There was no barrage.
Just a simple three-round burst, and the Magic Bullet of Dusk became a thing of the past.
"Launch missiles! Attack!"
The Laurasia-class did not sit idle. It immediately launched missiles in response.
But the Archangel's gun turrets locked onto the missiles in an instant.
"Bang-bang-bang!"
After one burst of fire, every missile was shot down.
Not a single round was wasted.
"What is happening?!"
The captain of the Laurasia-class could not understand what was happening.
But at that moment, the Gundam Astray Blue Frame had already appeared in front of one of the Laurasia-class ships.
The Archangel could not miss a shot, yet the Laurasia-class ship's anti-air fire suddenly could not hit a thing, allowing the enemy to charge all the way to the bridge.
A Laurasia-class ship's bridge was positioned at the very front of the bow to ensure a clear field of view, but that also made it relatively vulnerable in combat.
A beam saber stabbed straight through the Laurasia-class ship's bridge.
After disabling the bridge, the Blue Frame flew to the ship's side and fired another burst, rupturing the ammunition magazine.
"Boom!"
With a violent explosion, the Laurasia-class ship erupted in flames.
On the other side, the Archangel adjusted its attitude once again and fired Lohengrin.
But it was not aimed at the Nazca-class below. It targeted the other Nazca-class above, the one that had already been damaged.
"Boom!"
The Lohengrin blast reduced the Nazca-class to cosmic dust.
"Damn that Long Legs!"
Yzak's eyes burned with rage.
After seeing the Archangel and Blue Frame each sink a warship, he immediately abandoned the Strike, as Kira had lost the will to fight, and charged the Archangel instead.
The Archangel did not attack Yzak.
It continued adjusting its attitude.
Yzak raised his shield and attacked in coordination with the GINNs on the other side.
The eerily silent Archangel still did not fire.
But the moment Yzak closed in and prepared to shoot, the anti-air guns suddenly came alive again!
Yzak was no rookie. He kept charging forward behind his shield.
"—!!"
Then Yzak realized something was wrong—the AI was actually advising him to run away!
"Wait!"
Every single anti-air round was… hitting the same point!
Yzak discovered that no matter how he moved, the rounds always struck his shield, with every shot hitting the exact same spot.
The unending stream of rounds not only made it difficult for Yzak to keep advancing, but pushed the shield to its defensive limit within mere seconds!
At that moment, a grappling cable suddenly caught Yzak and yanked him backward.
Once he left a certain area, the Archangel stopped firing.
"You saved me, Nicol."
Yzak let out a breath of relief.
That level of precision was terrifying.
His shield had already been punched through.
"Damn… good thing we got out of range." Yzak muttered.
"No. We're still inside its attack range." Nicol was sweating too. "But in this area, we can evade its attacks easily. And I have enough time to save you."
"Hm?"
Yzak looked ahead.
The GINN that had charged in from the other side had already become wreckage.
Centered on the Archangel, every attack that entered this region seemed to be intercepted.
Anything attempting to enter it would be destroyed in an instant as well.
It was as though an invisible domain existed there, slaughtering everything that entered its bounds.
"Something is wrong with that Blue Frame too!"
Dearka's voice came over the comms.
His voice was trembling.
"Nani?!"
On the other side, after blowing up one warship, the Blue Frame did not slow down. It headed straight for the other Laurasia-class ship.
From time to time, a GINN tried to attack the Blue Frame, but the Blue Frame killed it instantly.
Through clever positioning and by using both GINNs and their wreckage as cover, the Blue Frame avoided every GINN attack completely.
Every attack seemed to strike empty space.
Unlike the Archangel, the Blue Frame actively closed in on the GINNs.
GINNs were slower than the Blue Frame. Once it caught them, they were killed instantly.
Yzak, who had been willing to charge the Strike head-on, could only stare in shock as the Blue Frame effortlessly erased GINNs as though it were merely passing by.
And unlike before, the Blue Frame would now use that specially made tactical knife to pry open the cockpit hatch and stab the pilot to death.
The movements were so relaxed and effortless that it almost looked like a casual stroll.
"Looks like things are getting ugly." Creuset arrived in his CGUE with several GINNs.
"Something's seriously off about Long Legs' attacks!" Yzak shouted. "And something is wrong with that blue machine too!"
Pry open the hatch, then stab the pilot directly.
If this were a stunt show or gameplay footage, the scene would not have seemed especially outrageous.
But on a real battlefield, it was horrifying.
A lightning-fast Gundam appeared in front of you like a ghost. By the time you tried to defend yourself, a special Can-opener had already pried open your cockpit hatch, and then it stabbed straight through you.
There was not a single wasted movement. The posture even made it look as though the GINN had offered itself up voluntarily.
It was terrifying.
"Doesn't the situation around Long Legs look a little familiar?"
Creuset rubbed his chin.
Yzak froze.
—A silent domain completely devoid of enemies.
Yzak had seen this sight before.
That black GINN.
"…Grim Reaper."
Nicol was the first to say the words.
"Boom—!"
Sound could not travel through space, of course, but when everyone saw the distant burst of fireworks, they still felt a jolt in their chests.
The second Laurasia-class ship… exploded.
And that was not all.
The surrounding GINNs had fallen completely silent as well.
Everyone in the ZAFT squad had been wiped out except Yzak's trio, Creuset, and the GINNs that had come with him as reinforcements, just like the Vanguard before them.
"…The Black Monolith may actually be real."
Creuset knew the situation was beyond recovery.
"We retreat. Now."
"Captain Creuset?!"
Yzak was unwilling to accept it.
Kira had clearly lost the will to fight, and the Archangel's Laminated Armor had almost lost an entire layer.
Yet now… they were actually retreating.
But ever since the Archangel's movements had begun turning strange, they truly had lost any means of stopping it.
That was only natural.
Because on her way over, Inori had spent heavily and used Popularity Points to raise the Lacia card to LV7.
At this point, she had not only upgraded the Black Monolith's functions, but had also unlocked another one of Lacia's abilities:
[Super Advanced AI Mode]