"Secret flight base…" Shen He immediately turned and accelerated through the sky. "Lelouch, you don't have much combat ability, so take your time. Jeanne, do you see anything?"
"I don't see anything," Jeanne shook her head, but a frown formed on her face. "It's just… intuition."
"That's enough. Get ready for battle!" Shen He increased his speed.
None of those in the mechas were ordinary people. High-speed flight like this was barely an inconvenience for them.
Their destination was a barren mountain, about fifty kilometers outside New York. SHIELD had a habit of constructing secret bases in remote areas like this.
"Jeanne?"
Shen He landed, activating the scanning system built into his mecha, but it detected nothing. There was no sign of a base, hidden entrance, or underground structure.
"In the mountain," Jeanne murmured. As the distance closed, her instincts became clearer.
"Shi, it's your turn." Shen He motioned for Jeanne and Violet to step back.
With a calm expression, Ryougi Shiki unsheathed her blade. The moment she did, her Mystic Eyes of Death Perception activated. Her vision filled with dark brown cracks, revealing the lines of death across the mountain's surface.
Over time, her abilities had grown more refined. She no longer needed to rely solely on brute force—she could now destroy with precision.
She swung her blade once.
A single slash cleaved through the rock face, causing hardened stone to crumble into fine powder and drift away in the wind. Beneath the disintegrating rock, an unmistakable metallic sheen was exposed—a reinforced structure. A second precise cut reduced the steel doors to fragmented debris, but the rest of the facility remained intact.
A sharp, shrill alarm erupted.
Shen He immediately stepped forward, shielding the others, anticipating a counterattack.
But nothing happened. No security personnel emerged, no automated turrets activated—nothing. The base stood eerily silent, as if long abandoned.
"Master…" Jeanne's tone was filled with unease.
"Your intuition hasn't failed before," Shen He muttered, eyes narrowing.
This wasn't just blind faith. As a saint, Jeanne's divine insight was a power beyond logic—it was never wrong.
Suddenly, Shen He's HUD interface flashed red.
"Warning, sir—multiple missiles inbound."
Jarvis's voice was calm, but Shen He had already seen the distant streaks of fire cutting through the sky.
He moved instantly, stepping in front of the others and expanding the absolute defense field.
BOOM—!
A devastating explosion engulfed them, a shockwave tearing through the mountainside. This was no ordinary missile—it was a high-yield, long-range projectile, capable of obliterating a small building with a single hit.
"Sir, two more missiles inbound. The launch authorization is from SHIELD," Jarvis reported.
"Everyone, jump!"
At Shen He's command, the others leaped into their mechas. Two more thunderous explosions followed, and the entire mountain collapsed, swallowing the base within.
"Sir, the force field has limited energy. It can withstand only one more direct missile strike."
"I know," Shen He growled, taking off into the sky. "Scan the area at full power!"
If Jeanne's revelation was correct, the enemy wasn't inside that base. Instead, they were already one step ahead.
Very few individuals in SHIELD had the clearance to remotely launch missiles with pinpoint accuracy. Among them, only one stood out as the true mastermind—Alexander Pierce.
"Sir, we've detected a convoy of approximately forty vehicles moving southeast. Scans indicate they're civilian cars."
"Civilians don't form heavily armed convoys in the middle of the night."
Shen He accelerated and landed directly in the convoy's path. His mecha's weapons unfolded—shoulder cannons, arm blasters, leg-mounted artillery, chest-mounted plasma turrets—each locked onto the approaching vehicles.
At this range, the mecha's scanners easily detected the hidden weapons within the convoy. These weren't ordinary civilians. There were only two possible identities for them—Hydra or SHIELD.
"Alexander, are you really not going to come out before you die?" Shen He's gaze locked onto the central vehicle.
Though they had never met, the moment Shen He laid eyes on the convoy's formation, he was certain.
He had originally been tracking John Garrett, but he hadn't expected to stumble upon an even greater prize.
It was good to have Jeanne on his side.
The car door opened, and an elderly man stepped out.
Alexander Pierce—an unassuming, well-dressed man. At a glance, he looked like a refined gentleman—someone's kind-hearted grandfather, a distinguished statesman.
No one would guess that this man was the supreme leader of Hydra, a mastermind who had orchestrated countless assassinations and acts of terrorism.
"Shen… He…" Pierce spoke, his pronunciation imperfect. "I didn't expect our first meeting to be under these circumstances."
"I've imagined this moment countless times," Shen He replied, subtly scanning for the Winter Soldier—but Bucky Barnes was nowhere in sight.
Shen He knew the classic villain's mistake—talking too much.
Without hesitation, he raised his mecha's arm and fired.
A series of high-caliber sniper rounds exploded from the wrist-mounted cannon, each capable of shattering reinforced concrete. Yet, every single one of them struck an invisible barrier and fell harmlessly to the ground.
"Sir, an unknown energy shield has been detected."
Jarvis's analysis filled the HUD. The barrier enveloped only Alexander Pierce.
This technology… it didn't match anything Shen He had encountered before—not in movies, not in classified SHIELD files.
"Young people are always so impulsive." Pierce barely reacted, his expression calm. "You should learn patience with your enemies."
He took a slow step forward.
"But we don't have to be enemies. We are both striving for the same goal—protecting humanity from external threats. Only order and power can accomplish that. Chaldea should understand this."
Hydra had never been about destruction for destruction's sake. They sought to forge a new world—one ruled by absolute order.
They believed that free will was a weakness, that civilization could only thrive under rigid control.
"You're not entirely wrong," Shen He admitted, lowering his mecha's palm slightly. "A centralized, absolute power could eliminate infighting and direct civilization's progress efficiently. Chaldea's mission is to safeguard humanity's continued existence—we don't dictate how civilization evolves."
"In that case," Pierce smiled, "why don't we work together? Join us. Rule the world. Together, we can do whatever is necessary to protect mankind from the coming threats."
Shen He fell silent for a moment.
Then—
Every single weapon on his mecha fired at once.
BOOM—!
A sea of fire engulfed the Hydra convoy. The ground trembled under the force of the bombardment. Explosions ripped through the vehicles, igniting every last one.
Shen He's voice roared over the inferno—
"This has nothing to do with Chaldea! This is PERSONAL!"