28th September, Year 714 A.G.

[06:43am]

In the backdrop of one of the biggest Megacities in the world, after fighting for over 30 minutes already, for the first time Ren Nora truly let loose as his neon green ADE exploded and revolved around his body like floating green Dragons!

And then he moved.

Bzzz!

Immediately after losing his second clone as his ADE dropped to dangerous thresholds, before General Sylvari realized what was happening, alone and isolated again, Ren Nora and his clone descended on him in a whirlwind of steel.

In Neo-Tokara, every race is unique and among them all, A.I Constructs are the only race in the world who can reliably survive outside the confines of their mechanical shell.

And that is the greatest difference between Synths and A.I Constructs. Synths have a body, while A.I Constructs only have a shell.

Synths are echoes of living beings, while A.I Constructs are digital beings.

Unlike Synths who are humans and descendants of humans who uploaded their human consciousness into mechanical bodies, A.I Constructs are Artificial Intelligence who gained sentience, meaning their bodies is just a shell for them.

If a Synth loses his original body due to any reason, unless a compatible body is found immediately, his consciousness would dissipate without a solid body and he would die like any Geneform.

But this limitation doesn’t apply to A.I Constructs. An A.I Construct’s body is not one-dimensional.

A well-calibrated Computer can easily replace the body of an A.I Construct.

And unlike them, just like Geneforms, as a Synth, General Sylvari’s body required a lot of things to function- from his Neural Core which was on the right side of his chest, to his Heart Engine that pumped synthetic oil through his body, energizing him, to his Consciousness Core where his consciousness resided within his head, serving as his artificial brain.

To even the Filtration Module within his torso, acting as an artificial Lung specialized in filtering ADE and stripping it of its corruptive influence.

All these internal machine parts- organs meant that unlike A.I Constructs, Synths have more easily identifiable weak points.

These were the core vitals of a Synth and at this moment when Ren Nora descended on him, Sylvari’s priority was to protect them.

This was because he knew that Ren Nora would definitely target them and he was not ready to go down without a fight.

Desperately pooling the remnants of his ADE together, neon green light flared around his body as...

Data Manifestation!

BZZZ!

He went all in again.

He created 3 new replicas of the great plasma Odachi, making them revolve around him beside the original.

And then, he focused on defense.

He raised the original great plasma Odachi to protect his head, while at the same time led by his ADE 2 of the 3 new replicas of the Odachi tried to counterattack against the General.

As for the last neon green replica of the great plasma Odachi, Sylvari commanded it to hover in front of him and protect his Neural Core that was on the right side of his chest.

His preparations were complete but then like a hurricane, it came.

And well, it was just as bad as he expected as...

Ghost-in-the-Machine!

Bzzz!

Just as Ren Nora arrived in front of him, he disappeared, blinking between the psionic realm and reality so fast that he left afterimages in his wake, dodging the 2 attacking replicas of the great plasma Odachi at the same time.

And then... 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

CLANGGGGGG!

Of Ren Nora’s 2 black daggers, the left one batted the massive blade of the Data Manifested neon green Odachi aside with a deft slash right in time for the right dagger to plunge straight into the right side of the Synth’s chest where his Neural Core was!

BAM!

The dagger pierced through with very little resistance.

At the same time, while the original Ren Nora used Ghost-in-the-Machine to dodge the 2 attacking Odachis, still attacking from the front, the cloned Ren Nora used Ghost-in-the-Machine to hop behind the Synth, unseen and unnoticed.

Not like Sylvari could have done anything even if he noticed.

And before Sylvari could even know what was happening, he felt a dagger sink into his mechanical skin with insulting ease from behind!

The dagger plunged through his metallic skin and dug deep into his internal circuits, ravaging his Heart Engine!

A Synth’s Heart Engine is the equivalent of a Geneform’s Heart and without it, a lot of vital body processes within the General instantly shut down.

Sylvari shivered as a cold feeling of dread engulfed him.

And yet it wasn’t over as the other dagger of the cloned Ren Nora targeted his Filtration Module with eerie accuracy, sliding through the gaps in his mechanical body and ruthlessly shredding off a good chunk of it!

The other neon green daggers floating through Ren Nora’s Data Manifestation also attacked at the exact same time, targeting different parts of his body and dealing devastating damage.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

For a brief moment, Sylvari lost consciousness.

The only part of his body that was unscathed was his head because the General put all his attention into protecting his head.

Far away in the distance, an injured Leon shivered.

If General Sylvari was the host of the ChronoSystem, he could easily imagine the General now being blinded with a rapid thread of notifications showing the amount of critical damage that he just took within a single second!

"UGH...!" Sylvari groaned the moment he regained consciousness.

He felt synthetic oil rushing to his throat in massive volumes and before he could stop it, he coughed dark greenish blue oil and staggered.

That was a killing move!

Ren Nora targeted literally almost all his vitals at the same time.

The damage was substantial: his Neural Core was partially damaged, his Heart Engine was completely obliterated, and his Filtration Module was heavily damaged by the sudden barrage of attacks.

With his Neural Core partially damaged, General Sylvari’s ADE flow was effectively crippled, robbing him of his last remaining ADE!

And with his Heart Engine completely obliterated, his body was rapidly losing energy and mechanical integrity as he began feeling a wave of weakness wash over his once mighty body like a tide.

And unlike a certain Class and a certain Mechanist, he didn’t have any ability or trait to heal himself.

He was doomed.

"Argh...!" He groaned and staggered on wobbly feet, supporting himself on the massive Odachi.

Worst of all, with his Filtration Module now heavily damaged, the ADE now flowing into his body was quickly turning toxic and corruptive.

He needed no one to tell him; he knew that he was done.

He lost.

’I lost’. The thought rang in his head repeatedly, making him experience that feeling that was deeply tied to his trauma again.

That feeling that he’d been striving for over a century to forget, that feeling that he wanted to leave behind in his past.

’Ah, I hate this feeling’. If he was a Geneform, tears would have welled up in his eyes already.

And before he could think further...

BAM!

A thick pair of hands filled with harrowing power suddenly wrapped around his throat in an obliterating grip, and then they forced him to his knees!