[Prologue: The Lament of the Setting Sun]
["I hear Red Lotus's joints screaming."]
Dusk poured like molten rock over the scorched plain. Shattered sunset hung from dead grass tips. Fourteen bestial mechs crouched on the baked earth, scale-like armor glinting coldly in the dying light. Cooling steam gushed from their joints; the stench of rust and blood churned in the superheated air, staining the twilight a sickly crimson.
The steel beasts formed a tightening noose, creeping towards the lone figure at its center—a crimson humanoid mech, its hull spiderwebbed with searing cracks, like charred wreckage licked by endless flames.
[That flash of crimson looked so stark against the black.]
The pack's three-meter-tall Alpha suddenly loosed a bell-like roar. Blue fire ignited along the spines of every mechanical beast—hundreds of ghostly eyes snapping open in the air.
The crimson mech dropped into a crouch. Its back thrusters roared to life, slingshotting the machine skyward like a meteor crashing into a black tide. Steam from the thrusters congealed into bloody afterimages, deepening the sunset's gory hue.
CRACK! A metallic fist slammed precisely into the jaw seam of a frontal attacker. The two-ton alloy head exploded like overripe fruit!
The crimson mech pivoted, driving an elbow into a pouncing flank attacker, hurling it backwards. Shrapnel carved dozens of silver arcs through the deepening dusk, tearing gashes in the gloom.
[The colossal clash of metal echoed relentlessly across the wasteland.]
The Alpha struck from the side. Eight tons of alloy moved with leopard speed. Its massive, barbed claw tore the air, striking with a sonic boom.
The impact wasn't a bite—it was a meteor strike! The ground shook as the claw connected with the crimson mech's flank.
The red machine skidded sideways like a battering ram had hit it, metal heels gouging deep trenches. Armor at its waist shattered.
A torrent of fiery red spilled from the breach—the pilot's long, unbound hair. Strands tangled with severed neural cables, flowing like liquid sunset under a sky showering sparks.
No time to breathe. The tightening circle of beasts surged closer.
[The brittle snap of bursting hydraulics mingled with the whine of overloaded magic circuits.]
"Dammit!" The girl ripped away the mangled remnants of her right-side armor plate. Her free hand slashed a circle in the air.
Three fire runes blazed into existence! A vortex of compressed flame erupted, the blast wave hurling her mech backwards, tearing a momentary gap in the ring. But metallic claws already clamped vice-like onto the mech's left leg.
She slapped out a ring of fire. It detonated on contact, blasting the beasts back. The shockwave finished shattering the remaining armor on her mech's left side.
As the beasts scrambled to pursue, the red-haired girl spat blood. With her teeth, she tore open the bandage on her left forearm.
A rose, wrought in platinum light, bloomed beneath her skin. Its veins pulsed like living things.
Threads of light erupted from the tattoo, enveloping both girl and machine. The luminous filaments snaked across the mech's hull, reconnecting severed conduits. The machine stirred, infused with sudden vitality—as if given life!
The threads converged on her left arm, coalescing into a blade of pure light. The crimson mech spun. Silver light sheared through the dusk. An attacking beast's massive form melted clean through at the waist!
"Let's go, Red Lotus," the girl whispered.
Red Lotus's thrusters screamed into overdrive. Blue flame seared into blinding plasma. The machine became a bolt of burning lightning streaking skyward.
The Alpha seized the opening. Its compound eyes narrowed to pinpricks. Its alloy frame shrieked like turbocharged engines. Its leading claw accelerated mid-lunge. The claw-blade punched through Red Lotus's chest plate before the sonic boom arrived!
The colossal impact slammed the girl face-first into the inflated crash cushion. Before she could recover, the Alpha's second strike hammered home—residual momentum from the first blow perfectly amplified the new impact. Red Lotus's layered chest armor peeled away like an onion.
Twelve layers breached. The cockpit lay exposed! The girl's left hand was torn from the control stick. The sound of her wrist bone cracking against the console was as sharp as shattering porcelain.
The Alpha's third strike glowed, fully charged.
The girl ripped the neural cables from her wrist. She kicked the warped cockpit door. Eject sequence initiated—compressed gas exploded beneath the seat. She shot from the cockpit like an arrow, tattered flight suit whipping in the wind.
In that fleeting moment of weightlessness, through the spinning debris of her cockpit, she saw the shapes of pursuing beasts behind her.
She twisted mid-air. As she hit the ground in a roll, the platinum rose on her left arm flared, engulfing her fist in golden fire-wire. She spun and punched! A colossal pillar of golden flame incinerated three beasts into scrap.
But the Alpha, hidden behind its fallen packmate, lunged again. Fangs gleamed half a meter from her throat—no time for another punch!
Flames ignited at her feet, only to gutter into dying sparks the next instant—her magic reserves were bone dry.
Eight tons of alloy, reeking of ozone and blood, grazed her side. The shriek of claws tearing air was punctuated by a sharp snap from her collarbone—like ice cracking under a noon sun.
Her body tumbled through the air in a grotesque arc, finally crashing down beside the shattered wreck of Red Lotus.
Her right arm slammed against a jagged metal edge. The sickening crunch of dislocation echoed. Her fingers spasmed, curled into a claw. A few dying embers, crushed like firefly corpses, drifted from between them on the wind.
[Her face, smeared with blood and grime, was unrecognizable.]
She tried instinctively to push herself up. Only then did she realize her entire right arm was numb. Thick blood snaked over her browbone, dripping into her collar where it mingled with the mech's leaking coolant, sizzling serpentine trails into the scorched earth.
"Haah... Still... not enough..."
She struggled to her knees, leaning her back against Red Lotus's still-smoldering frame. The last light of sunset stretched their shadows long and thin.
"Haah—"
Each labored breath brought fresh blood bubbling to her lips. The rose pattern on her left arm pulsed with her weakening respiration, flickering like a guttering candle wick. Each flicker leached warmth from beneath her skin.
With immense effort, she raised her hand. Her fingertip traced the darkening sky, scraping together the dregs of her magic to ignite one final spark.
"This is... the last one..." Her voice was a petal adrift on the wind—soft, yet final.
The spark at her fingertip kissed the fading platinum lines. The pattern, carrying the spark, surged upwards.
A plume of white-gold fire exploded at the zenith of the sky, just before the beast pack could close its final circle.
[Embers are the period to flame's sentence, but the wind remembers the shape of every leap.]
By the time the ashes drifted down, night had swallowed the last crimson shard of Red Lotus.
Only her unbound hair still streamed in the wind—like embers refusing to die.
[Simultaneously, two kilometers away at the forward camp]
A bearded man in military fatigues watched the white-gold fire bloom on the distant horizon. His fist slammed down on the metal railing with a heavy clang.
"Failed again..."
The final signal ripple from the plain washed over their sensors. On their screens, a burning rose bloomed.