SOS CH 44 (Patreon)

A few moments later, as Noah was running and getting bombed from all sides, even as he felt his body getting destroyed, Noah felt no fear. Only anticipation as he finally was about to obtain the last piece in the puzzle that had been eluding him.

All the time he spent on the planet, despite regular moments of depression and anxiety, he was able to continue trudging on. All that because he had one hope. One way to eventually leave the godforsaken planet even without getting help and perhaps reaching back home.

For Noah, everything was happening slowly and he watched as the snake construct tore through the interior of the Mecha and swallowed the core.

At the same time, he swallowed the core he had stolen from the previous one he destroyed. Like a sea on the eve of a storm, his body seemed to roar while the mysterious energy that was Dark Matter filled his entire being and reached a new threshold.

Finally!

Whether it was Noah's or the Queen’s thought, it was hard to discern but at this moment it did not matter.

Everything followed in but an instant. Having obtained the reserve of energy she needed, the Queen was finally able to reach beyond. Space and time fluctuated and ripples spread like an ocean being disturbed.

“Come to me! Ouroboros!”

Noah called and his machine answered.

—--

[Back to the present instant]

In the interior of the giant crimson Mecha, sitting with his hand on the lever, Noah was showing a painful expression.

A mechanical spine, that was affixed to the seat, pierced his back, drawing blood until it reached the base of the neck.

Noah groaned as the fusion proceeded and soon, a blue screen appeared in front of his eyes.

[Neurolink activated.]

[Authentication check: Failed.]

[Asking for input of password]

“Victory is mine.”

[Voice Authentication: Success]

[Password: Correct]

[Booting system]

[Commencing system check]

[Reserve of energy: 50%]

[Equipement status: Red.]

[Initializing tactics log]

[Activating Environmental sensors]

[Activating Inertia Control system.]

A string of information continued to pass, but Noah showed no movements. He was not surprised by the failure of the authentication. Even now, half of his body was composed of the black substance of the parasite while he was healing himself.

He doubted his DNA could even come close to anything humans.

But this did not matter.

Not now. Not at this moment

Right now, all that mattered was —

[System Check: Complete]

[Status: Ready]

[Ouroboros activation complete.]

“Haha…”

“Hahahah…”

A crazed laugh escaped his lips. This sensation of molten metal coursing through his veins. The pain beyond belief mixed with the sensation of becoming a giant beyond words.

He was back!

“Fucking finally!!”

[Dive Level 1: Activation]

“Kuh…”

The world around him and his perception changed.

He was not Noah anymore. He stopped being a puny human made of flesh and blood.

He was a Serpent. The pilot of the Ouroboros.

The eyes of the mecha were his eyes. The hands were his hands and the entire body was his.

Why was mecha created in humanoid form even though it was extremely inefficient anywhere outside of space?

Noah did not know the answer for other races. But he knew the technical reason for humans and this was exactly because of the Neurolink. If the mecha they were using differed too much from the human structure, it would be impossible to use.

—Noah

“I know…It’s time to end this fight.”

His grin grew so large that he became akin to the Cheshire cat. His mecha was partially broken, only had half of the energy remaining and he only had a spare sword since his spear was not present.

Beyond that, while his mecha was bigger, it seemed to run with lower tech than the one they were using.

For anyone else, this might be a situation with no hope in sight. Facing eight mecha with his own was simply impossible.

But for Noah, impossible was a word he despised from the deepest part of his heart . And there was one thing he knew more than anyone else.

“I don’t even need Full Dive to deal with those guys.”

Eight vs One?

Nothing more than a piece of cake.

***

To the despair of the eight pilots who were surrounding Noah, The crimson giant of steel moved, slowly standing up until it towered at an impressive 18 meters. Towering above all of them with no difficulty.

The pilot of Unit 01 swallowed. The situation was bad, very bad. He did not know how the man managed to summon a mecha but what mattered was that his munitions were all spent. All he had left was a vibro blade and he did not know how efficient this weapon would be.

The others should be more or less in the situation.

I fucked up.

Insight was always 20/20 and now it was too late to regret.

[Unit 01: Guys, how is your situation?]

[Unit 02: All —Bzzz!]

They were not able to process what happened next as the Crimson giant used the partially broken shield it was holding like a throwing weapon, immediately destroying the full upper half of unit 02 in a flurry of explosion and sound.

01 cursed. This bastard seemed to like killing people as if they were pests on the road.

[Unit 01: Guys! Don’t even try fleeing! You know this won’t change anything! Also, the bastards who fled earlier! Come back fast and support us from afar! If you don’t—]

He was trying to give order as fast as possible but the reality of the battlefield was ever-changing and Noah had never been one to wait patiently while his enemies. What followed was a one-sided massacre once again rather than a fight.

The two camps did not even play on the same field. Since they neither had munitions nor dark matters, they were unable to bring even half of the full performances of their Frames. This was without adding to this their subpart piloting skill.

Noah meanwhile was one with Mecha. This went beyond mere piloting as he was using his mind and all his senses to move the machine. The latency time between decision and action was nearly nonexistent.

Ouroboros was a machine created with human-like precision, mixing the weight of a giant with the grace of a fish swimming in the sea. It had its gravitation system to lower the full weight and allow extremely fast movement.

Weapon-wise, Ouroboros was holding an oscillating blade, something that in principle was very similar to the vibro blade. But this was not important for the situation at hand, after all, they were simply getting decimated and were unable to properly respond.

#01 could barely process the flow of this fight. He tried to give an order but the monster was moving too fast for them to properly react.

Like a wolf jumping in a flock of sheep, he was destroying them with such ease that it was almost comical.

One of them was destroyed by a powerful kick to its joints, sending the machine tumbling on the ground before stepping harshly on the part where the pilot was sitting.

The scream of pain as his companion was completely crushed like a bug on the road was frightening. Another one made the mistake of trying to cross-blade with the giant only to be deflected and promptly bisected.

This was not a fight.

At the moment, they were no different from beasts being sent to a butcher.

Crushing, cutting, dismembering.

No means was spared as scraps of metal flew everywhere.

When he finally reacted, his mind numb and nearly broken, his eyes covered in tears and filled with tears.

The only thing he could see was the crimson monster finally approaching him with slow and steady steps.

“Hah…”

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He wanted to beg, he wanted to ask for his life to be spared, to be given a second chance.

But he could do none of that.

The last thing he saw was the blade being swung down at him and as his vision slowly divided in two, he finally realized.

Hah…So this is how I die.

And so ended the life of yet another pirate. Neither his ambitions nor name would ever be recorded in any annals of history.

Born unknown, living a worthless life, and dying pitifully as an extra.

Thus was the destiny of trillions of people throughout the entire universe.