Chapter Ninety-Four: Battle Begins at City Hall

Inside the roaring aircraft, Mingchuan, Wenxin, and the others had already finished readying their gear. They had split from Billy’s team and were heading separately for Tashkent’s airport and the government building.

Only their own group was missing Colt and Bob, and had gained one person who should never have been there in the first place: Katyusha. Of Mingchuan’s abnormal condition, only Katyusha and Wenxin knew. Yet with the others present, they dared not speak of it openly. On the way here, Katyusha had received word from the Northern Union: it seemed the government of the United Kingdom had already begun pressing the Northern Union, demanding the antidote at once, or else what had once happened to the Arabian Alliance would happen to the Northern Union as well.

Now the two of them dared not exchange a single unnecessary word. They still had not donned their mecha, though among the six of them, Mingchuan alone wore a Welsh military uniform.

“Major Mingchuan, we’re almost at the destination. Please prepare yourself!”

When Tashkent’s city center was less than a mile away, the copilot turned back and called out.

“Understood!”

Having roughly judged their position, Mingchuan nodded. “Everyone, prepare to jump. Winchester, remember the plan: optical stealth, and assassinate ‘them’!”

“Understood!”

“Major Mingchuan, you have entered the drop zone. Optimal jump timing: three, two, one...”

At that instant, the hatch began to open, and a violent rush of pressure swept through the cabin. Even so, the members of Mingchuan’s team remained steady on their feet. By then, however, they had already summoned their mecha.

“Jump!”

Six figures hurled themselves into the void. Among them, one black silhouette was especially conspicuous. Though he wore no protective suit at all, Mingchuan still plunged downward at extraordinary speed. Yet a transparent film appeared over his body—that specially made Welsh military uniform, or rather, an “invisible mecha.” It lacked the devastating offensive power of the Angel mecha, but it possessed that same level of defense and auxiliary support. Beside Mingchuan, the winglike membrane carried him swiftly toward the municipal building, like a flying squirrel.

“Captain, what’s going on with you?”

Even while hurtling through the air, Thomson, armored in his mecha, was able to speak with him easily.

“I’m the captain, after all. A little better equipment is only natural.”

Though he said that, the distance between the six of them was widening rapidly. Ahead of them, Mingchuan was already drawing close to the municipal building, and beneath him lay nothing but Satan, beyond saving. Yet none of them noticed Mingchuan.

“One mile left... but... with my abilities...”

Looking down at the Satan below, and at the open square packed with them before the municipal building less than a mile away, Mingchuan seemed to think of something.

“But... how do I keep them from noticing me... I’ve got it...”

In the midst of his high-speed flight, one figure quietly replaced the Mingchuan in motion, while the true Mingchuan himself descended rapidly below.

“Thirty seconds left. Am I supposed to finish it within that time? No—sometimes, there’s no need to do everything myself, is there?”

With the mecha attached to his body and optical stealth engaged, Mingchuan glided to the air above the municipal park.

“Begin the killing, then... set everything in place...”

As soon as he finished speaking, Mingchuan drove a foot into one Satan’s head. His terrifying speed sent every enemy along that straight line crashing to the ground, and he himself was detected as well. But what clad him was not the knightly armor he should have had, but a mecha known in the database by only the barest trace of records—a machine someone had nicknamed “Slaughter,” one whose very feet were blades.

“I didn’t want to use this... but this is the best fit, isn’t it!”

With that, Mingchuan began to race madly toward the edge of the park. With every motion of his hands and every turn of his body, the whirling blades left sprays of blood in their wake.

This park was at least one square mile in area, a square formed by sides as long as a city block. His objective was to install the tracking device.

“All right... that should do it. Without a body, only consciousness, I can only wait for them now, I suppose?”

Atop the municipal building, Mingchuan’s decoy stood at the center of the glass dome, “watching” the Satan below. “Mingchuan” smiled silently.

“If it were the Royal Academy of Sciences’ shoddy technology, there’d be no way it could pull this off. But...”

As he spoke, several bullets appeared in the air like ghosts. A moment later, the sound of bulletproof glass exploding rang out, and countless rounds shot downward at the Satan below like cursed spells. Blood burst skyward.

“Captain! We’re here!”

While “Mingchuan” was slaughtering the Satan below, the others had already reached his side. But because of the glass, they had no way to stand with him.

“You’re here? Then carry out the mission!”

As he spoke, a mecha-like suit enveloped Mingchuan’s body. But seeing this, Katyusha frowned slightly, as though she had noticed something.

Yet the “Mingchuan” did not stop. He leaped down first and crushed one Satan beneath his foot, sending flesh flying. Twin blades danced, and the remaining Satan were wiped out in turn. After following Mingchuan down, the others began their assault as well. Even so, Katyusha, now wielding melee weapons, kept staring at Mingchuan as though she had discovered something.

“According to plan, split up and move!”

“Yes!”