Chapter 336 100: The Echoes of Fierce Fire_2
Chapter 336 100: The Echoes of Fierce Fire_2
The dense bullets skewed downward, but they all missed their mark as the young girl in front of them flickered like a ghost through the metal storm, closing the distance with a direct assault.
The silver sword in her hand danced, her Dailan gown swirling with the sword's rotations. Her movements seemed unhurried, yet they cast pale blue phantoms as if three were fighting at once. The arcs of her sword strikes sparked upon the exoskeleton mechas, and as she steadily advanced, one elite warrior after another fell.
"This..." Even Brod, who had seen much of the world, couldn't help but be astonished at the sight.
She definitely lacked the Sequence 6, and possibly even Sequence 5, as the fluctuations and quantities of Aijieka Particles were not substantial. However, in the utilization of Magic Power and combat techniques, she had nearly reached the pinnacle known to him. It was hard to imagine that she was not even 20 years old.
Such talent was unheard of to him; she could not be a local resident of the Northern Second District, and even in the Central Star Domain, talents like her must be extremely rare. How could she have appeared in such a remote corner?
"Who exactly are you?" Brod asked, as his protective forces dwindled, and she stepped closer and closer.
"Me?" The girl across from him pondered briefly, about to answer.
"Zzz—" A scorching stream of deep-red particles pierced through the ceiling and engulfed the spot where she had just been standing.
Two deep-red mechas tore through the ceiling structure and fell into the subterranean fortress. Their electroplated metal shells reflected the surrounding flames. The roaring power systems within the mechas drove their mechanical arms to tear through the surrounding steel, protecting Brod in their midst, and then they quickly jumped out, bursting to the surface.
As Brod was carried up to the surface by the mechas and breathed in the cool night air, a pale blue light also rose slowly from the ground, appearing in the night sky.
She wasn't dead? Hit directly by the mechas' potent particle cannons, how had she evaded them? Brod was caught off guard, and the mechas beside him initiated their second round of attacks.
First, the shoulder-mounted machine guns spun rapidly, firing bullets that overwhelmed the small figure like a storm. Then intense beams from the particle cannons flashed and disappeared in the night sky.
Despite the grand display, these attacks were like using cannons to hit mosquitoes, missing the agile and ever-changing figure.
"What a troublesome person you are, but you are alone after all," said the mecha pilot, focusing intently as the chip on his helmet automatically locked onto the constantly shifting figure based on his line of sight before firing repeatedly.
It started with two mechas and then the twelve mechas guarding headquarters took up positions at various vantage points and fired, lighting up the sky like a festive firework display.
After tens of seconds of uninterrupted firing, the mechas' shooting modules began to overheat and their rate of fire slowed, yet the figure in the sky still did not fall.
So this was the limit of these mechas' power, Tilan silently analyzed, feeling somewhat disappointed. She had thought it would be tougher, but it seemed these old model Fourth Rank mechas had quite a few flaws.
After the novelty faded, she no longer delayed, ascending continuously like a shining morning star.
In the atmosphere, the Aijieka Particles became slow and still. The previously roaring mechas now fell silent as if extinguished. The suspended Aijieka Particles in the night sky froze in place and then began to regroup.
In the night sky, the dark-haired, blue-eyed figure hovered amidst the firelight, surrounded by myriad flickering streams of dust. Then the streams began to whirl, as if tracing the marks of the wind and the trajectories of stars, converging steadily until they formed a massive moon.
Stop, condense, O strings of time, melodies of the void...
Finally, a gray-white full moon emerged in the sky, its glow spreading frost across the land. Everywhere it touched, mechas ceased operations, and guns fell silent. The moon's spreading ripples covered the chaotic battlefield, slowly bringing calm to the land below.
"Damn it, what the hell is going on?" The soldiers who had been engaged in battle were shocked when their guns suddenly stopped firing, and they were seething with anger as they found themselves unable to attack their enemies who were just a stone's throw away, even as their adversaries displayed similar expressions, unable to counterattack and crush the opposition.
However, when they realized that the situation wasn't unique to them but was, in fact, affecting the entire city which gradually fell silent apart from the occasional crackling of sporadic flames, the original sounds of gunfire and artillery within the city slowly ceased.
"Is it over...?"
A severely injured soldier slowly crawled out from the corner of a wall, his legs blasted off, resigning himself to death before the sudden turn of events instilled some hope in him. Struggling, he managed to pull out an emergency medical spray from his chest pocket and sprayed it on the stump of his legs to ward off the pain and staunch the bleeding.
The civilians in the city, hearing the cessation of gunfire and artillery outside, finally mustered the courage to cautiously open their doors and windows to look out and speculate about the reasons for the ceasefire.
"Look there, look at the sky, that moon."
Compared to the usual sight, the grey-white full moon appeared exceptionally large, almost giving the illusion that the moon was within reach, imposing a massive sense of oppression. Bathing quietly in the moonlight, a black-haired girl stood with a faint moon emblem emerging on her forehead, overlooking the city.
She closed her eyes ever so slightly, relishing this fresh yet alien sensation.
Even though she had used her Talent Ability not for the first time, today was quite different, as this was her first attempt at combining two Talents together in use.
The 'Healing Crystal,' symbolizing condensation, crystallization, healing, and repair, and the 'Voice of Time Strings,' emblematic of the songstress, time, dyed Magic Power, influencing emotions.
The 'Healing Crystal,' which normally only affected herself and a few objects close by, began to cover the entire city bit by bit as the Aijieka Particles, too, carried the traits of her Talent, all thanks to the diffusion and dye of the 'Voice of Time Strings.'
With this, everyone should be able to calmly listen to my singing and hear about the future.
Just as the girl was about to convey her thoughts and feelings to the people in the city, a sudden, thunderous roar once again shattered the silence.
Deep within the headquarters of 'Fen Iron Energy,' a structure that had been sealed for many years began to open slowly under the power of mechanical gates, and amidst the twisting of gears and the loud clanking sounds of steam engine cylinders, a long-dormant underground elevator slowly rose, revealing an unusual Mecha that slowly made its way to the surface.
The Mecha's outline was humanoid, but the joints were nothing like a human's. Its calves and feet were covered in thick Armor, with eight exhaust ports on each side of its back, while the thigh appeared slightly slimmer, giving the lower half of the Mecha a stable trapezoid shape. The core component of the torso in the center, in contrast to the advanced limbs, maintained a symmetrical elongated hexagonal shape. The Armor on the shoulders was especially hefty, indicating that heavy weaponry was installed inside.
The main color theme of the Mecha was a steel grey-white, but the edges, shoulders, and head were painted in a hot red, giving the illusion of burning steel. The exaggerated structural distribution along with sharp angles gave off the very essence of the war era, unlike the mainstream Mechas of the present day, which had smoother, more comfortable lines due to changes in social ethos.
As the rotating elevator brought the Mecha to the top, the frame hit against the rusty structure with a clangor, finally coming to a halt, after which the warning lights on the surface of the Mecha began to activate one by one as if it had suddenly come to life.
"Fen Iron-6412 of the 16th squadron under the Third Fleet, requests permission to launch," an elderly voice sounded within the cockpit. Subsequently, the atomic reactor at the Mecha's chest started up, with an orange spiral pattern lighting up and gradually spinning, as fierce Flame shot toward the center, contained tightly by the field.
Finally, a dazzling orange orb appeared in the very center of the chest, and its released energy continuously spread through the Mecha's entire body, illuminating every circuit-like Aijieka pattern within and on the surface. The abundant magical fluctuations spilled out, making the Mecha resemble a mini Sun, emitting stifling light and heat, causing the steel structures below and around to slowly melt.
Even though everything around it shimmered and wavered in the scorching air, this special Mecha remained intact, even giving the impression that it was just the beginning.
Gigantic orange streams of hot air burst from the Mecha's back, from the legs, and the shoulders, freeing the incredibly heavy Mecha from the pull of gravity, ascending into the sky.
"Finally, we've done it."