Chapter 14
With the corpses of soldiers still strewn across the front lines, defensive preparations were in full swing.
"Drag out every last mortar left in the warehouse. With no artillery support, we have to make up for it on the line!"
"Where did Third Battalion go!? What!? Desertions!? Has that battalion commander lost his mind!?"
"Distribute everything left in the food stores! Even to the Penal Corps!"
The knights and the artillery corps-the main force of the front-had already begun their retreat. Watching their main force disappear beyond the horizon, the remaining soldiers ground their teeth.
"They slipped away and left us to buy time...!"
"Hey. Look over there."
A soldier who had been cursing pointed with his finger.
"Ha, this front is finished."
A few trees remained on the battlefield, and from their branches hung the bodies of men-deserters who had tried to flee after hearing of the knights' and artillery's retreat.
"If the end of the world came, it would look something like this front."
Soldiers preparing to charge and hundreds of deserters hanging from trees. The corpses looked like grotesque fruit.
Pushing past them, a pot-bellied officer strode into the trench.
He was the company commander in charge of the Penal Corps personnel.
"Get to your positions, you idiots! Starting today, you take my orders! From today on, you and the Penal Corps are the same unit!"
The color drained from the ordinary soldiers' faces at his shout.
We're being commanded by that man? Where are the other officers? Don't tell me they all pulled back?
"D-don't joke! We're regular army volunteers! We can't take orders from Penal Corps scum...!"
Thwack!
The company commander cut off the protesting soldier's words and thrust something in front of him.
The front-line commander's seal.
The Emperor's seal that should have been held by the commander was in his hand.
"How did you get that...!?"
"You think I stole it? Ridiculous. This was officially transferred to me by the General Staff! I'm the front-line commander of this unit!"
The screaming commander looked half-mad himself.
A lightning-fast promotion granted in what was clearly a doomed battle. Even the rear units who would report his death had all withdrawn.
High command was telling him through that seal:
Die fighting on this front.
The same order he had forced on countless Penal Corps for five years.
"As long as this front holds, my word is the Emperor's word! Do you understand!?"
Despair filled the soldiers' eyes at the seal and baton in his hand.
So HQ really had abandoned them-and this commander was telling them so himself!
"Let me explain my unit's rule! When the horn sounds, charge out and kill as many as you can before you die! If anyone runs, these men won't let you off!"
Behind the shouting commander stood about twenty Penal Corps soldiers.
One was the new recruit who had first arrived reciting prayers.
Now, with dead black eyes, he silently loaded a bullet into the rifle that would soon execute allies.
"Well, well, serves you right... You couldn't run either."
"Should we drag that bastard along too, while we're at it?"
"Shut your traps, you bastards!"
"Hahahaha!"
Penal Corps veterans who had survived under that commander laughed mockingly, their jeers almost affectionate amid the despair.
Bwaaaap-!
The sentry's horn echoed across the front.
A battle already lost.
Hopeless eyes stared ahead as the enemy came into view.
"Goblin legion in the vanguard! Orc battalion confirmed in the rear! No sign of colossi!"
"If there are no colossi, we can win! Battle stations! Move!"
A few officers shouted to rally the men, but it had no effect. They had already felt the Orc legion's might.
"You bastards! Didn't you hear the order!? Pick up your weapons!"
The commander kicked a soldier in the gut without mercy. Penal Corps soldiers beat the resisting men like a personal guard.
"Battle stations! I said battle stations, you dogs...!"
Boom!
The ground shook beneath the colossus's footfalls.
The commander's voice, echoing through the trench, died at the sound.
-That's enough. I cannot allow any further abuses of authority.
"G-gah!? C-Commander Cain!?"
With the footfalls appeared Cain's colossus, Silver Knight.
Standing atop his colossus, Cain looked down at the soldiers preparing for the final charge.
"Lord Silver Knight, you didn't retreat?"
"Hmph. Once the fighting starts, he'll just fire a few rounds and run."
"Then why didn't he run earlier?"
The soldiers stared at him with eyes full of distrust.
Seeing their hopeless faces, Cain quietly spoke.
-Men. Listen to me.
His voice rolled from the Silver Knight. Unlike his usual demeanor, he sounded tense.
Realizing the Commander himself was speaking to them through the loudspeaker, the soldiers turned to the colossus.
A massive colossus with a greatsword on its back and machine guns in both hands.
Its silver armor gleamed in the rising sun.
-Sir Randel and the knights under his command are holding the enemy colossi at the vanguard.
It was a bluff.
A lie.
In truth, he had no idea where Randel, who had taken his unit without orders, was or what he was doing, or whether Yaan and Glaepnir were even alive.
But in this despair, he had to lie if it would lift their spirits even a little.
-High command has abandoned this front. They intend to use your lives to pressure the central front.
The truth they didn't want to hear darkened the soldiers' faces.
"So we really were just disposable."
Their muttered voices were filled with rage.
-But like those who went ahead, there are those who have not abandoned you. Sir Randel of the knights, Corporal Yaan of the Penal Corps, and I, standing here now!
Silver Knight stepped forward with his declaration.
In one colossal hand it held an enormous flag.
He had torn it from the headquarters building.
-Normally, I would plant this flag and urge you to fight for the Empire.
Cain raised the Empire's flag high in one hand.
The Empire's crest against the morning sun.
A lion wearing a crown.
The soldiers' eyes showed no emotion at the sight.
But the next moment, their eyes widened as one.
Crack! Snap!
Silver Knight broke the flagpole with both hands and cast the Empire's standard to the ground.
"Wh-what...!"
"What does he think he's doing...!"
Several officers cried out in shock.
Every soldier knew how unforgivable it was for a soldier to cast aside the nation's banner.
-If you're going to die anyway after being abandoned, that's exactly what the Empire wants from you! Fight! Not for the Empire that cast you aside, but to survive!
'I did not fight for the Empire.'
Cain repeated the words of the Penal Corps soldier he had once met. At his cry, the soldiers' grips tightened.
'They'll all feel the same.'
Fwooo-!
Just then, the Orcs' war horns sounded from their camp.
The order was clear: charge.
Soon, the Orcs' and goblins' war cries filled the battlefield.
"Screeeee!"
"Wooooo!"
The Elf Kingdom forces charged with ferocity.
But facing them, Cain's Silver Knight stepped forward and raised his arm high to the sky.
- I, who stand here! Silver Knight Cain Lorenz shall stand with you all! Take up your weapons! We will survive!
"Waaah!"
"Waaaah!"
"Uraaaa!!!"
Shouts that drowned out the Elf Kingdom's war cries.
They sounded like war cries, yet to some ears they were screams.
Soon the mages of the first wave, who had been waiting in reserve, began their mana cannon barrage, and the final battle on this remote frontier began.
***
- Damn it, what the hell is this weight...!
- We need one more Frame. Buertael! There's no way we can carry it...!
The faces of the elf knights trying to move the halted Glaep were filled with dismay.
Even with two colossi giving their all, the Frame wouldn't budge.
- Was the Frame always this heavy? They said two human colossi carried it easily...
Delranel approached Glaepnir, voicing his doubts, and grabbed the Frame's shoulder.
Screeech-!
A grating metallic sound rang out, but that was all; Glaepnir, kneeling on the ground, did not move an inch.
- Even while we're all dying, you're giving us trouble...!
Bang!
Delranel's colossus kicked Glaepnir in frustration, yet the Frame remained immovable.
- What a mess. Who'd have thought we'd be delayed this much when the second assault has already begun...
Buertael, speaking thus, gazed at the distant battlefield. The human front, which they had thought would break instantly under overwhelming numbers, was still holding against the Elf Kingdom's onslaught.
Partly because mana cannons were less efficient in battles without colossi, yet to hold out this long...
Buertael's gaze shifted to the distant Silver Knight.
'He decorates his Frame extravagantly to draw all the mana cannon fire to himself. One hit and it's over.'
Having colossi running around to protect infantry-had the chain of command completely flipped?
- The enemy's morale is extraordinary. Their firepower seems lower than before...
- Hmph, only for a moment. Once it turns into a war of attrition, they'll collapse.
Delranel brushed it off.
His colossus nudged the immobile Glaepnir.
- The knight inside must still be breathing, right? Then watch closely. Watch your precious front line, which you risked your life to defend, get trampled!
Delranel sneered at Yaan as he spoke.
He was already pondering what tortures to inflict once they dragged him back to headquarters.
'I'll never let you die cleanly. Thinking of the humiliation you caused me...!'
Just as Delranel ground his teeth and reached a foot toward Glaepnir-
Thud!
The chains binding Glaepnir shook violently, and Delranel's eyes widened.
Woooom-!
Accompanied by a sharp, unfamiliar activation sound, Glaepnir's eyes blazed red.
- It's-it's awake! That monster!
- Don't panic, keep your distance! It must have scraped up its last strength to stand! It can't last long!
Buertael's colossus immediately readied its weapon.
Along with the chains, it had brought a sword small enough to wield in one hand.
Unable to match the beast in strength, they had chosen mobility to decide the fight.
While the colossi widened the gap, Glaepnir, still entangled in chains, struggled to rise.
Snap! Snap!
- The-the chains are breaking!
- Impossible! Those are the chains used as battleship anchors! Even a colossus shouldn't be able to break them...!
Boom!
A metallic shriek, and the chains holding Glaepnir fell limply to the ground.
Rrrrrrr...
Glaepnir rose slowly.
Its glowing red eyes swept over them as it lifted its head.
- U-urk...!
Recalling old terrors, Delranel shrank back.
Yet, as if to prove himself a knight, he poured mana into his weapon instead of fleeing.
At the first suspicious move, he would rush in and pulp the pilot.
Woooom-!
A brief silence.
None dared speak; only Glaepnir's rising engine hum kept them on edge. Then, as if it could bear no more, Glaepnir raised its head.
Auuuuuuuu-!
A wail.
A chilling sound impossible from a colossus of iron, mana cores, and synthetic muscle.
The ashen giant, armor plates bristling, howled at the sky.
Elf knights began to tremble in fear at the grotesque sight they had never seen.
- M-mon... monster!
The moment a knight screamed-
Thwam!
The earth shook beneath a footfall louder than any colossus in the Elf Kingdom.
- Guh!?
Startled by the sound, an elf knight raised his weapon-
Glaepnir's head appeared before him.
"Uh...?"
That single word became the knight's last.
Crunch!
Glaepnir's hand punched straight through the colossus's abdomen.
No lance-assisted charge, no bunker support; pure Frame strength had pierced that armor.
- W-wait, what just...?
What had happened.
How it had closed the distance.
How it had targeted the cockpit so precisely in that brief moment.
No one knew.
No one had seen.
Grrrr...!
Glaepnir watched them quietly, eyes glowing red.
Thud-!
Before the beast's feet lay the bisected remains of the colossus, split from the cockpit down.
In its hand it held the crushed cockpit, dripping the pilot's blood like paper scraps.
[System test complete. Transmitting motion data to pilot.]
Inside the crimson cockpit of Glaepnir,
only Nill's dry voice confirmed that Yaan within still lived.
"...Yeah. It's fine. Let's do this."
Yaan stared at the screen.
From his right eye, now blood-red, thick blood dripped like tears.
[Acknowledged. Glaepnir, switching to combat output. Engaging combat.]
Thoom-!
At those words, Glaepnir charged toward the colossuses. Its Movement speed was so high that it was impossible to believe it was the same machine as moments ago.