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Chapter 89 ~ Grim Reaper

Tatsuya laid in hiding amongst the trees and shrubberies along with his units. They were armed with bazookas, anti-tank grenades, rifles, and various other weapons. He, himself, was armed with a semi-automatic rifle as well as grenades and flash bangs strapped around his hips.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t wield his Silver Horn or use his magic. Otherwise, the unit of tanks and knightmare frames making their way towards Zero that he knew would go past his current position from the anime would’ve been annihilated in seconds. 

He closed his eyes as Naoumi Inoue, the second in command of his squad, and several other members of his unit waited for their targets to come. Tatsuya expanded his senses, using his Elemental Sight, and grasped this entire part of the mountain with clear precision.

He could grasp Lelouch’s movement, Karen and Yuuji’s location, Cornelia’s position, and the movement and location of the rest of the Britannian army. 

The unit he was targeting was on their way towards Lelouch’s location, as he had expected. And there was also another knightmare frame unit, followed by several others, coming from the rear lines. 

He looked into the cockpit of these knightmares to see if he recognized them. 

This is… Jeremiah, was it? Ah, there’s the silver haired woman and the man I recall to be with the purist faction. I’ll need to report this to Satoru-san.

He opened his eyes, stealthily messaged Satoru to tell him what he saw and to spare three out of the six knightmares for Yuuji to complete the mission. Then, he whispered quietly towards Naomi.

“Get ready. They’re coming.”

“Eh? Y-Yes!”

Naomi quickly looked into her binoculars and saw tanks and several escorting knightmare frames walking up the stone path beneath them. And she quickly ordered the other members to get ready.

“Ready the bazookas and the grenades!”

The other members quickly readied their weapons, and as the tanks and knightmare frames walked into their trap none the wiser, they unleashed their attacks.

“Fire!”

Bazooka rounds pierced through the heavily armored tanks and knightmare frame and exploded as grenades and bullets flew through the air, decimating each and every single one in the unit. 

In just a few seconds, all that was left was the remnants of broken tanks, destroyed knightmare flames, flames, and pieces of rocks and debris from the mountain and flames and plumes of smoke rose into the sky.

There were no survivors. Tatsuya had confirmed it with his Elemental Sight. 

“Good. Let’s go to the next location.”

“Yes! Silver-san!”

Tatsuya left from their ambush point, followed by the rejoicing members of the Black Knights who had just completely decimated a unit from the previously-thought unbeatable army of Cornelia. 

Hope and determination burned brightly in their chest. 

They could do it…! They could win this battle against Cornelia!

Meanwhile, Satoru, who had also been waiting in hiding in the tree lines along with his unit which included some infantry and two knightmare frames, noticed a text coming to his phone. 

He hadn’t given his contacts to anyone in this world, so the only ones that would have contacted him were only Yuuji, Lelouch, or Tatsuya. 

And for them to contact him during an operation meant that it must be important. So, he quickly picked up his phone and read the message. 

Shiba Tatsuya: “Spare the three foremost knightmare frames from the unit coming your way. They are more skilled than the others. Let Yuuji and Karen handle them. Destroy the other three knightmare frames in the back.”

Satoru’s eyes widened in shock for a moment. He… He didn’t expect Tatsuya to ask him to spare someone.

But he acknowledged it regardless. 

Even if he was way older than Tatsuya, Tatsuya was way smarter and more experienced than him in strategic battles. Satoru also trusted the genius young man, so he didn’t question him. 

Satoru quickly passed on the message to his unit.

“Don’t engage with the three foremost knightmare frames. Leave them to the Guren and Excalibur. We’ll focus on the three in the back.”

Channeling his guild master and persuasive salesperson persona, Satoru, or “Ainz”, was able to convince his units to follow his orders, and they moved accordingly. 

Soon, the expected units consisting of six knightmare frames came as they expected.

One at the forefront sped through right in front of them, followed closely by another two knightmare frames. 

Then, the last three came, and Satoru immediately signaled for their attack.

“Now!”

They all fired their bazookas and threw their grenades while the two Burais opened fire with their rifles. 

Caught by surprise, the three Sutherlands quickly fell as their legs, arms, and heads were hit and exploded by rockets and grenades, and its torso ripped apart by bullets.

“Dammit!”

“You cowards!”

“Damn Elevens!”

All three quickly launched their emergency escape mechanism and the cockpit flew away into safety as the rest of the knightmare frame exploded. 

“Phew… Alright. Good work! Now we’ll retreat and reconvene with Silver’s unit!”

““Yes!””

Satoru began to move along with his unit through the trees, making sure they’re hidden from enemy units.

I’ll leave the rest to you, Yuuji-kun.

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

“Lord Jeremiah! We lost Carlos, Gerard, and Hilda’s signal! They’re ambushed by enemy units behind us!”

“Leave them be! We’ll kill them after we take Zero’s head!”

“You f*cking lunatic! Have you lost your mind, Orange!!!”

(Jeremiah continued to speed towards Zero, blinded by rage, revenge, and the desperation to reclaim his status and wash away his shame, as Kewell and Viletta followed after him. 

Soon, they caught sight of a group of burais encircling a slightly different one in the middle of the formation. This was the unit that the Carius unit referred to in their report.

Meaning…There’s a high chance that Zero would be there!

“Zero!!!”

Jeremiah yelled in his Knightmare frame and immediately opened fire against the escorting burais, felling two of them in an instant.

“Tch…! It can’t be helped!”

Following Jeremiah, Kewell and Viletta similarly opened fire and quickly dispatched the remaining four escorting burais that surrounded Zero. Fortunately, they all managed to save themselves by using their emergency escape mechanism and ejected their cockpit before they were riddled with bullets. 

“Is Zero here?! If he is, then face me!!! Fight Jeremiah Gottwald!!!”

“Well now… It’s been a while, hasn’t it? You’re still in the army? Unfortunately, I don’t have time to play games with you now, my dear Orange.”

“O…! Ora…! Orange…?! DIEEEE!!!”

Overwhelmed by rage, Jeremiah charged with immense speed right towards Zero. 

Suddenly, a crimson knightmare appeared in a blur in front of him and knocked off his rifle with a dagger. 

“Wha-?!”

The rifle of his Sutherland fell to the ground as Jeremiah immediately deployed both of the elbow-mounted Stun Tonfas and readied himself against this strange, new knightmare frame. 

“Lord Jeremiah!”

“Stay out of this! This is my duel!”

“But I’ve never seen a knightmare like that before! Could the elevens have…?”

“Heh, do you think elevens have that sort of technology?!”

Jeremiah charged towards the Guren, swinging the Stun Tonfa horizontally at the crimson knightmare. But, the Guren caught it with its massive, clawed, silver right arm and pushed it away before using the dagger in its left hand to slash at Jeremiah’s Sutherland. 

Jeremiah dodged and immediately swung at it once again. But to his and both Kewell and Viletta’s shock, the Guren leaped up into the air and shot its left chest-mounted slash harken towards him. 

“What the-?!”

Jeremiah failed to quickly react to the slash harken that was launched at this melee, and it struck Sutherland’s left shoulder.

Using it as its grappled anchor, the Guren burst towards him by reeling its slash harken, and stabbed down to plunge its dagger directly to its torso.

“Shit!”

Jeremiah managed to move slightly, avoiding a direct hit to the chest. But Guren’s dagger still managed to dig into its right shoulders, causing it to go limp. 

“How…! How is it this fast?!”

“Are you seeing this, Britannia?! At last, we can fight you head on!!! With this Guren MK-II, our counter attack begins!!!”

Karen yelled from within her cockpit as she began to lunge forward with her right hand. 

“Oh shit…! There’s something on its right hand! But if I keep my distance…”

Jeremiah moved backward, forcing himself to create distance from the Guren even if it had to sacrifice an arm. 

But suddenly, Guren's right arm extended and clutched the Sutherland's head. 

“What-?!

It tried to move back, but Guren’s hold on it prevented it from moving anywhere.

“Forgive me…”

Karen whispered under her breath, and pushed the button to unleash her Radiant Wave Surger directly into the Sutherland. 

“What’s happening?!”

Jeremiah’s Sutherland began to swell from the powerful microwave radiation that caused the liquids within the knightmare frame to bubble and boil. 

Electric pulses began to spark from within the cockpit as the machinery was destroyed by the intense radiation from Guren’s attack, striking at Jeremiah.

“Lord Jeremiah! Eject!”

“How can I?! Zero is right in front of me! Zero is right there!!!”

Jeremiah still forced the no longer functioning Sutherland to move towards Zero, but after only barely raising a hand, the auto-eject function activated.

“Dammit! Don’t  you dare activate!!!”

Blood began to pour down his nose as the electrical pulses began to fry Jeremiah alive from within the cockpit. 

“I can… I can still get him…! Just a little more…!”

The auto-eject function activated, flying Jeremiah’s broken body within it away to safety. While the Sutherland fell onto its knees, its head ripped off from its torso by the Guren, and exploded. 

“I can do it… I won’t lose anymore! Not as long as I have my Guren!”

This was her first true victory… Not one she achieved by using tricks or numbers, but one she achieved with her own strength. 

This was the start… She won’t ever be as powerless as she was before.

“She got Lord Jeremiah… Just who on earth are these Black knights…”

Viletta mumbled under her breath as she stared at the burning flames and remnants of Jeremiah’s sutherland.

“Tch…! That disgrace! To think he’d lose to an Eleven! I shall not stand for this embarrassment to the empire!!!”

“Lord Kewell!”

Kewell aimed his rifle towards the Guren. But just before he pressed the trigger, he noticed something from his periphery. And his eyes widened in shock.

“No… That knightmare frame… That’s impossible… There’s no way…!”

His face paled as he stared at jet-black and crimson knightmare a few distance away from him that suddenly appeared in his periphery like a ghost. 

Although it was not of the same color, there was no way he would mistake his late revered lord’s greatest creation and masterpiece that was said to have been lost…

“How… How could you have that?! How could you have the Excalibur?!”

He yelled from the top of his lungs at the jet-black and crimson knightmare, his voice amplified by his Sutherland’s speaker and reverberated throughout the forest. 

But the jet-black Excalibur stayed silent, unmoving. 

“Kkkhh! You are not worthy of even touching the lord’s greatest work! How dare you sully it!!! Die you filthy wretch!!!!”

Kewell aimed his rifle towards the Excalibur and opened fire.

But the jet-black knightmare frame suddenly burst into high speed from no motion, avoiding his hail of bullets.

“Wha-?!”

Kewell tried to follow its movements and aim at the rapidly moving Excalibur. But before he knew it, his rifle was knocked out of his hands by something. And only when a slash harken returned to the side of the Excalibur’s chest did he realize that it knocked his rifle away with that. 

“Filthy fiend!”

Just like Jeremiah, Kewell tried to brandish both of his elbow-mounted Stun Tonfas. But before he could, two slash harkens had struck the joints of both of his shoulders before he realized it!

“Dammit!”

With both of his shoulder joints destroyed, Kewell could no longer move the Sutherland’s arms. And to make it worse, Excalibur used the slash harkens stuck in its shoulders as an anchor to pull itself towards him. 

“Die!”

Kewell shot both of his chest-mounted slash harkens towards the diamond-shaped center of the Excalibur’s chest. 

At this distance, the speed in which his slash harkens were shot in, and the fact that the Excalibur was lunging at him with such speed, he was assured that it would hit the sullied form of his lord’s masterpiece. 

But to his shock, the slash harkens he had shot were caught by the Excalibur.

“What…?”

Kewell froze in shock and confusion. 

How? How was that possible…? No, was it even humanly possible? Although slower than bullets, the slash harken was still extremely quick. In addition to the fact that they’re extremely close and that the Excalibur was lunging at him, there should’ve been no way he could’ve caught it…

Kewell stared as the Excalibur stared right into him and crushed both of Kewell’s slash harkens into pieces with its bare hands. 

And soon, the shock was replaced with immense anger, disgust, and boiling rage. 

“You monstrous fiend!!! I will kill you… I will definitley kill you!!!”

Those were his last words before the Exclaibur drew his twin swords, and cut off both of his arms, legs, and head. 

The limbless torso of the Sutherland fell onto the ground, and Kewell ejected himself out of it, flying far away from the battlefield.

“What… What was that…? What just happened…? What is that thing…?”

Viletta froze in her cockpit as she stared at the jet-black knightmare frame. 

Everything happened so fast… So fast that she almost could’t follow what had happened. 

The black knightmare frame shot the left slash harken on his hips onto the ground right when Kewell began firing, and used its recoil to shift to the right and immediately gain immense speed to dodge Kewell’s bullets.

Then, it shot its right slash harken on his hips to knock away Kewell’s rifle before using both of its chest-mounted to strike at Kewells shoulders and used it as an anchor to pull itself towards him. 

Kewell shot both of his slash harkens, but with an ungodly reaction speed, the black knightmare frame caught both Slash Harkens and destroyed it with his bare hands. 

Then, he cut off both arms, legs, and head in an instant.

It all ended before she knew it…

It was… terrifying. It was just like a black blur that would suddenly cut off someone’s head before they knew it.

“Just like… a grim reaper…”

Viletta snapped out of her daze, and saw the Excalibur already in front of her. 

“Dammit!”

She quickly activated her escape mechanism to eject herself out of her knightmare. 

And as the boost in her cockpit activated for the eject mechanism went into motion, the Excalibur cut off her Sutherland’s head, arms, and legs. 

Her cockpit flew away just as the rest of her knightmare crumbled onto the ground.

“That’s amazing…”

Karen stared at Mordred and the Excalibur in awe as it looked into the distant with the remnants of two knightmare frames on the ground before it. 

Then, she snapped out of her daze when the Excalibur turned towards her, and then towards Zero. 

“Good work. Now, all that is left is to find Cornelia.”