He watched as Lillian tinued her assault, dismantling the fearless warriors with terrifying precision. Although Zack didn’t know the exaature of her abilities, he couldn’t ighe possibility that her bde might be able to cut through materials as durable as his nanosuit. "Ego, has the Avalon system rebooted yet?" Zack asked, his tone carrying a hint ency.

  The Avalon, piloted by Ava, had been grounded earlier due to the eleagic pulse. Thankfully, it had nded smoothly in an open area not far from the mountain. Zack was ready to call for an airstrike to obliterate Lillian and the Bck Hand’s forces entirely. Befo could respond, its voice came through with a shog revetion. "Sir... Lillian appears to be Ms. Sophia’s mother."

  Zack froze for a moment, stunned. "Sophia’s mother? That’s impossible," he said, shaking his head.

  He vividly recalled the iigation he’d ducted after the outbreak. The report had cluded that Lillian was st seen in a crowded shopping mall and resumed dead. "Sir, at the time, the survival rate was estimated at less than 4%. However, there was never definitive evidence of her death," Ego expined in its usual methodical tone.

  "A 4% ce? That’s still o impossible," Zack muttered. His expression hardehe cold edge of his personality taking over. "No matter what the odds are, after today, she’ll be dead for sure," Zack said, his tone id full of murderous i.

  Even if Lillian was teically Sophia’s mother—and by extension, his mother-in-w—Zack couldn’t afford to show mercy. First, she was clearly try to kill him. Sed, her strength posed a dired serious threat to him, ohat he ot uimate, a single mistake cost him his life. Zack were no saint, if the choice is his or the other life he will always choose his first. "Activate stealth mode," Zaanded.

  The nanosuit shimmered for a moment before blending seamlessly into the enviro. Using advanced optical camoufge, Zack became virtually invisible to the naked eye.

  Ego hesitated before speaking again. "Sir, perhaps you could use Ms. Sophia to make Lillian stand down—or even vince her to join you," it suggested cautiously.

  "There’s no need," Zack replied coldly. "Your pn relies entirely on the assumption of aional e between mother and daughter. That’s far too uaiions be clouded by amnesia, manipution, or even brainwashing. I don’t take risks like that."

  "Uood," Ego replied, falling silent.

  While cloaked in invisibility, Zack silently crept toward Lillian. She was still engaged in a fierce battle with the remaining five fearless warriors, unaware that a much greater threat was closing in. ’Anyway,’ Zack thought coldly justifying his a, ‘Sophia already thinks her mother’s dead. I’ll just make it true.’

  The thought was as emotionless as his steady approach. Just as he prepared to strike, a sudden roar of rockets and anti-tank missiles sliced through the air, heading straight for their location.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Explosioed in rapid succession, engulfing the area in smoke and fire. "Polifiode!" Zack barked, disengaging stealth mode at the st sed and activating his nanosuit’s defensive enhas.

  The shockwaves and shrapnel from the explosions battered him, but the nanosuit absorbed the brunt of the force, boung off debris like it was nothing. Zack emerged pletely unscathed. "Protect the master!" The fearless warriors reacted immediately. Abandoning their fight with Lillian, they formed a protective wall in front of Zack. Even the warrior whose legs had been severed by Lillian crawled forward, determio shield Zack with what remained of his body.

  Despite the rockets posing hreat to Zack, the fearless warriors remaieadfast in their loyalty. In stark trast, Lillian wasn’t as fortuhough her agility and superhuman abilities helped her avoid the brunt of the explosions, she was still only human at her core.

  The moment she sehe danger, she leaped into the deep crater at the top of Bear Mountain. But her speed wasn’t enough. Rockets nded close by, detonating with devastating force. "Bck Hand!" she shouted through gritted teeth, fury boiling in her voice.

  Another explosio her flying out of the crater. Her body was riddled with shrapnel, and blood streaked across her bat uniform.

  At the base of Bear Mountain, two heavily armed voys had e to a halt beside Bck Hand. From the vehicles, bck-cd soldiers were unleashing a relentless barrage of fireprenade unchers, individual rockets, and anti-tank missiles—all aimed at the mountain’s peak.

  Fmes roared, and smoke ed the battlefield, the pu stench of gunpowder saturating the air. "Don’t stop! Keep firing!" Bck Hand screamed, his voice manic.

  To him, casualties didn’t matter—her Lillian nor his own soldiers. All that mattered was Zack’s death. "Die! All of you, just die!" he raved, his voice eg like a madman’s mantra.

  Suddenly, two fiery ns several meters thick erupted from the ground like dragons, tearing through the air and heading straight for Bck Hand and his forces.

  BOOM!

  The fmes ed several vehicles, their heat so intehat the steel melted instantly. At the same time, a spider-like mecha, its three-meter body glistening in gold-titanium alloy, swung down from above using spider silk, nding directly in front of the bck-cd soldiers. The mecha’s oct, Annie, grinned mischievously. "Bad guys! Let the game begin!" she decred, activating it’s battle—or rather, game—mode.

  On Tarantu’s heads-up dispy, her eransformed into cartoonish vilins, plete with exaggerated features and silly animations. "Boom! Headshot! Full score!" Annie excimed as she fired Tarantu’s mae guns, gleefully mowing down the cartoon vilins on her s.

  Nearby, Erza joihe fray. Dressed in a fireproof bat suit designed by Zack, fmes danced on her wrists, their heat reag over 2,000 degrees. "Let’s see who gets more kills, Annie!" Erza called out with a petitive smirk.

  "Deal!" Annie replied, her voice filled with pyful excitement.

  "Alright, let’s add some reinforts!" Aapped a button, and a swarm of drones—hundreds of them—desded from the skies like a flock of birds.

  "That’s cheating, Annie!" Erza protested with a ugh, but it was too te.

  The drones locked onto their targets with deadly precision, each pig out a soldier or vehicle.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Explosions tore through the bck-cd soldiers’ ranks, leaving behind nothing but sm wreckage. Entire voys were wiped out in seds, and even Bck Hand wasn’t spared.

  Two droargeted him directly, bsting him into the air. His tattered cloak fell away mid-flight, revealing a body of metallic prosthetistead of flesh. Whe the ground, his broken remains y in a gruesome pile of twisted metal and blood. With Bck Hand’s forces obliterated, the relentless bombing on Bear Mountain came to an abrupt halt.

  As the fmes and smoke began to clear, Zack emerged from the chaos, unharmed. However, the fearless warriors who had shielded him hadn’t fared as well. One warrior, the same who had lost his legs to Lillian, had finally succumbed to his injuries. His power armor had shut down, its self-destruct meism activating to burn out the reactor. In the end, his armor became his tomb, and he fell in front of Zack, his final ae of unwavering loyalty.