The sudden flash that appeared at the edge of his field of vision instantly jolted Gawain awake.
He immediately focused with utmost concentration, staring fixedly at the light that had appeared out of nowhere. Under his intense scrutiny, the playback slowed several times over, revealing every detail with perfect clarity. His first reaction was to confirm the light's origin, and he discovered that it had not come from the ground, but from somewhere near the top of the planet's atmosphere—it seemed to have appeared there without warning or trajectory, as if an invisible door had opened at the edge of the atmosphere. Then, an entity traveling at astonishing speed charged toward the orbital facility!
The flying object grew larger and larger in Gawain's vision, and a distinct silhouette gradually emerged from the hazy glow.
If his body had been here, Gawain felt certain his eyes would have widened to their limit—
A holy giant stag, shrouded in a faint white radiance, appeared amid the light and shadow. It carried wisps of thin atmosphere swept up from the edge of the planet's atmosphere, trailing a ray-like path brimming with high-energy reactions behind it. It tore through the cold, lifeless darkness of space and charged straight toward the direction of the surveillance viewpoint—with unstoppable momentum and a resolve terrifying enough to make one's heart tremble.
At one moment, when the giant stag had drawn close enough, Gawain could even see Its eyes through the recorded image. They were eyes that did not belong to a mortal, yet they seemed to contain emotions as human as any man's. Gawain felt that he could see a complicated mix of facing death without fear and staking everything on one desperate gamble within them.
But that gaze vanished in an instant.
The next moment, the giant