15. Shooting Down Four Stars

A large Ether Cannon, adjusting its angle with ease.

A direct hit would leave even the Assault Frame unscathed, let alone Edelweiss.

Of course—assuming it actually hits.

"Like that attack could land on me!"

Jin leaps into motion along the projectile's trajectory.

Dodging the blast just shy of grazing the armor's surface, closing the distance with precision.

Further in the opposite direction.

Edelweiss lunges forward, long sword raised to sever the tail at its base.

'You have quite a few blind spots. Let me improve your visibility.'

Harold cannot respond to the dual assault.

The tail is severed. The Ether Cannon, its main weapon, detaches.

The blade pierces the torso.

The lance's platform is destroyed—recovery and resupply become impossible.

Harold’s miscalculation is not the only one.

"Impossible… I didn’t think you’d synchronize this far!"

Harold does not know.

They have killed each other three times.

And spoken again and again.

About Mio.

About the fight.

The two were the central topics—yet even so, they had come to understand each other’s core in battle.

That is why Harold remains ensnared.

“—Got it!”

In the split second distracted by Edelweiss.

A full-force strike.

The final Ether Dagger shattered in one blow.

The thick blade, forged beyond limits by Ether, severed Antares’s remaining shears.

"Return the child to me."

Edelweiss steps on Antares’s collapsing form and takes Mio’s hand.

Jin, his role usurped, feels a flicker of resentment.

“Ah… thank you… um…”

Edelweiss spoke before Mio could recall the name Jin had been calling out.

Somewhat pleased. Proudly declaring the name bestowed upon her.

‘Edelweiss. That is the name I have been given. Mio-sama.’

‘Sama…? Um, yeah. Thank you, Edelweiss.’

Mio replied with a faint hesitation, unfamiliar with the honorific, yet still sincere in her gratitude.

Jin, concerned, asked next.

‘Mio… are you alright? Are you injured?’

‘Yeah… I’m fine.’

A slightly awkward exchange.

It might still take time to reestablish their sense of distance.

And there was no room for celebration now.

Especially not for Mio, whose thoughts remained fixed on Sho’s whereabouts.

The three reunited.

Harold, surveying the ruined state of his own machine, sighed as if in mourning.

“This… was quite the pride of mine, Antares.”

Technically, it could be described as rather interesting.

But facing Jin and Edelweiss made even that difficult.

To dismiss the situation with a simple “the opponent was too strong” would be somewhat crude.

“Surrender! Harold Byron.”

The disturbance this one has caused cannot be ignored.

Firing on the scene would be unacceptable.

To put it bluntly—this one must be dealt with properly, a lesson made clear.

Regardless of personal motives or hidden circumstances, this is rebellion.

It was necessary, to deter the next.

“With deepest respect, I decline.”

Edelweiss, seeing the negotiation collapse, murmurs with quiet dignity.

“Fight to the end of death. That is acceptable.”

“There’s no way it’s acceptable… I need every detail of the plan from this one.”

No fleeing to death allowed.

Above all, killing recklessly might trigger something else—like a timed bomb.

The core theory of this operation.

Harold is the only one who understands it. Therefore, securing him is mandatory.

‘I’ll decline that offer, if you don’t mind.’

A faint trace of a smile, immediately retracted.

‘—Still, this combat platform isn’t quite up to par against an ace.’

A remark born of defeat.

The opponent’s combat capability is already gone. Locate the cockpit and pull them out.

As Jin thought this, a change occurred in Antares.

Before disassembling, the rear armor opened.

A scene resembling molting. But emerging was not a new scorpion—but a humanoid form.

Twenty meters in length. A shape Jin knew well.

‘Separated…?’

An assault frame, presumably. The reactor reaction matched exactly the one detected moments before.

Then Jin realized.

Merse Queen was 4,000 lammy.

Antares before him was 2,000 lammy.

Why the output difference.

The answer stood before him.

A reduction in output due to miniaturization to the point of being mountable on an assault frame. That was the cause.

‘Allow me to introduce, once more. My greatest achievement to date. Antares Prime.’

The Antares from earlier had been an armament platform.

A device designed to allow a single ace to wield multiple weapons.

Jin recalled having heard of that tactical theory before.

The idea that equipping one ace with full military armament would yield greater results—purely theoretical, it should have been.

Harold had made it real.

And such a system would, of course, require seamless transition into individual-target mode.

That is its form.

The dark green frame summoned by Antares Prime and Harold.

Before Jin’s gaze, it suddenly vanished.

——Fast!

Output remains unchanged at two thousand rami.

Yet its volume has drastically shifted.

Even Edelweiss’s output of one thousand rami produces a speed unparalleled for a unit of this size.

And even so, there remains nearly double the output difference—moreover, a gap in ether compression technology so vast it defies comparison.

‘Well now. Perhaps you’re the slow one?’

Harold replies with mockery to Jin’s words. Edelweiss lunges in response, but is effortlessly outmaneuvered, taken from behind.

Just as Jin turns, a powerful kick strikes his abdomen.

He groans, enduring the impact.

‘…Nonsense…!’

Watching the two being toyed with, Mio lets out a cry, sharp as a scream.

‘Edelweiss! Both of you!’

Edelweiss turns her back toward Mio, as if to calm her.

‘Step back. Your Highness.’

Jin speaks from behind, standing parallel.

‘We’ll draw him in.’

The words slip out easily, though it feels like there are no other options.

Between Jin and Edelweiss—halt Harold.

Then—Mio is free to move.

Still unaccustomed to her own strength, but undeniably, in ability, Jin and Edelweiss surpass even the maximum.

‘Can you do it?’

A question: can she break Laitera alone?

Mio understands the weight of those words. Nods.

‘I’ve got this.’

It was her failure.

She cannot leave the aftermath to others.

Nods firmly. Mio moves toward the interior of the Lombardia-class, determined to destroy Laitera.

Jin’s Gryphon and Edelweiss intercept Antares Prime as it attempts to pursue.

After Mio’s form vanishes, Jin asks.

“Then… what do you actually think?”

He seeks an objective opinion.

At least in Jin’s estimation—the current Harold and Antares Prime are stronger than Edelweiss.

‘…Your skill is superior. But the gap in capability is unavoidable.’

Clearly, that specification is abnormal.

Jin even wondered if such a force had never existed before.

But the truth remains uncertain.

Regardless, it moves swiftly.

And though its armament layout is nearly identical to an ordinary assault frame, its output is incomparable.

Moreover, it appears to have retained a few lances.

Dodging the increasingly rapid multi-angle attacks with difficulty, Jin mutters.

“Yeah…”

Jin nods without much surprise, as if the assessment from Edelweiss matches his own.

Doesn't matter. It's common for Jin to face opponents stronger than himself.

Only a slight tension lingers—this is the first time he's fought a human.

The sensation of challenging someone above him. How long has it been?

Ether-light grazes his armor.

Can't avoid it.

‘You won't win alone, I suppose.’

Jin replies with a faint smile, his tone lightly edged.

‘What about two?’

‘Hmm… uncertain. But the possibility is there, certainly.’

That’s enough for Jin.

Even a sliver of possibility—enough to pull it toward him and make it real.

He smiles, even as the full force of the ether rifle’s fire strikes him head-on.