Chapter 145: Death's End
Just as Nunnally had predicted, the so-called coup was actually just an insipid rush all the way. After just less than two hours, the entire imperial capital had completely fallen, leaving only a few knights of the round table struggling to hold the palace with the only remaining fighting force.
Lelouch's Geass was so unreasonably powerful that whatever the villains did, their moves would be meaningless, and no means could be found to make the development of the plot twisted unless Lelouch suddenly became a moron. Since in this world, Nunnally and Lelouch have an above-normal level of intelligence, it's not surprising that the situation would turn out this way.
Suzaku Kururugi, as the son of a politician, has the minimum political literacy. He understands his task very well. All he had to do was to take advantage of the coup and kill all the knights loyal to Charles.
"I'm just the executioner, the knife to kill." He gripped the joystick in his hand and laughed to himself, "Gundam D-Hell, that's a fitting name."
The ultimate goal in Lelouch's plan was to ascend to the throne as emperor. And Kururugi's role was to reduce the consumption of ordinary soldiers and to take out all these Knights of the Round Table single-handedly as much as possible.
"At least from the propaganda Nunnally has made for me, she intends to keep her words." This was the last thing he expected, and the biggest motivation for him to sell his life to Nunnally, "Then let's get started."
Gundam D-Hell leaped up and sped towards the palace under the cover of friendly troops. The reflective beam cloak was tightly gathered to cover the surface of the MS, and the stray bullets from afar could not do any damage to it. It didn't take long for the Tenth Knight with his Percival Gundam to appear in Kururugi's view.
"Ho ho, isn't this the famous ACE goalkeeper, Suzaku Kururugi-san?" The other side set up a stance to meet the attack while also taunting Kururugi, "D-Hell? Laugh my ass off. You think you give yourself a nickname and then…"
The black shadow flickered in the sunlight, and the last half of the line was drowned out by the loud explosion. Only then did the crowd see the bat-like wings on the back of D-Hell, and the Percival that had been slashed into two. All the soldiers present felt a chill rising from their backs and going straight to their heads.
"One." Kururugi's voice rang out on the public channel, "Four more."
Even after experiencing many failures, he had never once questioned his strength. Is it a shame to lose to Arios Gundam and TurnX? Is it a shame to lose to Kira and the Akatsuki Gundam? Does that make him weak?
The defensive line here collapsed quickly, and Kururugi rushed on to the next battlefield. Halfway to the next battlefield, he was blocked by two female Knights of the Round Table, who attacked him from the left and right in a hand-to-hand position.
Before they could close in on him, D-Hell pushed toward one of them as countless bullets crackled on its bat wings. When he was about to hit his opponent, the bat wings behind D-Hell opened up, revealing a bare metal rod underneath that grazed the side of the opponent's MS and stabbed into it.
"The second and—"
D-Hell kicked the opponent's MS, which slammed backward right into D-Hell's scythe and was torn apart from it. At that moment, the other MS just arrived, wielding a beam saber to charge at D-Hell, and was also cut off by a D-Hell's smooth blow under the scythe.
"—the third." Kururugi had just finished his sentence, "Two more to go."
As if to save his time, before he could initiate a strike, Gundam00 appeared in his field of vision. As soon as Gundam00 appeared, a large number of red light particles began to gush out from its shoulders, and it moved at a speed, so fast that it was almost impossible to be caught in the sight.
"The time has come. For Euphemia and I myself." Faced with such astonishing speed, Kururugi activated λ-drive without hesitation, and the moment the system worked, a shuddering wave spread out from the depths of his soul while he suddenly launched into a daze, "… hey? I am …"
Gundam00's sword blade chopped on the unseen barrier, and the violent vibration of the fuselage snapped Kururugi out of his delirium. He deliberately did not dodge and took another sword by his field, and while Gundam00 was adjusting its stance, the scythe blade slashed through the D-drive on Gundam00's shoulder. The orange liquid splashed out, and Gundam00 dulled at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Fourth one." Kururugi took a deep breath and casually tore Gundam00 into two sections, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the opponent's cockpit pop out in the nick of time, but that was no longer something he should care about, "And the last one."
The essence of λ-drive is to amplify the weak AT field inherent in humans. The only drawback is that it is so draining on the consciousness under Ade's transformation. Kururugi felt mentally exhausted after only a short while.
Two minutes later, when Charles' last rapier and shield, the world-renowned first knight, was unexpectedly blocked by the AT field and unwillingly chopped into two by the scythe, Kururugi sat helplessly on the driver's seat, so exhausted that it seemed as if he could fall asleep the next moment.
"Hello." A cute cartoon girl image appeared abruptly on the main display, "You've been resting for a long time, may I ask if the battle between ACEs is over?"
"Huh?" Kururugi, who was still breathing heavily, froze dumbly and subconsciously replied, "Uh, it's over."
"Thanks for your cooperation, it provided Ade with very useful data." The cartoon girl smiled faintly at him, "Minovsky particle concentration is below the standard value, data is starting to upload, please wait patiently."
Immediately after that, a progress bar appeared on the screen and flew through it as Kururugi stared in amazement. Before he could react to what was happening, another sixty-second countdown replaced the progress bar.
"Ade said this is the genuine D-Hell, it can blow itself up!" The cartoon girl crossed her arms, "Sixty seconds left, plenty of time. Hurry up and run ~ Finally, good health, goodbye!"
After saying that, the girl disappeared, leaving only the bewildered Kururugi sitting there. He tapped the keyboard and pressed the button, but no matter what he did, the countdown did not stop, and even the cockpit was locked and refused to eject.
"What's all this with?" Seeing that half the time was about to pass, Kururugi gritted his teeth and shouted on the public channel, "I'm going to blow myself up, everyone, stay away!"
After saying that, he did not have time to care about other people's reactions, opened the cockpit, and jumped out. Thirty seconds later, the promised self-destruction came as promised. Hiding behind the cover, Kururugi let out a long breath. As for the innocent soldiers who died from the self-destruction, no one would care.
The guards, who had lost all their ACEs, were defeated, and the coup troops soon entered the palace. Kururugi was clear about his position, and replaced a Zaku to continue to help clean up the mess on the outside.
By the time he entered the palace after suppressing the remnants, he saw Lelouch laughing at the corpse of Charles on the throne, and Nunnally watched it all indifferently at Lelouch's side. V.V. was tied up and thrown at the bottom of the steps in front of the throne, and no one focused on him.
"Nunnally, we did it." Lelouch turned around and looked at his sister excitedly, his hands trembling a little from excitement, "I'll work hard, I will try to create a world where you can live happily ever after!"
"Brother…" Nunnally shook her head sadly and looked up to the sky, "He's coming."
The earth beneath their feet suddenly shook as strongly as an earthquake was happening, and the fragile ceiling of the palace was easily torn apart by a torrent of particles, and brilliant sunlight poured in. A ZakuⅡ wielding a beam magnum and a small blue mecha less than ten meters in size appeared in the torn gap and rested firmly on the dusty luxury carpet.
Ade jumped out of the cockpit of ZakuⅡ and walked quickly towards the throne. Ange also rolled out of Villkiss, took out her assault rifle and loaded it, and followed behind Ade.
"You're really here." Nunnally gave Lelouch a complicated look, "Please give me some time, I can definitely make you believe—"
"When did you become so naive too, Nunnally?" Ade ignored everyone and walked directly to V.V. and crouched down, "Give me a moment, be quiet for a while. Besides, it's actually not like you don't have a chance. Let's see if the worldview setting matches up."
Nunnally decisively shut her mouth and stopped her brother who intended to say something with a stern look.
"Lingus, C.C.'s Contractor." The motionless V.V. probably guessed what was going to happen, "Won't she come herself at a time like this?"
"She was trying to come with me, but I refused. It's still too cruel for her to watch someone she knows well die in front of her eyes." Ade glanced contemptuously at Charles' corpse on the royal throne, "You have nothing to say? Isn't it usual for villains to introduce their final plan or something when they die?"
"You don't know anything at all, humph. I'm not going to tell you." V.V. looked at him hatefully, "I'm his brother, that's still in our—"
"Well, if you don't want to tell me, just stop talking." Ade indifferently interrupted him, "I don't have time to listen to the words of an NPC like you, and I'm not interested in your family's love triangle abuse at all."
"But you are unable to kill me." V.V. was not afraid to stare at him, "Didn't she tell you that the transfer of Code requires some special conditions? I'm afraid that your Geass hasn't reached that stage yet. Feel free to torture me, it's all useless."
"It's just a self-service built with Lilith's Fruit of Life. Look how proud you are, do you really think that it was a masterpiece? And who told you that I want Code?" Ade pressed a hand on V.V.'s forehead, closed his eyes, and quietly sensed. A bloodline resonance thumped, "It's really here…"
"Wait," V.V. suddenly felt a burst of panic, "what are you doing?"
"Actually, I don't want to do something so disgusting, but since it's an agreement with C.C., there's no turning back long ago." Ade whispered to Ange with closed eyes, "Friday, do you want to turn around for a moment? I don't want you to see me… like this."
"No." Ange stared at him stubbornly, "No matter what you become, I'll see it through to the end."
"As you wish." Ade laughed softly and opened his eyes. At this moment, his eyes didn't contain any human emotion, "From now on, I only have the road in front of me, and there is no way back."
The next moment, a bizarre scene occurred. Ade's eyes suddenly lit up a blood-red bird-like pattern. V.V.'s eyes opened wide and he issued a piercing scream. His head was chopped in half by an invisible sharp blade, and blood and brain fluid were spreading uncontrollably on the ground.
As everyone stared in horror, Ade expressionlessly rummaged through V.V.'s sliced open brain, then extended his thumb and forefinger to carefully twist something. The object was so small that no one could see exactly what was between his two fingers. He hesitated for a long time and finally stuck out his tongue and swallowed the thing, and then wiped his sticky hands clean on the clothes of V.V.'s corpse.
Seeing this, Nunnally could no longer stand, turned her head, and vomited. Lelouch also covered his mouth to hold back a burst of regurgitation, so hard not to throw up on the spot.
"Ade, you're so disgusting!" Even Ange complained and kicked him lightly, "You're not allowed to kiss me for a week, no, for a month!"
"You're the one who insisted on seeing it, and now you're blaming me for it." Ade wiped his mouth and stood up, and the human emotion returned to his eyes, "Besides, you think I want to do it? Who knows how to use this thing? I can't think of any other way than to eat it."
"But you don't look like you've changed at all." Ange looked at him up and down for a moment, "Not much different from before."
"Actually, it's quite a big change, it's just that there are no special effects around my body, so it doesn't look cool." Ade moved his body a bit, and his expression was a bit complicated, "There's no going back."
Ange sniffed and looked at him silently, showing a somewhat lonely and somewhat helpless expression, just like a puppy left behind by its master. But that was only for a moment, and the fortitude in her eyes immediately replaced the weakness, just as she had always done.
"Well, now the time has come to decide the fate." Ade faced Lelouch and clapped his hands, "Can you please perform it again? Yes, that one."
Lelouch, who had watched the live "horror movie" for a long time, instantly woke up and subconsciously looked at his sister. Nunnally bit her lips and nodded to him.
"…it still works." Ade looked at the pattern in Lelouch's eyes with a look of understanding, "The operator went down, but the server is still there, so your account can still be logged in. I see."
At this point in the matter, he had completely figured out how Code and Geass worked.
The essence of Geass is to emit special brain quantum waves that can be interpreted to others or to oneself, so as to achieve various special effects. The underlying basis of implementation is actually Lilith as the server. Code, on the other hand, is Lilith's appointed operator and has the right to issue user accounts.
C.C. as Lilith's official designated operator, her character was really too twisted and gave away too few accounts. V.V. should be a self-service set up by Lilith's Fruit of Life by some genius, maybe Aeolia, so that he could bypass C.C. to give other people access to the server.
So even now V.V. has died, as long as the server (Lilith) is still there, Geass can continue to work. And Ade merely absorbed Lilith's SuperSolenoid, and did not inherit the operator's qualification, so he was still counted as an ordinary player.
"Unfortunately, Nunnally, it seems that the setting is not on your side. In that case…" Ade sighed regretfully, "Lelouch, please go to hell. "
