On the helipad of one frigate, where its helicopter would normally be parked, there stood an AS.
But it was covered over and disguised, so from the sky it was impossible to tell for certain that it was an Arm Slave.
The machine was already active, and through what looked like the scope on a sniper rifle, its pilot was tracking the movements in the sky.
"This is getting interesting."
The pilot inside the AS laughed, and the sound was almost beastlike.
He had already transmitted the captured visuals to the commanding officer of the frigate. In response, the officer had proposed three methods of shooting down the target.
The first was to launch missiles directly at the passenger plane. The target would definitely move to intercept them, and that would create an opening for him to snipe it.
However, the first two missiles had been useless. The target had destroyed them with absurd ease.
So now the captain had gone all in. Following the pilot's further suggestion, he ordered every missile on the current ship to be launched.
The previous two missiles had come from a different vessel, not this one.
In other words, the airliner was currently between those two frigates, while the one carrying the AS was closer to the coast. That meant it was effectively ahead of the plane.
In truth, the two frigates and the airliner were not perfectly aligned in a straight line. The plane was indeed between them, but slightly off-center, so the three points formed more of a triangle.
Still, if the missiles were launched from the ship he was on, then the submarine hiding under the sea behind and below the tail of the airliner would not have time to intercept them, so it would not interfere here.
And after that, if they could bring down the target, they would most likely be able to obtain the technology on its body.
Who could resist technology that far ahead of the times?
Faced with that temptation, the captain had agreed without hesitation.
Then came the beautiful, continuous roar of missiles tearing through the air.
One after another, they climbed from the sea trailing fire, racing toward their designated target.
Sure enough, the target moved to intercept them.
And yet—
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Isn't this just cheating? What kind of model is that? It's a nightmare to aim at."
Not a single missile got through. All of them were shot down. But at least now he had confirmed the method being used.
Lasers.
Hm?
That thing had suddenly stopped moving and was now hovering in midair. The wings on its back were shifting shape.
Oh, this looked bad. Judging from the angle, the muzzle was aimed straight at this ship.
And yet he had no intention of making the AS immediately abandon ship.
He stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.
At that moment, he entered a level of concentration he had never reached before, fixing his aim completely.
The Lambda Driver activated as well, further reinforcing the sniper cannon in his hands.
This shot would turn the weapon into a one-time-use arm. It would also produce the greatest power it had ever fired in its history.
Target locked.
But he still felt it was not the right moment.
Just because the target was hovering in place did not mean it could not react in time.
He needed to seize the one true opening, the moment when he could absolutely hit it.
It came.
At the exact instant the target flashed, the weapon in the AS's hands roared as well. The gun shook itself apart, almost like it had catastrophically burst from the strain.
The AS itself was hurled off the frigate by the enormous recoil.
Before it splashed into the sea and was completely swallowed by the water, the camera captured one final scene:
That beautiful beam of death had struck the frigate.
As for whether his own snipe had hit or not, the beam had been too dazzling to see clearly.
But he felt sure it had connected.
...
Time rewound a little.
Not far below and to the right of the plane, flames and black smoke blossomed over the sea. It was obviously an explosion, and of course people noticed it.
With things like this happening, it became even harder to avoid suspecting that the airliner had entered a war zone.
The only thing no one understood was why it was happening in their own country's airspace.
Had war broken out right after they boarded, spreading all the way to these waters?
"Sagara, that robot definitely did it, right~☆"
"I don't know."
"This is so cool. I never imagined technology had already advanced this far!"
The military nerd's voice was so loud that Kaname badly wanted to shove something into his mouth.
But this military geek thought it was a robot?
Well, that was understandable. It really did look like some kind of flying combat robot from a sci-fi movie.
Then again... maybe it really was one.
If that really was Kain, then considering how absurdly overpowered he was, and how what he showed was so far beyond what a human should be able to do, and how he never treated her or Tessa like girls at all and was never the least bit polite...
Then maybe he really was a robot. Like a Terminator from some science-fiction movie.
Wait, that did not make sense either. She had seen him eat, seen him snack, and he had clearly enjoyed it. He was even a total glutton.
Maybe robots needed to consume huge amounts of food to extract energy?
But could a robot also have such infuriating emotions and such a rotten personality?
Like using a single hair like that just to toy with her emotions.
"Look, over there!!!"
The military geek screamed again, pointing toward another part of the sea.
Even though she was annoyed by his shrieking, Kaname looked over too and saw things launching up from the ocean one after another.
"T-those are missiles, right?"
"No question. There are so many..."
"Did they just fire everything at once?"
It looked like there might be over a hundred missiles, climbing rapidly with smoke trails behind them. The scene was spectacular and shocking.
"Uh... doesn't it kind of look like they're coming at us?"
"N-no way."
"Exactly. Why would anyone need to launch that many missiles just to shoot down a passenger plane?"
"Could they be targeting that flying robot from before?"
That suggestion from the military nerd was immediately accepted by a lot of people.
As the distance between the missiles and the airliner seemed to be cut in half in the blink of an eye, some people began to panic, worried that the plane might get caught in it and be hit by mistake.
But before that panic could fully spread, fireballs started blooming one after another in the sky, like a festival of explosions blossoming above the sea.
"Awesome~~!"
This time, the military nerd's reaction got plenty of people agreeing with him.
It really was incredible.
Even though they could not clearly see the humanoid figure, everyone could tell it was the one taking them all down.
"Huh? It's hovering now. What's it doing? Is it getting ready to fire some kind of attack?"
The moment he said that, Kaname strode over and snatched something from his hands.
"...That's my binoculars, Chidori."
"I'm borrowing them!"
She did not return them. Instead, Kaname stared through them and saw the figure really was hovering motionless in midair.
The mechanical wings on its back had shifted shape, and part of them seemed to have separated and formed a massive cannon in its hand.
Was it charging up?
She could see arcs of electricity dancing around the muzzle.
And the instant the light grew so intense that the barrel itself started to blur—
"Waaaah!"
"It's a laser cannon!!!"
"Why does this feel so weird? It's like some futuristic guy doing Avatar stuff!"
In any case, that unmistakable beam shot made everyone who witnessed it cry out in amazement. They practically forgot that they themselves were still in danger, getting swept up in the excitement as though they were watching some giant sci-fi blockbuster.
And in the sea area where it struck, an explosion visible even to the naked eye erupted.
That had to have blown the warship apart.
But at that same moment, Kaname's face tightened instead of relaxing, full of tension.
Because before anyone else, she had noticed something else.
The one who fired the beam had problems too.
It looked like after firing such an attack, his own equipment had overloaded and exploded.
No.
It was not his own equipment malfunctioning and exploding at all!!!
He had been hit by something from below!
"Colonel, it looks like Staff Sergeant Kain was hit by an attack from below!"
"He should be fine. He'll live through it. He's someone who really did come back alive from hell."
Tessa could not help murmuring that.
She had, of course, been observing through military binoculars as well, and had already realized he had been attacked.
She could more or less guess what type of weapon it had been. Probably the kind of heavy sniper weapon used by an Arm Slave.
Still, even though she said that, she also knew Mr. Kain was online in her stream.
That was right, her stream.
She had already opened it. That way, she and Mr. Kain could communicate freely without needing real-world communications equipment.
And since he was still showing as online, that confirmed he was alive.
But that did not mean he was unharmed.
An attack like that would definitely have injured him. That had been an AS-class weapon, after all.
He might even be gravely wounded and in urgent need of treatment.
The thought made her inwardly panic with fear and unease.
Hm?
A reply came through.
He was telling her not to worry.
That let Tessa breathe a little easier.
But saying not to worry did not mean he was truly fine.
Death might not be on the table, but he was definitely hurt.
He just was not explaining it clearly because he did not want her to worry.
(End of Chapter)
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