I leave Alex behind and plunge swiftly into the storm’s crimson clouds, with two furious golden demons hanging off my back.

  [Red, I can confirm the mountain has already been evacuated. The area is clear] the Princess reports on the situation through my displays.

  “Perfect, thanks, White,” I accelerated to maximum speed, reaching my destination quickly. Just in time, too, as the pulleys were about to snap due to the golden corrosion. “Releasing package,” I said as I spun around and hurled my angry passengers against the rocks.

  Both slammed into the mountainside with tremendous force, kicking up a huge cloud of dust and chunks of stone.

  “They’ll be back on their feet soon. How’s the strategy looking, White?”

  [The fight will be somewhat difficult, but not impossible. Attack from a distance, staying outside their range to avoid corrosion. I recommend fast, powerful strikes. Don’t let them flank you, try to separate them and hit hard when you see an opening. Hold nothing back. The key is to take one down quickly to even the odds; after that, finishing the other will be simple. And if Alex holds out long enough, the two of you should be able to finish off the last one.]

  I quickly analyzed the plan of attack in my mind.

  “Okay, it sounds doable as long as I use the Cadejos properly. Do you have a backup plan?” I asked, hearing roars and watching rocks fly through the air.

  [Who do you think you’re talking to? I have several, including one you definitely won’t like for the worst-case scenario. But you shouldn’t need them.]

  “Let’s hope there are no surprises.”

  [If everything goes well, and the images gathered about the activity at the summit are accurate, destroying that sacrificial altar-like structure gives us a fairly high chance of getting out of here by the end of the day.]

  At last, both golden figures emerge from the dust, looking somewhat irritated.

  [Looks like it’s time to act. Good luck, Red.]

  “Thanks, White. Don’t forget to keep an eye on Alex in case of any emergency.”

  With everything settled, I pulled out a large energy cannon and focused my attention on the enemy.

  “Come on, monsters! My Cadejos and I will gladly send you back to the hell you crawled out of!” I shouted as I opened fire on them.

  Massive explosions of concentrated ether from my cannon tear into the mountainside. The armor-clad figures blur into streaks of gold as they try to dodge my incandescent rounds. But they’re far from stupid; they start zigzagging and moving away from each other, forcing me to choose a target to focus on while the other approaches from a different direction.

  “Damn it, White said they’d try to flank me,” I cursed as I stowed the large cannon and switched to dual weapons.

  The first to close in is slightly thinner, with lighter armor; clearly focused on speed. I greet it with point-blank fire from my automatic rifle, which it blocks by shielding itself with its arm. However, my shotgun is already pressed against its exposed chest.

  Unfortunately for me, it dodges at the last second, avoiding a direct hit to the cockpit, but leaving a large hole torn into its side. It immediately retreats upon realizing it’s at a disadvantage. I try to pursue it, but I’m stopped by the second unit, which attacks me with its fists.

  Reluctantly, I let my enemy go. I quickly dodge to the side, raise my shotgun again, and open fire on the new attacker. Unfortunately, the damage is far smaller, as the second unit has a much thicker layer of armor. Watching it closely, I can tell its structure is much wider than normal, giving it a somewhat squat body. That makes it slower than the previous one, but extremely difficult to penetrate.

  [Red, according to my calculations, only weapons with a penetration power of at least 5 will be able to get through it.]

  “Oof, the heavy ones, huh!” I immediately check my arsenal and pull out an anti-materiel rifle with tremendous penetration power, enough to punch through ships.

  I dodge its blows while waiting for the rifle to fully charge its energy. It doesn’t keep me waiting long; a beep soon sounds inside my cockpit.

  “Finally!” I said, lining up its chest in my sights and pulling the trigger.

  Unfortunately, things don’t go the way I want, as a rock slams into my arm, throwing the shot completely off.

  “You bastard!!” I shouted angrily, watching the slimmer unit that had already returned to the fight.

  Before long, I find myself under attack from both of them. With no other option, I pull out a pair of grenades and drop them as cover to escape the situation.

  “White, your strategy sucks. They have great coordination; every time I go after one, the other butts in.”

  [My strategy is the best possible given the available resources. I believe the problem lies between the controls and the seat.]

  “Between the controls and the seat…? Hey, that’s me, the pilot!”

  The Princess doesn’t respond, but taps her nose, indicating that this is indeed the correct answer.

  “And you say you don’t have a sense of humor…” I muttered under my breath. “If I can’t take them out individually, I’ll have to improvise something.”

  [I recommend the super-large weapons. High cost, but also high payoff.]

  “Hey, I thought bigger wasn’t always better for women.”

  [I regret to inform you that it never was] she says as she puts on a pair of glasses she obviously doesn’t need.

  “But it’s not a bad idea,” I said, refocusing on the fight.

  The golden armors soon charge again with their thrusters at full power. I suppose I’ll have to try it. I pull a grenade launcher from my hypercube, but don’t fire it right away. I wait until they’re right on top of me.

  “Not the recommended engagement distance, but to hell with it.”

  I fire the first round at the slimmer armor. It manages to dodge, but the shell explodes nearby, knocking it down anyway… and me along with it.

  I recover in midair and load another round, which strikes the second attacker. It can’t react with the same speed and takes the hit head-on, though with less impact. The Cadejos, for its part, withstands the collateral damage like a champion.

  I keep firing round after round at both of them. The planet’s skies fill with explosions, and smoke begins to spread.

  Even so, it’s still only superficial damage, easily repaired. But that’s fine, because damaging them isn’t what I’m after.

  Taking advantage of the smoke growing dense, I dive into it. The armors lose sight of me, but suspect I’m planning something, so they stay close to one another. Perfect!

  Without warning, I burst out of the smoke holding a saber aimed at the slimmer unit. Both are surprised for an instant, but not enough; with its speed, the golden armor catches the blade between its claws.

  Seeing this, I grin like an angler watching the line twitch because something’s taken the bait. I immediately let go of my blade and grab its forearm. Before it can react, I kick my thrusters to maximum and spin hard to the right, dragging it along with me. Just as expected, the stockier armor moves in to free it.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “You want it? Then catch!” I say as I hurl its companion at it with all my strength.

  Neither of them was expecting that. The slimmer armor slams into the thicker one, which tries to catch it, only to end up being struck by it instead.

  Taking advantage of the two of them getting tangled up with each other, I pull a very, very enormous object out of my magic hat.

  “Let’s see if this is big enough.”

  From cracks and fractals bursts forth a weapon resembling a cannon, except that at its center there is a huge, elongated pile ending in a sharp tip. The weapon is excessively massive in my hands, its overall size matching that of the Cadejos itself.

  [This seems like overcompensation to me, but it will do.]

  In my hands is the magnificent Pile Bunker, a pneumatic stake of gigantic proportions whose purpose is to fire a powerful pile capable of piercing even the most absurd armor. Even when fired from the atmosphere and allowed to build up speed, it can become a kinetic orbital bombardment projectile.

  “Clench your teeth!” I said as I activated the weapon, and the gigantic metal stake shot forward with tremendous recoil.

  Both golden armors tried to get out of the way, but only ended up hindering each other. The hit seemed guaranteed, yet at the very last moment, the slimmer one twisted sharply, placing the thicker one squarely in front to take the impact.

  Heartless bastard, but clever. Even so, it was a futile effort. Nothing could stop the advance of my big friend, which pierced both armors as if they were paper and continued on its path with the two of them in tow, until it was finally stopped by the crimson mountain, where it buried itself deep.

  “Alright, White, I have to admit it. Sometimes, bigger really is better,” I said with a grin.

  [Not quite. They’re still alive.]

  I watched through the dust as two figures writhed on the gigantic pile. Ugh, that looks disgusting; like two insects skewered on a needle. It seems the slimmer armor’s last-second move failed to stop the projectile, but did manage to prevent a direct hit on the cockpits.

  “Tch, stubborn vermin,” I clicked my tongue, mildly annoyed. “Well then, I’ve still got the big brother.”

  I said this as a figure twice as long began to materialize in the Cadejos’s hands.

  It was a somewhat rectangular cannon, extremely long and covered in lines of energy. Even in the Cadejos’s grip, it was twice its size. The only way to hold it without support was pointed downward.

  [Is that what I think it is?]

  “Yeah, a beautiful supermassive electromagnetic railgun. Well, this one’s a slightly older model; nowadays they’re a bit smaller,” I said as I powered up the weapon.

  Railguns are weapons that generate intense electromagnetic fields, capable of charging and accelerating a projectile to speeds of several Mach, penetrating armor and punching through materials with extreme kinetic energy that annihilates its target.

  And that’s exactly what I’m hoping it will do.

  Slowly, blue light began to envelop the weapon; and when I say slowly, I mean very, very slowly.

  [Still just as slow, huh?]

  “…Yeah. Very slow.”

  The one flaw of such incredible weapons is the sluggishness of their firing cycle, since the process of charging the ammunition takes far too long for active combat use. That’s why I hadn’t been able to use it until now. The slimmer one had enough speed to dodge it, and if I’d tried to aim at the thicker one, its partner surely wouldn’t have let me line up the shot.

  “But now that’s no longer a problem.”

  I watched my enemies begin to writhe violently, trying to free themselves from the pile and get out of the way, clearly sensing that this was nothing good for them.

  Beams of energy started to surge from my weapon as the electromagnetic charge prepared itself. The light grew more intense as the cannon trembled in my hands. It was almost ready. I held my posture as steady as possible in midair and kept the powerful weapon pointed downward.

  “You put up a good fight, but this is as far as you go,” I declared, confident in my victory and making sure to get a good shot with my camera.

  I watched the weapon reach its critical point. An intense blue light pulsed along its energy lines, and the air around me quivered from the power being built up. Victory was at my fingertip.

  But before I could pull the trigger, a golden flash streaked across the sky at blinding speed and slammed directly into the cannon.

  There was nothing I could do; the weapon exploded in my hands as it released its energy, and the blast engulfed me. The last thing I saw before my vision was swallowed by light was the cannon disintegrating into a cloud of smoke and sparks.

  [Rob!!] I heard the Princess scream in her characteristic tone.

  The explosion was tremendous and sent me hurtling hard into the ground. I slammed into the lower slopes of the mountain. This was bad, I could feel that it had actually dealt some damage to the Cadejos.

  “What the hell was that, White?” I asked, struggling to get back to my feet.

  Was it the unit Alex was fighting? Could it be that he hadn’t managed to keep it busy long enough? It was hard to believe he’d lost.

  [I’m sorry, Rob, this was my fault. My scanning capabilities still haven’t fully recovered. I focused on supporting you and monitoring Alex, so I didn’t see them approaching.]

  “What are you talking about?” I lifted my gaze to the sky and saw my attacker… or rather, attackers.

  Three golden units hovered above me, looking down with amusement: one wielding a massive sword, another with what looked like an energy weapon, and the last carrying a huge axe.

  “Damn it, can nothing ever go right in this universe?” I could only mutter what has already become my personal motto.

  The unit with the energy weapon fired at the pile that still had the other two trapped on it, splitting it apart and freeing them. The slimmer armor and the thicker one joined the other three, further increasing the number of my enemies. Even so, they didn’t seem focused on me just yet: the newly arrived ones roared at the other two as if scolding them, and the one with the greatsword even struck them a few times.

  “White, where did those others come from? Weren’t there only supposed to be three?” I asked, taking advantage of the moment.

  [From the other side of the planet. There’s a second continent with another mountain, a bit smaller than this one. Both act as a kind of magnetic pole from which the storm emerges.]

  “And how did we overlook an entire continent? Also, didn’t Ger and Cir say there were only three demons?”

  […That was an oversight on my part. My scanning capabilities weren’t at one hundred percent, and the intense storm blankets much of the atmosphere, preventing detection. As for Ger and Cir, the technology at their disposal doesn’t allow for intercontinental travel, so they likely don’t even know the second continent exists] the Princess said with her gaze lowered, unable to look at me directly. I could feel her sadness and shame.

  I couldn’t be angry with her. The situation hadn’t allowed us to notice the second mountain, and right now I needed to focus on getting out of here alive. I began to retreat slowly while they continued arguing in the sky, until the unit with the energy weapon noticed and fired several golden projectiles. Fortunately, I managed to dodge them with a quick maneuver, but now all eyes were on me.

  “Damn it!”

  With a roar from the armor aiming its greatsword at me, all five units launched themselves toward me at once, leaving golden trails in their wake.

  “You wretches!” I shouted as I pulled out the biggest and fastest weapon in my arsenal.

  From the depths of my hypercube emerged a heavy assault weapon made up of several small barrels that began to rotate as I activated it.

  “Take a taste of the mighty ultra-heavy Gatling!!” I yelled as the spinning barrels unleashed their incandescent fury upon them.

  A storm of bullets filled the skies, and though my golden enemies did everything they could to dodge and surround me, they couldn’t match my rate of fire. They were quickly riddled with rounds.

  “Come on! I’ve got a hypercube overflowing with ammo! Let’s see who dies first!” I shouted, trying to intimidate them without letting up my fire for even a second.

  Chunks of armor and glowing-hot rounds exploded through the air as I began to pin them down and think about how to make a break for it. Even so, I knew this stalemate couldn’t last forever. Before long, the barrels started to overheat from the excessive rate of fire. Fearing the weapon might explode in my hands, I decided to slow the bursts, which gradually cooled it down, but unfortunately, it created gaps between volleys.

  The unit with the greatsword didn’t waste that opportunity and charged at me during one of those openings. I immediately redirected my fire at it, trying to suppress it and force it back into cover.

  My eyes widened in disbelief when, in a somewhat cruel maneuver, it grabbed the thicker armor and shoved it in front of itself like a shield.

  “Bastard!”

  I cranked the rate of fire back to maximum, but it was already too late; they were right on top of me. Returning the favor, it hurled the squat, perforated armor at me. I was forced to stop firing to get out of the way, barely dodging the heavy projectile that slammed into the spot where I’d been standing just seconds earlier.

  Without wasting time, I raised my weapon again, but it was already upon me. With a single sword strike, my Gatling was split clean in two. I immediately threw the remains at it while backing away and drawing another weapon to cover myself. Unfortunately, before I could even line up a shot, a golden bullet tore it from my hands.

  “You wretches! You don’t give me time for anything!” I threw myself to the ground in a roll and tossed a few grenades to buy some space. But before they could explode, a swift axe blow sent them flying back at me.

  I watched them arc through the air in slow motion until they detonated right in front of me.

  The blast sent me flying, slamming me face-first into a cluster of rocks. It was an ugly fall that left me badly hurt but, surprisingly, still in one piece. I struggled to my feet, my Cadejos already starting to complain.

  “I know, I’m a wreck too,” I told my partner as I wiped some blood from my head.

  The only good news was that it seemed they’d lost track of me for a moment behind the rocks after the explosion. They wouldn’t take long to find me again, and if I left my cover, even less.

  “Hey, White, if you’re prepping some miraculous rescue, believe me, now’s the time,” I said with difficulty into the transmitter.

  [The enemy force is overwhelmingly superior, and Alex is dealing with problems of his own. I believe the only thing left is that alternative I mentioned, but you have to keep an open mind.]

  “At this point I’d even bark if that’s what it takes. Just say the word. I’m the most open-minded man there is—metaphorically speaking, of course—but if you don’t hurry, it’ll be literal.”

  [I’m glad to hear that. All you have to do is open a connection through the sensory circlet and let my consciousness link with yours.]

  “…Excuse me?” I asked, almost at a loss for words, while my hand was already moving to pull out the aluminum foil.

  [To clarify] the Princess looked at me seriously. [I need you to let me enter your mind.]

  “…Damn it.”

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