Chapter 14:
Love
THE BLAST FROM THE EXPLOSION swept through the rest of the room, flinging away the imperial Armors Julius had been fighting.
“Greg!” Julius roared desperately, throat raw. “Greg!”
Greg’s suit had melted completely, leaving behind only a fragment of Gunther’s Demonic Suit.
The one-on-one battle’s outcome stunned the imperials.
“Lord Gunther lost?!”
“It can’t be. There’s no way he’d ever lose!”
“Your ancestors lost the war! How long are you puny descendants going to resist the inevitable?!”
As the Demonic Knights roared in dismay, their comrades piloting Armors struggled back to their feet.
Julius desperately wanted to check the wreckage to see whether Greg survived the blast somehow, but there was no time for that right now. He gritted his teeth and swallowed the urge, steeling himself to carry out his duty first.
“If I let a single enemy slip past me, everything Greg and the others worked for will be in vain,” he reminded himself.
The few drones that remained with him took up battle stances at his side, ready to join the fight, but his enemies weren’t paying him any attention at the moment.
“The Scumbag Knight made for the reactor. Hurry after him!”
“We must carry on for Lord Gunther!”
“Ignore the white Armor!”
The Demonic Knights tried to speed past Julius toward the corridor Leon had disappeared down, but Julius fired his cannons and knocked them to the ground. They changed tack quickly after that, apparently recognizing him at last as the threat he was.
“This one will be a real pain to deal with.”
“Let’s gang up on him.”
Soon, they’d fanned out and surrounded him.
“If you’re coming at me, you’d better do it with everything you have,” Julius warned. “I’m ready to forfeit my own life to defeat you all, in the name of my love for Marie and my friendship with Leon.” He purged his cannons, and white-blue flames blasted from his rear container. His whole Armor began glowing with similar white-blue light, its output meter shooting up.
“What’s this nonsense about love and friendship?!” One of the knights roared with mocking laughter. “This is the battlefield, where the strong survive and the weak don’t!” Battle axe in hand, the knight charged him.
Julius deflected the blow with his shield, stabbing his sword straight through the enemy’s cockpit. He moved with such deadly agility and grace that the Demonic Knights didn’t dare mock him further. After their comrade’s death, they understood that he wouldn’t be an easy match.
“You may find it laughable, but I’m entirely serious,” Julius said. “I’m here because the woman I love asked me to be, and because I want to help my friend!”
As the words left his mouth, he thought back with some self-derision on the past—when he’d first dueled Leon, and Leon had handily beaten him to a pulp. I babbled on about my love for Marie then too. But the words didn’t carry the same weight then. When he spoke of love and friendship here and now, there was genuine emotion behind his words.
The Demonic Knights launched their attack with impressive coordination. The imperial soldiers in their Armors provided backup, pelting Julius with bullets, while the knights swept forward and slashed at him with their weapons. Deep gashes covered his once beautiful pure-white Armor, a web of cracks forming on the outer plating.
Despite the overwhelming numbers against him, Julius joined them in the air and gave chase, his sword finding its mark. It didn’t matter that his Armor was a wreck; his determination to keep going remained unbroken, and his swift response to each attack began to unnerve his opponents.
Julius sensed their alarm and lifted his sword as he said, “I am Julius Rapha Holfort, the former crown prince of Holfort. You are sorely mistaken if you think you can claim my life easily.”
The Demonic Knights charged him together, whizzing through the air toward him.
“I should thank you for making my job easier,” Julius laughed. A slash of his sword cut through several of them. They fell one after another, slamming into the floor below, until only a single Demonic Knight remained by the end.
The final knight hung back. “We’ve nearly worn him down! Continue firing at him!” he ordered the other imperial soldiers. He thought it’d be best for them to keep their distance and that their guns could fell Julius.
Although dozens upon dozens of cracks spiderwebbed through his shield, which was only just staying in one piece, Julius lifted it to defend himself. The oncoming rain of bullets shattered it, leaving nothing behind. The flames that had burned blue-white at his back sputtered out.
His enemy had been right. Julius was at his limit, and it was difficult for his Armor to move at all. Still, he forced it to fly forward. “It’s not over yet!”
Julius had only one intact sword left to fight with. He darted bravely toward the imperials, despite all the rifles trained on him.
His menacing determination daunted them.
“H-hurry up! Shoot him down!”
A relentless barrage of bullets flew upon Julius, piercing his plating and blowing off his entire left arm.
“Just a little bit more… Just a bit…for Leon!”
Julius’s Armor whined and groaned around him. He lifted his sword, but the enemy’s bullets reached it, shattering the blade.