Outside the machine, the battlefield had reached its fiercest stage.
"Damn it! What have you done to the Divine Furnace?!"
Galvan roared as the energy readings plummeted. With a single punch, he obliterated an Allied commander together with his armor.
"Why is the energy feedback dropping?! That attack couldn't possibly have damaged the Divine Furnace!"
Lyselin sniped approaching Allied elites with her light arrows, her voice filled with growing anxiety.
"Alpha! What's going on?! What is that red-eyed bastard doing in there?!"
"My name's Ritter, thank you very much."
Ritter's voice echoed from inside the machine.
There was no way he would retract his Observation Haki.
This was a battlefield.
Even when eating, he never let his guard down.
As the old saying went...
Strategically, despise your enemy.
Tactically, respect them.
Ritter considered himself an excellent student.
Dr. Alpha's frantic voice rang out through the communication system.
"I don't know! The data is completely scrambled!"
"The energy output has been physically blocked!"
"The incoming energy is being consumed at an incredible rate!"
"But the conversion efficiency..."
"It's unbelievably low!"
"It's as if..."
"It's as if they're absorbing everything without releasing anything!"
"They should have exploded by now!"
Imu darted across the battlefield.
Every slash of the Shadow Sword harvested several elite Pilurka soldiers.
His calm voice drifted toward the increasingly agitated three Admirals.
"You all seem rather anxious."
"Want to go back?"
"Imu! You damned shadow!"
Galvan roared.
"You must be working together with that pirate!"
"Working together?"
Imu slowly turned his white mask toward him.
"You think you're worthy of using that phrase?"
"He does as he pleases."
"He is him."
"I am me."
"If you have the ability..."
"Go stop him yourselves."
The current Imu still possessed the youthful arrogance of someone who had yet to become the distant ruler of centuries later.
"Then let me leave already!"
Galvan finally snapped.
Naturally, none of them knew what Ritter was doing inside.
Even Imu didn't know.
But it didn't matter.
The Allied Army would eventually invade the city anyway.
Sooner or later they would face the three Admirals.
Imu had absolutely no objection to pinning them down now.
Besides...
It counted as doing Ritter a favor.
Although the Allied Army had no idea what was happening inside the machine...
Seeing the Pilurka Admirals this flustered was enough.
Their morale instantly exploded.
"Hahaha!"
"Pilurka's tin cans!"
"Your precious machine's breaking!"
"Long live Lord Mist!"
"Drain every last drop of their energy!"
"Kill them!"
"Strike while they're sick!"
The battlefield grew even more chaotic.
Bodies fell.
Blood splattered.
Haki clashed with energy beams in every direction.
Lives vanished every second.
Most of the escaping Life Force was still greedily devoured by the gigantic machine.
Only now...
Much more flowed in than came out.
And the output kept shrinking.
Outside...
The battle shook heaven and earth.
Inside...
It was practically peaceful.
After introducing himself...
Ritter hadn't spoken another word.
Nothing was more important than eating.
"Come on, little one."
He raised a wine glass formed from condensed blood mist.
"Cheers."
"To..."
"Hmm..."
"To this ridiculous war?"
The girl blinked.
Although she didn't fully understand...
She obediently copied him.
She raised her own cup and gently clinked it against his.
"To..."
"The Captain."
She softly replied.
Then, just like Ritter...
She drank the glowing liquid inside.
Or rather...
She guided the refined energy into her body.
"Hahaha!"
"Well said!"
"To your Captain!"
Ritter burst into laughter and drained his cup in one gulp.
Instantly...
His entire body felt refreshed.
He glanced at the brutal battlefield outside.
Then looked at the girl beside him, whose aura had become deeper and more stable than ever.
Profit.
Pure profit.
A complete win-win.
No...
A win-win-win.
He won once.
His vice-captain won once.
So he won twice.
"Hmm..."
"Those guys outside are fighting their hearts out..."
"Feels a little rude for us to be enjoying a private buffet in here."
He rubbed his chin.
A moment later, he shook his head.
"Forget it."
"They never paid for my meals."
"I'll just keep eating."
With that...
He condensed an even thicker straw.
Sure, drinking from a cup looked elegant.
But...
Nothing beat hugging a giant straw and drinking straight from the source.
"Slurp, slurp, slurp..."
"Now that's the good stuff!"
"Hic!"
Ritter let out a satisfied burp.
The blood mist around him had grown so dense it nearly overflowed.
"Slurp, slurp, slurp."
"Drink more."
He looked at his vice-captain, who had also hiccupped.
Life Force didn't need to be sipped carefully.
Ritter simply compressed it and packed it into her body.
Keep drinking.
The war wasn't over yet.
Besides...
Ritter had already estimated something.
He probably wouldn't even stay until the battle ended.
He knew perfectly well...
Once the war was over...
The Allied Army would definitely try to keep him here.
Someone might ask...
"Wouldn't they just recruit him?"
Excellent question.
Your reward is...
A cucumber.
(Completely innocent.)
Ritter's displayed strength was enough to wrestle with Imu.
At least...
That was how it looked.
No one wanted someone like that standing above them.
His military achievements during this war were simply too outrageous.
Out of the Four Admirals...
He had personally killed one.
Even Imu had only managed the same.
Before him floated two thick blood mist straws.
One connected directly to the machine's primary energy conduit.
The other extended toward the girl.
She held it with both hands, taking tiny sips of the refined Life Essence.
"Slow down, little one."
"No one's stealing it from you."
Ritter drank from the main conduit while grinning at her puffed cheeks.
"This stuff's incredible."
"So let's replenish ourselves properly."
The girl obediently nodded.
Her ice-blue eyes curved into little crescents.
She clearly enjoyed having an unlimited supply of what Ritter jokingly called...
"The ultimate nutrition drink."
"Tsk tsk."
"Pilurka really worked hard building up their savings."
Ritter commented between mouthfuls.
"They started wars."
"People died."
"They spent ages collecting all this energy."
"And in the end..."
"It all became ours."
"What wonderful people."
"They delivered energy across thousands of miles just for us."
"The gift may be light..."
"But the sentiment is priceless."
Even while drinking...
He secretly split off a strand of consciousness.
Using his blood mist, he quietly scavenged along the edge of the battlefield.
Any scattered Life Force the machine failed to absorb...
He collected without hesitation.
Waste not.
Ritter was nothing if not greedy.
"Slurp, slurp, slurp..."
He drank even faster.
"Hurry up."
"Once those people outside finish fighting..."
"This all-you-can-eat buffet is closing."
The girl copied him exactly.
"Slurp, slurp, slurp..."
Her cheeks puffed in and out adorably as she drank with complete seriousness.
The crimson glow of the machine's core visibly dimmed.
Its once overwhelming energy fluctuations...
Now felt rather...
Pathetic.
The two of them were practically draining the energy gathered from an entire war.
Ritter couldn't help but look at his vice-captain with newfound admiration.
This little girl definitely carried some kind of secret.
After all...
Pilurka had spent countless years researching their Divine Maiden.
There was no way they hadn't done something to her.
Fortunately...
Ritter had arrived early.
She hadn't ended up becoming some mechanical doll.
Outside...
Dr. Alpha let out a desperate howl.
"Energy reserves have fallen below the safety threshold!"
"Core output has dropped by sixty percent!"
"What are those two bandits doing in there?!"
"Throwing a party?!"
Hearing that...
Ritter grinned and shouted toward the empty air.
"Thanks, Pilurka!"
"The energy tastes great!"
"We'll definitely come again next time!"
Then...
He resumed drinking with even greater enthusiasm.
Outside...
People fought and died.
Inside...
"Slurp, slurp, slurp."
The girl looked at Ritter for a moment.
Then silently placed the straw back between her lips.
"Slurp, slurp, slurp..."
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