Osian and his Sacred Mark warhorse charged fiercely, targeting the Ghost Unit soldiers.
A steed imbued with the power of a knight had the strength of a chariot in its own right, and a head-on encounter would result in more than just broken bones.
It would be fortunate for the person who was hit to maintain his or her form.
-Shashashak.
The ghost troops scattered in all directions without anyone giving orders.
They were in formation, trying to lead Osian into their center.
'Guiding? How blatant.’
The ghost troops who were unable to dodge in time were hit by the horse and were blown far away, crashing into buildings or rolling on the ground.
However the remaining ones moved mechanically, not caring even about the death of their comrades.
The men lurking inside the building fired at Ossian and the steed.A capture gun combined with metal wires bound the steed's body.
The steed was trapped like a butterfly caught in a spider's web. The steed pulled, but the wire remained under tremendous tension and refused to break.
Seeing this, one of Vinur's men approached and tried to cut the wire with his knife, but the blade of his dagger snapped off.
“It won't cut, it's no ordinary item, get off there!”
He said this out of concern for Osian on his horse, but Osian quickly swung his longsword and cut the wire with a snap.
“Huh?”
The bodyguard who exclaimed rather urgently felt like a fool as Osian cut the stubborn wire as easily as if it were a strand of thread.
The ghost troopers didn't take long to realize that the wire binding the warhorse's entire body was shrinking.
-Ta-ta-ta-ta-tang!
They fired shot after shot at Osian on his horse so Osian had to stop swinging his sword and put a shield on his left hand to block the bullets.
The bullets they were using were too strong for him to trust in the strength of his armor.
‘It feels heavy against the shield.’
Since they were attacking bulletproof vehicles, they basically used large-caliber bullets.
The kinetic energy of the bullets and their penetrating power would not be completely stopped, even if he wore the Starlight Armor.
Despite the bulletproof coat inside the armor and his strong body, they haven't revealed all their tricks yet.
The phantom troops begin to grab Osian's ankles, while the others fire at Vinur's men from the rooftops.
Ralph and his men ducked behind cover and fired back, but they were outnumbered and outgunned.
Besides, every single one of them is a skilled soldier. They didn't seem to have much fear against Osian.
“Run.”
Osian, who was blocking bullets with his shield, called out to his steed.
The steed whinnied, moving its legs. The wires binding its body made an odd sound as they stretched taut.
The capture wire was not held by the ghost troops with their hands; they had fastened the other end of the wire to the inside wall, ceiling, or floor of a sturdy building.
It's more than a single horse can bear but what they didn't realize was that this horse was no ordinary horse.
-Thud! Thud! Kugugugung!
The wire, stretched to the limit, rattled. The outer walls and floors of the building where the wire was being held made strange noises and were torn apart one by one.
Walls collapsed and shattered glass windows rained down on the ground.
Finally, when the horse began to run, the exterior walls of the buildings on either side of them crumbled like fruit peeling.
The steed, freed from the loose wire, whinnied and cried out in frustration.
“What the.......”
Ralph wondered if he was dreaming or seeing things. A single horse had the power to bring down the entire exterior wall of a building? Was that possible?
Even more surprising was the reaction of the ghost troops. Faced with something like this, they would naturally be terrified or disoriented by the unrealistic sight.
But they still glowed a dull red behind their masks and pulled the trigger at Osian.
Some even jumped off the rooftops and aimed directly at him. Most of them fell helplessly to the ground, sliced to pieces by his sword, but somehow they managed to find a gap in his armor to drive their daggers through.
Something feels off. It’s as if fear or terror has been completely stripped away.’
Osian frowned as he watched them dart at him like moths at fire.
With such a disparity in skill, they should be able to do something, but they just kept coming.
Osian swung his sword at the closest one. This time, he controlled it properly, striking just the mask.
Inside was the face of an ordinary man. However, its expression was devoid of any emotion.
The face was dull, and the eyes were empty, devoid of color.
It was eerie enough to make me wonder if something unseen was pulling the strings from behind.
“Unpleasant.”
Osian gave the unmasked creature a clean blow to the head and stared out into the pouring rain.
Beyond, Lorraine would be fighting her own battle.
“.......”
Osian turned his attention from Lorraine to the ghost army.
“If you're going to come at me, come at me at once. I'd like to end this quickly.”
A pure white flash erupted from the tip of his sword.
*
Since when?
When she first left her unit Lorraine had worried about them for days and days.
Would they get along without me, would they make it in the future?
They weren't kids she'd be around forever, but as a leader and a coworker, it was natural to worry.
I thought about going back again and again.
But the human heart is a deceitful thing. Lorraine trusted that they would do fine without her.
That's exactly how she rationalized it.
‘Everything would be fine.’
And now was the end.
Fade threw out his prosthetic hand and an invisible ripple centered on the prosthetic's open palm.
The blow sent Lorraine flying.
-Kudangtang!
After hitting the ground several times, Lorraine scrambled to her feet.
Fade was now right in front of her, slamming into her leg. Lorraine rolled to the side and narrowly avoided it.
-Boom!
Fade's prosthetic leg dug into the ground ankle-deep, creating a spiderweb of cracks around it.
Pulling his leg out of the ground, Fade glared at Lorraine as if to kill her.
“You abandoned us!”
Fade lunged again like a boar while Lorraine tried to ward him off, knocking over a nearby shelf, but it was no use.
Lorraine quickly crossed her arms, and Fade's torso slammed down on top of her.
Lorraine hit the dusty warehouse floor.
With a grunt, Lorraine spat out a breath.
“Betrayed us, left us in the hands of those fucking bastards who wouldn't even acknowledge us!”
“No. I.......”
Lorraine staggered to her feet.
The sight of her trying to excuse herself made Fade's brow knit.
He staggered back, feeling wildly dizzy as he tried to lunge again.
His body's nervous system was overheating from the overuse of his body in his rage.
He should have reduced its output now, but Fade gritted his teeth. Instead, he pulled out a neutralizer and injected more into his neck.
Lorraine's eyes widened at the sight.
“Fade, what are you doing? Stop it now!”
“No. I can't stop.”
Fade's one remaining eye filled with blood. He whimpered as tears of blood streamed from his eyes.
The threads around his eyes burst as his blood vessels couldn't keep up with the expansion.
“I can't stop, because from the moment you left us, everything changed.”
This was Fade's fight.
It was the struggle of a ghost, forgotten in memory, still roaming the battlefield, still fighting.
It could not be stopped.
“I, I had no idea you were having this much trouble, that you were doing this, because.......”
Lorraine's trembling lips failed to form the words that followed.
Her mind raced through memories of the distant past.
After a mission in the desert, the 121st Rangers had barely survived, and they'd been put on probation.
Fade knew that, but Lorraine was different.
As the unit's leader, she had to meet with someone higher up and there she was forced to make a choice.
-Lorraine Ponk. You and your men performed admirably, but in the end, the mission failed.
-We were able to assassinate him.
-But you failed to destroy the facility. Are you trying to claim half a success, or should I say half a failure.
-......In doing so, I lost one of my most valuable soldiers. At the very least, let me have his funeral.
-If you'd been successful in the first place, there wouldn't have been any casualties. The higher-ups are talking now. They say we should keep it under wraps, that we should cut off the tails for making so much noise.
-......What do you want from me?
-You're a fast learner. I'll help your troops from being demoted somewhere. I'll take care of the wounded and get them back to the front lines quickly.
Lorraine thought that sounded disgusting.
-But you're going somewhere else, not with the 121st Rangers. That's the deal.
By stripping her of her command, he was effectively saying he wanted to get rid of her but if she accepted it, her men could stay here, safe and sound.
Lorraine was never given a choice in the first place.
If she refused, all that was left was to cut off the tail of a failure.
-A promise you must keep.
Deep down, Lorraine felt guilty for failing this mission.
Besides, they were supposed to be dead, and now that they had survived, the higher-ups might be able to deal with them secretly.
If one of us can step aside and save the rest, it's the right trade so Lorraine relinquished her captaincy and stepped down.
She didn't tell her troops why. It was part of the deal, and she knew they wouldn't accept it if she told them so Lorraine tried to leave without telling them, but Fade begged to differ.
-Why, why are you leaving us behind!
Fade shouted at her, wearing a green prosthetic eye on one side.
Lorraine couldn't give him a straight answer.
-Know and be well.
All she could say was this.
-If you leave us too! What will happen to us? Do you plan to abandon us and be comfortable on your own?
She'd never seen Fade so angry, and every word he spoke drove a stake through Lorraine's heart, etching a scar.
How could she like this?
But she couldn't help it. They were weak then, without connections.
If she stood up to the higher-ups, they would all be decapitated with a single gesture from them so Lorraine was forced to make a choice.
She's used to getting hurt so Lorraine left the unit, leaving Fade behind.
The rest of her memory is a blur. There wasn't much worth remembering.
She bounced around from unit to unit, moving from one to another as they disbanded.
At some point, the military decided she had outlived her usefulness and forced her to leave the army.
They discharged her, not kicked her out. She was told to go wherever she wanted, and given a modest amount of luggage.
But Lorraine felt free at last.
It was ridiculous, the freedom she'd wanted so badly, to be given away at the whim of a higher authority.
For some, it was something to die for, for others it was something insignificant, something to be ignored.
Lorraine thought about going to see her old troops, but dismissed the idea.
-I don't deserve them.
I'm the one who betrayed their trust and left. There's a level to being uncaring.
Even if she had a reason, it was nothing more than a deception to seek them out after she abandoned them.
Yes. They're good, and they'll do fine without me.
So have faith. Everything will be fine.
Lorraine gathered up her things and headed for the back streets of Tirna, as if it was a world that suited her.
“I'm.......”
Lorraine's throat closed up at the truth that flowed from Fade's mouth.
The higher-ups in the military had lied to her.
To give their men a better life? No. They had no intention of doing so in the first place.
Surviving an impossible mission would only make them slightly more competent deserters.
In fact, their competence made them even more domineering over their former subordinates. They forced them to undergo dangerous bodybuilding procedures that were far beyond safety regulations, and they kept sending them on dangerous missions.
What if.
A lot of ifs.
What if he had gone to see her men the day she was forced to leave?
If she had just said, “Let's run away together,” would it have been different?
Maybe it would have been different. At the very least, it wouldn't have led to the terrible situation she’s in now.
But no matter how much I regretted it and replayed it, the past was gone. The present was fixed on hell.
Lorraine couldn't bring herself to shed a tear in the face of the unrelenting wave of self-pity. For someone like her, even shedding a tear seemed like a luxury.
“Stop making excuses.”
Fade's hatred for Lorraine made her harsh.
“No matter what, you abandoned us, and that doesn't change the fact, Lorraine Ponk.”
It was a hate-filled rant, but ironically, it steadied Lorraine's wavering heart.
Am I guilty because I was deceived? Am I innocent?
No way.
“......Yes, you're right, and no matter what excuses I make, they won't work, but I know what I have to do now.”
Lorraine balled her fists and pushed herself to her feet.
Her clear eyes stared unflinchingly at Fade, who was weeping blood.
“I'm stopping you here. For the sake of my dead comrades, I can't let you run amok in this hellhole any longer.”
“Are you still saying that? Enough. Let's end this.”
Lorraine and Fade moved in unison.
They sprinted across the dusty shelves.
Each clutched a single pistol and they pointed them at each other.
At the same time, they pulled the trigger and a series of hollow shots rang out.