บท 140: The Battle of Teppelin 1

Jayr POV - Earth, Teppelin - 1007 AFA-SW

I parry Lordgenome punch aimed at my face and counterattack with a strong low kick with my right leg aiming at his shin that causes a small sonic boom clearly showing the speed and power behind it.

But Lordgenome is able to react and takes a quick step back to move out of my leg's range, then with a grin on his face, he yells, "Got you!" while he steps forward and prepares to throw another of his heavy punches that could easily wreck a mountain.

I put a lot more power than necessary in my kick because I already expected this reaction to my low kick and that is why I rebut with a grin, "Not yet!" as I take advantage of the centrifugal force to twist on my pivoting left leg and with a quick full spin I once again attack Lordgenome with a spinning high kick using the same right leg, something that takes Lordgenome by surprise who shouts, "You Bastard!" and forces him to cross his arms to block it.

And with a loud sound akin to an explosion, Lordgenome is sent flying against the wall of his personal training area, a place that he didn't use for a very long time as it is clear that his fighting skills are very rusty and his fighting style way too rough.

As Lordgenome crashes against the wall, I start to think back at everything that happened in this month, 'After that day, Lordgenome, Guame and I continued to roughly plan how to deal with the most pressing issues, like the incoming Battle of Teppelin, taking care of Cathedral Lazengann that took the moon's place, how to root out the virus carrying the Anti-Spiral Factor, and more important, how to bring the Beastmen and the Humans together. Of course, the most important thing is preparing to face the Anti-Spiral Race.'

This is why I and Lordgenome started to spar daily, because his years of decadence took a heavy toll on Lordgenome's fighting skill, while his body remains in its peak condition thanks to the biological stasis he granted on himself and Guame, the same can't be said about his skills who really took a dive, especially if you think that Lordgenome is a war veteran with more than a thousand years of experience.

He should be more than capable of keeping up with me when we are simply using martial arts, but he keeps falling for faints and is way too careless.

Looking at Lordgenome as he gets up and calmly walks toward me, I continue to think, 'Of course, those aren't the only things we did. We also finished upgrading Viral while telling him the whole truth, we even let him watch the movie, and to say that he was shocked is an understatement but he got over it and decided to continue his duty. Then Lordgenome and I took a page out of the Anti-Spiral's book and created a virus carrying a special gift, this virus will only infect the Beastmen and to make sure of that, and that it doesn't get out of control and cause a disaster, we heavily coded with each of the Beastmen unique DNA, something easy for Lordgenome as he is the one that created each one of them, so the virus will infect only them. What this virus does is very simple, this virus carries what we call the Spiral Factor, which will modify their DNA, completing them and granting the Beastmen the ability to wield Spiral Power and more important the capacity to naturally reproduce while removing the need to go into stasis.'

Sure it took a lot of time to correctly code the virus, but that was because we were very careful to not cause a mess, as if Resident Evil, Prototype, The Walking Dead, and other such media plus my experience as a medic taught me something is that you don't fuck around with viruses, you have to be very careful about what you make, that is why we also coded a kill switch into it, 'Anyway, if everything else fails and the virus still causes some problems I will simply erase it from existence with my Spiral Cosmo.'

I'm roused from my thoughts by Lordgenome's voice as he says, "Have I grown so weak that you can even let your mind wander so carelessly...?"

I smirk at him and reply, "To be honest... Yes. Compared to my fellow Saint's mastery of martial arts. Yours falls quite a bit short. But don't take it as an insult, all Saints are masters of combat that trained from a very young age to be the very best warriors in the world or die trying. Hell among them, there are some that can still easily kick my ass if we simply use martial arts and that with me taking advantage of my superior physical body."

Hearing that, Lordgenome chuckles and says, "Damn, that is some scary folk. In this month that we sparred, I felt my fighting skills constantly coming back to their peak, and a week ago they even started improving, but no matter what, I can't seem to keep up with you..."

I smile back and say, "You are a highly skilled fighter in your own right, but you rely too much on brute strength, resilience, and tenacity to overpower your opponents, your whole fighting style is centered on the enhancing effect of Spiral Power, on pure skill you are still way behind the true masters. Moreover, you are clearly specialized in fighting with the Gunmen using your piloting skill..."

Then I once more take the Pankration fighting stance and say, "Now, less talking and more fighting..." and we once again start our spar, this time, I focus more on the grappling aspect of my favorite martial art, as I start to throw Lordgenome on the ground and then start to apply various submission maneuvers from the classic stranglehold to applying pressure to his joints with other holds and let's just say that I also ended up breaking a few of his bones and had to use Restoration Magic to quickly fix him.

After our daily spar, Lordgenome reports, "My spies told me that the Dai-Gurren Brigade is quickly approaching Teppelin, they will be there in about 6 days..."

Then with a grin, he adds, "Now, I'll have to once more enter my evil Spiral King persona and have a meeting with my generals about how to face them. He, He. It's finally time, I can't wait any longer."

Guame POV - Earth, Teppelin - 1007 AFA-SW

I'm here once again in the throne room of the capital Teppelin together with my fellow general Cytomander, the only member of the Big Four under the Spiral King that is still alive and one the most distasteful among all of Lordgenome's creations.

But he isn't the only one here, I can clearly see the figure of Viral's Gunmen, Enkidu, kneeling behind Lordgenome's throne, piloted by Viral who has also been told the whole truth about the situation and is now guarding his king ready to take part in this performance, the first among Lordgenome's creation to receive the ability to naturally reproduce and thus to wield Spiral Power, in fact, he is the second complete Beastmen to ever exist.

We are listening to Lordgenome who is sitting on his throne and is back into his Spiral King persona, but different from usual, this time his harem isn't at his side, as he looks clearly focused on what is going on, very different from the attitude he had until now.

Seeing him like that, I force the grin forming on my face back keeping it steeled, but at the same time, I can't help but think, 'Yes, he is truly back! This is the real Lordgenome. Gone is that pale imitation that took his place when he was drunk in despair. The warrior, the leader, the man I always had at my side... my best friend is finally truly back! How much I longed for this moment to come...'

Lordgenome starts the audience by narrating that very old tale, "God made the world in seven days. On the sixth day, he created humans."

The young Cytomander for once recognizes what Lordgenome is citing and exclaims in surprise, "That's..." and let his words linger a little as he clearly forgot the name with that damned bird brain of his sure most of the birds are smart, but not the flamingos, and I don't know why Lordgenome put quite a lot of flamingo DNA when he created Cytomander, most probably is because he was simply bored at the time.

And so I fulfill my role and continue in his place, "The five great scriptures." then I say, "And those humans will arrive here in six days. Fitting, don't you think?" while thinking, '...As if someone carefully planned for such a thing to happen and discretely made sure that everything is ready by moving away the more peaceful and honorable members of our race while leaving behind only the most belligerent and the scum that taint the Beastmen's name.'

Cytomander chuckles and says, "Interesting. In that case, please leave this duty to me." then he looks at me and adds, "I'll have Dai-Ganten lead the way."

I nod and simply reply with, "Fine." then Cytomande bows to Lordgenome and uses his power over the air to disappear like a gust of wind leaving Lordgenome and I apparently alone.

I let out a sigh and say, "A certain 200 something years old young kid seems to be treating this like it's an entertaining game."

Then the voice of the young warrior named Jayr is heard as he says, "Yeah it is truly baffling... despise having his ass kicked by them just a month or so ago, he is still underestimating them..."

At the same time, his figure appears beside me, it looks like he just teleported but the truth is that since the beginning of the audience, he always stood between me and Cytomander, he simply made it so that we would be totally unable to perceive his presence, just another one of his "godly powers".

I look at the calm and handsome young man and think, 'I'm truly grateful for what he did. He was able to do something I was unable to accomplish for a thousand years, he brought hope to Lordgenome and reignited his will to fight and move forward. But despite his calm nature and good intention, I also admit that he truly is a very scary opponent to have. Not only his apparent limitless power but also his very sharp mind are things that have to be both respected and feared.'

My thoughts are interrupted by Lordgenome's voice as he says, "Never mind him... Cytomander will simply complete his duty and be the perfect whetstone to sharpen the blade of the Dai-Gurren Brigade..."

Then with a smile, he mutters, "I'm anxious for the first time in a very long time... For way too long I waited for the doors of a brighter future to open... finally, I can see them in front of me. Now we just have to reach for them and push them open!"

Jayr POV - Earth, Teppelin - 1007 AFA-SW

After Guame and Cytomander are gone, I calmly sit on a chair nearby Lordgenome's throne, and looking in his direction, I ask, "Do you want to see what is happening out there?"

And as the six drill girls of his harem come and sit beside him, a grin forms on Lordgenome's face as he replies, "Hell yeah!"

Hearing his reply, I use some Spiral Power to create the usual projection that shows all the things that I see and feel.

Quickly the projection shows the images of the outside, where the battle begins with Dai-Gunten and its fleet approaching the grounded Dai-Gurren, and once close enough it shoots a volley of missiles at the grounded fortress.

Meanwhile, Leeron and Leyte barely manage to activate the levisphere in time to avoid Dai-Gunten's first salvo of missiles, at the same time, the Dai-Gurren return fire but it fails to hit any of Cytomander's flying soldiers.

At this point, Dayakka orders the deployment of their own Gunmen, which are now equipped with flight engines of their own, including, to Kittan's shock, Kiyal, and Kiyoh.

Meanwhile, seeing the scene of Kittan bickering with his sister, Lordgenome let out a sigh and says, "This Kittan and the one in the movie are quite similar, of course the one I saw was more mature, but it is true that he is also one of the major driving forces behind the Dai-Gurren Brigade."

At the same time, on the projection, the Gunmen of the Dai-Gurren Brigade are quickly launched one after the other while, the Gurren Lagann, once more piloted by Simon and an excited Kamina, quickly set off after them and with its greater speed, it overtake all of them and reach the front of their formation.

With Gurren Lagann leading the charge, Simon yells, "Go! Gunmen Squad, move out!" followed by Kamina who shouts, "Good, Simon! Let's show them the might of the full power Gurren Lagann!"

And Kittan tells them, "Heh. With you two back together this feels almost like the good ol' times! Listen up. We'll take care of the small fry so you can fight the battleship!" before combining his Gunman with Kiyal's and Kiyoh's own units to lead the charge against the bombers.

As both sides open fire, a legion of ground forces is approaching, led by Guame's Dai-Gundo, and focusing on him, the image of him sitting on the command chair with his arms crossed as he mutters, "Have a taste of my Gunmen artillery!"

Seeing him like that, I can't help but comment with a grin, "Look at Guame, he even took the same pose you use when you pilot Lazengann and he is barely hiding his grin... He is truly enjoying himself..."

Hearing that, Lordgenome chuckles and says, "Heh. He stood by my side way before the First Anti-Spiral War. We went through a hell lot together, and I wasn't the only one drowning in despair. Now that we finally see the hope we searched for so long, it is natural that let out some steam..."

Meanwhile, under his command, the ground force Gunmen start to fire a barrage at the floating Dai-Gurren

With Dai-Gurren getting pummeled from below, Simon orders the rest of Team Dai-Gurren to take out Guame's army while Gurren Lagann handles Cytomander's forces.

Kittan protests, "Don't fool around! Are you trying to look cool all by yourself!?"

Hearing that, Simon explains, "If Dai-Gurren goes down now, we won't be able to take on that freaking' huge Teppelin!" making Kittan suggest, "In that case, we'll split the Gunme squad..." but Kamina quickly stops him and says, "Baaka! If we divide our forces we will lose all chances of victory! Believe in Simon! Believe in me! Believe in the Dai-Gurren Brigade!! We can do this, guys!!"

With their fighting spirit roused and seeing the logic behind Simon's decision, Kittan leads the rest of the Gunmen back to Dai-Gurren, leaving Gurren Lagann alone against hundreds of enemies.

Seeing that Gurren Lagann is alone now, Cytomander laughs at the seemingly pathetic opposition, "Ha, ha, ha. How foolish. What can you do all by yourself? Naked apes!"

But Simon powers up Gurren Lagann, using hordes of tiny drills as missiles to quickly obliterate the Gunmen swarming towards them.

Seeing his front line so quickly destroyed, the arrogant General seemingly cracks, cackling insanely and claiming, "Interesting, human!".

I look at Lordgenome and while pointing at the crazed Cytomander, I ask, "Did you drop him as a kid or something?" but Lordgenome frowns as he thinks deeply for a few moments then he says, "I don't remember well what happened when I was building his DNA sequence... I was more focused on getting a triple blowjob by some of my girls... But now that I seriously think about I may have inputted some peyote cactus DNA by mistake that gave his blood some similar proprieties..."

Hearing that I exclaim in disbelief, "Wait! Are you telling me that Cytomander's blood has the same proprieties of a psychoactive drug and he is constantly under its effect!?"

Lordgenome then awkwardly coughs and focuses back on the projection where Kamina tells Simon to pace himself, and as Simon takes a short break, Kamina deals with a massive barrage of missiles from Dai-Gunten.

As he calmly maneuvers through the hailstorm of explosions, Cytomander launches a particularly large projectile from his aircraft carrier, but under Kamina's control, Gurren Lagann easily destroys it by shooting a drill at it and also at the second one that was launched shortly after, disabling them both.

With most of his artillery wasted, Cytomander challenges the heroes from his personal Gunman, Shuzack, "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Not bad, human... but there's more! Cytomander-sama's Shuzack is here!"

And taking advantage of the fact that Simon and Kamina are focusing on him, four of Cytomander's soldiers trap Gurren Lagann's limbs, immobilizing them.

As the cackling General approaches his helpless foe, Dai-Gurren opens fire, but Cytomander's air force forms a living shield in front of Dai-Gurren, blocking the Dai-Gun's artillery.

With Simon's Spiral Power depleted, their allies occupied, and Shuzack's stomach-mounted buzzsaw descending on them, it looks grim for Simon and Kamina, but Kamina finally unleashes his Spiral Power and breaks free of the restraints, and at the same time, Shuzack is suddenly pummeled by cannon fire.

Angrily asking where his shield went, Cytomander is informed that the shots weren't from one ship.

To everyone's shock, an entire force of Gunmen approach from the east, all flying the flag of Team Dai-Gurren, and seeing that, Kamina laughs loudly and shouts, "Ha, ha, ha. What did I tell you guys!! Believe in the Dai-Gurren Brigade's power!!"

Meanwhile, from the newcomer force of Gunmen, a man's voice can be heard, "Hey, can you hear me? Soldier of the Gurren Brigade! We saw the images projected in the sky! I'm Bachou, from the southern village of Dokkanai!" and soon after another one introduces itself, "We're from the neighboring village of Hatedai! Looking forward to workin' with you!" and another one, "I'm Shoubou, also from the east. We managed to take out an enemy battleship."

Then as Yoko wonders if they truly are reinforcement, Bachou once more speak ups, "You're trying to take down that big fella up there, right? All cannons, open fire!" and under his command the reinforcement army opens fire with everything they have.

And as these reinforcements start pounding away at Cytomander's battalion, while Team Dai-Gurren, not to be outdone, continues destroying all of Guame's ground units.

With the tide of battle turning against him, and Dai-Gunten taking serious damage, a nearly-manic Cytomander is forced to transform the Shuzack.

Unfortunately for him, it's too little, too late, because the Dai-Gurren proceeds to smack right into him and then crash into the Dai-Gunten, ripping it apart and Shuzack and Cytomander are incinerated in a ferocious explosion, killing the general.

Seeing that, I comment, "And so the stoned general is gone... Really how could you give that rank to someone like him..." but Lordgenome defend himself, "I created him with that position in mind, sure, I got distracted a little and as result, he had a few issues, but he still was one of the strongest Beastmen..."

Meanwhile, the fireball that was the Dai-Gunten falls right towards Guame's flagship, and the armadillo Beastman mocks Cytomander as a fool before the Dai-Gundo is engulfed in a massive explosion.

At the same time, the drill girls loudly gasp showing their concern for their man's best friend, but Lordgenome quickly calms them by saying, "Don't worry, such a simple thing won't be able to harm Guame's Dai-Gundo, it has the strongest and thickest armor among all the Dai-Guns and can take quite a punishment..."

Then I add, "Moreover, if Guame is truly in danger I will simply teleport him to safety, and if he is injured, I can also easily heal him... so you don't have to worry about him."

Back to the projection, the humans loudly cheer sure of their victory, and Simon prepares to move on Teppelin, but Kinon warns them that the battle isn't over yet.

And as expected, the Dai-Gundo emerges from the explosion, completely unharmed.

But just as the Dai-Gurren's crew wonders how they can damage it, the massive mobile fortress heads toward Teppelin, and to everyone's shock, starts spinning under the capital, surrounding it in a pink and purple tornado of energy.

As the human forces get close to it, they are blown around by enormous wind forces originating from the murderous merry-go-round.

Leeron realizes that the Dai-Gundo combined with Teppelin to generate an energy wall, meaning that if they don't stop the Dai-Gundo, they can't get near the capital.

Their new human allies, led by Bachon, start charging toward this energy wall and getting themselves destroyed, and the Dai-Gurren crew can't do anything because the twister in front of them is preventing communication.

Seeing that, a frown form on Lordgenome's face as he mutter, "Huh... How can they be stopped by something so simple?" but I quickly correct him, "It could be simple for us. But this is still the first time that they face a barrier of Spiral Power, moreover, one enhanced by the whole capital. Its power is quite strong. And more important, Simon and Kamina didn't make their move yet."

Soon, an image of Nia suddenly appears in front of everyone, and she yells for them to stop.

Revealed to be using a projector on Dai-Gurren's deck, Nia introduces herself and explains, "Greetings everyone. I am the Gurren Brigade's chef, Nia. As you can see, Teppelin is currently blocked by a tornado of light. If we don't do something about it, everyone will be smashed, like the people just now. Please wait patiently for just a moment. The tornado will stop soon. Simon will stop it for you. Because Simon's drill... is one that pierces the heavens!"

As she says this, Nia also takes the iconic pose with her finger pointing at the sky, and at the same time, Kinon realizes that Gurren Lagann is nowhere to be seen.

In fact, Simon and Kamina are underground, digging towards the Dai-Gundo and emerging directly beneath the massive Dai-Gun, Gurren Lagann attempts to drill up through the Dai-Gundo but only succeeds in lifting up the massive mecha.

As Simon implores Gurren Lagann for more power, Guame orders the reverse thrusters to be fired, and Dai-Gundo slams into the ground with Gurren Lagann beneath it.

Seeing that, Yoko and the others are aghast, afraid that the Gurren Lagann was crushed, and Guame snidely commends the humans' bravery.

As he gloats, however, his minions detect a whirring below them - not only is Simon still alive, he's actually grateful, the impact allowed the tip of his drill to pierce through the bottom of the Dai-Gundo.

Renewing his attack, Simon uses the drill to reverse the direction the Dai-Gundo is spinning in, also drilling through the Dai-Gundo, and almost impaling Guame through the chest but just as it is about to happen, I quickly teleport Guame to my side, and at the same time, the Dai-Gundo explodes, dispelling the wall around Teppelin.

At the same time, a somewhat dizzy Guame says, "T-Thank you... for a moment I thought I was a goner..." seeing that, Lordgenome smirks and says, "Well, well, it looks like they can do it after all... Now it's time to start the final act of the Battle of Teppelin. The part where the heroes of the Dai-Gurren Brigade face off against the tyrannical Spiral King!"

Meanwhile, because of the destruction of the Spiral Wall, the structures covering the surface of the core of the capital start to shed themselves and fall on the ground revealing the true face of the Beastmen capital, the enormous Space Gunmen Dekabutsu.

Seeing the towers that make up the majority of the capital falling on the ground and collapsing, I let out a sigh of relief while thinking, 'Luckily we evacuated the capital before the battle of all non-combatant and the most honorable Beastman... If not the loss of life could have been catastrophic...'

Then I look at Lordgenome and as I pick up Guame with my Telekinesis, I say, "Well... It's time for us to hide from the gaze of others. Have fun kicking your son-in-law's ass."

Lordgenome looks back at me and with a grin he says, "Trust me... I will!"