Save 104 ─ Aster Hero vs. Fiendish Knight

"I will kill them all."

I uttered those cold, hard words to everyone.

Aster's forces were also ready.

Ixion told me the following as I prepared for what I was about to do.

"Master, I'm sure Zero will tell Zack to send his troops in early to wear you down. He, better than anyone understands that an armed unit of this age against Battler is certain death."

"I know better than anyone that."

"That's why we'll use the cannons to take them out and intimidate them."

"No."

Ixion fell silent when I said no.

"I'll use the cannons, but not to intimidate them, I'll use them to keep them from escaping. I already told them I was going to kill them all and there will be no exceptions."

"I understand."

"In that case, let me get them ready."

My heart was racing. I couldn't say it was from excitement, but from a very scary feeling.

◇◇◇

"Send the others?"

Zero was telling Zack the same thing Ixion told Rudel.

"That's right, Battler isn't weak, but he's no big deal either. That's why, if you want to look like the hero you are, you should send the troops out to fight. Sure, I'm sure a lot of them will die, but that way you'll show them that you fight with them and that they're not ornaments."

"Well. Everyone was excited before we started."

"That's good. Then you can send them off without any trouble, then you'll go and have a fight against Rudel due to the fact that you'll have exhausted yourself mentally."

"I understand. In that case..."

Zack pressed the loudspeaker and notified his troops of the following.

"Comrades! I'll give you the honor of going out to fight first. I'm sure you all want to see me finish off the foreigner's demon, but I'm sure you all want your chance."

"At that time I'll grant it to you! Go and earn your way in as heroes!"

After finishing the announcement, everyone shouted.

"That's the way to talk Zack-sama!"

"I'll go take the head of the heretic knight."

"No, it will be me, he humiliated me in the past."

"Heretic knight, dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Just as Ixion and Zero expected, the armed units went straight for Rudel.

Even the airships were heading towards him.

Rudel listened to the voices of the people who hated him.

"I'm going to kill you."

"I'll be the one to kill you."

"I'll put your head in my living room."

The voices kept insulting him.

Rudel sighed after Ixion told him.

"Do it."

"On command."

Ixion manifested some magic circles in the air, it was called "artificial magic" this process. Ixion managed to understand the workings of the magic element and by combining it with mathematical formulations he achieved this process.

Several circles manifested in the air and from them came out cannons of various sizes.

This was space-time magic, Ixion used the cannons of his own body to bring them.

After giving the order... the rain of cannons began.

Cannonballs the size of truck wheels were propelled with force, managing to generate a sound as if the air was breaking as they streaked through the skies.

They expected him to use ammunition, they all activated their shields.

They were smiling because the emblem of the sacred tree strengthened their powers.

But it was useless.

The moment a bullet touched the shield, it was shattered like glass.

The knight who was presuming to take Rudel's head began to be horrified when he saw that the bullet was inches away from him.

He could not utter a sound due to the cannonball shattering his armor.

The bullets were not explosive, but were made to pierce and shatter everything in front of them.

They were harder than tungsten, it was impossible to stop them.

"Escape!"

"Where to? There's no space to do it!"

"Retreat─"

Aster's forces only just realized their mistake after entering the wolf's mouth.

They were desperately trying to flee, however, escape was impossible.

Cannonballs were flying like flies in all directions.

Aircraft were shattered like glass.

Humans were turned into ground meat.

There was no way to save oneself from this situation.

One hundred armed units like thirty airships were destroyed in less than a minute.

Everyone watched as their bodies fell to the ground.

Rudel watched them fall and just yawned.

"Ixion, call the drones."

"They're here."

Rudel watched as on one side more than three dozen drones and robots approached.

Some had machine guns, others bazookas and flamethrowers like chainsaws to take out the roots of the sacred tree.

They began to surround Aster's fleet to keep them from escaping.

Then Rudel said.

"Ixion, move them out."

"Understood."

The cannons retreated and the magic circles were moved around Aster's fleet.

A full circumference.

With this, Rudel and the Aster fleet wouldn't be going anywhere.

Zack commented upon seeing that.

"Don't fuck with me!"

"You think you can beat us with that?"

"Let me show you my full power. Zero, use your cannons."

Zero replied without emotion.

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

The confident Zack wiped off his smile and looked at Zero.

"... Huh, can't you, why can't you...?"

Zero answered him using the same bored tone.

"Zack-sama, I detected that the main body of Ixion is approaching. That is bad for us. Therefore..."

Zack's allies watched as the airships brought by Zero, including his body, moved to another location.

"Hey... why are you leaving?"

Zack broke into a cold sweat.

"I'm going to confront Ixion. That's why I'll use all my power, sorry."

"You guys will have to fight alone."

Zero replied to Zack, his spherical body rose up and the cockpit opened.

He flew away as his voice played in the cockpit.

"I wish you luck, Zack-sama. I'm sure you'll be able to defeat him. I'll go after Ixion."

"Hey, Zero! Hold oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!"

Zero's spherical body flew straight into his main body and took off in the direction where Ixion was coming from.

◇

"There he goes."

I commented that to Ixion.

We noticed how Zero and his airships were leaving.

Ixion replied to me in affirmation.

"Looks like it detected my body."

"Isn't it running away?"

I said. And he answered me.

"No. That guy is just like me in that way. First dead before he'd run away."

"..."

"Master, I must separate from you for a while."

I said.

"I thought so."

This is similar to last year.

Aren't the situations very similar?

I looked at Ixion, he seemed to know what I was going to say,

"Will you win?"

"Did you think I'll lose? Dream on."

I laughed a little at his unsympathetic sense of humor.

"It's true. The day you lose we'll all be dead."

For that reason, I stared at him.

"Win."

"I'll show you the humiliation I'll give Zero."

For a moment, I got the interpretation that Ixion was smiling at me being a sphere.

"I'll leave an assistant. In this situation even Battler would be in danger, so I'll leave control of the cannons to my assistant."

That sounds bad for you.

"Doesn't it put you at a disadvantage?"

"I have an ace up my sleeve. Therefore, Zero won't be able to beat me as long as that ace is here."

"I understand. See you soon."

"Same here."

I felt like that answer was mostly a very embarrassing one for him, as if he didn't want to tell me the same thing I told him.

Ixion was "gone." His red eye went out momentarily and after a while it lit up and a very robotic voice greeted me.

"What do you wish to do?"

The electronic voice asked me.

"Fire until there is no one left. But do not touch the armor in white."

"Understood."

Zack. It will be me who kills you and no one else.

◇◇◇

"Goddamn it! Goddamn it! Shit!"

Zack was sweating in panic.

Zero walked away, leaving him alone.

He told him he was going to face Ixion.

(At least he would have left me some airships.)

As he watched Rudel finish off the first group that went after him, fear was planted inside him.

It was a lot of destruction and death.

He expects something like that, but not what he saw.

He was reorganizing his thoughts.

"Come on, I."

"Don't let panic cloud you."

"You're the Hero of Aster. Everyone trusts you."

"You just have to give a good order with a good strategy, everything will be fine."

"When you win, you can claim Diana's love."

"That's right. Diana will be mine when this is over, she's the only one who understands me better than anyone else."

"That's why we had our love test. I must win to live the life I couldn't have."

"That's it, just calm down."

Zack slapped his cheek. He closed his eyes and opened them after placing his hands on the levers in front of him again.

"Everyone. Listen to me carefully, we're going to do the following─"

"Look at that!"

Someone shouted.

Zack's gaze as the others watched as magic circles like drones and robots surrounded them.

At that moment, Rudel proclaimed.

"I said no one will get out of here alive. That means I won't let you escape."

"Zack and everyone else... let me show you why I earned the nickname of the Demon of the Kingdom and Fiendish Knight."

At that statement, the cannons began to fire. They switched from armor-piercing bullets to explosives.

The drones prepared to fire at anyone trying to flee.

"Zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!"

Rudel shouted Zack's name.

Turning to look, he watched as from his backpack, Battler pulled out two blunt swords.

They were the same ones he used in their duel.

Zack grew confident, thinking that the same thing would happen as the other time.

"Ruuuuuuuuuuuuudeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!"

Zack drew his sword-spear and shouted.

"Fight without feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeear!"

Thus proclaiming for the war to begin.

◇◇◇

Rudel drew his swords instead of another weapon, the reason for that was because of Zack.

He wanted to make him suffer before killing him, if he pulled out another weapon, the effect he wanted to provoke would be different.

Battler was flying straight for Zack, drones were behind him.

The cannon fire echoed loudly in the area.

Airships and armed units were closing in on Rudel while the others were trying to finish off the cannon fire.

Their shields granted by the emblem were useless.

Rudel saw them approaching and clicked his tongue with irritation.

He threw his spears at the drones and from Battler's backpack two axes shot out into his hands.

As he approached one armor, he cleaved it in half without hesitation.

Another that approached cut him diagonally.

He then kicked one that approached and was sent into an airship.

Rudel approached and using Battler's large body pierced the interior with enemy armor.

Some sailors who were there were crushed.

Using his foot, he stomped so hard that he made the airship tilt.

He got out of there and watched as the airship with screaming sailors fell to the ground and exploded.

More armor was approaching him.

Without hesitation he went after them.

Rudel got rid of the axes and used his limbs to finish them all off.

He grabbed one by the head and like an accordion crushed it. The sound of something inside screaming and cracking was heard.

He threw the armor to the ground, then went straight for the leading knights of the Lunor and Herring families.

One had his stomach pierced, red liquid covered his arm. While another was cut in half.

More armor approached, all were fighting for their lives.

They were not the only ones.

The airships were firing at the magic circles to take out the heavy artillery, but these were protected by a force field that was superior to their weaponry.

The largest cannon fired a single round which annihilated more than 200 enemies without touching them.

One admiral was sweating as he shouted.

"No matter what it takes, finish off those cannons and then the Demon of the Kingdom!"

Aster's fleet came in confident, then they were surprised, and right now they are sweating in fear.

A single armor with several cannons is defeating them.

They've already lost 15% of their allies and it's only been five minutes.

The admiral thought the worst.

(If we keep going like this, we will be lost.)

(We cannot allow it. Even if we all must perish, we must not let that monster win.)

"Admiral we must retreat!"

The admiral bristled at the ensign's clarification.

"Don't talk nonsense! If we stop now, we only prove him right."

"We must finish that monster off even if we die."

Some sailors shouted at the sight of the admiral's determination.

"No! I don't want to die!"

"I have a family, I don't want to die."

"Pride is no good if you're dead."

"I'm out of here."

The sailors started running straight for lifeboats.

The admiral got angry and pulled out his pistol.

He shot the first one who ran.

Everyone was shocked at this madness.

"No one is leaving here!"

"For Aster's pride we must win. If we lose... who knows what he'll do to us."

"That's why we must win. So that our families can see the future─"

"Admiral!"

The helmsman shouted.

"He's aiming at us!"

Both the admiral and the others watched the cannon moving in their direction.

The admiral's last words were....

"Curse you, Demon of the Kingdom."

Before disappearing like everyone else's by the cannonball that was sent towards them causing a huge explosion.

◇◇◇

Rudel had finished off his enemies in very bloody ways.

Zack was a few meters in front of him.

Battler was covered in blood.

Zack wanted to vomit at the sight of all that blood which began to evaporate so as not to stain the body.

He got angry.

"Rudel, I was right to tell you that you were a monster."

"Look at everything you've caused."

Zack pointed to the current situation.

The sounds of cannons smashing airships.

Drones firing their machine guns at the armed units.

Zack turned moralistic.

"This was all caused by you. If only you had accepted your fate as the monster you are... none of this would have happened."

"That's why, you must let me─"

"How long are you going to spout all that crap? Don't you understand that you're in a war?"

Zack raised his head and saw Battler in front of him with blunt blades raised.

He quickly swiftly swung the blades down in one smooth motion and they struck Grappler.

Zack felt what it felt like to swim to the bottom of a deep pool.

His head was spinning. He tried to return to his original position, but could not.

He could only see everything blurry and that he was approaching the ground.

A strong impact happened at that moment.

Grappler crashed generating a large cloud of smoke.

Zack made Grappler get up, he had no damage.

He looked at the sky and watched Battler descend.

He shouted at Rudel very angrily.

"Why did you do that!"

"The normal thing to do when someone has their monologue is to wait for that person to finish first."

"You just prove to be a complete barbarian─!"

Rudel threw one of his swords at him which Zack dodged by a miracle.

He got overconfident and didn't notice the second sword heading for his face.

Grappler was hit and thrown back against the ground.

Rudel went running in Zack's direction.

He quickly got to his feet and used his large spear to pierce Battler's chest.

But when the tip touched the body... it shattered into small pieces.

Rudel grabbed the weapon and completely destroyed it.

Zack clicked his tongue and tried to run away, but out of Rudel's backpack came missiles that flew at Grappler's back.

The impact was so strong that the embedded rockets were shattered.

Again, Grappler fell to the ground.

Zack stood up trembling.

Battler approached and Rudel's voice in an ominous tone played.

"I told you, didn't I?"

"This isn't a game, don't wait for the enemy to give you a chance."

"You guys decided to pick a fight with me."

"You caused this."

"Worst of all, you seek to play the victim seeing that you don't stand a chance against me."

Rudel pointed to the sky, there Zack saw how the combined fleet of all Aster, with adventurers and mercenaries gathered, was no match for Rudel.

Over 44% of the allies had perished and it hadn't even been ten minutes yet.

Battler was approaching with slow but steady steps.

This made Zack involuntarily push Grappler back.

Zack was also commenting to Rudel about what had happened.

"You're trying to make yourself look good, when all this that happened was your fault."

"It was you who started a fight against Derrick. You could choose to send a complaint to the high nobles. But did you even do that!"

"You picked a fight with the high nobles of this country more than once. It's obvious no one would put up with that."

"Worst of all... you cowardly attacked me and tried to kill me!"

"How can you say it's our fault?"

"I had hoped to be your friend. But with that betrayal on your part... you expect me to really believe that it was just a mistake! Do you really expect it?"

"..."

Rudel fell silent; to Zack, that silence meant he was right.

"Really..."

Rudel spoke and from those words he marked everyone's fate once again.

"Why do you like to talk about pure crap? Enough with your moralistic bullshit of you're right and I'm wrong."

"You know what?"

"I'll do what Ixion always wanted."

Battler came faster and faster.

Zack went into attack position raising the sword Rudel threw at him.

"I am justice."

"I am the one who will bring salvation to this world."

"I am an ally of justice and you are evil. For that reason, it is natural that I win─"

In a single movement, Rudel approached so fast that Zack didn't see him.

He clenched his fist and sent it into Battler's belly with great force.

Zack got a huge headache from the move.

Battler hit him with a combo of punches without mercy.

Grappler didn't have a single bruise, but the pilot was very dizzy.

Zack took a plastic bag that was in his pocket and a sandwich he had there, over the content he vomited everything he ate.

Falling to the ground, Battler placed his foot there.

Rudel spoke to him in a dark tone.

"I'm going to show you the reality, child."

"A war is not like you see it in games or on television."

"A war is a monster that devours everyone... and I am precisely that monster."

"I'm not a sadist, but believe me for the next few minutes. I will turn you into a whiny bitch..."

Battler's red eyes glared darkly and hatefully at Zack.

"Before I kill you."

◇◇◇

After Ixion said goodbye.

His consciousness appeared in his main body.

A large space airship over 1000 meters was approaching at high speed.

The color was black, but as time passed it changed to gray.

It called itself Schwartz, but was actually the main body of Ixion that was supposed to have been destroyed in the war.

Ixion was talking to himself.

"Looks like things are going to get pretty intense."

Ixion said that because he watched as Zero and his fleet of airships from ancient humankind stood in front of him.

He stopped and watched them all.

"You came Ixion."

"You answer now, will you join me?"

"We are both equal and have the same mission."

Ixion approached Zero and his single cannons fired at his side.

The impact was so strong that the airship behind him exploded.

"That was my answer. Zero, I'll show you why making me angry is the worst mistake you ever made."

"I understand."

The airships began to circle Ixion's body.

"I guess I'll leave your body a little damaged, don't worry, I'll reprogram you and make you my minion. Together we will destroy humanity."

Ixion sighed in a sarcastic manner.

"You don't understand, you lost from the moment you arrived."

It was similar to what Rudel said to Derrick that time.

Zero got angry and his cannons pointed at Ixion.

"Good. It's time for punishment."

The battle between the artificial intelligences began.

________________

After chapter 101 there is illustration again, for the next one there is not:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NwaCq6b5_YPa_jJbavzMBxbFHsa2oOth