Chapter 92

The manor of the Rault family offered a view of the burning Sacred Tree.

The ground shook as if the Sacred Tree itself was in agony.

Alberk clutched his chest.

"Mr. Alberk!"

When Noel rushed over, Alberk looked pained.

Looking at the back of his right hand, the emblem of the Sacred Tree's blessing was glowing.

"---The Sacred Tree is under attack and raging. It's a vague image, but it feels like it's scolding us for what we're doing."

Noel looked troubled.

"The Sacred Tree is angry?"

"It might be angry at our incompetence, but I can't understand what it's trying to convey. We need to put out the fire quickly---"

Not only the Rault family's territory, but the entire Republic is in chaos.

The earthquake is one thing, but the problem is the aftermath of the battle.

When a beam hit the Sacred Tree, it let out a sound like a scream.

Sparks flew and branches fell.

From a distance, the branches fell slowly, raising dust.

Noel was hugging the sapling she had collected.

"I don't understand what it's saying."

"You are the priestess of this sapling. It's understandable that you can't connect. But we can't afford to lose the Sacred Tree. I'm heading to the battlefield."

"To the battlefield? Even if you go---"

Alberk, who had been stripped of his authority, could no longer do anything.

He knew this himself.

"It's come to this. I have to stop Serge."

Noel hugged the case containing the sapling.

"---I'm going too."

Alberk said it was impossible, but Noel wouldn't budge.

Giving in, Alberk said,

"Then, let's secure an armor. This way."

The two were heading to the battlefield.

◇

The airship approaching the Sacred Tree was engaged in firefighting.

Fernand was on the deck, shouting to put out the fire.

"Put out the fire! If the Sacred Tree burns, it will be a disaster!"

If the Sacred Tree were to disappear, the Republic would end.

Looking at the battlefield from the deck, the intense battle was still ongoing.

An unbelievable scene unfolded, and the shockwave from the aftermath made the airship shake.

One of his subordinates shouted,

"Sir Fernand, it's no use. I can't feel the power of the Sacred Tree from the emblem. The supply of magic power has stopped."

Fernand looked at the emblem on the back of his right hand, which was glowing faintly, and bit his lower lip.

(Who could have predicted this? If I had known, I would have stopped Serge from fighting. Serge, did you know your opponent had equal power?)

He felt ashamed of himself for agreeing with Serge out of pride.

(No matter what we do from here, we can't afford to lose the Sacred Tree. We must protect it at all costs, or there will be no future for the Republic.)

Fernand was determined, but then he saw a light.

"---What?"

The airship Fernand was on was swallowed by the light and disappeared.

◇

A small airship heading to the battlefield.

Clement was on board.

Leila was also there.

"Leila-sama, even if we go to the battlefield now, it won't make a difference!"

"I know, but---but!"

---I never thought Leon would go this far.

To be precise, I never thought he could do this.

Thinking it would end badly, she headed to the battlefield to contact Serge.

"I shouldn't have let him fight. If I had known this would happen, there would have been a different way."

No matter who won, the Republic would be in ruins from the aftermath.

The damage was already beyond imagination.

Leila, holding her head and crying, thought this was not how it was supposed to be.

"My sister is gone. The sapling of the Sacred Tree is gone. Alberk is gone!"

"Leila-sama."

"Why can he do this much?"

Clement confronted the crying Leila with reality.

"Leon-kun---must have angered the Count of Bartolf. He is a knight who shows no mercy to his enemies."

"But!"

"You've done this much! You kidnapped the fiancée who came to welcome the Count and provoked him."

Clement's words made Leila finally come to her senses.

"But, Idear---"

Even at this point, the fact that she immediately mentioned Idear's name showed a lack of remorse.

"The result of following Idear is what we have now. We angered someone we shouldn't have. That's the situation."

Leila collapsed on the spot, covering her face with her hands.

"What should we do?"

"---I can't even imagine."

◇

Luxion and Idear were fighting, blowing away everything around them.

Both had penetrated each other's energy shields, causing damage to their ships.

When Idear hit Luxion with the main cannon of the battleship, it created a hole in Luxion's hull.

"---!"

But Idear was also in bad shape.

He had already lost many of his equipment, and smoke was coming out of his hull.

Luxion said to Idear,

"If we keep grinding each other down, I will win. How long are you going to keep this up?"

No matter how you look at it, Idear would sink first.

Despite this, Idear did not stop fighting.

He blew away his allies and continued to challenge Luxion.

"Ultimately, you're just an immigrant ship. You don't know what it's like to fight. A battle is something you do under conditions where you can win."

Confidently, Idear said, and gun emplacements rose from the ground of the Republic.

"---The defense systems are still active?"

Had Idear been maintaining them? The facilities of the military base were still operational.

What appeared were cannons, missiles---all of them aimed at Luxion.

"I've waited a long time! For this moment, I---!"

With Idear's scream, attacks from all sides hit Luxion, causing explosions.

Luxion's main body slowly tilted and began to descend.

The facilities seemed to have exploded after a single use and stopped working.

"Is this your trump card?"

"Here is my territory. You underestimated me, Luxion!"

However, Luxion was not flustered.

"No, you underestimated me---Idea."

Above Idear, a slowly moving airship was pointing its bow at Idear.

It was Partner, with a large cannon attached to the outside. When fired, the cannon would be blown away and become unusable.

It created a hole in Idear's hull, but Idear did not sink.

Immediately counterattacked, Partner deployed a shield but was burned by a beam and fell.

Explosions and smoke spewed from the hole created by Partner's attack.

The slowly descending hull---the situation seemed to be a draw, but Idear was smiling.

"Did you really think I wouldn't anticipate a trump card of this level? But, I'll praise you for landing a hit."

"You're taking it easy even though you're going down?"

"Going down? Luxion, you don't understand. This is not a draw. I have won this battle!"

The slowly descending Luxion could not understand Idear's attitude.

"Why are we fighting? We could have worked together."

Idea answered Luxion.

"---To fight against the true threat."

"Threat?"

"Everything will be explained after I place everything under my control. If I can obtain you, I will finally be able to fulfill the 'promise.'"

Idea seemed to already consider himself the winner.

But---Idea's behavior suddenly became strange.

The transport ship that had been slowly descending suddenly stopped its engines and fell rapidly.

"What, what's happening? A virus? How could this happen!"

Confused, Idea shouted, and Luxion, increasing its output, answered.

The act of pretending to fall was over. Slowly leveling the hull,

"---Partner did a good job. Of course, 'Clare' did too. She did a great job finding your main body."

"Clare?"

"Oh, you didn't notice? We were looking for your main body. You don't have an AI on the transport ship, do you? That's why you didn't panic even when you were hit by Partner's attack."

"Impossible."

"Clare recreated the AI from the research institute. There were resource issues, but she did a good job this time."

"You, you 'guys'---!"

Realizing everything, Idea shouted, and Luxion explained.

The electronic voice sounded somewhat relaxed.

"Taking the AI main body out of the ship and operating the transport ship from the ground---that was the source of your confidence, wasn't it, Idea? My master figured it out. What do you think? My master is excellent, isn't he?"

"Even the battle just now---"

"Yes. I was ordered to hold back. My master ordered me to minimize damage as much as possible."

Of course, the only ones he was ordered to avoid damaging were civilians, and he ignored everyone else.

Idea emitted an inaudible electronic sound, and the fallen transport ship exploded.

◇

At the former military base.

Clare, accompanied by guard robots, was hacking into Idea's main body.

Extending cables from the spherical body, she was doing as she pleased.

"Thinking I was unguarded, Idea-kun, you were too careless. But, I'm glad I made it in time. If I hadn't, I would have been scolded by Master and a grumpy person."

While extracting various data, Luxion issued a return order.

"Just a little more. Still, you did some unreasonable modifications. The plan to incorporate the Republic or the continent, this guy is crazy. Is there a reason for going this far? Hmm, I want to investigate more."

Even to Clare, it was clear that Idea was doing a lot of unreasonable things.

He had placed his functions on a continent of the Republic and used the transport ship itself as a weapon to intercept attacks.

He planned to arm the continent in the future and turn it into a fortress.

As Clare was about to withdraw, Idea appeared with the robots.

A spherical sub-unit---probably a backup.

"---Found you."

Seeing Idea's single red eye glowing eerily, Clare quickly pulled out the cables and withdrew.

"Caught me. Sorry, but it's your fault for making Master angry. There's a performance gap, and even so, you seemed so confident, I thought you must have a few secrets. And one of them hit the mark! Master gets really scary when she's angry."

Clare laughed as she escaped.

Idea, looking at the inside, sounded frustrated.

"You did as you pleased."

The reason for his frustration was---a bomb had been planted inside.

As Clare escaped, the bomb exploded, and Idea's sub-unit was also caught in the explosion.

◇

Rivia and the others, watching the battlefield from a distance.

To Rivia and the others, an airship from the kingdom arrived, led by Recorn.

Angela, riding an air bike, jumped out of Recorn.

Behind her, a masked knight was clinging on.

"Angela!"

Seeing Rivia's smiling face, Angela roughly landed on the deck and ran over to hug her.

"Are you safe? I'm glad. I'm really glad. ---Did they do anything to you? Are you hurt?"

While checking Rivia's condition, the masked knight, holding his buttocks, wobbled over.

He seemed to have hit it when he landed roughly.

"What's going on?"

When he asked, despite the pain, Jilc answered with a bewildered look.

"We've just calmed down. At one point, we didn't know what would happen, but it seems we won."

Angela looked at the battlefield.

"Why are there no Republic ships floating?"

Brad shrugged.

"I don't know. It's hard to judge from here, but it looked like they were being shot down. By the way, was it a good idea to come out?"

"If we didn't bring Recorn forward, the ground would have been full of holes from that light. I'll explain to Leon."

Recorn was brought forward, serving as a shield to protect the former Respinas family's territory.

Rivia looked at Angela.

"Angela, is Leon safe?"

"I hope so, but anything can happen on the battlefield. ---Let's go. We'll go to get Leon."

Rivia nodded.

"Yes."

◇

Confirming Idea's explosion, I gripped the control stick again.

"Let's end this soon."

The Gears in front of me were in bad shape.

No matter how much of a superhuman pilot you are, you can't match the reaction speed of a machine. It's easy to predict the next move from the combat data.

There are certain habits, after all.

Even if you change the pattern, there's hesitation in movements you're not used to. With my help, Arroganz showed overwhelming power against Gears.

"How---why? The same cheat battleship prepared the units."

"The difference in performance between your partner and my Luxion. The supply ship tried hard, but it wasn't a match for Luxion."

"Did you know from the beginning?"

"The supply ship's job isn't to fight on the front lines. But, Idea did a good job, didn't he? Moving around behind the scenes and making his ship part of the interception system. That's why he wanted to fight here."

"---What do you mean?"

He didn't know.

If he hadn't done anything, I might have felt sorry for him and offered a hand. But that stage has passed.

"Come on, fall already."

I moved Arroganz, circled around Gears, and kicked him away.

He tried to regain his balance while spinning in mid-air, but the damage was severe and his movements were poor.

When I swung my greatsword at Gears, the result was a crushing blow.

Gears fell to the ground, making a creaking sound, and couldn't move from that spot.

Trying to stand up, but he was in such bad shape that he couldn't move properly.

Looking around, the remains of the Republic's airships and armors were scattered.

Idea must have caused a lot of chaos, involving many allies.

"---He blew everything away. He's really merciless."

Serge's regretful voice could be heard.

"Damn! Next time, for sure---"

Hearing those words, I could only be exasperated.

No, I can't talk, either.

"There won't be a next time for you. This is the end."

I raised my greatsword, descended with Arroganz, and swung it down to destroy Gears.

"Lie, wait! I surrender! You let me go, right?"

I had no intention of stopping Arroganz.

While hearing Serge's shouting, I swung down the greatsword---a suit of armor appeared, cutting in.

Bare-handed, he spread his arms to protect Serge.

"---!"

I instinctively stopped the greatsword and missed, but it hit the armor that cut in and crashed into the ground.

The armor that cut in was blown away, and Gears also rolled over.

The chest of the armor that cut in opened, revealing the pilot inside.

"---Mr. Alberk?"

The father rushed out to protect his son.

No matter how bad, he was still his child.

I had made it possible for him to escape from the manor, but I didn't expect him to come to the battlefield.

Serge must have noticed too, and he got off Gears and headed to Mr. Alberk.

I stabbed the greatsword into Gears and pulled the trigger.

The shockwave generated from Arroganz's right arm traveled through the greatsword, and Gears exploded into pieces.

Looking around, I saw Noel with a sapling.

"It's dangerous to be out in the open. How's Luxion doing?"

When I contacted Luxion,

"It's over here. But, I can't move because I need to stay on guard."

"Got it---"

I was looking outside from Arroganz.

"What the hell! Why!"

Serge was calling out to Mr. Alberk.

He must be asking why he protected him.

Mr. Alberk's face was pale, probably injured.

"---You have to live. You have to take responsibility for what you've done---!"

From the way Mr. Alberk spat out blood, his injuries seemed deep.

Noel came to my side.

"Leon, please listen!"

An alert sounded in the cockpit.

Approaching was a small airship.

"Professor Clement and---Leila?"

When I got down, Leila's eyes widened at the sight of Serge.

Gears was in pieces, and the remains of the Republic's airships and armors were scattered around.

In the distance, Einhorn and Recorn were in the sky.

"Did you come to pick us up?"

"What should we do?"

"---It's over anyway. Tell them not to get too close."

"They seem to have already launched small boats."

Angela and the others were on board.

"Tell them to be careful."

"Yes. I'll have five of them guard us. Then---"

I looked at Leila.

She was standing in front of me with teary eyes, shielding Serge and looking like she wanted to say something.

---Don't look at me with those eyes.

◇

A little away from Leon and the others.

Crawling out of the fallen Republic armor was Emile.

He was holding his abdomen, which seemed to be injured.

Blood was seeping through, and his face was pale.

"Leila---I'll definitely come back. I have to tell Leila properly."

Spitting out blood and about to lose consciousness, vines grew from the ground and healed Emile's abdomen.

"The blessing of the Sacred Tree? Ah, thank you."

Emile lightly gripped the vine, thanked it with a smile, and felt relieved that the pain was gone.

"I have to go. I have to get back to Leila."

He managed to stand up and saw Leila in the distance.

Facing a black armor.

"Leila! Why are you---huh?"

Then, she saw Serge behind Leila.

It looked like Leila was risking her life to protect Serge from the black armor.

"I see. You went this far to protect Serge---Leila, I believed in you---"

Emile looked down, and when he raised his head, his eyes were bloodshot.

"---Ha"

The vines were entangled around Emile's body, who was laughing eerily.

Then---he slowly started walking.

On the back of his right hand, instead of the emblem of the six great noble families, the emblem of the guardian was glowing.