🌐 Language / 言語
🇺🇸 [English Edition]
🇯🇵 [日本語版]
“Regardless of our history, a frontal assault is suicide.” “We are the ones who decide what is suicide.”
They were in the High Sanctum. Despite the predawn hour, the council chamber was thick with the fatigue of a world coming apart.
“The Calamity is not like the others. It exists on a separate plane of lethality,” a low voice resonated. High Arbiter Dimeus had summoned the Holy Maidens the moment the report arrived. The unthinkable had happened: the Saint Empress had merged with the Great Beast-Devil.
“If there is an enemy, we crush it. Schemes are for the weak,”
Uzeltes declared, reclining into her seat with her legs crossed in a posture of utter boredom.
She lived by a simple creed: a threat was something to be faced and decisively ended. Her twin Maul-type Blitz units—massive blocks of engine-driven steel—were the only proof she needed.
To her, the fallen Empress was no longer a leader. She was a target.
“Even with your strength, the scale of this adversary is too great,” Dimeus conceded.
“Then what? Shall we watch as the world burns?”
Uzeltes rose. If the beast were to awaken now, the Republic would be reduced to a graveyard in hours.
“I will petition the maritime fortress for aid,”
Dimeus stated.
“If we gather the Holy Maidens from across the continent, we may yet have a chance.”
“It will take two full days for reinforcements,”
noted Ize, the veteran mentor.
“We cannot guarantee the beast will remain dreaming until then.”
Calling for aid would incur a massive debt to neighboring powers. But they were beyond the point of pride.
“Do we have a shred of a chance alone?” Dimeus asked.
“I cannot say,” Ize replied. “Our only option is a vanguard to contain the threat. You must handle the petition, High Arbiter.”
The mission was an act of supreme peril.
“Then the talking is over. Who else is coming?” Uzeltes’s Mauls drifted off the wall like feathers, despite being tons of solid metal.
“I am,” Amnez stepped forward. Her wounds were fresh, but her stride was unwavering.
“Stay and rest,” Ize commanded.
“This started on my watch. I will see it through,” Amnez retorted. Even her master’s words could not reach her now.
“I don’t care who follows,” Uzeltes said, her boots clicking toward the door. “Just don’t get in my way.”
As she left, there was a faint, disturbing hint of exhilaration in her posture—the look of a warrior who finally had a mountain worth shattering.
NEXT
