“You heard the metal man! Get her out of here now!” Avan shouted to Zeri and Cosette.
“Right!” They said together. And they swiftly took her back to the defensive line.
Avan however, remained. He then turned back to the Golem.
“Alright, Marion’s uncle or… whoever you are. Time to get you out of here too. Come on!”
The Golems head had dropped slightly, the cockpit lights were dimmed and it wasn’t moving anymore.
“What?! Oh no…” Avan said, he then dropped his scout rifle and ran up to the Golem.
“Hey! Can you hear me?” Avan shouted over the sounds of battle going on all around them.
Still the Golem didn’t move, Avan ran a hand through his hair, “Not good… It’s not like I can carry him out of here like we did with Marion.” said Avan.
“Hey! Hello in there!!” Avan shouted as he pounded his hand against it’s metal chest, “Wake up! It’s only a short distance to our defensive line! But you have to wake up and get a move on!!”
Nothing. The Golem still wasn't moving.
“Oh no you don’t!” Avan shouted, he then wound up and actually kicked the Golem’s head, “Hey! Get up! You made a promise to Marion! She’s my friend and I won’t allow you to hurt her by breaking it! So get your big metal ass up! Now!
No man, not even a man made out of metal should take back their word once it’s been given to a lady! You hear me!”
The lights in the cockpit lit up once again and the Golem raised its head, then said in its slow mechanical voice, “It is done…”
“What’s done?!” Avan asked.
A small compartment door in the Golems chest slide open and a large cassette popped out. The Golem moved closer to Avan, “Take… it…” The Golem instructed.
Avan didn’t move, he looked up at the Golem in confusion and asked, “What is it?”
“My… farewell to my goddaughter… Marion…”
“What?!” Avan exclaimed, he then briskly shook his head, “No! You promised her that you’d make it back! I don’t care if you have to drag yourself the whole way, or if I have to chain you to a tank, but you’re coming back one way or another!”
The Golem growled, Avan dove to the ground, rolled and picked up his rifle and aimed it up at the Golem from his crouched position, “I may be smaller than you, but I’ll still take you on! Bring it!”
Then, the Golem chuckled, “You’re a brave one. Foolish and completely reckless… but brave. I know she’ll be safe with you and your friends.”
“But you said--”
“There are things about me that you’ll never be able to understand. And I do not have the time to explain it to you. It is however, recorded on this tape. Take it… give it to Marion so that she may know the truth and understand why I’ve chosen to stay behind and… ultimately break my promise to her.”
Another beam shot overhead and took out a artillery gun behind Avan, sending off a large explosion that snapped them back to reality.
“Once you have the tape… Run.”
“Run?” Avan asked.
“I will hold off the V2s for as long as I can… then I’ll overload this horrible weapon of war and self-destruct, taking as many of those V2s with me as I can.
I do not know how large the explosion will be, but I know that from where your units are currently placed… that it is not far enough to be safely out of its blast radius.”
The Golem then lowered itself back down to Avan and held out the Golden cross pendant to him.
“Take the cassette… and the Pendant. Give them both to my Marion.” The Golem said, and Avan quickly reached up, took the cassette out of its chest and then grabbed Marion’s golden cross pendant out of its hand and stepped back.
The Golem then began to stand up, its hands retracting back into its arms as huge barrels came out of hidden compartments, it turned towards the approaching V2s, but looked back at Avan and shouted, “Now go!”
Avan turned and ran back towards Class G and the other cadets. He looked over his shoulder as he ran and saw the Golem firing its destructive blue beams at the V2s, then a blaze of machine gun fire from its arms as its body twisted and its legs stomped towards them.
Avan then dove into the nearby ditch and joined the others.
Cosette was carefully cradling Marion in her arms, Zeri was giving orders to the other classes over the radio. But they both stopped and turned to Avan.
“Avan! What happened to the--”
“No time to explain! All classes pull back!! NOW!” Avan shouted.
Cosette let out a baffled gasped, “Pull back? But what about--”
“He’s not coming! He’s waiting for us to get to a safe distance, so let’s get moving!!”
“Safe distance? From what?!” Zeri asked in bewilderment.
“The blast radius once he self-destructs!” Avan shouted, “Grab Marion and let’s get out of here!”
Zeri nodded and got back on the radio, “This is an emergency retreat! All classes pull back! Code ‘R’! I repeat, Code ‘R’!!
Code ‘R’ was the order given to force an immediate retreat. Leaving even the artillery guns or any other heavy equipment that could not be carried out. Only the most essential items were brought along. That included wounded personnel.
All the classes then turned 180 degrees or climb out of the ditches and began to run as fast as they could. Luckily, all the transport trucks and jeeps used to bring in the supplies and artillery were already turned and facing towards Lanseal academy.
Avan opened the tailgate of a nearby transport truck and began to wave everyone in while shouting, “Go! Go! GO!!” as they passed him and piled into the back. Once it was fully loaded, he shut the tailgate and ran to join Cosette, Zeri and Marion who were already piled into a small jeep and were waiting for him.
“Come on, Avan!” Zeri shouted from the drivers seat.
“Get in! Quickly!” Cosette begged from the back as she carefully held Marions head in her lap.
As the other trucks and jeeps were pulling away, Avan jumped onto the jeeps hood, leapt over the windshield and plopped down into the passengers seat of the open air jeep.
“Step on it, Zeri!” Avan ordered.
The Jeep then burned out and rocketed down the road, along with the other vehicles some ways ahead. All were headed back to Lanseal Academy.
Meanwhile, the V4 or Golem was getting hammered relentlessly by the V2s. Even for a machine of war as powerful as the Golem, it was no match against this many V2s. There were numerous scorch marks all over its body from direct beam blasts. One of its beam cannons was destroyed and shooting out sparks. One of its badly damaged legs had become immobile and every time it took steps it had to be dragged across the ground.
A powerful blast to the chest from Dirk had finally caused the Golem to fall backwards and smash into the ground. Still, the V2s didn’t stop firing on the downed Golem, staying true to their order to completely destroy it.
“This is it… I only hope they made it far enough…” The Golem said, “Goodbye… Marion… and you… Avan…”
As the V2s moved in closer, Dirk stopped as he heard something begin to charge up, like their beam weapons, but only much louder. Immediately he realized that it was the Golem itself that was making the sound.
“Retreat! All units, retreat!” Dirk ordered.
Too late, as blinding beams of blue light began to shoot out of the Golems cockpit, its gun barrels and every battle scar and orifice. The sound of tremendous energy continuing to charge up was deafening at this point and Dirk only had enough time to raise his shield up and dig his feet into the ground. The Golem then in a brillant flash of blue and white light. Immediately after, a huge wall of blue flame spread out and engulfed everything around it in an enormous 360 pattern.
The nearby trees and grass were burnt to a crisp and blew apart like dry leaves as the blast wave hit it. The V2s were blown back, emitting grunts and groans as they flew through the air. True to his word, the enormous blast from the Golem also consumed the Lanseal cadets artillery guns and tanks that were placed well away from where the Golem fell.
Meanwhile, Avan, Zeri, Cosette and all the other classes looked back after a white flash nearly blinded them. That was when they witnessed the huge explosion and the sheer destructive power it unleashed.
Zeri slammed on the brakes and cranked the wheel to the left, then came to a sliding stop as he, Avan and Cosette looked back at the enormous explosion and the plume of white smoke it sent high into the air with other white rings of smoke all along its mushroom shaped cloud.
“W-what… happened?” Cosette asked.
“The V4... Marion’s uncle… self-destructed. Taking the V2s with him, I’m certain.” Avan said.
“That blast… its remarkably similar to what was described by war hero ’Welkin Gunther’ when the citadel of Ghirlandaio was destroyed by the Empires Valkyria. It was called… The Final flame of the Valkyrur.””
“The Final flame?” Cosette asked. But Marion released a moan and moved her head from side to side in Cosette’s lap.
“No time to explain! Step on it, Zeri! We’ve got to get Marion back to the infirmary at Lanseal!!” Avan urged.
“Right!” Zeri said and he slammed his foot against the accelerator and weaved in and out of the transport trucks up ahead, easily overtaking them in the smaller, more agile jeep.
Avan looked down at the cassette in his one hand and Marion’s golden cross pendant in the other. He hung his head sadly, then twisted in his seat and looked back at Marion. He brought his hand down to her head and softly ran it along her hair.
Avan sighed and said, “This will break Marion’s heart…”