The glowing screen looked more like a luminous silver mirror.
Its surface had originally been perfectly still, but now ripples spread across it like water disturbed by a touch.
Something seemed to be rising from beneath the surface, causing the silver mirror to bulge outward.
At last, two pointed tips pierced through it.
When they first emerged, each was only around a hundred meters long. Anyone watching might have mistaken them for the bow of a vessel comparable in size to a P.L.A.N.T warship.
In the blink of an eye, however, they extended far beyond that, followed by an even more massive section.
Only then did everyone realize that these so-called pointed tips, each already larger than the Archangel, were merely part of the head of an incomprehensibly vast structure.
Half a breath later, more than a kilometer of the behemoth had passed through the silver mirror.
Neither the Archangel nor the surrounding P.L.A.N.T fleet detected anything on radar, but their optical systems and the naked eye could see it clearly.
After all, the colossal object had appeared right beside them, almost completely blocking the view through the observation windows.
A single breath later, the entire vessel had emerged from the silver mirror.
The Archangel and the other nearby warships were too close to see its full shape. Only the ships farther away could glimpse the entirety of the metallic behemoth, which measured nearly five kilometers in length.
At that moment, nearly everyone was too stunned to speak.
Compared to this vessel, calling their warships ants beside an elephant would have been an exaggeration, but mice beside an elephant was fairly accurate.
To a tiny mouse, the terrifying bulk of an elephant would resemble a towering mountain capable of crushing its very spirit.
Once the initial shock passed, unprecedented fear followed.
Humanity's current technology could never construct a warship of this size.
It might have been possible to build a hollow fortress in the shape of a warship, something enormous but impressive only in appearance.
The problem was that this behemoth had crossed through a silver mirror to reach them.
This was unquestionably beyond anything humanity's current technology could accomplish.
It resembled something humanity imagined might become possible in the distant future: a spatial jump.
Since no human technology could currently achieve such a feat, only one possibility came to mind.
Extraterrestrial life.
That realization caused fear to take root in everyone who witnessed it.
Once that fear reached its limit, it would become despair, and despair would drive people to collapse.
"Don't worry. This ship belongs to our allies."
An incomparably gentle voice reached everyone through the public channel, sweeping away their rising despair and gradually dissolving their fear.
They immediately recognized the soothing voice.
It belonged to their princess, Lacus Clyne.
This super-battleship belonged to their allies?
Some people noticed that the vessel bore a hull number written in Arabic numerals.
Surely extraterrestrials would not use the same numbers as Earth.
They also saw an insignia accompanied by English lettering that read "YoRHa," along with the corresponding Chinese characters, "寄叶."
Both were languages used on Earth.
In other words, this was the power of the mysterious organization backing Lacus.
It was almost impossible to believe.
"A spatial jump?" Lunamaria murmured after finally recovering from her shock.
Before it jumped here, where in the solar system had such a colossal ship been hiding?
Had it been near Mars?
No, the Martian colonists could not possibly have advanced their technology this quickly.
Then where had it come from?
Could it have been somewhere beyond the solar system?
But when had humanity expanded beyond the solar system?
Wait...
Mr. Kain!
Only then did Lunamaria notice that he was gone. It seemed he had entered the five-kilometer-long super-battleship.
The vessel was already retreating at astonishing speed. It had previously been too close for anyone to see its full shape, but in the blink of an eye, it had moved more than fifty kilometers away, allowing them to see its immense scale clearly.
Even at that speed, though, it would never reach L4 in time.
Suddenly, the light from its engines intensified explosively, illuminating the surrounding region of space. The glare became so dazzling that their sensors could no longer track the vessel.
When the light faded, the ship was gone.
In such an open expanse of space, there was no way an object that large could simply disappear without warning.
"Big Sis, did it make another spatial jump?" Meyrin asked somewhat blankly.
"I-I think so."
That meant the warship had probably already reached L4 and arrived at the Mendel colony.
"Now, let us all enjoy the brilliance of Messiah's..."
The man who had been arrogantly broadcasting over the public channel, the madman determined to bring destruction upon the world, suddenly fell silent as though someone had seized him by the throat.
No one could see the expression hidden beneath his mask, but they could easily imagine it.
"Speechless, huh?" Mu could not resist mocking him.
Of course, Mu himself was equally astonished.
Still, the man on the other side had to be even more shocked.
Mu also knew exactly who Le Creuset was.
He was a clone of his father.
...
Mendel Colony, Command Center.
Rau Le Creuset, who had previously displayed the fanaticism of a religious convert, had fallen completely silent.
At that moment, he felt like the greatest clown of the century.
How amusing.
He had launched this broadcast to inspire humanity's anger, hatred, and every other possible negative emotion. He was supposed to be the great demon king who brought the world to ruin.
Instead, those negative emotions had likely transformed into something positive.
He had become a clown who brought joy to the masses.
The colossal vessel that had suddenly appeared before him remained motionless, silently watching.
It almost seemed to be waiting for the clown's next performance.
"Do you still want to watch the clown's show?"
Le Creuset's face twisted so violently that his mask could no longer remain in place. It slipped free and fell away.
"Then watch closely."
With his features contorted by madness, Le Creuset immediately confirmed the order to fire Messiah.
In the next instant, the colony's artificial sun erupted with unprecedented brilliance. The terrifying gamma rays it produced were focused toward the reflective array.
When the gathered energy reached its limit, a devastating ray burst forth, ready to pierce the false image before him.
Yes, it had to be an illusion created to frighten him.
The annihilating beam would scatter it like mist blown away by the wind, leaving nothing behind.
"Hehehehe... Hahahaha!"
Le Creuset covered his face and laughed wildly.
The destructive beam had been stopped.
It had failed to disperse the supposed illusion.
Only after the beam exhausted its energy did the barrier surrounding the enormous vessel begin to fade, gradually turning transparent before disappearing completely.
"Was I nothing but a clown from beginning to end?"
They had possessed such overwhelming power all along, yet waited until the very end to reveal it.
Had they allowed him to continue his performance simply because they wanted more entertainment from their clown?
Overcome by resentment and despair, Le Creuset's body began to collapse.
His cloned body had always been unstable. Now it had also been exposed to the gamma radiation reflected from the battleship's barrier after Messiah failed to penetrate it.
His flesh began melting like wax beneath a flame.
At the same time, the entire colony trembled violently as explosions erupted throughout its structure.
Messiah had been a hastily modified, single-use weapon. Firing it inevitably meant destroying the colony itself.
Le Creuset had intended the colony's destruction to serve as the magnificent fireworks for his funeral, a grand final curtain that would leave the remnants of the ruined world with an unforgettable last impression.
Now, however, humanity would remember only the end of a clown.
These explosions were nothing more than the fireworks marking his final bow.
Boom!
(End of Chapter)
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