Read Novel Full Chapter 1769: A weapon that should be used easily!
Chapter 1769: A weapon that should be used easily!
Meanwhile, back in the Armoury Sector, among countless reinforced warehouses, one particular empty storage facility had become the stage for a deadly standoff.
Ten Unit-Class mech-suits stood in a perfect circle, maintaining equal distance from one another as if executing a carefully rehearsed military formation. Every machine had its weapon raised, humming with compressed energy as crimson targeting lasers converged toward the lone figure standing at the centre.
Surrounded from every direction was another mech-suit.
In both of its mechanical hands rested a pair of jagged crescent-shaped weapons unlike anything the Unit-Class pilots had ever encountered.
Their ivory blades curved inward and outward like twin eclipses, and dozens of intricate grooves, hollow channels, and rotating mechanisms were carved into their unusual design, giving them an appearance that was both elegant and unsettling.
Inside the suit, warning alarms flashed across Young Aether’s visor without pause.
[WARNING! RIGHT WRIST ACTUATOR FAILURE]
[Joint Stabilisation Reduced to 61%]
[Mobility Efficiency Degraded]
The damage had been caused moments earlier when he instinctively caught and flipped the weapon from the destroyed mech-suit. The sudden movement had forced his already strained wrist actuator beyond its operational limit, reducing the responsiveness of his dominant arm.
Young Aether merely glanced at the notifications before dismissing them from his display.
His mechanical fingers slowly tightened around the circular slotted ring built into the centre of the strange weapon. The instant his grip settled into place, the entire crescent blade emitted a faint metallic vibration, followed by a low mechanical hiss as hidden mechanisms awakened deep inside its frame.
A faint violet light seeped through the intricate gaps carved along its edge.
Then it stopped.
A warning immediately appeared across his visor.
[WARNING: UNREGISTERED WEAPON DETECTED]
[INCOMPATIBLE MECH-SUIT SIGNATURE]
[WEAPON ACTIVATION FAILED]
Young Aether quietly stared at the notification before lowering his gaze toward the weapon in his hand. The faint violet glow slowly faded away, and the tiny mechanical movements ceased as if the weapon had rejected him.
“…Right.”
He finally remembered why it felt incomplete.
Every high-grade weapon required synchronisation with its designated mech-suit before its internal systems could fully activate.
“So this isn’t even its real for-“
^Incoming.^
RIN’s calm voice interrupted his thoughts.
Almost instinctively, Young Aether raised his head.
The combat display immediately highlighted ten separate threat indicators.
Crimson targeting lasers had already locked onto every vital section of his mech-suit.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
All ten Unit-Class mech-suits opened fire simultaneously.
Brilliant red particle beams tore through the warehouse.
Aether reacted purely on instinct.
His mech kicked violently off the metallic floor, using its remaining mobility to propel itself sideways. The first energy beam barely grazed his shoulder armour, tearing away part of the outer plating as sparks erupted across the warehouse.
The second beam raced directly toward his chest before he could reposition himself.
Without consciously thinking…
He raised one of the crescent weapons.
CLANG!
A sharp metallic impact echoed throughout the warehouse.
Instead of shattering beneath the overwhelming force of the particle beam, the strange weapon redirected it.
The energy blast slid across the curved edge before being reflected upward at an entirely different angle.
Aether blinked inside his suit.
“…It deflected the shot?”
The enemies reached the same conclusion almost instantly.
The moment they realised ranged attacks could be redirected, their tactical formation immediately changed.
Three Unit-Class mech-suits accelerated forward at the same time, abandoning long-range combat altogether.
As they charged across the warehouse floor, their rifles transformed through a rapid sequence of mechanical clicks and hydraulic hisses.
Armour panels shifted.
Weapon frames rotated.
Internal components folded and expanded into completely different configurations.
Within seconds, one rifle had transformed into a massive combat axe whose edge glowed with compressed plasma.
Another extended into a mono-molecular spear capable of piercing reinforced alloy with ease, while the third mech discarded ranged combat entirely and drew a pair of crimson energy knives from hidden compartments beneath its forearms.
The attack had been perfectly coordinated.
One would strike from the front.
Another would force him to defend.
The last had already slipped behind him, waiting for the exact moment to deliver the killing blow.
Aether didn’t have time to formulate a strategy.
His body moved.
The crescent weapon rotated smoothly around its circular grip.
The first mech swung its combat axe downward with enough force to split armour apart.
Instead of stepping backwards to block the attack, Aether stepped directly into the axe’s path.
SHRRRK!
Rather than colliding against the blade, the outer crescent slid across the axe’s handle. The hooked edge continued gliding forward until it found the narrow opening protecting the mech’s elbow joint.
Metal screamed.
The crescent blade sliced cleanly through the assembly before continuing its arc without losing momentum.
The Unit-Class mech’s entire forearm detached from the elbow, spinning through the air before crashing heavily against the warehouse floor.
“ARRGHH!!”
The pilot’s horrified scream echoed through the communication channel as warning alarms consumed his suit.
The second attacker had already arrived.
The mono-spear thrust toward Aether’s suit with incredible speed.
Aether twisted his wrist at the last possible moment.
Instead of avoiding the attack, he guided it.
CLANG!
The spearhead slipped perfectly into the hollow opening at the centre of the crescent blade.
The weapon’s curved design naturally embraced the spear shaft.
“…Caught you.”
Aether instinctively rotated his wrist.
The internal grooves inside the crescent locked firmly around the spear, preventing it from being withdrawn.
The enemy pilot immediately attempted to pull back.
He couldn’t.
Aether pulled with all the strength his mech could produce.
The mech lost its balance almost instantly as its own forward momentum betrayed it. Before the pilot could recover, Aether pivoted around the trapped spear like the centre of a wheel, redirecting the charging mech towards another mech approaching from behind.
BOOM!
The spear wielder slammed directly into the knife user with tremendous force, sending both mech-suits crashing across the metallic floor in a shower of sparks.
Young Aether remained standing at the centre of the warehouse. The pair of crescent weapons rested calmly in his hands as he slowly raised one of them and pointed its jagged blade directly at Commander 10
A challenge that seemed to say…
Is that all you’ve got?
For a brief moment, the warehouse fell completely silent. The remaining mech-suits hesitated, while Commander 10 stared through his visor.
Then…
Drip…
A crimson drop landed on the metallic floor.
Young Aether frowned.
“…Huh?”
Another drop followed.
Drip…
Then another.
Drip…
His eyes instinctively shifted toward his right hand.
Blood?
Almost immediately, warning windows flooded his visor.
[WARNING!! ARMOR INTEGRITY DECREASED BY 50%]
[WARNING!! PILOT INJURY DETECTED]
[MULTIPLE LACERATIONS IDENTIFIED]
[BLEEDING… MODERATE]
“…What the…”
Young Aether blinked in confusion.
“How?”
He hadn’t taken a direct hit.
The enemy’s attacks had either missed or been redirected.
His movements had been smooth.
He was winning.
…Wasn’t he?
His gaze slowly lowered toward the strange crescent weapon in his hand.
Only then…
Did he finally notice it.
Every time he had spun the weapon around its circular grip, those razor-sharp edges had scraped across his own arm.
His eyes widened.
“…You’re kidding me.”
Looking more closely, the damage became impossible to ignore.
Thin cuts stretched across his wrist.
More lacerations covered his forearm.
Fresh gashes had opened around his elbow joint.
Even his biceps had been sliced in several places.
The wounds weren’t caused by enemy weapons.
They had all been inflicted…
By the Eclipse itself.
Every time he instinctively shifted his grip…
Every time the weapon rotated through his palm…
Every time he changed its stance…
Its countless hidden edges carved into both the mech-suit’s inner framework and the flesh of the pilot controlling it.
No wonder the movements had felt strangely aggressive.
The weapon demanded absolute precision.
Anything less…
And it hurts its own wielder.
Cracks spread across the damaged armour protecting his arm, exposing glowing red energy lines beneath the fractured plating. Blood continued flowing through the narrow opening.
Only now did Aether realise why he hadn’t noticed the injuries earlier.
He simply hadn’t felt it.
^You really should have practised with it before bringing it into an actual battle.^
RIN’s calm voice echoed inside the suit.
“…”
The blood dripped from the fresh cuts running across his arms. Young Aether frowned in genuine surprise. He had been using the weapon exactly as he intended, his movements precise, his grip steady… so how had he managed to injure himself anyway?
Unlike most weapons, which usually had a single sharpened edge that naturally guided the wielder’s strikes, or even double-edged blades that still followed conventional swordsmanship, this was something entirely different.
The Twin Eclipse.
Its jagged edges… its twin crescent blades… the entire weapon resembled two monstrous claws fused into a single piece of steel. Even gripping it felt unnatural. The only place to hold it was the slotted ring at its centre, and the weapon itself rotated freely around that axis like a perfectly balanced gyroscope… almost like a futuristic fidget spinner designed solely for killing.
Using it recklessly was practically asking to lose your own limbs before your enemy even touched you. Every spin, every shift in momentum, every careless wrist movement threatened to redirect one of those razor-sharp crescents straight back into its wielder.
Simply put, it was far more dangerous than a double-edged sword.
For a single strike, it was devastating!
But chaining attacks together was another matter entirely. The weapon’s momentum never truly stopped. Each movement flowed into the next, forcing its wielder to predict not only where the enemy would be, but where the spinning blades themselves would return.
It was a weapon that demanded mastery!
Unfortunately, Young Aether didn’t have that luxury. He had only acquired the Twin Eclipse today, yet he was already using it against experienced military-grade mech suits without a single training session.
Commander 10 burst into laughter as crimson blood seeped from the seams of Young Aether’s mech suit. His subordinates quickly followed, their voices echoing across the battlefield. To them, this was nothing more than the spectacle of an overconfident fool slicing himself apart with his own weapon.
“Seriously?” one of them scoffed. “He brought a weapon he can’t even control?”
Another pilot laughed through the comms. “Forget killing us. At this rate, he’ll dismantle himself first.”
“What a pathetic idiot.”
Young Aether merely clicked his tongue.
‘Tsk… I need to work on this.’
He flexed his fingers inside the armoured gauntlet, ignoring the sting. Thankfully, the cuts weren’t deep. Nothing serious enough to affect his grip.
His hand tightened around the slotted ring.
Then, with a calm smile, he slowly raised a finger and beckoned the enemy forward.