"Looking to die?"
Wang Hu watched as the Calamity, having lost all its weapons, stubbornly charged toward him with its head down.
He then glanced at the other two Gundams that had suddenly stopped moving nearby.
With his sharp mind and keen understanding of human nature, Wang Hu grasped Olga's intention inside the Calamity Gundam.
Just moments ago, when being pursued by him, Olga had been desperately resisting, barely holding on until reinforcements arrived.
Yet now, he appeared determined to die—the true reason behind this.
"It seems death is less terrifying than returning alive to face punishment," Wang Hu muttered to himself. In truth, he could somewhat understand.
As everyone knew, due to certain historical reasons, the East Asian Federation had a zero-tolerance policy toward substances like flour.
The reason was simple: once someone got hooked on flour, it wasn't necessarily impossible to quit.
But out of ten people, only one or two managing to quit was nothing short of a miracle.
And what happened to those who couldn't quit?
Beyond losing everything they had, they eventually became emaciated, walking corpses.
Their lives would be spent in a daze until death!
To get a concrete idea of what such people looked like, one only needed to observe a certain city in the Atlantic Federation.
Given such severe harm, why was quitting so difficult, and why were those who succeeded called miracles?
Because of withdrawal symptoms.
Well, since flour and such were neither too distant nor too close to East Asians, they might not have a concrete concept of it.
But everyone should know about cigarettes, right?
Go ask smokers around you what it feels like to quit.
Then multiply that by ten, or even a hundred—that's roughly what quitting flour is like.
And the punishment Olga and these enhanced humans faced could be even more painful than quitting flour!
Sidestepping Olga's desperate, suicidal charge, Wang Hu in the Lightning Zeta Gundam turned his head to observe the reactions of the other two aces.
During their initial clash, they had seemed eager to devour him alive.
They had been quite active in rescuing their comrade, but once they realized Olga had lost his combat ability,
the two now adopted an indifferent, cold attitude.
They simply sat back and watched Olga seek death, watched as Wang Hu killed Olga!
Even when Wang Hu didn't kill Olga immediately, Clotho and the other remained motionless.
Clearly, they were determined to wait until Wang Hu finished off Olga
before starting the next phase of the battle!
"What is this? A display of camaraderie among comrades?"
In truth, Wang Hu had long considered what he should do when he encountered these three.
Looking at their experiences, the second generation of three aces, and those less-famous enhanced soldiers of the Atlantic Federation Army active on various fronts,
their lives and experiences were tragedies in capital letters.
So, once again evading Olga's desperate charge, Wang Hu sent a message to the three aces over the public channel.
No one responded to Wang Hu; his words in the public channel were met with silence.
Whether it was Olga who was seeking death, or the other two members of the trio quietly observing and waiting for Olga's demise,
they remained silent, none showing any intention to engage in conversation with Wang Hu.
"I can offer you a chance to survive."
Seeing that the trio ignored him, Wang Hu didn't get angry. Instead, he spoke again with immense patience.
Yet Wang Hu still received no response.
Though young, the hellish experiences they had endured were beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
All three members of the trio were individuals of exceptionally strong will.
In the current situation, Olga simply wanted to die, while Clotho and the other merely waited for Olga's death.
However, because of Wang Hu's words, Shani and Clotho felt agitated and began considering whether they should take matters into their own hands,
to help Olga break free from this hell.
"Understood."
Nodding, Wang Hu prepared to continue employing his persuasive skills. Though he might not match certain protagonists in the art of rhetoric—able to instantly sway others' wills—a few more words from him could achieve a similar effect.
But perhaps Wang Hu had spent too much time entangled with the trio here?
On the other side of the battlefield, where Li Chengzhi and Mu had headed toward the Atlantic Federation fleet,
Mu, whom Wang Hu had specifically emphasized, put in some extra effort and effectively covered for Li Chengzhi's GP02 Gundam.
This allowed the GP02 Gundam to focus entirely on launching the Goddess of Love.
In an instant, Li Chengzhi's furious strike—deliberately aimed at the very center of the Atlantic Federation Army's battleship formation—sent the Goddess of Love hurtling downward. Though only a single shot, its effect was exceptionally devastating!
A pink light bloomed in the cosmos. Though merely one explosion, it couldn't match the scale of the disturbances caused by the Light of Peace.
Yet the virtual black hole bomb-like power of the Goddess of Love sent a shockwave of fear across the entire battlefield, including the Boaz Fortress.
After all, the Light of Peace had existed in human history for a very, very long time. While few had witnessed its detonations, ninety-nine percent of humanity understood its destructive capability.
Over time, people had developed a certain immunity to their fear of the Light of Peace.
But the Goddess of Love was different. Having appeared only twice, its mysterious aura amplified its psychological impact on humanity.
Especially when witnessing it firsthand rather than merely hearing rumors—
Seeing the utterly cleansed space left in the wake of the Goddess of Love!
"They used the Goddess of Love!"
The defenders of Boaz Fortress felt their hair stand on end. Even though the East Asian Army had deployed the Goddess of Love against the dishonorable Atlantic Federation Army,
they couldn't help but feel a strange, empathetic unease.
The difference between zero and one is vast, but the gap between one and two is negligible.
After two uses, it seemed likely the East Asian Army would employ the Goddess of Love routinely on the battlefield.
Having already used it twice and broken the initial barrier, deploying such a weapon widely no longer carried the same psychological burden!
"What do we do?"
"What do we do?"
Countless Coordinator soldiers asked each other. The morale boost they had gained from the Atlantic Federation's sudden betrayal of the East Asian Army
vanished in an instant, melting away like snow as the Coordinator soldiers' spirits crumbled.
Watching the area where the Atlantic Federation Army had once been, they were deeply worried that this would soon be their own final outcome.
The effect of a single Goddess of Love was immediate!
The wavering morale of the Coordinator defenders at Boaz Fortress was visible to the naked eye!
Seizing the opportunity, the East Asian Army intensified their efforts, launching a new round of even fiercer attacks.
While Wang Hu was still confronting the three Enhanced Men, the East Asian Army rode the momentum of the Goddess of Love and swiftly scattered the ZAFT Forces outside the fortress.
They crushed them into a disorganized retreat, and the East Asian Space Marine Corps members assaulting Boaz were surprised to find that the resistance from the Coordinator soldiers they faced had suddenly become minimal.
Even the die-hard Coordinator soldiers, who had occasionally been seen launching desperate banzai charges when the situation became hopeless, were now actively surrendering instead of fighting to the death!
"So clean."
Coincidentally, just as the East Asian Army was making encouraging progress at Boaz Fortress, among the three Enhanced Men facing Wang Hu, Shani, the pilot of the Forbidden Gundam, unexpectedly spoke over the public communication channel.
Gazing at the spot where the now-vanished pink light had once shone, Shani appeared utterly captivated.
Perhaps shaken by the impact of death descending equally upon everyone, Shani, in his agitated state, made a startling request to Wang Hu.
"Can you let us die under that beautiful weapon?"
"Quite the romantic sentiment, full of melancholy."
Calmly observing the three Enhanced Men who had completely lost their will to fight, Wang Hu smiled and asked, "So eager to die?"
"What do you know? Are you going to say something hypocritical next, like 'I understand you'?"
It wasn't Shani who spoke this time, but the more emotionally volatile Clotho.
"Without experiencing that hell, don't spout pretty words over there! You damn bastards, you only know how to use us! Use us until we die!"
"Having value to be used proves that you are still useful. Those without value—aside from our East Asian Alliance—would have long been discarded as trash by other factions."
Instead of refuting directly, Wang Hu followed Clotho's line of thought. "Our East Asian Alliance has heard of the Enhanced Man Project. When the Atlantic Federation Army first proposed this concept, we strongly opposed it—you can verify that yourselves. We never expected that the Atlantic Federation Army, in collusion with the Eurasian Federation, would secretly advance this plan behind the scenes."
"So, you're trying to say your East Asian Alliance is innocent? You want to wash your hands of our situation, is that it? Shameless bastard."
With both his comrades having spoken to Wang Hu, Olga temporarily set aside his death wish. Flying to his comrade's side, he systematically addressed Wang Hu and the East Asian Alliance: "We have no such intention. What's done is done, and we will take responsibility where it is due. Those responsible will be held accountable by our East Asian Alliance."
Gazing at the emotionally turbulent trio, Wang Hu patiently explained his faction's approach. "Responsibility? Accountability?"
As if hearing the world's greatest joke, the three young warriors burst into roaring laughter simultaneously.
"The Atlantic Federation Army's upper echelons, the Eurasian Federation Army's upper echelons, and that bastard called Azrael."
"Can your East Asian Alliance control them?"
"We control what even Heaven cannot. We deal with those whom Heaven cannot punish. We accomplish what Heaven can achieve, and we accomplish even what Heaven cannot!"
"The cosmic order is clear - complying with Heaven's will and responding to human needs, that is our East Asian Alliance."
"Have I made myself clear? Is my meaning understood?"
Facing the three young warriors' doubts, Wang Hu responded in a deep voice brimming with overwhelming authority.
The firmness in his tone momentarily left the three young warriors unable to raise any further objections.
There was no other reason - they had witnessed with their own eyes the might of the East Asian Army. Otherwise, the Atlantic Federation wouldn't have been forced to resort to such backstabbing tactics.
And this while the East Asian Army was attacking the Coordinators.
As for the East Asian Army's credibility, even people like the three young warriors - whose access to information was severely limited - had heard enough to know it was absolutely unquestionable!
"We..." Shani, who had first spoken to Wang Hu, wavered, showing signs of being inclined to believe him.
Just as he was about to ask a few more questions, a sudden change occurred - Wang Hu standing before them abruptly moved!
"Liar!" Startled by Wang Hu's sudden movement, the three young warriors felt deceived and began shouting curses.
(End of Chapter)