Chapter 477 - 477: Faded From His Memory.

Deep within a local data ocean, a small humanoid creature covered in green scales swam around a massive metal gate. It kept on creating and drawing complex streams, but no matter the shape, the gate still refused to budge."Godamn it…"

Kindjal was a prodigy when it came to diving, or so he thought in the past. When he saw the true skills of a genius Diver, he was forced to come to terms with his own mediocrity. Days have already passed since he dove down to the last gate in the machine's operating system, yet he still failed to make much progress. Those steel doors refused to budge, and with each failed attempt, his frustration grew, and so did his anger.

"Damn it…"

It was all because of that brat. If he hadn't shown up, no one would have known that it was possible, and other Divers wouldn't have been compared to him and belittled because they can't do what he could.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the brat returned after two years and was suddenly able to finish in two days what previously took him an entire month. If that wasn't a punch to the gut, then Kindjal didn't know what it was.

"Damn it…"

Another failure. After giving it his all, Kindjal was once again forced to start over from scratch. He was almost at his limit, already contemplating whether to throw in the towel or not. Just then, he received a text from Jaguar informing him that they were under attack.

Though he wasn't looking forward to fighting, anything other than wasting his time on the unmoving gates was better. He swam to the surface and jumped out of the water, opening his eyes in the real world. He removed the headset, but just as he was about to reach for the cables on the back of his neck, he felt the cold kiss of a gun barrel on his forehead.

The weight of it froze his limbs, leaving him momentarily immobilized. His eyes turned up, following the arm stretching beyond the handle. It was a thin and short arm, no different from a child's. It took Kindjal a moment before he realized that the arms did indeed belong to a child—a child he knew very well.

"Wha-"

BLAM!!!

~[ ]~

A single gunshot echoed in the cramped interior of a semi-truck, followed by the faint bang of something hitting one of the compartment's walls.

"Shiiiiiiiit…"

As pain coursed through his back and right arm, Finn could only utter muffled curses, unable to move. Though it was far from his first time shooting it, he had still underestimated the recoil of his Blue Night. The awkward position made it difficult for him to get a proper footing, which in turn prevented him from bracing his body and absorbing the backlash.

That said, even if he hadn't climbed onto that chair to shoot lettuce head at point-blank range, it was still doubtful if he would have been able to stand his ground or not.

"I should have… just asked for it…"

Regretting not asking for his exoskeleton to be delivered to him, Finn pushed himself up and checked on his arm. He then walked over to the Diving chair and confirmed that Lettuce Head was truly dead.

The gruesome scene made his head turn, but he was able to keep it together long enough for the nausea to fade. Finn looked down at the pistol in his hand. Seeing how his fingers barely wrapped around the handle, one could tell that it was a little too big for him. Still, big or not, he had used it, and he killed someone for the first time.

"Don't think about it."

Putting away the pistol, he ignored the corpse and walked to the end of the truck where a mechanical monstrosity lay dormant. Facing it head-on, he studied its form.

The machine had the appearance of something that was once limited to pixels on a screen. It was mostly white and blue, with a few hints of red here and there. Though made of sharp edges and bulky geometrical shapes, it was still mostly humanoid in shape.

The general shape was undoubtedly made to lessen the impact on Cyborgs who suffer from Cyborg Dysmorphia Response after integrating with such machines. That is the general theory for why such machines had to be made in the image of a human, and why most had to have their optical and audio sensors on a head-shaped part, even if that was the least efficient place to leave them.

Staring at the V-shaped fin decorating the head part, Finn gave a mental command. Light flooded the seams between its plating, and the eyes on the head lit up as if the sleeping giant had op awoken up.

All at once, the plates made their front spread open, revealing the interior of the cockpit hidden inside. Just looking at it filled him with second thoughts, but Finn didn't let them consume him. He was going to do it, and he was going to do it now.

[Dante: I'm going to kill Metal Face.

If you still want his head, get your ass moving now or lose your chance.

]

That was the message that spurred him to move. Once he was done bypassing the machine's security and securing a key for himself, he closed the last gate and escaped with Jake. The two of them hid nearby and waited for the right moment to execute their plan, but Tomato Head decided to launch his attack before that moment arrived, so they were now forced to move things ahead.

Sitting on the cockpit's chair, Finn fastened his harness around his body and connected its controls to his MLP, something he had only tried from the outside. Once again, he was made conscious of his small size, but it was for the better this time. The machine was made to be operated by Cyborgs who could easily remove their limbs, so the cockpit was rather cramped and could barely fit the torso of an adult human inside.

Once the diagnosis was over and the machine was released from its charging station, Finn gave the command to open the back of the semi-truck. Taking a deep breath, he went over his controls, and once the box was open, he commanded the machine to move, taking it to the outside world.

Without his arms and legs to work as a conduit, he had to forcefully move everything using his mind. The new controls he programmed into the machine helped a great deal, but maybe because this was his first time taking it for a spin, he was struggling with the first few steps.

The experience was entirely different from a VR experience. Each step came with a tremor and a whole lot of shaking, but Finn quickly got the hang of it.

"Alright…" He turned his thoughts inward. 'Jake, how are things over there?'

[The fighting has already started.] His friend replied. [We've already put the bastard on his back foot!]

From the looks of it, time was running out. Not wasting a single second more, he activated the machine's boosters and anti-gravity module. He felt a floating sensation for an instant, then his body shot upward at a speed that pushed all of his innards down.

At the moment, Finn's mind was directly linked to the machine's central processor. That allowed him to enhance his perception the same way Cyborgs like Dante and Jaguar could, even though he didn't have an SRE and his MLP was the simplest type that lacked a powerful processor. With the world moving around him in slow motion, he received the chance to calm his nerves and adjust his controls, assimilating better into the machine.

At long last, the Stribog-01 was about to enter the battlefield for the first time.

Finn engaged the cloaking system and hid himself, waiting for the right moment to strike. He recognized the obsidian armor as the Obsidianovy Drakón, the first power suit he had unlocked for the Daggers two years ago. The one wearing it was Jaguar, no doubt, but if that was the case, why did Henry attack him just now?

The hairy giant was another one of Finn's targets—second on the list, in fact. He was the one who brought forth the idea of installing MLPs into kids' heads and forcing them to Dive for the Daggers, and because of him, Finn had lost an entire part of his life, leaving him unable to grow the same way as other kids.

[Dante: Focus on the main bastard first.]

Another message arrived, its contents hinting at his thoughts being read like an open book. Though he wanted to disagree, his rational side told him that there was more to the story, so he turned his focus to his main target for the time being.

He watched as the obsidian armor continued to have all its attacks blocked or evaded, and just as it seemed like its owner was running out of options, Finn decided to make his move. That was when he received a signal informing him that the second machine had been turned on. That signal took away any hesitation he might have had, and he plunged from the sky, landing right in front of his greatest enemy.

Finn had dreamed of it for years—the moment he would finally deal a mortal blow to the man who took everything away from him. He never expected that he would be seeing it through the eyes of a giant power suit, however. As he looked at the figure kneeling in front of him, the boy's dormant anger ignited, turning into an infernal storm once more. That anger was channeled through his connection to the machine, traveling to its right arm and manifesting as light in the depth of its massive cannon-like limb.

Faces of people long dead flashed in Finn's mind. Seeing the smiles he thought had faded from his memory, he pulled the trigger and watched as the world before him was filled with light.