I Aggressively Stack Steel of the Heart in the Knight Order

Chapter 208: Chapter 173: Major Crisis! Personal Responsibility

This was the greatest crisis the Vengeance Angel Squad had faced since its inception.

The wide corridor was covered in rubble, and dust filled the air, illuminated by a faint light.

Reinhardt was severely wounded, his fate unknown.

Raphael was attacked and forcibly taken by Florant.

Matthias had given chase, but he could not withstand the Mighty Power of the Master Level Tier Two Wizard. His mind was battered by a Spiritual Storm, forcing him to his knees at the far corner of the corridor. He remained there, head bowed and motionless.

In a corridor farther away, Manon’s roars were the hysterical struggles of a dying, trapped beast.

Agate, the only one remaining in the Tomb Treasure Vault, locked his Mechanical Eye with Nico’s cold gaze. In this moment, the four-hundred-year-old veteran from the Steel Hand Battle Group displayed a calm and cold-blooded composure.

It was as if his emotions were completely unaffected by the plight of his teammates.

He stared at Nico from a distance. His Extraordinary Armament covered six mechanical arms connected to his spinal nerves. Without any unnecessary words, the battle was about to erupt!

Thermite Beams, like green fluorescent light, converged and shot toward Nico at nearly sub-light speed!

However, this terrifying power, capable of melting steel, struck Nico only to be completely isolated and reflected by a layer of silvery-white Energy Protection on his body’s surface.

The green Thermite Beams scattered in all directions, like lasers hitting a complex array of mirrors.

Countless Thermite Beams melted fist-sized craters into the walls.

Even the giant Golden Saint Statue was melted through by a stray Thermite Beam.

Then, Agate drew his Knight’s Broadsword.

His Power Backpack propelled him forward, flying low to the ground. In an instant, he was in front of Nico!

Nico watched Agate charge at him with a hint of surprise.

Just as the Knight’s Broadsword was about to strike his face, Nico stuck out a single finger, forcibly deflecting the blade. He then turned his palm down and clamped it tightly around the sword’s body.

His eyes filled with contempt for the weak. He sneered, "Too weak. Your resistance is meaningless in this battle. But since you’re courting death, I don’t mind being generous and fulfilling your desire to return to the Divine Emperor’s light."

Agate’s constantly whirring Mechanical Eye was silently analyzing Nico’s Extraordinary Power.

’In any battle, everyone has their place, their own responsibilities to bear. To win, you must shoulder that responsibility.’

Since its creation, his Extraordinary Armament had always been a battlefield-level superweapon. Its only weakness was in one-on-one confrontations against elite enemy powerhouses.

He knew he was no match for a Wizard of Nico’s Level,

but with Reinhardt’s fate unknown and his teammates successively wounded or missing, this was the only thing he, as a Technician Soldier, could do for the squad.

’Even if it means death, it’s all to seize the slightest sliver of hope for victory.’

Raphael’s Telepathy had failed.

So he needed to get close to where Nico and Reinhardt had fought, personally confirm the intelligence was accurate, and then relay what he had gathered to Reinhardt.

"A velocity-specialized elite War Witch Legion skeletal frame. The Mechanical Order has been searching for it for three thousand years. To think it would be in your hands."

Nico had been about to kill Agate, but Agate’s words made him hesitate for a second. He never thought someone would recognize his Wizard’s Secret Treasure.

As the owner of this Wizard’s Secret Treasure, Nico’s own knowledge of this skeletal frame was actually extremely limited.

During the era of the Old Empire’s rule, the powers of the Ash Soil Star Zone, when compared to the gargantuan, behemoth-like organizations of the Radiant Star Zone, were at best suburban cliques when all put together.

As a native Wizard from the Ash Soil Star Zone, born on a remote world, Nico’s understanding and his access to knowledge of the extraordinary were far inferior to Agate’s, who had once served in the Steel Hand, one of the Imperial Main Battle Legions, and had a background with the Mechanical Order.

But in that one second he hesitated, wondering whether to kill this Imperial Knight,

Agate’s cold but extremely rapid voice made Nico’s expression change drastically!

"Domain Mimicry isn’t true Domain Power. It puts immense pressure and neurological damage on the user’s body. As long as—"

Agate’s voice stopped abruptly.

Because Nico’s Iron Fist had already pierced his chest, instantly shattering his bones, heart, and lungs! The splash of blood and mangled flesh even formed a terrifying shockwave that sprayed dozens of meters outward!

The green light in the four-hundred-year-old veteran’s Mechanical Eye instantly dimmed. He hung from Nico’s arm as his six mechanical arms gradually lost power and drooped to the ground.

Nico’s expression was now extremely grim.

He had been able to dominate the Ash Soil Star Zone for three hundred years precisely because he alone knew the secrets and weaknesses of this Wizard’s Secret Treasure.

Unfortunately, his status and power came from this skeletal frame, and his future path was also limited by this Wizard’s Secret Treasure.

Nico, whose power had stagnated for a hundred years, was desperate to improve. That was why he had shown a sliver of mercy after Agate recognized the skeletal frame.

He had wanted to learn more of the extraordinary knowledge about this frame, knowledge that could allow his power to advance.

However, when Agate exposed the Wizard’s Secret Treasure’s weakness in a single sentence, cold sweat instantly drenched Nico’s back, and even his heart trembled!

’This damned Imperial Knight!’

Kicking Agate’s corpse away, Nico’s chest heaved violently with shame and rage.

At that very moment.

Nico abruptly turned his head.

A crimson blood mist, like an eternal river of blood from the Dark Abyss, billowed out from the crater Reinhardt had made in the wall. The ever-intensifying Knight Power transformed into a Destructive Suppression, filling the entire Tomb Treasure Vault like a monstrous, blood-red sea!

THUD.

A right hand, covered in Power Armor, suddenly shot out from the crater in the wall and gripped the edge tightly. Dark purple living matter writhed ceaselessly upon it, wreathed in the crimson blood mist.

Like a terrifying Great Demon from the Abyss.

When Nico realized that Reinhardt had not only withstood his full-power attack but that his Knight Power had suddenly doubled to reach the level of a Four-star Military Rank, his eyes filled with horrified disbelief! His expression changed drastically!

"This is impossible!"

That punch had seemed ordinary, but in essence, it was his Domain Mimicry, unleashed via the skeletal frame—it was the strongest attack he could muster at his peak!

In the three hundred years he had dominated the Ash Soil Star Zone, no one had ever survived that punch!

’Emperor’s Vengeful Angels...’

In that moment.

Nico finally realized what that title from the Battle of Verne truly meant.

To die in slaughter.

To be reborn in vengeance.

The next second, when Nico’s gaze met Reinhardt’s terrifying eyes, which burned with the Flame of Blood Fury, it felt as if his own heart skipped a beat.