Chapter 79: The Titan Protocol

As the heavy doors retracted completely, the party stepped into the main hangar. The ambient lights overhead clicked on automatically, flooding the cavernous underground chamber with bright illumination.

The entire group froze in their tracks. Their jaws dropped in absolute, unscripted astonishment, their eyes widening to the size of saucers as they stared at the colossal, unimaginable sight resting in the center of the vault.

They stood paralyzed, their boots rooted to an elevated metal catwalk that spanned the perimeter of a vast subterranean abyss. The sheer scale of the underground bunker defied comprehension. Built deep into the subterranean bedrock, the chamber extended down into a massive vertical silo, illuminated by hundreds of spherical light fixtures embedded across the curved concrete walls in a seamless, domino-like pattern that cast a brilliant, shadowless glow across the entire installation.

Suspended in the absolute center of the hangar, supported by colossal hydraulic gantry clamps and heavy power umbilicals, stood a towering mechanical leviathan.

Standing over twenty meters tall, its sleek composite frame was a masterpiece of advanced engineering and refined aesthetic beauty. It didn’t resemble the crude, boxy iron golems crafted by court enchanters; its silhouette was streamlined and aggressive, reminiscent of a legendary high-spec mech from another world. Polished white and obsidian armor plating covered its articulated limbs, accented by glowing blue energy conduits running along its torso like glowing veins. Mounted across its broad back was a massive, high-frequency anti-material broadsword, its edge gleaming under the overhead lights.

The party stepped forward to the edge of the guardrail, their eyes wide with sheer wonder as they looked up at the metallic titan towering above them.

"This is Commander Ren’s ultimate countermeasure," Ryu explained, breaking the stunned silence as he rested his hands on the railing. "He calls it a tactical combat mech. He engineered it specifically to neutralize giant-type threats—like that Apex Aberrant that breached the Starlight Kingdom’s defenses a month ago."

"Unbelievable... This is absolutely insane!" Miku shouted, throwing her hands up in pure excitement as she bounced on her heels. "I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life!"

Reika, Elysia, and Kael stood in silence, their eyes tracing the sleek, terrifying contours of the massive war machine with a mixture of awe and disbelief.

"Hey, Ryu!" Miku piped up, sprinting over to his side and jumping up and down. "Does this thing actually work? Can it really move?!"

Ryu turned to her, giving a confident nod. "Of course it works."

His expression darkened slightly as he gestured toward the colossal power cables connected to the mech’s back. "However, bringing a machine of this scale online requires an astronomical amount of electrical current and raw power."

Elysia crossed her arms, analyzing the giant frame. "Why hasn’t Ren deployed it yet, then? If it just needs electricity, couldn’t our lightning-element Vanguard Heroes supply the necessary current to jumpstart the generator?"

Ryu shook his head firmly. "The Commander ran those calculations early on. A manual external feed from elemental magic is far too volatile. Forcing our Vanguard Heroes to act as living batteries for a unit of this size would drain their mana pools instantly, causing severe, permanent Mana Burn long before the main core could even complete its initial boot sequence."

Kael frowned, his gaze shifting from Ryu to the dormant metallic titan. "Then how do you expect us to ever use it? If the power requirements are that extreme, it’s just a giant ornament."

Reika walked up beside them, her eyes still fixated on the elegant, terrifying structure. "If a weapon like this could actually be fielded, humanity wouldn’t be struggling against the Aberrants like this..."

"It was never meant for standard battlefields," Ryu clarified, his tone solemn and unyielding. "Commander Ren designed this machine as an absolute emergency protocol—a last line of defense for when Lumiria faces total annihilation."

He looked Kael directly in the eye. "If worst comes to worst and a threat capable of wiping Lumiria off the map appears, Commander Ren planned to activate the machine himself. He told me that if the situation ever degenerated to that point, he would use his own dark divinity—the power of Nyx within his bloodline—as the central power source to force the core online."

The group fell silent, taking in his words.

"I see..." Elysia murmured softly. A moment later, she looked back up at Ryu. "Is Ren actually able to fully control that Nyx power inside him now?"

"I don’t know the exact details," Ryu admitted. "He only briefed me on the emergency ignition protocol. Now, follow me. I’ll show you the standardized mechanized suits we can actually field right now."

Ryu turned toward a reinforced steel doorway set into the side of the walkway.

Beside the frame sat a sleek wall terminal. Ryu pressed an illuminated call button, and with a soft chime, a set of metallic doors slid open smoothly to reveal a spacious vertical transport platform.

Elysia, Kael, Reika, and Miku stared at the opening in stunned silence, their eyes widening at the seamless mechanical wizardry once again.

"This is an elevator," Ryu explained smoothly. "It allows rapid transit between the lower maintenance bays without having to climb down the emergency ladders."

"Incredible..." Miku muttered, stepping inside the lit cabin and tapping the polished interior walls. "How does Commander Ren even invent stuff like this? Is he really from our world? None of this makes any logical sense!"

The rest of the group stepped inside, and the smooth steel doors glided shut.

"Where he came from doesn’t matter," Ryu said firmly as the platform began its rapid descent. "What matters is that he’s fighting for us."

Meanwhile, miles away at the Lumiria Municipal Complex...

A gentle breeze blew across the open plaza in front of the city hall. Displaced refugees and local citizens were resuming their daily routines under the bright sky, while squads of royal guards and armored infantry moved efficiently between supply depots, loading crates of high-caliber ammunition onto transport trucks.

Standing near the perimeter fountain, Evelyn waited quietly. Opposite her stood Sylvara Elenith, who had both forefingers pressed lightly against her temples.

Sylvara’s eyes were closed, her brow creasing into a tight knot as she pushed her spatial awareness across vast geographic distances. Suddenly, a violent vision flashed through her mind—a vision of Ren, battered and bleeding in the center of a ruined mountain coliseum, standing before a colossal, eighteen-meter Apex Aberrant while Velista watched from the shadows.

Sylvara’s eyes snapped open. Her face drained of all color, and a cold sweat broke out across her forehead as her breathing hitched.

"What is it? What did you see?" Evelyn asked instantly, her sharp blue eyes locking onto the diviner.

"Princess Evelyn... Ren is in grave danger!" Sylvara gasped, her voice trembling with panic. "Velista has trapped him inside the mountain coliseum near Aethelgard! She’s unleashed that same eighteen-meter Apex Aberrant on him!"

Evelyn’s pupils contracted into tiny points. ’I knew it... She took him to the ancient grounds.’

Panic flared in her chest, but she forcibly shoved it down, her royal composure overriding the sudden shock.

"Sylvara, send an emergency optical transmission to the Kingdom of Aethelgard immediately!" Evelyn ordered sharply. "The coliseum sits right on their border! We are too far away to march a strike team there in time, but if Aethelgard dispatches their elite vanguard now, they can stall until our reinforcements arrive!"

Sylvara gave a rapid nod. "Understood!"