Chapter 52 - Hunt Part 1

Nova Aria, who stood on the ground, raised her head with a hint of helplessness in her eyes. Right above her, thousands of cubes were rotating in mysterious ways, and each contained a simple rune—the simplest possible.

However, as a whole, the complexity of this formation was mind-blowing. Here she thought that operating two complex runes at once was significant. The young witch finally understood that all the abilities she had accumulated so far were only the tip of the iceberg.

A simple rune did not carry much power on its own, but when two of them were combined, their power increased exponentially. Furthermore, Vorst was using the profound power of runic formations to enhance them even further.

The White Army’s drones lacked any semblance of tactics. These bots were merely moving swiftly forward, locking onto the enemy, and blindly slashing with the two swords they wielded. They were just oversized Mechs—except they could fly, which allowed them to engage their enemies in close combat easily.

Their weakness was their large exposure. These mindless, large Drones would often advance too deep past enemy lines and get hunted down by enemy M-Colloses. However, this weakness was somewhat mitigated by the arrival of new bots.

Ten white Assault Drones swept through the battlefield in an arrowhead formation. They were not just any drones; in fact, they were the ones she had designed with Vorst from scratch—Celina's pride and joy! Once enemy M-Colloses showed themselves, those ten would immediately lock onto them and arrive with a boom!

Two years of military experience had hardened Celina's heart. She held no mercy for soldiers clad in alchemical metal because, on the battlefield, you had to kill or be prepared for death.

Throughout those two years, she had seen many of the soldiers in her Special Squad pass away. If she held back now, she would be dishonoring their sacrifice. Every one of them knew how dangerous their mission was and chose to fight to protect the Kollos Alliance. No, they chose to protect those close to them—those who resided within the Alliance.

[<Magnes>: You saw that, Claire, didn’t you?]

A loud mechanical voice resonated through the stratosphere as the two sides of M-Gods temporarily ceased their battle. Rankers had the highest clearance, and both sides had real-time access to the situation on the battlefield. At that moment, the White Army had completely annihilated their opponents.

[<Claire>: ...]

The Elven Queen made a difficult expression inside her Elven M-God.

[<Magnes>: He's a monster. Can't you see that? Think about the future. Once he grows up, even you won't be able to hold him back. He is just too dangerous.]

What he said was certainly true. Right now, Vorst Marcdrak was only at 7th HST! With this capability, he could only grow stronger. LCT. MCT. UCT... Ranker. There was no doubt that he would eventually break through to the highest level. How strong would he be then? It was simply unimaginable!

[<Magnes>: Look, Claire, I'm only doing you a favor here. Just let me get rid of him, and then I'm off. Nobody has to know about this.]

Facing a truly difficult situation, the Emperor tried to appeal to her.

[<Magnes>: Take my empire and all. Once he is gone, my Rankers and I will withdraw to the Dark Region.]

Why was he so desperate? Because once that terrifying being known as Vorst Marcdrak grows up, the first thing he will do is eliminate him! He had to kill him NOW—while he still could—because that small boy would grow, and once he crossed a certain threshold, even Rankers would not be able to beat him anymore. And the most terrifying thing was that no one could predict when he would attain the power to do so.

Magnes had a choice between his empire or his life—he chose the latter, but even sacrificing his empire wasn’t enough! Even the all-out invasion had not defeated Vorst!

[<Claire>: Magnes... He... He is not like you.]

The words of the Elven Queen pierced through the Crimson Emperor. The sad note in her tone revealed a bit of her true feelings, but she immediately composed herself afterward.

[<Magnes>: Y-you...]

[<Claire>: Magnes, you might want to leave while you still can...]

Flash.

A silver M-God suddenly appeared behind Magnes's machine...

[Magnes: (Bind)]

Once again, that spell enveloped Mistglan...

Haaaaah!

And once again, the Liger mobilized vast amounts of his photons to immediately nullify the effect. However, in that split-second, Magnes had already flown several tens of meters away...

[<Magnes>: Claire! You will remember this day! You're protecting your own demise!]

With that, the Rankers from the Crimson Empire withdrew from the planet's orbit. They quickly retreated toward the main battleships, and with a Large Scale Spatial Jump, they disappeared.

[<Mistglan>: Claire-san.]

The Silver Liger M-God turned his head toward the silent Elven Queen.

[<Claire>: I'm fine. The battle...]

[<Mistglan>: He just left them here...]

Below them, the mass of the Crimson Empire's army was completely oblivious that their leaders had just left them to their own devices.

[Time: 15 minutes earlier]

First, he needed to find his victims.

There were forty-two of them. Right now, they were hiding, trying to charge a second shot of a Double Layered Hex Blast... Fine, he’d wait. He’d wait for them...

[--Kaya--: Marc.]

[--Marc--: Yes, Kaya?]

Kaya was resting on his lap. He knew that once he turned his head away from this Serpent, she would immediately start to act, so this was her punishment. Ha, there was no way she would be able to escape from this imprisonment.

[--Kaya--: The White Army is not moving properly.]

He eyed her carefully... Marc, despite his quite violent nature, was actually a very intelligent person. In the world of tactics, he was no newbie; on the contrary, his skill was definitely on par with some experts. However, he was just too lazy to coordinate the White Army. Furthermore, they were just bots—he wasn’t going to waste his energy to save them, right? Three of them knew his nature and understood that he would not be bothered to make a move. What’s more, even Marc could not compare to the tactical expertise of either Lily or Kaya.

[--Marc--: You're resting.]

He answered her with a firm voice that did not allow for any objections. Kaya’s jade pupils shot him a begging glance, only to be disciplined by his stern gaze in return.

[--Kaya--: Uuuu... It doesn't need to be me; Lily is able to do it too.]

Marc thought about it for a while, then shook his head and answered.

[--Marc--: No.]

The main reason for his refusal was the way he had control over Celina’s bots. It was a special link created using Telepathy. It allowed him a portion of control over the White Tiger. Obviously, Marc limited it to drones only, but if it were taken to the extreme, with his mind strength, he would be able to control Celina herself.

That’s why he did not allow Lily to take over. It was not because he did not trust them; on the contrary, he would entrust every single one of his Valkyries with his life whenever they wanted.

But this and that were different matters.

Celina entrusted herself to him, and therefore there was no way he would hand her over to someone else. No matter what. Some things just cannot be allowed.

A gentle expression appeared on his face... And then he realized it! He had been set up by the Serpent—she obviously knew his answer beforehand. Indeed, when he lowered his gaze, he saw a brilliant smile on Kaya’s face. He had been thoroughly fooled.

[--Marc--: Kaya...]

[--Kaya--: Shujin-sama.]

The Serpent was not afraid of his intimidating gaze. Marcdrak could never stay seriously angry at them, and as expected, a second later, his expression softened.

[--Marc--: Sigh. Just be careful.]

[--Kaya--: Yes, Shujin-sama.]

[--Marc--: Right, now just accept your punishment and lie there like a good girl.]

[--Kaya--: Yes, Shujin-sama.]

Lily, who had been silent from the beginning, suddenly showed a flash of mischievousness but quickly regained a solemn expression under the guise of her (Omen of Deceit).

[--Lily--: Lord Marcdrak, if I may.]

[--Marc--: Lily?]

[--Lily--: May I also receive that punishment?]

[--Marc--: ...]

A weird feeling once again surged through Marc’s mind. No matter how many times he had experienced this in the past, he just could not get used to it. His Insight told him that Lily’s question was perfectly serious, while he knew that she was poking fun at him... It was like eating an ice cream that turned out to be salty.

He felt another pair of eyes on him and turned in that direction, only to find the Black Angel averting her gaze in guilt... She was supposed to support him but couldn’t hide that she also had an interest in this kind of punishment.

Marc was once again convinced that he had no allies when it came to these matters...