+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

"Copy that!"

After Adelyn said that, her mech's gun glowed a slight blue, before bellowing out a powerful explosion—launching her special plasma round. The shot took a split-second to travel through the battlefield, piercing Injustice's mech as if it were nothing.

Hans, who was charging toward the bastard, loaded an APFSDS round as well. His mech screeched to a halt as he found the most favorable firing angle for him, right at the side of the demonic mech. In a split-second, his turret already turned into the monstrous machine, sending his sabot round straight at its turret.

"Heh," Hans smiled a bit, as the enemy mech did not move. "We capped him."

But then, a laugh came from its speakers.

"How wondrous!" he shouted. "The Golden Angel and the Grey Knight, you two really are worthy of your names!"

Hans pulled his mech back, gritting his teeth.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"But I'm afraid that playtime's over," Injustice's voice turned cold. "Die."

His turret, turning to Hans, fired a shot straight in his direction. A massive explosion rattled the fields, and Hans' Wanderfalke barely escaped it unscathed. His mech drove out of it, barely keeping itself together, but it managed to still gallop out at two-thirds of his maximum speed.

Damn it.

Hans looked at his control screens. There were warnings everywhere. His mech's components were badly affected by the shockwave, so much so that even his engine was having trouble keeping up. He also noticed that the two other demons were hot on his tail, their swords all drawn to slice him.

In a few moments, the two almost reached Hans' mech, about to finish the killing blow, but instead of blades placing an end to his frenzied retreat, two pulses of dark light struck them.

"God's damned it," standing on one of the hills, right in front of a group of battle-mages, was none other than the Viceroy. Beside her, Lady Valeria stood, her stance ready as she gripped her blade. Emilia pointed her index finger at the Virtus demon, then at the Vanus demon, and both of them were knocked to the ground. "You two will pay for killing my men!"

"You scoundrels should just disappear and die!" shouted Valeria, charging headwards almost like a flash, passing by Hans' mech, before clashing with the two demons.

Hans tried to reassess his situation, as his mech turned its turret back into the battlefield, his double-coaxials doing the mid-battle talk to support Valeria, while his mind ran calculation after calculation.

Two powerful warriors turned into demons, and Injustice—a calamity that seems to have originated from Terra.

He gritted his teeth. This wasn't what he was expecting. He was expecting a simple man with a powerful, magical firearm. Instead, he held with him a goddess-damned Wanderfalke I! That alone threw a massive wrench into his plans.

To liberate Venido, it seemed, would be truly bloody.

I might die again at this rate, then what…will I come back to the day before I fought those two?

A shot flew above his mech, striking near Adelyn's position, and causing a heinous explosion that was, without a doubt, unsurvivable for most people in this world, no matter the tier. Yet, out of the smoke, emerged the Diligence's turret, its gun still singing in defiance.

Adelyn's no slouch either at armored combat I suppose. She's positioning herself well out of trouble.

"Captain!" Hans shouted with his comms. "How much of those extra special rounds do you have left?"

"I still have five cryofreeze MPAT rounds left," Adelyn replied, firing another standard round at Injustice's mech. It struck her target, causing it to rattle for a second, but once again, it moved unscathed, save for superficial damage on its hull. "I also have three plasma APFSDS rounds in my bustle rack."

"I see," Hans checked his munitions count. It was also not at a great spot, assuming that he'd fight this many demons. "This is going to be a tough battle of attrition."

"I know, that's why I'm saving my best ones until the last," Adelyn said. "I cannot, in any way, replenish them when I fire them. On the other hand, I'm already replenishing the standard rounds I used up."

"I know," Hans said. "I'm doing the same."

"How's your mech's structural integrity?"

The Peacemaker's legs drifted as he made a sudden turn, dodging a round sent to him by Injustice. He noticed that the Vanus demon was also charging straight at him, but from a foxhole only two dozen meters away from him emerged a group of musketeers. Their faces devoid of any hope for survival, they prepared their muskets, took aim, and fired a volley of enchanted lead balls.

The shots placed multiple nasty wounds on the Vanus demon's body, slowing him just enough that Valeria suddenly lunged into him. With the rage that seemed to always possess Lady Valeria, she rapidly cut through the Vanus demon's defense, her sword cutting nasty slices on his body as he failed to parry her attacks.

"I'm doing fine," Hans replied, turning his mech around to open fire at the Vanus demon. "Just keep up the pressure on Injustice. I'll figure something out—"

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Suddenly, out of nowhere, cutting through their conversation, multiple powerful booms blanketed the battlefield. In the distance, sixteen guns, spread around multiple elevated positions, opened fire. A hail of canister shots rained across the battlefield, all of them enchanted—the best ones that the IYC could offer.

Valeria immediately jumped into a foxhole to hide, while Hans pulled away completely, the remaining musketeers ducking in their trenches and foxholes as well. On the other hand, the three demons, caught by surprise, found themselves receiving the rain of burning metal.

Both the Virtus and Vanus demons found their bodies torn into ribbons, the nasty wounds causing them to collapse in a brutal puddle of blood on the ground. Meanwhile, even Injustice's mech was not left unscathed, three cannonballs sped up, striking it at different angles.

Right then, afterward—an explosion tore through the battlefield, then, darkness.

+++

"Warning! Critical components damaged—"

Hans wiped the blood on his face, he pressed button after button to revive his mech. That explosion, which came from Injustice's mech, must have been an ammo-rack detonation. He knew whose work that came from. Of course, it came from none other than Captain Strobel himself, Ebert—now the upcoming god of artillery.

If only it didn't do friendly damage. Hans painfully restarted his engine, his hand trembling as he felt himself lose blood. Then again, it wasn't like Ebert could have foreseen that.

The Peacemaker stood up in the burned battlefield, its legs almost screeching as it did. Yet, in the end, Hans managed to get his machine up, defiantly standing. As the smoke around them cleared out, his sensors began picking up the aftermath of the explosion.

Musketeers coughed as they peeked their heads up from their foxholes. There were no more soldiers, mages, and cavalrymen deployed at their rear, ready to ride down and intervene. Emilia seemed to have her eyes narrowed, looking at where Injustice was last seen.

Adelyn's mech, untouched, emerged from the ridge she used as cover, her main gun aimed as well at Injustice's direction.

Damn…

Hans strained his eyes as he looked at the battlefield ahead of him, the smoke fully parting away. In the distance, there was what appeared to be a mech's wreck, its gun aimed at the sky, almost lifeless.

But then—

A red light?

Its sensors came to light, the reddish glow breaking through the thin layer of smoke. Its legs, which were badly damaged, stood up, the sounds of mechanical whirr giving way to the sound of normal, undamaged movement. Even its turret, which was blown open, turned, a faint glow appearing on the hole created by the ammo rack explosion.

In a few moments, once again, Injustice's mech was standing. Not untouched, yes, but functional. Enough that all those who watched could barely believe the horror in front of them.

"Now, now," the old man's voice reverberated on the battlefield, as the two demons supporting him stood up, their bodies rapidly healing as best as they could, muscles, skin, and tendons patching themselves up in a sickly way, almost like how the demonic mech repaired itself. "To gang up this way on me and my loyal servants—isn't that the height of Injustice?!"

He continued speaking.

"Two mechs, two members of the Imperial Mage Corps, more than twenty guns, hundreds of cavalrymen, battlemages, and an uncountable amount of musketeers," he laughed, his voice sickly. "Such unbalanced odds. Such unfairness. Such a cruel matchup. And you, you, Golden Angel—you dare call yourself the Angel of Justice?!"

Hans pressed his speakers.

"You goddamned—"

"Silence yourself, you lowly cretin," the old man replied. "You are not even worthy to speak to. That angel, you, you…Captain Wittenstein, I presume you already have a good idea why this is all happening, no? Then why? Why keep up with this farce? Surrender now, and face true justice!"

There was no reply from Adelyn, as Injustice laughed.

"And how pretentious of you too, to believe that you embody justice when you fight side-by-side with a mere criminal."

Hans' eyes widened, hit by that reminder. He gritted his teeth. The reason…the reason he ended up in that place. The reason why he had to fight the war in the most dishonorable manner, and why he died and ended up in this place. Perhaps even the reason for his torments, it—

"Don't you dare talk to him like that," Adelyn's voice was devoid of emotions. "...He served his sentence. He fought and bled for the nation. Besides, to throw a man just for such a lowly crime to his death."

Suddenly, a glow emanated from her mech, causing it to turn golden. Her voice cracked as she did that. When Hans turned his turret to observe it, he felt an overwhelming surge of power coming from the Diligence. It reminded him of something…

Alizée.

Suddenly, the Diligence's hatch opened. Out came the girl, her silver hair flowing through the night's breeze. She was in the armor of the Angel of Purity, and just as it manifested itself, so did her crossbow.

But…how?

Yet, even with Alizée leaving Adelyn's mech, the Diligence continued to glow, almost like a torch of light in the darkness. Right then, golden designs and outlines appeared in her mech, adorning it so much that to Hans, her Wanderadler almost seemed like it turned into its knight-like version.

She's manifesting…her ideal?

"Tell me," Adelyn's voice fully turned cold. "To instigate all this…to kill so many innocent lives…where is this 'justice' you speak of."

"Bahahaha! How foolish. You, you little naive, spoiled, detached princess, you've always fancied yourself as a savior. Yet just as you've led so many pilots to their deaths, you've now led more people here to their deaths by refusing my offer! How is that just to them, when you could have saved them, if you just gave up?"

The Diligence strolled forward, each step from Adelyn's mech oozing with more and more power. It was so much that Hans wondered if he even was something who could ever compare to it. This must be her ideal. It didn't manifest into an armor or weapon.

No, it manifested itself by changing the vehicle her soul and class were tied to.

"Tsk," Adelyn clicked her tongue, as her annoyed voice bled from her speakers. "This is why no demon must be allowed to live. Your and your vile comrades' twisted sense of morality makes no sense to all. Nothing but mindless blabbering from folks who love to kill."

Her tone turned into disgust and contempt.

"I hate all of you. You make my skin crawl. Hence, I—Captain Adelyn von Wittenstein, the designated Angel of Justice, have only one judgment for you and your guilty ilk."

Everyone watched as her main gun, now adorned with glowing golden outlines, aimed itself at Injustice's mech.

"Your sentence—is death."

A flash of light sliced through the night sky.

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