In the data gathered by the Earth Alliance and ZAFT regarding the Unicorn, certain video logs showed a type of flame erupting from the machine's body.
These flames caused no obvious physical damage. Even back in Orb, when the red flames emanating from the Jesta struck the ground directly, there were no traces of burning or scorching.
Coupled with the appearance of red and yellow flames, the analysis teams on both sides once concluded that these "flames" were merely phantom particles dispersed by the Unicorn when it entered a high-performance mode—forming something that looked like fire but possessed no actual offensive capability, serving as mere visual flair.
However, Rau Le Creuset and Gilbert Durandal did not share this view. They believed these "flames," with their differing light effects, surely possessed unique characteristics.
Now, although it was a blue flame never seen before, Creuset was witnessing the true power of these "flames" clinging to the Unicorn at point-blank range.
Just moments ago, four mechanical arms had clamped the Unicorn in place, rendering it immobile. But as the blue flames ignited, the Unicorn suddenly exerted force, generating a powerful repulsive surge that forcibly threw the four massive arms off its body.
The legs, the torso, the hands, the armaments... until finally the head. The brilliant blue, previously hidden beneath the pure white armor, manifested from the psycho-frame across the entire machine. It gave the snowy-white unit a sense of divine holiness.
The flames swirled around the Unicorn like rising pyrotechnics. The machine soared upward, breaking free from the pincer attack of the ZAFT unit and the Cal-re.A.
"So fast... even faster than in its yellow state?"
Watching the Unicorn vanish in an instant, leaving only a streak of light in this sector of space, even Creuset froze instinctively for a split second.
But soon, a piercing alarm blared in his cockpit. On the radar, a single dot was moving at extreme speed, tracing a blurred afterimage across the tactical display.
Creuset frowned, turning his gaze toward the Unicorn's direction.
Wrapped in blue flames, the Unicorn was charging toward the ZAFT unit with terrifying velocity.
Creuset instinctively raised one of the ZAFT unit's arms, the five thick fingers glowing with gathering energy.
But before the beams could fire, the Unicorn arrived beneath the ZAFT unit's arm. The beam saber on its left forearm deployed; the machine circled the extended arm once, slicing it off in a clean, perfectly smooth cut.
Then, the Unicorn flashed across the front of the ZAFT unit. The beam saber carved a massive rent through the beam shield generator, directly destroying the Providence-derived shielding system.
"To still possess such combat power even after losing its main weapons?"
Though the "God" unit—the Providence-derived ZAFT machine—had nearly been struck by the beam saber, Creuset remained calm.
The more critical the moment, the more one must remain composed. An MS pilot who falls into panic is merely a succulent piece of meat in the enemy's eyes.
Watching the Unicorn pull an acute-angled turn in the distance—a maneuver impossible for a normal human, essentially snapping back on its own path—and charge at him again, even Creuset couldn't help but scowl.
The distance was too short. Given the Unicorn's speed, there was no time to charge the beam cannons now.
Thinking quickly, Creuset maneuvered the remaining four arms to fan out, fingers pointing at the incoming Unicorn, while the main hand clenched into a fist and swung a heavy punch at the machine.
Then, he witnessed something incomprehensible.
Faced with the ZAFT unit's incoming fist, Roz did not dodge. Instead, he maneuvered the Unicorn to throw a punch of its own.
Cloaked in blue flames, it felt as if the physical laws of the surrounding space had been altered. Despite the Unicorn's fist being several times smaller than that of the ZAFT unit, it was the ZAFT unit's fist that suffered defeat.
Under the Unicorn's strike, the ZAFT unit's massive fist reacted as if it had sustained a colossal impact. The PS Armor failed instantly; the entire fist and the attached arm were crushed and pulverized, exploding into a cloud of drifting parts.
The Unicorn did not stop for a second, passing through the debris to continue its assault on the ZAFT unit.
The four secondary arms attempted to replicate the earlier capture of the Unicorn. They canceled their beam cannon charging and converged to trap the machine from four directions.
Seeing this, Roz unhesitatingly maneuvered the Unicorn to shift its heading slightly, delivering a sweeping roundhouse kick from right to left against the arm approaching from the flank.
Without a doubt, the arms of the ZAFT unit were powerless against the kick. Before the PS Armor could even take effect, they were shattered into scrap and wreckage by the colossal impact.
"I see... these flames carry a powerful physical concussive force, then?"
Watching the ZAFT unit's fist once again have its PS Armor overloaded and easily crushed by the Unicorn, Creuset seemed to have grasped a sliver of the truth behind these blue flames.
"It isn't a wide-scale miracle like in the past, but a localized miracle acting upon itself?!"
The remaining three arms continued to lash out at the Unicorn. The ZAFT unit's shoulder armor deployed, and Creuset, maneuvering the Providence-derived unit, pulled out two shoulder-mounted beam rifles resembling bazookas and opened fire.
Two Armed Armor DE units detached from the backpack's mechanical arms and flew in front of the Unicorn, deploying crystal-like "Shields of Artemis" that blocked both of the Providence's attacks.
Simultaneously, Roz was far from idle. He first steered the Unicorn to follow the momentum of the initial sweep, delivering a spinning heel kick that shattered the ZAFT unit's right-side arm.
Clenching the right fist, he swung toward the upper left, pounding another arm into scrap metal, then shifted from a fist to a palm strike—cutting through the final arm attacking from the upper right as if his hand were a blade.
At this point, the ZAFT unit had lost all its secondary arms, leaving only the main Providence body.
The blue flames wreathed around the Unicorn's fist grew increasingly intense, as if the energy within were about to erupt.
Witnessing this, Creuset continued to fire the Providence's weapons relentlessly, but every beam was intercepted by the beam shields deployed by the Armed Armor DEs.
As the Unicorn's fist drew closer, Creuset unhesitatingly pressed a button at his side and slammed down on the pedals.
The ZAFT unit rapidly disengaged its locks from the Providence. The Providence's thrusters erupted with violent flames, propelling the machine away from the ZAFT carrier unit just a second before the Unicorn's fist arrived.
The fist, cloaked in fierce blue flames and carrying the combined will of Roz and the Machine Spirit Girl, slammed into the ZAFT unit.
In a single instant, under the gaze of Creuset and Orphee—who was watching from the sidelines as he found no opening to intervene—the massive MA was shattered by the Unicorn's punch. Components, wreckage, and fragments of all sizes burst and scattered into the cosmos like a firework.
Watching this, Creuset said nothing. He maneuvered the beam rifles in both hands to continue firing at the Unicorn.
One Armed Armor DE deployed its beam shield and floated before the Unicorn, effortlessly blocking the high-energy beams from the Providence. Meanwhile, the other Armed Armor DE aimed its top particle cannon at the Providence and fired three blue particle bursts in rapid succession.
However, Creuset's piloting skills were not for show. He maneuvered the Providence to evade two of the particle bursts, but the third hit the high-energy beam rifle in the Providence's left hand.
Creuset discarded the exploding beam rifle without hesitation and retreated to the vicinity of the Cal-re.A.
As the high-energy beam rifle detonated, the two Armed Armor DEs returned to their positions behind the Unicorn.
Gazing at the Providence and the Cal-re.A facing him in a standoff, Roz flexed his fingers slightly.
The battlefield in the distance remained a scene of chaos, making this temporarily silent sector of space feel utterly out of place.
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