At the most critical moment, Athrun used his unit's independently combat-capable backpack to ram Mazinger ZERO in the head, knocking its attack aimed at Dawn off course. In the end, the blast pierced through the ceiling bedrock of the underground space and shot into the sky.
Mazinger turned its head back and twisted its neck like a real human. Its eyes, filled with the urge to destroy, glanced in Athrun's direction, as though it had fiercely memorized the fact that he had attacked it. Athrun could clearly see that those eyes held more than mere destruction—they seemed to say that Mazinger had remembered him. Just those eyes alone radiated a crushing pressure that even Athrun found heavy.
Athrun clenched his teeth. "It only looked at me. It only looked at me, and it was already enough to make even me feel afraid..."
At that moment, Unit-01's red-glowing eyes fixed on Mazinger and flashed with cross-shaped light. An incomprehensible, godlike power transformed directly into two beams that pierced through space and bombarded Mazinger's chest. An incomparably powerful force erupted before Mazinger's chest, exploding into an enormous cross-shaped blaze. Black and white smoke immediately appeared, while the excess force crashed down alongside the cross-shaped pillar of light, carving a huge breach into the ground as well.
Immediately afterward, everyone else unleashed all their attacks at full power toward the center of that cross-shaped pillar of light, where Mazinger stood. Explosions thundered through the underground space. Their united assault actually suppressed Mazinger so thoroughly that it could not move for a time.
Within Xiao Ran's perception, Mazinger had raised both arms in front of itself, conveniently shielding its head. Its body was slightly hunched as it endured everyone's attacks head-on. Countless strikes landed on Mazinger, cracking much of its incomparably sturdy armor. Its