Leonardo shot forth like an arrow; while the green glimmers in his afterimages told that he had the help of the Wind Element, his claws were ablaze. The Giant Robot wasn't standing idle either; it sent two different Elemental Attacks simultaneously to respond to its enemy with the same harshness.
It had chosen the Water and Wind Elements to reduce the Master's movement speed. Fritz Todt was someone who learned from what he saw; realizing that his enemy was both fast and capable of dealing damage, he thought putting distance between them would work.
He wasn't wrong either; Leonardo, resembling a mole more than a human, was so agile that subduing him in close combat was difficult. Coincidentally, his enemy was of the same opinion; he thought getting closer instead of staying away would be better for himself.
He engaged his affinity for the Earth Element, which he hadn't shown until that moment. Right as the attack composed of two Element Energies was about to hit him, the red color on his claws was replaced by a bright yellow glow.
Fritz Todt had surrounded the area with an energy shield but had left a gap of a few meters between it and the earthen ground. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for the shield to withstand the weight of the robot inside.
Leonardo, using the system preventing their escape to his advantage, was a meter beside the robot when he resurfaced. The old man's surprises were not ending; while his exposed head was covered with matte black metal, his nose area sharpened and elongated.
The newly formed protrusion began to spin rapidly; Leonardo broke the component serving as the Achilles tendon he had previously managed to shatter with his claws, and plunged his nose into the robot's outer facade. The spinning speed was high; he tore off the bright plating within a few breaths.
His body followed his head; Master Leonardo entered inside the giant robot, and seconds later the outer casing managed to close the hole by regenerating itself. The person he didn't want to come near him was now inside Fritz Todt's body, and the highest authority representing the Machine Empire within the Golden City walls didn't know what to do.
The enemy that entered through his leg reached the level of his knee in a flash, and from there, maintaining his speed, reached the robot's waist. Leonardo had watched the entire battle staying behind, and when he himself took action, none of his movements were random.
When he reached the thick monolithic metal plate forming the spinal cord part, he continued to advance. Fritz Todt, wanting to make a move against his approaching enemy, was harming his own body, but it was impossible to catch Master Leonardo's speed.
There was an organic structure inside the robot; the part undertaking the duty of storing elemental energy and formed by the combination of features from different species was vulnerable. While the Master advanced using his claws and nose, he was destroying this structure by shattering it. Even if Fritz Todt damaged his own armor, he could do nothing to him because it healed instantly.
The mechanism he had carefully built to protect the inner structure against any danger coming from the outside was now working against him. Leonardo had found the place to enter, chosen the places to advance, and finally arrived next to his old friend by cleaving the four-finger-thick metal floor.
The moment Fritz saw his face, he raised the robot's hands in the air and carried out both a wind and fire element attack toward the place protected by the energy field. His aim was clear; he was going to send Leonardo to death along with himself, but the Master had verified this possibility as well.
"If the ten-times compressed element energy in my claws couldn't shatter it, there's no way your scattered attacks will succeed. You never focused on the essence of what you were doing; what was important to you was the effect it would create, and this view of life has brought your end."
Master Leonardo swung his claw without waiting for a response from his old friend. Fritz Todt, whose words were caught in his throat, was losing the chance to speak because he no longer had a neck. Master Leonardo, who had lived among the orcs for so many years, had said his piece the moment he caught the opportunity and then taken his enemy's life.
"It's over! Father, we're saved!" "Yes, I can't believe it!"
The father and son Holzmeister were shouting with joy; Alis was relatively relieved too; perhaps he could have bypassed the energy shield and escaped on his own, but he was only just getting rid of the burden of stress he entered because he couldn't leave those beside him behind.
Only one person was silent; Michelangelo wasn't lifting his head from the ground. After learning that what happened to his family, his race, and himself was fundamentally related to Master Leonardo, he was busy with his inner reckoning.
The person who was his savior was at the same time the person standing at the beginning of all events, perhaps unintentionally. The young man was going to make a decision, just as another young man would do shortly.
"Give the order, let the survivors retreat!"
Jashua, someone who was himself rescued from bad conditions once upon a time, gave the order to one of the commanders beside him. Following the sound of a muffled horn, the Hell Realm Army warriors who received the message began to retreat in a controlled manner.
On the battlefield, there were only the people of the Golden City inside the human-based robots and the dead bodies of the Hell Realm warriors mixed among the metals on the ground. The Majestic King examined the area for a while; meanwhile, the Machine Empire forces were also trying to take battle formation again.
"The families of those who died will be taken care of for their entire lives. As for the survivors, they can now comfortably call themselves citizens of the Hell Realm.
Now fall back and watch us while we show those bird-brained engineers how the Hell Realm warriors fight!"
Jashua made a forward move for the first time during the war he had watched standing back. He was advancing alone toward the machines, whose numbers were still in the hundreds. The engineers naturally knew who he was; energy shields immediately appeared in front of the people commanding the human-based robots, but it was impossible for them to predict what would happen shortly.
"One of the Apostles is dead, and the other has just met the person who will bring his demise. We no longer need to hold back; Disciples of the Holy Blood Cult, destroy all enemies that come your way!"
It was a mystery who Jashua was giving orders to; those who came with him were all there was, but an old man appearing from nowhere materialized beside the young king. Then he opened his two arms to the sides, and rifts that were not there before began to form in the air.
Each rift was the size of a normal human; when the engineers looked inside these rifts, they encountered images belonging to another world. Within seconds, people began to appear next to Jashua; some warriors coming through the rifts were lining up beside the King of the Hell Realm.
There were familiar faces among them; many of the true students of the Holy Blood Cult, who hid themselves in the place called the Other Realm, were now showing themselves on the battlefield. When about a hundred people passed through the opened rifts, the old man reeking of death disappeared just as he had appeared.
The engineers couldn't understand what was happening; giving their first reaction in the face of situations they couldn't identify, they took a defensive stance. On the other side, two warriors who separated and stepped forward on the right and left sides of Jashua began to speak addressing the others.
"You were trained for this war for three years, it is time to show whatever you have learned for three years!" "The three people who kill the most enemies will be taken as students by the Sheikhs, and if anyone among you dies, their body will be left here!"
Motivation, reward, and punishment were all together. As the invasion plan started, the time to implement another plan carried out simultaneously had arrived. Jashua took two steps forward, showing the way to the Holy Blood Cult students looking at him with admiration behind him.
"Attack!"
With his words, all the blood on the battlefield left the bodies they belonged to and rose into the air. Before a breath passed, they turned into Blood Needles, Jashua's signature attack, and began to batter the energy shields that appeared before the engineers.