Yet just as everyone was still immersed in the relief of survival and gratitude toward Cloud, an ear-piercing alarm—like a death knell—suddenly blared throughout the entire ship!
WOOOO—! WOOOO—! WOOOO—!
Rugal laughed—a laugh of despair, of arrogance, of madness.
"Think... you can kill me?"
"I, Rugal Bernstein... even in death... will exit the stage with the elegance befitting... a king!"
With his one remaining, mangled hand, he struggled to press a hidden red button on his wrist.
"I'll... be waiting for you all... in hell!"
"Let this Black Noah... become your watery grave!"
"Haha... HAHAHAHA—!!!"
Accompanying his deranged laughter, piercing alarms that made scalps crawl erupted throughout the aircraft carrier!
[Warning! Ship self-destruct sequence activated! Countdown: 60 seconds!]
A cold, emotionless electronic voice echoed across the entire deck.
Every surviving fighter, upon hearing this announcement, felt their post-survival joy freeze instantly, replaced by renewed despair!
The ship was going to self-destruct?!
That supremely arrogant man had activated the carrier's self-destruct mechanism with his dying breath!
He wanted everyone here to die with him!
"Holy shit! Run!"
Ryo was the first to react, grabbing Yuri and roaring: "Everyone! Jump overboard! Jump now!"
Chaos erupted across the deck once more!
Everyone poured their last reserves of strength into sprinting toward the carrier's edge, then without hesitation, dove into the cold, churning sea!
Mai clutched the unconscious Cloud in her arms, her eyes filled with resolve.
"Cloud... even if we die, I'm dying with you!"
She too prepared to jump.
But at that moment, a warm, large hand suddenly gripped her shoulder.
It was Kyo Kusanagi.
"Give him... to me."
He looked at Cloud in Mai's arms. In those flame-lit eyes burned unprecedented determination and the responsibility of an elder brother.
"I, Kyo Kusanagi, will not let my little brother die here!"
Kusanagi flames ignited at Kyo's fingertips—the Soul Fire of the Kusanagi clan—and he channeled every bit of it into Cloud's forehead.
Fortunately, Cloud possessed the complete Kusanagi bloodline. Nurtured by the Soul Fire, his eyes snapped open.
Cloud's body was utterly depleted. With Kyo's support, he struggled to his feet and sensed that the system within him was on the verge of collapse.
"System, how are you doing?" Despite the emergency unfolding around him, Cloud's mind was strangely calm.
[Host! This system is a real man too! To save your sorry life, I gave it everything I had. From now on, I need to sleep for a while! The system store exchange function will continue operating normally.]
[Host, grow stronger quickly! The stronger you become, the faster I'll awaken!]
[...3... 2... 1...]
The instant the Black Noah's cold self-destruct countdown reached zero—
KABOOOOM—!!!!!!
A massive mushroom cloud—rivaling a small nuclear explosion—erupted in brilliant orange at the heart of the blue Pacific!
The terrifying shockwave, carrying countless steel fragments and scorching air, swept outward in all directions like an enraged tsunami! Towering waves dozens of meters high surged across the ocean surface!
This floating throne that had once carried Rugal's mad ambitions, this steel tomb that had made countless fighters tremble in fear—in the echo of its master's deranged laughter, it was reduced to... nothing more than dust in the annals of history.
Meanwhile, several kilometers from the blast's epicenter...
A hovercraft hastily dispatched by Heidern's unit bobbed violently on the massive swells like a leaf in a storm.
The landing craft was packed with fighters who had just escaped death's door, their nerves still frayed.
They were all ragged and disheveled, but their faces wore expressions of grateful joy at having survived.
"We... we made it..."
"My god, that explosion... I thought I was dead for sure!"
"Thank God! Thank Colonel Heidern! Thank... Cloud!"
All eyes instinctively gathered at the center of the deck.
There, Cloud lay half-reclined on a makeshift stretcher, his face white as paper, his breath so weak he seemed ready to expire at any moment.
Mai Shiranui and Yuri Sakazaki hovered around him—one offering water, one wiping sweat—a scene that made Robert nearby grind his teeth in envy.
Just moments ago, in that critical instant—
It was Cloud who had forcibly drawn upon the last dregs of power within him, forming a barrier of golden flames that blocked the explosion's initial shockwave, buying Heidern's rescue team those precious few seconds.
Otherwise, at least half the people present would have been killed by the blast's aftershock.
In other words, Cloud had single-handedly saved everyone there.
He was, without question, a hero!
"Cough... cough cough..."
Cloud struggled to open his eyes. Seeing the beauties surrounding him, each crying as if attending a funeral, he squeezed out a smile uglier than a grimace.
"Hey... ladies, I'm not dead yet. What's with the funeral faces? Could you... at least leave me some dignity?"
The moment he spoke, it was that familiar irreverent tone.
"Hmph! Who's crying for you?!" Mai's pretty face flushed. Her words were defiant, but her hands grew even gentler.
"Cloud, how do you feel?" King asked with concern.
"Feel like... my body's been hollowed out." Cloud gave a bitter laugh.
He wasn't joking.
The price of being a "one-second real man" was simply too high.
Right now, his body felt like a set of building blocks that had been dismantled seven times over and barely pieced back together. There wasn't a single part of him that didn't hurt.
...
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