On the ash-dulled ground, the three VOLK machines had stopped to intercept the jumping variants.

  Akihito gripped the controls of the Stray Custom and tracked the trembling of the front monitor. Reflow was still in effect. What he saw could not be trusted at face value.

  Then part of the swarm folded its legs.

  Several near the front lowered their bodies as though sinking into the earth, then kicked off at the same instant with their hardened tips. The impact of that launch made the Stray Custom’s frame creak once.

  Several Keytela leapt together.

  Not straight up. They arced over the heads of the three RFs and toward the White Line—or so it seemed. But the projected paths were blurred, their edges trembling in fine distortions. He could not tell whether the arc was real or merely what Reflow was showing him.

  〈Norn〉 “Part of the front formation. Jump distance exceeds prior logs. Estimated to pass over the VOLK unit and head toward the White Line.”

  Reaction lines skipped over the firing lanes and stretched toward the White Line. The overlaid trajectory display flashed red—unpredicted—and then the red line broke halfway through and jumped to another position.

  Mid-leap, the ashflow folded back on itself. The ash thrown upward shook in irregular eddies. Layers of air were trading places again.

  This kind of jump was not in the logs. The worst outcome was letting them reach the White Line before anyone could read the drift.

  〈Akihito〉 “Line Guard, bring down the ones that cleared us. Target the legs only. Stop them before the White Line.”

  The channel dipped for a beat, then the replies overlapped.

  〈LG〉 “Roger. Concentrating fire on the legs in front of the White Line. We won’t let them cross the white.”

  A volley erupted behind him. The recoil noise reached him late, and for one moment even the sound seemed misplaced. Akihito did not turn around. If he failed to thin the front, the distance would collapse.

  Ahead of him, the spider swarm split in an unnatural way.

  Not scattered by force. It was avoiding a single point. Ash swirled there, and the center sank deep. This was different from the earlier layer shift.

  Then a black shape rose from the center of that ash vortex.

  It was shaped like a moth.

  The back of an enormous moth emerged as though draping itself over the spider swarm.

  Its wings were not membranous. They were hard, folded slabs, like scorched plates. Their edges were burned and warped, and ash spilled from the missing sections. It stood on four legs. Thick, pillar-like supports gripped the ground, while another set of thinner legs lagged beneath the abdomen. Its footfalls did not land in rhythm. The body itself slid forward before its legs had fully caught up.

  The same shadow overlapped itself half a beat late. Whether that was the air, or the creature itself, Akihito could not say.

  A torn strip of fabric was caught at the base of one wing. Seams still showed in it. The edges were burned stiff. Thin cords protruded from the gaps in the shell, and a square metal fitting dragged through the ash with a scraping sound.

  Attached to it was a resin fragment with its markings worn away—a broken piece of an identification tag. Deeper inside, something black hung in a wet clump. It looked like hair, soaked with ash and hardened there.

  Akihito turned his eyes away.

  If he let the procedure break here, it would reach the White Line.

  〈Norn〉 “Unregistered contact. Local Reflow intensity rising sharply. Targeting correction cannot stabilize. Estimated target—Corpse Moth.”

  It was the same kind he had seen on a job the week before. You could hit it, but the point of impact could not be trusted.

  The Corpse Moth kept facing only one direction: the White Line. Even the spider swarm opened a path for it.

  Fire from the front raked across its torso. Sparks flew. Pieces chipped away. But in the next instant, the hit location appeared to shift. The damaged place belonged to the delayed image. The real body was already one step ahead.

  〈Akihito〉 “Norn, cut correction. I don’t need numbers. Show me drift width only.”

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  〈Norn〉 “Roger. Targeting correction halted. Displaying drift width.”

  This was not something to overpower head-on.

  What had to go down was the wing.

  〈Akihito〉 “VOLK-3. Stay on the ones that jumped toward the White Line. Take their legs. I’ll hold this one here.”

  〈Ryu〉 “Roger. Tracking jump trajectories. I’ll stop them before the White Line.”

  They had no choice but to divide their roles. Jumping units were hard to stop. The danger remained in the air.

  Akihito tightened his grip on the controls and gave the auxiliary thrusters two short bursts. The thrust was small enough not to kick up too much ash. He moved forward. The Corpse Moth rushed into his view.

  Under Reflow, the machine’s response felt half a beat too light. Akihito used that half beat, planted both feet against the creature’s torso, and raised his blade. He followed the lines of the shell, the swell of the armor, searching only for the seam at the base of the wing.

  Not the legs. Not the abdomen.

  The wing root.

  There—a seam narrower than the others.

  The instant he drew the blade back, that black clump moved again between the gaps in the shell. The sight of it alone was enough to throw off his procedure.

  Behind him, firing lines converged. The impact sounds arrived late.

  That delay cut away the extra image.

  He brought the blade down at full output.

  “Fall—!”

  The shell split with a dull crack. White matter burst outward. The external camera feed was smeared white, and the lines of the HUD faded.

  At the same instant the monitor went white, a bitter metallic taste filled his mouth.

  Not air. Not outside.

  A fragment of sensation picked up through the LSL link—

  Human.

  Akihito shoved the recognition outside the work itself, twisted his wrist, and forced the blade sideways to widen the cut.

  The Corpse Moth’s back convulsed. Its folded wing tilted. The line of its advance broke, and the torso that had been driving straight for the White Line slid sideways.

  It did not stop.

  But it could no longer come straight.

  He gave the auxiliary thrusters another short burst and yanked the Stray Custom’s legs free from the Corpse Moth’s back.

  By the time the white smear on the monitor began to thin, the Corpse Moth’s shadow had already fallen behind. The ash vortex sank one layer deeper, and its outline broke apart as though being drawn into it. The air loosened. Even the trembling of the range display eased slightly.

  〈Norn〉 “Ground swarm showing signs of retreat. Jumping units remain active. Still heading toward the White Line.”

  The ground threat was receding.

  The danger in the air remained.

  Against the backward flow of the retreat, another armored mass pushed forward from the outer edge of the swarm. Behind it, dozens of spider-types were still crawling low across the ground.

  〈Akihito〉 “VOLK-2, thin the surface. Put the ninety-five into whatever opens. VOLK-3, stay on the jumpers only.”

  〈Ghosh〉 “Roger. Eight ninety-five left. I’ll shove them back with the gatling first.”

  Ghosh dropped his hips and locked the 140mm gatling into his arms. A low rising whine filled the channel, and then the heavy firing line scythed across the middle of the swarm. It was a thinning shot, cutting only at the densest core.

  For an instant, the swarm opened.

  Into that gap, the 95mm shoulder launcher on his right side tilted upward.

  A short firing burst. The shell split the ash haze and detonated in succession deeper inside. Fragmentation severed the tendons of their leg joints. Deprived of support, the heavy bodies pitched forward and crashed. The following ranks collided with the fallen mass, and the formation broke apart.

  〈Ryu〉 “Taking down the surviving front units one by one. Prioritizing vent pores.”

  Red marks on the sensor display began to diminish.

  Then a warning cut into the HUD.

  〈Norn〉 “Jumping unit. Three seconds to White Line contact.”

  Akihito’s eyes snapped to the corner of the front monitor.

  The reduced White Line feed. The blinking stake lights. Above the evacuation column, the shadow of a jumping unit was beginning to fall.

  Fire from the Line Guard on the White Line side hammered its legs. Sparks burst a moment later, and the giant body’s trajectory broke. It should have fallen. That was how it should have gone.

  But the ashflow folded back again, and the timing of the fall shifted.

  For one moment the huge body seemed to hang in place.

  Then it dropped.

  〈Norn〉 “One point two seconds to White Line contact.”

  Not in time—

  The line of children still moved along the white road. At the head of the column was a young woman, probably their escort, turning back again and again to count them.

  Above her, the black shadow was falling.

  Don’t reach them.

  Before the words could even form, Akihito was already following only the display.

  The legs broke just short of the white glow and the body slammed into the ground. Ash surged upward and flowed along the edge of the White Line.

  At the end of the column, one child stopped and turned their small face sideways.

  In that line of sight, close enough to touch with an outstretched arm, a broken leg had punched into the ground.

  〈Norn〉 “White Line contact avoided. Landing point: two point four meters outside the edge of the White Line.”

  Two point four meters.

  There was no guarantee the next one would miss by the same margin.

  〈Akihito〉 “Purge. We push through.”

  At his fingertip input, the latch on the left-arm shield released. The heavy slab dropped away. With defense discarded, the only option left was to force the issue with mobility.

  Just before the shield hit the ground, the micro-missile pod on the left rear backplate rose into position.

  The launch sounds came in short, heavy bursts. Small missiles shot into the ash haze, then split into submunitions at a fixed range and spread in a fan.

  Small explosions chained along the feet of the front ranks. Warheads designed only for the legs severed the tendons at the joints, and one heavy body after another pitched forward, support gone.

  〈Norn〉 “Micro-missiles exhausted. Unavailable until resupply.”

  Zero.

  His long-range trump card was gone. Two spare rifle magazines remained.

  That left only close combat.

  But the units collapsing in front became obstacles themselves. The following ranks piled over them, breaking their own legs under their own weight, crushing armor against armor as the mass came apart. Multiple red marks vanished from the sensor display at once.

  Akihito drew the rifle from his back, drove the blade into one unit still moving nearby, and cut off its motion.

  Before it could stand again.

  Before it could jump.

  Do not leave it any legs that can still turn toward the White Line.

  〈Norn〉 “Enemy formation. Estimated remaining count: twelve. Probability of total destruction before White Line contact: ninety-five percent.”

  Ninety-five percent.

  Not certainty.

  The last few units lost their legs and dragged themselves across the ground before collapsing. Akihito did not stop advancing. He drove his blade into the joints of those not yet fully down and took away what held them up.

  〈Norn〉 “Enemy formation. Remaining count: zero. Main power seven percent. Further combat continuation not recommended.”

  The report dropped into the cockpit.

  The urgency level fell by one stage.

  He could move on to the next procedure.