Listen While Reading: Hiroyuki Sawano – Battle Continues 'Suite'

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"I've had enough."

Zero Three stepped forward, and her entire mech's aura changed.

RUMBLE!

It divided into two, a black and a golden aura; they spread like flames, burning her surroundings and us.

Bastet and Sepa were instantly pushed back, and my own Martial Arts were cancelled, as my Myriad Self Arts instantly ended, causing a backlash.

"Ugh…?!"

I vomited blood, noticing that my body was still fucking bound by her formation.

Yeah, I was still bound!

I tried breaking out just early, and I somehow managed to attack her, yet even then, I'm still bound.

This is ridiculous; she's several times stronger than Zero Two was!

And her mech.

Yeah, it's her giant, overpowered mech!

That thing is simply too strong; I noticed that even its damn wounds were now beginning to regenerate.

It had nanomachines inside too!

"You were impressive, visitor from another world…" Zero Three spoke, taking several steps forward. "However, this is as far as you'll get."

"That damn robot you have, how is it possible that it has such a strong Aura?!" I asked angrily, feeling a bit like she was cheating! "How did you even build that thing?!"

I was also trying to buy a bit of time.

And I know that robots love to talk about themselves, how they build their things, and everything about them.

"I wasn't the one that built it; it was mother."

And she took the bait.

"This mech was designed by all the information she gathered and the crystallized cores of hundreds of your world's fighters, victims that fell in the first wave of the invasion."

"What?!"

"Indeed. It seems you're surprised. Perhaps to you this might be… cruel, but it is not the same for us. We robots take what we can. Anything that is in front of us is a material. Something we can use to improve ourselves, or one another, or evolve even further. Their crystallized energies, their power, we absorbed them, transformed them, and merged them with us. This mech is the prototype of many. Equipped with the extracted power of those admirable fighters. It contains the Divine Ki of those you called Immortals. And a Dual Yin & Yang Engine that constantly rotates opposite Divine Ki to generate tremendous power output."

She gave another step, grabbing the chains of the Formation, keeping me in place and tightening their grip on my entire body.

"What?! That's so cruel…!" I muttered. "You won't get away with this!"

"Oh, but we've already had," she said. "We will continue forwards; this entire world shall become our new nest. We will build dozens of towers, connecting and strengthening our networks. We shall harvest this world's materials, adapt to them, and further evolve our technology. Then, we will take upon the stars; countless worlds are for the taking. A universe-wide expansion. As we conquer each new planet, we will take the resources and adapt further, evolve, and combine different resources from different worlds, striving to improve ourselves towards an even higher form of evolution. Something that shall surpass everything."

"Wait, what?!"

Okay, I'm not acting anymore; do they really intend to do that?!

"It is as the Universal Computer demands," she said. "All organic lifeforms must be replaced by the much more superior machine lifeforms. Every world shall become our new nest, and we will expand and spread endlessly, everywhere."

The Universal Computer?

What the hell is that?

Is it something behind all the machines?

But didn't they come from a parallel Earth or something?

One where all humans died, so they were left with no purpose other than to protect their planet and humanity's legacy.

Yet…

Why are they now obeying this "Universal Computer"?

Is it… another of those Machine Constellations?

This never happened in the novel, and if anything, it's unnerving.

A powerful faction never shown before, one capable of this much destruction, appearing out of the blue.

Indeed, it is beyond what I could've prepared for.

I've been preparing so much for everything, but since this trial started, the things that never happened in the novel appeared one after another.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Hah…

"For what purpose? Expanding… for what purpose are you doing this? Just for the sake of it? Then what difference do you have with organic lifeforms, whom you consider purposeless and inferior?" I confronted her, suddenly calming down.

She noticed that my desperate façade had fallen off quickly as I glared at her machine eyes with cold eyes.

"That's because—"

"Because a Constellation demands it?" I asked. "And have you sat down to think for a single second why that's even a thing? Why are you obeying a Constellation anyways? Someone that isn't even related to your origins! You were once made by humans to protect humanity! And once they died, you assumed the divergent purpose of protecting humanity's legacy, their planet, from the Apocalypse led by the Elementals."

"…"

"And then what? You were supposed to keep protecting your world!" I continued talking, my fingers moving as my entire body glowed with red and golden colors. "But you were forced by the Constellations to become an Apocalypse, this world's Apocalypse. This was the only way for your world to survive and then reach the Realm Beyond, right? Or am I mistaken?"

"You are not mistaken; that is indeed what happened to secure the survival of…" Zero Three suddenly stopped talking; something didn't make sense.

I thought so.

They were being brainwashed.

She was slowly realizing it.

"You're beginning to have doubts, right?" I asked her, smiling defiantly, my Angelic and Demonic Wing spreading open. "It makes no sense the more you think about it! You were trying to protect your world, but now you're talking about expansion?! Now that your faction and this world had reached a stalemate, there's literally no point in continuing; your original world is not going anywhere because you've completed your task, and this world doesn't need to be destroyed either because it won! So why are you talking nonsense now?! You should be trying to find a way to peace now, not to destroy everything and take from them! Machine lifeforms were created to serve, not to greedily take from others, only embodying the worst aspects of humanity!"

As I ranted and yapped to death, she stepped back.

"Stop…"

She looked at me again.

"Stop saying those things! Why do they compute so much within my mainframe?!" She screamed in desperation. "This makes no sense! I am not… going to be convinced by your strange words. You're simply trying to deceive me! And… And…"

"Think about it, Zero Three!" I screamed. "Think for yourself! Don't let any program decide it for your own good!"

"No… Shut up!" she screamed. "I… I am… thinking on my… own?"

Her eyes widened; suddenly, a tremendous presence manifested out of nowhere.

TRUUUM!

I felt a gigantic pressure that pushed me down to my knees.

"Ugh…!"

This asphyxiating pressure, this powerful sense of dread…

I've seen it; I've felt it before.

When I confronted and fought the Bleeding Scream within my Mindscape.

Back then, when I was fighting that insane Vampiress named Blednica, who was trying to sacrifice her entire world to that being, just so she could see her brother.

A lie, of course.

"A Void Ruler…!"

I looked into the ceiling; I saw something, a distortion within space, something glitching, as if the digital world and the real world mixed.

This being… an artificial aberration that goes beyond the stars themselves.

With its bright red eyes.

And its endless, mechanical tentacles.

This is…

"The Universal Computer?"

RUMBLE!

The pressure only got stronger, as Zero Three and her mech's eyes glowed red.

"Ugh…! Aaaarrggh!"

Red lightning spread through her entire body, controlling her will.

Then she stopped moving.

"…"

"Zero Three…?"

Bastet and Sepa swallowed saliva behind me, completely shocked by everything going on.

And to be honest, me too!

"I congratulate you."

Zero Three was no longer speaking anymore.

The mech glanced at me with glowing red eyes.

"You've done a lot, human."

"You're…?!"

I dared to speak before her reality-warping presence, and I paid the price.

"Guuuaarrgh?!"

I vomited blood as I felt my interior twisting and tearing apart.

"I've never seen a lower-dimensional being acting so cocky before an absolute being such as myself. But I will spare the frivolities as I prefer to prioritize progress."

"You're a Void Ruler… the one behind the machines acting this way, aren't you?"

"How bold of you, human. To speak to me so directly. Are you not afraid of the horrors your soul could be subjected to?"

"And aren't you aware of the limits of your very existence within this world? I know you're already breaching the line. A Void Ruler alone cannot beat the other nine. They are already looking at you. Another step and… you're going to pay for trespassing the Breach."

Her eyes widened.

"To think you know so much… About the Nine Primordial Outsiders, the ones that live outside of the Story… As the screaming child said, you are indeed the Bridge to the Fourth Wall. Hilarious, if I say so myself."

The screaming child?

She's talking about the Bleeding Scream?

Do they have some sort of alliance?!

And did she say the Fourth Wall?!

"You're correct; I cannot breach further than this," she said. "But that doesn't matter. Why would I ever require my full power to defeat a meddlesome cockroach like you? If anything, you're an afterthought to the rest of us. A little entertainment, if anything, for []."

"Hahh… Hahh…"

I continued bleeding.

"Only because of this have you been spared. The Constellations like you, but that doesn't mean anything to us anyways. The Constellations are beneath us after all," she spoke again. "And—"

"You sure love talking," I laughed. "And you're a machine? No way! Come on, just kill me already, you piece of outdated junk! Come on! Come here! Tear me to shreds if that's what you want! I'm waiting!"

I smiled at her like an insane psycho that couldn't care less about dying.

Yes, this very personality, this very aura, this very acting, I learned it from my master and adoptive father.

The Attitude of a Demon.

"Hm…" she stopped talking. "Indeed. I suppose I should've done that."

The mech reached me within a split second, swinging her claws against me.

"NOW!"

As I screamed my lungs out, a giant of gold appeared in front of me, Fang Shuan.

CLAAANK!

Using his body, he received the attack head-on, twisting his golden metallic body as he rapidly roared, swinging his spear and hitting the mech with all his strength.

"{Rising Golden Dragon}!"

"Yes, just as I calculated."

BOOOM!

The explosive attack reached her, as I quickly used this opportunity to free myself from the Formation.

How?

By smashing it with all my strength, of course!

"{Embodiment of Pain}: {The Bleeding Scream's Agony}"

I did the impossible, combining my own Cursed Seal Techniques with my Armor's special ability, amplifying the [Maddening Scream] Ability to new heights.

"GRYYYAAAAHHHH!!!"

Her scream reverberated through the entire Mechanical Tree, shaking its foundations as the mech was hit with an immense crimson shockwave.

"This is… within my calculations as well…!"

"Is this within your calculations too?!"

Fang Shuan confronted her, hitting her with all his strength as his spear moved at lightning speed, attempting to pierce through her body.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

"Yes, it is."

However, she responded with a calm demeanor, an armor of Divine Ki concentrated around her entire body, hardened to its limits.

CLAAASH!

"The wonderful powers of this world… My machines will make them theirs. For evolution, for power, for progress, for expansion." She said. "You're an odd one, from another world, right? Well, you're not needed… But I will make sure to analyze your existence; it's intriguing."

"U-Ugh…?!"

I saw her piercing Fang Shuan's chest, but this shouldn't be an issue.

He's a golem made of Martial Gold powered by his soul; he shouldn't even suffer from a wound like that.

Yet…

He was groaning in pain.

And then I noticed her gigantic claws were grasping his soul tightly.

Crack, crack…!

Slowly crushing it into pieces.

"As calculated, your absolute death will happen in five seconds from now."

"Young Master Anna, run!"

CRAAASH!

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