22 Resonating in unison — five

After several exchanges, Harold begins to understand.

The movement, once animalistic, now carries logic. Whether it deviates from convention or represents alien principles, logic remains logic.

A tactic beyond standard parameters — the method of Jin Higashi.

Something incomprehensible to ordinary minds, let alone replicable.

Harold grits his teeth, cursing the persistence of his own interference.

He almost smiles at the irony — how deeply he still clings to that entity.

In truth, such luxury does not exist.

"Resonance reaction..."

A distinctive waveform pattern detected from the opponent's Reactor.

Unlike conventional ether reactors, this device exponentially amplifies output by connecting multiple entities — referred to as souls — in series.

A theoretical possibility, still only a hypothesis at this stage.

Harold himself had conceived the strategy, though he had not yet realized it.

“Don’t joke…”

One after another.

Harold, too, had hidden cards.

But Harold had prepared. He had waited for this day—nearly a decade of effort, now culminating.

To move through that decade so easily.

To Harold, it was absurd.

To face an opponent advancing straight to his position, as if bypassing all obstacles—how could he remain calm?

Such a move, unfair by any measure, was unbearable.

The Etherdagger of Antares Prime was swung.

A flawless strike, the perfect fusion of machine performance and pilot skill—exactly the kind of technique taught in manuals, with no flaw.

Receive it, or dodge it. Either way, the first move in a sequence of follow-up attacks was already set in motion.

It was parried.

Sliding across the surface of the gauntlet. The ether coating, concentrated and deployed, and the flawless deflection reduced the lethal strike to an ordinary blow.

Logically, it made sense.

Harold himself could have done the same against a rookie.

That was the shock.

The gap between Jin and himself was proven to be that great.

“Don’t… joke.”

The overlapping worlds began to fade.

The completion of past alteration in the future. The possibility of it waned.

Which meant Harold’s chance of victory diminished.

Harold gritted his teeth as the situation deteriorated second by second.

“Don’t…! ”

The wild slash was finally caught.

Not even a deflection needed—straight on, face to face.

Ether concentrated in the palm crushed the blade completely.

“Surrender. Harold Byron.”

Jin’s quiet voice.

Harold’s astonishment deepens at the unshaken composure.

His own breath is ragged, completely spent.

Only by pouring every ounce of spirit into the fight had he barely maintained it.

But for Jin, it is different.

To him, fighting Harold is already mere procedure.

Every movement is anticipated.

The机体—Edelweiss—capable of following those movements exists.

What had been missing until now was the latter. Jin had always been hindered by the machine’s limits.

‘Truly… you are terrifying.’

The body he has been so thoroughly dominated by.

The motion is far more agile than when Edelweiss controls his own body—yet simultaneously more careful.

In this short span, there is no denying his body is fully under Jin’s control.

And more terrifying still—Jin still feels unsatisfied, even with Edelweiss under his control.

The human limit. Edelweiss, having interfaced with countless pilots, reflects.

Undoubtedly irregular. No human like this will appear again in humanity’s future.

"Surrender, you say?"

Harold laughs. Foolishness.

An undeniable civil war.

He does not believe the convoy will spare him.

Certain execution.

No, even if some circumstance should avert that, imprisonment is unavoidable.

A life spent pondering such a theory, never proving it—impossible.

"Such a ridiculous proposal, Tohgo Jin. Defeat you, and all is resolved."

For Harold, survival hinges on no other path.

"Think you can do that?"

Jin’s words carry no arrogance. Only cold, undeniable fact.

No one could break through the current combination of Jin and Edelweiss—unless they brought along an original Queen herself.

Even Stahl might be able to eliminate them head-on.

"……Ah. That’s possible."

Direct confrontation is out of the question.

But Harold had one final, genuine ace left.

Before playing it, Harold deployed all remaining lances.

Eight in total.

Each spiraling inward, converging before Antares Prime.

'Spatial interference linkage.'

The spatial distortions generated by each lance interacted with one another, rapidly amplifying into an overwhelming force.

The combined output would rival that of the Harmonic Lazer.

A single strike, appearing almost like a spear from afar, was being forged.

"You can use it, Edelweiss."

'Naturally. Rather, I ask you, Jin—can you control this?'

Jin's lips curled slightly, as if in challenge.

Edelweiss’s frame had resolved the frustration he had carried until now.

Yet the slash that had shattered the Lombardia-class armor in a single blow—

that had not yet been achieved.

“Saw it once. Well, probably manageable.”

He pushed down the replicated control stick.

Only that motion was enough for Edelweiss to feel her body respond correctly.

Already, after just one attempt, she grasped the Long Sword.

What worried her was Mio.

Could Mio endure the aftermath, her back shielded?

As she thought this, Mio began weaving her hair like an intricate string game, forming a protective barrier.

She did not forget to place the guardian leopard within it.

Then there was no issue.

‘Now! My mimicry’s final harmonic ray—can it be broken by a human form!’

Jin advanced straight forward, even as he thought the move was overly villainous.

Descending strike from a high guard.

Straight toward the spiral drawn by the opponent’s lance.

The tip cut through space like a drill, slicing it open.

An resistance unlike any he had felt before.

Jin gritted his teeth, feeling through Edelweiss the force trying to tear through spatial interference.

In this moment, sharing Edelweiss’s body and spirit, the impact the weapon endured felt as if it were his own.

He tightened his grip on the trembling blade.

Holding the Long Sword firm, not to be swept away by the opponent’s lance-like force.

If this line were breached, the blow would strike Mio, who stood behind.

That would not be allowed.

Situationally, Harold's unit possessed no further armament.

If this line were broken, the strike would hit Mio, who stood behind. That could not be allowed.

—Harold was Shirley's brother.

To Jin, he was merely the one who had taken Mio, toyed with Rei's reunion.

But to Shirley, it must be different.

She likely did not wish him dead, at least not entirely.

Thus, Jin too, if possible, did not wish to kill him. He did not want to cause Shirley any further sorrow.

“F… fufufu…”

Suddenly, Harold’s voice reached through the comms.

Both sides’ spatial interference weapons continued their clash, each attempting to pierce the other’s interference.

The situation—Jin held the advantage.

Edelweiss’s renowned Harmonic Lazer was breaking through Antares Prime’s lance.

One, then another—lances shattered.

The interference weakened with each passing moment, and Jin pressed forward further.

The situation was clear.

"It seems my chances of defeating you have vanished entirely."

Was that surrender?

No—Jin thought, the voice held no resignation. Too casual for the conclusion of a plan spanning over a decade.

Before he could question it.

"But my victory has not yet vanished."

As those words formed.

『No way... this is bad!』

"Mio! Defend—!"

In an instant, a massive surge of ether slammed from the side.

"This... is...!"

Ether Hypermegacannon.

The greatest firepower humanity possessed, mounted on a Longinus-class mobile battleship.

"Sharon! Bring it here—!"

It had been projected onto this location. To burn everything here to ash.