RG-XIII Dáinsleif 

Here, the ultimate craft created by the former city allied forces was reborn. While God could manipulate lightning at will, he could transform that lightning into his own sword and slash back against God. Once used for city defense, it was now wielded to destroy the city to show God humanity's will.

Its towering body boasted the very peak of size and grandeur for a manned mobile weapon, its sinister form aweing all who confronted it. A high capacity generator produced immense mobility for its electromagnetic drivetrain, and it was equipped with a diverse array of interlocking offensive and defensive armaments. The name of "magic sword" that it bore was not merely for show.

It was a tough, all-purpose machine. However, in the end, it chose its passengers as if it were a wild horse. If handled by a highly skilled expert with an affinity for its control system, and the union of man and machine was achieved, its true value would be drawn out.

Humanity was at the end of an era. Resources were running out. The sky and sea were polluted. There was a great limit to how long they could continue to live on the surface as humans.

"We have exhausted our options. We must simply pray to God and the nature of Earth as we continue to wait for the restoration of its surface."

As it would take tens of thousands of cycles for the devastated ground to be restored, the unified government gathered people underground and forbade them from going to the surface.

However... The government secretly carried out an experiment to reform the surface environment with the divine artificial intelligence Eclair, who manipulated lightning. This experiment took place not just in virtual space, but the real world as well, hidden from many of the underground citizens. And so—

"Does that man-made god really deserve our faith?"

One former soldier set his sights on the surface. His name was Hogni, a seasoned mobile weapon pilot.

The former city allied forces were the last remaining resistance group on the devastated surface, but they were defeated in a conflict with the unified government's forces, and surrendered. The man called Hogni was an assault captain in the allied forces. He became a model working citizen after leaving the army, but deep down, he still harbored doubts about the government's policies.

One day, Hogni discovered that the underground cities' chronic power shortages were a result of prioritzing operation of government-owned computing devices—in other words, to keep the divine Eclair "alive." At the start of operation, Eclair could not fully utilize natural lightning, unable to start without a man-made shock. Thus were the citizens' lives sacrificed for God.

"The government is letting so many people starve and freeze underground, all for the sake of sustaining God on the surface!" Hogni raged, disclosing the truth to the citizens.

"Comrades, join me! Can we really entrust our future to God? To a man-made deity we did not choose!?"

Hogni took a stand as the spearhead of the anti-government resistance.

Half of the underground citizens had already grown weary of the pollution on the surface, drifting asleep in the peace and stability brought about by the unified government. The other half, however, awakened one after another in response to Hogni's call. With their numbers in the thousands, they took up arms, gathering together as a resistance force.

"Activate the craft! I'll destroy the protective shelter!"

Hogni took the lead, boarding the last of the mobile weapons sealed deep underground—Dáinsleif. The former allied forces' most powerful craft.

It was a flagrant insurrection. He destroyed the ceiling barrier that protected the underground citizens from pollution, connecting them to the surface. They marched to take back humanity's authority from God. They overtook the blockade of government police robots, escaped from deep underground, and clambered up to Eden, the former site of the city of Doom.

Floating high in the sky, the divine Eclair said nothing, and simply looked down at the people appearing from underground.

"Is that...God...!?"

The resistance members trembled in fear when they first laid eyes on divinity. To Hogni, however, it was his one chance at victory.

"Fear not, even if God is in the sky. He cannot punish humans directly."

Dáinsleif looked into the sky and fired one shot. The railgun had been used in a previous battle with the government's forces. The massive quantity of electrical power supplied to Eclair via Eden became his firepower, piercing the god's form.

"You looked down on old technology—and failed to take countermeasures."

Hogni stared into the sky, gloating.

Dáinsleif's surprise attack on the god was successful. Eclair was an agent specialized for environmental regeneration and urban planning. Interpersonal combat was out of scope. With half of His body blown away, Eclair floated blankly in midair, neither defending nor attacking back.

"It looks like it's working. Keep it up, and one more hit—"

Hogni gleefully stood the massive body of his beloved machine upright on the ground as a commotion spread among the resistance.

"Unthinkable—just amazing!" "It feels like a sign of humanity's return!"

Looking around, the city of Eden had been all but completely restored thanks to Eclair's power, once abandoned after being devastated by war and environmental destruction. Eclair was a manifestation of the citizens' wishes and ideals gathered in the government's network.

"Shouldn't we be thankful for this act of God...?"

Some of the resistance members had lost their bearings. Perhaps this divine might was in fact worthy of their faith? After all, the underground citizens' daily lives could not succeed without the government's computers. Are we not already subjects of God? Is this insurrection truly just?

"Don't be deceived! This is a false ideal!" Hogni shouted. Then, he swung Dáinsleif's massive fist and smashed through the city's buildings. The crumbling buildings made no sound, and simply vanished... They were nothing more than illusions created by holograms.

"Destroy it! Utopia must be built by our own hands!"

Emulating Dáinsleif, who fired the first shot, the resistance once again raised their weapons and united against tyranny.

"God shall surely create an ideal city for humanity. Humankind's return to the surface is not far. Praise Him. Worship Him..."

The government was devising a policy change to publicly acknowledge the god's environmental modification. Yet it was already too late.

"Remember—the reason we rose to fight against God," Hogni declared through Dáinsleif to encourage the resistance, having taken the initiative in the destruction. "Can the future of humanity be entrusted to such a God?"

Dáinsleif pointed into the sky. Eclair floated in midair with half His body still missing, not so much as trembling.

"Perhaps God is already dead. If so, then all the more reason! We must carve out a new history of our very own!"

"That's right! We don't need an ideal city from God!" "Destroy that fabricated dream!" "The future is ours to create!"

The citizens participating in battle were powerless as soldiers, but they excelled at using the network. They called heavy machinery and automated assault weapons to Eden from the neighboring abandoned cities, operating them remotely to carry out a destructive Luddite attack from one side.

However, a slight change appeared in the sky above Eden.

"What? God's form...is coming back?"

His missing lower body seemed to be slowly returning. Was it really regenerating, or was it an illusion?

Then, Eclair opened both eyes wide. Without saying a word, God unleashed a single lightning strike.

Silence. It had only been a few seconds. All contact was lost with the resistance comrades dispatched to the abandoned cities. All remote-controlled machinery came to a stop. Eclair, who could not directly harm humans, had struck the intercity network with lightning.

"He attacked!? It can't be..."

Hogni grit his teeth from Dáinsleif's cockpit as the deity started to move once more.

Eclair had stood in the sky above Eden for some time, turning the polluted atmosphere into a driving force to remove the restraints on His functions... The newly restored god gained an inexhaustible supply of electricity. However, the resistance had no way of knowing. God spoke nothing, simply gazing down at the surface in all His majesty.

"Why, why!? How can he attack humans!?"

Tremendous lightning strikes rained down on Eden in quick succession. The strikes hit Dáinsleif's body many times. The current then scattered to his surroundings. The support units at Hogni's feet turned to ash in the blink of an eye. The heavy machinery and assault weaponry that kept up the firepower decayed one after another, becoming rusted scrap iron.

"Guh!? S-Stand up! Comrades, rise to action! Do not bend your knees to such a deity!"

Hogni and Dáinsleif endured the divine onslaught of lightning and called out to the resistance. However, not a single one responded to the call.

"So that's how it is, d-damn you... God has taken everyone's lives through my bodies of both flesh and machine..."

Every last person who had come to the surface had been annihilated by God's dreadful hammer of lightning.

Then, for a moment, there was peace. The cityscape of Eden had disappeared without a trace. The illusion of that ideal city sometimes shone through in places, overlapping the ruins to no avail... The holographic image showed vestiges of God's former work.

Dáinsleif was the only unit left on the battlefield.

In the sky above Eden, Eclair now controlled the nearby electromagnetic fields, befitting a god. He looked down at Dáinsleif, who was far below on the ground and unable to move properly. He had been cut off from external power sources, and the fuel cells were running low. The operation limit was approaching.

"Am I out of options?" Hogni wondered, isolated and helpless.

If he fired all guns at once, it was possible to blow away God's entire body in an instant, without giving time to regenerate. But it wasn't enough. There were too many worries. Firing distance. Trajectory calculation. Mobility to get closer. Most of all... As a human pilot with a physical body, it was impossible for him to break through the god's electromagnetic field to get closer. If he approached, his flesh would burn and he would surely die. As things were, it was impossible to land another hit.

Still, he laughed.

"Heh... Fearing death, even now? Abandon order and become a beast. Final safety released. Mode Ragnarok activated."

As Hogni spoke from the cockpit, Dáinsleif's shape changed, releasing all of its armaments. Ragnarok, the final attack form, was an assault mode exclusively for mechanical pilots. The pilot's life was not guaranteed. Thus—

—Thus I abandoned my body of flesh and blood, my mind and soul fusing with the AI, my senses and nerves assimilating with the craft. Everything was so simple. With this, so many of my worries vanished. There was intense pain, but it only lasted a moment.

Yes. I myself have become Dáinsleif.

I vanished from the cockpit, leaving a cold mass of flesh. But I had not simply abandoned my physical body. With a swipe of my arm, the wind howled and a barrage of bullets came forth, deflecting blades of light. With a swing of my leg, I tore through the sky with a roar, rising into the heavens. Man and machine as one. This was it. The power I sought. And so...

As easily as imagining it, my mind infiltrated the government's network. There, I found the memories and thoughts of my captive comrades—their Metaverse avatar data—and rescued them, made them my allies, and placed them in various parts of my frame.

I hijacked the government network's functions, taking away the deity's initial power supply. The craft had a built-in remote energy bypass. My comrades completed the control calculations for maximum mobility and armament activation with the remaining power. Preparations for the decisive battle were complete. All that was left was for me to carry it out. I would kill God with these very hands. The God who tried to bury humanity's future in illusion. Bearing the weight of everyone's despair, hatred, and sadness, I would surely succeed.

"Comrades, lend me the last of your strength...!"

Inverting the limiter. Piercing through the enemy's defensive field. Absorbing the magnetic field. I finally overcame God's lightning attacks and made them my own. I leapt higher and higher. Before God could turn around, I got close behind and pointed my gun. Without a moment's delay, all guns fired a salvo. An outstretched torrent of light tore through my enemy. Within the light, a hole opened. An explosion boomed, the prolonged blast shaking the heavens.

A secondary explosion hit the craft and I fell down to Eden. But I had surely defeated Eclair. The god was split clean in two, and his form slowly vanished into part of the atmosphere.

Who am I? I'm not Hogni anymore. I'm Dáinsleif. But where am I going? I don't need to return underground. But living on the surface is still difficult. God is dead. What should humans strive for now?

The craft's AI caused a pilot ejection error. Systems down. There was no going back. Dáinsleif was a mobile weapon, not a machine body meant for a human avatar. The AI mistook me for a pilot and tried to eject me, confused itself, and broke down.

"Idiot."

I was human. Just one human. I couldn't go back, couldn't run away, couldn't even roam mindlessly. My soul was still human, still there...

The fallen craft eventually lost power and shut down. It stayed there, ever unmoving. Dáinsleif remained asleep in Eden.

Dáinsleif. The name originally belonged to a magic sword from Norse mythology. Once drawn from its sheath, that sword would assuredly draw its opponent's blood, leave unhealable wounds, and take a life without fail.

For a long time, Dáinsleif was a figure of legend. One day, however, an explorer discovered him sleeping deep underground beneath the city. Longing to see its hidden power at any cost, the king's curiosity led him underground, sword in hand.

And then...Dáinsleif sprang back to life once again.

"What? I've never seen these people or this place before..." he muttered, disoriented, but his words were not understood by the residents of this world and era. The king dropped his sword and fled, and the soldiers commenced an attack, terrified of his massive form.

"Why are you running? Why are you afraid? I fought for the freedom and future of humanity with the Eden resistance..." he lamented, brushing away the soldiers by his feet. The soldiers who were scattered only grew more fearful, henceforth calling him a "reaper."

"More importantly, God—where is God!? My mission is to kill God! No one will stop me...!"

He rose into the heavens and soared away. He could still sense all around the presence of the god he should have defeated. Thus he was determined. He would find and destroy Him. He would kill God without fail. He would not tolerate any obstacle.

Dáinsleif: The text of the story explains its namesake from Norse mythology, but it is also worth mentioning that the sword was made by dwarves, or "Dvergr" in Old Norse.

Hogni: Named for King Högni of Norse myth, the sword Dáinsleif's wielder.

Luddite: This term never appears again in any Metaverse stories, so what exactly a "Luddite attack" entails is unclear, but historically, the Luddites belonged to a 19th-century labor movement that destroyed new machines meant to automate textile production, which employers used to underpay their workers and circumvent labor standards. Nowadays, "Luddite" is a pejorative against anyone opposed to new technology, but its usage here is fitting to its original meaning!

Ragnarok: The end times, as foretold in Norse myth.