“You can go now…” 13 said with a tearful smile.

　　“What are you?” The girl was confused. The person who had just wanted to kill her was now letting her go.

　　“I am just an ‘emotion.’ He will wake up soon, and by then he won’t understand his true feelings at this moment, so you’d better leave quickly…” 13 turned around and picked up the 12 from the ground, putting it back into the holster. As he walked to COOL—FIRE, he turned back once more. This time, there were no more tears on his face, only a smile.

　　“We will never meet again. Even if we do, it won’t be me anymore, so I can only say farewell forever…” After saying this, he collapsed to the ground. The girl reached out her hand toward 13. She couldn’t say what she was feeling inside—just that she felt she had lost something important.

　　“‘Angel’! Retreat!” Suddenly, a man’s voice came through the communicator. She quickly leapt backward, and at the same time, a light round shot past her, striking the cover to her left.

　　A high-explosive cannon shell instantly destroyed a one-meter-thick concrete barrier.

　　“Enemy attack!” The soldiers were thrown into chaos again. On a distant mountain, a silver mech, holding a small cannon over three meters long in both hands, was relentlessly bombarding the base.

　　“‘Angel,’ we’re going home!” At this moment, the soldiers dodging shells everywhere didn’t notice another blue mech descending from the sky.

　　“‘Pigeon’! Why are you here? Wasn’t I supposed to complete the mission alone?” Angel hadn’t reacted yet. The mech named “Dove” had already picked up Angel and was flying toward the edge of the base.

　　“This has gotten out of hand. ‘Mama’ is very angry and sent us to bring you home. When we get back, don’t talk back to her!” Dove sped up, heading back toward the source of the cannon fire.

　　“A new mech!” 13 half-knelt on the ground, loading a transparent magazine into COOL—FIRE.

　　“He’s ‘awake.’” Angel watched in the direction of 13.

　　“Targeted attack? You underestimate people!” 13 ignored the two fleeing mechs. Now, he had returned to his calm battlefield self, never wasting bullets on targets that posed no threat. At this moment, his eyes were fixed only on the silver mech on the distant mountain, wildly firing its cannon.

　　“Warning! Targeted by another entity! Recommend ceasing fire and switching to defense!”

　　“No. ‘Pigeon’s’ armor is too thin. Angel is injured. If I stop covering them, it’s dangerous. Display target coordinates. I’ll kill him first.” The silver mech’s pilot spoke calmly to himself.

　　“‘Titan’ metal has extremely high defense, but it’s still just metal!” 13 fired only five shots in succession before the intense cannon fire forced him to stop shooting.

　　The mech that had just been firing suddenly felt a jolt in its right shoulder. The entire shoulder armor was frozen by a liquid nitrogen bullet, and the second shot hit the same spot, but this time it was a high-temperature incendiary round. Panic finally showed on his face.

　　“The limit of metal!”

　　Next, one armor-piercing round after another struck the now brittle armor, weakened by the drastic temperature change. The final shot actually blasted the entire shoulder plate off the mech’s body.

　　At this moment, Dove and Angel also arrived at his side.

　　“Satan! You…” Angel cried out, looking at the silver mech’s bleeding shoulder.

　　“It was the guy who fought you just now!” The mech dropped the cannon and clutched the wound with his left hand. “Don’t bother with him, retreat!”

　　The silver mech didn’t spare 13 another glance, turning to withdraw toward the mountaintop.

　　“Can it be used?” 13 stood where he was, watching them leave. Now, he could no longer stop them…

　　“Can I die now?” 13 drew a white bullet from the right-hand armor and loaded it into the chamber…

　　“Let me disappear together with you!” He raised his gun and aimed…

　　“Warning! Weak ion accumulation detected!” All three mechs sounded the alarm at the same time.

　　They turned to look in 13’s direction.

　　“Is it an ion cannon? But such a weak fluctuation can’t possibly harm ‘Titan’ metal armor,” Dove said calmly.

　　A spot of light gathered at 13’s gun muzzle, but compared to Angel’s ion cannon earlier, it was even weaker…

　　“Do you feel it?” The mech called “Satan” said, “It’s fear. My body can’t move at all. What about you?”

　　“Me too, like a mouse being stared at by a snake,” Angel said calmly.

　　“But that’s what makes it fun! I feel so excited!” The silver mech suddenly laughed maniacally. “Come on, shoot! Let me truly face my fear! Can you kill me?”

　　“I’m going to kill you all… and myself…” 13 put his finger on the trigger.

　　“No!” 13’s line of sight was blocked by 24.

　　“24, move aside.” 13’s cold tone carried a hint of concern.

　　“If you want to die like this, then I’ll go with you.” 24 hugged 13 with tears in her eyes. “Do you know? I love you…”

　　COOL—FIRE fell to the ground…

　　Everything was not over yet; the story would continue…

　　The lights in the conference room were turned on. The screen also switched to black and white.

　　“All right, this is the complete recording of the mech attack. Although the lack of sound is a bit of a pity, it was already very difficult to get a full recording under those circumstances.” David Clark drew open the curtains.