< NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED… >

  “Hahah…” The sound of a dry chuckle as if appreciating a bad joke could be heard. The tone was neutral, not allowing one to discern whether it was the voice of a man or a woman. “It’s not an ICBM, don’t overreact.” The voice was coming from the soul phyctery in the chest cavity of the rank 5 mortal shell.

  A streak of light immediately flew towards the ‘dead’ two tailed fox next to it. At once, the empty shell moved as if awakening from a long slumber, trying to stretch its body.

  < Onmyoji-sama… > Gurren tried to call it. Ever since Mizuki had decided to de-tech himself and wore the analog mortal shell, all of his AI Support Units have been stored in the mainframe core. Along with his mortal shell, the rank 5 power armor is naturally stored within the confines of the Onmyoji’s Kekkai to prevent the decay from being exposed to this world’s dimensional ws.

  With the mainframe core being directly connected to Mizuki’s former rank 5 mortal shell, up to a certain level, each AI Support Unit can activate one another, but for the original three that Mizuki activated, they were never turned off, so they can still ‘sense’ what happened on the external world through the ‘eyes’ of the high-tech mortal shell.

  Naturally, the nuclear she refers to are the strategic killer moves that Xuangu Wenren uses.

  “As expected of a Nekrotek Magus. Even though it’s a new world, to create undead machinery of that scale in a blink of an eye… he has surpassed my expectations. I will have him help me in creating more Shikigami in the future…” The two tailed fox zily yawns as if the battle outside the orbital drop pod is none of his concern.

  < Onmyoji-sama… Multiple Rank 2 Lords are approaching the objective area. It is safe to assume that the Lich Xuangu Wenren has decided for you to act. >

  “Hmmph.” The fox stopped whatever it was doing and stared at the general direction of the Serpent Lord. Despite having a virtually indestructible metal wall separating the inside and out, the [Kekka erected by the Onmyoji fundamentally turned it into a metaphorical one-sided mirror. “Are you aware why I am left as a Legend while the rest of Master’s Cohorts have been reduced to Lords or Officials?”

  < Information not found. >

  Rolling its rge eyes, the fox stood up. “I am not authorized to take out more resources from the phyctery and strictly forbidden to sacrifice my cultivation as an alternative. However, the use of Shikigami is allowed.” it gnced towards the power armor stored safely within the pod. “Machine, eliminate the lord for me. I need its blood and soul energy to refine a shikigami medium.”

  < … >

  “Was there a malfunction in the hardware?” The fox inquired rhetorically.

  < There was not. > Gurren assured. < Without His Highness’ AT-Field, our area of operation is limited to this very room. Of course you would understand that, wouldn’t you? >

  “Move!” The fox stood up, its face turned serious as the Serpent Lord had picked up speed and reached a distance that he wasn't comfortable with. “I will expand your zone of operation, but since I’ll only temporarily borrow one of the thirteen seals of my Kekkai, it’ll only st 4 seconds.”

  < Acknowledged. > Mizuki’s empty mortal shell opened its eyes. Its bnk mechanical lenses on top of bck sclera turned crimson as Gurren take control < Activating remote control access… >

  The Power Armor quickly had its limbs activated. Micro-movement started being visible as it powered up. Without a mortal shell’s Core Reactor, it can barely sustain 12 hours of high-intensity combat nonstop, but Gurren was only given 4 second time windows to kill a Lord, she felt it was strange.

  After all, the Power Armor is a rank 5 Mars-pattern Artifact, it is something that Mizuki would wear when fighting unimaginable horrors that exist in the realm beyond this world. If Mizuki wanted to keep his card hidden to unknown beings that might be watching, wouldn’t he be keeping the most powerful cards under wraps?

  “Tools are static, while humans are dynamic.” Onmyoji's voice disrupted the background computation that Gurren has, as if already knew what she was thinking. “Master Mizuki would rather keep his cohorts hidden compared to his technology, it’s as simple as that.” The two-tailed fox then stood up before csping his hands together. The pod’s door opened, but to those from outside, they couldn't see the inside of the pod.

  As if receiving her cue, the Gurren-controlled power armor took a sprinting preparation position.

  “Go forth. Rank 2 rule-path killer move, [Domain Expansion: Edict of False Heaven]!”

  With a strange white-fire ignition, a paper seal materialized on the back of the power armor. At that moment, despite not being able to detect the changes, Gurren understood that her four seconds had started.

  Boom! Without nothing holding her back, she utilizes what she can from the empty rank 5 power armor. Despite only functioning barely a percent of its peak strength and none of the soul runes being activated due to the ck of truesoul inhabiting it, the power armor can easily accelerate from zero to Mach 8 with a step.

  Thanks to the Onmyoji’s killer move, certain obstacles such as the sound barrier and the corrosion of native dimensional ws do not apply to it.

  < There’s no air resistance at all. It’s as if the power armor is in a superposition between reality and unreality. I am adhering to while ignoring some ws of physics, therefore despite moving in Mach 12, I have not caused any disturbance the environment. > was Gurren's analysis of the current situation.

  Considering the distance between the vilge and the Serpent Lord was less than a kilometer away, it could be said that Gurren has reached her objective in a blink of an eye.

  Gurren had considered carrying the gunnce to kill it, but with the short amount of time she was provided, and therefore the haste required to complete his objective, there was no need for a weapon. The surface of the power armor is made out of simir superalloy used in Imperium’s battleship hull, Adamantium. When each step she took allowed her to gain even more momentum, the moment she made contact with the Serpent Lord, she already reached Mach 23.

  With that kind of force, the indestructible shield has become the strongest spear. Boom! At that moment the very Serpent Lord that caused a lot of pain for Xuangu Wenren instantly spttered. Like a kinetic artillery, the sheer force literally turned the creature’s corpse into meat paste. What’s left of its body immediately catches a strange white-fire that does not exclude much heat.

  < 1.51 second… > Gurren calcuted the time she spent on dispatching the Serpent Lord before gncing at the outside world. Non-visual sensors picked up little to no lifeforms threat outside the flickering lightcrystal’s glow, but visual sensors indicate waves upon waves of creatures rushing towards the vilge. It was as if those lifeforms were moths to a fme.

  She considered for a split second to assist Xuangu Wenren in cleaning up a bit of the Official or the nearest Lords, but missile weapons will decay before they reach the enemy, and physically ramming the power armor to the enemy requires her to reach them in the first pce. Brief calcution indicate that she won’t have enough time to return to the pod before the Onmyoji’s killer move run out.

  Reluctantly, she turned back, leaving the corpse of the Serpent Lord burning in the strange fme.

  < Mission accomplished. >

  “Hmm.” The fox acknowledged the power armor’s return in the 3.78 second mark and closed the door. Next, it was his time to take action as a paper seal manifested before quickly igniting with the same strange fire that consumed the corpse of the Serpent Lord. “Rank 2 rule-path killer move, [Corpse Seal Ignition]!”

  As the blood and soul of the Serpent Lord is being consumed by the strange fire, the potential energy contained within them is converted into Soul Essence, a type of energy that can be used by the Onmyoji. Using a ranged sacrificial killer move does reduce the efficiency, but it’s not like the Onmyoji can go there physically.

  Nevertheless, his methods were sufficiently effective that he can utilize the energy to activate his next soul art. The fme consumed all the remaining pieces of the corpse as they converged into a humanoid paper doll that fluttered upward. “Rank 2 rule-path killer move, [Chess Piece: Kinshō]!”

  Following his finger movement, intricate lines of white light erupted from the paper seal, weaving themselves into a small, spectral chessboard that hovered above the ground. Each line pulsed with soul essence, but the board was currently empty, save for a single lone piece gleaming atop the board.

  The lone Kinsho shone brighter with each passing heartbeat, its form accumuting light until it reached a critical point. Then, without warning, the chessboard fractured, colpsing inward. Realspace cracked like a mirror, a jagged hole materialized that led into a yer of existence completely alien to the natives of this world.

  From the darkness, something emerged.

  The creature stepped forward with mechanical grace. It was a towering humanoid figure almost 3 meters tall, cd in battered power armor forged from tarnished gold and weathered bone, etched all over with shifting purple soul runes. Exposed joints whirred and cnked like a puppet made from long dead mechanical corpses. Its head was a featureless helm shaped like a traditional kabuto, save for two glowing white blue slits where eyes might have once been.

  Ropes of ritual paper talisman engraved with purple soul runes fluttered from its shoulder and arms, each are seals of protection, preservation, defense, and distortion. Where flesh might have been, pale white ghostly mist leaked through the armor’s crack, giving it a half-spectral, half-mechanical aura.

  Upon its back, a massive tachi sword rested, more ceremonial than practical. Tall banners accompanied by a massive cursed weapon locker shed to its spine. It resembles less a weapon box, but more a mobile arsenal, bristling with the worn silhouettes of ancient and modern arms. Rusted gun, shattered bde, broken railgun, each peace bearing the bleached and faded colors seemingly occurred thousands of years back.

  The Kinsho’s movement was marked by the faint sound of cttering metal and the low hum of suppressed curses woven into its form. Its presence excluded a paradoxical sense of permanence and decay, as though it had marched from ruins of countless battlefields, carrying with it the grudges and ment of a million fallen soldiers.

  Before the foul air of the Shikigami’s origin dimension seethe and contaminate this world, the fractured space mended itself.

  Responding to the Onmyoji’s command, the Kinsho shifted its stance, solemn and deliberate. The motion stirring the ritual seals trailing from its arms in a muted rustle. Its worn-down power armored hand reached behind its broad, tattered form, into the weapon locker bore like an iron coffin.

  Fingers wrapped around the frame of a broken weapon, a rusted anti-materiel railgun rifle, its barrel warped and its stock shattered. At a gnce its high-tech appearance indicates its origin as a relic not of this world. Yet, as the Kinsho brought the weapon forward, the atmosphere itself twisted.

  Faded technological circuits and spectral runes etched into its pted arms pulsed with golden light. Time, fate, and decay, they were denied, pushed back, rejected.

  In the hand of the Kinsho, the rusted rifle drank the essence of the River of Time, the entropy stitched into its metal unmade and reversed.

  What was once broken and ruined mended itself accompanied by a clockwork tick rewinded at a slow pace. The weapon reformed, a glimmer of the past reforged into the present. Its scope becomes clear, its magnetic system reverts back to peak performance, its body becomes an emotionless killing machine, humming with the desire to perform massacre once more.

  The Kinsho knelt upon one knee, stabilizing the freshly restored railgun with mechanical precision. It aligned the almost 2-meter long muzzle towards the second closest Lord, performing calibration for the optimum shot. The spectral fme on its eye socket flickering behind the helmet’s visor.

  At the opposite end of its crosshair was a rge dark-path insect the size of a house. Its body was a swarm of bck dust, no technological tools can pierce through its counterintelligence method. In this darkness, it can almost be said that the creature was invisible, yet the existence of its truesoul could not be hidden from the Kinsho.

  Without dey, the Kinsho squeezed the trigger.

  The rifle roared, discharging a thunderous electric shockwave that rattled the dark mountain range.

  An ultramagnetic round shot forth, reaching Mach 87 within a blink, a velocity that shredded any and all defenses. As a weapon designed to destroy armored spacecraft, the weapon’s caliber was rger than the typical railgun and the secondary payload of electromagnetic discharge guaranteed annihition even if the physical impact did not accomplish its objective.

  The dark-path Insect Lord had no time to react.

  The projectile pierced through the mass of bck dust, striking the hidden creature within. Space itself seemed to warp and crackle under the round’s passage, leaving a scar of lightning trailing behind.

  The insect’s form convulsed violently as arcs of blinding psma tore through it from the inside out, burning its flesh in a catastrophic fsh of destruction. In a blink of an eye, nothing recognizable remains, only a charred crater where its presence once was, the bck dust annihition, and the secondary smaller insect swarm reduced to static ash.

  Confirming the destruction of the target’s soul signature, the Kinsho straightened, his mechanical joints groaning under the weight of its own weapon locker.

  “Objective… complete.” The words fumbled from its helmet, heavy and masculine though dulled by the distinct undertone of fatigue. Perhaps exhaustion of an ancient relic forcibly summoned back into the realm of the living.

  “My sacrificial ritual range does not extend that far.” The Onmyoji’s voice threading directly into the Kinsho telepathically, “Keep engagements within two kilometers.” Annoyance tinged the otherwise formal instruction.

  “Command… confirmed.”

  The ghastly runes inscribed on the Kinsho’s gauntlet and paper seals pulsed once more, severing the link between him and the railgun. With mechanical solemnity, he returned the anti-materiel rifle to the weapon locker strapped on its back, the railgun once again fading into a dormant, rusted ruin.

  Its hand moved with certainty, reaching instead for another relic of the past: a broken chainsworld.

  The weapon was a pitiful sight: its teeth jagged and dull, its motor inert, the entire mechanism abandoned to rust and decay countless years ago.

  Yet, as the Kinsho’s gauntlets closed around it, the tent curse energy within the Shikigami fred to life. Invisible golden thread of time twisted the ws around the broken weapon, reaching deep into its history, cwing back a version of the weapon that had once been whole.

  The chainsword shuddered in its grip, ancient gears groaning to life, and in a brief golden fsh, the ruined weapon was remade into a weapon fit for battle once more.

  The Kinsho’s visor flickered with renewed purpose. Its target was now set to a different Lord. This time, an earth-path mountain goat, a beast of monstrous size whose granite hide shimmered with metallic content and crystal horns glimmering in faint gold. With every step, the ground beneath it cracked, highlighting the beast’s mass and galloup simir to that of an armored train.

  Slowly, silently, the Kinsho advanced, the paper seals on its person fluttering like a funeral banner as his chainsword roared with fiery sparks.