Chapter 111 - Blue Screen of Death
Ismail’s transformation was cataclysmic—an eruption of crimson lightning arcs surged through the air, dancing like wrathful spirits. A blinding red flash seared the skyline for a fleeting mont, and then everything plunged into darkness. One by one, the surrounding skyscrapers flickered and died, the entire district swallowed in a city-wide blackout.
Then ca the titan.
With a thunderous hum that rattled the air itself, a towering skeletal ch phased into existence. It lood above us—easily sixty ters tall—its tallic bones glowing faintly with eerie red veins of energy. Unlike the other HUSBANDOs, whose Fra Units often bore asymtrical designs or exposed human components, Ismail’s Defense Operator was whole. Imposing. Seamless. A perfect fusion of armor and function. It didn’t look like a piloted ch—it looked like a walking god of war.
“Holy shit!” I yelled, squinting up at the monstrosity.
“That… that’s so big!” Fei stamred, eyes wide.
“That’s what she said,” I couldn’t help but mutter, sliding in the joke with a grin.
“This is no ti for jokes, Zaft!” Myrrh snapped, her voice sharp. “Use your WEEB system! We need your support!”
Without another word, Myrrh ignited her jetpack and launched into the sky, trailing green combustion streaks behind her. Fei dropped to one knee, bracing her twin gatling guns, locking onto the ch’s exposed core—a pulsing crimson orb embedded in its chest, the very vessel of Ismail’s human body.
“Yaaah!” Fei shouted, fingers clenched on the triggers as hundreds of rounds spewed forth in a blazing stream of steel.
“Take this!” Myrrh scread from above, unleashing a brilliant salvo of erald lasers from her beam rifle, each shot burning through the air as it scread toward the HUSBANDO’s core.
However, none of their attacks landed.
The erald lasers and relentless hail of bullets never even grazed the ch’s armor. A shimring ripple—almost invisible—distorted the space around Ismail’s Defense Operator, repelling every assault with an unseen barrier.
“Futile!” Ismail’s voice bood across the skyline, now fully chanical and cold, reverberating through the night like a digital god's decree.
He raised his colossal arm and swung down, attempting to swat Myrrh from the air like a botherso insect.
“Kuh!” Myrrh grunted, narrowly twisting out of the way with a mid-air barrel roll. The shockwave from the swing sent her spiraling, but she recovered quickly, reigniting her thrusters to stabilize her flight. She ascended higher and shouted, “How about this?!” before firing a rapid volley of green beams directly at the ch’s skull.
But the outco didn’t change.
Just like the core, the head was protected by that sa invisible shield. Desperate, Myrrh fired in quick succession at the ch’s limbs—shoulders, knees, even the crotch. Each blast of energy was repelled effortlessly, ricocheting off as if striking glass.
Fei, unfazed, kept pouring ammunition into the chest core. Twin barrels of her gatling guns roared and spat molten tal, but the shimring barrier held strong. Not a single bullet found its mark.
Then—a sudden click and a hiss.
Steam vented from Fei’s weapons. Her gatling guns overheated, glowing red from the strain, smoke curling around the barrels like the breath of a dying dragon.
“Lasers and bullets don’t work!” I shouted, eyes locked on the battle. “Fei, switch to short-range combat!”
Without hesitation, I activated my WEEB System. A ring of gold symbols circled my arm as it pulsed with radiant energy. My hand glowed with golden light, humming with power as I aid it at her.
“Rollerblade, Equip!”
With a burst of chanical hiss and a flash of orange sparks, Fei’s tallic legs extended downward—roller skates erging from her armor with a slick, satisfying clack. Her engines revved, and in a blaze of motion, she tore across the asphalt like a high-speed bullet, leaving behind a trail of scorched skid marks and flickering embers.
She jettisoned her overheated gatling guns, the heavy weapons crashing to the ground with twin thunks, and in their place, she drew a gleaming switch blade from her thigh holster. It buzzed with an electric edge.
“Laser Sword, Equip!” I called out again, this ti thrusting my glowing hand toward Myrrh.
In response, a radiant cybernetic ring opened midair beside her, whirring as it spun—and from it, Myrrh pulled out a high-frequency laser sword, its blade glowing an intense erald. She dropped her beam rifle, no longer needed, and ignited her jetpack.
Then she charged.
“Yaaaah!” Fei roared as she darted forward, crouching low and slicing at the ch’s colossal foot in a wide, arcing slash. Sparks exploded on impact—the blade dug deep, etching a glowing gash across the right leg of Ismail’s Defense Operator.
“Short-range attacks are working!” Neil cheered from behind, thrusting his fist skyward in triumph.
“Hraaaah!” Myrrh’s cry echoed in the air as she blasted forward like a fighter jet, leaving behind twisting contrails and a scream of jet thrusters. She rocketed upward, blade raised high, gunning straight for the ch’s neck.
But Ismail wasn’t defenseless.
The massive skeleton ch reared back and swung—one colossal fist slicing through the air toward her. Myrrh barely dodged the first punch, weaving sideways with an elegant spiral. The second ca imdiately after in a brutal right hook—but she twisted through it like a dance, skating just past its reach.
Now directly in front of its neck, Myrrh swung her blade.
Sparks erupted as the laser sword scraped across the ch’s throat. It was a clean hit—but just as she prepared to follow through for a killing blow, the impossible happened.
From beneath Ismail’s armpits, two massive robotic arms burst out like hideous appendages from a nightmare—each easily the size of a shuttle bus, and moving far faster than sothing so massive should.
“What the—?!”
A deafening thunderclap erupted through the battlefield as the two massive chanical arms slamd together—and Myrrh was caught dead-center.
“Kyah!” she scread, her voice piercing the night as her body was hurled like a ragdoll. She smashed into the side of a nearby building with bone-rattling force—concrete cracked, glass shattered, and a cloud of rubble and glittering shards exploded outward in a violent shockwave.
“Myrrh!” Fei shouted, horror etched across her face.
But she had no ti to react.
“You should watch out for yourself, traitor!” Ismail’s voice snarled, laced with venom and chanical fury.
Before Fei could reposition herself, a colossal foot swung toward her like a wrecking ball. With no ti to raise a guard, she took the full brunt of the attack straight to her core.
“Aaah!” Fei’s cry echoed as she was blasted backward, her body skipping across the asphalt like a stone over water. She tore through the highway, bouncing and rolling until she finally crashed through the façade of another building, leaving a trail of destruction behind.
I froze. My body trembled, a cold bead of sweat tracing down my cheek. Myrrh was down. Fei was nearly crushed. And Ismail—Ismail was a walking apocalypse.
We can’t win like this.
I clenched my fists, my jaw tightening with desperation. They needed firepower. No—they needed divine wrath.
“I need it now…!” I growled, pushing my focus into the core of my WEEB System. My entire right arm surged with crimson energy—circuit-like veins glowing beneath my skin, pulsing faster with each heartbeat.
Then, the interface flared red in front of my eyes.
[Weapons of Mass Destruction-
All of a sudden, the crimson warning on my interface flickered—and then it changed.
The red transford into a soft blue glow, and an ominous hologram system ssage floated before my eyes:
[System Compromised]
[ :( ]
[The WEEB System has ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and it now needs to restart]
“What the hell?!” I shouted, staring in disbelief. My arm was still glowing with pulsing crimson circuits, humming with restrained energy—but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t activate anything. The WEEB System had frozen mid-transformation, trapped in a forced reboot.
The ssage blinked out.
And then flashed again.
Sa text. Sa annoying sad face emoji. Sa soul-crushing disappointnt.
[System Compromised]
[ :( ]
[The WEEB System has ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and it now needs to restart]
“You just restarted a while ago!!” I scread, jabbing furiously at my smartwatch screen like it owed money. Desperation twisted my voice. “Co on, co on, work—!”
The system glitched again.
Rebooted.
Again.
Third ti now.
I stood there, helpless, steam practically rising off my body from panic and frustration. Sparks still crackled from my fingertips, but I was nothing more than a glorified lamp post at this point.
Then Neil gently tapped my shoulder. “Zaft…”
I turned to him, twitching.
“Are you… stuck in a boot loop?”
I froze.
My lips curled into a tight, deadpan smile as sweat poured down my temples like a waterfall. “…I think yes. It just keeps flashing the blue screen of death.”
“I told you, Zaft Callahan…” Ismail’s cybernetic voice crackled through the battlefield, dripping with smug superiority. “I can hack anything with a circuit. Your so-called divine blessing from the Machine God? It’s worthless now.”
My stomach dropped. My glowing arm remained frozen, flickering like a dying light. No commands. No weapons. Just static and blue error ssages.
Then—
“He doesn’t need that help.”
The voice was clear. Steady. Familiar.
We turned.
There she stood—battered, unard, but unshaken.
Myrrh.
Her Fra Unit limped forward across the ruined pavent, paint chipped and armor scorched from the earlier clash. The weapons I’d spawned for her had disintegrated, no doubt purged when the WEEB System was compromised. And yet, she walked—head held high, eyes burning.
“You’re unard,” Ismail growled. “You have no blade. No rifle. Not even a particle beam. Do you think a broken Fra Unit and the daughter of a vegetable heroine can stand against my absolute power?”
Myrrh didn’t flinch.
“I don’t need a weapon,” she said calmly, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. She adjusted her stance—feet apart, arms relaxed, centering her balance like a martial artist about to unleash sothing ancient and unstoppable.
“I just need… this.”
Suddenly, her Fra Unit pulsed—an internal surge of energy erupting outward.
A brilliant glow engulfed her from head to toe. Her white-and-gold armor shifted, hue lting into a vibrant pinkish-red. Plates along her joints extended, revealing glowing vents. Gaps in the armor flared open, spewing arcs of crimson fla like an awakening volcano.
The air trembled.
A deep hum filled the battlefield.
“Overdrive Mode… Activate!”
Myrrh narrowed her eyes, the Overdrive flas crackling behind her like wings of vengeance. Her voice cut through the air like a blade.
“If you’re going to insult my mother…” she growled, her expression tightening into a cold scowl. “…then I might as well put you in a wheelchair just like her.”
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