Bright light flickered through the empty barbican. The Inner City Gate and Outer City Gate sealing off the barbican were now both completely shut.
The Mecha suspended within the barbican flickered like drifting fireflies.
The access control system had fully activated. If they went any higher, they would come under attack from the automatic defense systems atop the walls.
But these Mecha were not out of options. They still had another path.
Gazes converged beneath the tightly shut massive gates.
That was to deal with the bloodstained man before the gates and find a way to open them again.
That was also the order they had received in the final instant before the gates closed.
There were more than a dozen Mecha here. Their pilots were all the elite of the elite. Even if they encountered a powerful Rank B Exotic Beast in the wilderness, they could fight it head-on and even severely wound it.
They had never lacked courage, yet when they looked at the bloodstained man standing there, solitary and frail-looking, they fell unusually silent, simply hovering in the air.
An eerie silence spread through the entire barbican.
Even the sound of wind and snow outside the city seemed to become much clearer.
But in the end, that stillness lasted only a short while.
When the first brilliant laser shot out, a flashing crimson radiance simultaneously pierced through the Mecha at the heart of the formation.
The bloodstained man, who had seemed on the verge of collapse, spread his wings like an eagle and soared upward, stepping on the flames of the falling Mecha.
Fierce fire and explosions lit up the dark barbican.
The enormous war machines soaring through the sky were easily torn apart like fragile paper birds.
The sound of steel being torn and shattered echoed