23 Resonating Together 6
Jin pushes the ether coating to maximum, barely holding on.
The enemy seems to be doing the same. Antares Prime is enduring, barely.
Mio is behind him.
And Litela, relying on the immense ether output.
"Self-destruct attack...?!"
Indeed.
It would be impossible for one or two people to move a Longinus-class mobile battleship.
But if it's only a single-point bombardment—and if such a system exists—
then Harold alone might not be incapable of firing.
Still, whether he would actually do it is another matter.
"...I see!"
Realization dawns.
The enemy's intention. The sheer madness of the idea.
"...Even if we collide here, Litela won't be destroyed."
Probably. With its reactor fused to Stalt's, Litela is the most resilient here.
Even if Antares Prime, Mio, and Edelweiss are shot down, something will remain.
And as long as Litela moves, transmission of information to the past will be complete.
The data Harold sent to his past self will arrive.
Even if Harold dies here, the information from several hours ago will still arrive.
He is willing to sacrifice even his own life—trusting that the next version of himself will succeed.
Jin realized with a chill that Harold was aiming for precisely that.
It’s something one might think of, but never do in normal circumstances.
A flashy, showy technique—meant to immobilize Jin, without fail.
‘…This is bad. Regardless of us, the machine Mio is carrying…’
‘Damn it…’
Shu’s Leopard is merely an assault frame.
Reactor output is average.
The moment Mio’s hairguard is lost, it will vanish in an instant.
And that moment is not far off.
Mio’s core can withstand it to some degree with its own coating, but protection is beyond reach.
Decide.
The reason he is here.
He has not heard her resolve, but abandoning her is impossible.
Choose.
Inside her heart, Jin silently apologizes to Sharon. There are many other things he should have apologized for—yet another has been added.
“Edelweiss!”
Her response to Jin’s call.
Pouring out the final strength.
Reactor output surges instantaneously. A technique only the Terminus people can perform—inflicting pain upon one’s own body.
A slight adjustment in the application of force.
Channeling that power into the Harmonic Lazer.
The blade, fed further ether, increases its strength and vibration.
And finally, Edelweiss’s Harmonic Lazer completely ruptures the opponent’s force field.
Spatial vibrations engulf the lance, reducing it to fragments. Only two units barely escape the effect.
Yet even the shockwave from Antares Prime’s core inflicts severe damage on the机体.
Strike the final blow.
Jin makes his decision, stepping forward.
At that moment.
A hole.
Appears.
Jin and Harold recoil, putting distance between themselves and the unknown phenomenon.
All fire from the Ether Hy Mega Cannon flows into the hole—compressed into something infinitesimal.
Jin braces, anticipating Harold’s next move.
But.
“What is this…?”
Harold’s voice, bewildered.
Even for him, this situation is unforeseen. Or perhaps this is the encounter he has long awaited.
No—his intuition rejects that. This is nothing like that time—vastly different—.
‘Wait.’
Edelweiss halts him.
‘Something’s wrong…’
Mio speaks from behind, her voice tight with unease.
“Both of you—what are you—”
At the moment the words left his lips, Jin noticed the anomaly too.
Sound is audible.
No—this is not actual sound.
Etheric waves.
The pulsing rhythm of the reactor’s operation, like a heartbeat.
The Laitera armor, detached by Trishula’s artillery fire.
Beneath it, the Stalt Ether Reactor concealed within reveals itself.
“What is that…”
Something resides within.
Inside the Ether Reactor. A space that should be filled only with ether.
Yet another presence is unmistakably there.
Something generating the pulsing waves of ether, now beating like a heartbeat.
A shiver runs down Jin’s spine. He recognizes this sensation.
The repulsion he endured just moments ago.
No—something stronger. A will so intense it threatens to annihilate all existence, carried through the etheric waves.
‘This is it…’
Mio realized it.
The connection to the Stalts’ ether reactor—something that should have been severed.
The force that had forcibly maintained it, drawing energy from it ever since.
‘This is…’
Jin was pulled back by Edelweiss’s words.
‘You know it, Edelweiss?’
‘I do not. The Emperor might speak with greater clarity—’
She paused, then answered in a voice trembling for the first time Jin had heard it.
‘The end that is coming. What we call it.’
At once, Stalts’ ether reactor split open.
A small aperture formed, catalyzed by immense ether.
It resonated with the distortion of the mother planet, millions of kilometers distant, and expanded further.
An aperture nearly fifty meters in diameter.
Something incomprehensible—neither two nor four dimensions, but appearing suddenly within three-dimensional space.
The ether from Stalt’s Ether Reactor and the immense ether generated by Trishula’s artillery fire.
The spatial distortion born from the collision of Edelweiss’s Harmonic Lazer and Antares Prime’s lance.
The convergence of these two forces opens a portal to the subspace here.
The aperture draws in surrounding matter, as if a black hole.
“Beware…!”
The pull is not significant.
It lacks the gravity of a true black hole—but it cannot be ignored.
More than anything, what happens if one enters this hostile presence?
The unknown nature of what lies beyond is what makes it terrifying.
Antares Prime was the first to detach.
This unit, already damaged by Edelweiss’s attack and with several thrusters offline, could not generate sufficient thrust to resist the pull.
“O-no…!”
Jin watches the机体 being swallowed without resistance.
He is not in a position to spare it either. He does not care enough to risk his own life to save it, not even at the level of wanting to capture it alive.
The end of the rebellion’s mastermind, arriving with little fanfare.
Jin observes it with mixed feelings.
……The scale is shrinking.
Was it temporary?
The aperture gradually diminishes, and with it, the pull weakens. Still, caution is necessary—yet—
Ah!
One of the fragments being drawn in strikes Mio.
She sustains no damage. She is not pulled into the aperture. Mio.
But the impact causes her to lose her grip.
The only one here unable to move the机体—Shu’s Leopard.
It is drawn into the aperture.
Tōya-kun!
Mio’s hair follows behind. The Leopard is entangled, but not yet destroyed.
Still entwined, Mio falls toward the aperture.
“Mio!”
Edelweiss catches Mio’s body just before the fall completes.
A tug-of-war begins with gravity.
Even with the combined thrust of two units, the aperture advances inch by inch.
At about twenty meters, the aperture stabilizes.
A powerful pull reaches out, attempting to drag Jin and the others in—then—
The force vanishes abruptly.
Silence returns, as if the storm had ceased in an instant.
“Stopped…?”
Jin utters a voice mixed with relief, still slamming into the wall from reverse thrust—
‘……It’s coming.’
The faint tremor in Edelweiss’s voice.
No need to ask what.
The answer appears. A mechanical arm, as if grown directly from the plane.
As if something hatched from an egg.
Yet emerging from there is the opposite of life.
It took the form of a human.
Wearing pure white armor.
Holding a spear with a twisted, grotesque tip.
Carrying a cannon so long it surpassed its own height.
An entity that evoked the end simply by being seen.
Something Harold had witnessed.
Something referred to as that entity, now emerging through the opened aperture.
A movement like a walking corpse—unnerving.
Or perhaps a red camera eye, more inhuman than any ASID, fixed on Edelweiss, on Mio.
‘...Scared.’
Mio whispered that.