"A monster... that's a monster..."
No one dared to look at the hideous face above their heads; they had only ever heard of this bizarre, deformed monster in legends.
"Bullets are completely useless against it... Is it a biological Teigu?"
As the captain spoke, an arm even more massive than the white wall before swung towards him.
As the massive object approached at high speed, it brought with it a strong gust of wind that caused the Imperial Guard's trench coat to flutter wildly. Sensing the attack, the captain crossed his two pistols in front of him to defend himself, but to no avail.
With a single, effortless strike, the captain was sent flying by the ' Hundred-Armed Giant's' attack.
The gun barrel was smashed, and the captain was sent flying dozens of meters away, his body crashing to the ground some distance away, followed by an explosion and a cloud of dust.
"I'd heard long ago that the captain of the First District Imperial Guard in the Imperial Capital was a bought-out position, and it seems it's true..."
Seryu emerged from behind the Hundred-Armed Giant, and all the Imperial Guard were preparing to attack instinctively took a half-step back.
"Everyone, be careful with this woman. Forget about the Night Raid for now; make her your primary target!"
Lubbock clutched his right hand tightly, running at high speed with the Shikoutazer as his axis.
Tatsumi then leaped up and flew together with Akame to the side of the Machine God.
" Tatsumi, I just tried it, and it's very difficult to directly injure this robot with ordinary slashes..."
A hint of helplessness was revealed in Akame's words.
"Your skill has improved far beyond my expectations during these days of training, especially your finishing move, that fastest sword strike, its power is in no way inferior to mine."
"You can no longer use ' Demon Incursion ' now, and if I'm not mistaken, your skill level will improve even further."
"That's... indeed, I feel stronger than before..."
Having trained under the Demon Incursion, Tatsumi was fighting with a heavy burden, unable to perform at his previous level without summoning his armor.
With Honest relieving him of his burden, Tatsumi felt as if the sword he had once found incredibly heavy now felt as light as wood, and was unbelievably easy to handle.
"Then let's give it a try, attack the same spot on it together, and see what happens!"
With her Akame focused and energy gathered, she held nothing back. Standing atop the highest tree in the palace, she held her long sword horizontally, preparing to unleash a slash at the Machine God at top speed.
Tatsumi also raised his longsword, imagining the scene of his battle with Lin Feng. Back then, he had used all his power and focused his attention on one point to actually injure Lin Feng. If he could replicate the feeling of that sword strike, he would have a chance to cooperate with Akame.
"Now!"
Akame and Tatsumi simultaneously stomped forward, the tree canopy even snapping off from their impact. In the Machine God's display area, only two flashes of blade light were visible, their speed too fast to be captured by the naked eye.
"This... does this mean we succeeded?--"
The two long blades pierced the same spot with incredible precision, and then, the seemingly indestructible and flawless shell of the Machine God actually developed a crack.
Within the crack, lightning and organizational structures flickered, seemingly indicating that some part of the Machine God's organization had indeed been damaged, but this was merely damage caused by the two long blades.
Clearly, this injury was insignificant to the Machine God, but it gave Akame and Tatsumi a glimmer of hope.
" Akame, if we attack the Machine God's weakest point together, maybe..."
"Indeed, the most urgent task now is to find its weaknesses and take action immediately!"
However, before Tatsumi could even rejoice, he saw bursts of yellow light emanating from the eyes of the Shikoutazer.
This light was definitely not something like a spotlight; its range was extremely short, as if it contained some kind of energy stored within it. But when one looked at its back, it seemed to be bottomless, and this deep, eerie light was extremely terrifying.
This is most likely the outcome that Tatsumi least wanted to see.
Its pupils were facing the back of the Akame.
" Akame, watch out! Get down!"
Before Akame could turn around, her vision was already enveloped by a pool of intense white light.
Everything around seemed to blur and disappear into endless nothingness along with the black and white lines.
"Launch— Destruction Orb Launch!"
A golden sphere radiating intense light, condensed from the pupil region of the Machine God, just now emitted a large amount of energy.
To say that it was just radiation is an oversimplification.
Because the range of that energy, in terms of width alone, was enough to engulf the entire palace.
The amber light dyed the bright daylight into an endless golden hue, and the desolate clouds were edged with an arrogant gold. The birds that should have been everywhere in the distance were nowhere to be seen—as if they had been separated by this golden light.
Those caught in the shelling were like those trapped in a cage of destructive beams, never able to see the bright sunshine and clear sky beyond.
Without any warning, everyone's eardrums seemed to become deaf to sound due to excessive vibration, and they only felt their skulls shaking along with time and space.
When I came to my senses, I didn't even realize what my current situation was, let alone what year it was.
Seryu, who was some distance away from the beam of light, was speechless with astonishment as he watched this magnificent sight from behind the Hundred-Armed Giant, Koro.
The Machine God's attack, aimed at its immediate vicinity, seemed to disregard its own security; it genuinely intended to obliterate the ' Night Raid ' along with the entire First District.
Having just been affected by the shockwave, even at such a distance, Koro's body had quite a few scratches, and this was only caused by the aftershocks of the shockwave.
If you look closely at the residential area, almost all the nearby houses, whether they belonged to high-ranking officials or ordinary people, or even the humble dwellings of the slums, were completely destroyed by this bombardment.
The people living there did not see their bodies; they were probably blasted into vapor by the shell without any warning.
"Are we... still alive...?"
"Thanks to you, Lubbock, cough cough..."
Just before the shot was fired, Lubbock retrieved all the threads that were originally intended to deal with the Machine God and used them as a protective shield in front of everyone.
The Night Raid members looked at the tattered threads before them and wanted to thank Lubbock beside them, but they found that they were all seriously injured and had no strength left to utter a single word.