[Core Overclocking: 400%]
Time warped as the twin blades grew teeth and began to spin.
Thousands. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands of revolutions per minute.
Bending backward, the fortress slid under the titan's gigantic stump.
Out of position, the sentinel tried to readjust — too late.
With a sound of industrial construction cutter, Arthur plunged the blade through its abdominal cavity.
"Choke on this, you oversized bastard."
In a fraction of a second, ores and clay met forged steel. Metamorphic rock deformed and collapsed.
Sickening echoes reverberated as blades ripped through the titan's viscera.
Stench of molten steel and scorched earth wafted as the blood of the sentinel gushed out.
Arthur and his men had spilled blood countless times in the frontlines as mankind advanced their territories.
Its thunderous cries had become commonplace to the soldiers.
At the last moment, Arthur's blade stuck fast and withdrew, trailing arcs of entrails and volcanic gore splattered all around.
Arthur locked eyes with the titan.
He'd seen those eyes before.
It was — afraid.
Metallic screech filled with feral rage howled through as the sentinel leapt back with utmost haste.
Ores and granite fortified its arms, immediately bolstering its defenses.
'Those blades. I need to get them out of the way.'
With a strategy, the titan made up its mind.
Elements rushed to the sentinel's titanic stumps.
Like a bullet leaving its chamber, the enormous creature blotted out the sky.
[Core Overclocking Timer - 00:01:49]
"Let's finish this quickly."
Connecting with one another, the twin swords fitted like a puzzle.
Motes of light gathered, just like Cain's first spell — each one small yet vital.
'My… My hands are glowing, grandpa! You're the best teacher ever!'
Those few words were the most precious thing to Arthur.
Simple words — yet to Arthur, they made him feel invincible.
[Mind-Fortress Synchronization: 92%]
The energy from the core roared to life as it flowed more smoothly. Arcs of electricity charged from the arm down to the blade.
Fully primed, the sword was now suffused with blinding radiance.
Photon Strike — a mass of sword energy that will melt down anything on its trajectory.
The titan roused the elements within itself.
Carbon crystallized. Titanium alloy forged in a breath.
A diamond lance with an onyx titanium shield.
"Let's see if your metal's got any mettle, human."
With a swing, a luminous arc tore through the sky.
This was the fire of man that drove the darkness away.
The solidified blade luminescence clashed with the impregnable solitaire polearm.
A deafening screech rumbled through the sky.
The air itself recoiled as the sword grinded down the crystal formation at an alarming speed.
Arthur couldn't even hear his own thoughts anymore — only a sunburst of white remained.
The world drowned in blinding light as the debris torrentially poured over a thousand miles, engulfing the land in searing fire.
Heat rivaling the sun smelted the titan alive, reducing its massive body into a molten ingot.
"Curse you, humans!"
The sentinel panicked. It missed the finer details — and felt it had nowhere left to run.
The Roosevelt Fortress looked fine on the outside but...
Magical engineers worked frantically to relieve the burdens of the antique machinery.
Outdated hardware paired with overwhelming power was too much to bear.
The core stuttered — overclocked beyond its limit.
[Core Overclocking Timer - 00:00:11 (Paused)]
[HAZARD!]
[Core Overclocking: Automatic Disable]
[Energy Reserves: 29%]
[Arm Integrity: 61%]
"It didn't even made it past ten anymore."
Shaking his head, Arthur stared at the monitors — a crater of molten rock and steel stretched nearly a dozen kilometers across.
Within the sizzling smoke and steam, the titan's fate was — unknown.
Scanning the surroundings, Arthur knew these malignant land tumors were as tough as cockroaches.
Sixty seconds without visual, initial sign of the targets annihilation.
"The bastard should be dead by now. Let pack—"
A pebble the size of a palm.
Sudden movement — a simple twitch.
'No rock would shake like that.'
"The bastard is still alive, fire!"
Tons of salvo were unleashed and rained down on the fabled foe.
Cartridges poured out from the ejection ports like a broken dam.
The men clearly needed time.
"How long to fix the goddamn core?!"
"Sir, we need at least five minutes."
"Five minutes?! The bastard would have even grown wings by then!"
A slight tremor below.
Arthur jumped and spun into a defensive spiral — the timing off by a beat.
A calcified poison tail suddenly darted out of nowhere, aiming at the fortress.
Crackle!
The fortress hissed with leaking chemicals and raw energy as the impact tore into its side, leaving a massive, gaping rupture.
[CAUTION!]
[Side Armor Integrity: 17%]
"Shit! Is everyone still alive!?"
"Sir! Yes sir!"
"The fucker is underground, look alive men! Shifts not done yet!"
Multiple thoughts of soldiers connected, alarms blaring without pause, the battlefield seemed to suddenly fade from his mind.
Arthur's thoughts drifted — back to those cursed frontlines, where he'd swung until there was nothing left of him.
Fortresses tens of times larger than his own dropped like flies to combat gods with sizes of continents.
"Hahaha! Why the gloom ye bastard? Go!"
"Roosevelt! Drop that god to damnation — bombs on you, move!"
"Drinks on you, stingy Arthur! We're all going home after this."
'Lies! All of it.'
As his heart clung to the pain of the past, Arthur started losing track of the subtle nuances unfolding around him.
As his mind wandered and reminisced about the old days, he started focusing back on the battle.
However, his reminiscence was a mistake.
A grave mistake.
A moment of distraction.
The perfect counter.
Embedded and obscured into the earth — a diamond spear tip rammed into the fortress's chest with horrifying precision.
Hundreds of meters of steel screamed as the spear punched through.
The valves, energy wirings and precious components went in shambles.
[DANGER!]
[Breastplate Integrity: Compromised]
[Cooling System Integrity: Compromised]
[Power System Integrity: 7%]
[Switching Power Sources…]
[Power Source Available: Arthur Roosevelt]
[Would you like to proceed?]
[Yes] [No]
Arthur blinked. Double vision — one titan, then two. No, just one. He was fading.
Like a boxer on the ropes, the fortress collapsed on the ground to a slump — unable to stand up.
"Fortress Master, wake up!"
"Damnit old man! What are you doing?"
"Sir, we can still fight!"
"Sir…"
"Sir?"
A thousand thoughts flowed still connected, Arthur could hear them all but…
'Too heavy. I can't fucking move.'
Step. Step. Each step was a guttural stomp to Arthur's chest.
'Move. Damn it. I need to move. I won't die here.'
A finger.
Arthur barely ticked on the touch panel, but it wouldn't work.
"Why now, of all times?!"
The damage was so severe that the Roosevelt Fortress could only answer back with coughs and sputters of electricity.
He could still feel Cain inside the fortress — tucked away in a protective pod.
Steel shrieked as claws scraped closer, but Cain didn't sob.
He stayed silent, hands pressed over his mouth.
Arthur heard the unspoken cries echo through memory and blood.
"Grandpa… don't leave me too."
It wasn't the beasts beyond the steel that Cain feared.
It was being left behind.
Seeing this, Arthur's mind spun in search of a solution — only one surfaced.
'It's the only way.'
Arthur clenched his jaw. He didn't want to resort to this.
Renegade — forbidden magic that eats away emotions in exchange for unrivalled intelligence.
His eyes suffused with darkness.
In the void behind his eyes, numbers, geometric figures, and letters flickered into focus.
Arthur's logical calculation had become a manifestation of computer computation.
His altruism burned away in place of indifference. Fear had become fuel for composure.
Emotion stripped away. Logic consumed him. Arthur Roosevelt — once man, now machine.
[Current Power Source: Arthur Roosevelt]
[Operational Time – 00:14:59]
"Let's do this."