"Sorry, everyone."
"I'm late."
When the familiar voice came through their earpieces, Kael, Fendona, Thorin, and the others all turned.
In the distance, a deep-blue spatial gate tore through the wind and snow, and a sleek, six-meter-tall black-and-red mecha stepped out.
The moment the mecha landed, the ice beneath its feet gradually cracked.
Thrusters on its back and feet spewed blue-white exhaust. Its massive steel body rose off the ground and flew swiftly over, stopping beside Yadis's dragon wing.
Fendona's eyes lit up at once.
"It's Lin Mo!"
Kael also made out the mecha's silhouette. His old-fashioned mage robe flapped in the wind and snow, and a rare trace of surprise appeared on his stern face.
"The Pangu?"
Thorin's eyes widened as he said,
"Wait a minute! Wasn't this thing blown to nothing back on Terra?"
They had all seen this model of super mecha before.
Back when Lin Mo escorted the Antimatter Bomb to the battlefield where the Pope was, the Pangu had been at the center of the explosion, destroyed without so much as a scrap remaining.
Yet now, the Pangu had appeared before them again.
And it seemed taller, heavier, and cooler than before?
The mecha's outer plating was no longer merely alloy armor. Dark-gold rune circuits flowed through the gaps in the black-and-red metal, like veins of lava sealed inside steel.
"Lin Mo, you're here!"
"Is this newly built?"
Fendona stood on Yadis's back, her voice filled with delighted surprise.
Lin Mo's voice came through the mecha's loudspeaker.
"Yes! The Pangu Mark II."
Hearing this, Thorin immediately stared at the runes on the mecha's exterior, his eyes growing brighter the longer he looked.
"Our dwarven runes?"
"Ha! Those fellows finally did some fine work!"
The corners of Lin Mo's mouth lifted slightly.
When he returned to