“Report!” Mizuki requested an update once all the insects in the area had been killed.

  < Hardware is barely functioning at 1.2415% efficiency. Without your Core Reactor, the energy reserve of this armor can only sustain twelve hours of operation. Hypothesis: the armor with me in it would permanently cease to function once it is exposed to this world’s dimensional ws without the protection of your AT-Field. >

  ‘As expected, your analysis is simir to mine. I’ll have Ayumi to solve the dimensional ws as soon as possible, but for now…’ He turned back towards the tower’s entrance where the dwarves had managed to catched up. “So… what do you think about Gurren? In terms of pure melee combat performance, she’s second only to me.” Mizuki shrugged his shoulders after not receiving any answer.

  “In any case, are there any other survivors?” He asked once more, this time, he’s truly asking for an answer. ‘Ayumi, help me out.’ he mentally whispered as he interacted with an Augmented Reality interface that only he could see.

  A faint shimmer blinked across his vision. “Survival… others… popution?” He tested, dwarven words feeling completely foreign on the Terran’s tongue.

  The dwarves, wide-eyed and hesitant, exchange gnces before responding in rapid, fractured sentences. Their words, heavy with urgency, were punctuated by sharp gestures, pointing towards the wreckage and beyond.

  Mizuki squinted his eyes as he watched them even more closely. Ayumi fed a stream of decoded nguage into his dispy, slow and incomplete, but enough for him to piece together fragments. ‘They were expecting some survivors, but they require medical assistance. The vilge…’ his eyes trailed over the stony homes, their once-sturdy walls now spttered with dark, viscous insect blood that seeped into the earth, tainting it with pathogens. No vegetation can grow unless the contaminant is purged from the soil.

  The dwarf leader stepped forward, his rough hand gripping Mizuki’s mechanical forearm. His face, lined with years of hardship, reflected both gratitude and despair. He pointed to the sky, then towards the tower that held the lightcrystal on its peak who’s now cracked and dimmed, pulsing faintly from its perch.

  “The insects were repelled by the Light before, but now they are attacking it without a care,” Mizuki thought, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the dying light crystal. He crossed his hands as he entered a deep contemption.

  < According to their body nguage, Your Excellencies' original hypothesis is the most likely. > Ayumi added proofs to his hypothesis.

  “Expin… vilge… insect… attack… when?” Mizuki’s voice grew firmer as he inquired further, looking for specific details, strategies forming in his mind.

  The leader nodded grimly and began a slow recount, his hand mimicking the flurry of wings and mandibles. The other dwarves chimed in with short, choppy sentences, their voice hushed as if the very memory of the attack had drained them of their strength. Mizuki followed their gesture, watching as they pointed to parts of the vilge now hollowed out, houses cracked like broken shells. This was no longer a vilge, but a ruined graveyard.

  While Mizuki listened to the dwarf leader and his group’s expnation, some of the dwarves atop of the tower came down to see what happened. Once they realized the vilge was completely devoid of mutant insects, they rushed towards their former homes in an attempt to search for survivors.

  At the same time, Gurren moved through the rubble with calcuted precision to assist. Her sensors swept the ruins, catching faint signs of life. A low beet signaled a discovery- a dwarf, pinned beneath stone and soil, his right shoulder mangled from being torn apart and eaten. Gurren’s hands worked swiftly, lifting debris as the dwarf gasped for air, his heartbeat slowed to a near standstill.

  More survivors followed, emerging slowly from their hiding pces. Each bore wounds— some physical, others deeply etched in their eyes. Mizuki noticed that almost all of the survivors had used dangerous death-faking methods, such as slowing their bodily function to avoid detection or to avoid the pathogen being spread further into their bodies. However, long-term usage of said method must be detrimental to their body, as some are teetered on the edge of death from the strain.

  As minutes turned into an hour, Ayumi’s transtion improved, smoothing out the rough edges of communication. Mizuki listened, his mind racing. He could understand the desperation in their voice even without the transtion, but deep within, there was a glimmer of hope.

  His eyes flickered and scanned towards the perimeter of the vilge where his AT-Field does not reach, the jagged edges of the cliffs and the dark petrified forest beyond as he considered his next move.

  There’s no way to sugarcoat it. The dwarven vilge is in complete shambles. Defenses were nonexistent, and survivors were either too wounded or too weak to assist in combat.

  Currently, he had stretched out his AT-Field to cover a few hundred meters in diameter just so that he was sure he could move quickly to save the survivors if some insect managed to get through his sensors.

  He had only a limited amount of energy supply and due to the ck of sunlight, he couldn't use sor energy to replenish it. Furthermore, his next best method of killing, which includes the usage of bullets, is unreliable without a supply line. Mizuki was sure that he’s in a completely disadvantaged position, but he didn’t lose hope.

  ‘I have not been brought to life again and come this far to die now.’ He accessed the tactical dispy in his AR interface. The translucent grid overpped the dark ndscape as he analyzed the topography.

  The dwarven vilge, perched precariously on the mountainside, has natural choke points. Perhaps, those choke points are the primary reasons why the dwarves made their vilge in this location to begin with. However, they were vulnerable from above. Gurren combat efficiency could keep the creatures at bay for a while, but Mizuki’s winning condition is not to keep himself alive, but to ensure the dwarves survive the attack. All his supply wouldn’t be enough for a sustained defense, especially if the next wave was rger.

  ‘Ayumi,’ he telepathically whispered, ‘what’s the best course of action, given the current state of the vilge?’

  < Processing variables… evaluating threats level… >

  His dispy flickered as Ayumi began running projections. The AI’s voice remained calm, but they were developed based on a human’s personality matrix, therefore the existence of faint tension in her digital tone. The direness of the situation is all but pin to see.

  < Scenario 1: Remain in the vilge. Probability of the dwarven survival rate: 14,91%. Scenario 2: Evacuate the survivors underground. Probability of dwarven survival rate: 11,74%. Scenario 3: Interact with the Lightcrystal and integrate your AT-Field to its Light. Probability of dwarven survival rate: 71,38%. >

  Mizuki narrowed his eyes at the readouts. With the exception of the 3rd scenario, the other two provided too low chances of success. The dwarves were too exhausted to mount an effective retreat, and the valley route was wide open to aerial assaults from fliers. The underground option has a lower chance of survival, but there are signs of burrowing insects, so it made sense.

  On the other hand, commune with the Lightcrystal atop of the vilge’s tower is a high-risk option, but its strange, dimming light still pulsed faintly. It might be the key to solve the vilge’s current predicament, but looking at the pre-requirements to achieve AT-Field integration, he frowned.

  ‘I can’t depend on it, though. It couldn’t be done before the next attack reaches us.’ Mizuki thought. He needed something more concrete.

  At this very moment, he received a mental ping from Gurren.

  < Warning: detected anomalous vibration in the atmosphere, estimated to originate from the north. Warning: Incoming seismic shift indicates increased activity… estimated to originate from the south. >

  Mizuki mentally clicked his tongue, “A pincer attack. Is it the same swarm?”

  < High Probability. Current readings suggest the swarms are inbound to our current location. Estimated time until contact: 24 minutes. >

  Mizuki exhaled a cold breath of super coont, an effort to bring down the average temperature of his overheating crystal processor. ‘If the insects are this aggressive to the point of ignoring the Lightcrystal’s deterrence, they might be driven by something…’

  “Them are pursue consume to lightcrystal intent?” He asked the dwarf leader in broken dwarvish, his mind racing ahead to possible motives.

  Based on the dwarven leader’s answer, Ayumi made her own deduction.

  < Uncertain. However, based on pattern analysis, it is pusible that the insects are reacting to energy fluctuation within the crystal and intent on consuming the crystal just like they are consuming and evolving their bioform. Their behavior indicates an escating aggression cycle. >

  Mizuki scanned the wounded dwarves still being treated by spider medi-bots. Gurren had managed to uncover more survivors, most had their bodies eaten, but those won’t be enough to get them in combat shape.

  His gaze shifted towards the dark sky, where his long-range sensors can freely penetrate without being hindered by clouds. It was still dark, and ‘naked eyes’ indicated a rge number of fliers heading towards the vilge. The eerie darkness that had settled over the vilge after the first attack was now growing heavy with tension, the kind of stillness that comes before a storm.

  “Haaa—” Mizuki exhaled a stream of cold, frozen breath once more. The swarm was already on its way. In his filtered sights, outlines of insects began to be highlighted as Gurren syncs up with his sensors. Their shifting forms were like a living storm of wings and chitin, surging towards the vilge with unnatural haste. They were rger and more variant than before, their wings beating so hard that the air vibrated with an ominous hum. Mizuki’s focus flickered from one creature to the next. These weren’t just random mutant insects anymore, they were showing btant signs of dwarven features with short but thick heavy limbs in their humanoid forms.

  They had purpose, coordination, and means to achieve their goals.

  “Evacuate, protect, inside, tower, crystal. Leave!” Mizuki ordered the dwarves with broken dwarvish, and the dwarven leader followed at once. The ones that can move are hastily evacuating the wounded while salvaging whatever is left after the attack.

  “Gurren, get the orbital pod to this location.” Mizuki was intent on suppressing the area of his AT-Field to concentrate the firepower. Although the surface of the Pod is made out of adamantium and therefore virtually invulnerable in this world, there’s a chance that the intelligence of the swarm might want to cause problems by stealing his remaining supplies.

  Once Mizuki left to fetch the pod, he ordered his other AI Unit. “Ayumi, I want you to run calcutions..” his voice low like a whisper as the air began to thrum with the insect’s swarm approach. Sounds like thousands of wings beating in unison, vibrating through the air caused a wave of terror within the dwarves heart, but Mizuki stayed silent.

  < Preemptive strike? > Gurren inquired as she reached the tower’s entrance after pulling the orbital pod with some wire.

  “Yes.” Mizuki walked towards Gurren. “Open up, I’m going to try something.”