At the other end of this war-torn universe, Sven's Black Strike Gundam and Nicol's White Strike Gundam, one on either side like two intertwining bolts of lightning, formally engaged the Forbidden Gundam radiating an aura of death in an extraordinarily perilous battle.
The abyss of space was repeatedly torn apart by explosions and crisscrossing beams.
"Beep beep beep beep—!"
Inside the Black Strike Gundam's cockpit, the piercing lock-on alarm crazily stabbed through Sven Cal Bayang's eardrums like countless steel needles. To him, this sound had long become routine, background noise etched into his neural reflexes.
His eyes, unnaturally calm beneath his short silver hair, remained like a bottomless pool of stagnant water, blankly reflecting the flickering firelight and data on the main monitor.
At the center of the main monitor was the khaki-and-dark-green demon—GAT-X252 Forbidden Gundam—gliding with a nauseatingly fluid motion. It looked less like a machine than a colossal beast weaving through the jungle, every movement brimming with primal predatory hunger.
Shani Andras sat in the Forbidden Gundam's cockpit, his body swaying slightly with the unit's violent maneuvers. His pale skin and heavy dark circles made him look like a corpse freshly crawled from a grave, yet the corners of his mouth curled into a sickly, twisted smile. The blips representing enemy units on the main monitor were the only entertainment in his eyes, and every flash of an explosion made the madness deep within his pupils burn hotter.
"Die... all of you, die..."
With a crazed smile on his lips, Shani vented his curse.
The instant the command was issued, a blinding light burst from the hidden muzzle between the two beetle-wing-like Energy Deflection Armor plates on the Forbidden Gundam's massive backpack thruster assembly. The distorted Guided Plasma Cannon, Fierce Bird, cried out. A green beam far thicker