Seeing their companions die so easily at the hands of the Unicorn, an inexplicable sense of dread welled up in the depths of their hearts.
"A... trap? Mind reading is actually a trap?!"
"After they disconnected from the link... what exactly did they see?!"
The tragic wails of their comrades before death made them abandon the idea of using their mind-reading abilities to further probe the Unicorn. After all, they were the elite forces of Foundation; out of trust for their fellow soldiers, they weren't going to fall into the "told not to look but looked anyway" trope.
Now that the FT Armor was ineffective and mind reading led to seeing something horrific, their two trump cards had been completely neutralized. Without a doubt, the Black Knights had fallen into a stalemate.
"Can we only... rely on unit performance and piloting skills now?"
This sentence echoed through the mental space. The others fell into silence, seemingly accepting that this was the only way left.
"There are no other options left..."
"One of you break off to stall the Orb military and that Justice. The rest of you, follow me."
"As long as we destroy it... no, in order to survive, we must take it down!"
"Hee... I'm going to survive, damn it!"
The remaining seven Black Knights split into two groups. Six units flew toward the Unicorn, while the final one intercepted the Orb MS from Mendel and the Justice.
Although the Black Knights were being slaughtered like chickens by the Unicorn, the existence of the FT Armor and mind-reading abilities meant that against the Orb MS and the Justice, the Black Knights' performance still held a suppressive advantage.
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"S-So strong! Was the Unicorn's combat power always this high?"
Standing on the outer hull of Mendel, Dearka, piloting the Buster, watched as the Unicorn—trailing a yellow glow—effortlessly took down four Black Knights that, to him, seemed like extremely troublesome opponents.
"Didn't you watch the previous combat records? The Unicorn could take down those units with that special beam rifle... but clearly, these machines don't match the performance of the ones in the records. Are they an upgraded model?"
Since the Black Knight currently facing them was focusing primarily on containment and hadn't shown much aggression, Athrun was able to breathe a sigh of relief and shift some of his attention to the Unicorn's battlefield.
That yellow flame swirling around the machine... it was exactly the same as the one on the Narrative Gundam during the Great Withdrawal from Orb.
"Moreover... the Unicorn's fighting style now is very strange."
"What's strange about it? Isn't it just attacking with that... claw? Or is it a gauntlet on its left hand?"
Dearka clearly didn't understand what Athrun meant by "strange" and remained focused on controlling the Buster.
The missile launchers on the Buster's shoulders fired at the Black Knight. The missiles, with pre-set fuses, detonated as they neared the target. The violent explosions forced the Black Knight to avoid the brunt of the blast, moving slightly away from the Justice, which had lost its left arm.
Dearka had realized that these Black Knights were units with maxed-out evasion. Since he couldn't shoot them down, he could only act as fire support to harass them and create opportunities for Athrun.
"It's normal that you don't see it. I'm accustomed to MS close-quarters combat. Through previous battles and training with Roz, I've roughly figured out his combat habits."
Athrun refocused on the Black Knight in front of him. The "Fatum-00" backpack detached from his back and flew beneath the Justice's feet, acting as a sub-flight lifter to carry the Justice toward the Black Knight.
"Roz's fighting style is concise and efficient; he uses the smallest movements to achieve the greatest results. Even in melee, he has clear tactical objectives."
"But the current Unicorn... rather than being concise and efficient, it's more like it has entered a state of bestial hunting. In my memory, Roz has never fought like this."
The Justice's right hand spun, driving the double-headed beam saber. With its output power boosted, the beam blades showed signs of instability, appearing like a crude, glowing circular saw as it crashed toward the Black Knight.
Watching the Justice charge out from the explosion—its beam saber swinging so fast the light formed a solid disc—and reading Athrun's thoughts, the Black Knight pilot bit his teeth and raised the uniquely shaped shield on his left arm to protect the unit.
In less than a second, the overpowered beam saber broke through the FT Armor, slicing the Black Knight's shield in half.
Just as the blade was about to cut into the Black Knight's left arm, the pilot abruptly released the shield's connection to the arm, discarding it entirely. He adjusted his course, narrowly dodging the Justice Gundam's "truck-like" head-on charge.
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While the Justice and Buster faced off against one Black Knight, things did not stop on the Unicorn's side—or rather, the battle there grew even more intense.
Once again, three Black Knights acted as the vanguard while the remaining units stayed in the rear; however, compared to their previous positioning, the rear guard was clearly much closer to the battlefield.
The flames generated by Miss Machine Spirit's powerful spiritual energy condensing into physical substance pushed the Unicorn's already absurd mobility to an even higher level.
The Armed Armor VN seized a Black Knight by the head and violently hurled it away, breaking the Unicorn out of the Black Knights' encirclement.
The Unicorn, its body shrouded in yellow flames, executed several rapid sharp-angle turns. The Armed Armor VN then tore into the chest armor and back thrusters of the unlucky Black Knight that had just been tossed aside.
"Uwahhh... stay away!!"
Boundless terror infected the mental space, making all the Black Knight pilots want to retreat.
But like a piano string being pulled tighter and tighter until it suddenly snaps, a madness born from the desire to survive rose in the hearts of the Black Knights.
Miss Machine Spirit didn't care what they were thinking. Executing another sharp-angle turn, the Armed Armor VN once again grabbed the head of the battered Black Knight.
Tossing the Black Knight toward the ceiling of space, the Armed Armor BS on the right hand rapidly deployed and completed its transformation.
Between the four divided plates, blue particles rapidly flowed and accelerated within a field formed by Mirage Colloid, eventually forming a spherical mass of red mixed with purple.
A red-white beam, carrying purple high-energy electricity, erupted from the sphere and flew toward the Black Knight that had just been thrown.
With its FT Armor already torn open by the Armed Armor VN, the Black Knight naturally could not resist the Beam Magnum's attack. After holding out for less than half a second, the red-white beam punched through the gap in the Black Knight, melting the machine. What few limbs remained were sliced into unrecognizable shapes by the purple high-energy current.
Retracting the Armed Armor BS, the Unicorn reached out and grabbed a heavy slashing sword floating in the vacuum, which it had set down moments before.
The beam-cutting edge reappeared on the heavy sword, but the Unicorn immediately threw it behind itself.
Spinning like a boomerang, the heavy sword struck two Black Knights that were closing in on the Unicorn, but it was deflected by their raised shields. Since the heavy sword had been taken from their own kind, they were well aware of its performance and knew they had to avoid the brunt of the strike.
This was exactly the result Miss Machine Spirit wanted.
The Unicorn, trailing yellow flames, flipped elegantly through the gaps in the Black Knights' beam fire, passing through the interception net. The Armed Armor VN then clawed downward from above at one of the shield-bearing Black Knights.
Without question, the Black Knight's entire shield—along with its left arm—was smashed into a pile of fragments.
Through the gaps of the shattered left arm and shield, the pilot of this Black Knight saw the Unicorn's face.
Though it looked no different than before, save for the change in the color of its "PS Armor," the Unicorn had lost its original holy aura. It now looked more like a bloodthirsty hunter.
This was the last thing he ever saw.
The Armed Armor VN, shrouded in yellow flames, passed through a heap of discarded parts and gripped the Black Knight's breastplate directly.
As the Armed Armor VN tightened its hold, the Black Knight looked as though it were being devoured by some monster. The chest armor, along with the internal structure and the cockpit, was crushed into nothingness, drifting into the void of space.
.......................