Let's Do a Little Dancing

The shield worked much better than I had anticipated, and I blasted through the troops with little to no problem until I got closer. As soon as I did, all the knights started to pull back and make way for me, until I got to a much more open area within clear range of my father and the woman who was not my mother beside him.

I slowed, and then hopped off my ATV smoothly, returning it to my inventory at the same time. None of the knights around me even flinched as I walked to the center of the open area. The entire time I was looking at my father, and his almost glowing blood-red eyes. The two of us had never really seen eye to eye, but it was clear that there was something different about him. Something much darker than the eyes.

"What is it that you hope to achieve, metal man?" The lady asked, but as she did, the battlefield went unnaturally quiet. 

"Why are you controlling King Alphonse?" I asked, my muscles tense as I tried to keep aware of everything around me.

"Controlling? What makes you think that I am controlling him? Why does it matter to you, metal man?" She asked, but as she did, a shadow rose up behind her. 

Sweat peppered my brow as I forced myself to keep calm, but this thing was something even worse than Shigora by magnitudes. There was no way that I could fight something like this, but I didn't plan on having to.

"The world will not stand by and let you tear it apart!" I shouted, but she just laughed. The entire time, my father just stared coldly at me. His expression never changed, but I don't think he would recognize me if I took my helmet off.

"Oh? Now I am amused, but I would like to see just what you are capable of. Call it kindness, but I will let you fight one of my royal guards, rather than me just killing you now. This will be much more entertaining since we will have to wait for a while before we can starve the people of the capital, or drill through the wall!" The woman laughed, and a much bigger knight pushed some others out of the way as he walked out. The moment I saw who it was, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself.

"I hope you don't take this personally, but I am in a bad mood," Marcus, the man that had thrown me to the boat when I had left this continent the first time. I still remembered how the man had treated me, and this actually worked out better than I would have hoped for.

I shrugged, and put up my gauntleted fists. I had tried a few weapons while working in my shop, but none of them felt right. I didn't do that much training, so I decided to work with what I used best; my hands. Using my fist put me at a range disadvantage, but I had quite a few tricks in my suit to make up for it.

Marcus sneered at me, but then laughed as he pulled out a massive sword, but then threw it to the side. "You're a tough guy, huh? Good," He grinned, cracking his gauntleted hands. "The name is Marcus, and I don't like using weapons either. I tell you my name so you can remember to scream it out when you are begging me to stop-"

*VUM!*

I raised my hand and pointed my finger at the man's mouth as he talked, and then shot a concentrated beam of energy like a laser. I was low, but still bore a hole through the man's neck, cutting off his speech as he grabbed at his throat and fell to the ground. Then my arm started to smoke as I got a message saying I blew a fuse and melted the gold wire.

Marcus didn't make it all the way down to the ground before a red light burst from his neck. The man screamed out as the whole I had made started to heal incredibly fast. Hearing the report and seeing first hand was quite different, but it confirmed how much trouble Jagar was in. One surprising thing was that no one else joined the fight. All the knights and my father included just watched me.

"You son of a bitch!" Marcus growled hoarsely as he stood back up and rubbed his neck, and I put both hands up.

"Sorry, I was just confirming the report I received!" I chuckled and then turned my body to square up with the bigger man, bringing my fist down in front of me. "Let's do a little dancing!"

My taunt was met with a bone-chilling growl from Marcus as he lunged forward, his massive frame surprisingly agile despite the bulky armor. He threw a heavy punch at me, which I sidestepped, feeling the air rush against my suit as his fist sailed harmlessly by.

I twisted, pivoted, and drove a hook into his chest. It was like hitting a brick wall, but then my gauntlet discharged another pulse of energy on impact, sending a concussive wave into his armor. Marcus staggered back, grunting from the unexpected counter.

Circling him, I had to rely on the agility my suit afforded me. Marcus was strong, but I had speed and technology on my side. I knew that head-on conflict with these reanimated knights was a losing battle — I needed to outmaneuver him, incapacitate him.

We exchanged a flurry of blows, my suit's servos whining as I blocked and countered his powerful strikes. It was a brutal dance of medieval combat infused with modern fantasy, two warriors testing each other's limits amidst the bizarre tableau of a possessed king and an unearthly specter looming over us.

Marcus caught me with a glancing blow that sent me reeling, but I righted myself quickly, managing to hit a panel on my wrist to activate a kinetic barrier. His next punch met an invisible wall of force, and his confusion bought me just enough time.

With a well-placed kick augmented by my armor's hydraulics, I sent him toppling backward. The ground beneath Marcus cracked with the force of his fall, but I didn't stop. Rushing forward, I leaped on the man, grabbing his thick neck in both my hands and then squeezing with a disgusting amount of force. The man's eyes bulged, and then I tore his head off.

"Kill him!" Akasha roared, but I had gotten everything that I had wanted, and I summoned a metal box. 

Before anyone could get to me, I wrapped my arms tight around the severed head in my arms and flopped backward onto the box. A fraction of a second before my back hit the back, the four very unstable and cracked Divinity Crystals that had been held separately containers inside dropped into the same tube. The effect was the equivalent blast of a very small nuclear device. The ground shook violently as the entire area was engulfed in blinding light and an explosion that sent shockwaves in every direction.

I had deployed my contingency plan: the devastating result of combining several Divinity Crystals in a volatile manner. The energy released was something I had hypothesized but had hoped never to use. Its destructive power was immense, but it was also my escape.

The most extensive shield I had crafted was on my back to protect me. Still, nothing could have prepared me for the pressure as I was blasting into the air. It felt like my insides were being compacted by the immense force of the explosion. The shield held, absorbing the brunt of the shockwave, but the entire experience was disorienting, unlike anything I had ever anticipated or trained for.

As I catapulted upwards, time seemed to slow to a crawl. I clutched the head of Marcus tightly, a perverse key to understanding the enemy's sinister magic. The rush of wind, the distant sounds of chaos beneath, the taste of fear and determination—it all melded into a single defining moment of desperation and survival.

Then, as gravity began to reclaim me, I initiated the second phase of my escape, activating the suit's built-in gliding mechanism. Panels and a thin membrane unfurled from my back, and I began to steer my descent away from the battlefield and towards the relative safety of Jagar's walls. 

The roar of the ensuing inferno faded as I glided further away, but I knew the impact of what I had just done would resonate deeply. Not only had I showcased a terrifying new weapon, but I had also managed a miraculous escape from the clutches of the enemy. 

At that moment, all I could focus on was navigating the descent, staying alert for any signs of pursuit, and the difficult tasks that still lay ahead. I needed to study Marcus' head, but I had to meet with the King and Princess Lilliana first. After that, I could start to formulate a plan to surmount the seemingly insurmountable challenge posed by my father's army and their otherworldly patron.

I looked back at where the explosion had been as I got closer to the wall, and my hope that I had caused some real damage was dashed. A shield, like the ones I used, completely covered the palanquin. Only a large number of troops had been vaporized, but the survivors and mostly whole dead were already rising again.

The sight was disheartening, but it also solidified my resolve. The magic animating these soldiers was more potent than I had thought, and it was clear that I needed to find a way to reverse or neutralize it permanently.

With a skillful maneuver, I landed on a nearby bastion of the city walls, where a group of archers watched me with a mixture of awe and suspicion. Quickly, I retracted my suit's gliding mechanism, stepping forward to address them before any could loose an arrow in fear.

"I am Prince Gideon of Havenby," I announced, lifting the visor of my helmet to show my face. "I've come to aid in your defense against the Vienerstien forces."

Reactions were mixed, but the mention of my title and the evident proof of my battle with the enemy earned me enough trust to avoid immediate confrontation. I was taken into custody with the head of Marcus in my arms who was not talking. I say not talking because his eyes were still moving, just as I hopped.