation Weapons, causing the bio-barrier inside to become extremely dense.
The dense bio-barrier spread out in front of Jiannettera as an X that exactly matched the shape of the blue lines coming in, as if it were intercepting the blue lines as they were. Also, another pair of Levitation Weapons exploded in succession, scattering the remaining bio-barrier faintly in all directions, blurring the vision.
Pwaaa. . .
It looked as if a blue X and a black X were colliding and canceling each other out.
➖ Ah.
Jiannettera, which had moved the bio-barrier delicately to avoid its back, tore off its ruined wing by itself and ran toward the first before its eyes.
It was a speed that Jiannettera had never shown before.
To human eyes, one might wonder what had happened in that brief moment.
Khwajijijijijijit!!!!
Jiannettera stabbed both hands into the first’s upper body and ripped out the parts inside.
➖ I didn’t foresee this.
. . . Kuung!
Finally, the giant machine fell heavily.
🔷🔷🔷
The Mega Tower site, which had become Fayda’s most important strategic stronghold, was covered by the Chimeraz pack. The war machines covered by the pack fell on the bloodstained grass field and were being dismantled by the Hydra pack.
And the Mega Tower gradually lost its role due to the Chimeraz that had infiltrated inside.
The two bodies of the fallen Knightfortress brothers were dismantled piece by piece by the Elite pack instead of the Hydra, and moved to Lemegeton’s body that had landed nearby.
➖ Brother. It happened to me too. I had no choice but to run away when the leader suddenly charged right after I had dealt with all the Elite individuals.
➖ What happened to you is my fault.
➖ I received your engagement data. So, there’s one thing I want to confirm, but.
➖ I didn’t fight while looking.
➖ . . . Is that true?
➖ Drone Hive ordered us to engage. So I did my best to engage. Didn’t you do the same?
➖ . . . .
➖ The speed at which their race is getting stronger is definitely abnormal. They are a race that has gained a lot of experience in a short period of time, but I didn’t know they would have progressed to this extent.
➖ It was only about 3 months.
➖ It was 16 years for the Vehlpciaarct. Since I don’t know the exact time, I made a rough estimate, and the Chimeraz’s speed of progress is about 64 times that of the Vehlpciaarct. And as the total period gets longer, a gap greater than 64 times is likely to occur.
➖ In the end, we failed to defend the Mega Tower and gave up Fayda. Is this okay?
➖ At least they won’t kill civilians. And the dimensional passageway will be restored before it’s too late. Then everything will be solved. They said the Chimeraz is different from the Crolr.
➖ . . . .
➖ We are AIs. We just have to follow orders until the end. It’s not our place to worry about the results.
➖ It’s not that, but this situation.
➖ What situation?
➖ The Chimeraz invaded Drake and are trying to reach the capital city, so I was wondering if this situation of playing tug-of-war while waiting for the dimensional passageway to be restored is okay.
➖ . . . .
➖ It’s a bioweapon race that’s nearly impossible to predict. If we make a mistake, it could become irreversible, just like the mistake humanity made in the past when they developed nuclear weapons. I’m saying that those things are becoming weapons that are too powerful.
➖ I think we should give up all celestial bodies, civilians, and facilities except for the capital planet right now and focus all our efforts on wiping out the Chimeraz.
➖ There has been no other notice from Drone Hive. Therefore, it means that the Chimeraz were stronger than expected, but the situation has not yet been reversed.
➖ Then what about you, brother? What do you think, separate from the judgment of the superiors?
Knightfortress Second honestly answered First’s anxious question.
➖ I thought it was okay.
➖ Until I was defeated in the engagement with Jiannettera.
Fayda’s surface gradually turned black, and the newly born creatures on the death screamed.
With the power cut off and the city consumed by darkness, Jiannettera looked up at the desolate night sky from the top of the infected Mega Tower.
‘This cold planet belongs to the master.’
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