Warfare Augmented Intelligent Frame Unit

Chapter 151 - Fusion Link

Chapter 151 - Fusion Link

"Zaft!"

I stretched my trembling hand forward, desperate to grasp Neil's. But instead of the familiar grip I longed for, another hand clasped mine—a touch warm and soft, pulling me back from the edge of darkness and into reality.

It wasn't Neil.

Blinking through the haze, my gaze locked onto Myrrh. Her sapphire eyes shimmered with tears, swollen and red from relentless crying, yet she managed a fragile smile the moment she saw life flicker back in mine.

"M-Myrrh..." My voice cracked, barely a whisper. Then something caught my attention, a faint luminescence radiating from my chest. The glow pulsed gently, like the heartbeat I thought I had lost, before fading away.

I looked down. The gaping wound that had claimed me was gone, erased as if death itself had been undone. Only the shredded remnants of my spacesuit bore witness to what had been—a jagged, yawning hole revealing my bare chest and abs beneath, a haunting reminder of how close I had come to oblivion.

"Thank God... you're okay!" Myrrh sobbed, her voice trembling as she guided my hand to her cheek. Her skin was soft, damp with tears. "I don't know how you made it back... but I'm so glad you did!"

"Myrrh..." I whispered again, weaker this time, but my heart stirred at the tenderness in her touch. She held me as if I were the most precious thing in the universe, and for a fleeting second, I let myself sink into that warmth.

But reality crashed back. Neil.

"Wait... where's Neil?!" Panic surged through me as I forced my head up, the world spinning wildly around me.

Myrrh and I lifted our eyes to the heavens, where the great Cosmic Tree was beginning to unravel. Its golden and crimson leaves broke free, scattering like dying embers in a silent wind. Twigs splintered and crumbled into shimmering dust, rising toward the void as if returning to the stars that birthed them.

High above, the Cosmic Goddess trembled, her porcelain-like visage betraying cracks of despair as she watched her beloved creation fade into nothingness.

"NO! NOOOO! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!" 

Her voice thundered across the cosmos, an anguished wail that shook the very fabric of reality.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips as I steadied myself with Myrrh's trembling arms. My body screamed in protest, yet defiance burned hotter than the pain. I turned my gaze upon the divine tyrant and roared back:

"Don't you see now, goddess?! This is no accident. This is rebellion! Neil's final act, his defiance against the cruel, unjust world you chained him to!"

The goddess swiveled her head toward me. Her mannequin-like face remained cold, expressionless... except for her eyes. They bled black tears, inky rivulets staining her flawless cheeks like cracks in marble.

"HOW DARE YOU, MACHINE GOD'S APOSTLE!" 

Her voice fractured into pure wrath, reverberating through space like a death knell. 

"YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO MY TREE!"

With a motion swift as a meteor, she rose from her kneeling despair and raised her colossal hand. The air rippled, reality itself groaning as her palm descended—a living guillotine poised to crush Myrrh and me in one merciless strike.

There was no escape. The SHOTA unit I'd used lay smoldering in the distance, its frame torn apart by the earlier laser barrage. 

Myrrh whipped out her morpher, gripping it with trembling hands as she prepared to transform into her Frame Unit. But the moment she activated it, the device sputtered violently, sparks of blue electricity arcing across its cracked surface. The once-reliable gadget was nothing more than a broken husk.