Having traversed countless realms, can you possibly be as clever as me?

What an idiot! Did he think that beheading the MS would destroy the machine?

Just as she was about to pick up the machine gun and turn the enemy into a honeycomb, a feeling of suffocation suddenly overwhelmed her.

Her eyes bulged out, and she thrashed about like a fish out of water, her hands desperately clawing at the unseen hand in front of her.

Unable to control herself, she opened the cockpit door, then stared in horror at the steel bars burning in the fire below, unable to make a sound or control her body—

"Wouldn't it be better to just do it honestly? I wanted a more complete mecha, but now, sigh, never mind..."

A cold and cruel voice rang in Sarah's ears, and she made a hissing sound as she jumped. In the last moment, she saw the body of her companion, who had also lost control.

Then, a dark figure emerged from inside the Zaku.

Sarah, whose consciousness was already blurred, could not see the other person's appearance. All she saw was the thick, impenetrable darkness surrounding him.

It was as if that was a dark fate inescapable for everyone in the Principality of Zeon...

A sharp pain shot through his body, and his consciousness—clinging to the corpse, continued to wail in agony.

Tsugumi looked at the two headless Zaku lying on the ground in front of her, scratched her head, and glanced at the machine at her feet.

Is he considered a pilot of an MS?

He had absolutely no understanding of piloting techniques or weaponry, yet he wielded a heat axe, using the Force to control his machine and incidentally crush the enemy pilot.

Rather than piloting a mecha in battle, it would be more accurate to say that he was simply engaging in a magical duel.

That's right. Fighting is a tradition of UC drivers. This matter is nothing special and not worth mentioning.

But honestly, he was just making things harder for himself by driving this beat-up Zaku like this. After all, even without switching to the Devil character card, fighting with the Newtype character card is much more comfortable than controlling this kind of grunt machine.

Unless... He shifted his gaze to the bodies of the two Zaku, then narrowed his eyes.

......

"Notify all residents of Ishfi Island: Return to your homes immediately! Please note, return to your homes immediately!"

"The Principality of Zeon has come to suppress the Federation reactionaries at the request of the Hadti government. Anyone who hears this, please return home immediately to avoid being caught in the crossfire! Repeat, avoid being caught in the crossfire!"

"Attention, this is the final warning!!!"

Inside the landing pier on Ishfi Island, the Zeon landing forces responsible for suppressing and completely controlling the area were repeatedly broadcasting the same message through loudspeakers.

They demanded that these cosmic inhabitants return to their homes, hide in their safe houses, and not resist.

—This statement might have some credibility if it weren't based on the fact that their armored forces' tanks and armored vehicles were still constantly shelling residential buildings.

Intense gunfire erupted as fleeing people screamed as they were torn to shreds by bullets, blown into the air by artillery shells, or died in various other ways.

Captain Erich Hartmann, the MS battalion commander in charge of the landing and suppression operation, stared expressionlessly at the massacred space inhabitants.

He was a supporter of the Zabi family, so he was completely unmoved.

“There are no ordinary people here, only supporters of the Union and potential supporters of the Union.”

He issued ruthless orders to each soldier via walkie-talkie.

Kill them all on sight, leave no one alive!

As a confidant of Captain Otto, Lieutenant Erich was one of the very few who knew the strategic purpose of the attack on Ithufi Island.

These people are going to die sooner or later. They are just clearing out a space and handing it over to the troops who are really in charge of suppressing the area.

After all, the entire island of Ishfi has a population of over 20 million. If they were to kill them one by one, it would probably take until next month to wipe them all out.

They've already entered the colony, so their job is to wait for another team to complete their mission, then destroy the landing pier and completely seal off Ishfi Island.

"Captain, we've found a group of women and children here. They say they came from SIDE3..."

"Soldiers, obey orders! There are no civilians here!" Captain Erich commanded in a cold voice.

"Don't forget that you are a warrior fighting for the Principality of Zeon, for the greater good and freedom of the inhabitants of space. Carry out your orders!"

Soon, the sound of gunfire came from the other end of the walkie-talkie. Captain Erich, satisfied, turned off the walkie-talkie and urged...

"Where are Lieutenant Sima's Marines? Tell them to finish the deployment as soon as they arrive, or we're not waiting for them!"

"Captain, an unidentified unit is approaching us—Gurgle!!!"

Captain Erich frowned as he stared at the walkie-talkie from which the screams were coming from, and immediately switched to a different channel.

"What happened? Report back! What's going on?!"

"Zaku? No, what kind of mobile suit is that? Why have I never seen it before!"

"Hurry and shoot him down, hurry!!!"

"Why aren't the shells working?!"

Captain Erich, his face dark with rage, slammed the walkie-talkie, which kept broadcasting bad news, to the ground and roared behind him...

"Get my Zaku ready, come with me to see what's going on!!!"

Soon, four MS-05B old Zaku and one MS-06C Commander Zaku departed from the armored unit.

They advanced amidst the fervent envy of the other Zeon soldiers, and soon they reached the front lines, where they had completely lost contact.

Then, they witnessed a scene that horrified them.

The city was burning, the collapsed buildings piled up into ruins, and scattered around were countless Zeon soldiers whose bodies were impaled by steel bars or other objects and nailed to the ground.

They appeared to have committed suicide, but the scattered wreckage of tanks and armored vehicles around them proved that they had been blown up.

Right at the very front of the line of sight, a Zaku that looked nothing like a Zaku was standing on the wreckage of a Steel Tank.

It was a machine covered in incongruous metals. Its head vaguely resembled a Zaku, but it looked like it was wearing a heavy helmet. Several Zaku T-shaped breastplates were superimposed on its chest, with a large amount of metal welded or rather, glued to its body in a haphazard yet ingenious way.

If Zaku is a soldier, then the one here is a fully armed, massive, heavily armored knight.

Sensing their arrival, the bizarre, heavily armored 'Zaku' drew the weapon it had used to shatter the steel tank—a strange and enormous warhammer, with countless hammerheads inlaid with metal from tanks, Zakus, or other mobile suits, and three swaying Zaku heads hanging from the end of the handle.

The next moment, a chilling and terrifying voice rang out in the communication channel, sending shivers down their spines.

"Harvest the strong, eliminate the weak!"

Changing styles doesn't change anything, it's still all about killing! : 107. Have you ever seen a Zaku up close? He...

"He's playing tricks! Kill him!!!"

Captain Erich roared in fury as he stared at the enormous, twisted, and grotesque 'Zaku' before him.

He didn't know where this damned thing came from or who made it; all he knew was that everything this damned thing did was a provocation against their great Principality of Zeon.

With bloodshot eyes, he immediately ordered his MS squad to surround and attack the enemy. From three directions, five Zaku machine guns formed a strong line of fire that swept around the target.

Although the high-tensile steel used to manufacture the Zaku armor has extremely strong defensive capabilities against ordinary artillery shells, in the face of a 120mm machine gun, these stacked armor plates are not much better than sheet metal!

"Die, you lowly creature!!!"

The intertwined fire lines instantly engulfed the bizarre Zaku, but just as Captain Erich was grinning maliciously, preparing to watch the Zaku be torn to shreds...

boom! boom! boom!

Countless cannons failed to hit the strange Zaku, or rather, most of them were deflected by a force just before they were to hit.

Admittedly, they did hit the chest armor of that strange Zaku and shattered many of its armor plates, but after a volley of fire, the enemy was still not down.

Not only that, it seemed to be mocking them, as it forcefully pounded its own armor plates.

Such a weak strike!!!

A chilling, terrifying voice rang out again in the communication channel, but this time, the other party moved.

That movement was too fast.

It was so fast that it didn't seem like something a twisted, deformed, heavy object could achieve; it was as if the other party wasn't using the same engine nozzle as them.

The scattered ruins around them were cleared away in an instant, and as they reloaded, the strange 'Zaku' was already in front of them.

But ultimately, they were able to reload faster.

These ruthless thugs deserve severe punishment!

But just as they were about to unleash their firepower once again, the Zaku suddenly raised its free left hand.

The next moment, four burning chains shot out from his palms as if they had appeared out of thin air.

The chains instantly locked onto the four MS-05B Old Zaku in front of him, pulling them right in front of him!

The Hammer of Destruction!!!

The massive, heavy, and twisted warhammer, carrying an unstoppable force, fell in an instant, turning all four Zaku into scrap metal!

Only terrified screams could be heard on the communication channel before death vanished into nothingness.

"Ahhhhhh!!!"

Captain Erich, his previous arrogance gone, abandoned everything else, screamed, threw down his weapon, and fled!

The monster did not chase after him. When Captain Erich looked back, he saw an even more horrifying scene!

The enormous steel giant stood before the four Zaku he had smashed, and then raised his warhammer.

An unseen force pulled the steel and metal around him like a storm, then the metal shattered and adhered to his body.

The shattered and discarded steel has now been reshaped into a perfect form.

"Steel, eternal and immortal!"

A somber and terrifying voice echoed through the channel. Captain Erich felt as if it were all a nightmare—that monster wasn't human; it must be some kind of evil spirit!

Dead body sculpting

'Using magic to combine matter to create a body capable of containing the soul of the dead.'

This is a spell belonging to the Destruction domain from the Goetia grimoire that Tsugumi unlocked. Originally, it could only manipulate organic matter, but as his magic slots were unlocked, it gained a higher-level branch option and exists as the ninth spell.

Metal Master

As its name suggests, it has expanded from simple organic matter to inanimate objects, controlling and manipulating dead objects including metal. But at least for now, Tsugumi can only melt and break these metals and then stick them on her body as 'armor'.

If he had a deep enough grasp of this magic, or more time, he could refine and smelt these metals into stronger alloys or even magical metals.

As for the source of the magic?

Ah, look around.