The storm rolled in—not from the sky, but from the earth beneath Dorothy’s feet.
With a deafening crack, Roxanne launched forward, her Lightning Blade sweeping a wide arc across the battlefield.
The nearest A-Rank mech didn’t even have time to react. It was split in half, the top portion exploding in a cascade of blue sparks.
"Damn! She’s fast, too fast!" one pilot screamed.
"Scatter formation! Engage at range!"
Dorothy spun mid-air like a comet of fury, slamming her lightning-charged knee into another unit’s chestplate, sending it flying into the cliffs with a thunderous crash. Rocks crumbled. Metal warped. Sparks danced wildly through the night air.
"Lightning Step!" Roxanne shouted.
Dorothy shimmered, vanishing in a blink and reappearing behind two A-Rank mechs.
They noticed but reacted too slow.
With a twist of her blade, she carved a full circle around her, releasing a magnetic pulse that detonated outward. Then, a chain of lightning burst from Dorothy, leaping from mech to mech. Three units short-circuited, collapsing into twitching wrecks as their cores overloaded.
Rodrigo’s eyes narrowed.
"Maintain pressure! She’s using too much core energy. We’ll wear her down!"
Suddenly, the clouds above answered her fury.
Dorothy’s chestplate slid open, revealing a shimmering prism-like core.
Roxanne raised the Lightning Blade to the sky, then plunged it into the ground.
"Stormlink: Heaven’s Arc!"
From above, a bolt of divine-blue lightning shot down from the heavens—directly into Dorothy. The mech absorbed it like a divine blessing, and her entire frame lit with violent, unstable energy.
With a shout, she slashed forward.
A bolt of that energy launched toward Rodrigo’s mech like a horizontal lightning strike, exploding in a wave that disarmed his forward shield.
"Tch!" Rodrigo growled, forcing his mech back as damage registers in flickering red.
"She’s still the same damn monster... But even monsters had limits."
A harsh beeping began inside Dorothy’s cockpit. Overheating. Core instability. Power consumption critical.
Roxanne’s fingers trembled as she tried to focus once more using Soul-Link.
The damage was alarming, but she wasn’t about to give up now.
Isadora looked up at her mother, eyes wide.
"Mom... will we win?"
Roxanne smiled softly.
"Yes, sweetie. We will win. "
A golden mech struck from the side. One of the three S-Ranks had flanked her during the chaos.
Dorothy flew back, crashing into a rocky slope, skidding across the ground with thunderous momentum.
Alarms rang inside the cockpit nonstop. Roxanne and Isdora thrown off balance because of the impact. But the safety mechanism save their heads from getting exploded.
Rodrigo approached in his S-Rank mech, flanked by the other two elites.
"You put on a good show, little sister." he sneered. "But your show ends here today."
Dorothy stood up again, sparks flying, chest rising and falling with each breath from Roxanne. Her arms trembled, her blade hummed.
Still, she raised it again.
"Rodrigo..." Roxanne’s voice crackled through the comms, heavy with defiance.
"My show might be over, but this isn’t the end."
Rodrigo’s brow furrowed. He opened his mouth to reply but froze as his sensors flared with warning.
Movement. Lots of it.
From the shadowy ridgeline, an unnatural rustling began to rise. The earth itself seemed to tremble...
"Undeads!" one of the A-Rank pilots shouted.
Rodrigo’s eyes widened as a swarm of undead surged forward, their skeletal hands clawing the dirt, hollow eyes glowing with eerie green light. At their head marched a tall, bald figure in black armor, his cloak fluttering behind him like a shadow made flesh.
Commander Malthius had arrived.
A deafening boom shook the battlefield as a second explosion burst from the left flank.
The earth split open—and from it rose a colossal tree, its roots tearing through reinforced plating like paper. Bark thicker than tank armor groaned as it moved, towering over the assembled mechs. Massive branches swung like hammers, crushing A-Rank machines effortlessly.
Rodrigo’s eyes narrowed. That power... that Spirit Tree...
"Vireon!" he snarled, fury rising in his throat.
And there, through the smoke and spore-cloud, he saw him.
A tall, dark-haired man strode forward with unshakable calm. His fingers weaved complex patterns in the air, muttering words in the ancient Spirit Language. Each syllable carried weight, and the very air shimmered in response.
Beside him walked a young man with obsidian eyes and windswept black hair. He radiated the same controlled power, a blade sheathed at his back, sparks of kinetic energy flaring around his boots.
Rodrigo’s jaw clenched.
"Its been so long, nephew Igor. So you’re the worm who broke into the cellar."
He drew his blade, its edges glowing with deadly arcs of lightning.
"For your crime... you’ll die here."
Before he could move, a shadow blurred between them.
Commander Malthius blocked Rodrigo’s first strike with his curved blade. Sparks exploded from the collision, shockwaves rippling across the field.
But the difference in power was clear.
The undead commander was hurled back through the air like a ragdoll, slamming into the mountainside. Bones cracked, Rocks groaned.
Rodrigo continued forward to Igaris, his eyes burning with bloodlust. "No undead, no runaway sister, no spirit is going to stop me."
Igaris raised his hand, conjuring a massive spike into the air.
The very air sliced as the earthen spike launched toward the Lightning Mech, aimed to cleave it in half. But he knew it wouldn’t be enough to defeat such a terrifying machine.
He didn’t intend to fight it alone.
Mid-air, a colossal tree branch slammed into the mech’s chestplate, creating a resounding impact.
"I won’t let you touch my son!" Vireon shouted, stepping forward with a commanding presence atop the colossal tree.
"Damn you monsters!" Rodrigo growled, his mech spiraling out of control from the blow.
The other two S-Rank mechs were also nowhere to be seen.
It was clear now. Vireon had been hiding power far beyond what anyone had imagined.
Wasting no time, Igaris summoned Quirky, the Wind Griffin, and turned to his mother, speaking with calm urgency.
"We need to go, Mom. There could be more mechs coming after us."
"But what about Dorothy? I can’t just leave her here," Roxanne said, carrying Isadora on her shoulder, stepping out of the white Lightning Mech.
Igaris offered a reassuring smile. "Don’t worry. I’ll have it transferred. You might even get a surprise."
Both Roxanne and Vireon looked puzzled but chose not to ask further.
Roxanne exchanged a long, silent gaze with her husband—filled with emotion—before boarding the Wind Griffin.
And with one powerful beat of Quirky’s wings, the reunited family of four soared into the sky, disappearing into the night.