The execution of the Area Purification Protocol cleared out the Ninja Hundred-Man Squad and all outer defenses with unstoppable efficiency.
Margaret and Maria, controlling the steel giants, stepped over the still-smoking scorched earth and molten metal wreckage, finally reaching the Arasaka main residence, a blend of traditional and modern styles.
Under a full-power blast from the Lancer's impact lance, the main residence's alloy gate twisted and tore like paper, revealing the luxurious but empty hall within.
"Scan shows life signals concentrated deep underground," Maria reported, as the punisher's sensors penetrated layers of structure, locking onto an area protected by a high-intensity energy field.
"Find him, terminate the mission," Margaret said concisely, controlling the Lancer to be the first to step inside the building.
The heavy footsteps of the mecha echoed with a heart-pounding roar on the marble floor, and wherever it passed, exquisite screens and antique furniture were reduced to powder under its metal limbs.
Any loyal guards attempting a last stand inside the building appeared laughable in the face of the knight mecha's absolute size and firepower advantage.
The attendant mechs' precise bursts cleared every corner, paving the way for the main knight mecha.
Following the scanned path, they forcibly breached one emergency lockdown door after another, finally reaching a secret room deep underground, filled with various life-support equipment and monitoring screens.
In the center of the secret room, Saburo Arasaka, the old man who had ruled the Arasaka Empire for nearly a century, was deeply ensconced in a specialized life-support chair.
Innumerable tubes connected to his body, his aged face appearing particularly withered under the cold light of the instrument screens, yet in his sunken eye sockets, a stubborn and icy rage still burned.
He stared fixedly at the steel giants that had invaded his final sanctuary, his lips moving, as if trying to say something.
Margaret gave him no chance to utter last words or activate any unknown contingencies. Lord Sage's command was clear and absolute: eliminate the target.
The Lancer's right arm rose, its impact lance's tip aimed at the old man in the chair.
There was no shouting, no declaration, only cold, efficient execution.
A surge of azure ion energy erupted instantly, engulfing the aged figure.
The extreme high temperature instantly vaporized the life-support chair along with Saburo Arasaka inside it, leaving no trace. The soul of the Arasaka Empire was utterly annihilated here.
"Target cleared," Margaret reported calmly over the channel.
"Confirmed target life signal vanished," Maria verified synchronously.
However, the mission was not yet over. Osiris's instructions explicitly required guarding against Arasaka's potential "Soulkiller" technology to prevent consciousness uploads.
"Next target, Arasaka Tower data center," Margaret issued a new command, "Destroy all data storage facilities."
The two knight mechas and six attendant mechs quickly withdrew from the Arasaka mansion, which had begun to show structural instability, returning to the ruined grounds of the estate.
Their sensors all turned towards the direction of central Tokyo, where the towering Arasaka Tower remained prominent amidst the night and flames.
Just as Margaret and Maria left the ruins of the estate and stepped onto the wide main road leading to the city, a dense, rumbling engine roar came from afar.
On the horizon, a true army appeared.
The regular forces of the Arasaka response units, upon confirming the attack on the estate, especially the disappearance of Lord Saburo's life signal, finally activated all their last reserves stationed around Tokyo, pouring out en masse.
This was no longer limited to the estate's garrison or covert units performing special missions, but the Arasaka Empire's organized, fully-equipped, regular military units, armed with the most advanced weapons, that it could deploy in its core territory.
On the ground, sleek main battle tanks formed a wedge-shaped offensive formation, their distinctive single-eye sensors flashing red, their electromagnetic cannon turrets humming deeply, and their long barrels uniformly raised, pointing towards the mountain-like steel giants in the distance.
Heavy armored personnel carriers followed closely, their hatches not yet fully open, but the murderous aura of the soldiers packed inside could already be felt.
And what truly showcased their technological prowess was the shadow of death cast over the battlefield from above.
Several massive, menacing "Hachiman"-class armed airships, like growling steel beasts, hovered at the rear of the battlefield, their belly missile bays wide open, multi-barreled pulse laser turrets charging, emitting a heart-pounding energy fluctuation.
Around them, small attack drones, dense as migrating birds, buzzed at high frequency, weaving a three-dimensional net of firepower in the air with elusive trajectories, ready to dive down at any moment for suicide attacks or to unleash miniature munitions.
On the flanks of the ground forces, an unsettling unit silently deployed—a cluster of Arasaka's latest combat-ready bio-mimetic robots.
They had completely abandoned human form, presenting pure killing configurations.
One type had a low, multi-legged chassis, resembling metal spiders, climbing and leaping through the ruins with astonishing stability, their mounted rotary cannons locked onto the distant steel giants.
Another mimicked the streamlined structure of a cheetah, its four-legged body exhibiting explosive sprinting speed, with shoulder-mounted missile launchers already in a ready state.
The movements of these mechanical constructs possessed inhuman precision and synchronization, and when activated, their optical camouflage slightly distorted their outlines in the air.
With efficiency and coordination far surpassing human soldiers, they spread rapidly along both sides of the street like a deadly metallic tide, their cold sensor arrays constantly scanning the knight mechas' defensive formations, attempting to find frequency weaknesses in their shield systems or structural vulnerabilities.
This was the ultimate manifestation of Arasaka's homeland defense system in Tokyo, a destructive force combining heavy armor, three-dimensional firepower, and intelligent mechanical clusters, with enough firepower to reduce the core area of a modern city to scorched earth in a very short time.
"Detecting large-scale enemy approach. Scale—far exceeding previous engagements," Maria's voice carried a hint of solemnity; despite her confidence in the knight mechas, facing such a massive steel flood still brought pressure.
"Maintain formation, continue advance," Margaret's command remained steady, as if what was approaching was merely a slightly larger storm, "Attendant units, protect flanks. Maria, prioritize clearing aerial threats and heavy armor."
"Understood!"
The battle erupted instantly.
The Arasaka army had clearly received death orders; without any warning, the first volley arrived.
In an instant, the area where Margaret and Maria were located was completely engulfed by incessant explosions and towering flames. Scorching air currents rolled, and shrapnel and shockwaves violently tore at the air.
However, this saturation attack, powerful enough to annihilate an army, merely stirred up more intense, denser energy ripples on the knight mechas' pale blue ion shields.
The shields flickered steadily, deflecting and absorbing all attacks, like unmoving reefs in a storm.
The Lancer didn't even stop moving; Margaret's exquisite piloting skills were fully displayed at this moment.
She controlled the mecha to perform evasive maneuvers with minimal amplitude, always presenting the ion shield at the optimal angle to face the fiercest attacks, and although its energy readings fluctuated, they always remained within safe thresholds.
The punisher, meanwhile, began its performance.
Maria stabilized the mecha, and the punisher's burst cannon let out a muffled and continuous roar.
With every explosive shell fired, a tank's turret in the distance was blown off, or an armored vehicle turned into a fireball.
The six attendant mechs were also fighting valiantly.
They formed a mobile defense line, using laser cannons and heavy burst guns to precisely clear approaching infantry and light vehicles.
While their individual shields were not as powerful as the knight mechas', they still handled conventional light weapons and man-portable rocket launchers with ease.
The battle seemed to be a one-sided annihilation.
However, the Arasaka army was, after all, a well-trained, regular military force.
After the initial chaos, the battlefield command system quickly completed a tactical re-evaluation.
Cold commands were transmitted via data link to every combat unit—since wide-area coverage was ineffective, they would concentrate all forces to attack a single point.
The electromagnetic cannon turrets of over twenty main battle tanks simultaneously fine-tuned, their muzzles uniformly pointing towards an attendant mechs located on the flank of the array.
There was no roar of a salvo; instead, a more deadly, continuous strike rhythm emerged—high-velocity armor-piercing rounds continuously hammered the same area of the attendant mechs's shield with precise frequency.
Almost simultaneously, the threat from above sharply intensified.
A "Hachiman" class armed airship forcibly advanced, its multi-barreled pulse laser turrets no longer firing tentative bursts, but continuous energy beams, like hot welding torches pressed firmly against the pale blue shield surface.
Even more deadly was an entire swarm of suicide drones, which ignored intercepting fire and, in suicidal dive trajectories, repeatedly crashed into the same shield node, triggering a series of violent energy explosions.
Facing this unprecedented, highly coordinated saturation strike, the attendant mechs's shield system finally showed its limits.
The originally stable, pale blue energy barrier began to flicker violently, the energy ripples in the continuously attacked area became wild and irregular, and even ominous electrical arcs burst forth.
The sharp hum of the shield generator overloading penetrated the external noise of the battlefield, reaching the mecha pilot's perception.
"Warning, attendant mechs number four shield overloaded! Structural integrity declining!" Maria was the first to notice the anomaly.
No sooner had she spoken than the attendant mechs, which had been focused on, had its shield abruptly dissipate like shattered glass after enduring several seconds of furious assault.
The ensuing armor-piercing rounds and rockets directly struck its mecha body!
The continuous saturation strike finally exceeded the instantaneous load limit of the shield system.
Accompanied by a blinding flash of energy and a sharp overload hum, the attendant mechs's pale golden shield abruptly dissipated like shattered glass.
The subsequent armor-piercing rounds and pulse laser beams slammed into the mecha's main body, but failed to cause structural damage.
After the fire from the explosions dissipated, only several deep melt-erosion dents and charred impact marks were left on its thick shoulder armor plates, with the surface coating peeled off by the high temperature, revealing the original metal color beneath, and tiny electrical sparks briefly danced in the damaged area.
The immense impact force caused the mecha to stagger back abruptly, and the movement of one arm showed a slight delay, but its weapon system still operated stably, continuing to spew firepower.
Almost at the same time, another attendant mechs also suffered a similar concentrated strike, and its shield collapsed.
Several precise hits left noticeable dents and scratches on its leg armor, but the joint structure remained intact, with only its maneuverability temporarily slightly affected by the impact.
This was the first time since the war began that the Arasaka army's offensive truly touched the main bodies of these otherworldly creations.
However, this all-out strike merely left a few insignificant scars on their indestructible armor.
Upon receiving the command, the two damaged attendant mechs immediately retreated, adjusting their firepower to precise, intermittent bursts to preserve structural integrity.
The melt marks and dents on their armor were particularly conspicuous under the glare of artillery fire, but their core functions remained stable.
Almost at the same moment the attendant mechs retreated, all of the Arasaka army's firepower—the bombardment of electromagnetic cannons, the pulse lasers of airships, and the crashes of drone swarms—as if drawn by a magnet, poured even more frantically onto the two knight mecha, especially Margaret, who was charging at the front.
However, there was a fundamental chasm between knight mecha and attendant mechs.
Against the dense attacks on the "Lancer," whether it was electromagnetic shells capable of tearing through the front of a main battle tank or continuously burning pulse lasers, all were steadily deflected and absorbed by Margaret's ion shield at the optimal angle, thanks to her exquisite control.
She could even, while maintaining shield stability, instantly switch the energy output mode of the shock lance, and a fan-shaped ion torrent swept across, turning an entire tank platoon attempting to reload on the flank, along with its position, into charred iron and slag.
Maria's "Punisher" held the line firmly, its Punisher bolter roaring incessantly, pinning down the airships and armored clusters attempting to push forward in the distance within a sea of explosions.
Occasionally, a few stray missiles or suicide drones would break through the fire net and hit her shield, only managing to stir up a quickly subsiding energy ripple, utterly unable to shake it in the slightest.
The Arasaka army realized in despair that even with their full strength, they had only managed to leave a few scratches on the "smaller" mecha.
And against these two true steel behemoths, all their means, even their most desperate efforts, could not cause the slightest sign of weakening in that seemingly thin blue energy barrier.
Their shields seemed eternal, their armor insurmountable, and their weapons represented the purest destruction.
The technological gap, at this moment, transformed into a suffocating, insurmountable wall of despair.
Margaret and Maria, like deities walking among mortals, bathed in a hail of gunfire, yet their steps did not falter in the slightest.
They rolled over burning tank wrecks, stepped over fleeing soldiers, and advanced unswervingly towards the tower that symbolized Arasaka's ultimate power—Arasaka Tower.
The streets behind them had become a path of death paved with steel wreckage, solidified lava, and charred corpses, silently narrating the brutality of this unequal war. The night sky of Tokyo was illuminated blood-red by this sea of fire.
—
Crushing through the shattered defenses of the Arasaka regular army, Margaret and Maria finally arrived at the foot of Arasaka Tower.
This towering skyscraper, like a black scepter piercing the clouds, was the ultimate embodiment of the Arasaka Empire's will to rule.
At this moment, the defense systems on the lower floors of the tower were fully activated: automated turrets rose from concealment, high-frequency laser fences hummed in the air, and the last intact unit of oni power armor stood ready at the entrance.
Even more alarming, the anti-aircraft arrays on the tower's summit, disregarding friendly forces still engaged in combat below, began firing downwards at the approaching steel giants, covering the area around the tower with a dense barrage.
"Clear the perimeter defenses, establish a safe zone." Margaret's voice sounded in the encrypted channel, as steady as ever.
The "Lancer" slightly raised its left arm, its ion shield precisely deflecting several particle beams fired from high above.
"Leave these miscellaneous troops to me!" Maria immediately responded.
The "Punisher"'s bolter let out a deafening roar, and dense bolter rounds rained down on the weapon platforms on the middle floors of the tower, tearing apart automated turrets and missile arrays one by one.
Her artillery fire was incessant; the lower-level fortifications crumbled in continuous explosions, and the defenders within were engulfed by the flames.
Although the four attendant mechs were covered in scorch marks and dents on their armor, they still provided stable fire support from the rear.
They used precise point-fire to clear out enemy forces attempting to approach from the flanks, ensuring the safety of the main knight mecha's rear.
Margaret controlled the "Lancer" to advance steadily; with every precise shot from the shock lance, a strongpoint would fall silent; with every sweep, a squad of oni power armor would be turned into scrap metal. Every one of her movements was concise and efficient, without any unnecessary flourish, existing purely to achieve tactical objectives.
Arasaka Tower's defense system was indeed a formidable fortress, enough to deter the world's most elite special forces.
But in front of the knight mecha, all of it seemed so fragile.
The thick alloy doors twisted and melted under the ion blast of the shock lance, and the internal security personnel, before they could organize effective resistance, were completely overwhelmed by subsequent bolter rounds and energy attacks.
"Entrance breached, objective: data center." Margaret calmly announced, leading the way into the now-ruined grand hall of Arasaka Tower.
The internal structure of Arasaka Tower was complex, and the passages were relatively narrow, but this did not stop the advance of the knight mecha.
For these nearly ten-meter-tall steel giants, the so-called "narrow" was only a relative concept.
They forced their way through corridors, crashed through non-load-bearing walls, and advanced towards the core data storage center located in the middle of the building, following the shortest path scanned internally.
Resistance along the way became sporadic and desperate.
The company's elite security forces used cover to ambush them, but in front of the knight mecha, their cover was like paper, and their weapons couldn't even scratch the armor.
Margaret and Maria didn't even linger much; they simply relied on the precise pinpoint shots of the attendant mechs and the deflection of their own shields to crush everything in their path, leaving behind a trail of wreckage and charred remains.
Soon, they arrived before an exceptionally thick alloy door, flashing with multiple encryption markers.
The Arasaka emblem and the words "Core Data Storage Area - Unauthorized Entry Strictly Prohibited" were clearly marked on the door.
Behind the door was the target Osiris had specifically designated for complete destruction: a data backup center suspected to be related to the Soulkiller technology.
"This is it," Maria confirmed, as Punisher's sensors detected huge energy reactions and dense data streams coming from behind the door.
"Destroy it," Margaret said succinctly.
"Let me!" Maria's Punisher retreated slightly, giving her autocannon enough firing angle.
However, before she could fire, a mechanical hum suddenly came from within the thick alloy door, and a circle of eerie red light illuminated the center of the door.
"High-energy reaction detected! Something's behind the door!" Margaret immediately warned.
Before her words finished, the alloy door burst inward! Amidst the flying debris, a massive, imposing figure burst out from behind the door, landing heavily on the ground, shaking the entire passage.
It was not a mechanical construct, but a giant encased in extreme cybernetic modifications.
He was more massive than any oni power armor, covered in thick black armor, with thick hydraulic joints and exposed reinforced muscle fibers revealing his terrifying strength.
Crimson optical lenses flickered with inhuman light under his helmet, and the enormous impact gauntlet on his right hand had begun to charge, emitting a low, dangerous hum.
"High-threat heavy unit detected!" Maria immediately warned, simultaneously raising her autocannon.
But the opponent's reaction speed was completely inconsistent with his massive size.
With a furious charge, he closed the distance, precisely avoiding the autocannon's trajectory.
His massive body surged forward with an air of crushing everything, his fully charged right fist tearing through the air, bringing with it visible shockwaves, directly striking the core of Maria's Punisher's torso!
"Dodge!" Margaret's warning was synchronized with her action.
The Lancer bravely thrust forward, its left arm's ion shield instantly deploying, precisely meeting the destructive heavy punch.
"Boom—!"
A dull roar, like thunder, exploded in the passage, accompanied by scattering energy turbulence.
The terrifying impact force, enough to flatten a tank, was completely absorbed by the ion shield, but the huge kinetic energy still caused the Lancer's heavy frame to slide back half a meter, and the shield's surface rippled violently.
The modified giant was pushed back by the recoil, its red eyes flickering, emitting a distorted electronic sound: "Is that all you've got?"
"Finish it quickly," Margaret calmly issued the order.
She maneuvered the Lancer to evade another heavy punch, its ion shield precisely deflecting the shockwave.
Maria's storm blade took the opportunity to sweep across, leaving a trail of sparks on the opponent's leg armor. The modified giant roared and turned, only to be met by Margaret's ready-to-fire impact lance.
"Ridiculous!" the modified giant roared, swinging his fist to counter.
However, this time, the Lancer's impact lance thrust straight out without any fancy moves.
Ion energy and the impact gauntlet collided violently, erupting in a blinding flash. In the face of an absolute energy disparity, the modified giant's gauntlet began to shatter inch by inch.
"Im... possible..." He uttered an incredulous electronic static.
Margaret gave him no chance to breathe. The Lancer's impact lance drove straight in, precisely piercing his core unit in the chest.
The modified giant's body twitched violently, internal explosions occurring consecutively, finally turning into a pile of burning wreckage.
"Target eliminated," Margaret retracted her lance and walked forward without looking back, "Continue the mission."
—
The space behind the door was extremely vast, as if several floors of the building had been opened up. Countless neatly arranged server racks extended to the horizon, their indicator lights blinking like stars, representing the massive amount of data flowing and stored within them.
The energy supply here seemed completely independent; even with external warfare raging, the interior remained stable.
In the very center of the data center, a strangely shaped, column-like device made of optical cables was slowly rotating, emitting energy fluctuations different from the surrounding servers.
"Abnormal data fluctuations detected, concentrated in the central device," Maria reported.
Just as Margaret was about to issue the destruction order, Osiris's command came through an encrypted channel: "Prioritize intercepting the core data of the central database. My Thinker system is ready to receive it."
"Understood," Margaret immediately adjusted the order, "Maria, establish a defensive formation. I will perform the data interception."
The Lancer's cockpit opened, and Margaret connected a data cable from the mecha to the database interface.
Countless data light points flowed through the energy channel into the mecha's internal storage unit, and the entire database interception process was completed within minutes.
"Data reception complete," Margaret confirmed.
"Now, completely destroy it," Osiris's command was concise and clear.
The two knight mecha immediately raised their firepower to maximum. The Lancer's impact lance once again struck the ground, and the energy beam condensed into an extremely thick, stable pillar of light, precisely firing at the core area of the data center.
Wherever the light beam passed, server racks directly melted and vaporized, leaving no trace of wreckage.
Maria's Punisher, meanwhile, unleashed its autocannon without reservation, showering the data center's surroundings with indiscriminate, blanket attacks.
Explosive fireballs rose one after another, engulfing the priceless server arrays.
She even controlled her mecha to physically slash the particularly thick main data cables and energy pipelines with her storm blade.
The four attendant mechs stood guard at the entrance, using their firepower to prevent any possible data transfer or external interference.
The efficiency of destruction was extremely high; the steel forest transformed into a burning, molten ruin at a visible speed.
The strange central device, under Margaret's continuous energy bombardment, first emitted an overloaded, blinding white light, then its internal structure disintegrated, turning into a pool of hot, inactive silicon-based molten material.
Only after ensuring that no data storage devices could survive did Margaret cease her attack.
The entire data center no longer existed, leaving only twisted metal frameworks, flowing molten material, and towering thick smoke.
"Mission complete. Target individual Saburo Arasaka confirmed eliminated, designated data center destroyed, core data recovered," Margaret issued the final report via encrypted channel.
"Confirmed. Mission completion meets expectations," Osiris's reply remained calm, "Prepare to withdraw."
The two knight mecha and the surviving attendant mechs turned, treading through the ruins and flames, leaving the Arasaka Tower, which had lost its "soul."
Tokyo's night sky was still red with fire, but the era belonging to Arasaka, on this night, was brought to a complete halt by steel and fire from another world.