Chapter 729: 21-41 At Wit’s End

21: Maritime Transport and Ruins Arc (Year 3457–3458)

One of the burning imitations collapsed into the dirt. Seeing their first actual breakthrough, the knights felt a fragile spark of morale return to their ranks.

However, the three subsequent Flame Balls unleashed by the mages failed to track the blistering movements of the remaining creatures, dissipating harmlessly into the empty air.

Then, a fresh horror unfolded, plunging the task force into absolute despair.

The remaining simulated Rock Wolves began to draw together, merging their bodies.

Sixteen of the gelid constructs coalesced into a single entity, swelling to more than double its original proportions.

The monstrosity now measured two and a half meters in length. When it reared back onto its hind legs, its front claws could easily reach the head of the six-meter-tall Goliath.

“Ahhh!”

Perched upon the shoulder of Goliath 5 for safety, one of the female knights shrieked as the colossal beast lunged directly toward her.

“Darn it! Goliath 4, protect her!”

Obeying Fritz-dono’s desperate command, Goliath 4 moved in, its massive arms grappling with the oversized chimera.

Instantly, thick plumes of white smoke hissed from the golem’s hands. The creature’s caustic hide was liquefying the metal on contact.

Even so, the machine managed to wrench the beast away from Goliath 5. The giant imitation immediately shifted its aggression, locking its focus entirely onto Goliath 4 to eliminate the obstacle first.

“Damn it all!”

Meanwhile, Fritz-dono and the frontline combatants were locked in a bitter struggle with the final remaining minion—a grotesque mimicry of a Saber Boa.

The wind-attribute magic Fritz-dono excelled at failed to deal a decisive blow, lacking even the concussive force required to halt its advance.

Worse, attempting to cut the thing with conventional weaponry only resulted in their swords melting away. Relying on steel was a fast track to being left completely unarmed.

“Watch out!”

A stray Fire Bullet fired from the hot-air balloon above grazed past a knight’s shoulder.

With the knights shifting frantically and the Saber Boa imitation zig-zagging across the field, securing a clean line of sight was proving next to impossible for the aerial support.

“Tch, we’re being systematically whittled down…”

An unfamiliar panic began to creep into Fritz-dono’s chest.

They were spending every ounce of their energy just dodging the creature’s charges, unable to mount a single effective counterattack.

“Stone Bullet!”

Cynthia, Gloria-san’s second-in-command, unleashed a burst of earth magic, but the Saber Boa imitation barreled through the projectiles without flinching, its gaze locked entirely on her.

“Ah!”

Though she threw herself aside at the last possible second, the creature’s flank clipped her side, sending her crashing heavily into the dirt.

“Cynthia!”

Gloria-san sprinted toward her fallen comrade.

“I—I’m alright,” Cynthia groaned, forcing herself back to her feet despite her face contorting in agony. White smoke was already drifting from her right flank, and a gaping hole had been eaten through her breastplate. The underlying flesh had undoubtedly sustained severe chemical burns.

The Saber Boa imitation barreled forward another twenty meters before executing a sharp U-turn, kicking up dirt as it roared back toward them. Its target remained Cynthia.

“Ugh…”

Cynthia was still struggling to steady her footing. Planting herself firmly ahead of her subordinate, Gloria-san raised her shortsword defensively.

The gelid beast charged. A fraction of a second before impact, Gloria-san pivoted half a step backward, executing a desperate, sweeping horizontal slash.

By sheer stroke of fortune, the trajectory of her blade sliced directly through the magi-core hidden deep within the creature’s translucent interior, cleaving the crystal clean in two.

With its foundational energy source shattered, the Saber Boa imitation’s structural integrity dissolved mid-stride. Its form collapsed into a formless slurry, splashing across the ground in a dull, watery heap.

“Thank you, Vice-Captain!”

“Magnificent stroke, Gloria-san!”

The weapon she held was a composite blade forged by Jin-sama himself—a thin layer of adamandite sandwiched between outer sheets of steel. While the outer steel had rapidly liquefied during the stroke, the resilient adamandite edge had remained utterly pristine, cutting through the magi-core without fracturing.

Yet, that victory demanded a terrible toll.

“…”

Without uttering a single sound, Gloria-san collapsed forward.

“Vice-Captain!”

“Gloria-san?!”

Cynthia and Fritz-dono rushed to her side. The moment they rolled her over, a collective breath caught in their throats.

“Oh no…!”

When the Saber Boa imitation had split apart, a violent spray of its caustic internal fluids had drenched her. The flesh from her face down to her neck, extending all the way across her right arm, was terribly blistered and charred.

“We need a healer, now!”

However, Tiffany Baldac, their designated recovery mage, was stranded high above on the shoulder of Goliath 5.

Worse still, Goliath 5 was currently pinned down, targeted by the colossal Rock Wolf imitation.

To compound their misery, the Fire Bullets from the hot-air balloon had ceased completely, the crew’s mana pools evidently drained to their limits.

Realizing their tactical options had vanished, Fritz-dono knew his sole priority was getting the critically injured Gloria-san into the skies.

He waved his arms frantically, signaling the balloon crew above.

Catching sight of Gloria-san’s horrific condition even from a distance, the operators slowly began venting air, bringing the basket down toward the tree line.

Lifting Gloria-san’s limp form, Fritz-dono passed her up to Goliath 1, which carefully hoisted her higher until the descending basket was within reach, successfully securing her aboard.

Unfortunately, the balloon was already at maximum capacity; it could harbor no further casualties.

With the crew’s magic depleted, they could offer no further offensive support or cover fire.

Recognizing the reality of the situation, the operators made the tactical decision to break away from the airspace, charting a course southward to ferry the critically burned officer to the nearest town.

Fritz-dono watched the vessel drift away before turning his sharp gaze back to the battlefield.

The giant Rock Wolf imitation was currently locked in a brutal wrestling match with Goliath 4, which had stepped in to shield its companion unit.

Thick white smoke continued to hiss from Goliath 4’s limbs as the caustic fluids steadily ate away at its frame. It was only a matter of time before the machine suffered catastrophic structural failure.

“So this is the end of the line…”

A bitter memory from his past flashed through Fritz-dono’s mind.

Five years ago, back when he was still a green lieutenant, a minor skirmish with the Celuroa Kingdom had resulted in his capture by their National Defense Force.

It had been the direct consequence of his own arrogance, relying blindly on his personal martial prowess and overextending far beyond his lines.

Though he was eventually returned via a prisoner exchange, that humiliation had driven him to look beyond mere swordplay, forcing him to rigorously study strategy and grand tactics.

“…Yet even with all that knowledge, I can see no path out of this nightmare…”

Just as his resolve threatened to shatter under the weight of their impending doom—

A deafening, thunderous impact reverberated through the clearing, and the colossal Rock Wolf imitation was sent flying through the air, torn away from Goliath 4.

“W-What in the world?!”

Before Fritz-dono could process the sight, a firm hand clapped down onto his shoulder.

“?!”

Standing beside him was a slender man clad in pitch-black attire and a silver helm, his sharp eyes and hair a matching shade of deep brown.

“You can rest easy now.”

“W-Who are you?”

The man, who seemed to have materialized out of thin air without alerting a single sensor, offered a calm reply.

“I am Machina. Deus Ex Machina.”

“Machina…?”

Fritz-dono recognized the name instantly. This was the legendary entity rumored to have brought a crushing, forceful end to the geopolitical conflicts instigated across various nations by the Unifiler faction.

“Indeed. It seems you’ve gone and awakened a rather unpleasant ghost of the Magi War. Don’t worry, I’ll handle that monstrosity.”

“?!”

Following Machina’s line of sight, Fritz-dono could scarcely believe his eyes.

The titanic Rock Wolf imitation was being utterly toyed with.

Engaging the beast was a figure clad in shimmering silver armor. Based on her silhouette, she was unmistakably a woman—and an exceptionally petite one at that, standing barely a hundred and fifty centimeters tall.

“That is my partner, Rei.”

The female knight named Rei was completely overpowering the gargantuan chimera through sheer, unadulterated physical force.

Her specialized armor showed absolutely no signs of corrosion despite direct contact with the beast, and her standard strikes packing immense kinetic weight were throwing the massive creature around like a ragdoll.

“Incredible…”

“And she hasn’t even begun to take this seriously,” Machina added, casually tossing out a remark that made Fritz-dono question his own hearing. “Rei, finish it.”

Judging that the silver knight had drawn the target a safe distance away from the surviving human units, Machina issued the final command.

Without a word, the silver-clad knight nodded, drawing the blade resting at her hip.

Instantly, a sword of pure, radiant light crackled into existence, wreathed in violent arcs of purple lightning. Its luminous edge stretched an impossible five meters in length.

Wielding the massive blade of energy as though it weighed less than a feather, Rei systematically carved the colossal Rock Wolf imitation into microscopic ribbons right before Fritz-dono’s stunned, speechless gaze.

Because the sweeping strokes simultaneously incinerated the internal magi-cores, the fluid held no capacity to reconstitute itself.

“Heat.”

“What?!”

Fritz-dono’s jaw dropped further.

The spell Machina had cast was a basic engineering shortcut—the lowest tier of fundamental fire-attribute magic.

Yet, amplified by his immense output, the simple thermal spell instantly vaporized the lingering remnants of the hazardous semi-fluid, turning the toxic mire into harmless steam.

“That ensures nothing will fester here. What is the status of your wounded?”

“A-Ah… the rest of us only have minor scrapes. We had one critical casualty, but we managed to evacuate her via the hot-air balloon to the nearest settlement.”

Still entirely overwhelmed by the display of godlike power, Fritz-dono could barely find the words to respond.

End of 729