As the Black Knight, its "chest cavity" hollowed out by the Unicorn, exploded into a shower of fragments, the Unicorn—shrouded in yellow flames—was reflected in everyone's eyes.
"It was... destroyed?! Another one?!"
The screams of the pilot who had just died were still echoing through the mental space; for a moment, everyone was stunned.
The FT Armor, their greatest pride, had previously allowed them to overcome the gap in piloting skills and even suppress a Red-Coat ace like Athrun Zala. Yet, in front of the Unicorn, it was like armor in Dark Souls—folded like a piece of paper and torn apart with ease.
"Mind reading... yes, we must read his mind now!"
Like a drowning man seeing a straw on the water, a soul in hell seeing a spider's thread, or a heavily wounded DIO seeing a manhole cover, a figure spoke: "As long as we can read his mind... as long as we can read his mind..."
Adjusting their instruments, the two pilots of the Black Knights who had served as the "vanguard" steered their units toward the Unicorn.
In that mental space, they could feel the Unicorn's spiritual pressure burning like a fierce sun; it felt as though merely looking at it would sear their eyes.
But at this moment, in order to defeat and destroy the Unicorn, they forced themselves through the discomfort and continued the reading process. After all, the current state of the battle left no doubt: if they did not destroy the Unicorn, everyone would die here.
They constantly adjusted their spiritual energy, yet they could not penetrate even a fraction of that "sun."
The two Black Knight pilots poured their entire beings into the attempt, trying to bypass the Unicorn's spiritual defense line to enter its heart and read information. They failed to notice that, at some point, they had disconnected from the mental link with the other Black Knights.
This was an incredibly dangerous act. Without the spiritual power of the other Black Knights to share the impact of reading another person's heart, they would have to face the Unicorn's spiritual pressure alone.
But they could no longer care about such things. Their anticipation of victory and their thirst for survival drove them to madness, pushing them to give their absolute all.
"Let me... get in there!!"
Inside the cockpit of the Black Knight, the pilot subconsciously screamed, eyes bulging with strain.
As if noticing these two "mayflies" trying to shake a giant tree, the Unicorn paused to think for a moment, then opened a tiny crack for them.
They entered the Unicorn's mental space as they wished... but was that truly a good thing?
-----------------------------------
They felt the sensation of their feet stepping onto snow. Within the pitch-black mental space, a biting cold wind howled, scraping against their faces until they stung.
The two Black Knight pilots looked at each other, seemingly unable to comprehend why the Unicorn pilot's mental space looked like this. They had read the mental spaces of many people, but without a doubt, this was the first time they had seen one with such a concrete, detailed environment.
Suddenly, they instinctively looked in one direction.
A crimson fire, looking as if it would burn the horizon to nothing, rapidly swept across the sky of this mental space. The two Black Knight pilots felt the surrounding environment grow scorching hot; even the ice and snow beneath their feet began to melt from the heat.
The scene of this mental space finally appeared clearly before their eyes.
It was a megastructure platform made of various types of steel—a landscape they had never seen before. Not far away lay a massive amount of mechanical wreckage, as if a great war had just taken place.
Under the crimson sky, a white figure caught their attention.
It was a woman dressed in white with light pink hair. She stood atop an unknown piece of wreckage, looking at them calmly, as if looking at two dead men. The red light in her eyes glowed as if she were fitted with some kind of LED light set.
"That is..."
Seeing this scene, the two Black Knight pilots froze. Even for them, in a place like a mental space, they usually only maintained the state of blurred silhouettes. This was the first time they had seen an existence with such a vivid image.
The woman did not say a word; she simply raised her hand calmly and gave a wave.
The tranquil mental space suddenly became turbulent.
Black—a tide-like blackness—erupted from various mechanical parts, restructuring and condensing into robots with glowing red eyes, overflowing with killing intent.
As more and more humanoid robots appeared, the two Black Knight pilots felt sweat breaking out on their foreheads.
It was unclear which soul attached to the Unicorn's Psycho-Frame started it first, but in an instant, the black robots possessed by these souls began to surge. Like a wave capable of bringing total destruction, they swept toward the two Black Knight pilots.
"Fast... run! Don't just stand there!"
Seeing his companion freeze, the other pilot slapped his stunned comrade's "head" hard.
"Right... right, disconnect! Let's disconnect quickly!"
Like a heavily wounded DIO being struck by an ambulance and then finding an escape route, the pilot who had been dazing out seemed to snap awake from the blow and spoke up.
But things were clearly not going to go that smoothly.
"It's not working? I can't disconnect? How can this be?!"
"Stop trying, just run!"
Having failed to disconnect, the two pilots instinctively began to run frantically through this mental space, trying to escape these "robots" filled with murderous intent.
From time to time, new black robots would appear by the roadside, rushing toward them and joining the main horde.
A hose appeared beneath their feet for some reason, and one pilot tripped.
"Damn it... get up quickly..."
The other pilot saw this and instinctively reached out to pull him.
Unfortunately, this was not a scene from a hot-blooded anime; it was an "execution ground" used by Miss Machine Spirit to destroy their fighting spirit.
In the next moment, the black robots pinned them to the ground. A multitude of red-eyed black robots attacked the two pilots relentlessly, acting as if they were going to tear them to shreds.
And in fact, the souls possessing the black robots were doing exactly that.
-----------------------------------
Everything that just happened occurred in a mere instant.
In the eyes of onlookers, it appeared as though two Black Knights had inexplicably slowed down, their attack postures becoming distorted.
The Unicorn brandished the heavy slashing sword in its right hand, yellow flames burning along the blade as it struck the right hand of a Black Knight holding its own sword.
The Black Knight's right shoulder instantly suffered violent deformation, and frantic alarms wailed within the cockpit.
By this point, however, the pilot had clearly lost the will to fight. Staring at the Unicorn before him, he instinctively wanted to flee the battlefield.
But in the next moment, the Black Knight's right arm was completely severed. The Unicorn extended its left hand, deploying the Armed Armor VN, and seized the torso of the machine. Turning, it used the armless Black Knight as a shield to block the clumsy, crooked offensive of the other Black Knight.
The claws of the Armed Armor VN sank into the Black Knight's FT Armor, piercing into the cockpit.
Looking at the high-frequency vibrating claw tips before his eyes, the pilot—who had witnessed his own "hellish" dismemberment—opened his arms as if receiving salvation and embraced his death.
The Black Knight that had just struck its one-armed comrade hadn't even had time to react before the damaged reactor of the first Black Knight exploded. Scattered parts acted like the steel balls of a Claymore mine, battering the second machine.
As the unit closest to the explosion, the Unicorn was naturally pelted by many flying parts, but under the barrier of the yellow flames, it remained completely unharmed.
Before the smoke from the explosion could dissipate, the Unicorn suddenly charged out from the haze. Holding a captured Black Knight heavy sword with yellow flames burning on the blade, it lunged toward the Black Knight that had just been blown back.
At this point, it was too late to change the unit's posture for defense. Furthermore, the terror in his heart caused him to momentarily forget the correct maneuvers.
But amidst the terror that was about to swallow him whole, there was still one thing he could do.
"Hurry... link... let me link in, quickly!"
Vaguely, a sob could be heard in his voice.
Finally, just as the sword tip burning with yellow flames touched the chest armor of the Black Knight, he finally connected to the Black Knight mental communication space.
"Do not read his mind! Repeat, do not read his mind! It's a trap!"
In the final moment of his life, as the last pilot of the "vanguard" in this clash, he finally linked into the mental space. His miserable scream echoed through the void.
Watching the silhouette suddenly appear and then vanish, a chilling dread welled up in the hearts of the remaining Black Knight pilots.
Like a heavily wounded DIO who had just reached a manhole cover and lifted it, only to find Jotaro waiting in the sewers, a sense of fear and despair was gradually seizing control of this mental space.
..........
(T/N: I don't know what anime character machine spirit is based on I guessed Inori if anyone have a better guess you can comment)