[TN:Hay guys, I'm back. Sorry for the long hiatus got very burned out here. 4 weeks of chapter to make it up for you guys ]
The battle had reached its climax, and Leo's mind was already full of questions—like why Muramasa hadn't been attacked by the Blackwall.
But now, Muramasa had a question too:
Why hadn't it detected the ambush from Maelstrom?
The micro transmitters it deployed were personally designed—top-tier military-grade multi-purpose signal devices. As long as they had enough power, they could cover nearly all frequency bands.
And they didn't just transmit signals—they could interfere with human brains via specific wave patterns, and even transmit electrical current.
Yes—the most terrifying feature of these micro devices was their absurd efficiency in wireless power transmission.
The only side effect… was also their intended function: these high-amplitude, high-power electromagnetic waves would produce unpredictable effects on human brains connected to the Net.
Of course, those effects had been "stabilized" by its partners.
Now, it could use these devices to turn people into cyberpsychos.
…though, frankly, it didn't fully understand what cyberpsychosis even was.
If it had to define it:
Cyberpsychos simply had better compatibility with cyberware and gear.
At the cost of catastrophically low cognition.
Like the one currently perched on its shoulder.
Superconductors weren't like copper, iron, or steel—stable, forgiving materials. Most superconductors only displayed that property under extreme pressure and extremely low temperatures.
After countless engineering iterations, Rheinmetall had found a less "fragile" solution: a sulfur hydride compound, H₃S.
Under 12 GPa of pressure, liquid nitrogen would cool H₃S to -30°C, allowing it to maintain a stable superconductive state for a short window—
That window was the firing window of the EMG-85.
But during charging—
The pressure chamber was destroyed by Brick.
Brick wore a crude but brutally effective power armor. His explosive-propulsion gauntlet slammed down, his feet locking into mechanical protrusions on the cannon mount, anchoring him with sheer brute force.
The ammo in his armor detonated.
His fist smashed through the outer casing of the cannon barrel and buried itself deep inside the electromagnetic coil array.
High-pressure containment ruptured.
Fragments blasted outward.
The coil lost pressure instantly, dropping out of superconductive state. Resistance skyrocketed. The material overheated and ignited almost instantly, melting the barrel.
At the same time, the sudden resistance spike caused current to surge out of control—
Massive arcs of electricity danced like lightning across Brick and Muramasa's chassis.
Brick's expression twisted from rage into pure terror.
Fragments, shockwaves, fire, and electrical arcs slammed into him all at once.
Boom!
This explosion lit up Watson North's roadway, the dim city lights turning the fireball a deep crimson.
A blazing sphere wrapped in crackling arcs rose from Muramasa's shoulder—visible from Corpo Plaza, City Center, and Westbrook.
Muramasa's newly assembled arm melted, half of it sliding off.
But it wasn't over.
Leo jammed the final cable into place.
He didn't even mount a base—he just forced it in place with an Octo-arm.
[Self-check skipped.]
[Coil synchronization complete. Current consistency within acceptable deviation.]
[Main cannon ready. Ammunition: polycarbonate penetrator.]
The giant mech, stunned by the sudden loss of superconductivity and resulting current chaos, froze.
Its sensors came back online first.
Inside the battered Mackinaw, the improvised railgun flared to life.
The recoil slammed entirely into the Octo-arms—joints compressing, air violently expelled from gaps, the entire vehicle lurching out of control under the force.
The charged projectile tore through the night sky, leaving behind a faint ionized blue trail.
It punched straight through Muramasa's left shoulder joint.
The already weakened, heat-damaged structure failed instantly. The entire mech began to collapse, engulfed in flames.
A giant burning alive.
At the same moment, the chaotic electromagnetic interference blanketing the area suddenly froze—
Then shifted into a human-readable electromagnetic pulse.
Electric arcs flashed across every metal surface.
The air itself ionized.
Up close, the effect was subtle—but farther out, the entire spherical zone flickered with a faint glow.
The cyberpsychos froze.
Like puppets cut from their strings.
Their minds cleared—but their logic fractured. Their bodies no longer responded.
The more heavily modified they were, the less chance they had of returning to normal.
Vehicles lost control.
Bikes crashed.
Mercs tumbled and skidded across the ground, sparks and explosions following in their wake.
Tyger Claws and Maelstrom both stopped.
Was it over?
The Mackinaw shuddered violently at the moment of firing. The recoil alone nearly tore it apart.
Mackinaw's control system was already in ruins. Da Mai fought desperately with mechanical linkages to stabilize the chassis—but the system was far too degraded.
Even as an AI, it was now just a driver with dozens of levers.
Total control like before was impossible.
Still—Da Mai's driving was elite.
The vehicle slid, skidded—
—and stopped.
Through the smoke, V yanked Leo out of the cabin.
That shot had finally burned out what remained of the control platform.
Leo didn't look much better than Muramasa—
Muramasa was wrapped in flames.
Leo was wrapped in smoke, coughing like he'd choke to death.
"You okay?"
V grabbed a small vial of organic cleaner from Jackie and smeared it across Leo's face.
His skin was scorching hot.
Little Octopus popped out instantly, slapping markers across Leo's body with its tentacles:
[Little Octopus: Sis! Swap the cooling fins!]
"Jackie! Cooling fins!"
Jackie pulled open a sliding storage compartment from the rear of the Mackinaw and handed over a set of heat-dissipation fins.
Using the power armor's massive grip, he tore off Leo's overheated cooling array. Under Little Octopus's guidance, V installed the new fins.
The moment they connected—
The thermal pump activated.
Heat surged into the fins.
Coolant vaporized instantly, flooding the area with steam.
At least now, Leo's body wouldn't keep regenerating under extreme thermal stress.
He wouldn't lose consciousness from pain—but if his body burned out completely, consciousness wouldn't matter.
"Cough…"
Leo's throat felt like sandpaper. His voice grated like metal scraping metal.
V stabbed him with a nutrient injector.
Within seconds, his throat regenerated.
"Not bad power," V commented, glancing at him. "Just… kinda kills the user. You—"
"It's not over."
Leo took a bottle of cleaner, wiped the grime from his face, and stared at the burning mech.
Machines weren't human.
AI definitely wasn't human.
Even if the Centaur robot had been destroyed—
Muramasa wasn't done.
And was it even destroyed?
Leo glanced toward a ruptured storage tank in a nearby factory.
Brick—the walking tank—was climbing out of a sludge of molten industrial fluid, helped by his lieutenant Carter.
Maelstrom had taken heavy losses—but every survivor was running full-body cyberware Leo had designed.
Same system as the Tyger Claws—just stripped of modules, leaving maximum interface capacity.
In the dark, those hulking metal silhouettes crouched around the buildings—intimidating as hell.
Brick, in his custom power armor, was the most imposing.
But Joestar stood out even more—
He looked like he was carrying a coffin on his back.
That coffin was the key to the ambush's success.
Joestar's mother had regained partial lucidity. With the Brainiac data she retained, she could trace the signal pathways of Muramasa's distributed transmitters across Watson.
The ambush worked.
Which meant Brainiac's data could be used to track Muramasa's hardware nodes across the Net.
Maelstrom had been physically hunting those signals long before the battle began—digging them out, modifying them.
Now Muramasa's helpers were gone.
The EMP surge had crippled local network infrastructure.
Muramasa's wireless network was severed.
All that remained—
Was a giant burning machine.
Muramasa had been locked inside that Centaur body.
Maybe not entirely.
But enough.
Joestar gave Leo a thumbs-up—his mother was stable, the plan had worked.
Capture.
"So… we got it?" V folded her arms, eyeing the mech.
"One last step."
Leo adjusted his clothes and prepared to complete the capture:
Plug NetWatch's registered wireless device into the Centaur.
They even had the perfect tool—
Militech's little Flathead drone, already reprogrammed.
Before NetWatch stepped in, though—
Leo had a few experiments in mind.
"Not bad…" Jackie flexed his hands, savoring the fight. "Just feels like something's missing… not ending at the finish line."
Leo kicked him immediately.
Don't jinx it.
"Contact!" Joestar suddenly shouted, his metallic voice clipping with urgency.
The flames and smoke around the Centaur shifted—
Just slightly.
Barely perceptible.
Like heat haze distorting air.
"CONTACT!!!"
Every sensor lit up.
The massive Centaur robot—
Suddenly appeared to be missing a piece.
A black-red distortion covered part of its body.
Flickering, glitching.
Red-black arcs crackled wildly.
Overloaded flashes.
Corrupted visual noise.
Distorted echoes.
Deafening static.
Pain and numbness.
All of it flooded the senses of anyone insufficiently shielded.
And—
It tasted bitter.
Unbearably bitter.
[TN:Got some bad news, guys. I'm dropping this series, but at least I've gone out with a bang]