17 Shooting Down a Star 6

‘Careless!’

The Long Sword was deflected. Edelweiss’s torso was exposed.

Antares Prime’s Ether Dagger was thrust forward without warning.

Edelweiss barely avoided a fatal blow, leaping backward despite the deep wound.

‘Gh—’

The free hand touched the injury.

The Reactor had escaped damage, barely—but the gash was severe.

It would impair combat effectiveness.

‘Step back, Edelweiss!’

Jin, concerned for his partner now unarmed, hesitated slightly.

It was a gap that should not have mattered.

The one weakness—never once pierced in all his prior engagements.

‘Finally revealed it, Tōgō Jin!’

The attack came from beneath, unseen in a blade clash.

The blow striking empty space severed both of the Gryphon’s legs.

Mobility severely compromised.

A failure approaching lethal.

"Halvard Byron!"

Shouting to keep the mind from breaking.

But Jin already understood.

— Cannot win.

He had thought this before, more than once.

Yet in those instances, countermeasures had existed.

Even if impossible at the time, victory had still been possible.

That possibility is gone.

The future, one point one seconds ahead, all speaks of Jin’s defeat.

What can be done?

Queen-class reactor output.

The compressed ether technology humanity has refined.

Piloting skill among the elite in the ace corps.

Any one of these missing, and he would not be in this struggle.

He is not outmatched in skill.

But the machine’s potential is too far beyond.

Even Shirley’s utmost adjustments to the Gryphon cannot match the difference.

"Limit override—"

Jin’s only remaining tactic is this.

A sudden surge in Reactor output.

Tripled—still insufficient. Like reducing a gap of 100 to 99.

“Reactor remaining… one.”

And time-limited.

The Reactor pushed to its limit. Only one unit remains—high-output model installed on the Gryphon.

Removing the limiter would grant abilities beyond previous limits.

But simultaneously, the moment that Reactor burns out is Jin’s final moment.

Shaking off the ominous thought, Jin moves.

“Just take it down before it burns out—no problem!”

It is a truth—yet Jin alone knows how difficult that is.

“Edelweiss… you’re still functional?”

An unspoken question: still able to move?

The answer is not good.

‘…Sorry. I’m holding you back.’

Jin shakes his head silently at Edelweiss’s regretful voice.

To move the body would mean instant destruction. A constant tightrope walk.

Holding the replenished ether dagger in both hands, deflecting the opponent’s single slash with a single strike.

To meet it head-on would mean being severed, blade and all.

All attacks must be deflected.

That is what every sense in the body insists.

An unprecedented level of delicate control was required.

Breathing grows ragged.

Sweat traces down the forehead.

Yet Jin at this moment was in peak condition.

Under normal circumstances, he could never have deflected the opponent’s slash with such precision.

Which is why the despair grows deeper.

“! Even now—!”

Can’t win.

The words nearly escape.

One person cannot prevail.

But two?

‘One more strike… if you’re ready to meet it head-on, I can release it.’

A declaration made with resolve.

Jin stares, stunned.

That moment of hesitation became the opening.

The ether dagger of the inverted Antares Prime pierced one eye of Jin’s griffin.

The fastest thrust.

At the moment half the monitor dissolved into static, Jin swung the ether dagger by instinct.

Still believing the arm was there.

But the desperate counterstroke cut empty air.

Instantly releasing the ether dagger, Harold lowered the frame.

Unarmed, nearly at zero speed.

An opening.

‘Ready!’

Jin had no time to react.

Edelweiss’s charge, with no thought for evasion.

From this position, even if Edelweiss were destroyed, her long sword would strike first.

‘I expected it. You, too—Higashi Jin. I knew you’d come, if it came to that, with nothing to lose.’

But she had been read.

Those who reached this point would not hesitate to sacrifice themselves now.

The lance, preserved in reserve.

Baring fangs.

‘O’

The small guided weapon latched onto Edelweiss's elbow, emitting vibrations.

A strike through the same space as Mio’s hair and the Long Sword, which Edelweiss called the Harmonic Razor, vibrating through that space itself.

Even Edelweiss’s ether coating could not withstand it.

Ohhhhh!

Edelweiss cried out in shock and fear at the sight of her own arms shattering.

Hearing that, Harold lets out a small laugh.

So. You have fear too.

Muttering thus.

The ether dagger, unleashed, pierced Edelweiss's head.

There could be no mistake.

The blade undoubtedly pierced through the head, rupturing its interior.

"Edelweiss!"

A scream tore through the air.

The one with whom a connection, however faint, had been felt.

The one he had relied on most in this battlefield.

Had fallen.

The processor of the Terminus people was located in the head.

He had only recently thought how similar it was to humans.

There was almost no structural difference between the Terminus people and ASID.

Which meant.

If their heads were destroyed, they would cease functioning—die.

The reactor, its limiter disabled, had burned through.

Only one remained. The genuine last one.

Without hesitation, Jin cut the card.

Whether he thought Edelweiss’s death should not be in vain.

Or whether he saw this as the opportunity.

Only Jin could know.

Either way, it was a meaningless decision.

"One-on-one—no need to hold back now."

The remaining lance—reserved, held in reserve—flew at high speed.

Jin cuts down the frontal charge with the ether dagger.

But that is all.

Beyond that—no physical eyes could track all the lances attacking from multiple angles and directions.

Cut it down again.

The remaining three strike the机体 at multiple points.

One pierces the reload mechanism.

One strikes the chest housing the cockpit.

One destroys the final reactor.

"Just a little longer. The Litela transmission will complete shortly. Then— you can live happily with Kusunoki Rei."

A funeral eulogy?

Harold turns his back, leaving those words behind, and walks toward the interior of 'Lia'.

If Litela is destroyed, all this effort would be for nothing.

To prevent that, securing—or destroying—Mio was mandatory.

Departing, in the zone where combat has ended.

"Damn it... damn it..."

Jin is alive.

The lance piercing the chest narrowly missed the cockpit.

Only gratitude remains for Shirley, whose chest armor held firm.

But combat is no longer possible.

The unit has fallen completely silent. Nothing but scrap metal now.

It was already a proper piece of debris before colliding with any high-speed debris.

Jin himself feels the entire body creaking from the shockwave of the lance that passed inches away.

Perhaps one or two bones are broken.

Breathing is painful.

"Hey... I'm here."

On the monitor barely still alive.

The image shows a comrade drifting, head half destroyed, both arms gone.

The remaining eye flickers red, weakly.

Still alive.

Realizing this, Jin.

"Move...!"

With no power core.

On a machine with no intact section, he delivers the final lash.

"Move...!"

The final ether circulating through the机体.

The faint thrust generated from it.

One second of thrust—this time, Jin's Griffin fully ceased operation.

The monitor too was swallowed by darkness. Nothing of the outside world visible.

No angle adjustment possible.

In the tension of a single misalignment meaning total failure—light impact struck the机体.

Collision with something.

Confirming the pilot suit's integrity.

Activating the cockpit hatch's explosive bolts.

Launching body from the blown-off hatch.

The motion alone sent searing pain through every limb, yet he clenched his teeth and endured.

"Edelweiss……"

『——sorry』

So faint it could be mistaken for noise. Yet she had, barely, answered Jin's call.