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The man, with an obsessive compulsion, kept looking back as he ran. From the moment Code Zero fell, he was heading deep into the central headquarters instead of escaping.

The fact that the signal had already dropped meant that the Slaves had collapsed. Even without seeing it, he knew that the Empire’s hunting dogs would be drooling, ready to tear him apart if he tried to escape outside.

So, instead of running away as fast as possible, he headed towards a secretly hidden armory. There, he had prepared for moments like this.

Of course, he wasn’t entirely sure. Since he didn’t fully grasp the situation outside, there was no guarantee that this would be the solution.

But escaping outside would be a suicidal act. As a man with many regrets in life, he couldn’t easily make that choice.

Damn bastards! Now that things are getting better!

He had thought about how they were sucking the blood of others, but that was just the way of the world. The weak get trampled, and the strong take everything from them.

Hadn’t he been oppressed by the strong in the past?

Now that he had power, it was only natural to take from those who didn’t have it. That was why he had desperately built up his strength.

But the Empire ruined it all. They plundered the utopia he had barely managed to complete.

He gritted his teeth and increased his running speed. Given the situation, he didn’t know if the Empire’s forces had already entered the central headquarters.

The man passed through the familiar building corridors and headed towards the underground armory. Even as he approached the armory, he couldn’t help but look back, gripped by anxiety.

By the time he reached the entrance to the underground armory, he was panting heavily.

The man, gasping for breath, opened the armory and stepped inside. The magic circle that emitted light recognized him, blinked a few times, and activated.

The man smiled as he looked inside. What was inside was his lifeline.

Even though all the support he had built up until now would disappear, as long as he survived, he could rebuild it somehow.

He vowed to survive this time as well.

***

After the first clash, the battlefield was quickly cleaned up. Seraphina’s knights, with their familiar skills, captured the Slaves’ hunting dogs that were still alive.

The basic order given to them was immediate execution, but Seraphina’s additional order was to capture any enemies who had been incapacitated during the extermination process.

If there were any remnants of the Slaves who had survived in such a way, they could be politically exploited, so the knights faithfully carried out the orders given by their master.

Gilbert also considered such factors and kept some of them alive to the extent that it wouldn’t be a burden. Even though their limbs were severed and they were bleeding profusely, the knights had a very good method of first aid.

-Zzzzt

“Kyaaak!”

“Aaak! You crazy bastards!”

The smell of burning flesh filled the air. The knights tore up a spell scroll containing an ignition spell and cauterized the wounds to prevent the enemies from bleeding to death.

This was commonly known as cauterization. Although it caused burns or necrosis due to directly burning the wounds, these people were only being kept alive for political reasons anyway.

There was no obligation to meticulously care for the condition of those who would eventually be executed and disappear like dew on the execution ground.

After all, this was just an act of extending their lives a little longer so they could die after the political reasons were over.

Gilbert tried to ignore the screams and the disgusting smell as he checked the minimap. Since he had scouted the area for security purposes before the operation began, the minimap was active.

Looking at the minimap, there were still a few places where combat was ongoing. He considered sending reinforcements for a moment, but compared to the remnants of the Slaves, the number of allied forces was overwhelmingly large. It seemed unnecessary to lead a special forces unit to provide support.

“Unit Leader Gilbert. I need to speak with you for a moment.”

The knight commander in charge of Area C, after surveying the roughly organized situation, approached Gilbert.

The knight commander was a head taller than Gilbert and had a robust build.

Despite his burly arms, he specialized in delicate swordsmanship and pointed to the entrance where the slave hunters had emerged with his long, thick fingers.

“Her Highness has ordered a perimeter search. The order will be issued soon, but the special forces will be tasked with searching the Slaves’ central headquarters.”

“Understood. Is the objective to eliminate the enemy?”

“Yes.”

The blunt knight commander left those words and swiftly turned back to continue scouting the area with his knights.

As the commander had said, a voice soon came through the communication equipment, calling for Gilbert.

[This is Polaris. Sparrow, respond.]

“Sparrow. Responding.”

[Sparrow, lead the special forces to search the Slaves’ central headquarters and eliminate the enemy.]

“Understood.”

[Also, there may be captured citizens, so rescue operations should be conducted simultaneously.]

“Understood. Proceeding with the mission.”

Gilbert shared the orders he received from Seraphina with his unit members. Despite having just gone through a fierce battle, they showed no signs of fatigue and prepared for combat once again, entering the central headquarters.

“It smells musty.”

Hans frowned and grumbled. The air was stuffy and dusty, probably because it was the entrance leading underground.

Given that they seemed far from clean, it wasn’t surprising that it smelled musty.

Gilbert took the lead, the most dangerous position, and began searching the Slaves’ central headquarters here and there. He found warehouses piled high with gold coins, food supplies, and alcohol.

After passing through several rooms without any gains, Gilbert raised his right hand to signal the unit members to stop. He sensed movement in the room ahead.

He slightly turned back and gave a look. It meant to prepare, as there might be remnants of the Slaves inside.

The unit members, who cleverly caught his look, gripped their weapons tightly and stared at the door.

Gilbert opened the door wide.

“You crazy bastards…”

Ilene couldn’t help but curse at the scene inside the room. Unlike his usual calm demeanor, typical of someone from the north, he was different now.

But no one present questioned his behavior. The room was so horrific that the word “carnage” was insufficient to describe it.

Being locked in cages meant for beasts was just the beginning.

Food that should only be given to livestock or beasts was sloppily piled in long wooden troughs.

Gilbert glared at the nameplate on the wall with eyes that seemed to spit fire.

Livestock Pen.

The damn Slaves had written it as if they saw humans as nothing more or less than livestock.

“Release and rescue the people.”

But he was now the unit leader of the special forces. If he showed signs of being swayed by emotions, it would directly affect the unit members who followed him.

Gilbert tried to calm his boiling heart and make a cold judgment.

Recognizing his effort, Lily and Hans, who had bitten their lips, opened the iron bars and rescued the people.

“W-who are you…?”

A trembling woman asked. Gilbert pondered for a moment before spitting out a single word.

“Soldiers.”

It was a short and concise answer, but the captured people seemed relieved by it. Some of the more fragile ones even cried, saying they could finally escape this hellish place.

Gilbert then searched a few more places and found people who had been captured as slaves.

There were a total of seven places named “Livestock Pens,” and the conditions inside the rooms varied, possibly because they had categorized the captured people.

Although he didn’t want to know the classification criteria, Gilbert roughly guessed and slightly frowned.

It was definitely not with good intentions.

“Brynhild, Hans, escort the rescued people to the surface.”

“If it’s an order.”

“Understood!”

To prevent any unforeseen incidents, Gilbert sent Brynhild, the second strongest after him, and Hans, who had a bright personality to calm the trembling people, to escort them to the surface.

With the two of them, they could handle any situation flexibly.

“Proceeding with the mission.”

After Brynhild and Hans left with the people, Gilbert led the special forces unit members to continue searching the remaining areas.

“Die!”

“Imperial bastards!”

As Seraphina had predicted, there were remnants inside the central headquarters who hadn’t managed to escape.

They hid in the darkness, targeting the special forces, but Gilbert, whose senses far surpassed those of an ordinary knight, couldn’t be fooled.

The special forces members, without a hint of mercy, decapitated them and shook the blood off their swords as they moved forward.

After about ten minutes, they reached a fork in the road.

“Angelina, Lily, and Ilene, go to the right. Camilla and I will search the left.”

Facing the fork, Gilbert paired the relatively weaker Camilla with himself.

The three heading the other way had considerable strength even without Gilbert, so he thought the balance would be appropriate.

Thus, Gilbert and Camilla began searching the left path.

But strangely, the left path was just a long corridor stretching forward. The occasional doors they had encountered before the fork were nowhere to be seen.

Is there something here?

The structure made it hard not to think so. The long stretch suggested something was there, but it was hard to grasp what.

“This seems like a corridor.”

Camilla, looking around, muttered the same thought.

Gilbert nodded in response and silently moved forward.

After walking for another minute or so, a massive iron gate greeted them.

“Whatever’s inside, it probably isn’t good.”

“I think so too. I have a bad feeling.”

Camilla, pouting, pulled the gate’s handle.

– Creak!

The heavy iron gate slowly opened to both sides, raising a cloud of dust.

Ugh, this dust!

Camilla coughed from the thick dust.

At that moment, Gilbert’s eyes widened, and he pulled her towards him.

– Bang!

“Who’s there?”

The spot where Camilla had just been standing was now cracked on the floor.

If Gilbert had been even a moment late, it wouldn’t have been the floor that cracked, but Camilla.

Her bones would have been shattered.

Camilla, pale-faced, looked at the monster that had attacked her.

No, it wasn’t a monster.

It was nearly 4 meters tall and didn’t have a human form.

Its crude exterior armor and glowing red eyes shone in the darkness.

It pulled a heavy iron sword from the ground, something familiar to both Gilbert and Camilla.

A Colossal Mech.

The epitome of magic engineering created by humanity stood before them.

Damn it!

Gilbert swallowed his curse as he looked at the Colossal Mech.

The Colossal Mech before them didn’t appear in the actual game but was featured in concept art released by the game company.

It was an early version of the Colossal Mech, not the massive type that one could board, but a powered suit type.

Initially, they couldn’t recreate the massive Colossal Mech due to technical limitations, so they made this form instead, according to the setting, but it never appeared in the game.

Since it was an early version, its size and output were far inferior to the current Colossal Mechs, so it was no longer used.

But encountering an outdated Colossal Mech here changed the story. Even if its output and performance were inferior to the current models, it was still not something that could be faced with bare hands.

Unless you were at Briana’s level or higher, you’d be sliced in half the moment you crossed swords with it.

Even Gilbert, who was pushing the boundaries of superhuman abilities, was no exception.

[Damn Imperial bastards! I’ll tear you all apart!]

A man’s voice roared through the communication magic.

The voice, filled with hatred for the Empire, seemed to carry deep resentment.

This criminal bastard!

Gilbert gritted his teeth and looked at Camilla in his arms.

Even if they both ran, it was impossible to outrun the Colossal Mech.

The difference in limb length alone was several times, and no matter how fast they ran, they couldn’t outpace the Colossal Mech’s high-speed movement.

That left only one option.

Gilbert steeled his resolve.

“Camilla. I’ll buy time. Run now and call for reinforcements.”

“W-what? We can do that through communication!”

“That damn Colossal Mech seems to have signal jamming. You need to get out of its jamming range to communicate.”

“But how are you going to handle it alone!”

Camilla grabbed Gilbert’s collar and shouted. Fighting a Colossal Mech with a human body was suicidal.

Even if it was an outdated relic from the early days, it was still the same.

“There’s no time. If we keep this up, we’ll both die.”

“Then we should run together. You want me to run away and leave you alone?”

“I didn’t say to run away. I said to go and call for reinforcements.”

“That’s the same thing! You’ll die!”

Camilla shouted, but Gilbert freed himself from her grip and stepped forward. His right hand now held a sword.

“I won’t die. Go. That’s an order.”

“…You idiot!”

Camilla couldn’t bring herself to leave, but she closed her eyes tightly and ran to find a place outside the jamming range.

That was the only way for both of them to survive.

After Camilla left to call for reinforcements, Gilbert turned his gaze to the Colossal Mech, which was still fumbling.

Fortunately, the person piloting the Colossal Mech didn’t seem very skilled.

Of course, that didn’t mean it would be easy to deal with. The gap between a Colossal Mech and a human was that vast.

But he exhaled his fear and inhaled determination.

That alone was enough preparation as he drew his sword, glowing with golden mana.

“Come at me. I’ll take you on.”

The arrogant declaration fell.

As if daring it to show its skills.

 

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