“Thank you, Nozomu, for coming…”
Galatea had thought she was about to die, about to be crushed by the colossal body of a dragon, when this man, who had saved her countless times before—so many times she’d lost count—stepped in to save her once again.
Upon reflection, how many times had he saved her life?
There was the time he used a precious spiritual medicine after she’d retreated disgracefully from the Great Mother, and on the battlefield, they had covered each other so many times she’d lost count.
And then, when she had resigned herself to die in humiliation, captured and degraded, she saw his figure and realized…
It wasn’t the white horse she had dreamt of as a starry-eyed maiden…
Looking back, there was no white horse, but rather a military-gray vehicle, and atop it, a body without a head.
A head, gone.
“noz…mu…?”
Just a moment later, the head was thrown nearby, bouncing as if it were a ball, rolling and smearing through the mud and its own overflowing blood, with a stunned expression as if it didn’t know what had happened.
“noz…mu…? It’s…off…already?”
Involuntarily, a foolish line had slipped from her lips. Pushing away the hand that still clutched her collar, she picked up the severed head, unsure of what to do, then placed it atop the still-standing body of the Gear Caliber, using the vehicle’s auto-balancer to hold the torso upright.
“a…h? That’s…strange…”
But they wouldn’t join. The severed head merely trailed blood and rolled once more at her feet.
“D-This won’t do, Nozumuu, dropping something as important as this…”
[Clan Leader…!]
[Nozumu-sama…]
The subordinates who had rushed to aid after firing had arrived speechless.
“Mi…everyone… Nozumu…”
In front of Galatea, clutching the head, the warriors either dropped to their knees or threw down their guns in desperation.
No one had ever thought he would die. The man who had guided them through every situation, pulling off impossible plans with that half-smile of his, had never once seemed mortal to them.
For the Sylvanians, he was a companion to a divine lineage, and for the Tech Gobs, he was the unmatched hero who had recovered the Great Mother.
And for Galatea, he was not only a saint but the first person she had ever truly fallen in love with.
His easy death seemed inconceivable.
“Aah… Captain… you’ve always been reckless, and I thought something like this would happen one day.”
And amidst those struck by the loss of their leader, there was one who felt differently.
Serene, the small mechanical fairy housed in the chest pocket of his coveralls, who leapt onto the Gear Caliber and shook her head disapprovingly at her headless partner.
“Even T.Osamu’s and the blessings of the Three Holy Saints are not infinite. You’ve been too reckless.”
“M-mechanical Fairy…sama… c-can Nozumu be… fixed?”
Galatea had nowhere else to turn but the small mechanical doll before her. She put her faith in the existence she believed lived within machinery to help.
Certainly, if a miracle could bring her love back to life, there was no harm in believing in it, was there?
“Unfortunately, it’s impossible. This unit is beyond regeneration.”
“It’s…a lie…”
“I apologize, but I dislike trivial lies or jokes.”
Still, the miracle, so believed in by Galatea, was cruelly denied by the very being she trusted. After observing the wound closely, Serene called something down from the sky.
A simple structure drone with two circular tilt rotors hovered in the air. Serene summoned her main drone, extending work arms toward Nozomu’s head.
“Mechanical Fairy! What are you doing!?”
“I’m just moving it where it belongs.”
“Is…is this punishment for our disregard of the saint you sent down!?”
“What?”
To Serene, the sudden outburst was bewildering.
Galatea didn’t understand, but she had her own logic based on her faith. Perhaps the saints weren’t treated with enough reverence. The knights and priests of the Holy Canopy Capital had judged him as heretical, constrained him, and even attempted to kill him.
Surely, the Mechanical God of Heaven would be angered. He would certainly want His important apostle back, and surely, this was an attempt to reclaim him for the heavens.
“There’s no punishment involved. I’m simply moving him to where he belongs.”
“So, you are returning him to Heaven?”
“Huh? You’re dense. Fine, you can keep the captain’s head, but leave it with someone else’s pack.”
“But I… I want Nozumu…”
“If you insist on being selfish, Captain won’t return.”
The unfamiliar language, which Galatea presumed to be celestial, seemed to refer to Nozumu.
“So, if I comply, you’ll return Nozumu to me?”
“Return? Well, let’s just say… all right.”
Ordered to hurry, the stunned Tech Gobs and Sylvanians scrambled onto the pack wolves.
How lucky they were. The dragon, whose neck was injured after a crash landing when its wings were destroyed, was unable to move. They would have been massacred otherwise.
“Hurry!”
“But… I can’t leave Nozumu behind…”
“The head is what matters. Which one is Nozomu, to you?”
Though asked to choose, how could Galatea, with her simple understanding of the situation, decide? Comparing the head and the torso made no sense. Even though the gear-clad body was still warm, the command to leave without it was hard to digest.
“You’d better hurry.”
“Yes… Mechanical Fairy…”
With wobbling, stumbling steps, Galatea finally managed to mount Peter’s pack wolf.
Apparently, control was with Serene. The pack wolves immediately sped away. The remains of Nozomu’s torso quickly vanished from view.
“Nozomu…”
“You don’t get it, do you? You humans, with your bodies… they’re expendable. This unit was just expendable, that’s all.”
Serene’s small doll-like body moved, exploring the wound as if dismissing Galatea’s feelings.
“What bad luck for the captain too. Precisely when the terminals were about to be detached.”
Confused and unwilling, the group continued on the pack wolves and soon stopped before an ancient moss-covered Giant.
No, closer inspection revealed that part of the Giant was clean—especially the chest armor seams, which showed signs of recent cleaning and use.
“Bring Captain Nozomu’s head here.”
“Yes…”
Without understanding, Galatea entrusted the precious head to the mechanical fairy, hoping desperately for a miracle.
However, the head was received not by Serene, but by the drone descending from the heavens.
The drone’s multipurpose arm lifted the head, and its mechanical work arm extended, grasping various tools.
Without warning, the head began to be dismantled.
“Kyaah! Kyaahh!!”
[What is this?!!]
[Nozumu-sama?!]
As everyone screamed in terror, the drone methodically dismantled the head, removing what it deemed unnecessary sections layer by layer.
In the end, after the skull was peeled away, there emerged a block-like machine, no larger than the brain it had encased, glowing a dull metallic sheen.
“What are you doing?! What are you doing to him!!”
Before the situation could fully absorb, Galatea grabbed the small doll-like body of the mechanical fairy in a panic. Even though it was improper, she couldn’t stop herself. The torso she’d left behind in grief, the head she’d saved, all subjected to this—how could she remain calm?
“Please release me. That is Captain Nozomu’s true body.”
“The true body…?”
“Yes, the flesh is just a shell. Strictly speaking, even that could be considered a second shell.”
Though told that the soul resided within the object, they somehow accepted the explanation.
For the machine revealed within the dismantled head wasn’t ordinary—it was strange yet otherworldly, almost divine in its mechanistic elegance. A sacredness that only a world where machines were prayed upon to move could possess.
“Nozomu… Is this…where you are…?”
“Yes, he’s there, he’s always been there. Now, I’ll give Captain a new shell.”
The drone ascended and approached the kneeled ‘Guardian God,’ inserting the former head unit, the brain core, into the central control of the mechanical weapon Titan-2 Type G, connecting various cables one after another.
“And this one goes there… It’s tricky since the Yellow Zodiac Federated Union standards don’t match our home. If you’d just let us handle it remotely, it’d be easier. And this cable… We can patch it through a relay…”
As the eerie mechanical body murmured in the void, one of the guards suddenly cried out.
“Hey! There’s something coming!”
“Ya… Yikes! It’s the dragon! Why is it chasing us!?”
Indeed, there it was, the shadow of the Giant Dragon. Be it instinct or habit, it seemed drawn to fast-moving objects.
And the quickest-moving things in the sky at the moment were the pack wolves.
“Ky…It’s… here…”
“Oh dear, looks like trouble. Let’s run for it.”
Automated control activated, and the pack wolves darted forward, but Galatea could not peel her gaze from where the brain core was inserted.
“Wait! Nozomu! Don’t leave Nozumuu!!”
“As Captain would be more saddened by your deaths. I may find it annoying, but we must try to avoid that…”
“NOZOMUU! NOZOMUU!!”
“Oh for heaven’s sake… Wait, this isn’t good…”
As the mechanical fairy muttered, the pack wolves suddenly decelerated, screeching to a stop as their limbs dug into the ground.
Soon after, a monstrous shadow blocked their path.
The giant dragon, its throat rumbling, towered over them. Forty meters in length, with a towering height of about ten meters. Both knights and warriors were frozen, incapable of lifting their weapons.
They had never encountered such colossal creatures before.
Its reptilian eyes, merciless and cold, froze them in their tracks with every blink of its nictitating membrane.
There was no hope; should they even move to pick up their weapons, it would make no difference.
“Help…”
Nay, there was but one other option. To move her lips and either beg for mercy or scream in terror.
Galatea chose the plea for help.
A plea that usually would never reach…
But it did.
An unexpected rhythm of footfalls and rhythmic claps accompanied by an extraordinary song in an unfamiliar tongue that resonated throughout the world.
“DAHHHHH!!”
An explosion shattered the air.
The silent “Guardian God,” who had slumbered for eternity, awoke instantly. With a mighty “Drop Kick,” it struck the great dragon, the metal meeting flesh with an ear-splitting crash. The shadow that had nearly swallowed the small group was blown away, dissipating into the horizon.
“You called, Galatea?”
And turning its head toward the beseeching maiden, the towering giant that landed with unmatched agility despite its size asked.
“Nozomu…?”
“Yes, I’m late, but I’ve come to save you.”
The round, glowing monocular radiated energy, while the rugged manipulator extended a thumbs-up.
“Congratulations on your return to base reality, Captain.”
“Yes, I’m back, Serene.”
The Guardian God, Titan-2 Type G, or rather, the soul inside—Nozomu—stood in the way of his friends, guarding them from the dragon. Clashing the composite alloy fists, the hero announced his return.
“Well, you’ve caused quite the ruckus, haven’t you, you old lizard? Your underlings gave us a good scolding earlier.”
The dragon growled menacingly.
“So, you’re back too, I see?”
To the dragon brimming with malice, the steel titan responded with matching malice, rotating its arms with vitality and strength that seemed more biological than mechanical.
“Round two.”
With the proclamation, the 10-meter giant moved forward fluidly, striking the dragon’s neck with an elegant “Lariat.”
The thunderous sound reverberated across the outskirts, signaling the commencement of the second round…
[Exploratory Log] For mechanized humans, their shells are nothing more than interchangeable tools. No matter how attached others may become to them, they are simply tools…
And thus concludes today’s update.
The next update is scheduled for around 15:00 on July 28, 2024.
