I Aggressively Stack Steel of the Heart in the Knight Order

Struggling out of the crater, Urus collapsed to the ground with a pained cry like that of a cornered, dying beast. He took out the Blood Burning Needle he carried, discarded the Assassination Short Knife he was most skilled with, and picked up the Knight’s Broadsword Crab had left behind on the ground.

As he struggled to his feet and slowly raised his head, the glare of a white spotlight was so piercing he couldn’t open his eyes. Before him stood the fifteen-meter-tall War Titan, as massive as a five-story building, having already closed the distance!

The shadow it cast plunged him into an endless darkness, completely enveloping him.

In that moment, Urus completely abandoned the creed of the Silencer Battle Group. He let out a defiant roar, gathered all his strength, and launched a final charge against the steel behemoth.

”In the name of the Emperor—!”

Facing the swing of the Harvester Titan’s Power Sword, Urus’s charging body became a furious gale. He completely disregarded the grievous harm his physical body would suffer by passing through the Power Sword while in his Pseudo-Elementalization state.

He reappeared behind the Titan in a near-instant, both hands gripping the Knight’s Broadsword, and brought it down violently on the flexible mechanical arm controlling the Power Sword!

Even in this desperate situation, Urus’s tactic was not a meaningless suicide. After a prolonged exchange, he had already identified the few weaknesses of this war behemoth.

Whether it was firing its cannons or swinging its Power Sword, the Annihilation Shield covering the Mechanical God would deactivate for an extremely brief moment.

The reason was simple.

If a shell were to hit the Annihilation Shield, it would detonate in front of the Mechanical God before it could even be fired.

When the flexible mechanical arms swung, sections of the Annihilation Shield also had to be deactivated due to their length and articulation.

In other words, the Titan’s enormous size was both its greatest advantage and one of its few weaknesses; the Annihilation Shield could not provide the same kind of gapless, long-duration coverage as personal equipment.

It was only by grasping the enemy’s weakness that Urus could formulate his next tactical plan.

Resigned to death, he no longer cared about the grievous damage his body would take from passing through the Power Sword. Adopting a strategy that would cost him more than it cost his enemy, he resolved that even if he died here, he would dismantle this precious ”big toy” of Casio’s!

Although he didn’t know its actual value, given the Mechanical Order’s penchant for hoarding wealth, he could already imagine the ashen look on that traitor Casio’s face when he had to repair this Titan afterward.

BANG—!

As the Knight’s Broadsword struck, one of the Harvester Titan’s flexible mechanical arms snapped and crashed heavily to the ground!

The Harvester Titan was piloted by three triplet brothers from the Harvester family. Once they realized their machine was damaged, their calm, composed demeanor of toying with their prey vanished completely.

A voice, trembling with absolute fury, cried out from within.

”A traitor... dares to sever a Harvester’s arm... Blasphemy... Blasphemy—!”

”Kill him! Kill him now!”

Urus couldn’t hear the voices from inside the Titan’s cockpit, but after severing the first flexible mechanical arm, he quickly realized the enemy’s tactics had developed a serious flaw.

This War Titan, whose fighting style had been so meticulous and cautious, which had been relentlessly pressing him until he could barely breathe, was now forcibly twisting its upper torso to attempt a one-hit kill before the Annihilation Shield’s defensive alignment had finished shifting.

As he expected, compared to a true Imperial Knight, the combat experience of these mere Mortal pilots was far from cunning. In a battle they could have won simply by attrition, they had instead made a major tactical blunder at such a critical moment.

Facing the giant Power Sword as it swung toward him, Urus’s body once again became a furious gale, forcing its way through the weapon’s path. In the brief instant before the enemy could re-engage the Annihilation Shield, he spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes wide with fury.

The next moment, the Knight’s Broadsword in his hand viciously pierced the cockpit’s defenses!

”Die—! Enemy of the Emperor!”

With a short knife, Urus would have been helpless against the steel behemoth. But the standard-issue, 140-centimeter Imperial Knight’s Broadsword was long enough to pierce the cockpit’s armor!

THWUMP.

The sound of steel piercing flesh was a dull thud, like a fist plunging into water.

With a destroyed heart, the fatal wound was instantaneous. In a breath, one of the pilots went silent, utterly dead.

His two brothers let out a heart-wrenching, empathetic wail. With their shared nervous systems and senses, the experience of that fatal blow was just as real for them as it was for the one who had died.

”Palo! No, no, no... Brother!”

However.

Having accomplished his goal, Urus was like a spent candle. His right hand lost its grip on the Knight’s Broadsword embedded in the cockpit, and he slid from his high perch, crashing to the ground.

Under the effects of the Blood-stained Potion, he could have continued fighting for more than ten minutes, even with such grievous injuries.

But he had passed through the swings of the enemy’s Power Sword twice. Though his body showed no visible wounds, he had not yet mastered Domain Power; he was only capable of Pseudo-Elementalization. The energy from the impacts had already shattered his internal organs and bones.

Urus lay paralyzed on his back.

The light had faded from his eyes as he stared blankly at the War Titan, which was now stumbling in circles in a very human-like display of agony.

The War Titan’s steel right foot, the size of a heavy truck, stomped down in a rage, seeking to crush him into a paste and vent its fury.

Urus smiled.

’My Emperor, my lord.’

’I... have proven my Loyalty...’

For an Imperial Knight, for one’s soul to return to the light of the Divine Emperor is not just an honor, but a final homecoming.

The crisis of the Darkness of the Fallen Night, the threat of the Infiltrator Council, the strain of endless battle, over two hundred years of service... He was so tired.

Urus wanted to end his mission and return to eternal peace, but it seemed the Emperor had not consented. A deflagrating cloud of high-temperature ash, which erupted into a monstrous sea of fire that illuminated half the cavernous sky, slammed into the War Titan without warning!

Afterward.

Urus became aware of someone hoisting his body and rapidly carrying him from the warzone.

If he hadn’t possessed the Physique of an Earth Knight Level, the injuries Urus had sustained would have been enough to kill a Mortal five times over on the spot.

His voice was barely a whisper.

”Sir, didn’t I tell Koller to have you evacuate Cyrenaica immediately? It wasn’t worth it... for me...”

The damp, cold subterranean wind howled dully in Reinhardt’s ears, even through his Full Coverage Helmet.

Facing Urus’s reproach, Reinhardt simply replied with cold indifference, ”Would you abandon one of the Silencers and flee alone?”

”I... wouldn’t.”

”Koller has already disabled the beacon. Our reinforcements are on the way. Hold on.”

After quickly carrying the gravely injured Urus back to their transport ship, Reinhardt turned and headed back into the warzone. In terms of killing efficiency, Nelom might not be Urus’s equal, but when it came to dealing with a steel behemoth like a Titan, the strengths of his Knight Power were on full display!

A high-temperature Sea of Burning Ashes completely enveloped the War Titan, giving the behemoth no room to retaliate.

The Titan Drivers didn’t dare deactivate the Annihilation Shield and expose the machine’s hull.

Had all three pilots been present, Nelom might not have had such an easy time. But Urus’s sacrifice to kill one of them had dealt a fatal blow to the War Titan’s combat effectiveness.

The elite, specialized design was too much for the neural capacity of just two pilots to handle.

Just like the three Technician Priests who had burned away their lives piloting the Avenger Flagship, these two drivers were now experiencing that same terrifying, bone-deep agony, as if fire were searing their very nerves.

”Nelom, time to fall back. I’ll take care of the aftermath.”

Reinhardt knew they had no time to get bogged down fighting the Titan. Urus was critically injured and near death, and the whereabouts of the Wizard’s Divine Artifact were still unknown.

No matter what, preventing the Wizard’s Divine Artifact from falling into the hands of Silencer Enok was their top priority.

’For now, I’ll let Casio the Great Sage’s mechanical toy go.’

Nelom had absolute confidence in Reinhardt’s strength, so he retreated decisively. After dispelling the Sea of Burning Ashes, he turned and sprinted toward the ship docked in the distance.