The feminine figure finally materialized fully in the haze and debris that consumed the ground, standing amidst the widespread destruction caused by the desperate war between monsters and robots, just to place herself directly in the massive crater where alter Adam had violently impacted and was still remaining in.

The newcomer was alter Katya, an exact physical duplicate of Katya Nakamura, with the difference that she, for obvious reasons, carried no mask, her platinum blonde hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and her attire was not a school uniform but a stark, black military uniform, giving her a look of cold, professional intensity.

"Leader!"

Alter Katya yelled, her voice echoing sharply as she watched alter Adam, who seemed a bit injured, struggling a bit to rise from the deep crater formed by Sebastian's attack. The patched boy spat a thick stream of blood to the side and snapped his gaze toward the girl, appearing instantly irritated.

"Why are you here? I gave you explicit orders not to move from—"

Alter Adam began his furious demand, his voice raw. But before he could finish his rebuke, alter Katya delivered a sharp, descending punch directly to his head. The blow inflicted no damage, but it visibly shook the words off his posture. The girl seemed intensely furious.

"Who do you think you are to tell me what I have to do or what I should not do?!"

The blonde demanded, her voice thick with righteous anger.

"Was it not you who taught me not to blindly follow what others told me if it was clear that they were being stupid? What did you think would happen if something happened to you?"

Alter Adam simply listened to the blistering reprimand, the rage slowly draining from his stance. He sighed deeply, accepting the validity of her fury.

"Fine…"

He finally conceded the point with weariness.

"But I am fine. I will take charge of the current situation now… You must see to heal Charles and Kazue. You will need their help."

Alter Katya was about to argue that they needed no further assistance, but only then did she realize the grim truth: she was completely alone. None of the other Generals had arrived in the scenario, a realization that caused her to question the situation instantly.

"Why did none of the others arrive?"

The girl asked, her eyes searching the sky. Alter Adam silently pointed to a spot in the distance. The girl's eyes followed his gesture, and they widened with horror at what she saw.

"Wait, is that…?"

Alter Katya muttered the realization. The patched boy confirmed her fear with a tight nod.

"Yes. Somehow, and I do not yet understand how, that cursed Gilgamesh has appeared again, even though we defeated him only a few weeks ago… And now he is here with some of his absurd robots."

Alter Adam spoke with cold fury, making the girl genuinely frightened at the prospect of the return of one of the most powerful and dangerous enemies they had until now.

"If that is really him, then we have to retreat immediately! We are in no condition to fight the leader of Eden, much less now that our reinforcements have been blocked!"

Her voice rose to a panicked shriek. Alter Adam, however, who was now fully rising from the crater, refuted the idea immediately.

"That is not the case. In fact, it is clear that this Gilgamesh does not possess the same level as the one we fought, or else I would already be dead."

Alter Adam explained with caution in his tone.

"But precisely for that reason, we must confront him now. If he has returned somehow, or is a clone, or something similar, we cannot afford to let him remain free."

Alter Katya bit her lip, understanding the terrible logic her leader presented. There was no room for hesitation in these circumstances. She turned back to alter Adam to confirm his status.

"Alright… But are you truly okay, Leader?"

The patched boy roared his answer, the sound filled with desperate urgency.

"I'm fucking fine! Now go heal the others and support me if I need to!"

Alter Adam commanded the order, and immediately, he leaped back toward the battlefield with immense force. Alter Katya clenched her teeth and acted instantly. She extended an arm and made a System window appear in front of her.

[Notice: UR-class Plot device: "All of you Maggots! Rise Up!" has been used] [A "Full Heal" is generated for each ally of the user, deducting 1000 points (or its equivalent) from each one multiplied by their potential rank. If the necessary points are not possessed beforehand, the effect does not apply.]

Two rays of brilliant light instantly fell from the sky, striking apparently random spots on the chaotic battlefield. What could not be seen due to the sheer mass of RedBrood and robots fighting was that at that precise moment, both Charles and alter Kazue opened their eyes and shouted as they rose, their bodies snapping to a sitting position.

They were confused and unsure of what had happened, only to be immediately contacted internally by alter Katya's skill [Mind Flayer's Express Mail], connecting them psychically and instantly transmitting the critical memories of the conversation she had just had with Alter Adam.

This mental download was intensely painful but immediate, so both Charles and alter Kazue simply gritted their teeth and endured the psychic intrusion, understanding the situation and the immediate, dire need for action. Alter Katya sent a final command as a harsh voice within their heads.

"Now, move!"

Immediately after she screamed the order internally, Charles and alter Kazue shot to their feet and began running, taking advantage of the invulnerability status granted by the Plot Device that Sebastian had previously used to pass through the two armies that continued their brutal, chaotic struggle.

Meanwhile, alter Adam had renewed his assault against Sebastian, aggressively increasing the creation of RedBrood spores along his path. This action created more and more monstrous waves that slowly began to overwhelm the already strained units of the Automaton Legion. The war of attrition, despite the robot's superior quality, was turning in favor of the sheer number of the biological plague.

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The RedBrood Flying Giant-type monstrosities filled the sky, their membranous wings beating relentlessly to cast immense, grotesque shadows across the war-torn ground. Their sole mission was to draw fire and overwhelm the precision units. Below them, the Gigantic armored artillery robots of the Legion roared while the armored units unleashed continuous barrages of focused laser fire and missile clusters, vaporizing hundreds of the enemy with every volley.

However, the Serpent-type creatures advanced in such impossible numbers that their losses were meaningless. A single Tripod unit might successfully obliterate fifty Serpents with its concentrated laser beam generator, but the next hundred monsters would crawl over the vaporized remains, their bodies sacrificing themselves to cling to the Tripod's long, articulated legs. Eventually, the sheer, crushing weight of the accumulated, dying organic mass would force the Tripod unit to groan, buckle, and collapse, only to be immediately flattened by a colossal, subsequent stomp from a nearby Brute-type beast.

The fierce, close-quarters combat was relentless, but the end was the same. The slender humanoid combat robots deployed their four arms with unnerving grace, engaging the swarming arachnid units that moved with predatory desperation. A humanoid robot was capable of decapitating two dozen of these creatures per second. Yet, it wasn't enough for the sheer numbers of the colony; while the humanoid unit was distracted by the smaller arachnids attacking its joints, two or three large Serpents would lunge, their scythe-like arms striking simultaneously against the armor's weakest points. The metallic shriek of stressed joints and bending chassis would echo across the plain as the technologically superior units were finally dragged down into the squirming, hungry horde.

Even the most agile unit could not escape the tide. The small, spherical explorer drones darted across the ground, using their small laser emitters to carve paths through the arachnid infantry. But the RedBrood Brute-types, the colossal tank-like units covered in thick, resilient maroon and yellow skin, began to treat the battlefield as a quarry. Ignoring the small arms fire, these Brutes used their massive weight and curved scythe-claws to systematically target the ground-based power hubs and communication relays of the Legion.

The sheer, overwhelming number of the RedBrood meant that for every piece of armor destroyed, ten more monstrous creatures were emerging from the spores, the raw, unceasing biological tide ensuring the defeat of the automated resistance if things remained the same.

Alter Adam finally localized Sebastian in the StarSuit and drove himself toward that direction with the force of a rocket. He was met by a barrage of missiles from all the nearby robots, as well as the defensive shots fired by Sebastian, who was retreating while firing. This time, however, the boy began to rotate violently as he advanced, mutating his body to give himself an impenetrable organic cortex like a beetle, so powerful that every projectile that impacted him was violently repelled without damage.

In that brutal state, alter Adam closed the distance rapidly. He shed the defensive transformation and tried to attack Sebastian directly. However, Falk appeared again, intercepting him with a powerful punch charged with the maximum atomic energy his armor could currently generate. But this time, instead of colliding fists, alter Adam simply opened his mouth and unleashed a ferocious torrent of pure energy using his skill [Evil Maw's Roar Lv15], another skill originally belonging to the archdevil Malzaphir.

The energy discharge was massive and impacted Falk's fist, but the quantity was so great and concentrated that the living armor had to divert the stream using the electromagnetic force of his generators. But it was enough; this deflection was sufficient for alter Adam to bypass the defensive mech.

Sebastian utilized the StarSuit's massive drill arm to try and halt the advance, but the patched boy employed the maximum potential of his skill [Incarnation of the Living Planet], giving him such density and strength that he caught the spinning drill with both bare hands, crushing the powerful weapon. But that was not all... Immediately after, he launched the destroyed drill back at the StarSuit using his own planetary mass as a propulsor, transforming the gigantic weapon into a missile that impacted the mech and pierced it, violently destroying part of the suit and tearing it in two amidst a massive explosion.

Without losing any more time, and knowing that the robot was now vulnerable, alter Adam utilized his skill [The Absolute Penitence] amidst a roar, and suddenly, massive thorns and red chains erupted from the inside of the great StarSuit Orion, causing further explosions and shorts in the robot, especially in the head where the cockpit was located. This section exploded, and from the fire emerged the figure of Sebastian, pierced through the chest by one of the many thorns, his body inert and seemingly lifeless.

Alter Adam laughed maniacally at the sight of his defeated enemy.

"Wait, was that all it was? Hahahaha… I have fought less pathetic enemies in Rank B scenarios!"

Convinced he had achieved his objective, the boy paused. However, a deep, grave, robotic voice resonated just behind him.

"That's a decoy, you imbecile."

The voice announced the simple truth, shattering his victory. Alter Adam spun immediately, seeing the figure of the Eternity robot standing directly in front of him, its red eyes fixed on the invader. He tried to attack, but the position was too disadvantageous.

Eternity moved one of its sharp metallic claws as if shooing a fly, and immediately, alter Adam's body was propelled toward the ground like a meteor without even being physically touched by the powerful robot.

Alter Katya, who was not far away, witnessed the devastating counterattack and screamed with worry.

"Leader!"

She yelled while running toward alter Adam's impact site. But the sequence of destruction was not yet complete.

Eternity began to accumulate massive energy throughout its body, so much that the very air around it began to deform and twist.

"This charade has taken long enough."

The robot declared in its deep, mechanical voice. It then raised one of its arms, and an enormous vortex of dark energy began to emanate from its core.

"Perish, mortals! My power is without peer, for my creator has bestowed upon me the ultimate strength!"

Eternity announced, its voice echoing across the entire battlefield. Immediately, the entire area changed color to a chilling blue, and the terrifying effect began: every single RedBrood monster engaged in combat, from the largest Brute to the smallest arachnid, began to be crushed and reduced to flattened masses of flesh on the ground, as if the local gravity had increased infinitely, while the robots of the Automaton Legion were completely immune to the effect.

Seeing his troops instantly eradicated, alter Adam, who was also feeling the crushing effects of the increased gravity but was managing to remain upright, began to divert all his remaining energy directly toward the monsters that were still alive, forcing them to remain intact against the gravitational pressure. He knew that if he allowed them all to die simultaneously, he would not have time to create more before the robot army overwhelmed him. However, this was the maximum exertion his current, recovering body could sustain; he could not move, and his units were immobile, simply enduring and waiting.

Alter Katya also suffered the effects of the gravity before reaching her leader, falling to the ground face-first and having to use all her strength just to avoid being completely crushed. Unlike alter Adam, she could not stand or use any skill.

The battle was, for all intents and purposes, over. The robots of the Automaton Legion only needed to attack with everything they had to finish them all.

But before more time could pass, something decisive occurred… Despite Eternity floating high in the sky, the figures of Charles and alter Kazue suddenly appeared directly behind the humanoid robot. They had been able to move effortlessly due to the invulnerability provided by the Plot Device and had only now returned to combat, attacking the machine directly. It was utterly incapable of noticing the attack and was immediately pierced through the chest by Charles's flaming katana and alter Kazue's light sword.

Eternity began to launch sparks of electrical failure, but the attack was not sufficient to defeat it, even though its nucleus had been gravely damaged. The robot looked down, seeing the two users clinging to its armor, and using its maximum power, the area of crushing gravity extended to encompass them. Charles's body was instantly slammed against the earth multiple meters below with immense force, but to the robot's surprise, alter Kazue did not move at all.

[The Personal Skill [Queen of the Elements] protects the user from the influence of any force of nature.]

That critical miscalculation by the robot was the opening the girl needed. She screamed with all her accumulated strength and, using all the force she could muster, took Charles's katana in her other hand and crossed her arms. The twin blades violently sliced through the robot's body, cutting it completely in two.

Normally, this would have been impossible, but the victory lay in the tactical information provided by Charles. Before the attack, the blond had told alter Kazue that the greatest weakness of Gilgamesh's creations was the presence of a core that, for some reason, was always located in the chest. The surprise attack had been specifically directed there, causing a critical failure that disabled many of its defense mechanisms, including the powerful skill [Unbreakable].

The body of Eternity collapsed, while alter Kazue slowly floated down. Simultaneously, the increased gravity that had consumed the entire area instantly disappeared, returning everything to normal, immediately freeing the other three members of Team Abyss from their crushing prison.

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