Cornelia received no orders from the command post, so she decisively chose to continue her pursuit.
If she was in danger, she trusted that her younger brother had the ability to order her retreat immediately.
This was not a sign of how close they were, but a matter of factional interests. As long as Ask remained in Area 11, he would never allow another imperial heir to die on his "turf."
For princes and princesses like them, that was a far stronger bond than something as intangible as family affection.
However, that only concerned her survival. Whether she won this battle had nothing to do with Ask.
He held no official position, and his sole mission in Area 11 was to ensure the supply of Sakuradite.
Even if Britannia's army lost to the "Black Knights," only Cornelia, the governor of Area 11, and her subordinates would bear responsibility.
Thus, before the order to retreat came, Cornelia wanted to crush as many of the "Black Knights" as possible and capture Zero alive.
However, with both the Island Nation Resistance Front and the "Black Knights" to contend with, she and her personal guard had been separated by "coincidence."
Rather than wait to regroup, Cornelia continued her pursuit.
Thud!
As she followed Zero's trail along a mountain path, two boulders suddenly rolled down the slopes beside her, heading straight for her machine.
A trap!
Cornelia immediately realized that troops from the "Black Knights" were lying in ambush in the bushes on either side.
She hurriedly dodged forward.
She had barely evaded the boulders when an armor-piercing round struck her machine's arm.
"Tch!"
Her machine could withstand rifle bullets, but not armor-piercing rounds.
Cornelia pressed the detachment button, jettisoning the damaged arm to avoid being caught in its explosion.
But the attacks kept coming. A red machine leaped out of the nearby bushes, its enormous steel claw lunging for her remaining arm.
"Gilford!"
She shouted instinctively, but her knight's familiar reply never came.
Turning to look behind her, she discovered that the personal guards following her had long since vanished. Instead, red lights blinked in the bushes on either side.
"EMC...?"
It was a signal-jamming device.
In other words, her communications had been cut off the moment she entered this area.
Her separation from her personal guard was probably part of Zero's plan as well.
Tch! He really played me.
When she was calm, how could she possibly have failed to see the purpose behind these schemes?
The problem was that, once she entered combat, she often unconsciously ignored seemingly unimportant details around her. It was her greatest weakness.
And what's more!
Her opponent knew that weakness well, and had deliberately designed this tactic to exploit it!
This Zero was just as Ask had said...
He was no ordinary opponent!
Bang-
The steel claw smashed toward her head-on. Cornelia pulled back to evade it, but at the same time, another Knightmare leaped out in front of her and threw a cable around the Landspinner units on her machine's legs, restricting her movement.
It was a Burai, a fifth-generation Knightmare developed by the Island Nation itself.
The cable jerked taut.
Crack-!
The steel claw seized its chance and plunged down, tearing a gaping hole in the cockpit.
With her last escape mechanism destroyed as well, Cornelia was exposed to the sunlight, with nowhere left to run.
Piloting the Guren Type-2, Kallen let out a soft breath of relief. She had been terrified that she might misjudge her strength and crush Cornelia to death. That would have made reporting back difficult.
According to the next stage of the plan, all they had to do now was wait for the so-called "rescue" to appear.
Zero opened his cockpit and stood atop the Burai, looking down at Cornelia as he sneered:
"Hmph. The Witch of Britannia fell into my hands after all."
"...Zero, I really did underestimate you. Well? Are you going to kill me?"
"No. You're worth more captured than dead."
"Heh..." Cornelia suddenly gave him an enigmatic smile and taunted:
"Capture me? You?"
"Do you still not understand your situation? Your communications are cut off. By the time your rescuers realize what's happened and get here, we'll be long gone. You've lost, Third Princess Cornelia."
"Indeed, I've lost, but..."
Boom-!
Before she could finish, a laser shot out from the mountainside beside them, piercing the mountain and blasting a passage straight through the rock.
Then a strange yellow-and-white aircraft they had never seen before hurtled forward, firing missiles to blast apart the rocks as it flew out of the passage it had carved.
"What...?!"
Shocked, Zero hurriedly dropped back into his cockpit.
Kallen lunged forward as well, placing herself in front of Zero's machine.
The yellow-and-white aircraft suddenly unfolded in midair, transforming into a Knightmare. Drawing the slender red sword mounted on its back, it slashed at the Guren's steel claw.
Clang-!
The slender sword knocked the claw aside. At the same time, the yellow-and-white machine spun and kicked, a short blade extending from its heel to stab straight into the Guren Type-2's waist.
The strike landed precisely below the cockpit.
Then it violently pulled its foot back, scattering fragments of the machine across the ground.
The Guren Type-2's drive system had been damaged, leaving it unable to move quickly.
Both Lelouch and Kallen were stunned.
"What... is that thing?!"
In that brief exchange, they had been outmatched in both piloting skill and machine performance.
The former might have been due to Kallen's unfamiliarity with the Guren, but the latter was a gap created by technology, funding, personnel, and countless other factors combined!
In Area 11, he could think of only one person who possessed a machine of this caliber-
That bastard had made his move!
The pilot of this yellow-and-white machine was most likely Ask's knight, Monica, the Twelfth Knights of the Round!
There was no helping it. The operation to capture Cornelia had failed.
If they stayed locked in a standoff here until Britannia's main force arrived, they really would be trapped like rats in a barrel.
Left with no other choice, Lelouch decisively gave the order.
"Kallen, retreat!"
Before you continue