In the center of the storm, Euly, Naggi, and Lanni cut their way through the mobs of metal, surrounded by a ring of Zoner soldiers, the last desperate line. Soldiers shouted in every direction, blades clashing against Delta frames, bodies falling to the dirt.
"Form the line! Protect the innocents!" Lanni's voice carried over the roar, her silver moon-sword flashing in the smoke. Several soldiers nodded and sprinted off to drag civilians out of the crossfire.
She turned to her comrades, her jaw tight. "Where's Raffi?"
"I tried to contact him." Euly's voice was strained as he parried another incoming strike. "No answer."
Naggi's eyes flared with panic. "Then something's happened—"
"Highly likely," Euly cut in grimly. "Ms. Mary's missing too."
Lanni's lips tightened. She glanced to the soldiers around her, their faces painted with fear and sweat. She raised her sword high.
"Listen to me!" she shouted, and every soldier froze, eyes locked on her. "The Royal family has already made their choice! This isn't about negotiation. It isn't about compromise. They are exterminating us. They will kill the Zoner Knights, kill the soldiers, and when we are gone, the civilians will be left helpless. They will be herded like cattle into these trucks and sent to the surface to die!"
Her silver armor glowed in the firelight as she pointed her blade toward the advancing machines. "Right now, a mass Selection is happening before our very eyes. Two thousand five hundred of our people will be taken if we let this stand. We have to fight back. If we don't fight back, we will all die. So fight! Fight for your homes, fight for your families, fight for the right to live!"
A cheer of desperation and fury rose from the soldiers, and they hurled themselves back into the tide.
Euly summoned his bronze sword, the weapon shining in his grip. The bronze armor snapped over his body like a second skin, gleaming, battered, but strong. With one motion, he tore through the chest of a Delta, sparks spraying like firecrackers. Another two surged at him, spears for arms, and he staggered under their strikes, bronze plates denting as he roared and cut them down.
Beside him, Lani's moon-sword glimmered. The silver armor wrapped around her body, radiant even in the smoke, her every strike carving perfect arcs of light.
She moved like flowing water, slicing robots apart before they could touch the fleeing children behind her. Sparks and metal rained as she pressed forward, shouting orders through gritted teeth.
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Naggi's hands trembled as she called her copper sword, the copper armor forming across her body in sheets of hammered plates. Her eyes darted wildly, searching the wreckage, the smoke, the fire. "Levy!" she screamed. "Levy, where are you?!"
A Delta reached for her with clawed hands, dragging a child into its grip. Naggi's fear exploded into rage. They began to shoot down zoners with their laser guns. Bodies dropped like flies.
She cut the machine down, copper blade twisting through its body until it collapsed in ruin. She clutched the child close, sobbing, whispering "Levy" again and again before handing the little girl off to a soldier.
All around them, Zoner soldiers were fighting, and dying. A young man lifted his spear only to be blasted through the chest, his body folding onto the dirt. Another soldier rammed his blade into a Delta's core, but a second robot tore him apart from behind, leaving nothing but blood on the cobblestones.
Yet even in despair, there was resistance. Two soldiers swarmed a machine together, leaping on its back, plunging their knives into its joints until it screamed and fell. Another hooked a cable around a robot's leg, yanking until it crashed to the ground, only to be crushed under another's stomping feet. Every victory cost blood. Every breath was stolen.
Still the tide poured in. The Deltas kept coming, endless, merciless, their red optics glowing through the smoke like the eyes of demons. For every one destroyed, five more appeared. Trucks rolled through the streets, cages already filled with crying civilians.
Naggi's panic boiled over, her voice breaking as she screamed, "Levy! He was in his room, now he's gone! Where is he?!" She slashed through two machines, her copper armor battered, dented, sparking.
Naggi "Bronze sword, Long Dragon."
The sword stretched in length and with a single strike ripped through a dozen Delta's.
Naggi screamed "LEVY."
Lanni grabbed her shoulder, silver eyes burning through her helm. "Naggi, hold yourself together! If you die here, you'll never save him! If Levy was taken, then you have to live long enough to get him back!"
Naggi's breaths came ragged, but her blade steadied. Tears blurred her vision, but she forced her legs to move, to fight, because she knew Lani was right.
Above the carnage, an armored Cybertruck rumbled forward, its iron sides stained with smoke. Inside, Elder Fanok sat expressionless, his eyes on the chaos below. Beside him, a Sedmo unit—Sedmo-On, stood silent, its optics glowing a cold, merciless red.
"It is important that you be present," Fanok said flatly. "I have already activated my power, so you must follow my instructions to a T and the dream they so desperately hold on to will be over in a blink of an eye."
The machine's head tilted, servo joints humming. Outside, screams rose higher as more Deltas crushed through the streets.
Back in the heart of the Zoner District, Euly Naggi, and Lanni carved their way through the swarm. They were gods of metal and fury, bronze, silver, and copper flashing in the firelight. But even their brilliance was swallowed by the tide. Yuli staggered, his bronze plates sparking as another spear-arm pierced through. Lani spun, cutting down two machines, only to see three more closing in. Nagi's copper armor was dented and cracked, her body heaving, every strike fueled by desperation.
Around them, the Zoner soldiers fought with all they had. A baker swung his cleaver, shattering a robot's optic. A mother shielded her child with her body, sobbing as bolts seared past her. Bodies fell everywhere, friends and family, strangers and comrades, all cut down in the flood.
The Zoners had not won anything. This was not victory. This was survival, second by second, breath by breath, against an ocean of iron that would never stop coming.
And still the Knights stood.