Chapter 56 – The Accursed God of Destruction.

Ahead of Letaria's group, the black of space was suddenly and explosively bleached white as day.

A flash of absolute magnitude from the distant battlefield - a torrent of light that split the vacuum, vaporized debris in its path, and drove in a straight line toward the far edge of the dark.

"Wh-what was that light - ?!"

For one moment, the overwhelming destructive mass of it left all of them speechless. Then Merry's agonized cry through the shared channel pulled every one of them back.

"-- The captain! All units, maximum speed! Move!"

Snapped into motion by Merry's voice, the formation with Arden at its head pushed the thrusters higher still and drove through space.

Moments later.

Letaria and the others slid into the combat zone amid drifting wreckage from the collapsed structures - and what opened before them was a sight too brutal, too complete.

Shuel - left arm gone from the shoulder, the head unit where its main camera had been blasted entirely away.

And before that battered, broken machine, floating in perfect composure: the red-black colossus, malevolent and vast.

"Captain - !"

Steshia's cry came out like a scream.

"...Damn. Lost the advantage."

From the headless Shuel's cockpit came Grain's voice - bitter, ragged with interference, but not broken. Not yet.

"Grain! Why did you do something this reckless - ?!"

Letaria pushed Arden forward. Grain's sharp voice cut her off before she could close.

"No time for talk - everyone get back from this thing! ...A half-formed response won't do anything, we may need every force in Seldia to deal with it - !"

The warning had barely finished when the space around them was filled with exactly what he had described - a storm of light that looked intent on consuming everything. Not aimed simply at finishing the injured Shuel. A merciless wide-field sweep meant to wipe out Letaria's group and every newcomer with them in a single pass.

Facing that downpour of light, Shuel moved in a way no corps member had ever seen from it. A way that shouldn't have been possible.

Its head gone, most of its visual input reduced to raw sensor numbers, the machine threaded through the beams of light by a margin of almost nothing - smooth, physically impossible deceleration and redirection, as though the laws governing mass and inertia didn't apply. The kind of speed that would not have looked out of place beside Arden's most extraordinary movements.

Through the comm line, Grain's voice came - a sound like something tearing.

No one in Seldia, save Letaria, could survive the g-forces that kind of extreme maneuver produced. Grain had forced Shuel's safety limiters completely offline and was piloting past the physical limits of his body, spending his own life and will as fuel.

The other corps members had been holding at enough distance from Restful to have a small margin for evasion and defense. Retta deflected the high-heat beams against her machine's heavy shield. Aland read the space and skipped through it with practiced, sharp movement. Steshia and the other members took glancing damage to their armor - nothing yet that reached critical.

"A-a monster - what is that thing - ?!"

Retta's voice was shaking, fear audible and undisguised. Mass and speed and firepower that stood entirely outside anything Makinas were supposed to be.

Letaria tightened her grip on Arden's controls and fixed her gaze on the red-black bulk ahead.

"...You dreadful, wretched god of destruction. You are the one who speaks directly into my head, are you not - !"

As though in answer to her accusation, the clear androgynous voice sounded again through her mind.

"-- Transitioning to the final stage of this test. Through live combat against this 'Restful', the final evaluation of your units will be conducted. ...Demonstrate the true performance of resonance unit 'Arden'. 'Letaria' --"

Immediately after, every part of Restful's frame began to glow with a cold, eerie light, and the second wave was released. Photons in a storm - absolute, rejecting, a light that intended to vaporize every piece of "noise" present - every corps member - without leaving a trace.

Grain evaded again with movements that had left the human behind entirely. Retta, Aland, Merry, and the others at greater distance held their breath and barely - barely - survived the death line.

But when the light storm stopped --

In that instant of silence --

"Ah..."

Someone's hollow, uncomprehending voice.

Steshia's machine, Flode, had stopped moving. Unnaturally, completely still.

Across its right shoulder and down through the body - a vast, gaping hole of melted metal.