Lotto Twelve 

• The entirety of Episode 2-- Lotto has a traumatic past of being a lab experiment subject.

  • It's further detailed that he and his brethren were methodically tortured & it's described that he was sexually abused. Him and his brethren express suicidality.

    • Him also being deemed to have a developmental disability adds an uncomfortable layer.

• Lotto likes to torture people♪

The glow of the morning’s sunrise faintly illuminated the bottom of the Caspian Rift Valley. Amidst a pillar of smoke rising against that light, an object flew through at high speed. It was a crimson red battleship operated by a Hardline special forces squadron– The ship of Lotto and his group, who had just finished a mission in New Nemea.

"~~♪"

A cheerful whistle echoed through the ship.

“...You’re in an awfully good mood, Lotto.”

“Haha, well, I’m always like this, right?”

Reclining in his captain’s chair and throwing his legs over the computer’s console, the man named Lotto Twelve spoke to the other side of the monitor.

“In that case, the fruits of your labor were bountiful, it seems?”

The man on the other side of the monitor, Cainan, had his brows furrowed and eyed Lotto with suspicion.

"Of course. I think I performed better than expected♪”

“Enough with the small talk. Show me the results.”

“You’re so impatient… Well, that doesn’t matter. Take a look at this!"

Declaring that, Lotto got off his chair and turned to look behind it.

"Ta-daaaah!"

There, two unconscious people, a man and a woman, were lying haphazardly on the floor.

“Are these two the items you ordered?”

“I'd like to call it ‘superimposition’, but where's the other one?”

“That one slipped through my fingers~ I know it’s a substitute, but it’s something Cainan would desperately want to get his hands on, I think♪”

Lotto held up something to show off in front of the monitor. It’s about twice the size of Lotto’s own head――

“...!”

He could feel the atmosphere change through the monitor. Pleased with the obvious shift, Lotto whistled and grinned ostentatiously.

"Hmm hmm. So, was my surprise super successful?"

"...Well then. Let's meet up later."

“Haa, you’re so mean to me~ I get it, I get it. I’ll see you later, then~”

After confirming their rendezvous point on the monitor, Lotto cut off the call and whistled in satisfaction.

Suddenly, he heard a weak groan from behind him.

"Oh, speak of the devil♪"

“...Where… Am I…?”

On the cold iron floor, Solo Monia woke up from a deep slumber.

“I think, I…”

“Good morniiiiing, wittle Sowo! Did you sleep well~?”

"You...! ...Ah, ugh..."

"Haha, is your head still spinning?"

Lotto poked Solo's head with his finger repeatedly as he groaned in frustration. With his hands and feet tied, there was nothing Solo could do to resist.

“You— this has to be a joke!”

“You’re so noisy with all that flailing around. But, if you keep making this much noise, then it must mean you want to be punished~?”

"Ah..."

Lotto gently placed his hand on the base of Solo's throat. Lotto gradually tightened his grip as Solo’s expression turned to that of anguish, writhing in pain. Seeing this, Lotto’s lips turned into a faint smile. It’s as if he held the power of life and death in his hand.

"Can you feel it? Your blood is pumping, and it hurts so, so bad that it’s unbearable, isn’t it?”

Solo groaned, but looked at Lotto with a hostile gaze.

No matter how much I get tortured, I will never give in to you.

Such a strong will was clearly conveyed in the young boy's eyes.

Seeing this, Lotto suddenly loosened his grip.

"Cough... cough..."

“――Juuuust kidding~ Aha, did you think you were going to be killed just now? It's okay, it's okay, I have no intent to kill you. Well, I don't know how those other guys feel, though♪"

Lotto appeared to have lost interest and waved his hand away from boredom.

“Dammit… Why won't you leave me alone!”

"Mm~ Maybe you don’t know why you’re being targeted?"

"...Huh?"

Lotto jingled the bracelet on his right hand.

"I'll tell you, otherwise you’d never know, you poor thing.”

Without waiting for Solo's answer, Lotto started talking on his own.

"After Mom disappeared, the higher-ups were afraid that the fate of the Paragons would be sealed, so those guys started all sorts of experiments. We’re using the “legacy” of Ahav, our former leader, right? One of those experiments used Mom’s and your cells.”

“My own… Cells…”

Memories of the "experiments" he underwent as a child resurface in Solo’s mind. Those days when he lived at the mercy of the researchers.

“They tried crossbreeding with the superior Paragons, and then with you and Mom… Ah, but that was totally useless though, right? So what we got in the end… Were a bunch of people like me and Void.”

"Wha… So then… Mom is...!"

"Congraaaats, wittle Sowo~! You've been blessed with a 'family'!"

Lotto crouched down and whispered in Solo's ear.

“I’ve always really wanted to meet you… ‘Dad’.”

His awful, cold voice assaulted his ears. Solo suddenly realized that he had been drenched in sweat all over his body without noticing it.

“It's funny, isn't it, because I'm the one who looks more like a ma~ture a~dult than you!♪”

Lotto's blank expression suddenly changed and his usual cheerful smile returned.

“The reason you're being targeted is probably because you have the same reproductive function as Mom. So some people are really desperate, they’re jealous of how special you are and want to kill you. You can't run away anywhere. Yup, it's fate♪"

"...Don't be ridiculous! What do you mean by ‘fate’? I don't know anything about those guys!"

“Haha, just like that~ Good idea, I like it! It’s got my heart fluttering♪ As expected from my Dad, y’know!”

While whistling, Lotto took out what appeared to be some kind of medicine from his pocket.

"I'd like to talk to you more, but it's almost time for bed♪"

"Guh– sto—"

"See you later, Dad."

Despite his futile resistance, Solo was injected with the drug, and his thoughts slowed. His eyes fell on the shining bracelet on Lotto's arm. It looked just like one that he’s seen his mother Bathsheba wear in portraits before. He could see the visage of her reflected in it.

"Specimen SS-012... No reproductive function, and the developmental maturity function... Is low."[1]

“...Another failure. Despite crossbreeding the embryos from our most superior soldiers, none of them are useful.”

"Well, there are plenty of ways to use them. Just think of them as more ‘doll’ bodies."

"Hmm, I hope they can be ‘durable’ for a little while.”

They calmly said things like that without any sense of restraint in front of us as we lay on the examination table. Naturally, we had no right to refuse. We were forbidden to speak without permission anyways, so it made sense.

"You're going to be a solid contribution to our future, right?"

Screams and sobs, sounds that don’t even seem like voices.

Looking at our faces stained with despair, they checked the "potential" of our bodies with emotional detachment.

"12 is interesting. He responds to pain in ways I don't see in the others. Why does he smile like there's a higher power he believes in? How long can he keep responding like this for?”

Those were the words often vomited out by the guy who’d thoroughly play with my body. He said that he and I were compatible, that we appeared to have good “chemistry”. My face, which continued to smile and endure any pain, was the perfect research subject for him— being a suitable fit for satisfying both his body’s and mind’s appetites.

Some of my brothers, who were branded as failed creations, couldn’t continue living through that endless hell and attempted to "retire". However, we didn’t even have the right to harbor such small rebellious feelings. Our bodies refused to die of suicide, and we were forced to continue living until the limits of our flesh were reached.

…But still, I didn’t want to die like that, having them do whatever they wanted to us.

There's a reason why I was able to withstand daily experimentation. It's the memory of my mom that has remained in my head ever since I was born. In my memories, Mom is always crying. That's why I wanted to cheer her up.

Mom, cheer up? If I keep trying my best, will you stop crying?

Every time my body was struck with pain, I kept thinking about that.

My specimen number, and the memory of my mom. That's all I have, and that's what's important to me.

Someday, after passing their inspection that day, I happened to overhear them talking about something.

"Did you hear? Solo’s research institute seems to have been raided. Attacked.”

"Wh— What happened to him?!"

“It seems… Someone abducted him, and now he’s missing.”

“This is a serious incident. If we don’t get any more samples delivered, leadership will cut our supplies off indefinitely! We’ll have to stagnate operations!”

“If we can’t get any new specimens soon, then we’ll probably have to finish off our current failed experiments and hand our results over to leadership…”

That’s when I understood. Me and my brothers are all based off of a person named “Solo”.

Soon after that, our examination transitioned to the final stage. We thought we were going to be taken to the lab like usual, but we were given guns and gathered together in a vast ruin. Their voices echoed from somewhere.

"We will now carry out the final inspection. Those who pass the examination will be able to leave here and contribute to the Paragons’ future with honor.”

We’d finally be freed from our hellish days… Some of us couldn't help but cry tears of joy, but that hope was shattered in an instant by their words.

"Well then, let's begin the examination."

"Um... Wait! Where's the target...?"

“There, right before your eyes.”

The targets were my brethren who had survived up to that point. Faced with such cruel instructions, none of us could accept the reality.

“Now kill. Prove your superiority.”

Among my brethren who had survived up until then, a kind of "bond" had begun to sprout between us. They knew that, and instigated us. We were nothing more than toys to them until the very end.

Just when I remembered that, an abrupt gunshot suddenly rang out.

The sound of something falling. Screams and mocking laughs. The pungent smell of iron assaulting my nose. The ruins instantly turned into a gruesome battlefield.

I didn't want to fight, so I tried to run away first. But my brethren shot at me mercilessly. A burning pain ran through my stomach. Blood copiously gushed out.

――It hurts.

Normally, I never feel this kind of pain. But today was different. The hope for life that I clung to for even a moment dragged me down into the fear of death.

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!

Someone leaned over me as I writhed in pain on the ground.

"I have to kill him... I have to kill him!"

A man with the same face as me. His body was trembling with fear, his gun was wavering the same as the rest of him.

Death was right in front of me. If that gaping black hole fired directly into me, would I… Be freed from this life where I wasn’t even allowed to die?

If that’s the case… Then it’s okay, isn’t it?

I’ve already given up, too…

In that extreme situation, as I tried to give up on living, a thought entered my head.

"Kill him."

A voice... I heard my mom's voice.

“To die due to your own selfishness, I’ll never forgive you.”

Mom was always hiding her face, crying. But on that day, she shed tears as red as blood and laughed as she spoke to me.

Kill him, kill him.

――Before I knew it, I had survived the final examination. I killed both my brethren and the researchers.

"...Ah, I finally understand, Mom."

What I should do.

The day I became one with Mom was the day my true life began.

After that, I was assigned to a Hardline combat unit and spent my days doing nothing but fighting. Day after day, I continued to battle. After returning from the battlefield many times like this, I was evaluated for my abilities and was eventually summoned by the leaders of Olympias.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the sample data, but… It's not a bad battle record at all. You will move as if you were my own limbs."

Leader Void. One of the leaders who guided the Paragons.

And he was a boy who grew up in a different facility, with the same memories of my mom implanted in him just like me... He’s my younger brother.

Several vehicles were headed towards Perses from the direction of Anatolia. At the very back of the group, a man with red hair and an eyepatch, Lotto, was nodding off as he cruised due to the warm sunlight and the pulsating vibrations.

“――Hey! HEY! Are you even listening to me, Lotto?!”

However, his pleasant dozing was interrupted as a voice shouting his name brought him back to reality. Looking at the monitor display with a drowsy eye, he saw a man practically raising hell at him.

“Aah~... Void… Whaddya want?”

“It’s about that shitty little brat!”

“That’s so harsh, isn’t he our ‘father’~?”

“S-Stop that! Ahh, just thinking about it makes my hair stand on end…!”

“That’s not right. He has the same blood as our beloved mama, right? Isn’t that a good thing?”

“THAT! That’s what’s so UNCOMFORTABLE!”

Void grumbled “Mother” over and over as if he was casting an incantation. His feelings of anger subsided, and a strange silence fell between the both of them. That's his way of venting his rage. He’s known Void for some time now. He quickly gets irritated when it comes to Solo, so while he regained his composure, Lotto decided to encourage him to continue the conversation. 

“I guess I should just deal with them as soon as I find them. Even then, do we really need to make this mission such a top priority?”

Lotto has been tasked with eliminating the Machines’ military engineer unit deployed in the eastern Anatolian peninsula. This is supposed to be a crucial mission in preparation for the coming war, but to his brother Void, eliminating Solo seems to take top priority.

"I don't care. Get rid of him immediately before he threatens the future of all Paragons."

"...Pfft, it's your personal grudge no matter how you look at it."

“Did you just say something?”

“It’s nothiiiing♪”

Lotto disconnected their transmission.

"...Well, I don’t plan on killing li'l Solo."

Muttering that, he switched to a different communication channel and sent instructions to his subordinates.

“Ah, ah— New directive to the whole squad! Current mission’s aborted! We will now begin pursuing the escaped prince! Now prepare, prepare—!”

Lotto’s special forces unit rushed to the nearest colony, Karaj, from their current location to secure a means of transportation. Afterwards, Lotto came into contact with Solo in the southern part of the Caspian Rift Valley, but was forced to retreat due to the unforeseen intrusion of Mithra Tercera. As Lotto was restocking his supplies and equipment and about to resume his pursuit, he received a call from a certain person at a base he had stopped at.

"Lotto, have you made any progress?"

"Oh, Cainan. I found the prince. He was traveling with a guy with a cool hairstyle, just like the information you gave me.”

“Is that so? You're pretty good at handling things. And?”

“Well, things were going according to plan, ‘till a Returnee girl interrupted us about halfway through.”

“Oh? Tell me all the details.”

Lotto told him the gist of the situation.

“That Returnee girl is very interesting indeed.”

“So, should that girl be our ‘target’?”

“Yes, having a Returnee is essential for our plans to be fully realized.”

“Roger that. Anything else?”

“Yes, this is the main issue at hand…”

Lotto sensed a slight tone of impatience in Cainan's voice, which was unusual for him.

Cainan said that there was a possibility that the war with the Machines would start sooner than expected. And since he deals with information regularly, it was certain to become a reality. That's why he was forced to move his plan forward quickly.

“Weeeell, Void has probably gotten way ahead of himself… Cainan, do you happen to know where li'l Solo is now that he’s joined up with the Returnees?"

“Yes, that’s not a problem. I already have a rough idea of where they are.”

“Impressive! As expected~ But still, where’d you even get information like that?”

"Let's just say I have a trustworthy 'friend'."

"...Hmm, a friend, huh?"

He wondered who this “friend” was, being someone who couldn't even reveal his true identity to his ally, but trying to find out its true identity would only put Lotto’s own position in danger. He’ll investigate that later. For now, Lotto has to devote his focus on fulfilling his role.

――

――――

Lotto returned to the Caspian Rift Valley again with a wheeled vehicle equipped with a long-range cannon. It was one of the weapons of annihilation manufactured for the coming war. The sun had completely set, and the scenery looked as if it had been painted in a single color.

"Apparently if we hang around here long enough, the Machines will come... Jeez, how long are we going to have to wait?!"

Lotto’s forces, stationed at a place overlooking the Caspian Rift Valley from a distance, were waiting in ambush for a extended amount of time, until suddenly――

The long-awaited moment finally arrived.

While monitoring the desert, they saw a muzzle flash that appeared to be gunfire. And then, a little later, what appeared in the sky was… A gigantic mobile weapon resembling a fortress, led by the Machines’ forces.

"This is getting pretty interesting now, isn't it?"

Lotto immediately contacted Cainan.

“――It's me.”

“Here they come. What’s your desire~ A Returnee, was it?”

“Yes, I look forward to good results.”

“Roger that. Well then, let’s work for Mom, too.”

Lotto leaned out of his vehicle and jingled his bracelet. With that as a signal, the soldiers waiting behind him silently began to move.

In the forbidden land now abandoned by man, the ulterior motives of the Paragons and Machines were about to intersect.

Lotto's surprise attack had deprived the Machine forces of air superiority, and the lowest-level ships were either shot down or forced to withdraw from the front lines.

“Hahah! Doesn’t it just feel the best to one-sidedly kick them around?♪ I'd really like to finish them off with a total blockade, but... What's that?! Isn't it a sneaky tactic to deflect our attacks?!"

What stood in front of Lotto and his crew was a large battleship called the "Viamaris." The force field surrounding the ship repelled all of Lotto and his allies’ attacks.

“I seeeee. So that’s what we needed to take that guy down. Artillery! Are we all set?!”

"Y-You can fire whenever."

“Well then, drop it on them lickety-split!”

Immediately after, a beam of light burst out from the Caspian Rift Valley. It collided head-on with the forcefield of the Viamaris, creating a momentary appearance of daybreak at the bottom of the valley itself. The very moment the shield broke, Lotto set fire to it at once. The forcefield generating device was destroyed as though it were nothing, and the ship crashed into the azure blue city that was laid out at the valley’s floor.

With that action, the tides of battle began to turn.

The remaining Machine army units, having lost their flagship, left the city's sky and scattered. The battlefield had completely fallen into Lotto’s hands.

Next, Lotto embarked on taking control of cities that could be obstacles to his mission. He burned down the tower that stood in the center of the city with his cannons, paralyzing the city's functions, and the waves of attacks from it ceased.

“Hehe, now there's no one to stand in my way♪"

All that remains is to fulfill his primary mission. He only has to retrieve the two Returnee bodies and Solo.

Lotto began by heading to the crashed Viamaris, but he saw something fly out of the ship. It was a small fighter aircraft. Strangely enough, the ship did not withdraw from the city, but for some reason instead headed straight to the center of the city――

Lotto’s eye warped into a crescent shape, and he chuckled to himself.

“Aah, I’m so lucky today♪”

Lotto connected to his artillery crew and ordered them to fire at the designated point. Although the light that was fired was slightly off from the specified area, the aftershocks from the impact engulfed the Machines’ ships regardless.

“Mm-hmm, gotta be careful, don’t we♪”

As the city was ravaged by burning flames, Lotto's ship reached the center of the city. Landing on a place with a poor foundation was too difficult, so Lotto instead dangled a rope and started his descent downwards. The underground part of the city, burned down by his cannons, was in a pitiful state.

"A–ha, I've blown them away pretty spectacularly~ Are any Returnees still alive?"

As the soldiers that descended after him began their search, his squad suddenly heard a noise near Lotto. Looking closer, they saw a Machine lying under the rubble. It was Isaac, the Machine commander they had spotted during their monitoring in the desert. The steel giant was heavily damaged, with two of his four arms torn off midway. His joints were shrieking like screams with every movement, sparks flying in every direction. He was crouching, as if to protect something.

"Ggh... Gah..."

“Huuuh, you can still survive in a condition like that? As expected from you~”

“Ba— Bastard… You… Did this…”

“That’s right♪ You never considered even a little that you'd lose, did you? It's your fault for showing an opening, you know?”

“God’s holy battle… This war… It’s defiled by impertinent fools!!”

Isaac stood up and slashed away the debris around him with a shout of fury. At his feet was the unconscious and motionless figure of a Returnee girl - Nia.

“You’re risking your life to protect her, just like a knight in shining armor? I thought your ideas were old-fashioned before, but now I really understand♪"

“...Your mouth spouts nothing but nonsense. Your actions have strayed from the path of righteousness! You deserve nothing but DEATH!”

Isaac’s body trembled in a display of power, emphasizing his enormous stature in an attempt to intimidate Lotto.

"You serious? You wanna fight?”

“Certainly! As long as my body can move… I’ll swing the iron hammer of judgement down upon you bastards――”

"Yeah, yeah! That’s enough! Everyone, prepare for battle!"

Lotto struck his bracelet, and the scattered soldiers then gathered around the both of them. With a single cue from Lotto, Isaac would instantly turn into a lump of iron.

“After the surprise attack, they then ridicule all of us for sport. If you're not in a group, you can't do anything, you scum! You’re a disgrace to this holy war…!”

Isaac came closer, step by step.

However, despite Isaac being twice as large as him in physical size, Lotto’s carefree demeanor did not change whatsoever. He did not waver. Not even just that, but his smile also widened even more, as if he were enjoying himself in this situation.

"Hehe, I'm getting all hot and bothered all on my own..."

With both arms outstretched, Lotto strode leisurely towards Isaac, right before his very eyes.

“Alright, game start♪”

The roar from the iron knight shook the battlefield. 

The hammer of judgement swings down to strike the fools that contaminate this war.

It was Isaac who took the initiative. He raised his steel arm, flexing it like a whip, and swung it down on Lotto's head. However, avoiding attacks with a clear trajectory is simple to him.

“Hehe, you’re so obvious!”

Keeping both hands inside his coat and without drawing his gun, Lotto dodges the attack with a swift step, nimbly dancing around him.

“Impudent!”

Isaac's arms brushed past Lotto's head. If he were hit, not even the enhanced body of a Paragon would be able to withstand a single blow.

But even if Lotto could sense the stench of death around him, he didn't feel the slightest bit of fear. Innocently, joyfully, Lotto continued to laugh and dance.

The battle was one-sided from start to finish, and Isaac's body continued to creak as time passed by in vain.

"Oh, is it over already?"

"You bastard... You have all that strength, so why do you refuse to fight me properly!"

“Because you know, it’s fun. Bullying the weak. Seeing you struggle to hit me, it makes my heart flutter with excitement♪"

"At this point, there's no use in arguing…!”

Isaac charged forward with a roar.

"I could play for longer, but… Soooorry, I’m tired of this.”

Lotto raised his right hand up to neck height and waved it, the motion simulating a beheading. Immediately afterwards, Isaac was hit directly by gunfire from all sides... And he never moved again.

"If you’d been in perfect condition, I think you could have easily killed me, but... This is war, y’know♪"

Lotto nodded with satisfaction and ordered his soldiers to retrieve the girl Isaac was protecting. Just as the soldiers were preparing to transfer Nia’s body to the ship, a fighter aircraft cut through the thick black smoke and flew off overhead. Lotto immediately determined that it was Solo's ship and contacted the ship waiting in the sky, instructing it to attack. But the very next moment, two shadowy silhouettes fell from it in a straight line.

"Oh? Oh? Today is fuuuull of all sorts of truths♪"

Could it be a blessing in disguise?

It turned out to be one of the targets Lotto was searching for: Solo Monia.

[2]

The glow of the morning’s sunrise faintly illuminated the bottom of the Caspian Rift Valley. Amidst a pillar of smoke rising against that light, an object flew through at high speed. It was a crimson red battleship operated by a Hardline special forces squadron– The ship of Lotto and his group, who had just finished a mission in New Nemea.

"~~♪"

A cheerful whistle echoed through the ship.

“...You’re in an awfully good mood, Lotto.”

“Haha, well, I’m always like this, right?”

Reclining in his captain’s chair and throwing his legs over the computer’s console, the man named Lotto Twelve spoke to the other side of the monitor.

“In that case, the fruits of your labor were bountiful, it seems?”

The man on the other side of the monitor, Cainan, had his brows furrowed and eyed Lotto with suspicion.

"Of course. I think I performed better than expected♪”

“Enough with the small talk. Show me the results.”

“You’re so impatient… Well, that doesn’t matter. Take a look at this!"

Declaring that, Lotto got off his chair and turned to look behind it.

"Ta-daaaah!"

There, two unconscious people, a man and a woman, were lying haphazardly on the floor.

“Are these two the items you ordered?”

“I'd like to call it ‘superimposition’, but where's the other one?”

“That one slipped through my fingers~ I know it’s a substitute, but it’s something Cainan would desperately want to get his hands on, I think♪”

Lotto held up something to show off in front of the monitor. It’s about twice the size of Lotto’s own head――

“...!”

He could feel the atmosphere change through the monitor. Pleased with the obvious shift, Lotto whistled and grinned ostentatiously.

"Hmm hmm. So, was my surprise super successful?"

"...Well then. Let's meet up later."

“Haa, you’re so mean to me~ I get it, I get it. I’ll see you later, then~”

After confirming their rendezvous point on the monitor, Lotto cut off the call and whistled in satisfaction.

Suddenly, he heard a weak groan from behind him.

"Oh, speak of the devil♪"

“...Where… Am I…?”

On the cold iron floor, Solo Monia woke up from a deep slumber.

“I think, I…”

“Good morniiiiing, wittle Sowo! Did you sleep well~?”

――

――――

Meanwhile, at the same time.

Mithra, Zephyr, and Joachim ended up engaging in combat with Lotto's squadron right after they escaped the dock. The three manage to shoot down the enemy ship, but in turn, are forced to flee the scene. They returned to the dock to retrieve Solo, but it was already too late. All that remained was the wreckage of two Machines.

“No way, I never woulda thought the General would be defeated…”

Joachim offered his condolences to the general of the Machines who had spent their time fighting over Solo. Strangely enough, Isaac's remains were nowhere to be found, and only his head was missing— exposing a cross-section as if it had been cut off by something.

"Nia..."

“You doing alright, little lady? This General must’ve fought to protect your friend. It seems like she was kidnapped by those guys from earlier.”

“...Yeah. I’ll— I’ll chase them!”

“Oh-ho, you're as quick to bounce back as ever, young lady. That's an example that we should all follow... Myself and Zephyr included."

Zephyr quietly shed tears in front of Joachim's gaze— the two of them standing in front of the remains of Mika, the ruler of New Nemea. Although they ended up fighting, Mika’s desire to protect the people living in the city was something that Zephyr understood.

“I'm sorry. I've completely ruined your cherished city…”

It was a battle that started with them getting dragged into it, but when looking at the results, it was a crushing defeat. How could they rescue Solo and Nia when they didn't even know which direction the enemy had flown in? It’d be impossible to find them throughout these vast lands, but they have to decide the best course of action.

“Well then… What do we do next…”

As Joachim grumbled to himself, he noticed Mithra walking unsteadily in his peripheral vision, as if she was following something. She seemed to be listening carefully to any sounds coming from the sky.

“Hmm? Hey girlie, what are you――”

"Wait. I just heard something!"

Mithra responded with a curt “over there” without waiting for a reply, and ran out of the dock. Joachim followed her in a panic, and where he followed, he saw a thoroughly damaged combat ship that had just landed. It looked very similar to the ship Mithra was on――

“No way… A survivor from the General’s squad?!”

The rear hatch opened. Two men emerged from inside.

“Um… Who’s that?”

“Hmm~ It feels like something went wrong…?"

Lotto was now regretting his own decision.

In order to prioritize Cainan's mission, he had sent the heavily damaged combat craft back to their base, leaving them thinly defended, and they had been targeted. The pursuers were two other combat ships following far behind— both were Machine ships that had avoided being shot down at New Nemea.

That alone was not a problem that required special attention. Their current forces were more than capable of handling that situation. However, there was a person aboard one of the ships that was causing Lotto a lot of trouble.

“How can that kid shoot in those kinda circumstances?!”

A combat ship appeared on the monitor―― and a girl stood on top of it.

"Zephyr! A little to the right!"

"Got it!"

That girl, Mithra, was anchored to the hull of the ship. She stooped low and drew the string of her bow. Behind her eyepatch, which was linked to the latest type of phonetic weapon, Mitron, her shining blue eye aimed perfectly at Lotto's red ship. Then, arrows of light were fired, flying close to the hull and grazing it with “precision”.

"You’re doing great! The distance is closing little by little!"

“Aaaalright! One last shot!”

"Geez! I thought I was getting used to it, but you’re still surprising me with some crazy stuff, girlie…!"

“Ahaha, is that so? But even you can do anything if you put your mind to it, right, Joachim?”

“I can’t do THOSE kinds of acrobatics!”

Joachim turned and spoke in the direction of the fighter craft flying right behind them.

"Hey, what about you?"

“...No, no matter how you look at it, her methods are beyond our comprehension.”

It was piloted by two Returnees that they encountered in New Nemea— Anshar and Marduk. The two of them were the sole survivors of Isaac’s unit, and had temporarily formed an alliance to rescue the kidnapped girl, Nia.

“Hey bro, I wonder if I could do that too…”

“...I’m not going to say anything mean, but cut it out.”

Anshar and Marduk were also dumbfounded by Mithra's erratic behavior, which she had flaunted back at their first meeting. While listening to their conversation through their communication devices, Mithra promptly detected movement from the ship ahead of them.

"Zephyr! Over there, that ship is moving!"

Just as Mithra had pointed out, two of the four ships flying far ahead of them had turned around in an arc and were heading in their direction. In an attempt to disrupt Zephyr and their group's progress, the two ships launched attacks targeting the gaps between them. Zephyr immediately used evasive maneuvers to avoid the top of their combat ship from being damaged, avoiding Mithra in the process.

"Thanks, Zephyr!"

"Be careful not to get thrown off!"

And then, as the enemy ship passed straight down and tried to take a vertical turn to get behind them, she aimed and fired an arrow. The arrow shot straight through the ship's thruster— and it then crashed to the ground.

“Good job, girlie!”

"Next!"

“No, we’ll take the other ship. I’m sure the two of them are on that remaining ship. You guys go get Nia.”

“Understood, be careful too!”

"Mithra! Take care of Nia!"

"Yeah!"

Lotto only has two ships left. The distance between them is rapidly closing.

“――That kid’s completely insane! No way! I can't deal with this kinda genuine stupidity!"

Witnessing Mithra's extraordinary resilience before him, Lotto arched his back with a look of anguish across his face.

"...C-Captain Lotto is really upset..."

"I've never seen him like this before..."

“To see my squad, completely destroyed because of one guy with zero common sense… Aah, what the hell, I’ve decided~!”

Lotto sent out instructions to his entire crew to execute his only plan.

"We'll use this ship... As a decoy!"

As Mithra continued to fire warning shots, she suddenly sensed movement from the enemy ship.

"Huh, the ship's speed is… Slowing down?"

The ship flying in the front visibly lost velocity. As she migrated to the top of the ship behind them, the rear hatch flew open unexpectedly. From within appeared a man with red hair and an eyepatch, Lotto, with his subordinates— and Nia, who was asleep in Lotto’s arms.

"Nia!"

Lotto cheerfully waved at Mithra as if he were greeting a friend, and abruptly jumped onto an airship that was flying parallel to him below. Immediately after, Zephyr’s voice rang into Mithra’s ears.

“Mithra! Solo… He’s on that ship!”

The video sent over their closed-circuit communications projected Solo bound to a chair, completely helpless and unable to move.

“Tch, that eyepatch guy… He’s planning to use him as a decoy to escape!”

“So, that ship is going to fall out of the sky…?”

Mithra's prediction became a reality as Lotto's voice reverberated all around them.

“Ah— Aah— You guys are amazing! I’m so deeply moved♪ So, as a token of my appreciation, I'll give li'l Solo back to you. But if you don't hurry up and help him, you might meet wittle Sowo face to face only after he turns into mincemeat from crashing into the ground♪"

While he said this, the ship, now pilotless, steadily descended in altitude.

"Well then, have a nice flight. Bye~byeeee!"

The deep crimson ship carrying Lotto and the others left the airspace.

Abandon Solo, or defeat Lotto and rescue Nia?

There’s no time to waste left.

The choice that Mithra and the others must make is――

"Captain Lotto, it seems like we’ve shaken off our pursuers."

"Phew… Those guys were totally absurd, weren’t they… Even I was shocked.”

Lotto's desperate plan to use Solo as a decoy worked, and he was able to completely lose his pursuers. Just to be sure, he checked the radar, and saw nothing on its display. Lotto then turned to question the cargo behind him.

"Hey princess, do all Returnees use weapons as insane as that little eyepatch girl’s?"

“...”

The Returnee girl, Nia, simply glared back at him without answering any of his questions.

“Oooh~ Sca~ry! Come on, a little more, ‘EEK, PLEASE HELP MEEEE!’, or something like that. Do you just have no emotions?”

"You captured me... What are you going to do to me?"

“You finally speak, and that’s it? Well, whatever. Don't be so stuck-up, let's get along better. I won't do anything bad to you. That’s right, do you want something warm to drink?"

"I won't accept charity from my enemy!"

Lotto persistently beamed a smile, but Nia's expression was stubborn. Her fastidious attitude was that of a sturdy fortress. Lotto’s eye widened as he was dumbfounded by her behavior, and stifled a laugh.

"...What's so funny?"

“Ah~ How should I put it… Since the princess is the old geezer’s lackey, it only makes sense that she’s so thick-skulled♪"

“...! What does someone like you know about Lord Isaac?! Your inhumanities will undoubtedly be avenged by Isaa—”

"Aha, ahahahaha! You guys are so interesting! The absolute best! No matter how you look at it, you’re way too IMPRESSIONABLE!!”

Nia’s shouting was drowned out by the echoing of Lotto’s roars of laughter.

“You ‘people’ repeatedly defile corpses for your own atrocities, don’t act like you have room to speak!”

“Uwaaa, you’re hurting my feelings~”

"Laugh while you still can! If Lord Isaac was here, he wouldn't give you ‘people’ any mercy!”

“Isaac, Isaac. If you wanna see him so badly, how about I show you now?”

Saying that, Lotto then began to rummage around in his captain’s seat, fishing for something in particular.

“Huh? What are you…”

――Thud.

Before she could finish speaking, a large mass of something fell in front of her eyes. The thing that made that heavy, high pitched echo was――

“Ah… Aaah…!”

It was the head of Nia's superior officer, Isaac.

“Look! We met♪"

“...You— You BASTAAAAAAAAAARD!!!!”

Having no consideration for the fact that her hands and feet were restrained, Nia attempted to bite the man’s legs as he struggled to hold back his laughter. The woman, who had been pretending to be apathetic to everything happening, finally showed her true emotions for the first time— as if she was declaring that she wanted to kill him right then and there.

“Hmm hmm, that angry feeling, very good! The Returnees are not that different from us, are they?"

“I won’t be lumped together with fucking SCUM like YOU!”

In contrast to Nia’s wrathful screaming, Lotto’s expression remained calm— seemingly enjoying all of the raw emotions being exposed in front of him.

“Alright, princess, I want you to show me even more expressions~♪"

"Um... Captain Lotto, we're going to be at our target destination any time now…”

"Huh, already? I guess it’s unavoidable. Can you be quiet for a little bit, princess?”

“Ghh…! If you want to kill me, just kill me now!”

His soldiers attempted to restrain Nia, but she continued to violently struggle with all of her might, refusing to give in.

“Hey princess, don’t you have the wrong idea? We weren’t planning on taking lives or anything like that—”

“How am I supposed to believe anything you say? No matter how much pain or humiliation I may endure, I’ll never bend my will to that of the Paragons!"

“Hm… If you insist…”

Lotto crouched down in front of Nia, and suddenly spoke with a smile.

“Well, no need to hold back♪”

“Huh—”

He placed his hand around the dazed Nia’s neck. The force of his grip was enough to stop her from being able to breathe, and she suddenly became wrought with fear.

“Nn… Ghh…”

Due to Lotto’s unexpected action, Nia’s consciousness started to get violently confused, her vision flickering. The weight of his body, which caused her to struggle even more due to being restrained, relentlessly bore down on her neck.

“――Uh――, ah――”

Her wandering gaze somehow managed to focus on the man who literally held the fate of her life in his hand. Although it was hard to see his expression clearly due to him being backlit, she could tell that his eye was arched upwards as he watched her suffer in captivation. Even as he inflicted pain upon her, Lotto never once averted his gaze. His appearance resembled that of a predator carefully observing its prey.

“――Khhf… Khaaah―― Ghh――?!”

Just before Nia was about to faint, Lotto loosened his grip— and the moment she felt relief, he tightened his grip again to continue inflicting anguish. Even if the seemingly endless torture only lasted a few seconds in reality, her perception of time warped to make it feel like several minutes, or even hours, have passed.

"~~♪"

Lotto's whistle combined in-sync with Nia's moans etched fear into her mind. The moment a faint trace of panic appeared on Nia’s face, she was released from his grip. Lotto spoke to Nia with his smile that refused to ever cease.

"Good, good♪ You did your best. I guess that’s to be expected of a soldier, right?”

“...I, I can handle this much at my rank…!”

"Next up! Have you ever heard of this type of torture, princess? The one where they pull out your teeth one-by-one♪"

“Huh…?”

In stark contrast to how he talked earlier, Lotto began to speak deliberately slowly so that Nia could digest the meaning of his words and fully understand their implications. He turned Nia over to lay on her back and straddled her with his entire weight.

“The first time they did this to me too, it seriously hurt.”

He took out a small knife from his pocket.

“They never gave me permission to cry or scream, y’know~”

He heated his knife with skilled hands.

“And yet, after they were done with me, they’d never even look at me in that state. Right?”

He gently traced the teeth peeking out from Nia's half-parted lips.

“But, you can rest assured. I’ll give you my full attention until the very end. Well, let's start with the front teeth♪"

She felt the heat radiating off the knife as it started to weigh on her teeth. At that moment, Nia saw it. The profoundly dark emotion in his eye, swirling around like a lump of sludge. That was the finishing blow.

“Sto… O… A-Aaah…”

"Mm~? Did you say something?"

The fright Nia had been desperately enduring instantly spread through her entire body, and even her own thoughts were dominated by a terror that she could no longer stop.

“P-Please… St, stop… No mo— please, now, isn’t… It, enough—”

After he noticed that Nia’s body relaxed, Lotto quickly withdrew his knife. And then, he tenderly stroked the top of her head.

“Hahaha, what? It’s ‘normal’, isn’t it?”

“Aah… Ghh… Khh――――”

She succumbed to the first real instance of fear she encountered. Completely powerless, not even able to avenge Isaac’s death. Nia continued to weep as all of her emotions blended together.

“Ah—… I’m sorry? I didn’t mean to hurt the princess, but… It was subconscious♪"

Lotto’s innocently smiling face showed not even the slightest bit of cruelty he displayed a short while ago. Not only that, he then muttered, “Well, you can be a good girl now, right?”, as if he lost interest in her, before he returned to his seat.

“Well, now that it’s quiet, let’s get going! To the city where Mom sleeps♪"

Immediately after, his ship approached the defense network spread out by the Machines. The destination is an abandoned capital far away, completely separate from the warzone. Towards Samarakanda— the resting place of a dead saint.

[1] The literal translation is “the body’s maturation function is low”, with the operative kanji being “成長” (Seichō), or “maturation”. This kanji in particular refers to maturation of children into adulthood and “growing up”. “低い” (Hikui), or “low” in this usage refers to inferiority, or rank. The word choice and the reaction of the researchers makes it safe to say that Lotto was deemed to be developmentally disabled and/or delayed.

[2] This beginning passage before the break is a carbon copy of parts of episode 1– this is intentional, and is the same as the Japanese version.