"Don't be afraid, little one."
"I didn't know what this thing was last time."
"But this time..."
"I'm going to smash it into scrap metal for you."
Ritter gently patted the girl's back, patiently soothing her.
The girl tugged lightly at the corner of his coat.
Her ice-blue eyes remained fixed on the gigantic machine.
"Captain..."
"That... machine..."
"It's... calling me."
She frowned slightly, trying to understand the strange sensation.
"If I go inside..."
"I'll become... much, much stronger..."
"But..."
"If I go in..."
"I might... never come back."
Her words were still simple and direct.
But Ritter immediately understood what she meant.
That machine was both a prison...
And an enormous energy collector.
It had been created to extract and exploit the girl's unique power.
If she willingly entered it, she could likely reverse the process and use the immense Life Force gathered within to achieve an unimaginable increase in strength.
The price...
Would probably be losing herself.
She might be assimilated.
Controlled.
Or become nothing more than the machine's permanent energy core.
Anyone else, upon hearing "You might never come back," would instinctively refuse.
But Ritter...
Was never "anyone else."
He was the Mist Lord.
A man who ignored common sense and lived solely according to his own will.
He barely hesitated.
A trace of madness flashed through his crimson eyes before he broke into a wide grin.
"You want to get stronger?"
"That's great!"
He vigorously ruffled her hair, speaking as casually as if they were discussing dinner.
"If you think going inside will make you stronger..."
"Then let's go take a look."
"As for not coming back?"
Ritter snorted.
He hoisted Black Tide onto his shoulder as blood mist surged around him like a raging sea.
"As long as I'm here..."
"I'd like to see which pile of scrap has the guts to keep you."
"We're going to kick out the owner..."
"And make this place our own."
Truthfully...
While staring at the machine, Ritter had already noticed something else.
He could clearly feel the machine transferring energy toward the girl.
However...
The moment his blood mist enveloped her...
The energy transfer stopped completely.
There was something even more interesting.
At close range...
The machine couldn't compete with him.
Within five...
Or at most ten meters...
Anyone near Ritter had every drop of their Life Force drained completely by him.
No exceptions.
Only beyond that distance could the machine continue stealing energy.
After all...
It was just a machine.
Ritter had been siphoning Life Force far longer than any piece of technology ever could.
If this machine could gather energy...
Why destroy it?
Steal it instead.
Strip away every unnecessary control program.
Leave only its pure energy collection and absorption functions.
Then let his vice-captain sit inside...
And enjoy the greatest energy bath imaginable.
As for the risks?
Ritter had absolute confidence in himself.
He might not understand delicate high-tech engineering.
But violent hacking?
Breaking things apart?
Suppressing anything by force?
Those were his specialties.
As long as the girl didn't lose herself...
He was confident that if the machine tried to devour her...
He could tear the entire thing apart from the inside before it succeeded.
Of course...
He also had a final insurance policy.
During the battle...
He had already established contact with Lady Toki.
If they failed to escape...
She could summon him back using the same temporal gateway that had once saved Roger.
Because Vita still existed in that future timeline...
The girl could also be pulled into that era.
He might suffer some injuries during the transition.
But by using Lady Toki's timeline as an intermediate waypoint...
He could immediately jump back into the present.
The exit would simply open somewhere else.
Just like the dimensional crack that had appeared when Roger was rescued.
Those cracks eventually repaired themselves.
To put it simply...
Ritter had been treating Lady Toki's Time-Time Fruit like a portable spatial gateway.
"Let's go!"
Without another moment's hesitation...
Ritter embraced the girl and transformed into a crimson comet.
Ignoring the three generals atop the walls...
Ignoring the chaos consuming the battlefield below...
He shot directly toward the colossal machine at the center of the capital.
"Stop him!"
Galvan roared.
His massive gravity gauntlets unleashed a distorted gravitational field to intercept Ritter.
Lyselin's photon arrows poured down like torrential rain.
At the same time...
Dr. Alpha's floating artillery array opened fire, weaving together an overwhelming wall of destruction.
Ritter didn't even bother looking back.
"Move."
"Don't get in my way while I'm stealing new equipment."
"Mist God Style: Endless Sea of Blood!"
Boom!
An ocean of blood mist exploded outward with Ritter at its center.
The gravity field shattered.
The photon arrows disappeared into the mist without a trace.
Even the floating cannons' bombardment vanished into the crimson sea like stones sinking into the ocean.
The combined assault of all three generals...
Couldn't slow him down by even a fraction.
The three generals exchanged a brief glance.
Then...
They actually stepped aside.
Their earlier attacks had only been for appearances.
We tried.
We just couldn't stop him.
After all...
Their true objective had always been to send their Divine Maiden into the machine.
Ritter was doing exactly what they wanted.
Why would they stop him?
The next instant...
Ritter arrived directly above the machine.
He looked down at the crimson core, now beating faster and faster.
Then he glanced at the girl in his arms.
Despite her nervousness...
There was also unmistakable anticipation in her eyes.
"Ready, little one?"
"Let's go claim this bathtub."
The blood mist surrounding him compressed instantly.
It condensed into a terrifying crimson drill.
Without hesitation...
He slammed it into the armor surrounding the core.
BOOM!
The violent impact echoed across the capital.
The supposedly indestructible metal armor ripped apart like paper, opening an enormous hole.
Without slowing down...
Ritter carried the girl straight through the breach...
And plunged into the machine's interior, a world filled with violent energy currents and countless intricate mechanical structures.
"Warning!"
"Warning!"
"Unauthorized intrusion detected within the core sector!"
Even Dr. Alpha's electronic voice cracked with panic.
The three generals standing atop the walls all turned pale.
None of them had expected Ritter to break into the machine like this.
They had left the entrance open!
Couldn't he just use the door?
Did he really have to smash a hole through the roof?
Ritter's answer was simple.
"Folks..."
"I made another entrance."
Nearby...
Imu slowly raised his white mask toward the damaged machine.
"...As expected."
"He truly cannot be judged by ordinary standards."
Inside the machine...
Ritter gently placed the girl onto a stable platform where energy flowed most densely.
He planted Black Tide firmly into the floor.
His crimson eyes swept across the countless glowing conduits surrounding them.
A savage grin spread across his face.
"From now on..."
"This place belongs to us."
"Little one..."
"Absorb as much as you can."
"I'd like to see..."
"Just how much this broken machine can feed you."
Outside...
Imu had no intention of waiting for Ritter.
Their objective was the destruction of Pilurka.
Ritter's wasn't.
After this battle...
Pilurka would find it almost impossible to seek revenge against him again.
Their military strength would require years to recover.
Ritter had already achieved exactly what he came for.
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