Starting from Douluo Continent, I've become a god through daily check-ins.

Chapter 268 The Strelitzia Strikes!

The three FRANXX engines—Lycoris, Celosia, and Magnolia—had all reached the entrance to the mission well. Looking at the seemingly bottomless depths, they exclaimed in amazement, "It's truly magnificent! Where will it lead?"

"Wow, that's amazing! It's practically a monster from the pipes," said Himeka, hugging the building in front of him.

"Is this how magma fuel is extracted?" Goro asked in surprise.

"I think you already know that you can only descend to the eighth level. The only way to completely destroy the Klaxosaur is to use the magma energy weapons on each of your machines to destroy its core. The core must be shattered, and the Klaxosaur must be utterly destroyed. Do you understand?"

The three FRANXXs rode the elevator down to the eighth floor together. During the descent, Hatch kept explaining some precautions to the group.

The elevator finally descended to the eighth floor, and all three FRANXX units drew their weapons, ready for battle: "Understood!"

(Note: From now on, FRANXX will be referred to as mecha in general.)

Led by the kingfisher, followed by the celosia and the goldfinch, they headed towards their destination.

"We have already reached our destination. All aircraft are following the Lark."

As the team leader, Ichigo gave the order first. The three mechs followed Lark and slowly advanced towards the target location.

……

Seventh Sister asked, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Yu Nai placed her hands in front of her and said apologetically, "No, that's not it."

"Alright, Yu Nai's condition has been somewhat unstable for a while now. Anyway, let's get her checked out tomorrow," Seventh Sister said with a smile, trying to comfort her.

Man suddenly asked, "Isn't it that our companions have some kind of adaptation problem?"

After Manichi finished speaking, Ikuno looked at him with a mixture of emotions. However, anyone with a brain could understand what Manichi meant. He was essentially implying that Ikuno was useless as his partner.

However, Seventh Sister said, "This might happen sometimes at the beginning, but it won't cause you to disband."

After hearing what Seventh Sister said, Man looked away and said with a hint of disdain, "Is that so?"

Zero watched quietly, and he understood Man's meaning; in the end, Man was full of disdain.

At that moment, Ichigo's voice rang out in the conference room: "Klaxosaur sighted. All mobile suits deployed, configuration complete. Commence combat!"

"Well, it's smaller than I thought," Mirai said, seemingly relieved.

Three mechs hid in the shadows. In front of them were many cylindrical containers, and among them was a spherical Klaxosaur, its body predominantly blue with black accents. At this moment, the Klaxosaur was attached to a container, its body constantly writhing, seemingly trying to absorb the contents of the container.

Ichigo looked at the dragon and said to the others, "We can't be careless. Proceed with the operation according to plan."

After saying that, the kingfisher rushed out from the shadows first, followed closely by the green cuckoo and the golden sparrow.

The larkspur plunged its spear directly into the Klaxosaur's body, causing blue liquid to splatter out. Pulling out its weapon, it thrust in again with a second spear, this time flinging the Klaxosaur off its container.

The Klaxosaur's bouncy body bounced back and forth a few times. Just as it stretched out its cry, the bayonet on the barrel of the Golden Sparrow's gun pierced directly into the Klaxosaur's body. It was raised high, and then Qingxiang jumped up, its claw blade on its arm stabbing fiercely into the Klaxosaur's body.

……

"Did they take them down?" Zero asked, looking at the screen in the conference room.

"Not yet." Zero Two's cold voice came. Everyone turned around at the same time and saw Zero Two leaning against the door.

……

Qingxiang drew her weapon, struck a pose brimming with chuunibyou (a Japanese term for someone with delusions of grandeur), and her excited voice rang out: "See that? That's my power."

"Stop! That's too embarrassing." Mirai blushed slightly.

While talking to Miku in the future, Ichigo noticed that the Klaxosaur could still move and quickly reminded him, "Don't let your guard down, destroy the core quickly!"

"I know." He said, glancing back at the Klaxosaur still lying there. He stretched his arms and said, "Klaxosaurs aren't all that great." He then delivered the final blow to the Klaxosaur.

Just then, Jiaolong roared at Qingxiang. In a mere instant, Jiaolong flipped over and leaped up, clinging to Qingxiang and pinning her to the ground. Its short legs then began to frantically strike Qingxiang's face.

The attack didn't last long before the system became too overloaded, lost consciousness, and lost connection.

"That bastard!" Tai roared, and Jinque raised his heavy cannon, aimed at the dragon on Qingxiang's body, and fired a shot.

The Klaxosaurus was sent flying, its body damaged, its core exposed. The Larkia seized the opportunity, thrusting down with both spears simultaneously. After struggling for a while, the Klaxosaurus fell silent.

After dealing with the dragon, the communication between the larkspur and the golden finches was filled with the sound of squinting.

"What's the future like?" Ichigo asked.

However, at that moment, a round object suddenly fell from above. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a dragon!

"There was another one!" Goro exclaimed in surprise.

"No... wait a minute." Tai's voice was filled with fear. He subconsciously looked up and saw that his head was still falling.

One, two, four... they kept falling from above their heads. Everyone was astonished by the sheer number of Klaxosaurs.

"How many are there exactly?" I wondered.

"Let's retreat for now!" the lark said to the golden sparrow behind him, hoisting the celosia on its shoulder.

……

"Oh no! The release of magma energy has attracted a large number of Klaxosaurs!" Seventh Sister exclaimed in surprise.

"See? Why didn't you just let me go from the beginning?" Zero Two said, sitting on the steps with his legs crossed and his hands behind his head.

"you……"

Zero Two's lips curled into a slight smile. "Is that alright? All those kids will be killed."

Hearing that his comrade was going to be killed, Zero became nervous and said to Seven, "Please let me and Zero Two go to provide support!"

"No." Hatch's voice was like a bucket of cold water poured on Zero.

"Because you're not a proper stamen, you can't ride it," Hatch said.

Zero was somewhat stunned upon hearing Hatch's explanation. However, Zero Two didn't care about that. "Isn't this the time to talk about this? The troops here will be wiped out again." Zero Two stood up and lightly leaped in front of Seventh Sister.

"Let me and Darling go quickly!" Zero Two said, leaning close to Seventh Sister.

In response to Ling Er's words, Seventh Sister simply said, "I won't let you go."

The air seemed to freeze at that moment, and no one spoke.

"If Zero can't do it, why don't I go?" Man suddenly said.

"Mitsuru?" Ikuno looked at Mitsuru.

"Indeed, if we don't send Strelitzia now, they're all doomed. I'm the only one who can control the stamens here, so I'm the only one who can go, right?" Man said.

Seventh Sister explained to Man, "Strelitzia reginae isn't your average Franxx; the connection's not good..."

Before Seventh Sister could finish speaking, Man interrupted her, "It's alright. If you can manipulate Zero over there, how could I not?"

Seventh Sister thought for a moment and then asked Zero Two, "Can Zero Two ride with Man?"

Zero Two sighed deeply, "Are you not listening to me? I told you I wanted to ride with Darling."

Zero Two looked at Zero and said, "Darling thinks so too, right?"

Zero clenched his right hand tightly. "Zero Two, let's go with Man."

Hearing Zero's words, Zero Two was somewhat shocked. She countered, "Is that alright? I'm going to be traveling with other people."

"Please." Zero said this almost through gritted teeth. However, no one could see Zero's expression, so naturally they couldn't tell.

"Well, if that's what you say, Darling, I understand."

Seventh Sister led Zero Two to change into his combat uniform, while Zero stood aside looking at the floor.

Suddenly, Zero noticed something was wrong. Looking up, she saw everyone frozen in place, even the images on the screen were still. What was going on?

Just then, a boy with long silver-white hair, about the same age as Zero, appeared in front of Zero. The boy had his back to Zero, so Zero couldn't see his face.

"Who are you?" he asked without any warning.

"Is this really a good idea? If you persevere, your dream of riding the Strelitzia again with Zero Two might come true?" the boy said.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Zero asked again.

The boy turned around, and Zero finally saw his face. But upon seeing his appearance, Zero was shocked. This boy looked exactly like her!? How could this be!?

"Do you understand now? I am you," the boy said with a smile.

"Impossible, impossible, impossible, impossible!" Zero couldn't believe what she was seeing.

The boy raised his right hand, and Ling clearly saw the bracelet on his right hand. She subconsciously glanced at her own bracelet and found it to be exactly the same!

"Stop struggling, I am you. But don't worry, I won't do anything to you." The boy sat on the steps to the side, playing with the starry sky in his hands.

"But why did you let Man and Zero-Two ride the Strelitzia together? You clearly longed to ride the Strelitzia with Zero-Two again, so why were you willing to let this opportunity pass? You know, if you let this opportunity pass, there might not be another chance," the boy asked.

"What can I do?" Zero clenched her hands tightly, her voice full of resentment: "I'm not a proper stamen, and they can't possibly let me ride the bird of paradise."

"You are who you are. What do other people think of you? Don't you know the situation? They need the Strelitzia to get them out of this predicament. If the Strelitzia doesn't act, those people will die. Just now, Zero Two's attitude was very firm: no one but you. At this moment, you just need to stand firm in your position, and then you can ride the Strelitzia with Zero Two again."

"So what?" Zero asked.

"So what? Are you really that clueless or just plain stupid? So what if you even dared to ask? Let me tell you this: if you insist on this, Zero Two is just as stubborn. As long as they don't agree to you and Zero Two riding the Strelitzia together, then Strelitzia will never launch an attack. If Strelitzia doesn't launch an attack, then what will be the consequences?" the boy asked.

"Total annihilation," Zero said.

"Looks like you're not stupid after all. Do you think they would just sit and wait for the whole team to be wiped out in this situation? Wouldn't they have made an exception to let you and Zero Two ride the Strelitzia together in this situation?" Zero said.

"But, where are Kemei and the others?" Zero asked.

"Even if you had been forceful and insisted that you and Zero Two go on the ride, they still wouldn't have let you go. Strelitzia didn't actually attack, and the Strawberry you mentioned won't die either," the boy said.

"Why are you so sure? That's a dragon!" Zero said.

"Because I won't let anything happen to them. Although I'm only a consciousness-like being right now, I have a million ways to ensure their safety!" the boy said.

"Stop talking! Go back to where you came from," Zero said.

The boy shrugged, stood up, and said, "Alright then, if you need power, I can lend it to you." After saying that, the boy's body turned to dust and was blown away by the wind.

After the boy disappeared, everything returned to normal. Zero opened his mouth as if to say something, but it was too late. No matter what he said, it wouldn't change anything. He could only watch.

(End of this chapter)