“So it has begun.”

  Zero remarked casually as he saw the imposing sight of the army of Britannian Knightmare Frames all sortied and gathered around the mountains of Narita.

  “What the…”

  “What the hell…! You’ve got… You’ve gotta be kidding me, Zero!!!”

  Tamaki shouted, fag Zero with an expression of distress and anger. And almost every single member of the bights, who saw the dest and gathering of the Britannia army, all shared the same expression.

  “Those guys are ing and have already gotteire area surrouhere’s no way out anymore!!!”

  “We’ve already been cut off! The only way to survive now is to fight!”

  “Fight…? With the Britannians…?”

  “Fight them head-on?! Even though we’re surrounded?!”

  “Besides, we’ll be fag elia’s forces! They’re way strohan anyone we’ve been fighting so far! Even if we have the Guren and Excalibur…”

  “Yes… It’d be a miracle if we win this. But we will.”

  Zero said in a matter of fact way. After all, it was indeed a fact.A fact he knew from asking the “World” with his [Mind of the World] ability.

  Well, even without using it, he khey’d succeed. After all, he had his friends from the Group Chat here; people who had otherworldly powers that even a knightmare frame would be a mere slight annoyao them.

  But those without suowledge and fidence were panig.

  “Zero, what are you saying?!”

  Ohgi raised his voice, his voice almost crag from the sheer panic, fear, and desperation in his voice. He wasn’t only afraid for his life, but for all the life of the Bights. His friends. His rades. His brother in arms. The Japanese who were ceous enough to fight instead of rotting away in the er of some abandoned ruin. The light of hope for their try.

  “Even messiahs o perform miracles to be aowledged. Which means we have to produce a miracle of our own, don’t we?”

  For the Bights to be sidered a real force to be reed with arusted by the Japanese ruling gover who would be able to give them tremendous support in their fight against Britannia, they’d o show it.

  And what better way to prove their skills by perf a miracle?

  “Now look, miracles don’t e that easily! I k was crazy to make you our leader! It should’ve been me!”

  Tamaki took the rifle he had slung over his shoulder into his hands, ready to aim it at Zero. But before he could, Tamaki froze wheiced a gun pointing at him.

  “!!!”

  Zero had a gun aimed at him. But to his further surprise, Zero actually turhe gun around, pointing the haowards Tamaki and the muzzle towards himself.

  “Our retreat path has already been cut off. If you think you win without me, then someone shoot me! Anyone!”

  Silence fell, utterly. Everyone who had raised their voice, and even Tamaki, were now dead silent, shocked.

  “Since you’ve joihe Bights, you have two choices. Either live with me… or die with me.”

  Karen shook. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest. And her body trembled the moment she felt the gravity of Zero’s words. All her teical knowledge about her knightmare, their pn, their strategy, all disappeared, leaving only her realization. The realization of the situation they’re in.

  Surrounded from all sides by elia’s forces, the famously powerful force even within Britannia. No way out. reat. Only death or victory.

  A normal 17 year-old girl might not be able to imagine and uand such a thing. But as a fighter and a resistance soldier, she knew. She had came so close to death and seeh so many times. She knew what would be of her if she lost. And the mere thought of it scared her.

  But suddenly, a hand nded on her shoulder, dispersing all the dark thoughts from her mind.

  And then, a warm, soothing voitered her ears.

  “Everything will be fine. Don’t worry. We’ll win.”

  Her head slowly turowards Mordred. Her eye still wide in shock from the frightening premise of going against such a rge Britannian army, pletely surrounded.

  But the warmth from his hand on her shoulder spread throughout her body, and his words, spoken ione of a f mother, were ever so calming.

  Her heart thumped loudly in her chest once again. But this time… Not out of panibsp;

  An unexpinable warmth began to spread across her chest. It felt… f, cozy, and safe…

  Even though she khat there was a massive Britannian army led by the famous Princess enelia and her knights right before her, it almost felt… insignifit now.

  Karen stared at the demon-masked man before her. She didn’t know his true name. She had never seen his true appearance. And she didn’t know a thing about him nor his past.

  But she felt safe… by his side.

  She nodded. Her lips curled into a small smile.

  “Thanks.”

  Mordred turowards her and nodded, and although she couldn’t see his face, she could tell that he was also smiling.

  “Let’s do our best, Karen. Good luck.”

  “Mm. Good luck to you too.”

  The pregnant silence tio lihe realization of the truth in Zero’s words seeped into their hearts and minds. Until finally, a deafening shout of the Bights broke it.

  “...Alright, fine! We’ll follow you for noy?!”

  “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  Tamaki, albeit still dissatisfied by the arra, lowered his gun and backed down. The rest of the Bights followed suit and accepted Zero as their leader once more and began to prepare acc to their respective roles, either as a foot soldier or a Knightmare Frame Pilot.

  Karen and Yuuji also boarded the Guren and Excalibur respectively and activated it.

  Like the eyes of a devil that shone in the midst of darkness, pierg crimson light shone from the eyes of the jet-bck, crimson knightmare frame as it came to life and rose to its feet. Its engine humming with power and might.

  The s around Yuuji lights up, showing a 360 degrees view of his surroundings. He saw Tatsuya and Satoru both w together with the other members of the Bights in charge of ground attacks and support. They both chose not to pilot a knightmare frame, leaving the mission for defeating the La with Excalibur to Yuuji, and instead supported the ground troops using their “abilities”.

  Tatsuya’s bat prowess was evident, while Satoru had also summohe phantom of “Momonga” and “Perorono” to help them if they’re in trouble.

  They were both cealed with “Perfeowable” and “Momonga” had cast several protective spells onto Satoru, Tatsuya, and a few of the embers of the Bights, such as Ohgi, Karen, and a few others.

  With the two of them ag as a support, Yuuji wouldn’t have to worry about a thing and focus on his own duty.

  “Alright… Let’s do this.”

  This was the moment the Grim Reaper of Britannia was born.

  --------------------------------X--------------------------------

  “An evacuation order had been issued for this area! If anyone is still present within this area, then please evacuate promptly! I repeat, an evacuation order has been issued…”

  The annou made through loudspeakers by soldiers going around the streets of Narita resouhroughout the city. And as the evacuation order was issued, elia’s forces tio push up the mountain, unhindered and untested aside from meager disturbahat couldn’t even be sidered an “enemy force”.

  “Tile…”

  elia personally led her squad as her ized Gloucester jumped high into the air and pierced down onto a Burai from the Japan Liberation Front from above with her nbsp;

  Along with her knight, Guildford, her advance was unstoppable. The few Burais the JLF pced before here couldn’t even be sidered a threat.

  Her army didn’t advance “slowly but surely”. They were advang rapidly and overwhelmingly, sweeping off the front forces of the JLF. It was a one sided war.

  And as she tio advance, she soon saw a fre going up from a few distance away.

  “Up there… Darlton?”

  sidering the location of the fre, elia immediately deduced it to be a signal from one of her Generals who led his own ptoon.

  “So that’s where the main enemy base is?”

  Guilford ented, uanding the meaning behind the fre signal fired.

  “Right. We’ll secure this position here.”

  elia anded.

  “Are you sure about that?”

  She s Guilford’s “question” and smirked.

  “I have no i in stealing achievements from my subordinates. Send the reserve force to back up Darlton! Looks like he’ll be weling another medal.”

  “Yes!”

  Meanwhile, stationed far away from the heat of a was a squad of Suthernd type knightmare frames. Amongst them were the retly disgraced aed Jeremiah, niamed “e” in disdain by his fellow soldiers and purists fa.

  Villetta, a beautiful silver haired woman with gleaming tanned skin, was also amongst their squad, which was by a brown-haired man in light blue knightmare pilot’s suit.

  Jeremiah, frustrated and desperate for a ce to redeem himself from his previous “blunder” of releasing the suspect of Prince Clovis’ murder, smmed his hand above the cockpit of his knightmare when he couldn’t sortie despite having heard about the order to suppeneral Darlton’s advance.

  “Why…? Just why?! Weren’t the reserve units supposed to form up around General Darlton?!”

  “R-Right. But our unit is to secure Viceroy elia’s rear line.”

  “This is the rear lihis is the furthest you get from the main battlefield! How am I supposed to clear my name here-”

  Jeremiah shouted, his voice filled with apparent frustration, desperation, anger, a. But he was immediately silenced by a loud bang that resounded when the brown-haired man smmed his fist onto the top of his cockpit.

  “Shut your mouth, e!!! One more word from you and I will punish you in a court martial for insubordination!!!”

  Jeremiah’s face paled as he looked at the brown-haired man… A former rade and friend of his from the purist fa, Kewell Soresi.

  He… didn’t expect to hear such harsh words from him.

  “I ’t believe how far you’ve fallen… You are a disgrace. A disgrace to our fa. A disgrace to our Lord Anderson and the Britannian Empire!!! You have lost your mind!”

  “N-No… I…”

  “Enough! From now on, I shall be the oo carry the torch that Lord Anderso behind for us.”

  “...”

  --------------------------------X--------------------------------

  elia’s army tio advance as the leader of the JLF tried his best to hold on in hopes for Tohdoh and his squad to reach them in time before they were destroyed.

  And just as elia was about to cim victory, Lelouch began his pn.

  “Alright! All preparations are plete! All Bights, prepare to sortie!”

  One by ohe members of the bights readied their ons; their rifles, their bazookas, their knightmare frames.

  “Aarrgh! Screw it! We’re in deep shit already! There’s no other way but to do this!!!!”

  “I don’t want to die yet! So I’ll freaking do my best!”

  “I’ll make those Britannian dogs lick the ground today!”

  “We have Zero on our sides! The man of miracles! We will win this!”

  “We’ll make a miracle happen!”

  Zero, having boarded his knightmare, annouhrough their unication el.

  “We Bights are going to unch a surprise atta the Britannians from the mountain summit! On my orders, charge down on point three! The operation’s objective is to capture elia, the sed princess of Britannia! Our breakthrough route will be opened by the Guren and Excalibur!”

  Then, into Karen’s private el, Zero gave his order to her.

  “Karen! Use peirode number 3. Settle things with one blow, got it?”

  “Right!”

  Karen moved her knightmare and put the rge, silver, cwed right hand of the Guren onto the electrode, lining it up with the Radiant wave Surger at the ter of its palm.

  “Output firmed! Radiant wave Surger maintaining level status!”

  She took a deep breath, and fired.

  “Indu!”

  Crimson light and lightning burst forth from the cwed right hand of the Guren as the Radiant eed into the electrode, sending massive amounts of energy and power unto the water below the ground and rocks of the mountain.

  A used energy pack was ejected from the Guren’s Right arm. One use of the Radiant Wave Surger was enough to e all of the energy from an energy pabsp;

  She panted slightly as sweat dripped down from her face. She had beeremely nervous.

  When suddenly, a window on her s showed the familiar figure of “Mordred”.

  “Good job. Though you seemed tired already. The battle has just begun, you know?”

  Seeing his figure and hearing the clear teasing tone in his voice, Karen snorted with a smirk.

  “Say for yourself. I’ve still got more in me.”

  Just then, the ground began to rumble. And soon, the shaking intensified as the rocks ah before her colpse and burst into a ndslide.

  “It worked!”

  “Nice!”

  Starting at the summit of the mountain, the ndslide rapidly brought with it more rocks, trees, and debris down in a snowball effebsp;

  The entire mountain shook as the “natural disaster” indiscriminately and utterly swept through JLF and Britannian forces alike.

  “W-What’s happening-?!”

  “I-Impossible… A ndslide at a time like this?!”

  “Darlton and Alex’s units are getting wiped out!”

  Both the Britannian headquarters at the ground and the JLF headquarters within the mountaihrown into chaos.

  “Report the casualties to me!!!”

  elia roared from within her knightmare as she saw the ndslide before her.

  “W-We’re still trying to firm!”

  “Yhness, pull back! You’re in dahere!”

  Guilford’s worried voice resounded from outside of his knightmare frame.

  “I don’t care! Where’s Alex?! Find out about Darlton! What’s their status!”

  “W-We don’t know, yhness!”

  “Then find out!!!”

  Meanwhile, sitting in his ander-unit Burai, Lelouch looked down at the devastation he had caused with a ft expression.

  “This was… even more destructive than what I saw in the anime.”

  The moment the Group Chat mission started, he sulted Yuuji and Tatsuya about this pn. And with their help with the calcutions, the results… were beyond his expectations.

  Not only did he mao wipe out a majority of elia’s army. She and her unit had also been perfectly isoted from the rest of the army.

  A perfect result.

  “I should thank them ter.”

  Another report came towards elia in the midst of the chaos. Unfortunately, it wasn’t news about her General.

  “New enemy forces firmed moving in from the summit! The Carius unit is moving to ehem!”

  “Hoping to take advantage of the fusion, are they?”

  elia remarked rhetorically. But then, an even more urgent news came.

  “Emergenunication from the Carius unit!”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s not the Japan Liberation Front! They think it’s the Bights!”

  “The Bights?! That means…”

  “It’s ZERO!”

  VergsX