Pilots had been modified to serve as literal components for these humanoid fighters.
It was essentially the same horror that Zork and the Ghouls had committed, yet... why did it feel so much more nauseating?
Perhaps it was because there wasn't a shadow of a doubt that none of these people had consented to this.
I considered the implications.
Based on the current situation, what was the state of Ozen? I needed to think.
For all intents and purposes, the nation was already extinct, wasn't it?
There was no longer any hope for them to recover as a functional state.
If the opponent were Zork and this were an extermination war, there might have been a slim margin for survival.
But there was no logical reason to go this far in a conflict against a nation capable of diplomacy.
Looking at it that way, the ones pulling the strings weren't Ozenians.
...In other words.
It was safer to assume the Ozenians had already been wiped out.
After all, we hadn't seen a single defector.
They must have carried out a Zork-style annihilation op and slaughtered every last one of them.
Then, they converted the corpses—or perhaps the living survivors—into weapons.
This wasn't an act of war.
It was a culling.
They were likely the same lot behind the locust terrorist attack.
And now, they were trying to cull us as well.
"Notify Latarnia, the Taikyoku Nation, and the Ogre God Nation. This is an extermination war. Ozen has already perished! Something else is trying to cull us!"
"Understood."
Isono relayed the message to the allied nations through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile, the battle raged on.
The Ozenian humanoid fighters attempted to secure the sector to clear our minefield.
Their movements were reminiscent of a poorly programmed AI.
Their intentions were painfully transparent. There was no way I was going to let them succeed.
Chronos's elite pilots launched their counterattack.
And then, our ace took to the field.
"Here I go!"
It was Edge.
Edge was a top-tier pilot even by the standards of the Galactic Empire.
He could clear the simulator solo, of course, but he was just as effective in a team.
Edge, Alyssa, and the other villagers each led a squad of Chronos Army pilots they had personally trained.
"This is Edge. I have arrived near the objective point. Commencing combat."
Edge's squad accelerated into the fray.
Edge was an offensive-type ESP user.
His exclusive machine, The One Who Slays the Serpent《Vritrahan》, was equipped with an ESP amplification device.
Much like Tatiana’s machine, it was capable of relentless, omnidirectional attacks using floating batteries.
He was also a master of close-quarters combat, capable of unleashing blistering combos with his dual swords.
In short, he was absurdly strong.
As expected, the machines built later were packed to the gills with the latest technology.
"Maybe it’s time for Massacre Night-tan to get a refit?"
"Leo-kun, your machine is spec'd entirely toward response speed and extreme durability so it doesn't self-destruct! Forget the bells and whistles! Besides, you can't even operate a floating battery!"
Fairy-san shut me down immediately.
I mean, she wasn't wrong, but...
You can't help but admire those kinds of ESP weapons!
Edge hammered the enemy from mid-range with his floating batteries.
His rate of fire was abnormal.
The overlapping waves of attacks from every possible angle made evasion effectively impossible.
It was a testament to the terrifying technology we had reverse-engineered after defeating the Zork Mother.
The only real drawback was the staggering amount of concentration required to maintain it.
True to his status as the protagonist of the original work, Edge showed no signs of strain as he picked off enemy units with blinding speed.
He didn't give them a single opening to act.
Even when facing multiple targets simultaneously.
Before the enemy could even bring their weapons to bear, he suppressed them with overwhelming volume and speed.
He was a monster—the kind of opponent you didn't survive an encounter with.
Meanwhile, Alyssa and her team had also undergone their own unique evolution.
Alyssa's unit was a standard machine.
Her specific traits as a Jester were still a mystery, which was why the development of her exclusive machine was currently on hold.
Based on her combat data, we suspected she had a similar affinity to mine—specifically, the ability to buff her allies.
However, it didn't manifest as an obvious effect like increased work speed or reduced fear.
It remained an enigma.
Come to think of it, Alyssa’s teammates always seemed to grow at an incredible rate...
No way... is it an Experience Point Boost...?
I’d have to submit a request for verification on that later.
But Alyssa was the same type as me.
Which meant, well, she was a beast.
In close quarters.
Alyssa's weapon of choice was a battleaxe.
It seemed every woman under my command had a thing for masculine weaponry.
She took the enemies Edge had missed and cleaved them clean in half with her axe.
As for the members of Alyssa’s squad, their main role was to support their captain.
They provided covering fire from mid-range.
The number of enemy units began to dwindle rapidly.
"Wow, that’s incredibly stable."
Even Claire looked relieved at the sight.
"You're right... we can't afford to lose here."
The enemy had played a forbidden card that discarded all human decency.
We couldn't let them win.
If the side in the right loses, what then?
That was the one outcome we had to prevent at all costs.
It would destroy morale completely.
I’m sure the Zen God Race pulling the strings had their own twisted logic for all this.
But they had gone too far.
I couldn't forgive them.
"Leo, sample recovery complete."
Kevin’s voice came over the comms.
"Send the samples over for analysis."
"Understood."
Then, a transmission came in from Edge.
"The main Ozen fleet has arrived."
Finally, the Ozen warships made their appearance.
But honestly, did they think they could do anything without clearing the mines first?
"They are charging energy."
"Got it. Humanoid fighters, withdraw for now. The rest of this will be a fleet battle."
First, the mines.
Since they were automated, we could just leave them to do their job.
They latched onto the Ozen ships and detonated.
However, given that the crew had been mechanized, simply breaching a few bulkheads wouldn't stop them.
Mines were generally designed to damage the crew inside rather than sink a ship outright.
With the state Ozen was in now, they could probably keep functioning even in a total vacuum.
A fleet battle was essentially an exchange of beams and missiles.
Saying 'take a good position and attack unilaterally' made it sound easy, but the execution was grueling.
Ultimately, it felt like it boiled down to a contest of raw firepower, speed, and armor.
We could have tried boarding and seizing the ships directly, but we’d skip that for today.
We stuck to the standard strategy. Our destroyers launched their missiles, mixing in decoys to confuse the sensors.
We also deployed the spider-type drones.
A few people besides Kevin had finally learned how to handle those.
The enemy retaliated with their main cannons and missiles, but they were already reeling from the mine damage.
Their aim was all over the place. Total amateurs.
Most of their shots couldn't even penetrate our barriers, and the ones that did hit were simply deflected by our Zork-processed armor.
The missiles were intercepted easily... we had the momentum to win.
But we had learned from experience.
We knew exactly what was coming: the same explosion skit that had nearly taken us out so many times before.
Everyone knew the punchline.
"Don't you dare get close!"
Everyone nodded in silent agreement.
We had the enemy's pattern completely figured out.
We continued our methodical, relentless long-range chipping.
Our spider drones infiltrated their interiors, dismantling control systems and leaving the ships dead in the water.
And just as the enemy reached their breaking point... their ships began to detonate one after another.
Claire let out an exasperated sigh.
"...How repetitive."
I couldn't agree more.