Chapter 449 - 437: Long live Aiselan
Chapter 449: Chapter 437: Long live Aiselan
A beam of light erupted from the palm of "Danger Wanderer."
The air in its path was instantly heated into a plasma state, and the surrounding seawater began to boil unnaturally as the beam shot straight toward the chest of the third King of Heart-eaters.
"WHOOSH—"
But just as Danger Wanderer raised its hand to charge, a ten-meter-thick wall of super-dense water had already erupted from the sea in front of the monster.
The beam slammed into the wall of water.
A massive amount of seawater was instantly vaporized, and thick white steam shot into the sky, obscuring the entire area of the sea.
When the steam dissipated, the King of Heart-eaters was standing in the same spot, completely unharmed.
It opened its giant maw as intense Magic Power surged, and a jet-black stream of ultra-high-pressure water shot out, precisely striking the Wanderer’s chest plate.
"CLANG!"
Blinding sparks flew as a shallow dent appeared on the Wanderer’s chest armor.
The seventy-nine-meter-tall colossal frame stumbled back half a step, crushing a large patch of reef on the seabed.
"Ranged firepower can’t break through its defenses."
Rein watched the scene before him, his voice calm. "Prepare for close combat."
"Understood."
The King of Heart-eaters had apparently reached the same conclusion.
It pushed off with all four limbs, its massive body skimming the surface as it rode a tidal wave, charging straight for them.
The seventy-nine-meter Steel Giant and the deep-sea behemoth, over fifty meters long, began the most primal of charges under the watchful eyes of the entire world.
"BOOM—!!!"
Danger Wanderer’s iron fist collided with the King of Heart-eaters’ claws, and the resulting shockwave depressed the surrounding sea level by a full meter!
The terrifying force was transmitted through the Mecha’s frame and into the cockpit.
Rein and Leia felt as if they’d been hit head-on by a high-speed train. The entire cockpit shook violently as countless red warning lights flashed.
[WARNING! RIGHT ARM HYDRAULIC SYSTEM OVERLOAD 11%!]
[WARNING! IMPACT FORCE EXCEEDS SAFETY THRESHOLD!]
"Hold on!" Rein gritted his teeth, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
’This is...the power of a monster king? Even one percent of the pain feedback in the cockpit is this unbearable!’
Having gained the upper hand with a single blow, the King of Heart-eaters launched an assault as fierce as a torrential storm.
Its massive body displayed a flexibility completely belying its size. Its other claw, with a shriek that tore through the air, aimed straight for Danger Wanderer’s cockpit!
Leia’s pupils constricted.
Danger Wanderer sidestepped almost instinctively, raising its left arm to block.
"CLANG—!!!"
The ear-piercing screech of metal on metal threatened to rupture the eardrums of everyone watching. Five deep gashes were torn into the left arm’s armor, sending sparks flying.
"You bastard!"
As he blocked, Rein activated the rocket booster in the Mecha’s right elbow, and it ignited with a roar!
[Rocket Elbow]
With over fifty thousand tons of weight plus the instantaneous burst of power, the elbow strike smashed into the side of the King of Heart-eaters’ face like a battering ram.
"CRACK!"
The muffled sound of shattering bone was clearly audible.
The King of Heart-eaters staggered from the blow. The scales on half of its face shattered, and dark green blood gushed out.
The intense pain sent it into a complete frenzy. It abandoned all technique and, in the most savage way possible, threw its arms wide and locked Danger Wanderer in a death grip!
A grapple!
The two behemoths, like titans from mythology, rolled, tore, and battled along the coastline!
Danger Wanderer smashed a fist into its spine, only to have a large chunk of its shoulder armor viciously torn off by the creature’s fangs in return.
It kneed its opponent’s abdomen, but the creature’s tail, like a steel whip, wrapped around its ankle, trying to drag it down.
In front of Spirit-link screens across the nation, everyone watched with their hearts in their throats.
This was the most brutal of brawls!
A clash of steel and flesh, each second producing blinding sparks and splattering blood.
"Get up!" In Royal Capital Square, a child watching the Mecha being overpowered on the screen burst into tears.
"Fight back! You’re Danger Wanderer!" an old veteran shouted, waving his fist in excitement.
"Rein! Leia! You can do it!" In the Southern Mining Area, the workers who had once been trapped with them roared as if to transmit their own strength to the pilots.
Countless voices converged through the Spirit-link network.
These voices were captured by Allen, processed, and then fed into Danger Wanderer’s cockpit as a faint background sound.
"Did you hear that, Leia..." Rein gasped, his forehead pressed against the cockpit wall, blood streaming from a gash.
"Yeah... I hear them..." Leia’s voice was choked with tears, but her eyes were astonishingly bright. "They’re cheering for us..."
They had encouraged each other just like this, down in the mines.
But this time, the entire kingdom stood behind them.
"We aren’t fighting just to survive," Rein’s voice became incredibly resolute.
"We’re fighting so they can live," Leia finished.
[Spirit Core Synchronization Rate: 99.8%... 99.9%... 100%!]
[FULL SYNCHRONIZATION MODE... ACHIEVED!]
In that instant, the world in the siblings’ eyes changed completely.
Two souls fused completely into one.
They shared vision, shared pain, and shared a single will.
"HAAAA—!!!"
A roar that no human could possibly produce blasted from Danger Wanderer’s external speakers.
Its previously suppressed movements suddenly became fluid and ferocious!
The King of Heart-eaters had its tail wrapped tightly around the Mecha’s right leg and was opening its maw to bite.
But Danger Wanderer neither dodged nor evaded. Its left arm shot out, fingers like hooks, and plunged deep into the flesh of the monster’s tail, then wrenched it back with immense force!
"RRRIIIP—!"
A huge chunk of flesh and scales was torn clean off!
The agony forced the King of Heart-eaters to release its bite.
Now was their chance!
"Activate the Chainsaw Sword," they roared in unison.
From Danger Wanderer’s free right arm, the embedded Chainsaw Sword erupted with a sickening, high-pitched whine!
Across the nation, tens of millions of pairs of eyes were glued to the Spirit-link screens.
In taverns, glasses dropped and shattered; in public squares, the crowds huddled so tightly together they seemed to have stopped breathing.
"Kill that goddamn thing..." a miner with a face black with soot hissed, clenching his fists so hard his nails dug into his palms.
"Go on! Kill that monster!"
No one cared about noble etiquette or official dignity.
In that moment, all their emotions converged into a single torrent.
On the screen.
The Wanderer raised its right arm high, the Chainsaw Sword a blur as it plunged viciously into the King of Heart-eaters’ chest.
"ROOOAR—!"
It let out an utterly wretched scream. The high-frequency blade easily sliced through its scales and shredded its flesh. Blood gushed out like a fountain, staining a vast stretch of the sea black.
The King of Heart-eaters struggled frantically, its claws digging into the Wanderer’s arm as its tail whipped wildly against the Mecha’s leg armor.
"Pin it down!"
Withstanding the king’s final struggles, the Wanderer retracted its Chainsaw Sword. Then, the Mecha leaned forward, using its seventy-nine meters and tens of thousands of tons of weight to pin the monster king firmly to the shallows.
"Titan’s Roar, charge!"
Danger Wanderer placed both hands directly on the king’s head.
Point-blank range.
A double-barreled blast!
"Die."
BOOM—!!!
A thick beam of light shot straight through the king’s head and out the back of its skull. It then forked, plowing an "X"-shaped trench of boiling water several kilometers long across the surface of the sea.
The king’s struggles came to an abrupt halt.
Its huge body went limp.
Danger Wanderer slowly released its hands.
The once-unbeatable King of Heart-eaters, the largest in history, fell backward limply, crashing into the sea and throwing up a towering wave.
The battle was over.
A dead silence fell over the western coastline.
Danger Wanderer stood its ground, its body a tapestry of wounds. Several armor plates had been torn off, its left arm was nearly disabled, and its entire frame was covered in dents and cracks.
It stood like a gladiator who had just survived a fight to the death—battered and bruised, but unbowed.
On the city walls, hundreds of thousands of the kingdom’s soldiers stared blankly at the Steel Giant bathed in the light of dawn, speechless for a long, long time.
They had witnessed a victory.
A victory that did not belong to the esteemed Wizards, but to them.
「An unknown amount of time passed.」
In a corner of the defensive line, a young soldier shakily raised his spear.
He didn’t cry out "Praise the Wizards" as was custom.
He used every ounce of his strength to let out a roar from the depths of his soul:
"Long live Aiselan!!!"
The cry was exceptionally clear on the silent battlefield.
A second later.
"Long live Aiselan!!!"
"Long live Aiselan!!!"
"Long live Aiselan!!!"
The wave of sound, like a wildfire, instantly spread from the first line of defense to the second, to the legions in the rear, and all the way to the distant Golden Stone City!
Countless people watching the live Spirit-link broadcast rushed out of their homes and onto the streets, embracing and crying, raising their arms and cheering.
The fear and helplessness in the face of the Heart Eaters, suppressed for centuries, was utterly shattered in this moment!
On the walls of Golden Stone City, King William gripped the battlements, his eyes fixed on the scarred Steel Giant on the Spirit-link screen, listening to the tsunami of cheers that washed over him.
The middle-aged King’s shoulders began to tremble violently.
He could no longer hold it back. Hot tears burst from his eyes, streaming freely down his resolute face.
’This wasn’t a victory that depended on the strong.’
’This was our own victory, won with our own hands, with our own steel and courage!’
It was Aiselan’s coming-of-age.