Buster had lost its railgun. Blitz had lost its right leg. Duel was not badly damaged, but its pilot was coughing blood.
As for the other GINNs, they could no longer interfere in this battle. Yzak had sent them off to deal with the Archangel and the Montgomery instead.
No matter what, though, the three of them really had managed to tie down the Strike.
"Right here!"
At that moment, an orange GINN slipped in front of the Montgomery once again.
"Let me show you the Magic Bullet of Dusk!"
Strike and disengage.
No, there was no longer any need to disengage.
The overburdened Montgomery had already lost all of its Moebius units moments ago and was now teetering on the brink of destruction.
The final out-of-control Moebius tumbled into the Montgomery's bridge. Miguel then shot it and detonated it, triggering a chain of explosions.
"No!" Kira screamed.
But through the debris, Kira's sharp eyes caught sight of an escape pod ahead.
—At the very end, the Montgomery's captain had put Flay's father aboard an escape pod.
Good. There was still time to save everything!
"Dad!"
Flay was startled too.
Fortunately, from her angle, she could see the escape pod clearly.
She let out a breath of relief.
Then collapsed into her seat.
"Mr. Allster…!"
Sai was worried as well.
At that moment, Flay's faint, breathless voice reached Sai's ears. "What about her… where is that girl?!"
"You mean… Kira?" Sai asked in surprise.
"Kira… Kira is a Coordinator, isn't she? Isn't she supposed to be able to do anything?!" Flay was completely panicked now.
"Kira is fighting too! The other side has three Gundams too!"
Right. Because of Kira's influence, many people aboard the Archangel had also started calling the G Weapons "Gundams."
"But she told me everything would be fine!" Flay's voice had already become hysterical. "She said as long as she was there, nothing would happen!"
"Smack!"
Sai slapped Flay across the face.
"Those people are Coordinators too! They're professional soldiers, but Kira is just a helpless girl! We're the ones being protected by Kira, you idiot!"
[Well said!]
[That felt good]
[So satisfying]
[What did that seed bursting open just now mean?]
[Kira suddenly got way stronger]
[NT?]
[Isn't that literally the title? SEED. Seed. The literal meaning]
[SEED Mode? Holy crap, that name sounds badass as hell]
[Kira can straight-up take three of them head-on now]
[Still not as good as when she and Inori were taking four at once]
[That's different. Didn't you see the other Gundams got upgraded?]
[I'm kind of curious how high-level this battle is by SEED-universe standards]
[Absolute top tier]
[A minor skirmish]
[Kids messing around]
[What nonsense are you talking about? Didn't the Creuset Team say earlier that the PLANT Supreme Council ordered them to destroy the Archangel at any cost?]
[Mu complained about it too. The other side is sparing no expense]
[The Vanguard's first reaction when they saw two Nazca-class ships was to tell the Archangel to run. Isn't that obvious enough?]
[Nazca-class ships should be ZAFT's mainline warships]
[It's like the Pacific War, except the other side shows up with Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu, while you only have Enterprise with one plane aboard and your teammates are sitting at the bottom of Pearl Harbor]
[I checked the official site. Creuset's combat ability is basically at the very top of ZAFT, and Athrun's squad is among the strongest elites of the elite. Their Mobile Suit piloting is second only to Athrun]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), I thought he was some random third-rate guy, and he's actually freaking third in the world?]
[Huh? So he isn't a clown after all?]
[Is this the legendary high-level lobby?]
The viewers had thought this was just a bunch of scrubs fighting each other. Only after checking the official site did they realize this was a high-level match.
That realization sparked a whole new round of arguments.
In the discussion area, even names like Amuro Ray and Samaya Ericht (Adult) were being thrown around as people argued over who was strongest.
Everyone unanimously excluded AI Inori from the ranking, though. Inori was obviously not human, and she still needed one-time Authorization to pilot a Gundam alone. Clearly, she was still hiding things.
Outside the ranking. Go play by yourself.
Flay, after being slapped, stared blankly at the screen in front of her.
"Take some time to calm down." Sai sighed.
He knew he had acted impulsively too, so he could not really stay here any longer.
At that moment, music suddenly reached Flay's ears.
It was a song meant to soothe people.
It was Inori's song.
But the person singing it was someone else.
A Coordinator—and the woman Flay hated most.
The beautiful, steady voice and gentle melody seemed capable of calming anyone's mind.
—That other pink-haired girl.
It was clearly a melody meant to soothe people, yet right now it only provoked Flay further. It… was taunting her!
"I have nothing left… Dad is all I have… Dad is all I have…"
Flay turned and rushed out, then violently threw open Lacus's door.
Lacus had no idea what was happening when the door was suddenly flung open. She stopped singing and turned around in surprise.
Flay's twisted gaze was fixed on Lacus.
Unfortunately, the scene cut away again.
The Stage's cliffhanger timing was as excellent as ever.
"How are we supposed to escape…?"
The Montgomery's plan was for the Archangel to pass it and break out through the front.
But waiting ahead was Creuset's Nazca-class ship.
One Nazca-class had already been damaged by the Lohengrin, while the other had descended to a lower position.
Clearly, those two ships were watching the Archangel at all times.
Creuset himself was very likely over there too.
The Nazca-class was a high-speed warship. The Archangel could not outrun it.
And Murrue had no doubt that another GINN squad was waiting aboard the Nazca-class as a reserve, ready for the moment the Archangel tried to break out.
But… they were not completely without a chance!
"Mu, what… do you think?"
Mu froze for a moment, then noticed that Murrue's gaze was fixed on the Nazca-class positioned as bait.
Mu closed his eyes, then opened them again.
"…Your instinct is right. Creuset is probably there."
After receiving Mu's confirmation, Murrue nodded as well.
"Natarle, Mu, shake off the two Laurasia-class ships behind us. Target… the Nazca-class!"
In short, take out the enemy flagship first.
"Recover the escape pod, then charge through!"
One Nazca-class was damaged. Two Laurasia-class ships were harassing the Archangel, but their engines were not powerful enough to keep up with it.
So all they had to do was destroy Creuset's flagship Nazca-class.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
On the other side, Kira, after entering SEED Mode, was still fighting all three opponents, but she now clearly held the upper hand.
The problem was that all three enemy Gundams had undergone emergency upgrades and now outperformed the current Strike, so Kira still could not completely take down the two of them.
Damn it!
Just as Kira was about to attack, the escape pod beside her blocked her beam rifle's line of fire. Yzak failed to evade in time and took a hit to the chest.
"Damn Earth Alliance!"
Yzak aimed his gun at the escape pod and pulled the trigger…