Chapter 263 - 227: Battle Plan

For a Think Tank Director of a Battle Group, understanding the Battle Group’s history, wearing its honors, and embodying its ideals are as important as its formidable strength.

The weapons he fitted Raphael with included not only a Ring that could amplify his Mental Power—a crude Furnace Cast Level creation—but also a massive warhammer.

Considering Raphael was not an Imperial Knight.

This warhammer could be driven by Mental Power to reduce its weight. It, too, was a crude Furnace Cast Level creation excavated from Aquitaine World.

Its name was the Golden Warhammer.

Agate’s mechanical arm tightened the last screw on the Punisher Ship’s hull, his gaze falling upon the complex and arcane Energy Patterns on Raphael’s Power Armor.

"Raphael, use your Mental Power. Try to infuse it into the Power Armor."

Raphael struggled to hold the Golden Warhammer, which weighed at least seventy kilograms, with both hands. He had been wondering, ’Did the Mechanical Order make a mistake?’

’He couldn’t possibly wield a weapon even heavier than a Knight’s Broadsword.’

At Agate’s reminder, white lightning—the manifestation of Mental Power—gradually filled Raphael’s eyes. Then, the Energy Patterns on his Power Armor began to glow with the same light.

An invisible energy field instantly enveloped the entire fitting bay.

Even the Golden Warhammer in his hands became exceptionally light, its surface wreathed in crackling white lightning.

Agate explained, "The Golden Warhammer and your Power Armor are both equipped with Spiritual Amplification technology from the Ancient Black Box. They are integrated for both offense and defense, but you’ll need to figure out how best to use them yourself.

"However, when I designed this suit of Power Armor, a basic function was to shield against external Spiritual Power. It also has some resistance to Magic from the Material System."

Raphael, who was accustomed to the life of an Ascetic, felt a wave of emotion as he equipped such luxurious Power Armor and a warhammer for the first time.

He was no longer the green recruit who had just left Verne for the first time.

From his understanding of the Imperial Military System, the suit of prototype-tech Power Armor he wore was worth at least two Agricultural Worlds.

Even with the Capet Family footing the bill, commissioning so much prototype-tech equipment from the Mechanical Order in one go was a massive expense—enough to bleed them dry.

For the same price, you could easily equip a five-thousand-man Battle Group with standard Anti-Magic Steel Armor and Knight’s Broadswords.

If it were for the Auxiliary Army or an Infantry Legion, you could easily raise a massive legion tens of millions strong.

It was clear how much importance the Imperial Administrative Region and the Capet Family placed on this operation. But that was no surprise, because the Imperial Knights they were entering the Demon Void Realm to rescue were the Radiant Angels.

Just as Sedon had written in his order on the parchment.

The banner of the Radiant Angels must not fall.

For Imperial Humans, the Radiant Angels were more than just an ordinary Knight Battle Group, whether in terms of historical significance, religious symbolism, or political value.

The meaning of the name "Radiant Angels" had long since transcended the men themselves.

Justice, hope, the incarnation of the Emperor...

Even the freedom-advocating Cicero faction remained tight-lipped about the news of Archangel Tiberius’s death, ensuring it was suppressed at the highest levels and never leaked.

If the news of that great man’s death were to get out, combined with the fact that the Administrative Region’s only thirty Radiant Angels had fallen into the Demon Void Realm, their fates unknown...

with all these signs piling up...

it was easy to imagine what chaos would erupt in the Imperial Administrative Region... and even among other human factions.

Because the last light of the Old Empire and the Emperor... had been extinguished.

After Agate finished explaining the three men’s Power Armor and weapon loadouts, he said to Reinhardt, "Before you arrived at the Iberian Glory, the Lord Governor had already submitted the detailed operational plan to me."

As he spoke, Agate’s Mechanical Eye pulsed with a blue light, and a holographic projection of the Verne Star Zone appeared before them.

As the perspective zoomed in, Agate pointed to the low planetary orbit of Verne World, his voice low and cold.

"Before we depart, a hundred-man Elite Formation of the Ash Guard will seize control of an Orbital Port for us. Only by passing through the Orbital Port’s Net Path can we enter the Demon Void Realm.

"Furthermore, these one hundred Ash Guards will act with us, entering the Void Realm to rescue the Radiant Angels."

Following a change in Agate’s gestures, the holographic star map transformed into a colossal Demon Mother Ship, its form like a countless mass of space debris and asteroids piled together.

"This is our target for this operation: a Calamity Level Demon Mother Ship, over five hundred kilometers long. Its internal structure is a complex maze, and garrisoned inside is a hundred-man strong Rebel Legion..."

Mentioning the Rebel Legion, Agate glanced at Matthias and said coldly, "They are traitors from the Seventh Group Army. You should know them very well."

Matthias’s right hand tightened into a fist.

For someone as defined by Loyalty as he, the fact that the Battle Group—and even the Legion—he once served had betrayed the Empire and the Divine Emperor was a brand of immense shame seared into his very soul.

He took a deep breath and said, "The Seventh Group Army was the personal legion of the former Imperial Regent. Aside from some members of the Death Battle Group and the Tearer Battle Group who remained part of the Loyalist Faction, everyone else has rebelled.

"Do you have specific intel? Which Battle Group was this roving band of rebels formerly?"

Matthias knew the internal situation of the Seventh Group Army all too well. What he had once thought was merely a political purge born of power struggles, he now saw was nothing less than Karloman’s Slaughter of the Loyalist Faction within the Legion!

’That despicable, shameless arch-traitor even used Lord Sedon’s hand to eliminate these Battle Groups, causing the Death Battle Group to become a public enemy within the Seventh Group Army, stripped of all honor.’

’The sheer malice of his intentions... Every time Matthias thought of it, he wanted to flay that traitor alive!’

Strictly speaking, Reinhardt had also once served in the Seventh Group Army, as the Steel Knight Order was one of its third-echelon main Battle Groups.

Agate responded, "They call themselves the Flayers. The corruption of the Dark Abyss has already stripped them of their human forms. Lord Sedon personally identified them, but could no longer recognize their origins.

"Besides them, we will encounter numerous rebels and Demons on our way into the Demon Void Realm.

"The specific plan is for us and the one hundred Ash Guards to break through in waves. At the same time, the Fiery Sun Legion will also launch a breakout to create a diversion.

"Survivors will rendezvous after entering the Demon Void Realm."

At this point, Agate looked at Reinhardt.

"Sir, do you have anything to add?"

Although Agate was now a Mechanical Sage, a position so lofty he even had the right to ignore the jurisdiction of the Imperial Administrative Region, he had long since acknowledged Reinhardt’s leadership during the Kemola Battle.

The operational plan had been designed by Sedon.

Reinhardt trusted the bastard’s judgment. He gave Agate a slight nod. "How much longer do you need to upgrade the Phase Cube?"