“The ocean…”

It was a sight the Legion stole away from them. One that Shin—who was born in the Republic’s capital of Liberté et Égalité and then sent to the concentration camps, which he couldn’t leave—never got to see.

“I can’t honestly say I want to see it. There’s nowhere I want to go or anything I want to see, and that doesn’t particularly bother me, either… But I do understand that not having something you want to try, as they mentioned earlier, is strange.”

Truly not having any desires that could be summed up into such trivial little wishes was all too strange. But last autumn, when they were crossing the territories from the other direction, he truly did enjoy it… Yes, he thought it was fun. The sights of nature no one but they could see, the customs of the many different cities and villages they visited. Sometimes they stopped to rest, and other times they passed through, but whatever they did was of their own choosing.

It was their first taste of true freedom. And at the time, Shin truly did enjoy himself, as his companions did. And that was because he knew it would end. Someday, at the end of his journey, he would die in the embrace of his aluminum coffin in some remote corner of the battlefield, without having reached anywhere or achieved anything, with no one to tell his tale.

And that’s how it should have been. But his brother saved him, and the Federacy sheltered him. He survived longer than he expected and was suddenly faced with a future that was longer and more uncertain than he could have ever imagined.

For Shin, who was prepared to die at a moment’s notice, it was far too long a future and far too distant a destination. The future they obtained was far too vast, and without kin or country to serve as their guides, that emptiness was far too…terrifying.

His friends would have been the same, but somewhere along the road they found other things to keep them going. Other things to live for. And having nothing to live for was the same as not being alive. Having nothing to live for meant you weren’t even trying to live. And so he remained the only one who was not yet alive.

“I’m not your knight.”

Once again, he repeated the words he’d spat at Frederica a month ago, when the operation had just been decided, and sighed slightly.

“I knew that, and yet… I’m sorry. I used your knight as an excuse.”

An excuse to return to the battlefield when he had nowhere else to go.

“I’m heading toward my final destination all the same, but my brother isn’t there anymore. So I needed something to take his place.”

Frederica scoffed.

“I believe there’s more to it than that.”

“…?”

“You should be aware that the way you observe your reflection in the mirror is wrong. You are not as coldhearted nor as cruel as you might believe yourself to be. You would even cast aside salvation if it meant bringing peace to another. Even for a mere ghost… You truly are a kindhearted reaper.”

Staring far into the distance, she whispered.

“If nothing else—thanks to you obliging my request, I will set Kiri free.”

Shin turned his attention to the far horizon, where her knight continued to wail.

“I pitied him, trapped as he is in the battlefield, lamenting his fate for eternity. I wanted to set him free… I wanted to set myself free from his anguish. What of you?”

“…No.”

He may have wished to soften the voices crying out from the depths of the battlefield, but not once did he wish to silence them completely.

“Even I…”

At that moment, Frederica smiled, looking to be on the verge of tears.

“…am afraid of ending Kiri.”

She was afraid of losing anyone else…

“I am an unwanted child in this Federacy. Now that it has become a federal republic, my being alive could become the spark that ignites turmoil. I am a child of calamity… My absence would only benefit everyone.”

The Federacy had gone from a dictatorship to a federal republic, but some of the former nobles, who had once held power and monopolized all authority, still maintained some latent political influence. Even Shin, who had only been in the Federacy for less than a year and spent the majority of that time in the military, noticed that fact. Once he examined things more closely, he noticed those in the higher ranks were almost exclusively those of pureblood noble birth. The majority of the generals were either Onyxes or Pyropes.

If those among them with ambition were to learn that an empress—a just cause to subvert the government—still lived…

“And yet, I lived on, believing that I would one day have to put an end to my knight… But once I do end Kiri, I will have lost that reason. And that…frightens me.”

“…”

And yet.

If she didn’t bury him… If she didn’t make things right, she wouldn’t be able to move on.

“…The reason the way forward makes you shudder so much is because you’re properly looking to the future. Because you realized you’re walking an untrodden path. There’s no shame in that, and even in such times of doubt, you should rely on those walking by your side for support. That is why comrades exist. That is why…people stick together.”

“…Raiden told me that, too.”

But cold thoughts stabbed their icy daggers into his heart.

Even if they’re with me now, at this moment…even those who call me “our Reaper”…will one day, certainly…

“Leave you behind…?”

“…?”

“…Never mind.”

The seemingly ambiguous statement was left at that, and it faded into the darkness of night.

It was first light. The sun peeked out over the horizon in the wee hours of morning. Detecting the first rays of light just barely illuminating the surrounding area, Kiriya awakened from standby mode. Like swords serving as grave markers stuck into the ground, countless bent and burnt-out cannon barrels littered the battlefield as dawn broke. His countless extensions, having covered the ground like a filament, also awoke and rose into the air with a flutter of their wings.

It was time to begin the sweeping operation. The Eintagsfliege that had helped keep him under the cover of night retreated, and the Legion under his command began moving from several dozen kilometers away. There were no signs of movement from the enemy forces yet. Attacking at dawn was a relic of past eras when radar and night-vision devices didn’t exist. But such tactics were still effective against an enemy who could employ neither.

The Ameise’s observational data transmission arrived. Using this, he observed the armor-plated concrete structure in his optical sensors. Capable of seeing only a few dozen meters ahead, he could just barely make out the summits of the horizon.

<Pale Rider to No Face. Commencing sweeping operation.>

The unsleeping combat machine’s reply arrived immediately.

<No Face, acknowledged… A transmission arrived from the wide area network.>

…Mm?

<Traces of an enemy unit that had infiltrated the territories were discovered. Given the situation, it is hypothesized they are in pursuit of you. As such, commence search activities in sectors adjacent to your location.>

<…Acknowledged.>

So you did come after me, kinsman.

The fireworks display is starting soon. So before it does…make it to me.

“Let’s go.”

It was the third day of the operation. Regardless of the outcome, today would be its final day. Within the blue darkness of dawn, the Juggernauts slipped through city ruins, moving in a modified platoon-wedge formation. They moved through a main street, where a faded, tattered, five-hued flag flapped noisily. They rushed over the shards of glass littering the pavement and passed over the fallen statue of a woman.

Suddenly, the skies to the west flashed, and the sound of impact echoed from afar. As concentrated fire rained from the sky, a thick cloud of dust rose up in the horizon.

“That’s…not the Morpho. This is Skorpion fire.”

“They’re pretty much off the mark, though… That’s not where the Federacy’s main force is. What are they trying to shoot at…?”

And just as Anju said it, everyone—herself included—held their breath in unison. In the wake of the dust clouds, raging flames dyed the sky over the impact point a deep crimson.

“Incendiary bombs…?!”

Those were shells that had fuel mixed with thickener injected into them, which would spread out and ignite during impact. The intent was to set the enemy ablaze. Since both the Republic and the Federacy employed stone architecture that didn’t ignite easily, the Legion rarely used them, but they were a vicious type of bombardment.

The viscous fuel inside the shells was capable of clinging to its victims as it burned, and it couldn’t usually be extinguished by water. Should a human be splashed with it, the only fate awaiting them was an agonizing death.

The sky flashed again. From between the buildings, they could see the treetops of the forest in the horizon catching fire within seconds.

“God dammit, they’re trying to smoke us out!”

The Legion probably found traces of their infiltration of the area. Even state-of-the-art Reginleifs weren’t able to march through a sea of burning flames. They lacked the coolant necessary to do so, and with all the oxygen in the air burning, the pilots would eventually suffocate.

A third bombardment. An even closer spot caught fire. They were systematically destroying every hiding spot in the area.

“Shin!”

“We’ve got no choice. Let’s go. All units, prepare for combat. We’ll make contact with the first enemy line in three hundred seconds.”

Confirming the positions of the Legion in the area, they rushed through the ruins by way of the path of least resistance and kept going until they reached the plains.

When the Skorpion types roared again, and their bombardment rained from the heavens, the city ruins finally entered the range of their fire. A shell impacted nearby, and the street was engulfed in flames almost instantly. Live trees didn’t normally burn as easily, but when exposed to fuel with a combustion temperature reaching as high as 1,300 degrees Celsius, that didn’t matter.

The area was doused with muddy fluid time and time again, turning into a sea of fire within moments as tongues of flames licked the vaporizing surfaces. The ruins turned into an inferno under the cover of dawn, black-and-red shadows dancing across them. As old buildings crumbled under the tyranny of those flames, the group barely made it out of the city.

“Ah, they found us!”

Shin made out the silhouette of an Ameise standing near the horizon, its sensors pointed right at them. In the next moment, Gunslinger sniped it down. But the data transmission likely traveled through the data link before her 88 mm could even finish its roar. The surrounding Legion units had already been alerted to their presence. Then they crossed over the horizon and were faced with a massive army that spread out before them like a veil of black clouds, making even Raiden’s breath stop in his throat.

“What are those numbers…?! How do they always keep coming out in droves like this…?!”

“Just goes to show that the Morpho is extremely important to them… The left wing is the thinnest. Break through at maximum combat speed.”

“…Roger.”

Flames danced on the wind. The waste and debris left in the wake of the burning rode the updraft into the heavens, absorbed water, and became rain. The Juggernauts crossed the plains as black rain, thick with soot, washed over them, rushing through the low, thorny mountainous road. Having accomplished its objective, the onslaught of incendiary bombs came to an end. A shower of howitzer shells took its place as the silent metallic shadows peeked through the shadows of the trees.

The mountain’s steep formation made the tree trunks and roots intertwine, preventing the heavyweight Löwe and Dinosauria from entering. But the Ameise, which were in a similar weight class to the Juggernauts, remained in hot pursuit. Through the gaps in the branches, a formation of Löwe could be seen closing the gap by way of a relatively calm riverbed. They were kept up-to-date with their targets’ position thanks to a data link. The children caught a glimpse of a cliff beneath them.

“Shin, how far to the target?”

“Fifteen thousand meters, straight ahead. It moved forward for a bit before stopping again… I can’t tell what they’re planning, but let’s take advantage of this and close the distance.”

Frederica then said:

“It looks like he’s aiming at something… But I cannot tell where he is. He’s got fixed cannons lined up; he should not be able to provide covering fire to the front lines…”

Having said that, she gulped nervously. Her silence suggested there was a development she couldn’t make sense of, but there was no time to confirm.

“They’re shooting at us from below!”

One of the Löwe below swerved its turret, turning its 120 mm barrel in their direction. Folding its segmented front legs, it forced itself to fire from an inconvenient angle of elevation.

“…!”

It impacted the face of the cliff, crumbling the ground between Laughing Fox and Snow Witch as they advanced in the wedge formation. Mud and dirt flew into the air as a Skorpion shell impacted nearby, as if to make doubly sure they were hit. A 155 mm shell, capable of reducing sturdy trenches into piles of sediment, burst upon hitting the ground, uprooting the trees that supported the muddy hill.

“Ah…?!”

Caught in the landslide, Snow Witch slipped down the hill.

“Anju?!”

“Nng… I’m fine. The unit isn’t damaged, either. But…”

Having slipped roughly ten meters down to flat ground, Snow Witch pulled her legs out of the dirt and turned her head. The red optical sensor surveyed the crumbled cliff face, then shook left and right. The Juggernaut’s optical sensor operated by tracking the pilot’s line of sight, which meant Anju probably shook her head.

“No good. I don’t think I can climb up. I’ll try to hold them off here… Fido, leave me all the spare missile pads you can!”

Fido hit the emergency brakes, pitched forward, and deployed the container behind it, sliding all the missile pads it had down the crumbling cliff face. Sparing this sight a parting glance, the remaining four Juggernauts moved along the solid ground, rushing forward. The Ameise in pursuit of them spread out to avoid the Skorpion fire but still came after them from another route. They couldn’t afford to stay put.

As Fido struggled to keep up with the rest of the group on the winding road, they could hear explosions coming from the riverbed behind them. They fired anti-armor explosive shells into the air, their fuses going off as they crashed down onto the Löwe, specifically the weak points on their upper armor. They heard roars echoing a second and third time, from different directions, but the Juggernauts—traveling at a cruising speed of over one hundred kilometers per hour even on the unsteady mountain road—left those explosions behind them before long.

The Ameise, despite not comparing in terms of cruising speed, could move along the road just as easily, but having the benefit of a data link led them to drop the pursuit and request that another unit take over. Shin could sense the Legion patrolling several kilometers ahead of their current position switch directions, moving to block their expected path.

Hearing the same voices through the Sensory Resonance, Theo scoffed.

“They’re still coming, the persistent bastards… Only ten thousand meters till we reach the target. If they cling to us like this, they’ll get in our way while we’re fighting the Morpho.”

Escaping the clouds of ink-black rain, they got off the mountain by skidding down an incline. They dug their feet into the steep foothills as they slid and rushed toward the stone structures of the small city ahead.

As soon as they entered the main street, Laughing Fox moved to the rear and turned its bearing. It fired a wire anchor into a building as it turned in a half circle and then mowed it down with another revolution of its fuselage. The building collapsed with a crash, nine years of exposure to the elements taking their toll, on top of having its supporting pillar destroyed with pinpoint precision. The rubble collapsed, as if to cut Laughing Fox, who stood at the rear of the formation, away from the remaining three Juggernauts.

The Legion, noticing the collapsing building’s vibrations and reverberations, began rushing toward the center of the commotion. Hearing their voices close in on him, Theo laughed sharply.

“It’s all flat land ahead of here, right? Well, I’m not really useful outside of a place like this, so I’ll stay here and play decoy! I’ll do what I can to distract them, so you guys handle the rest!”

The numbers of the small invading force seemed to have been reduced by two, and both seem to have been caught and are currently engaging surrounding friendly units.

<Acknowledged.>

Receiving the report from the wide area network, Kiriya withstood the urge to sigh in exasperation. Not that he had the lungs or mouth to do so even if he wanted to. It seemed a few small fry were detected on one of the mountains. Such a blunder was unbecoming of someone who had Nouzen blood coursing through his veins. And yet, Kiriya applauded the coolheaded judgment that allowed him to leave his comrades behind to serve as decoys while he advanced, even at the cost of their sacrifice.

Contrary to the report, his own radar—which boasted high fidelity and a wide range for antiair-defense purposes—had already detected the approaching enemy force. It was separate from the enemy engaging the Löwe in the mountains and the one running around in the ruins; it was a third detachment that wasn’t recognized by the wide area network. It was a total of four units, and judging by their reactions, three of them were the new Federacy Feldreß model.

<Pale Rider to wide area network.>

It was his chance encounter with his kin. He couldn’t let the rank-and-file weaklings get in the way.

<Executing bombardment schedule as ordered. Henceforth, all communications until objective completion will be blocked.>

Choosing not to transmit the information he’d acquired, he sent that single transmission and shut off his connection. But with that said, the other side was bringing its own share of nuisances. So for starters, he would have to separate him from them.

“Get away! He’s shooting!”

Frederica shouted to Shin from the Resonance at almost the same moment as the Morpho’s cries increased in magnitude. A moment after he reflexively pulled back the control sticks, a shell impacted near the point Undertaker had leaped to. Having traveled at supersonic speeds, the shell’s shock waves sent his unit flying as sediment and earth bashed against its fuselage-like bullets.

“…!”

A second blast. The barrage that fell on the dusky hills, undulating like waves in a stormy sea, was almost like a barrage of machine-gun fire—no, it truly was a barrage of shells, making the three units spread out almost like they were scattered away by the force of its shots.

How can it fire so precisely…? Wait, no.

“It’s his close-range armaments.”

What they’d seen in the Republic’s first ward and right before they’d entered the Federacy’s territories, as well as the concentrated fire that had destroyed the western front’s FOBs—all were far weaker bombardments than what the Morpho had fired directly at them the last time they’d engaged it. Shin’s support computer calculated the shells’ initial velocity to eight thousand meters per second. Rather than using its main armament as is, it probably reduced the warheads’ mass using an autocannon with a lower aperture that granted it a rapid-fire function. Even the antiair-defense system it had installed to shoot down approaching missiles was configured around the Morpho’s railgun.

Having Frederica accompany them turned out to be a good thing, after all, Shin noted with a bitter smile. It seemed that when it came to this knight of hers, Frederica was faster to pick up on the Morpho’s attacks than he was. The relative difference between them and the Morpho was seven thousand meters, which meant the Morpho’s shells would impact within less than a second of firing. In these conditions, having her around was a definite advantage.

The shower of tungsten shells, charged with monstrous kinetic energy from its high-speed propulsion, decimated the battlefield in moments. Leaping, strafing, and rolling around, the three Juggernauts had to employ every bit of technique and intuition at their disposal in order to keep evading. If an armor-piercing shell was to impact one of them at this speed, a Vánagandr wouldn’t be able to withstand it, to say nothing of a Juggernaut’s aluminum armor. Their only choice was to keep dodging.

“You little…!”

Clicking her tongue as she took advantage of the several-second pause the Morpho needed in between attacks to prevent its gun barrel from overheating, Kurena deployed her sniper rifle. Aiming beyond the hills with an accuracy none of the others could imitate, she fired, forcing the target to flinch and pause its attack.

“I’ll distract it, so go! It was a buckshot, so it didn’t do much damage!”

She fired a few more restraining shots, then leaped a short distance from the direction Undertaker and Wehrwolf were dodging in just as she fired her last one, putting even more distance between them. Another barrage of shells rained from the heavens, obliterating her former position, and the resulting line of fire moved in pursuit of Gunslinger.

“Hurry!”

“Sorry.”

Shin could feel the pride in Kurena’s smile.

“I’ll handle this.”

The enemy unleashed an endless spray of bullets at Kiriya from beyond the hills. It seemed to be coming from a single unit. It disappeared from his radar once it took cover in the hills, but there were still four units in the position it was last sighted. At this rate, uninvited guests may end up coming here, and engaging the enemy while this sniper kept firing on him would be irritating. It would have to be eliminated, promptly.

He lifted his upper half. Twisting his body, he turned his rear optical sensor, and in the next moment, bolts of blue electricity began slithering like serpents at the base of his gun barrel.

White noise suddenly crackled over their optical screens.

“What’s going on…?”

“This isn’t electronic jamming. It looks like it’s just some electromagnetic waves in the air.”

And as soon as he said it, he realized. A railgun was a projectile weapon that employed vast amounts of electricity to accelerate and launch spherical projectiles. So whenever it attacked…

…it scattered powerful electromagnetic waves in its vicinity.

The Morpho’s roar intensified.

“Kurena, that’s enough; get away from there!”

A bright light flashed from beyond the hills, and a thunderous roar echoed overhead before landing behind Undertaker and Wehrwolf.

“Kurena!”

“Aaaaaaaaaah!!”

They could hear the sound of something slicing the wind—like the fragments of a massive shell that exploded in midair and violently rained shrapnel—and then the sound of impact. Gunslinger’s blip disappeared, and Kurena’s Para-RAID shut down.

For a moment, both of their minds ground to a halt. Taking advantage of this momentary pause, the Morpho resumed firing its close-range armaments. A fan-shaped firing line ravaged the earth. The arrow of metal traveling at supersonic speed painted the blue skies over with the color of metal for a moment before the shower rained down on them diagonally.

They didn’t have the presence of mind to dodge. The most they could do was crouch and reduce the surface area exposed to the shells. And still, the bombardment grazed against the side of Shin’s unit, blowing off Undertaker’s front left leg.

“…!”

“Raiden!”

That moan of subdued pain and Frederica’s scream made Undertaker freeze in place halfway through its attempt to get up. Looking onward, he saw that Wehrwolf was also crouching on the ground, unable to get up.

“…You’re injured.”

It wasn’t a question, but a confirmation. His Para-RAID was still connected, but the damage to his rig was severe. Both of its right legs were blown off, and the cracks in its armor clearly extended all the way to the cockpit. And from the looks of things, the ones sitting inside couldn’t have gotten away unscathed.

“Y-you covered for me.”

“It ain’t bad enough to kill me, but…sorry, this is where I’ll be dropping out of the race.”

Multilegged units had the advantage compared to treadmill units in that they were able to keep moving to some extent even after taking damage. But with all legs of one of his sides gone, that was impossible.

…A thought occurred to Shin.

I guess that would still be better than leaving her with Wehrwolf, now that it’s completely incapable of fighting.

“Fido. Let Frederica ride you.”

Fido approached with a clatter. Because it kept a certain distance away from them, it wasn’t exposed to the shelling, but there was still a wobble to its gait. Its legs had probably gotten damaged by shell fragments or the shock wave. Shin realized that in this condition, his order was too much for the unarmed scrap-collecting robot.

“If I don’t make it, take Frederica and retreat. Don’t bother recovering the others, either. Bring her back to the Federacy, no matter what.”

“Pi.”

“Shinei!”

Fido beeped back in what felt like a solemn nod, and Frederica cried out in protest. Shin continued, ignoring her voice.

“You’re afraid of losing him, but you still want to save him, right? Then live on so that you can accomplish that.”

“…”

He could feel Frederica nodding as she bit her lip. Wehrwolf’s canopy flung open, and a small shadow climbed out of it and then ran into Fido’s opened container. Shin nodded at the tall shadow, raising a hand to him from the cockpit, despite knowing he couldn’t see it.

“Don’t die on us.”

“…Yeah.”

Whispering under his breath, Undertaker, the last remaining unit, rushed onward. Only three thousand meters remained. He sped around the final hill, and…

…a layer of pure, boundless blue spread out before him.