Something outside, something that might be alive, was dragging him by hand and pulling him toward the surface. His expression darkened as he realized the scale of the force involved, since this was a machine weighing close to ten thousand tons. How could such a monster exist in this era, and what was it exactly?
On the surface, the mining site was packed with facilities and heavy machinery, but everyone was fleeing in panic. The ground collapsed inward like a funnel, cracks glowing faintly with light. Then a blinding white pillar erupted from the center, blasting out light and heat as the ground was thrown aside like a volcanic eruption.
The surface shattered, some areas melting into magma under extreme heat. Strangely, some rocks blasted into the air seemed to be held up by an unseen force, hanging in midair. Survivors stared blankly as a black figure rose from the white destruction below.
An enormous and savage Black Dragon roared, destruction glowing across its body as it shot into the sky. Its wings spread wide enough to cover the night, turning the heavens even darker. The released pressure gripped every throat, leaving people too afraid to breathe.
The Black Dragon hurled the twisted, deformed war machine in its grasp as if it were a toy. The massive body fell like a meteor, smashing into the ground before countless stunned witnesses. Flames burst from metal grinding against air, and the impact shook the land, smashing the already broken ground into fragments.
Some even marveled that the commander's machine was still mostly intact after such abuse. Inside, Ludwig coughed violently, blood spilling from his mouth as snapped threads forced the machine to hold together. External cameras reconnected, restoring his view.
He stared in shock, unable to accept that a dragon could cause this. Even a Great Dragon had once been nothing more than a larger insect to him, yet this one was different. A being of his level should never fear something so far beneath him, and yet even his true body hidden far away had trembled at that instant.
Then realization struck him. The core had to be it. Seeing the identical crystals on the roaring Black Dragon and sensing the immense Magic fluctuations, the truth became clear.
The nano-metal core had been buried underground and was picked up by this dragon by chance. Some unknown mechanism had activated, fusing the two and starting energy recovery, creating this Crystal Domain. If a Great Dragon showed unusual traits, that was acceptable, as a few insects could sometimes reach a higher level.
His property had been taken first. Rage burned across Ludwig's face, but he calmed himself, knowing this only added one more step. He would kill the dragon and reclaim the core, since control of the machine itself still belonged to him.
He issued orders to all remaining units and called the buried components to converge on the third mining site. Though surprised at being blasted awake, Belial was furious beyond measure. Not only his sleeping place but other nodes had been destroyed as well.
If they dared to blow him up, he would blow them up in return. With that thought, Belial detonated every crystal, wiping out everyone underground in one wave. He seized the nearest attacker, dragged it through thousands of meters of earth, smashing and slamming it along the way.
When he reached the sky, he hurled it down with added Battle Aura, yet it still did not break. Calming slightly, Belial finally looked closely at what he had been smashing. It had drills and cannons, and the Otherworld seemed more advanced than expected.
Deciding it would make good compensation, he planned to take it back as a collectible. However, he noticed the tank-like machine below was repairing itself, metal rippling like waves. It shook, flipped upright, and aimed its cannon at him again.
As he opened his mouth to fire a Spiral Heat Ray, strange movement came from the ruins below. Two more massive machines burst from the ground using Light Cannon and drills. One resembled an aircraft and lifted off with flaming thrusters, while the other raised a massive dual Light Cannon cannon.
More followed. Along the horizon, dust rose as countless war vehicles, puppets, and flying magitech soldiers advanced. They carried devastating cannons etched with Magic Circle, missile-like Magic weapons, and constantly active Barrier.
The scene felt familiar to Belial. Surrounded by tanks and aircraft, he inhaled sharply, wondering if every monster had to go through being swarmed by humans. He grew excited instead, knowing they posed little threat.
With Photon Reflection Shield active, he calmly observed as lasers bounced off him. Three main machines stood out: one with drills and saws, one with massive cannons, and one that could fly. The number made the image even clearer.
Realization dawned, just as Ludwig finished gathering his remaining forces. He connected every person present with threads, turning them into puppets without resistance. Fueled by their Magic and the delivered parts, he initiated the combination.
Machines and components flowed together like liquid metal, forming a towering steel giant. Weapons covered its body, layered with Barrier, and threads bound every structure together. Seated at its core, Ludwig roared as the system locked on.
Weapons System activated, all targeting the airborne Great Dragon. Belial watched the entire process in silence, eyes wide. After a long moment, he finally spoke.
"Huh?" "It really is MOGUERA?"
MOGUERA was another human-made cheat weapon from his old space G franchise. Its shape was wide on top and narrow below, and by his taste it was not pleasant to look at. In the shows it always got beaten at the start and later only played support, but the setting said it was absurdly strong.
To judge how strong, one could look at the previous generation Super Mechagodzilla, that terrifying heavy firepower platform which once pressed Fire Rodan and Heisei Era G into a corner. On paper, MOGUERA had firepower stats several times higher than Super Mechagodzilla. One could only say that back then, Tokusatsu data sheets were truly fearless.
Even though the Heisei Era G series the Lord was all about stat inflation, without checking the settings Belial would never think this underperforming-looking thing was so strong. He threw his head back and laughed loudly, the sound rolling across the battlefield. "Although this is not the weapon's final form, just part of its power," he said. "But it is more than enough to kill you."
Ludwig clung like a spider among steel and gears, driving the massive steel beast forward as the tracks rolled and the body took a heavy step. The legion-level firepower mounted on MOGUERA locked onto Belial in the air, its eye lasers and twin arm cannons lifting together. What it carried was forbidden ancient technology different from Magic, enhanced by the modern Magic system and Ludwig's own authority.
The result was simple and brutal firepower that could drag an entire city into destruction in a short time and erase it from the map. Now, all of it was aimed at a living being of flesh and blood. Belial snapped back to focus and showed a vicious grin, knowing this steel creation was still different from a true MOGUERA.
"If it were the real MOGUERA, I could not beat it," he said. "But you, this knockoff, maybe not."
It was a fake MOGUERA, but he himself was a genuine space G, even if not fully grown. Without backing down, he fired back with a Spiral Heat Ray. The blue-white beam slammed into multiple laser blasts, forming a huge fireball nearly a kilometer wide in the sky.
MOGUERA forced its tracks into the ground to hold position as its surface Barrier shook under the energy wash. In the exchange of firepower, it fell slightly behind. "I am actually losing ground," Ludwig muttered. "Without the core, it really is not enough."
He manipulated the threads to realign internal parts, while surface damage began to repair under the supply of Magic. A deafening roar followed as the massive Black Dragon dove straight down, colliding head-on with the steel giant. Ludwig raised Barrier in desperation, but the impact still made blood burst from multiple points on his body.
The screech of twisting metal filled the air, mixed with the energy damage from Space Claw that blasted the surface of MOGUERA into craters. The giant metal arms meant to withstand the Great Dragon were cracked and shedding armor, nearly breaking. Most of the remaining weapon platforms were destroyed in the explosion, with only a few stubborn units firing back at Belial.
"What kind of power is this?" Ludwig shouted.
It was far beyond expectation, and it did not stop there. Belial opened his jaws and fired another point-blank Spiral Heat Ray, blowing off one shoulder of MOGUERA and tearing free a metal arm weighing thousands of tons. At the same time, the crystal-spiked tail pierced the chest with a crystalline blast, pushing Ludwig fully into disadvantage.
The drill in the mouth spun wildly, but the crafty Belial pinned the head in place, preventing any advance, and tore off the eye lasers. Missiles exploded against his body with little effect, followed by another close-range internal blast that stripped away layers of metal armor. Even so, Belial felt a slight pain in his abdomen.