Reborn as a Mechanist with a God-Tier System-Chapter 251: The taste of Victory

The Federation Army retreated.

They retreated battered, defeated, and humiliated.

In one of the retreating warships, General Sylvari Charr was supported by 2 of his subordinates as he watched the city with pure hatred in his eyes. His greatest ever humiliation came in this city.

’I’ll destroy Iron Reef someday!’ He vowed hatefully.

’And that Mechanist,’ his face twisted his rage at the mere thought of him.

The moment the DDOS trap was finally deactivated, releasing him, General Sylvari Charr collapsed as he was so weak that he couldn’t even stand by himself.

And as expected, in his weak state, Murphy ruthlessly mocked him, telling the truth of his trap in front of his subordinates.

General Sylvari Charr already decided to eliminate every single one of his subordinates that heard about his humiliation.

But still, he was not satisfied.

The craziest thing was that he never even saw the culprit of his suffering and humiliation once. For some reason, after the war came to an end, the Mechanist was nowhere to be found.

But General Sylvari Charr had no intentions of letting it go.

’I won’t stop till I find you, and I’ll make sure I torture you for 365 days before I kill you in the most brutal manner possible!’

General Murphy looked at his counterpart with a taunting smirk on his face. "Are you thinking of burning the entire world?"

"I’LL KILL YOU!!!" General Sylvari snarled and glared at him.

General Murphy chuckled. "Oh please, don’t spit on my face," he grinned. "Talking of killing me, can you?"

General Sylvari harrumphed. "I’ll kill you one day, I promise".

Murphy smirked. "I’ll love to see you try".

With that, the Federation Army finally retreated and left Iron Reef.

...

At the same time that the Federation Army retreated, Ren Nora floated in the sky in his biological form as he looked at his hands with a look of amazement on his face.

Despite the fact that he was the one that currently had the abilities, he still couldn’t help but feel goosebumps at the understanding of what it meant to be a ’Glitch’.

He raised his hands, feeling the goosebumps on his skin as he supervised the retreat of the Federation Army. ’So this is what it feels like to be a C Rank Data Phantasm,’ he thought.

’This is what it feels like to be a ’Glitch’.’

While Ren Nora floated in the sky, below him and behind him, the surviving warships, aerial transports, and soldiers of the Freegrid Collective roared and cheered excitedly.

"LORD NORA!"

"LORD NORA!"

"LORD NORA!"

Some of the soldiers were so emotional that they burst into tears.

Some lost their limbs during the battle, some were crippled for life but realizing that the war was truly over and they won, they all cried tears of joy and cheered their Lord’s name at the top of their lungs, temporarily forgetting their physical pain.

The atmosphere was full of emotions from sorrow to joy and euphoria.

Ren Nora bathed in the adoration of his soldiers, and then with a thought, he turned into streams of raw data before disappearing from his position.

This was not Neural Projection.

This was the C Rank Class Specialization ability of a Data Phantasm of the Code Phantom Specialization. At C Rank, Code Phantoms become Shadow Nodes.

This teleportation ability was far faster than Neural Projection!

BZZZ!

Ren Nora appeared beside Major Kai’s heavily injured form at an isolated corner of the city.

Heavily injured and having lost an eye, the moment Major Kai felt the presence of another person, he struggled to look up.

His vision was hazy and blurred, filled with blood.

But even in the haziness, he recognized who it was.

Major Kai immediately burst into tears like a child, his shoulders trembling uncontrollably as Ren Nora walked towards him and hugged him tightly.

"Its fine, it’s ok".

Major Kai sniffled. "I thought, I-I thought he betrayed us".

"He didn’t," Ren Nora forced a smile, then he muttered. "I think he’s the herald of change, he’s the singular force that’ll truly help the free folk overthrow the tyranny of the Omnicore Federation".

Major Kai didn’t stop crying as he wiped his tears. He pushed Ren Nora back slightly with his slightly recovered strength, then he muttered sorrowfully. "Lawrence, Mendez, Potter... t-they’re all dead". His lips trembled in agony of being the one that survived.

He and Major Garfield were the only ones who survived.

Ren Nora nodded solemnly. "I know".

"Their deaths was not in vain".

...

After 13 days of non-stop war, the civilians were finally released from the underground shelters as they were allowed to climb back to the surface.

They climbed up to see a vastly terraformed Iron Reef.

The city looked unrecognizable from 13 days ago due to the sheer amount of damage that it was subjected to, but despite the damages, they felt the change in the air, they heard the hum of hope.

They all gathered in the grand square before their General, tens of thousands of them including the surviving soldiers.

That night, Ren Nora had another speech.

"Free folk," he smiled, his first genuine smile in a long time. "Listen to the sound of this moment, savor the heartbeat".

"Not the cheers alone, and not the mourning alone".

"Listen to the breathing," he grinned. "The city is still breathing, because tonight we earned the right to protect ourselves".

"I’m now a C Rank Ascended..."

BOOM!

The crowd erupted in loud cheers, singing and jumping wildly.

Ren Nora smiled. "This is our victory".

"It’s not the kind of victory that’s sung about in old legends. It was not clean, it was touched by grief".

"This victory was paid for with blood, with names we will never stop speaking about, with brothers and sisters who stood their ground so the rest of us could still be standing here now".

"Tonight, for the first time since this war began, the Federation was forced to go on a full retreat".

He grinned. "This was not a delayed retreat. We didn’t negotiate with them, instead, we drove them back".

"YEAHHHHH!" The crowd roared.

"They came to erase us, and instead, they learned something that can never be unlearned," he exhaled. "And that’s the fact that we are no longer prey".

"We are no longer helpless".

"We have claimed the strength to defend our homes, our people, and our future. And yes... the cost was terrible".

"Look around you," he gestured at the crowd. "Joy and sorrow stand shoulder to shoulder tonight".

"We celebrate with tears in our eyes and fists clenched around memories. We won... but we did not walk here alone".

"So to those who fell..."

"To the fighters who charged knowing they wouldn’t return..."

"To the medics who stayed when escape was possible..."

"And to the nameless heroes who became shields so others could live..."

"You are not gone," Ren Nora raised his right hand which was clenched in a fist. "You are in every wall still standing in the city".

"You are in every child who will sleep without fear tonight, and you are in this victory itself".

"We do not honor you by pretending this was easy," Ren Nora exhaled. "We honor you by remembering how hard we all fought and why it mattered".

"Tonight marks the end of something, and the beginning of something far more dangerous to tyrants".

Ren Nora exhaled, his eyes sweeping across the crowd of rebels as he said loudly. "The era of helplessness is over!"

His eyes gleamed. "For the first time, the Federation must think before they strike us because I am here".

His neon green ADE erupted around his body in thick swirls, rising into the sky like a tsunami as the sight of it made the soldiers roar and cheer.

"For the first time, their power is checked not by treaties or pleas but by people who proved they can stand their ground".

"This does not mean the war is finished, far from it, but this means the future is no longer theirs to dictate".

"We have crossed a line," Ren Nora grinned. "From resistance to self-determination, to self-worth and self-preservation and pride".

"Mourn tonight, speak the names of the fallen, hold each other close and let the weight of what we lost sit honestly in your hearts".

"The pain proves that the victory is real".

"And when dawn comes, lift your eyes because ahead of us is something we have not had in generations... choice".

"The choice to build instead of beg".

"The choice to protect instead of flee".

"The choice to imagine a world that does not belong to corporations and fear, the choice to build a new Iron Reef".

"Our martyrs bought us this moment".

"Our heroes carved open this path of freedom and hope, and now it is our duty and our honor to walk it forward".

"Tonight, we remember them".

"Tonight, we grieve for them".

"Tonight, we celebrate them".

"But tomorrow... tomorrow we begin shaping a future that finally belongs to the free folk".

"Long live the Freegrid Collective!"

"LONG LIVE THE FREEGRID COLLECTIVE!"