Three seconds later, Lucien in the Armor Demon finally fought his way out of the seemingly endless siege. More precisely, he had finally found an opportunity to shake off those relentlessly entangling Steel Soldiers.
Amid explosions that scarcely distinguished friend from foe.
He seized that crucial chance, threw all his strength into it, smashed through the wall before him, and finally broke into the heart of the base.
Then he froze.
Before him, across a plaza so vast its end was nearly invisible, life-support pods stood like tombstones, exactly as he had expected.
He had already breached the enemy's vital point.
But what left him rooted to the spot were the open pod doors—and the empty life-support pods. Not a single person lay inside.
Faint traces of evacuation still remained on the ground. Before they had launched their attack, the soldiers who had been lying here had already departed.
Then who had been controlling the Steel Soldiers attacking him?
Ghosts?
Or perhaps...
"Retreat! Everyone, retreat!!!"
Lucien finally understood and shouted into the channel, "It's a trap!!!!"
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
Outside Greenwich Park, in the sewers, the colonel pushed away the last corpse before him, discarded his emptied gun, and painfully climbed up through a manhole.
The moment he lifted the cover, he saw the torrential rain that seemed capable of swallowing the entire world, its heavy roar echoing all around him.
Panting, he slumped to the ground and crookedly worked the lighter's wheel, but no flame appeared. After trying several times, he finally gave up, cursed, took the cigarette from the corner of his mouth, and tossed it into the rainwater.
Then he pressed the detonator.
Boom!
A muffled rumble rose from beneath the lake. Nearly boiling waves surged from the artificial lake along with the upheaval