From the looks of things, we’d picked the right corridor within the fortress; we came upon a vast number of defense forces stationed along it.
“You’re in the way!” I howled at them. I forced my way through, destroying one Armor after another until we reached a spacious room. There were dozens of Demonic Knights inside.
“Demonic Knights,” Luxion remarked. “This place is suspiciously well guarded.”
“It proves we’re on the right path,” I said.
The man who seemed to be their leader stepped forward. “I didn’t really think you’d come here.”
“You have an awful lot of people guarding this route. I’m guessing the reactor’s just beyond this point?”
“Don’t underestimate us,” he scoffed. “Master Arcadia prepared Demonic Suit Cores expressly for our use and appointed us all new Demonic Knights. No one can stand against us!”
The knights’ batlike wings fanned out behind them. Each of the foes brandished different weapons.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Arcadia can even create Demonic Suit Cores?” I grimaced at this revelation.
“I suspect they are not on par with those created by Brave,” Luxion said. “The knights here are equipped with inferior replicas.”
“Are you insulting us?!” their leader cried shrilly, having apparently overheard our conversation. “We’re the Imperial Guard personally approved by Master Arcadia himself!”
I heaved a small sigh of relief that they weren’t as strong as Finn. Inferior or not, though, they were still Demonic Knights. “They’ll be a bit of a pain to deal with.” And we didn’t have spare time to waste here.
I took a battle stance, but Greg and Julius shouldered past me.
“Leon! Calm down a little, would ya?” Greg said. “You’ve been pushing yourself way too hard.”
“Resupply and let yourself recover,” Julius added. “We’ll take care of these guys.”
The two raised their weapons, ready to handle the enemy on my behalf. They were up against thirty Demonic Knights, though. On top of that, there were a number of regular soldiers in Armors—defense forces—behind those knights. They wielded enormous shields, intent on preventing us from passing through.
Given how much Julius and Greg had trained, as well as all their suit enhancements, I honestly figured they could find a way to take these forces down. But it would require time we didn’t have. And I’d already put more on Chris, Brad, and Jilk’s shoulders than I ever wanted to.
“Master,” Luxion said, interrupting my thoughts, “the enemy’s main cannon is preparing to fire again. If we take too long here, our allies will sustain significant casualties.”
“You’re right. Luxion, inject me with the performance enhancer.”
“You must avoid that!” he cried. “I cannot approve!”
I knew he didn’t want me to use it, but arguing about it would only waste more time.
“Luxion, it’s an order,” I told him firmly.
After I said that, he couldn’t rail against me. “Very well. Injecting the enhancer now. You have nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds until I must administer the neutralizer.”
A needle jabbed my skin through the pack on my back, forcing the liquid into my system.
“Nrgh!” I let out a strangled cry.
A wave of heat charged through my body, and my field of vision narrowed. The pain was so intense I was left gasping for breath, a droplet of drool running down my chin. I braced myself against the anguish for what felt like minutes, until my body finally began to acclimate and the strain abated. My limbs felt lighter, and my vision opened back up. A burst of energy overcame me—a sense that I could do anything I wanted. There was more power in my body than ever before. My pulse quickened, my heart thundering madly.
I wiped the drool from my chin. “You two, fall back.”
“Leon, you didn’t!” Greg gasped.
I shoved him out of the way and stepped past him.
“So you’re going to face us yourself, Scumbag Knight? Master Arcadia will be most pleased when I offer him your head,” the enemy knight said.
He seemed to feel awfully indebted to Arcadia for giving him and his men Demonic Suit Cores. They didn’t really have any business calling themselves the Imperial Guard, in my opinion, since they never even mentioned the imperial family or their own emperor.
Not that it mattered. I didn’t care about that right now.
“Sorry, but I’m not interested in what you have to say,” I told him.
“Releasing Arroganz’s limiter,” Luxion announced.
The limiter was a safety measure. Allowing Arroganz to operate at its full capacity placed an unbearable burden on the pilot, which was why the limiter existed in the first place. If anyone released it and tried to pilot Arroganz, the cockpit would turn gruesome and bloody. Only the performance enhancers allowed me to withstand the strain. The drugs Marie had retrieved for me were just that powerful.
Arroganz blasted forward, closing the space between me and the enemy in an instant.
“Wha—?!” cried the knight.
Before he could turn his weapon on me, I grabbed the head of his suit and crushed it in my fist. Then the axe in my other hand cleaved him in two. The drug let me wield Arroganz’s full power with ease.
“Sorry, but I’m in a hurry.”
Time seemed to move in slow motion. The other knights yanked out their weapons in a panic, but I sidestepped the nearest one’s incoming attack and pressed the flat of my hand against their suit. Anyone else would’ve found their movements agile, but not me, not with everything slowed down.
“Do it,” I told Luxion.
“Impact.”
With that, the second knight exploded.
The rest of the Imperial Guard crowded around me. They swung weapons and unleashed magic, doing everything in their power to fight back. I sliced through them with a simple swing of my axe. A countdown appeared on my monitor, warning me how much time remained until Luxion injected the neutralizer. Even the digital numbers seemed to slip by as slow as molasses.
“Thanks to you, Marie, it looks like I can complete this mission,” I said.
I moved so quickly that, to the enemy, it probably looked like I was almost teleporting. I ripped through them with ridiculous ease, gripping the control sticks so tightly they creaked under my fingers’ strength.
But something felt wrong.
“Tears?”
There was something wet on my cheek. I dabbed the pad of my finger against it and came away with blood. Blood, not tears, was leaking from my eyes. That was to be expected, though. The more potent the drug, the more strain it placed on one’s body.
I was so focused on destroying the enemy that I ran the clock out before I knew it.
“Master, the neutralizer!” Luxion’s voice brought me back to reality.
I scanned the area around us quickly. “Right,” I said. “Guess it’s over.”
In under ten minutes, I’d destroyed the Imperial Guard and the defense forces with them.