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The Pinnacle Reached After Challenging the Unreasonable and Pursuing Inefficiency Part 2

 

「Those fragments have to be limited in numbers. You’ve overplayed your hand, Outis!」

Switching the lasers to continuous fire at maximum output, he aimed to overwhelm the defense. The prolonged beams pierced through the fragmentation field but failed to penetrate Unit 5’s additional armor.

The shimmering fragments vaporized in the intense heat, but the core protection of Unit 5 remained intact.

「Why? Why won’t it break?!」

「This is the blessing of the Production Machines you mocked. They’ve always been on my side.」

The additional armor Unit 5 was clad in had been crafted overnight by Arges and the Production Machines aboard the Astraea. This lamellar-style armor consisted of thousands of layered nano-ceramic sheets, stacked into tile-like formations of exceptional durability—so robust they were notoriously difficult to process.

These tiles were sealed within composite armor containers made of reinforced titanium and metallic glass. The long years of experience had allowed Arges and the Production Machines aboard the ship to create this armor, so complex that could be referred to without exaggeration as the pinnacle of engineering.

Each tile diffused particles, disrupted beam convergence, and insulated against extreme heat. The attenuated laser beams were incapable of penetrating such protection.

The Asmodel continued its relentless laser assault, but each beam was met by radiant metal fragments that dissolved upon contact. The evaporated and diminished fragments were automatically replenished, evenly redistributed across Unit 5’s surface in a coordinated manner to maintain full coverage.

Realizing the lasers were ineffective, the Asmodel switched to its rifle-shaped particle cannon. However, the endless cascade of metallic particles formed a barrier, and by the time the beam reached the armor, its power had already been fully dissipated.

「This can’t be happening…」

「This is the Thunder Armor. Whether it’s a charged particle cannon or a laser, they’re useless against it.」

This specialized metallic powder armor was designed explicitly to counter charged particle beams and lasers. If Asmodel had been equipped with a high-powered railgun or autocannon, it might have had a chance of penetrating Unit 5 defense. However, the Thunder Armor had been created with that knowledge in mind, no Antique Silhouette carried such ‘crude’ weapons.

Arges1 had lived up to his name when he created the Thunder Armor it was indeed a divine suit of armor worthy of a god.

Seizing the opening, Unit 5 maneuvered to Asmodel’s side, targeting the right flank where its remaining arm was attached.

「Where are you looking?」

Unit 5 was hovering directly behind Asmodel. Its six large thrusters, fanned out like the grand feathers of a bird, shimmered with energy.

In an instant, the blade was drawn, and Asmodel’s neck was severed with ease.

「Faster still… Is it capable of that level of acceleration?!」

Raimund stammered, struggling to comprehend the speed.

Unit 5’s latest burst of speed surpassed even the recalculated estimates based on its earlier acceleration. Everything about its performance was beyond Raimund’s understanding, far outside the bounds of his conventional knowledge. It was painfully clear how far behind the times they had become while they were bidding their time in the depths of the ocean.

「It can, and it does.」

Unit 5 was now leveraging its overwhelming thrust to spin its entire frame with dizzying force. While Asmodel was capable of smooth acceleration to its top speed, Unit 5 employed large detonation-wave thrusters designed explicitly for rapid acceleration.

This massive thruster system allowed Unit 5 to exceed 2,500 kilometers per hour—breaking Mach 2.

Arges had outfitted the additional armor with one ultra-large thruster and six large thrusters, all engineered for acceleration dominance.

「That’s absurd! I never heard of a Silhouette capable of doing all this! Who the hell are you?!」

「I’ve told you already. I am no one. Just Outis.」

The difference in mobility was staggering. Unit 5’s acceleration capabilities were leagues ahead of the Asmodel, and its pilot’s skill only emphasized the gap.

Had Outis desired, he could have captured the Asmodel—a precious antique silhouette—intact. The fact that he had refrained from doing so was deliberate—meant to make an example of him.

The realization hit Raimund like a cold wave, and beads of sweat began to form on his forehead, refusing to stop.

Unit 5 deliberately widened the distance and then unleashed a volley from its D-rifle, firing in rapid succession.

The continuous barrage tore apart Asmodel’s armor, piece by piece. Even its plating—constructed from materials no longer reproducible by modern means—proved vulnerable to the liquid-metal projectiles.

「It worked…!」

Watching the battle unfold on the monitor, Aki murmured, filled with emotion, while Nyanta, sitting beside her, nodded in agreement.

The rifle they had developed had pierced the armor of a Cherubim-class Silhouette, one of the most formidable Silhouettes created in the Interplanetary Warfare era.

Unlike modern Silhouettes, the Antique Silhouettes lacked the reinforcing structure of artificial muscles beneath their plating. Once the armor was compromised, the internal framework was inherently fragile.

「That special projectile from the recorded footage! An ordinary ballistic weapon has pierced the armor of the Asmodel—?!」

The unexpected damage left Raimund reeling. His mind flashed back to the combat footage they had recovered from the skirmish that had brought the current situation. In the footage, an Antique Silhouette had been reduced to scrap by mysterious projectiles. Now he was certain: the weapon that had pierced the armor of the Asmodel used the same unknown ammunition he had seen on those records.

「Optical weaponry has too many flaws. The overreliance on optical weaponry was the greatest blunder of the Interplanetary Warfare era’s weapon developers, and an easy to exploit weakness of arrogant idiots like you who depend on the power of those relics.」

Outis continuously moved into Asmodel’s blind spots as he spoke with unwavering confidence.

「The famous Fairy Blue once said: ‘This weapon, crafted by the greatest gunsmith and the ultimate wildcat, will pierce through even the highest-ranked Antique Silhouettes.’」

「Impossible! A ballistic weapon can’t possibly achieve such power!」

「It’s the ultimate ballistic weapon.」

Outis replied with a faint smirk.

「A shell capable of penetrating composite armor made from layered charge-shift coupled nano-ceramics? That’s absurd!」

「That’s a material no longer reproducible in the current Asia. The only ways to counter it are with extreme heat or immense pressure—in theory.」

Even as he spoke, Unit 5 unleashed a relentless barrage of liquid-metal rounds from its D-rifle, each shot landing with precision.

「No matter how advanced the dimensional armor projection is, the fundamental physical properties don’t change. Once the elastic limit is breached, rigidity collapses rapidly. That’s physics. Optical weaponry has long since been surpassed.」

The D-rifle, designed to launch liquid-metal projectiles, employed an advanced mechanism where the round behaved fluidly upon impact. By starting in a fluid state, the projectiles penetrated armor with greater efficiency than conventional designs.

The shell was a two-layer structure: the outer liquid-metal layer was metallic hydrogen, capable of creating explosive combustion on impact. Even if the shell failed to penetrate the armor, the resulting shockwave inflicted significant damage. The denser inner core was made of rhenium, providing maximum impact force. This was the pinnacle of ballistic weaponry.

「How… how does something like that even exist?」

Raimund murmured, shaken to his core.

Asmodel was the ultimate balanced machine, designed by a super AI with an emphasis on efficiency, even factoring in manufacturing costs. It was possible to excel in one area by sacrificing another, but the weapon operators of that era had rejected such trade-offs.

「A weapon crafted with overtechnology, designed to be the strongest. From your perspective, that may seem wasteful. But the Silhouettes of today are the culmination of the relentless trial and error of their creators—those who challenged the unreasonable and mastered inefficiency. And you’ve seen the result firsthand, haven’t you? Against your perfect Antique Silhouette!」

The CX-type boasted unparalleled performance. To reach this level of achievement required not only the expertise of the Development Engineer to develop the technology, but also the tireless hard work and experience of the Production Machines that brought it to life.

Progress in research had no shortcuts or perfect solutions—only iterative improvements. What seemed like inefficiency was, in truth, the accumulation of effort and failure. The Transferees and the Production Machines had endured countless setbacks to continually develop new forms of silhouettes.

「By defeating you and your Asmodel, I will prove the true worth of the Silhouettes created by today’s Development Engineers.」

TN: The origin of Arges’ name comes from one of the three Cyclopes in Greek mythology, the three were known for their craftsmanship and ability to forge powerful weapons. Arges along with his brothers worked in Hephaestus forge and were the creators of Zeus’ Thunderbolts, Poseidon’s Trident, and Hades’ Helm of Darkness. Making them the greatest blacksmiths of Greek mythology only surpassed by Hephaestus himself.