The other giants exchanged glances at Neo's spectacular appearance after taking over the giant's body. They communicated their intentions to each other. Soon, a voice flowed through the speakers.
[Drop your weapons and surrender immediately. Otherwise, we will open fire.]
The deep, heavy voice resonated with tremendous volume. It was truly a sound befitting the majesty of giants. A surrender recommendation, this was the solution that the giants had come up with through mutual agreement.
Neo was considerably flustered, not expecting them to call for surrender before fighting. At that moment, Osian spoke from beside him.
"These are the ones who tried to kill us without a word until now. Suddenly warning us to surrender only reveals their disadvantage. Don't be fooled by their bluff."
At those words, Neo nodded and readjusted his stance.
Though his posture was terribly awkward for a body that didn't match his original size and specifications, the starlight burning on his sword was not something to be taken lightly.
[Friends, I'm sorry. But I can't give up.]
After making it clear that there was no reason for this side to back down, the enemies stopped urging surrender. Instead, they began opening the silos on their upper shoulders, seemingly preparing for battle.
"Charge in."As soon as Osian gave the order, Neo kicked off from the ground and rushed forward.
-Boom! Boom!
A massive body weighing over 20 tons runs. Each time, the earth split and the solid ground flipped over. Neo didn't just run with his two legs. From the rear of his back, intense steam jets burst out forcefully, adding acceleration.
-Tutututututung!
One giant fired cannons, rockets, and large-caliber machine guns to stop Neo but Neo deployed an energy barrier in front of him while running.
-Bubububububung!
Rockets with long tails spewing from the silos pounded the barrier like a downpour.
With explosions bearing crimson flames, black smoke engulfed Neo but a pulse cannon from one of the giants pierced through the black smoke screen.
It was a cannon powerful enough to penetrate the barrier of another giant. Though narrow in range, it was optimal for neutralizing opponents with its penetrating power. However, the shell burst through the smoke and out the other side without any resistance. There wasn't even the slightest collision indicating it had pierced through a barrier.
Instead, Neo appeared, breaking through the side of the hazy smoke. He had rotated his body to the side, using the obstructed view as an opportunity to avoid the pulse cannon.
"Plant your feet, maintain your axis. And charge again."
And Osian, who had mounted on top of him, was giving instructions on how Neo should move. It was also thanks to Osian's advice, who had read the situation, that he issued the evasive maneuver command using the smoke as a smokescreen.
-Chiiiiiiik!
Neo charged forward again, propelled by the steam thrusters. The giant, needing to reload, couldn't respond to his movement.
-Boom! Boom!
At that moment, another giant standing beside stepped forward.
-Clank!
That giant grabbed a weapon fixed to its backpack with its right arm. Perhaps not all giants had identical melee weapons; what this one held was a massive chain sword matching its size.
-Kiiiiiiing!!!
The weapon, capable of slicing through buildings, wailed. Neo and the giant collided with each other.
-Kwang!
As the two weapons, carrying intense power, collided, a brilliant flash of light tore through the darkness of night, and a massive shockwave spread out.
-Tuwoong!
The shockwave, spreading in a spherical shape, wiped away all surrounding flames and debris closer to the epicenter flew outward as if hit by a typhoon.
At the center of what seemed like a raging storm, the two giants engaged in a power struggle.
It was truly a reenactment of a mythical battle. A war of giants, Gigantomachia.
-Kagagagagak!
Normally, the output of the two machines should be equal. Naturally, the power struggle would be evenly matched, and with the time bought, the other giants would provide supporting fire, leading to Neo's demise.
But the current Neo was not the same as the other giants. The intense starlight flowing through his sword shattered all balance.
White Giant Star. True to its name, Neo's sword advanced against the massive chain sword.
-Kagagagagagak!
The chain sword tried desperately to resist, but the chain began to gradually wear down. The heat and energy of the White Giant Star were too much for it to endure, and the blade began to melt from the tip.
The chain sword turned bright red and then began to melt from the end, dripping molten metal. Beyond it, the panicked giant's eyes could be seen flashing urgently.
-Seogek!
As the chain sword collapsed, the White Giant Star simultaneously sliced through the giant's body at an angle.
There was no resistance and after a brief moment, the giant's massive body collapsed with a time lag, sliding diagonally.
The cut surface was heated to a bright red.
As one comrade fell, the remaining giants opened fire all at once. Neo reflexively deployed a barrier. Beyond the translucent blue wall, countless explosions erupted.
"Stick to another one. As close as possible."
This side's main armament was just one White Giant Star. While it might be powerful enough to overwhelm all other main armaments, it could only exert its true power when used in close proximity.
Knowing this, the enemies had no intention of approaching. Instead, they overtly maintained their distance and continued to fire from afar.
Though ammunition wasn't unlimited, they had four units on their side. With time, it was inevitable that this side's barrier would be the first to be depleted.
[They're not giving us any room! What should we do?]
If things continued like this, the only foreseeable future was a one-sided collapse under their alternating barrage. It was then that one of the giants, which had been maintaining its distance and firing, suddenly hesitated in its movement.
An icy blue frost had spread over its legs. The giant with its legs frozen looked down. Below, two automatons controlled by David were clinging to its legs, enveloped in the power of Moonlight.
-Kwaching!
Giants typically have strong cold resistance and heat resistance functions. Therefore, freezing them with mere frost was practically impossible. Proving this, as the giant exerted its strength, the ice shattered far too easily.
David's Moonlight could only immobilize the giant's movement for a mere three seconds. But those three seconds were enough.
"Charge at that one."
[But what about the barrier?]
"Don't worry about that. Trust us."
[Alright.]
Neo immediately deactivated the barrier. At the same time, Osian transferred the starlight power that had been surrounding Neo's weapon to his body.
Don Quixote also poured all the starlight power he possessed into Neo.
The size of the massive White Giant Star reduced dramatically. Instead, the power of the starlight flowed down Neo's shoulders like a waterfall, flowing downward.
-Puhwaaak!
A tremendous stream of starlight unfurled a majestic mantle behind the giant robot, befitting its size. Inside the fluttering pure white mantle, the image of a swirling vast galaxy was contained.
[White Spiral Galaxy]
A nebula silk, no, a White Spiral Galaxy befitting the size of a 13m-tall giant robot, fluttered.
The White Spiral Galaxy created a spiral vortex on Neo's shoulders. Simultaneously, an immense jet of stardust burst from the vortex.
Starlight, mixed with steam from vaporized ether water, drew a milky way in the void.
Neo moved at a speed unbelievable for a massive hunk of steel.
The opposing machine couldn't properly respond to the movement that was almost like low-altitude flight. Though it tried to retreat as far as possible, Neo's charge was at least twice as fast.
Eventually, the giant that had to give up its firing range hurriedly tried to draw a close-range weapon with its right arm but Neo wouldn't allow it.
While it might have been weakened, the sword still imbued with starlight sliced off the opposing giant's right arm.
-Seogek!
The sword swung again, cutting off the barrel of the left arm. The giant, having lost both arms, wobbled. Neo stabbed the giant's abdomen with the barrel of his left arm.
-Eujijik!
The barrel was distorted, but a part of it successfully penetrated the giant's abdomen. Neo used the impaled giant's body as a shield to protect himself.
-Kwagwagwagwagwang!
Immediately after, shells flew and hit the giant's body that was being used as a shield. The three giants that had been forming a cordon gathered together in one place.
Rather than becoming prey to be picked off one by one, they planned to combine their firepower and end it all at once.
Though a comrade was being used as a shield, they didn't care. It was a moment that clearly revealed the strength of automaton soldiers who wouldn't hesitate even if a comrade was taken hostage.
'But gathering at one point means, in other words, if we can just break through that firepower, we can wipe them all out at once.'
Of course, for that to happen, they first needed to deal with the giant shield that was already becoming tattered. In the midst of this, the captured giant opened its chest hatch and tried to force a self-destruct by overloading its internal core.
-Kwajik!
Osian didn't allow it. His drawn starlight sword pierced through the heated core, forcibly shutting it down before it could reach a critical point.
After extinguishing the urgent threat, Osian looked to one side and shouted.
"Hey, how long are you going to just stand there and not help? If I take all the glory, will you have anything to boast about to Ena when we return?"
In response to that blatant provocation, a hot wave of energy answered from afar.
-Tuwoong!
A wave of heat swept through the surrounding area as if a wave was spreading. The guards of the nearby battle trench screamed.
"Everyone, retreat!"
"Shit! What the hell is this!"
They screamed as they saw the red sun floating in the air. The crimson sun illuminating the dark night was so ominous that just looking at it felt like one's eyes were being burned.
And Lupona, who had this red sun on her back, was gritting her teeth inside her helmet.
"You're saying I've been just standing around?!"
Those words had touched Lupona's raw nerve. Who was really suffering here? If it weren't for Ena's request, she wouldn't have even come here, and after receiving help, what? Playing around? After all the hard work she had been doing!
Her anger was instilled in the [Dark Sun] she was manifesting.
The sun of death scattered blood-red light. Unable to contain the overflowing energy, sunspots continuously erupted from the outside of the sun.
However, Lupona fully controlled that power and focused it on a single point.
The three giants that had gathered in one place all reacted to this power. The moment they saw Lupona's sun, they instantly recognized the danger of the immense energy that this heat source possessed.
One side of the sun bulged with a "pook" sound.
A more powerful technique than [Dark Flare Destruction], which bursts flares from the sun, but concentrates the attack at a single point [Black Sun Crimson Pillar] erupted.
-Kuwaaaaa!!!
A red pillar engulfed the three giants.
One of the giants that had been checking Neo turned its body and poured all its output into the barrier. Immediately after, a bright red pillar of blood-red light engulfed and passed through it.
The ruins of the factory melted and became distorted from the red heat raging in all directions.
The giant's barrier also eroded rapidly. Beyond the barrier, the giant's outer armor heated to a subtle reddish color.
Another giant came to assist. A second barrier was deployed, supplementing the insufficient barrier. The super-large protective field deployed in two layers perfectly blocked Lupona's technique.
The solar torrent, which seemed like it would never end, stopped, and with the disappearance of the Dark Sun, darkness descended on the surroundings.
"Haak. Haak."
Lupona, having used all her strength, fell to the ground as her energy was completely drained. As if they had been waiting, the knights who had been standing by below caught her.
Lupona, with blurred vision, looked at the giants and said.
"Really, if we can't win even with this, I'm going to kill you."
The giants belatedly realized that her gaze was not directed at them.
Replacing the vanished blood-red light, a pure white light gradually illuminated their bodies brighter as a forgotten anxiety rose.
It was the radiance emitted by the White Spiral Galaxy. The fact that the light had brightened meant that the light source was approaching closer.
When the two giants looked back to the front, what they saw was the White Giant Star emerging from the punctured abdomen of the giant that had been checking Neo.
-Seogek!
The massive starlight that had pierced through the abdomen rose vertically as if soaring into the sky. The giant's body, split in half from the abdomen to the head, collapsed.
The two giants tried to respond immediately, but it was already too late. The raised White Giant Star fell diagonally in a slanted line.
The trajectory drawn by the enormous sword was like a meteor crossing the sky as the space through which the meteor passed wavered, and everything was cut off.
The same happened to the remaining two giants.
One from the shoulder to the waist. The other from the side to the thigh, drawing a diagonal line.
The two massive bodies collapsed with a "sreureuk" sound. The fallen debris made a "kung" sound, causing vibrations.
"Ah, aaaaaah!"
The moment he saw this, Jerea fell to his knees and screamed.
"Waaaaaaa!"
In contrast, the knights let out a victory cry.
Having defeated all the enemies, Neo looked down at the sword in his hand.
-Cheok!
Raising the sword, he struck a victory pose.
In the landscape that had descended into darkness, brilliant starlight illuminated the surroundings as if it were daylight.