Meanwhile, Ash saw even more gigantic Doomsday Monsters closing in, supported by enormous mechanical tentacles extending from the bodies of those flowers that had transformed into something unknown.
Missiles, dark bombardments, scorching lasers, freezing rays, and deadly blows from immense weight—tail swipes, in other words. Countless enemies joined the Tyrannosaurus Doomsday Monster, their attacks reducing the buildings around Ash to useless construction debris and nearly burying him and the mechanical tyrannosaur beneath it.
This dark corner of Earth, where time had come to a standstill, became a battlefield of certain death amid the endless roar of shellfire and explosions.
If they were both products of Hana's image, then their strength should have been equal. In fact, the "fake," backed by Rampage Energy, possessed an endless reserve of power and far surpassed Ash's V rex in overall capability. But!
"V rex!" Ash continued issuing commands. "Show time!"
The gigantic steel tyrannosaur actually began leaping between buildings like it was tap dancing, evading attack after attack. With V rex's Super AI working in tandem with Ash's commands, it performed far more swiftly than its opponent's saturation bombardment, dodging every attack and leaving the enemy completely behind for the moment.
"Any living being must keep moving forward."
Yesterday's data—wasn't worth mentioning!
Crushing an overpass beneath its feet, V rex launched itself into the air. Like a fireball descending from the heavens, it spun with impossible speed, the metal framework across its back transforming into a whirling top that smashed the fake and its surrounding lackeys apart, sending explosions and debris flying everywhere.
"Input transform code! Voice Formation, go ahead!"
Pressing the leftmost button on the command device attached to his arm, Ash issued his greatest and most secret command.
"Voice Formation, V-REX ROBO!!!"
Let me show you the difference between a fake and the real thing!
"Roar—!!!"
The mechanical tyrannosaur roared with all its might. Brilliant light like solar flares burst from every gap in its armor as a grand and massive mechanical system silently awakened.
Of course a robotic dinosaur could transform.
Its two enormous steel feet supported V rex as it tilted its head back. Its crouching form slowly rose from the ground, its small forelimbs folding backward. Its wheel-structured right hand and iron-fisted left hand shifted from its back to its front amid the clattering transformation of gigantic interlocking gears, while its raised tyrannosaur head folded down into the gap in its chest.
The area concealed behind its neck stretched open like a triangular crown, revealing beneath it a pair of resolute eyes as lifelike as a human's. Light like a lumen that could sweep away the darkness shone forth—the face of the machine god!
Its transformed form, standing upright as something half-dragon and half-human, was a gigantic block of steel—a colossal iron body tempered and forged by some unyielding will.
The crimson flowing across it took the shape of real, streaming flames. Its sleek yet beautiful mechanical lines, together with the gigantic steel tail behind it, made it appear all the more ferocious.
This was Time Fire's ultimate weapon, V-Rex's final and strongest transformed form—the steel colossus walking among mankind, [V-REX ROBO]!
The Doomsday Monsters, which barely reached its knees, surged forward all at once. Some even tried to climb up its joints and drag Ash down.
"Boom—"
The earth beneath its foot split in two under an incomparably immense, heaven-shaking force. Wherever it stepped, darkness shattered! Endless lava-like light erupted forth!
"Boom!"
Its raised left fist and the torque joint at its waist meshed together with a thunderous roar. The world-ending sound of its punch instantly melted through the dinosaur-shaped enemy still before it, blowing its head apart with a single blow!
"So this is its strongest formation... It may be my first time using it, but not bad!"
Standing beside the machine's neck and gripping the ladder there, Ash felt an intense fighting spirit blaze within his chest.
Commanding a giant robot just to save the person he loved... man or woman, who wouldn't feel their blood surge at such a feat?
"Then there's no reason we can lose, right? Let's go, V-REX ROBO!!!"
"Roar—!"
Man and machine charged without looking back toward the gathering darkness!
Case File 76: A Multiple-Choice Question with No Choices
The darkness was burning.
Within the darkness flowed and burned a wavering moon like a mirage—and a gigantic shadow.
The wavering figure in the darkness grew denser and heavier, until it became something truly tangible.
It stepped over those people frozen in time, unaware of anything.
Upon the earth as red as burning fire, a gigantic being shattered the fog of darkness and crushed the grotesque things before it into dust, radiating overwhelming majesty.
A giant of steel, clad in the raiment of destruction, descending into the world after being reborn in flame.
The fires of battle still burned.
Like a self-propelled artillery regiment, cannons all across its body opened amid the flames. Violent shifts in air pressure compressed into a fierce gale, which howled wildly alongside the lightning and thunder overhead, blowing away the gigantic inhuman beings of darkness before it.
Buildings burst apart and scattered across the road as rubble. Exploded vehicle wreckage was lifted by the gale and swirled through the air like fallen leaves.
Step by step, the giant robot drew closer to the towering pillar of Great Darkness, closer and closer to where Nono Hana's true body lay.
The earth shook, the wind roared, and Ash's ears were filled with the thunder of explosions.
The tomorrow born from unwavering love sustained his will, while the Dark Echo converted from Rampage Energy kept his body standing firm.
What he himself had not noticed was that some kind of cycle had formed within him.
At the same time, standing atop this steel god, Ash seemed to hear a sound that struck deep into his heart.
What he heard was a mournful, wind-like howling that made one's heart ache from within... Was it crying? Hana, was that you crying?
"Don't cry too soon, Hana."
The closer he got, the more intense the resistance became. Ordinary Doomsday Monsters only a few stories tall grew fewer and fewer, while more Raging Enders appeared, ones comparable in size to this machine. V-Rex Robot was not an invincible fortress of steel. If it could not take its time, then it had to get closer even faster.
"Hana, this darkness is not your friend. It truly is something that should not exist in this world—"
Several Doomsday Monsters sent flying by the robot's heavy fists rolled across the ground, scraping into several surrounding high-rises and continuing to tumble despite being covered in wounds.
The thrusters beneath its feet and on its back ignited, carrying it over the collapsed building ahead. The ever-growing swarm of Doomsday Monsters could only watch as this walking humanoid construct stared at every inhuman being with eyes shining with fighting spirit.
That radiance was so powerful that one might even think this giant possessed a will of its own. Was that another illusion?
"Hana, don't say anything. You don't need to be afraid." Pressing the button on the far right, Ash's eyes beneath his visor trembled as his ocular scanner rapidly locked onto every target. "The undead you fear... I'll defeat them!"
"Revolver Missile!"
The wheel structure on the machine's right arm rose, producing a continuous heavy rumble. Amid the rotation of its wheel mechanism and deafening detonations, six barrels fired in sequence, launching massive destructive reaction shells accurately into the deepest part of the monster horde and opening a path forward!
The flash of bombardment drove back the darkness once more, bathing the entire nearby street in light as bright as noon.
Before V-Rex Robot could be completely swallowed by the storm of furious explosions and flashing light, it sped through the obstacle before it.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—" As if it had sensed something—and in order to stop what stood before it—Ash saw mechanical tentacles of varying sizes stabbing toward him from the ever-nearing tower. These things split from Hana's main body sought to block him and send him flying away.
"Hana, watch closely!"
Making the same movement as the robot beneath him, the steel god and the Soul of Steel controlling it let out the same furious roar.
"I'll prove it to you right now—that monster has nothing to do with you!"
Its massive raised left fist aimed contemptuously at every obstacle before it.
"Rex Punch!"
Burning with flames of annihilation and coursing with thunder of divine wrath, the rocket fist blasted through the air with flames spraying from behind it. Like a heated knife cutting through a tub of butter, it tore through the tentacles one after another, melting them into twisted darkness scattered across the ground. Ash clearly saw the trace of "Nono Hana."
"Beep, beep, beep, beep—"
As Ash had the machine evade attacks and conserve energy to continue advancing, an unexpected communication suddenly connected to the inside of his helmet, making him frown.
Setting aside how anyone in this era could contact someone from the future, who could possibly be trying to contact him at a time like this?
After thinking for a moment and looking at the flames gradually diminishing around him, Ash accepted the communication.
"Hello, are you there—ah, it's great that you could connect."
"Who are you?" Seeing the ridiculous old man on the other side of the line, dressed politely like a circus performer, Ash's brow furrowed even deeper. "I don't remember knowing you."
"It is indeed our first meeting. Let me introduce myself. I'm Dr. Traum." The old man on the other end did not protest Ash's rudeness and continued, "I'm more or less the teacher of the man you just beat up. I originally intended to take him back, but now I can only carry him away."
"Oh, so after I beat the little one, the old one came out? Fine. If you're looking for trouble, come on. I don't mind having one more opponent to defeat right now."
"No..." Dr. Traum removed his hat and placed it over the face of the bandaged man on the ground, who was about to say something. "If your violence can teach him a lesson, that wouldn't be bad. But what I want to ask is this: this world is about to reach its end. Do you truly intend to save it by force?"
"Different multiverses and parallel universes may be vast, but Hana's world is the only one she has." After a moment of silence, Ash continued, "And there is only one Hana that I know."
"Then listen carefully. There really is a way to save the world right now."
Traum's expression turned serious as he spoke solemnly to Ash.
"Cure Yell has now gathered all the Rampage Energy in the world. In other words, she is currently Rampage Energy's proxy, something like a human pillar. That is to say, the Rampage Energy that was originally scattered everywhere has now been gathered inside one woman's body."
"But this is also a rare opportunity. If you can defeat this manifested existence of Rampage Energy, then you can save this world!"
"Then I'll sacrifice the entire world and save Hana instead." Ash raised an eyebrow and chose without hesitation. Compared to this world, after all, Nono Hana was the one he knew better.
"This isn't some gal game with a branching route where you choose between your lover and the world!" Traum's voice became fierce as he stared into the eyes visible beneath the burning visor on the other end of the communication. His tone grew incredibly heavy.
"Whether it's your Hana or his Hana, she has already disappeared."
"Under the circumstances of this worst possible future, the only thing you can choose is to watch her remain frozen as she destroys this world."
"Or save the world she once loved by—"
"Killing her."
Case File 77: The Sky Falls Because of Love (4K Chapter)
He flew toward the endless dark sky.
Ash said nothing. The only thing he could hear was the wind howling past from the thrusters.
No one could know what the man beneath that metal mask was thinking, but his heart was far from as calm as he appeared.
Was it already too late? Was the only remaining option truly to "stop" Nono Hana, who had become a living CPU? Ash did not know... No, Ash knew. He simply refused to admit it.
"I won't give Nono Hana—Cure Yell—to anyone—"
Rather, asking him to give up on Nono Hana now... What kind of joke was that? What did they think he had done all this for?
"Absolutely not—!"
Nono Kotori held her mother as they kept watch beside her unconscious father's bed. Even she, who now understood everything about her sister and Ash, was nearly swallowed by that despair...
"?"
As if sensing something in the unseen, the girl raised her head. The blonde and blue-haired women helping at the hospital also looked up, gazing toward the darkness in the distance that was about to consume everything.
Was that rainbow in the far distance merely an illusion?
Countless mechanical tentacles formed from Rampage Energy supported her main body, raising Nono Hana, the central unit, close to the sky so the darkness used for spreading and corrosion could expand more efficiently. During the time Ash had fought his way here, nearly half the world had once again been swallowed by time-frozen darkness.
As the thrusters slowly converged and shut down, Ash stood atop another battered skyscraper and finally reached the same height as Nono Hana's transformed main body.
"Hana—Cure Yell, are you there? Hana!"
Ash shouted toward that darkness that was nearly becoming physical, but received no response.
"Don't lose to such filthy means! Bring out your heart!"
Still, there was only an echo. No answer.
Then Ash had no choice but to look over.
Upon the writhing tentacles was a streamlined body like a flowing brook, the most perfect creation of nature.
It was something that did not exist, something that could not exist—an aberration like a flaw in the world, yet undeniably real. It was more than half a body larger than the fifty-meter-class V rex robo.
The high-purity Rampage Energy forming it was colored like steel, yet it was a substance entirely different from iron.
Its smooth torso and the exquisitely beautiful head hanging from its neck, along with the two things at its sides that could be called arms—it seemed that this giant thing was imitating a human. Or perhaps it was an arrogant error born from copying a "god." Behind this incomparably slender and beautiful form, like a Venus without missing arms, there was inexplicably an additional pair of steel, scorching wings, constantly flapping yet unable to fly into the sky because countless tentacles held them fast.
If it was imitating a human, those constantly crumbling metal wings on its back were unnecessary.
If it was imitating a god, they were far too conspicuous.
But at this moment, she was neither god nor human. She was a "Doomsday Monster" born from the endless nightmare and despair called "Nono Hana."
That face watching V rex robo and Ash... Yes, Ash could only describe her expression as a mask. The face on that giant head resembled Hana's, yet it was completely expressionless, as though it had forgotten how to smile. All he could see were two patterns like tear tracks extending downward from where her pupil-less eyes should have been.
Ash looked at the "beautiful" "Nono Hana" before him, clenched his fingers, and yet could not help but smile.
Ash no longer needed to issue any additional commands. Against an enemy this enormous, even with his eyes closed, he would definitely hit it!
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