A Fierce Battle with Athrun

Rewinding to that decisive moment—in another distant sector of airspace, Freedom Gundam had not yet stood back-to-back with that mysterious Zaku, and Kira Yamato was still struggling under the siege of three cutting-edge machines.

Meanwhile, beyond that battlefield, another desperate struggle with life and death on the line was unfolding in a more primal and violent fashion.

Fine beads of sweat formed on Xia Ya's brow, and several strands of his golden hair were soaked through, clinging to his smooth skin.

Inside the cockpit, the steady hum of machinery had long been replaced by shrill alarms. Red warning lights flashed madly like the heartbeat of a dying man, casting shifting shadows across his sharply defined face.

His eyes—those eyes that usually held such depth and composure—were now locked on the ghostly crimson figure on the holographic screen.

Xia Ya's breathing was heavy and strained.

This specially modified machine, which had created countless miracles in his hands, now resembled a lion driven into a corner. Its armor was covered in burns of varying depths where beams had grazed it.

Opposite it, the machine named Justice Gundam glowed with an ominous deep crimson sheen. Its posture was so elegant that it seemed less like combat and more like a magnificent dance of execution.

He had lost count of how many times they had clashed.

With every collision of weapons, Xia Ya could clearly feel through the control stick the crushing disparity in power.

The crimson machine once again tore through space with unimaginable mobility, turning into an afterimage as it sped toward Blaze Gundam, which had just completed a difficult evasive maneuver and had yet to fully stabilize.

The two machines crossed at high speed in midair, passing within mere meters of each other. The proximity alarm in the cockpit nearly tore