Chapter 2401: Inexorable

The emergence of fifteen expert candidates came as a very welcome surprise to Ves. Some of the figures he had long marked out as promising had finally taken the critical and most difficult step of realizing some of their spiritual potential!

For a long time, Ves was completely clueless about what allowed regular mech pilots to become expert candidates.

Mech pilots with spiritual potential were fairly rare, but there were plenty of them in the Larkinson Clan. Part of this is due to the high recruitment standards.

After all, those with spiritual potential usually enjoyed some modest advantages in piloting mechs. Many people interpreted this as an aspect of talent. Those with talent enjoyed greater resources and attention, which also prompted them to put more effort in their training in order to meet the expectations of their peers and teachers.

undefinedIn prior months, the Larkinsons recruited quite a good amount of these talented mech pilots. Yet so far, none of them had succeeded in breaking through the critical barrier to expert candidate.

As far as Ves was concerned, this hurdle was as pivotal and arduous to overcome as the jump from Apprentice Mech Designer to Journeyman Mech Designer.

It was for this reason that Ves was surprised that not only the Ingvar siblings, but plenty of other Larkinsons broke through!

He noted that a fair amount of the new expert candidates piloted the Bright Warriors he had recently enhanced. Not all of them were 100 or 75 percent saturated. In fact, the expert candidates from the other mech forces such as the Sentinels piloted commercial mechs that Ves had nothing to do with! These expert candidates broke through without the help of LMC mechs!

This caused Ves to make some guesses. Piloting spiritually-enhanced mechs clearly helped, but they were not a critical necessity. Certainly, the astounding battle that involved multiple overpowering god-like entities must have certainly pushed them over the edge, but getting fifteen new expert candidates all at once seemed a bit too exaggerated.

Ves speculated that there was another factor that eased their breakthroughs. Something that applied to all of them, not just the mech pilots of the Bright Warrior model.

His eyes snapped to the huge but opaque vortex spinning lazily throughout space. This damn vortex was an enduring mystery of the Nyxian Gap and something that might even be the cause of the spatial warping.

Could bringing the imaginary realm closer to the material realm be the primary reason why so many mech pilots advanced to expert candidate?

Was the main reason why most spiritually-active pilots never found their opportunities to advance because they weren't in the right environment?

Aside from stimulating their potential through life-and-death battles, perhaps a better and safer way to help them advance was to bring them to areas where the imaginary and the real overlapped with each other!

Of course, that was easier said than done. The Nyxian Gap was an abnormal region where the imaginary realm was already pressed to the material realm. In civilized space, the two realms were more strictly divided, as they should be. Anomalies almost never took place in normal space.

At this time, the mechs piloted by the newly-advanced expert candidates exchanged their first blows against the dark god known as the Inexorable One!

The ranged mechs had already veered away and were firing their laser rifles at the giant grey bird with coordinated attacks. Hot laser beams struck the head of the Inexorable One.

"Aim for the eyes!" Captain Casella Ingvar commanded. "It might not do anything to this huge monster, but it will give us an easy way to concentrate our firepower!"

Usual ranged attacks did nothing to the materialized spiritual body of the dark god. Not even the enriched nuclear missiles launched by the Bright Warriors inflicted any serious damage on the giant bird.

This was different! Though the laser beams fired by the handful of mechs seemed weak, each of them were empowered by resonance. This gave the attacks some bite, just enough to inflict some real wounds on the dark god.

One mech in particular caused Inexorable One a fair amount of grief. The resonance infused in the beam caused it to darken to an extent.

These less eye-catching dark red beams did not light up the surrounding space as much as the other attacks, but they pierced deeper into the dark god's spiritual body.

Not only that, the insidious attacks also contained a corrosive element, causing the wounds to grow more severe.

The eyeballs of the Inexorable One were taking quite a beating!

The Inexorable One intimidatingly spread her wings and released a sharp cry! Though the shrill spiritual waves buffeted the incoming mechs with violent oscillations, the resonance shields produced by forced resonance provided them with adequate protection!

"Cry all you want, you overgrown chicken! We Larkinsons shall never falter!" Imon Ingvar roared as his swordsman Bright Warrior was the first to arrive!

With a sweep of his mech's bright, glowing sword, his mech struck the left wing of the Inexorable One. His blade had barely cut into a giant feather before a small but intense explosion rocked the wound!

Though Imon briefly wondered where the explosion came from, he was too caught up in the struggle to pause. His Bright Warrior agilely moved back as the huge wing attempted to slap his machine aside!

Though the Inexorable One tried to distance herself from the annoying mechs, the melee mechs constantly assaulted her wings. Empowered by forced resonance, the damage output of these mechs had reached a level where the wings were steadily taking more and more damage.

The Inexorable One released another angry shriek! She flapped her wings regardless of the mechs assaulting them. At the cost of incurring some damage, she managed to free her wings long enough to flap them in a peculiar way.

A large amount of vortices emerged around her! The temporarily-empowered mechs all got caught in them. The resonance shields did their best to shield the mechs from these traps, but none of them possessed Venerable Tusa's ability to ignore them outright!

Only Imon Ingvar managed to free his mech. His bright golden resonance shield burned like a star. The spiritual vortex that trapped his Bright Warrior steadily weakened until the mech finally came free.

"Hah! Your tricks don't—URK!"

His mech got caught in yet another vortex. While his shield slowly caused it to burn, it took too long for his mech to regain its freedom!

In the meantime, the Inexorable One managed to slip away. After she finally managed to gain some distance, a rain of empowered laser beams kept hitting her eyes.

Her mounting rage caused her to direct her ire at the ranged mechs.

Perhaps sensing the challenge in the Inexorable One's stare, Casella Ingvar abruptly stopped her fire. "Careful, the big bird is targeting us! Spread out and don't get hit!"

The ranged mechs hastily split up from each other, but that did not stop the Inexorable One from flapping her wings and darting forward!

With a vengeful shriek, the Inexorable One raised her talons forward and caught an unlikely Vandal ranged mech in her grasp!

"No! Eject!"

"I can't!"

After catching her prey, the Inexorable One increased the force applied by her feet. Her sharp talons pierced through the weakening resonance shield of the trapped mech.

As soon as the resonance shield finally popped, the talons cruelly sliced through the mech, instantly slicing it into pieces!

Casella and every other expert candidate momentarily hitched their breaths.

A new expert candidate of the Larkinson Clan had died just a short time after breaking through!

The ranged mech the Vandal expert candidate piloted was just an outdated military mech. Its defensive parameters were not much different from regular third-class mechs. Such low defense was completely useless against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent.

Buoyed by her success, the Inexorable One repeated her attack. She swooped in on another ranged mech and caught it with her talents! The Living Sentinel's resonance shield lasted even shorter than the last one. With a powerful thrust of her beak, the dark impaled the cockpit of the fragile mech and instantly crushed the body of yet another valuable expert candidate!

"Damnit, we need the help of our melee mechs! Help them get rid of the vortices!"

The ranged mechs no longer focused their fire on the Inexorable One and shot at the traps keeping the melee specialists in place. The melee mechs for their part actively attacked the vortices as well, allowing them to get free a bit faster.

Imon Ingvar was the first of the batch to get free. His mech bravely flew forward like a bright golden comet.

"Your opponent is me, you damn bird!"

"Imon! Wait!" Casella called out.

Her brother did not listen to her words. To her, he was acting foolhardy again. Normally, that wasn't much of a problem if the only enemies he faced were pirates, but this time they were fighting against something greater!

The violent approach of Imon Ingvar's mech quickly attracted the big bird's attention. The Inexorable One gave up chasing after another ranged mech and instead swooped in the direction of her latest challenger!

"Help him! Shoot the bird's legs!"

Powerful laser beams raked the bird's legs, but the attacks didn't cause enough damage to dissuade the Inexorable One from going through with her attack.

As the dark god and glowing mech clashed, Imon managed to chop into one of his opponent's feet! A bright explosion exacerbated the damage and crippled the limb for a moment!

Unfortunately for him, the other talon managed to grasp and lock his mech into place. The Inexorable One already began to apply a lot of force. Imon screamed as his forced resonance rapidly faded.

"Imon!"

Casella Ingvar grew more desperate and poured more power into her attacks. Her crude methods did indeed result in greater damage to the Inexorable One's leg, but her forced resonance faded even faster!

With a cruel glint in its damaged but regenerating eyes, the Inexorable One crushed the mech she grasped with her foot!

While her talons managed to dig into the mech, they failed to slice the mech into pieces! A Bright Warrior was vastly more resilient than a third-class mech. Though the mech was slowly being compressed, the cockpit and some of the internals still remained intact.

Seeing that her grip failed to crush the golden mech, the Inexorable One reared her head back as if she was about to peck it with a single, crushing blow.

"LET MY BROTHER GO!"

In desperation, Casella exceeded the safety limits of her mech's laser rifle. She poured all of her will and urgency into the attack.

As soon as she pulled the trigger, a dark beam sliced across space and impacted the Inexorable One's damaged leg!

The powerful attack not only inflicted more damage upon impact, but also corroded and froze a modest portion of the spiritual flesh around the wound. The damage quickly grew severe enough for the limb to snap!

Even though Casella felt more tired than ever, she smiled as she saw a fellow Bright Warrior mech picking up the damaged wreck of her brother mech.

The fight wasn't over yet, though. Angry at the loss of her leg, the Inexorable One attempted to regenerate the limb, only to be stopped by the dark corrosive energy exacerbating her wound.

Seeing that these annoying mechs had dealt more damage than they ought to, the grey bird furiously flapped her wings and attacked another glowing Bright Warrior mech with her beak!

The first peck dimmed its resonance shield.

The second peck popped the resonance shield entirely.

The next pecks after that rapidly caused the chest of the mech to cave in. Just a few seconds later, the Inexorable One's pointed beak rose with a smidgen of blood marring its tip.

It had not taken long for the dark god to fell another promising expert candidate. She was truly inexorable!

Chapter 2402: Discord

The Inexorable One's slaughter underscored the might of a dark god. Regular expert pilots were not strong enough to contend against an existence of her caliber!

Ves froze in his chair as he witnessed the fall of several expert candidates in quick succession. These lucky Larkinson mech pilots had received the opportunity of their lives in this battle, yet they barely had a taste of their power before the cruel grey bird snuffed out their lives as if they were nothing but insects!

Such an outcome was intolerable to him. How could he let this malicious Nyxian entity toy his ill-prepared expert candidates to death?

The problem was that he no longer had any moves to make. The Penitent Sisters that previously swept the pirate mechs had all exhausted themselves. Once their connections to the battle network faded, the energy projection of the Superior Mother had faded away.

undefinedThe same went for the Swordmaidens. Just like the other recently-advanced expert pilots, Commander Dise was no longer able to sustain her elevated state. Respa, her mind sword, shut off its battle network, causing the Swordmaiden mechs to fall out of their battle formation.

Though the mech pilots still wanted to fight, the overwhelming pressure emanated by the dark gods suppressed them to the point where many of them lost consciousness!

Both pirate mechs and Larkinson mechs drifted aimlessly in space. It was no different for most of the starships. Even the powerful pirate destroyers had gone silent despite not suffering any powerful attacks!

All of these incidents reinforced the notion that only gods were qualified to take part in this battle.

Of all the Larkinsons currently trying to defeat the dark gods, the newly ascended expert candidates were by far the weakest participants!

Their breakthroughs temporarily gave them the power of an expert pilot, but this outburst was fleeting and temporary.

In some cases, their mechs couldn't handle the increased stress and cracked after their pilots pushed them too hard.

In other cases, the attacks of the Inexorable One caused the expert candidates to rapidly deplete their shallow reserve of energy. Their force of will may be strong, but without an abundant reservoir of energy, they weren't able to sustain their state of forced resonance.

If this battle went on for a few more minutes, his clan would lose all of the expert candidates!

Ves rapidly thought. What could he do? He suddenly turned his attention to the Battle Criers.

He had largely kept them in reserve up until now. While he intended to employ them against special opponents, the suppression emanated by the dark gods had knocked all of the Battle Crier pilots out before they could even show off their new capabilities.

"WAKE UP!" He shouted through the communication channel.

It didn't work. As long as the suppression was in effect, the ordinary Kinner mech pilots were unable to shake themselves loose!

Since their minds and spirits couldn't withstand the pressure, Ves figured he should do it in their stead!

He tried out something new. He connected to the Larkinson Network. Different from last time, the network was in a bad shape. The damage the Golden Cat sustained in her duel against one of the dark gods had damaged the true core of the Larkinson Clan as well.

Fortunately, the network was still intact enough for Ves to perform his next actions. He pressed himself into the network and tried to connect to the Battle Crier mech pilots.

It took a bit of time, but he finally managed to pinpoint their cluster.

He then attempted to shield them. This was very difficult, especially when he wanted to accomplish this from a distance. He consumed his spiritual energy at a rapid rate, so much so that he was forced to draw a spare P-stone to supplement his dwindling energy reserves.

Fortunatel,y his efforts yielded quick results!

The temporary shields he cast over their minds caused the Battle Crier mech pilots to feel unburdened. After they slowly woke and gathered their wits, Ves quickly issued his next command.

"Activate your battle formation and assist our new expert candidates in fighting against the giant grey bird!"

Dietrich and the Kinner mech pilots haltingly obeyed the instruction.

Though the circumstances weren't ideal, the great urgency of the situation caused every Battle Crier to devote their utmost into accomplishing their task. They calmed their minds and began to commune with an entity that they had only recently learned about.

Soon, a battle network came online. Connections engaged and the Battle Crier mechs slowly adopted a dish-shaped formation. As the recently-woken mechs approached the Inexorable One, a winged energy silhouette formed above the machines!

Projectors built into the Battle Crier mechs shortly filled up the silhouette, thereby introducing an angel to the battlefield!

"Exorcise the enemy!"

The dish-shaped formation did not approach the dark god. Instead, its mech pilots kept concentrating until the giant illusion of Lufa thrust out his palms.

An invisible beam struck the dark god just as she was about to swoop onto another failing expert candidate.

The Inexorable One shook in mid-flight and let out a pained and furious bird cry!

Ves contacted the expert candidates that remained battle effective. "She's weakened! Work together with the Battle Crier battle formation to kill or cripple that big bird!"

The battle network that Ves reserved for the Battle Criers was finally making its debut. When Ves quietly conceived of it before connecting the Battle Criers to the new network, he discovered that it came with two different formations.

The Discord Formation that the Battle Criers adopted at the moment was geared towards weakening any spiritual entity or phenomena!

Though it was clear that the Inexorable One was too strong to succumb from the effects of the battle formation, her spiritual body experienced a lot of difficulties all of a sudden.

Not only did she lose a lot of speed, she also found it harder to perform her moves!

The change did not give the Larkinsons an advantage. It merely equalized it so that the remaining expert candidates weren't as weak as prey anymore.

However, Ves knew that this was only temporary. The longer-lasting expert candidates were already reaching the limits of their endurance. The Battle Criers alone weren't sufficient to take down the Inexorable One.

They needed more power!

He shifted his attention to the other duels. The reinforcements that he inadvertently called were holding their own, but the dark gods they fought against weren't taken down so easily!

At the start, the Unending One and the Blinding One both experienced significant difficulties in fighting against their respective opponents.

Ves was very impressed by how his mother fought. She summoned a continuous army of plants and animals from somewhere while hacking the dark god's tentacles from a distance by releasing energy attacks with her words.

With all of the summons entangling the large but unwieldy dark god, the Unending One could only respond in kind by releasing dark energy beams which Cynthia's monstrous energy projection easily evaded!

As for Ryncol Larkinson, his Devil Tiger was steadily dismantling the Blinding One's defenses.

Unlike the other expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan, the Dark Cleaver piloted an real expert mech. Embedded with compatible resonating exotics, the extraordinarily powerful tiger mech possessed the capital to challenge the Blinding One!

While the luminar dark god actually possessed a lot more power than Ves' father, he happened to face the wrong opponent!

Like a rifleman mech being harried by a light skirmisher, the Blinding One's huge and tall form was highly unsuited to fight against a small and agile opponent up close. His robe began to look increasingly more ragged as the Devil Tiger broke much of its crystals!

If this went on, the Blinding One would lose all of his defenses against an opponent that he should by all rights crush by virtue of his overwhelming might alone!

Faced with this awful prospect, the besieged dark god made a decision that surprised everyone who was still conscious and paying attention.

The Blinding One forcefully endured the Devil Tiger's attacks while flying closer to the Unending One!

"No! Stop them from pooling together!"

Seeing what was happening, the uncomfortable Inexorable One decided to join the party as well. She fought against the weakening effect exerted by the Battle Criers and flapped her wings towards her fellow peers.

No matter how much their opponents tried to stop them in their tracks, their momentum couldn't be stopped, especially as they were finally beginning to feel desperate.

Ves watched with a sinking heart as the three dark gods finally gathered together. Soon, they began to coordinate their efforts!

The dragonwolves and vines entangling the Unending One were wiped out in an instant after the Blinding One pelted them with a succession of powerful light beams.

The Devil Tiger attempted to stop the Blinding One from doing so, but the expert mech almost got caught by the Unending One's tentacles!

The Inexorable One stared ominously at the mechs piloted by the expert candidates. She slowly healed her wounds and accumulated her power.

The Discord Formation kept up by the Battle Criers didn't have much effect at this point. The spiritual interference induced by the battle formation was being diluted across all three entities!

The monstrous, scaled form of Cynthia Larkinson paused and frowned at the sight.

This was a tricky situation.

Just as she was about to resume her attacks, something unexpected took place.

While the Blinding One and the Inexorable One put up their guards against the humans, two powerful tentacles pierced through the center of their bodies in an instant!

The white luminar alien and the grey bird widened their eyes! Power escaped from their spiritual bodies as they attempted to blast themselves out of their predicament, but more tentacles quickly swept up to entangle them, preventing them from getting free!

While the two betrayed entities doubtlessly possessed enough power to get rid of the tentacles if they gave in their all, the Unending One did not let them do so. The tentacled whale quickly popped his prey into his endless maw and ended their lives in an instant!

"WHAT?!" Ves couldn't believe what had happened!

Different from the time he ate Nyxie, the Unending One gained a massive and immediate boost of power. His huge spiritual body expanded while a number of white and grey stripes appeared on his body. The Unending One let out pained roars as his strength grew explosively!

Though Ves and many others hoped that the whale would explode from his gluttony, it was not to be as the whale eventually managed to stabilize himself. Incredibly, the dark god radiated at least twice as much power as before!

Cynthia's giant energy projection looked even more grave this time. She waved an arm at the mechs piloted by the Battle Criers and expert candidates. A gentle but irresistible push caused the mechs to tumble away!

She stared pointedly at the Devil Tiger. The ferocious-looking masterwork expert mech that had just put up a good fight against the Blinding One meekly tucked its tail while beating a retreat.

The Unending One was not an opponent they could fight against anymore.

Ves suddenly heard his mother's voice.

"I see you've picked up something nice while I was gone. I love it when you give me presents. It's your one redeeming factor as my son."

A bad feeling swept his mind. "Oh no. Not again."

His mother's giant energy projection suddenly stretched out her arm towards the Scarlet Rose in the distance. Somehow, her arm stretched forth unnaturally across many kilometers until her index finger poked straight into the cockpit!

The tip of the finger briefly brushed against his body. His Unending Regalia offered some resistance against the giant limb, but his mother merely applied a little more force before she managed to breach the B-Stone layer!

Surprisingly, his mother didn't suck him dry this time.

Instead, she took something else from him. As her finger left his body and her arm rapidly retracted back to her giant form, Ves was dazed for a moment before he made a very alarming realization.

He checked one of the hidden storage compartments of his combat armor and carefully withdrew a very precious vial.

Different from before, the liquid inside the vial looked dull. It no longer glowed as before and Ves couldn't feel any life from it anymore.

The high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum that he had carefully hoarded all this time had lost its value. That single poke stole all of the life-attributed energy that made it special!

"MOTHER!"

Though his loss was enormous, his mother benefited enormously. Pure pleasure and bliss engulfed her face as she integrated her bounty in rapid tempo! Her monstrous body glowed as new mutations grew out of her already alien body. Her hair turned into tendrils and her legs turned into hooves.

An aura of pure life burst out of her energy projection, causing it to swell in size! The copious amounts of high-quality energy she took from Ves was exactly the tonic she needed!

Chapter 2403: Savage Nature

Unlike the Unending One's power-up, Cynthia did not show any difficulties. This was not a surprise to Ves as the life-attributed energy derived from the serum possessed a property that made it universally compatible with everything.

Even accounting for this condition, his mother took all of that energy in with remarkable ease. Her strength swelled multiple times, yet Ves did not sense any indication that she was losing control.

This was incredibly remarkable! If it was so easy to become stronger by absorbing life-attributed energy, then Ves would have already absorbed the serum's energy for himself!

From what he observed with his spiritual vision, he saw that his mother did not absorb the energy in the most direct fashion possible. Instead, she transformed it, causing it to take on different attributes that were compatible with her. She smoothly managed to absorb the abundant amount of energy.

undefinedIn fact, her smooth growth made him feel a little suspicious. Was she growing to a new level of strength or was she merely regaining some of her old power?

Whatever the case, it was good that his mother regained the capital to fight against the treacherous Unending One.

The tears flowing from eyes were tears of happiness. Yep. The wry smile on his face reflected his sincere belief that his mother did not disappoint his expectations. She truly loved him if she was willing to go through extreme lengths to bail him out of his predicament.

The only price he had to pay in return was to give her a single present.

The vial held in his armored grip no longer held any life.

Losing all of its potency was but a small price to pay to safeguard his life and the lives of his remaining clansmen. From a logical point of view, this was a trade worth making!

Since his mother had already taken action, he put the vial away and resolved to forget about it. Instead, he turned his attention back to the two active combatants.

Both his mother and the Unending One had boosted themselves by drawing upon different sources of power.

The Unending One backstabbed his fellow compatriots and devoured them whole. It seemed that eating the wounded dark gods was not an easy endeavor. His swelled whale-like body was still in the process of shifting back and forth as if it was schizophrenic.

In contrast, his mother smoothly grew much stronger. Though her energy projection mutated even further, she had finally reached a level of strength that was comparable to the dark god she faced!

Ves studied her closely and paid special to her attributes this time. Though she seemed unfathomable every time he met her ghostly form, this time she wasn't hiding her domain.

She manifested it to resist the Unending One's domain!

Though it happened out of almost everyone's sight, the two powerful entities had already begun to fight against each other. Their domains grinded against each other as they tested their strength and understanding of their domains.

The Unending One's domain was like an abyss. Anything that entered its range never appeared again. Somehow, Ves sensed an unending hunger from the depths of the domain!

As for his mother, her domain was filled with vitality. Just as he guessed, her domain revolved around life. It seemed that he had his mother to thank for his exceptional aptitude for life!

Still, as Ves studied his mother's domain and attributes even further, he felt that she had developed into a very different direction than himself.

As a mech designer, Ves was attempting to fuse life with mechs. He developed the life portion of his domain in a path that enabled greater symbiosis between mech pilots and their mechs.

His focus on life was purely facilitative. Ves enjoyed creating products that helped his customers grow stronger. Fulfilling their desires and providing them with solutions that they couldn't obtain anywhere else gave him a profound sense of satisfaction.

Apparently, his mother was different.

Her life domain shared a lot of similarities with his own domain, but its interpretation was entirely different! Ves sensed something predatory from it. Her domain was much more primal and reflective of the savage side of nature.

Growth required sustenance. The weak died and the strong thrived. The former solely existed to provide substance to the latter.

Ves shivered and retracted his spiritual senses. Just looking at her domain already made him feel as if he was about to become her next prey!

Fortunately, Cynthia did not direct any hostility towards him. Instead, she focused on the Unending One.

The removal of the Blinding One and the Inexorable One had made this battle much simpler. Even though the final dark god had rapidly grown stronger, he didn't appear to be fully in control of his current self!

To his opponent, this was a crucial difference!

She slashed her sword at the Unending One, launching an energy wave that was at least ten times sharper and more powerful than before. The wave quickly crashed against the dark god's side and sliced off half-a-dozen tentacles!

The Unending One roared and began to fly towards his opponent. Rather than trade blows at a distance, the tentacled whale thought he stood a better chance if he fought the woman up close!

Due to absorbing the Inexorable One, the surviving dark god's speed and acceleration had received a major upgrade. His huge bulk soared forward at a pace more fitting for birds than whales.

"Careful, mother!"

She didn't need the warning. In fact, she did not exhibit any panic at the rapidly-approaching whale. Instead, she raised her palm and pressed the space in front of her. A large and elaborate diagram formed in space.

As soon as the Unending One crashed against the diagram, a net made out of giant vines appeared and instantly blocked his way forward!

The net soon enveloped the whale, causing the Unending One to be trapped yet again!

Though the dark god attempted to cut and remove the net from his body, the vines that squeezed his body were not so easy to remove this time! The large vines were not only tougher, but regenerated any damage that managed to get through their defenses.

With the net temporarily trapping the Unending One in place, Cynthia performed some other abilities. More diagrams showed up which she imprinted onto the body of the tentacled whale for some reason.

The Unending One's roars increased as his huge bulk violently thrashed against his bonds. Yet no matter how much power he unleashed, Cynthia remained fully in control!

"This.."

He never expected his mother to gain such absolute advance after absorbing the energy of his serum. He already thought highly of its value and potency, but it turned out that it was even more precious than he thought. His pain of losing such a valuable asset intensified!

After his mother one-sidedly placed numerous strange diagrams on the unwilling dark god, she began to fly to the giant creature's side before raising her sword in a reverse grip.

Her alien lips moved as she recited some sort of incantation, but like everything about her, Ves could not hear or record anything of what she did. Her entire existence seemed to defy every recording method!

Her sword glowed brighter as she spoke her inaudible words. When her sword had become almost blinding, she stabbed into the flank of the Unending One!

The trapped creature released a roar that rattled everyone's spirits! While the dark god had grown powerful enough to crush the remnants of Task Force Predator in a single blow, he was rendered helpless by an even more terrible opponent.

The sword that Cynthia stabbed into the whale was actively draining his energy! The side bearing the wound visibly deflated as the Unending One finally experienced what it was like to be devoured.

Cynthia's monstrous face grew uglier as she exhibited pure rapture. Raw energy of incredibly high potency poured through the sword and into her energy projection. She absorbed only a portion of it while sequestering the rest for later processing.

After all, unlike the energies donated by Ves, the Unending One's dark spiritual attribute was not very compatible with her domain!

Even so, Ves was astounded to see that she was able to convert a substantial portion of the Unending One's strength on the spot. The amount of skill and technique this required was beyond his imagination. He began to grow jealous of his mother's capabilities!

Minutes passed as the Unending One unceasingly grew weaker. The fact that it had descended onto the battlefield with his main body may have allowed him to exert greater strength, but it also opened him up to dangerous consequences.

Right now, an even scarier predator in the form of Ves' mother was eagerly draining the giant whale until his tentacles dried up and his immense bulk deflated like an old balloon.

The sight was incredibly horrifying to see for the few remaining people who remained alive and conscious. Was this powerful dark god that had lived for eons really going to die in this fashion?

The whale hadn't even fully exerted his new strength! If not for facing an opponent as perverse and monstrous as Cynthia, the Unending One would have been able to prove why he was one of the oldest and most dominant entities of the Nyxian Gap!

"It's over." Ves whispered.

Eventually, the Unending One had met his end. The vines no longer bothered to bind his bulky body tight. The dark god had lost too much strength to resist the drain. When the sword stabbed into his flank was no longer able to draw out any energy, its wielder smoothly pulled it out and let it dematerialize away from view.

Cynthia looked incredibly satisfied with her gains. She thought she would suffer a lot of losses when she went through the portal. Instead, her son had not only prepared a lot of compensation, but she managed to earn a sumptuous bonus from her latest meal!

She turned her gaze towards the Scarlet Rose. Ves could feel the glowing purple lights in her eye sockets landing straight onto his body. Despite his protective armor, he felt utterly naked and exposed in front of her transcended sight!

"You have grown so much, my son." She spoke to him on a spiritual level. "While I am distressed at many of your decisions, I still love you with all of my heart."

The Devil Tiger sedately flew towards his mother until it had reached her side. The tiger mech faced the Scarlet Rose as well.

"You have been up to a lot of mischief, Ves." His father's voice sounded as he piggy-backed on his wife's connection to their son. "What possessed you to enter the Nyxian Gap? It's danger is very real. What you have faced right now is not the extent of this region's dangers!"

"I.. I'm sorry, father!"

"...Forget it. As long as you get out as soon as possible, we'll both be happy. You aren't supposed to be here, Ves. There is an enemy in the heart of the Nyxian Gap that will hound you to the ends of the galaxy and beyond if it becomes aware of who you truly are. Your mother and I have been running interference for you, but all of our work will become for naught if you take the initiative to knock on its doors!"

"Are you talking about.. the Compact?"

His mother flared with power. "Don't say that name! In fact, don't even think about it! Just leave and never come back. This is not your fight. We can't protect you if you stay in the Nyxian Gap. Heed our warning. It's for your own good, my son."

His mother's giant projection and the Devil Tiger simultaneously moved to the Scarlet Rose. When the pair reached the ship, his mother threw something insubstantial in the direction of the ship's vault.

"Since you have gained the habit of collecting trash, here's something for you to play with. I hope it will help you protect yourself better."

Her mother and the Devil Tiger then proceeded to fly towards the unstable portal that had initially brought them to this battlefield.

"Wait! I have too many questions, mother! Can't you.. can't you stay and answer them for me?" Ves desperately asked.

"It's better if you remain ignorant." His father sorrowfully answered. "Some knowledge is too dangerous for you to hold. It's better if you stay away from our affairs."

His mother nodded. "You aren't young anymore, Ves. You're an adult now. While we both regret not being there for you when you needed us, you are more than capable of taking care of yourself. Well, as long as you don't provoke enemies like the Allidus Alliance, that is. You still need to adjust your behavior. Be a mech designer, Ves. That is all you need to do to make us proud."

His parents left for the portal. Ves wanted to plead and beg them to give him answers, but he knew that his parents were too determined to keep their mouths shut.

However, just as his mother began to cross through the portal, it suddenly discolored! Some kind of blue glow shimmered around it as Ves felt a huge amount of spiritual energy trying to change its properties!

"What? Who?!"

For some reason, Ves felt an intense threat. His entire being shook with fear as he felt the onset of a powerful presence that posed a very great threat to him and evidently his parents as well from the way they reacted to this development!

"He's here!" His mother spoke with a horrified tone!

Chapter 2404: Failed Vow

Ruination spread across a wide area of space!

Several enormous clouds of debris spread in every direction and collided against each other.

Broken wrecks of both mechs and starships floated lifelessly through space. Whether they still contained living beings was still a question, but even if the vessels still contained sparks of life, the titanic clash that had just taken place had knocked everyone unconscious!

The only ones who remained alive and conscious were those with the strongest spirits. Aside from Ves and some of the expert pilots, no one else was in a condition to fight.

undefinedEven the pirates had all fallen silent! The crippled and bleeding Gravada Knarlax floated listlessly in space.

This should have been a moment of celebration for the Larkinson Clan. Though Ves could already tell that the material and manpower losses had been tremendous, the gains more than made up for the sacrifices.

The clan welcomed four new expert pilots!

The Larkinsons also gained at least double the amount of expert candidates!

Ves could personally claim the astronomical bounties on his enemies!

The warships of the Allidus Alliance definitely contained a lot of useful salvage!

As for all of the trouble and complications that ensued from this costly battle, Ves didn't think too much about them. Any outcome was better than dying or getting captured by the vengeful pirates of the Allidus Alliance, or worse, the crazy cultists of the Hallowed Abyss Temple!

Yet just as his mother sucked the Unending One dry until she couldn't squeeze any more juice from the once-terrible dark god, an even greater enemy approached!

Though Ves felt that his mother had reached an entirely new height of power that he had never witnessed up until now, her monstrous mutated expression only exhibited pure terror.

The enemy that had hijacked the portal must be far more frightening than he could ever imagine!

Already, the portal began to transform before his eyes. Its diameter grew and various alien runes and patterns appeared around it. As long as Ves probed it a little with his spiritual senses, he experienced an immediate and acute threat of death!

Every fiber in his body, mind and spirit warned him that he would die 100 percent if he probed the hijacked portal any further! Whatever influence that managed to hijack it was so powerful that just a casual spiritual sneeze from such a giant was enough to snuff out his soul!

"Who is coming, mother?" Ves asked through his spiritual connection with the giant energy projection.

"He.. is the enemy that your father and I fear the most." His mother answered in a hollow tone. "He is older than the Age of Mechs. He has witnessed the fall of the Age of Conquest but has managed to outlast most of his peers. His strength is so overwhelming that he can kill every human on a planet if he so chooses. You have no idea how terrible he truly is! Now that he has caught our trail, there is no escape!"

"What?!" Ves widened his eyes. "How can any human be so powerful?! Only warships have this power! Is he.. a god?"

"No. He's worse. He's immortal."

"...Immortal?" Ves shook.

There was something special about this word!

"Gods such as the Unending One are but ants in his presence." His mother solemnly said. "To be immortal is not just about possessing power. It's about mastering it. This is why he is able to take over this portal and change it to suit his needs. He is already moving towards us. As soon as the portal is powerful enough to accommodate passage, our fates are sealed!"

"Isn't there anything we can do?! This guy isn't here yet! We can still collapse the tunnel and block his way forward!"

His mother raised her sentient sword and unleashed a powerful energy wave!

Ves sensed the lethality behind the attack. He was sure it could split the Scarlet Rose in half if his mother wanted it to. He was amazed that she was able to unleash such an attack without relying on mechs or ships.

Yet as soon as the deadly energy wave crashed against the portal, it dissipated. What happened was not much different from a drop of water splattering against a solid wall. The strength disparity was too big!

His mother looked sad. "Someone this powerful can't be stopped, my son. I am as helpless before him as the Unending One was to me. Coming here was a mistake to both you and me. If you didn't come to the Nyxian Gap and entered into a feud against the pirates, your father and I wouldn't have been forced to leave the core regions. We were safe there, Ves. The unique environment there allowed us to cover up our traces. I thought it would be fine for us to leave for a short time, but I underestimated his alertness. It only took a short time for him to catch our trail!"

Though his mother didn't explicitly admonish him, Ves felt incredibly guilty! He ruined his mother's arrangements by screwing up. If he controlled his greed well enough to leave Ulimo Citadel alone, he wouldn't have turned the Hallowed Abyss Temple into an enemy!

Regret filled his mind. What about the merits? What about the B-stone? None of these gains were worth it if he, his parents and all of the surviving Larkinsons of this battle were about to die at the hands of this so-called immortal!

He clenched his teeth. A growing sense of anger and unwillingness flared up from his heart. He did not want to die like this! He did not want to drag his parents down with him either!

He narrowed his eyes as he gazed at the projection of the changing portal. This powerful person hadn't arrived yet. So long as the enemy hadn't actually emerged through the portal, they should still have a chance of making it out alive!

"Who is this immortal, exactly? You've been talking about him in circles. Just tell me who he is so we can figure out how to stop him. There is no way this fellow is inevitable!"

"He's the enemy we tried to shield from you for so long." His mother emotionally whispered. "Everything we did was to prevent him from going after you after your father has given you our legacy. In the end, our efforts were in vain."

"Don't give up yet, mother! We are better than this! Tell me the identity of this foe. Who is he and what powers does he have? Is he coming by himself or is he bringing an army?"

"He's alone. He doesn't need any help. That should tell you enough of what kind of existence is hunting us down."

His mother became so caught up by their impending doom that Ves did not sense any will to resist from her! He turned his attention to his father instead. As a trueblood Larkinson and a former military mech pilot, Ves bet that his dad should be more receptive to his intentions.

"Father, can you answer my questions? At this point, it's useless to keep secrets. I'm already involved in your troubles so you might as well give me the piece of mind of knowing what has led to this situation."

His father sighed. "Do you remember the gift that I have passed to you? It belonged to your mother. When she died.. I didn't know what to do with it. I knew it was the reason behind her early death."

"It doesn't belong to me. I merely carried it. You can't imagine how far my brothers and sisters and I fled to keep it away from the hands of our pursuers." Cynthia said. "We vowed to never let it fall into their hands again. Now, I am the only one left, and it seems I am about to fail in my most important mission."

Ves tired of all of this circling around. "Are you talking about the Compact? I know what the System really is. It's the Metal Scroll, right? It's one of the precious Sacred Scrolls that this powerful organization has used to dominate humanity, right?"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS?!"

"I have my sources. Am I right?"

His mother looked shocked! "This is deadly knowledge! Don't ever mention those words again!"

"It's too late for that." Ryncol Larkinson said. "Ves already knows. Since he is aware of some of the true nature of what we've given to him, then he might as well know more."

After a bit of hesitation, Cynthia reluctantly nodded.

"The immortal that is chasing us is one of the highest leaders of the Compact. He has been watching for our trails for a long time, and when he finally grasped one, he followed us all the way to the galactic rim."

This sounded rather familiar. Ves glanced at the frozen form of Nitaa. Her heavy combat armor kept her upright, but he knew that she was already unconscious.

"Does this leader come from the Ruined Temple?"

"You!"

That pretty much confirmed his suspicion. It turned out that the great envoy from the Compact's mythical temple had arrived sooner than he thought!

The entire reason why Ves came up with the plan to leave the star cluster and travel all the way to the Red Ocean was because he wanted this powerful dignitary!

Ves grew confused. "From what I heard, shouldn't this fellow arrive at least a decade or so later?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"That's not important. Can you just answer my question?"

"Temple Protector Aramid Dista has haunted our nightmares for decades." His father revealed. "He stands close to the top of a galactic organization that still stretches its influence throughout human space to this day. You can imagine how powerful he must be in order to reach his exalted status."

Ves finally obtained the name and title of this great foe. Though the answers barely revealed anything, at least his parents were more willing to talk!

"How come he arrived here so soon and with so little fanfare?"

He was pretty confused by this. Ves and Nitaa had already made some arrangements that could warn them should this envoy from the Ruined Temple ever reach this star cluster.

"He only just arrived, actually. As for how he arrived so quickly, well…" His mother pointed at the transforming portal. "Hasn't the Big Two been building their own gate network recently?"

Ves wanted to slap himself silly. Of course!

Before the introduction of the beyonder gates, humanity relied on slower and much more time-consuming methods to traverse the stars. It took decades for the fastest and most advanced starships to travel from the center of the galaxy to the outer borders of human space.

Even the powerful figures of the Ruined Temple were no different!

However, space travel in the galaxy was already changing drastically after the formation of the Milky Way Galactic Gate Network. The newly-formed Gate Consortium was rapidly cobbling up beyonder gates. Thousands of light-years became more accessible than ever as the portals brought many different locations together.

The gates ushered forth a revolution in trans-galactic transportation! Not just the Milky Way, but other galaxies came within reach!

Of course, the biggest downside to the portals was the prohibitive cost of activation. Regular tourists wouldn't be able to afford passage through these new-fangled portals.

Yet what Ves did not take into account was that this trivial barrier would never be able to stop one of the highest-ranking dignitaries of the Five Scrolls Compact!

As long as the Temple Protector disguised himself well enough to fool the Gate Consortium, he could conveniently reach his destination in an instant rather than a decade!

He truly comprehended at this moment why his parents behaved so morosely. Even he felt despair when he thought about confronting one of the higher ups of the Five Scrolls Compact.

As time passed, the portal looked increasingly more impressive. Strange glowing markings of demons, humans and aliens kneeling and in pain appeared around it. All of these tortured figures seemed to be stretching out their hands towards a certain undefinable figure portrayed at the top of the portal. The slaves were begging for mercy!

Chapter 2405: Working Together

As someone who developed an appreciation for theatrics, Ves did not sense anything good from the symbolism of the changing portal. Only cult leaders and religious nuts would employ such a depraved portrayal of themselves.

Was this what the Five Scrolls Compact aimed to achieve? Were the cultists plotting to enslave the entire galaxy so that they could be worshipped as gods?

This was complete lunacy! Why hadn't the Big Two managed to wipe them out to last man? These scroll worshippers were nutcases who adhered to grossly outdated notions of how reality worked. The Big Two should never be able to coexist with Compact!

Yet not only did the Compact survive the end of its secret reign, one of its highest leaders had successfully passed through one of the Big Two's beyonder gates as if he was an ordinary traveller.

undefinedThis was a complete travesty!

Resentment boiled within Ves. As much as he wanted to file a complaint to the MTA, it was useless to grumble about matters that had already happened. He needed to figure out some way of stopping or destroying this portal.

Just in the last minutes, the power radiated by it had already tripled! Even then, that was evidently not enough to allow the passage of their greatest enemy!

While Ves hadn't tried it yet, he knew that firing any weapons at it wouldn't work. While he felt tempted to take over the Scarlet Rose's helm so that he could crash his ship into the portal, the power emanated by it was simply too great for it to be shaken by such a simple attack.

None of the assets at his disposal was comparable in power to this increasingly more ominous-looking window in space. The markings and symbols became more vivid while the depictions of enslaved worshippers became more defined!

Not even running away would help! Unless he found a way to leave the Nyxian Gap in an instant, there was no way he could run away far enough to evade such a great existence!

Ves kept thinking. From the performance of the dark gods, he knew that technological solutions could only do so much against enemies of their nature. Perhaps the story might be different if he had access to a CFA battleship, but he had exhausted his entire fleet. He could only do so much by himself!

As for trying to stop the portal by trying to destabilize it with spiritual attacks, that obviously didn't have a chance of working. His mother already tried several more times, but every method she employed merely bounced off the elaborate portal as if to mock her weakness.

Ves had even left the bridge to head for the vault in order to see how the mutated spiritual construct was faring.

What he encountered was outside of his expectation. The construct had dissipated! It seemed that as soon as the Temple Protector hijacked the portal, he took over responsibility of maintaining it as well. This closed off any chance for Ves to sabotage it by destroying it from the source!

"Damnit! Isn't there anything we can do to stop the portal?"

He looked around his vault. He stored all kinds of valuable exotics, relics and artifacts in here. Yet their usefulness in this situation was minimal. Their value lay elsewhere.

"Tch! What I wouldn't give for an antimatter bomb or two. Hell, I could use a hundred of them right now!"

Such weapons were too far out of his reach. Even the superweapons he prepared for his fight against the pirate armada had all been spent. Perhaps some errant enriched nuclear missiles were floating around in some wrecks, but it would take way too long for Ves to retrieve them and fire them towards the portal.

Not that it would do any good. If the missiles were incapable of splitting apart the Gravada Knarlax, then they were even less effective against a portal that appeared to be at least ten times more durable!

Ves looked listlessly at the ceiling. Was he wasting his time? Was he delaying the inevitable?

"There has to be a way!"

He began to think through all of his options again. No matter how ridiculous they sounded, Ves didn't have the luxury to be picky.

"Wait a minute. There might be someone in the clan that can provide some answers!"

Ves raised his comm and tried to contact someone who he believed should have definitely remained awake.

The projection of a tired, white-robed figure greeted Ves. James Ylvaine looked as if he already knew this conversation would happen.

"I knew you would come to me in the end." James spread his arms as if to welcome someone in need. "My arms are open to anyone who needs succor."

Ves scowled. "Do you have the answers I seek?"

"I am a prophet, Bright Martyr. It is my job to guide you. Mind you, I am not all-knowing. I cannot promise you that I have the answers you desire."

He didn't have time for this nonsense. "Just tell me what I can do to stop the arrival of You-Know-Who."

"Who?"

"You know. Who." Ves shook his head. "Just tell me how to destroy the portal!"

James smiled. "The portal is indeed very difficult to deal with. Even I am fearful of the great existence that has displayed so much power. While I genuinely do not know how to destroy the portal, I believe you can do it so long as you have faith."

"...That's it? Faith?"

This was utter nonsense! In a crisis of such great proportions, how could faith ever possibly help?

"Do you have any real answers, or are you just full of crap?"

"I'm being serious, Bright Martyr. While there may be other solutions to your problem, I truly believe that faith can resolve your problem. Believe in yourself, Ves. Do not dismiss the power of faith. Power is power no matter the source."

The call ended shortly after that. James didn't have much more to say except to resort to faith.

He frowned. What was he supposed to do now?

Ves activated a projection that displayed the situation outside. Both his mother and the Devil Tiger floated in front of the portal without doing anything. They had already tried what they could to stop it, only to waste their energy in vain.

As Ves stared at his parents while thinking back on his previous conversation, he suddenly froze when his eyes rested on his mother's form.

"The power of faith… faith!"

Didn't he recently turn an aspect of his mother into a new Hexer deity? Hadn't he set up the Superior Mother as an ancestral spirit that was harvesting the worship of billions or trillions of Hexers?

He directed his vision towards the dormant entity. She was still asleep, which was strange because his real mother was close by and fully conscious, but whatever.

The only problem was that the Superior Mother was actually weaker than his mother's main form. He doubted that merging the two somehow would give his mother enough strength to challenge the Temple Protector.

"Power! I need power! Where can I find enough power to destroy power and screw the approaching enemy?"

He kept looking around at random as if he was looking for inspiration. His head suddenly froze as he looked at something he had unconsciously dismissed.

The huge, transparent vortex that was spinning throughout the entire Nyxian Gap was one of the most powerful spiritual manifestations that Ves had ever witnessed!

Its power and reach was so ridiculously high that it had far exceeded the strength of any single god. Even the power reinforcing the portal paled in comparison to the power of an enormous spatial phenomenon!

Ves immediately shared his idea with his parents. While his mother momentarily looked startled, she soon began to frown.

"I know what you are thinking about. It sounds good in theory, but how can it be easy to channel the forces of the vortex against the portal? Mind you, if we can make it work, we can not only survive this calamity, but also doom our enemy! One of the reasons why the Temple Protector is expending so much power to expand and reinforce the portal is because he risks a great disaster if the space tunnel is cut off mid-way. At best, he will get lost in some random dimensions. At worst, he could very well die instantly when he ends up somewhere that cannot sustain his life!"

That sounded great to Ves! Ending the portal was not enough to stave off the crisis. Only by killing or at least banishing the powerful Temple Protector would Ves and his parents feel more at ease.

Even if the Ruined Temple dispatched more powerful dignitaries to retrieve the Metal Scroll, it would take a lot of time for the follow-up party to arrive, gate network or not! At that time, Ves would have long left the Komodo Star Sector while his parents were safely hiding deep inside the murky core regions of the Nyxian Gap.

With such a promising outcome dangling before his eyes, Ves became even more motivated to solve this crisis!

"What do you need to direct the vortex's power against the portal?" He eagerly asked.

"You're not listening to me, Ves! The power required to channel or even approach the vortex is too much. Besides, do you think the vortex is so easy to manipulate? Its true nature is far more complicated than you think!"

Ves dismissively waved his arm. "I'm a mech designer, mom! I learned a lot of engineering to be able to get to where I am. One of the basic principles that every engineer learns is that you don't need a lot of power to accomplish something. As long as you come up with something clever that is efficient and make use of leverage, you can do it even if you aren't strong!"

This caused his mother to take his suggestion more seriously this time.

"How?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure we can figure something out. Tell me what must be done in order to subject the portal against the forces of the vortex, and I'll figure out a way to make it happen."

His mother did what he asked without exhibiting any doubt this time. She wanted Ves to live!

"Hmm." Ves nodded as he already designed an elaborate spiritual construct in his mind. "I see what needs to be done. To get the portal to clash against the vortex, we need to move them into the same plane. The problem is that the portal is based in what I call the material realm while the vortex is a fixture of the imaginary realm. The two have already moved closer, but this isn't enough. We need to bring them close enough in the area encompassing the portal so that there is total overlap!"

This was a very difficult feat! Getting the realm to overlap at a coordinate was just the first step. They had to sustain it and make sure that enough of the power of vortex crashed against the resilient portal.

He and his mother worked intensely to cobble up a solution that blended both engineering and spiritual sorcery. Though both of them possessed very different opinions on many matters, the acute danger forced them to set aside their philosophical differences.

Soon enough, his mother skillfully employed her power to form a spiritual product that Ves had largely designed. His mother didn't appear to possess much talent for spiritual engineering. Her only contribution to the project was offering some high-level solutions that Ves could have never accomplished with his current understanding of spiritual engineering.

Ves felt very fulfilled as his mother rapidly created their combined work. Visually, the finished product resembled an engine.

As soon as she completed it, she approached the portal despite all of the danger it emanated. When she reached a suitable distance, she began to pour her power into the spiritual engine.

Space around his mother began to stir. The two realms slowly started to move closer to each other!

"It's working!"

The blue portal glowed brighter, but it didn't do anything else. Ves kept a vigilant eye on it though his mother had already explained that the Temple Protector couldn't do much when he was still on the other end of the passage.

Ves began to feel a strange pressure. His intuition sensed danger. It was as if there was something within him that told him that the two realms were never supposed to overlap to this extent!

Chapter 2406: Ves' Faith

The process of merging the material realm and the imaginary realm at the space around the portal proceeded steadily at first.

His mother continually poured power in the spiritual engine that he and his mother had designed. As a collaborative work, the creation encompassed both of their strengths.

Ves provided the mechanisms that transformed power in a way that allowed it to do more work at much less cost.

Cynthia added some very advanced spiritual components that took in the power and accomplished the feat they were trying to achieve.

undefinedHe found it very inspirational to work with his mother on such a project! If not for their many disagreements, Ves would have cherished the experience even more.

Through the quick collaboration, Ves also gained a better sense of his mother's spiritual understanding.

Just as he expected, her depth and heritage was very extensive. If Ves compared it to his profession, then his mother was probably analogous to a Senior or a Master while he was just a Novice!

The gulf between them was too big!

However, Ves actually realized that this comparison was not accurate. While it was true that his mother possessed a lot of advanced knowledge, she didn't specialize in spiritual engineering.

Most of what she learned was geared towards applications other than creating spiritual products. While she could do it, she mainly did so to create something simple. She did not specialize in it. What she actually excelled at was a mystery.

Even so, her high understanding of a lot of profound rules granted her the ability to create spiritual products and components that simply defied his understanding. They were very specific, but also very powerful in their narrow roles.

The spiritual engine could have never existed if Ves worked on it alone. He lacked his mother's extensive spiritual foundation. Even when his mother created the few components he needed to make the spiritual engine worked, Ves simply couldn't see through what she was doing. There was no way for him to copy her efforts and replicate her work!

"I hope it will work."

He waited as his mother inputted more and more power into the spiritual engine. Through principles that he didn't fully understand, the physical dimensions and the spiritual dimensions were indeed moving closer. He could feel it in his bones.

In fact, the creeping sense of danger made him feel very uncomfortable!

Seeing that his involvement wasn't needed at this time, he decided to talk to his father. As a spiritual caveman, he played no role at all in the proceedings.

"Dad.. it looks like you and your mech are doing well."

"We are." Ryncol replied with evident satisfaction. "Your work is very unique, but great. I had some doubts about piloting a bestial mech, but I have grown comfortable in piloting it. While it is a temperamental machine, its power is beyond compare, especially against the opponents that we typically face in the Nyxian Gap."

Ves felt very happy that he made his father pleased with his work. His dad was one of his most important customers as far as he was concerned!

"The mech is not entirely safe to pilot, though. There are aspects about the neural interface and other elements that have not been designed with maximum safety in mind."

"I'm aware. Our resident mech designer has already explained the potential risks to me. The mech is very different from what it was from the start. We've taken extensive advantage of its nanomachines. Our head designer has also retooled it into an expert mech that suits my capabilities. You don't need to worry for me. This mech has served me well so far and it will continue to be my fighting partner."

Through their brief discussion, Ves discovered that the Devil Tiger he created had already taken on a life of its own. Not only had it developed a close bond with his father, some other mech designer had tweaked and upgraded the machine extensively.

"Who is this mech designer you are talking about?" Ves asked with a hint of jealousy in his tone.

"That is not for me to say. It's better that you don't know, Ves. All I can tell you is that the mech you made is in good hands. I make sure that none of the changes alters the mech too much. I don't get as much enjoyment in piloting a mech that isn't made by you. I think at least half of my strength comes from the fact that a part of you is with me in every fight."

Ves sensed the love expressed by his father. He felt warm in his heart. The affection from his family was too precious! He had missed this sensation!

The two didn't have much time to catch up with each other before his mother's efforts hit a turning point.

As the material realm and the spiritual realm began to move closer to each other, the spiritual engine experienced more and more strain. The convergence gradually slowed down until it stopped entirely.

"I can't get them to move any closer!" Cynthia strenuously said, causing Ves to snap out of his leisurely conversation with his father. "I.. don't… have enough power!"

His heart sank as he heard this. He hoped the engine was ingenious enough to accomplish what they wanted without too much effort, but it wasn't enough.

The immense vortex had become more substantial around the portal. Ves even saw signs that it was slightly beginning to impact the portal. It wasn't enough, though. The realms needed to overlap even more!

"How can we solve this, mother?"

"Isn't that obvious?! I need power, any power! Do you have any more life essence?"

"You took my only stash of it away from me already!"

His mother's giant mutated face frowned. "If you can't provide me with any further strength, then I can supply it myself. It will cost me, though. If I give up too much.. I won't be able to maintain my existence."

"NO!"

"You can't!"

Both Ves and his father objected to this solution! Neither wanted to see her die!

"We don't have any other option! We need to make our move fast. The Temple Protector is closing in. I can feel his presence nearing the portal. It won't be long before he passes through!"

Ves thought for a moment. He recalled his earlier conversation with James and the ideas he generated from it. "Wait! I may have a better way! Do you recall the Superior Mother? She has grown very strong as of late!"

"This… may work."

In order to help his mother derive power from her avatar, Ves brought forth the statue of the Superior Mother. The lightning-struck work possessed an incredibly strong association to the ancestral spirit. He was sure that bringing it to Cynthia would help.

After locating and bringing the statue out, the Devil Tiger carefully grasped the marble-like statue with its limbs and hastily flew towards Cynthia's giant energy projection.

His mother's eyes lit up as she saw and felt the statue approaching. She sensed something remarkable from it! "Throw it inside me. Do it quickly!"

The Devil Tiger did as instructed. As soon as the statue entered Cynthia's giant body, it settled right in the middle.

Soon, changes began to take place. Ves looked on with great fascination as he sensed the presence of the Superior Mother emerging from his actual mother.

The energy projection changed shape as it became a little more human! Cynthia's bearing began to grow nobler and more regal as she began to take on traits of the Hexer Supreme!

Her power grew along with these changes. Not only that, Ves sensed the shadow of an enormous collective of Hexers who earnestly believed in the greatness of the Superior Mother!

"It's working, at least for now!"

The two realms began to overlap more and more. Though the movement didn't seem very big, the vortex was drastically becoming more real!

More and more force began to impact the portal. More blue radiance began to bloom from it. Yet just as the vortex was about to surpass a critical threshold, the convergence stopped again!

"I can't!" His mother cried! "I can't.. go any further than this!"

They were still missing too much power! Even though the spiritual engine looked as if it was working at full gear, the two realms still weren't close enough! To make just a tiny bit of progress, they had to input vastly more power!

"Damnit!"

Ves rapidly tried to figure out where he could source more energy. His design spirits? They were too weak. Himself? He possessed even less energy!

"Wait, maybe this will work!"

A vague idea came to mind. Though Ves didn't feel sure about it at all, he couldn't come up with anything better. He took control of the shuttle and piloted it closer towards his mother, the portal and the active spiritual engine.

His mother didn't want him to come closer. "What are you doing, Ves!? It's dangerous here! I can take care of this problem myself!"

Though the increased pressure put him under greater strain, Ves could still bear it! "I won't lose you again, mother!"

He rose from his piloting chair and opened the hatch. He launched into space and allowed the maneuvering systems of his Unending Regalia to move him past his mother and towards the portal and the overlapping realms.

"VES! GET BACK HERE NOW!"

"No! I can do this, mom!"

The strain on his mind, body and spirit rose tremendously. If not for the B-stone layer of his armor, he would have popped by now. Even then, he couldn't get much closer.

"Seems this will have to do." He murmured.

He then proceeded to do something that caused both of his parents to be startled.

He summoned his System comm.

As the slim comm materialized onto his suit gauntlets, he stared at it for a few seconds before issuing a request.

"System… can you help us repel his threat?"

It didn't answer.

"The relic originally belongs to the Temple, Ves." His mother softly said. "It can't help you in this fight."

"Can't, or won't?"

His mother didn't answer, but Ves already knew that it was too much to hope that the System would bail him out. He felt a bit melancholic as he looked at the comm.

"Are you thinking about throwing it inside the portal?" Cynthia distressingly asked. "That won't help us at all! You're just giving what the Temple Protector wants ahead of time. He will still come and hunt us down!"

"I know. I thought about it, but I don't want to earn the System's ire."

He was sure that the System had a million different ways to kill him if he did something as brazen as that. If it was so easy to get rid of it, Ves would have already tossed it through the portal!

No, he did not think about sacrificing it. Instead, he wanted to make use of it in a different fashion.

"Faith, huh? Maybe.. faith isn't so useless after. Maybe.. I need to stop denying who I am."

He closed his eyes and concentrated his mind. He clasped the System comm between his palms.

Ves then proceeded to do something he swore he would never do in his life.

He prayed.

He opened himself up to the System comm. He roused his entire spirit and tried to embrace it in a way he had never done before.

"I may be just a mech designer, but… I am also the Holy Son. The moment I made use of the Mech Designer System, I have accepted this heavy mantle."

It didn't matter if he did so unknowingly. It didn't matter if he spent years bouncing around with the System without knowing its profound nature.

As the holder of a relic that was very likely the Metal Scroll, Ves had become a figure that was in some ways central to the Five Scrolls Compact!

Shouldn't.. the Metal Scroll be revered by every member of the Compact in and outside human space?

Shouldn't a Holy Son like him be regarded as an absolute transcendent authority within the cult?

From what he learned from various sources, only the higher ups were aware of the details of the Great Betrayal.

The lower and middle ranks were ignorant of the fact that the Metal Scroll had been lost a long time ago! As far as they were concerned, the Compact was still led by five Holy Sons who each bore the responsibility of bearing all five Sacred Scrolls!

"And many of these cultists are probably spirituality active…" He boldly guessed.

As Ves communed deeper with the System comm, he began to sense an inkling of what he sought. His extraordinary high perception of spirituality and exceptional sensitivity towards life allowed him to notice something he had never sensed before from the System.

He managed to open his eyes to a miniscule portion of the immense worship directed towards Metal Scroll!

The power of this collective worship was frighteningly powerful, but also completely inaccessible to him under ordinary circumstances. He had to move as close as possible to the space where the two realms were overlapping to even capture a trace of his immensely powerful phenomenon!

"What are you doing, Ves.. no! Don't! Only gods are able to harness this power!"

His mother had a point. The power he touched was too immense. He knew for certain that he would get crushed if he attempted to touch it. Just getting close to it was enough for him to feel as if his spirit would evaporate.

Even so, he did not lose confidence!

Ves smirked even as he maintained his concentration.

"I don't believe in gods, mother. I believe in machines!"

He proceeded to do something that he never thought about. He really didn't want to do this, but he couldn't figure out any other way to accomplish his goal.

He grasped the Grand Dynamo in his mind, ripped it out, and threw it towards the channel where an immense amount of faith was being directed towards the Metal Scroll!

The Grand Dynamo held out remarkably well, but the power of faith was too strong. It flooded the powerful construct, causing it to swell with far too much energy that it was never designed to take.

It ruptured!

Ves hastily flew backwards, and the Devil Tiger had rapidly swooped close in order to grasp him and bring him away as far as possible.

Even then, the immense explosion that happened behind them practically flung the mech out!

In the meantime, the close overlap between the two realms had abruptly become total due to the immense spiritual explosion!

Cynthia Larkinson looked on with amazement as the vortex had fully entered the same plane as the portal. Immense corrosive spiritual winds and other dangerous forces instantly buffeted the portal.

The initial explosion triggered by his son had also inflicted considerable damage, thereby opening up crevices that the corrosive winds eagerly expanded!

Rage and emotion pulsed from the energy supporting the portal as it increasingly dimmed. Even if only a small portion of the vortex was crashing against it, the corrosive nature of the imaginary realm's winds happened to be incredibly dangerous to the portal's integrity!

A soundless explosion took place as the portal collapsed! Cynthia became shocked as she perceived the rage and fear of the enemy that was falling into the cracks between dimensions!

The danger had passed!

Chapter 2407: Silent Battlefield

The battle was over!

Wreckage and ruin spread throughout the battlefield. The final explosion that caused the realms to overlap and the portal to collapse had caused a fair amount of nearby mechs and ships to drift away.

The overlap did not last long after that instance. Cynthia Larkinson immediately stopped channeling the spiritual engine that she and Ves had built.

Without any further support, the unstable region affected by the explosion of the faith-infused Grand Dynamo rapidly stabilized, thereby no longer posing a hazard to the surrounding space.

undefinedAs Ves recovered from the shock of getting slammed away, he quickly tried to regain his bearings. He manipulated his Unending Regalia's customized operating system to connect to the nearby ships and gain a quick overview of the surrounding space.

Practically every ship and mech showed no activity. The emergence of extremely powerful spiritual entities continuously subjected their fragile minds and spirits to heavy suppression.

Even if most of the spiritually-weak individuals were mostly able to avoid the brunt of the pressure, what little of it that managed to leak through was too much for the ordinary mech pilots to bear.

Ves was horrified at how effective these powerful entities could disable entire mech armies with their presence alone! Only those who were more spiritually active such as Ves possessed the capital to fight against them. Every other human stood no chance in combating these creatures!

What actually astounded him even more was the difference in power between the decrepit, half-rotten dark gods of the Nyxian Gap and a single dignitary from the galactic center.

He had no choice but to revise the threat level of the Five Scrolls Compact upwards after seeing how his recently-empowered mother did not even believe she stood a chance against this so-called Temple Protector!

In fact, given how powerful and capable he truly was, Ves couldn't quite believe how quickly his parents and him managed to eliminate such a great threat. Shouldn't someone more versed in spiritual sorcery be more careful about traveling through a space tunnel?

His mother did not seem to show any concern. She already directed her attention elsewhere.

Her monstrous energy projection had dimmed and shrunk a bit. She just expended a lot of energy to feed the spiritual engine that initially caused the two realms to converge. In order to recoup her losses, she proceeded to deconstruct the spiritual engine in order to salvage its energy.

His mother evidently never let an opportunity to salvage some spiritual energy to waste!

"There is no need for you to put up your guard anymore, Ves." She reassuringly said. "The Temple Protector is gone. While I can't say he is dead, he is most certainly gone. Many dimensions are inherently lethal to life. The remainder are so harsh that it will take his utmost to preserve his vitality. If he happens to fall in between the dimensions, then he will never be going back."

"Are you really sure about that? This fellow is one of the most powerful of his kind in the Compact. How can he open himself up to such an obvious vulnerability?"

His mother smirked as she finished absorbing the remnants of the spiritual energy. "The Temple Protector was careless, Ves. Lord Dista is incredibly old and powerful, but he is far from his powerbase. He came alone in order to remain incognito and to keep his rivals from the Ruined Temple in the dark about the treasure you possess. On top of that, he had just arrived at the Nyxian Gap and likely doesn't understand all of the perils of this region. With his arrogance, he thought that none of us could ever harm the portal."

In other words, the Temple Protector failed to follow the basic rules of warfare that Ves and the Larkinson Clan had intimately internalized during this eventful campaign.

Understanding the terrain, hiding your own strength, studying the enemy, forming contingency plans and accounting for failure were all principles that any power needed to master. Only by doing so enabled his forces to defeat more powerful foes that should have been able to win in straightforward battles.

Ves found it difficult that someone who was alive before the arrival of the Age of Mechs could be so stupid. All of the other old monsters he encountered were always calm, calculative and exceedingly careful. They only made huge gambits after setting up elaborate schemes. Senator Tovar was pretty much his model of what a multi-century fossil should be like.

..Then again, he had never met a sane member of the Five Scrolls Compact either. He could easily imagine that the higher-ranking members of the Compact were even crazier than the rank-and-file!

It was too much to expect these unhinged super-fanatics to abide by common sense.

"Okay. If you think the danger has passed, then I'll take your word for it." He swept his gaze around the chaotic battlefield. "The battle is over, but my men are still in danger. There are people in danger but unable to get any help because everyone is knocked unconscious. There are also a lot of intact pirate mechs and warships that can go active at any time to resume the fight."

A lot of work needed to be done to secure the battlefield and stem the damage.

"He's right." Ryncol Larkinson spoke. As the commander of the Oblivion Hand, he knew exactly how crucial it was to take steps right away. "We need to wake our son's subordinates to perform search and rescue and to disarm the surviving pirates."

Ves brought up a concern. "We need to keep matters secret as well. I don't want to reveal you to too many people. Right now, you're already exposed to some of my men, but as long as the numbers remain low, I'm confident that I can control the spread of information."

His mother nodded in agreement. "I have already employed some precautions, but it is best to be thorough."

He briefly discussed the problem with her. Ves was fairly confident he could wipe the data logged by various ships and mechs, but he couldn't do much to the memories of his clansmen. Some of them possessed implants as well that made it tricky to wipe their memories.

"I am not proficient in tampering the minds of people." Cynthia said. "However, it is within my capabilities to scramble their short-term memory, especially since their psyches have already been impacted from the moment the dark gods have come in their true forms. The people I affect won't forget anything, but their memories will lose a lot of detail, similar to trying to recall something that has happened years ago. This is the best I can do without damaging their essence."

"Good. Please do so. For secrecy's sake, they can't know too much."

There were some people in the fleet who possessed implants, but their numbers were small enough for Ves to make other arrangements for them. As for the expert pilots who were most likely still awake, he trusted them all to an extent.

Besides, all of his communications with his parents took place on a spiritual level.

As his giant mother proceeded to fly towards his unconscious men and began to scramble their short-term memories, Ves turned to the Devil Tiger.

He couldn't help but study how much his initial work had changed over the course of a couple of years. He felt a bit regretful that he wasn't the one responsible for converting it into an expert mech.

Still, he felt reassured the mech was in good hands. He could already see that the mech designer who upgraded and took care of the Devil Tiger was very attentive. The person who worked on it was at least a Senior, and a proper one at that.

"Father. Can you bring your mech to my ship so I can tweak it?" He asked.

"Why?"

"I made it, you know. I long wanted to tweak it and update it, but I never got the opportunity to do so. I programmed an auto update routine in its operating system, but it never activated."

"I had our resident head designer remove it." His father said. "I appreciate your efforts, but it's a security risk."

"I understand. Can you at least allow me to check on the mech and see whether I can improve it? If this plan of ours succeeds, you'll be leaving me again, right?"

"That's correct. We are marked. Neither of us can accompany you for fear of leading our enemy towards you. As long as we remain apart, the enemy won't have reason to believe you are involved with us. You need to leave the Nyxian Gap and this entire star cluster when this is over."

"Believe me, that is exactly what I want. Now, can you enter my vessel's hangar bay? There should be enough space to accommodate the Devil Tiger."

"Will do, son."

His father's mech took hold of his armored form and flew to the Scarlet Rose. The large and imposing Devil Tiger smoothly entered the hangar bay and landed on the deck.

Its large wings had to fold into its tightest form possible in order to prevent them from scratching the ceiling!

"We don't have much time, so I'll only apply some quick improvements."

Ves didn't feel safe with the pirates able to wake up at any time. Though he knew his mother would never allow the scum to do any harm, it was best for his own men to take over the battlefield as quickly as possible.

Since the Devil Tiger was already in good hands, Ves didn't feel the need to apply any major changes. Though he didn't quite agree with all of the changes made by its current caretaker, he could live with them, and that was enough.

Ves used his suit to fly up to mech in order to enter the cockpit. He retracted his helmet and grinned as he hugged his father's suited form.

"I missed you so much!"

"Me too, son. You have grown so much." His father smiled back as removed his helmet and disguise. "I'm sorry that I left so abruptly. There is much I wanted to say to you over the years."

"We can talk about it while I work. This won't take too long."

Ves proceeded to dive into the operating system of his mech and began to perform various inspections. He also proceeded to update or modify the settings whenever possible. He had improved considerably ever since he made the masterwork mech, and he wanted to impart as much as he could before he separated from his parents.

One factor that allowed him to wield greater influence of the Devil Tiger was the fact that it was based on ASMAS. While Ves deliberately made it difficult for anyone to alter the programming of pure ASMAS, he was still able to implement some small modifications with the help of his control over the mech's design spirit.

Overall, he improved its autonomous upgrade trajectory and opened it up for suggestions from other mech designers. Ves embedded a set of instructions in the mech so that his father's mech designer would learn about these changes.

This ensured the Devil Tiger would fully be able to embrace more drastic changes that allowed it to reach the level of a second-class expert mech and maybe even first-class expert mech in the future!

While he was at it, he improved the integration of Zeigra into the Devil Tiger so that it became even more difficult to hack the mech.

Of course, he couldn't forget about upgrading the spiritual traits of one of his greatest works.

As an expert mech piloted by someone who had integrated well with it, the Devil Tiger had already developed a strong character.

In fact, not even the Shield of Samar was as strong as the Devil Tiger in this aspect!

Ves sensed the traces of his mother in some areas. This allowed him to skip some procedures. The only significant change he made to the spiritual makeup of the mech was to impart it with a couple of triggered abilities.

He discussed them with his father.

"The Devil Tiger is able to induce corrosion."

"I know." His father grinned. "I have taken advantage of it many times in battle. My opponents never expect that my mech is capable of eating them up from the inside."

"I can improve this and grant you more control over it. Does that sound good to you, dad?"

"You're the mech designer here, Ves. I trust in your ability."

There was something very satisfying about working on a mech piloted by his father. Ves had longed for this moment for so long that it felt surreal to him that he was finally able to access the Devil Tiger again. He missed this mech!

Chapter 2408: A Long Awaited Talk

With his father's permission, Ves decided to add two triggered abilities to the Devil Tiger.

The first one was a Corrosion Pulse that was based on the pulsing abilities of some of his other mech designs. Simply put, the ability allowed the Devil Tiger to release a radial wave that possessed a concentrated corrosion effect.

The closer the enemy, the greater its potency! The best part about the triggered ability was that it was capable of ignoring most physical barriers! Therefore, it was a killer move against any machine with delicate internals. Not even warships were immune to this effect!

The ability worked best against materials and in particular against powerful opponents.

undefinedIn order to complement the Corrosion Pulse ability, Ves added the Primal Roar ability as well.

Based on the roars employed by the dark gods and the fearsome glow of his Doom Guard design, Ves added a way for the Devil Tiger to release a spiritual wave that was able to frighten and intimidate mech pilots.

This was a great way for his father to subdue a large number of enemy pirates. The weaker their wills, the faster they crumbled. Even stronger-willed pirates should experience some difficulties depending on the growth of the Devil Tiger and its design spirit.

Ves didn't have the time to add anything else. He had already accomplished a lot of different improvements in a very short amount of time.

Part of that was because he limited himself to easy changes. At his level of competence, he was able to work quite quickly, taking minutes to accomplish something that would take a typical Apprentice hours to complete.

Another part of it was because he already formulated and stored a lot of different potential improvements in his implant. The benefit of having the Archimedes Rubal was that he could store all of his ideas and build on them whenever he was in the mood to do so. Over years, Ves accumulated quite a lot of them, and now he picked out the most appropriate ones, thereby allowing him to skip hours or days of work.

While he had to work quite intensively to cram all of his desires into the Devil Tiger, he still retained at least some of his focus. He wanted to talk to his father in person for a very long time, and this might be the only window of opportunity he could get in his life.

Once he and his parents went their separate ways, they might not meet each other again. This made it even more important for Ves to cherish this precious moment!

"Dad.. can you tell me who my mother truly is?" Ves hesitantly asked. "She's obviously not normal. Did she used to be part of the Compact?"

"I can't answer that question." His father said as he watched his son work on his mech. "I don't know too much about mother's past. She doesn't want to share too much about it. All I know is that she has spent a long time fleeing from the Compact. She lost all of her companions along the way. The setbacks she suffered and dangers she encountered has marked her deeply. It took a long time for her to recover to an extent. Having you and raising you was a turning point in her life. She was much worse before you were born."

That partially explained why she was so secretive and bossy towards him. Someone who went through a perilous chase across the galaxy must have developed many instincts that were geared towards survival.

"Why did she die early?" He asked. "And how come she was able to get back to life in this form?"

"Do I look like I understand how all of this magic works? While I have long gotten over the shock that people can perform all of these amazing feats, that doesn't mean I understand how it works. I'm just a mech pilot."

"An expert pilot." Ves pointedly replied. "Your sensitivity and understanding towards my mother's magic' should be higher than normal people."

"That doesn't make much of a difference."

Ves momentarily paused his work in order to study his father very closely. Now that he was looking closely, he sensed that his father was different from the other expert pilots that he had encountered.

For one, Ryncol exerted a lot of control over his force of will. He kept an iron grip on it, preventing it from spilling out and affecting the people around him. Whether he did that to avoid influencing his son or because his mother taught him how to do so, it was impressive nonetheless.

What distressed Ves a bit was that his father developed quite an aggressive orientation for his will!

In fact, if he didn't know any better, he felt it was identical to that of Zeigra!

"Dad.. how did you advance to your current rank? As far as I know, you aren't expert pilot material. You are long past the prime age for that. You didn't break through back when you served in the Mech Corps. How come you're completely different?"

In the past, Ves and every Larkinson knew that Ryncol was not comparable to his older brother. Venerable Ark Larkinson advanced early in his career and became a prominent star of the family. This was despite the similar battles they fought in during the previous Bright-Vesia War!

"Your mother 'helped' me, in a way. She told me that I didn't have the qualifications to become an expert pilot, but tried out a method that will allow me to become one by force. It.. it was not something I wanted to experience, but it worked out in the end. I am fully in control of my strength."

"Did she.. merge your mind with the Devil Tiger's design spirit?" Ves asked suspiciously as he observed several worrisome clues.

"I had to fight against the big cat. The two of us were locked in a duel. To prevent him from eating me, I had to be stronger than him in order to absorb him instead."

His father rambled on a bit about his experiences. He wasn't good at describing them, but his words offered Ves enough clues to get the gist of how his mother managed to elevate him to expert pilot.

Ves admired his mother! If he interpreted his father correctly, his mother managed to forcefully elevate his father from a spiritually-weak mech pilot into a potent if abnormal expert pilot!

He eagerly took notes and recorded as much of his thoughts and observations into his implant as possible.

While Ves had already found a way to induce mech pilots with spiritual potential to become expert candidates, he didn't have a solution for the majority who lacked this precious quality.

If Ves could enable some of these normal individuals to advance, then that would open up a lot of potential promotion opportunities for his clansmen!

Of course, he also became aware of risks surrounding the method of his mother. Stuffing a piece of his design spirits in the head of a mech pilot was very dangerous, and he wasn't quite clear what techniques his mother employed to increase the safety and success rate of the merger process.

Ves tentatively labeled this theoretical technique as spiritual talent implantation. This was because it could quite literally implant someone else's talent in spirituality to another person!

The implications were staggering, but so were the many possible ways it could go wrong.

From his current understanding of how spirituality worked, this was an exceedingly dangerous move! The recipient would always be weaker than the donor. This meant that the most likely outcome was that the foreign spiritual fragment would instead absorb the recipient and become the body's new occupant!

Ves briefly shook his head. This was not the time to explore this notion any further. There was plenty of time afterwards to delve in this research topic.

"Your mother died due to succumbing to some sort of fatal wound." His father answered one of his earlier questions. "She did not die of a wound to her body. Otherwise, she could have received treatment from a hospital back in the Bright Republic. Instead, one of her pursuing enemies managed to damage her soul. That was how she explained it to me, at least."

That was a plausible, if worrying answer. If the Five Scrolls Compact was capable of harming people's spirits directly, then they were probably very good at assassination! After all, most people and organizations simply weren't on guard against spiritual attacks!

"Do you know the details about her wound?"

"I think she implied that her enemies destroyed or captured a piece of her soul. She has become incomplete ever since that. She's like a breached starship that is slowly venting air. She told me that she can't fix the hull breach. All she can do is to constantly absorb more air from other sources to keep herself alive. Your mother wasn't able to do that during your childhood, so that was why she died early."

That explained a lot of unanswered questions. No wonder his mother wanted to suck him dry all the time. Just as he suspected, her existence literally depended on it! Fortunately, this shouldn't be much of a problem anymore. His mother had not only grown stronger and gained more options, but also gained access to another source of energy.

"Did she ever explain how she lingered after her death?"

Ryncol shook his head. "No. I'm just happy that she has returned. You cannot imagine the delight I feel for having her back. I don't care what she did to return to life, and I am not versed in the details. I think.. powerful individuals like her don't live and die like normal people. I have always suspected that she is older than she appears."

"How old?"

"Maybe as old as your grandfather."

"Are you serious?!"

"That's just a conservative estimate." His father smiled wryly at Ves. "Other times, she comes across as positively ancient. It's rather strange, because she also has some youthful aspects, though she only shows that side of her when she's happy and relaxed."

If his mother used to be a member of the Compact, then Ves could buy the theory that his mother was much older than his father.

His mother was too strong for her apparent age. Her abilities were so sophisticated that he didn't think that she could possess so much power if she was only fifty or seventy years old. It took a long time to accumulate so much power!

Ryncol did not talk about his wife any further, as he could say little else. Ves found it rather strange that his father knew so little about someone he decided to tie the knot with. This was not typical for a Larkinson!

"This is love, Ves. It doesn't always have to make sense. Sometimes, love doesn't need to abide by a checklist in order to work. No matter how old she is or what kind of weighty past she bears, I love her, and she loves me back. Despite her obvious power and height, she never thought or treated me as lesser. We respect each other, and we had you. Aren't you in a relationship yourself?"

Ves hesitantly smiled. "Yes. She is.. quite a personality. We're quite different, but we respect each other as well. I'm about to get married soon as long as I can get back in time to make it for the wedding."

"I heard."

"Will.. will you be able to attend?"

"You know that's not possible. Unless the threat of the Five Scrolls Compact is completely gone, we won't be able to lift our heads out of the depths of the Nyxian Gap. The last thing we want to do is to draw our enemies towards you. While the Compact is able to track your mother and I, it shouldn't know about our current identities. As long as that is the case, you won't attract their attention. Let's make sure it stays that way."

Chapter 2409: Unwilling Separation

Ves and his father ended their conversation at the same time he finished his work on the mech.

As much as they wanted to take the time to catch up on each other, his parents had to go. His mother not only scrambled the memories of his clansmen, but also made sure they woke up soon.

Once that happened, it was very inconvenient for them to witness Ves acting chummy with the leader of the Oblivion Hand and the energy projection of a giant monstrous woman!

Both Ves and his parents had several good reasons to keep their association as discreet as possible. Nothing good would come if the public became aware of the astounding events that took place during the battle.

undefinedVes was only willing to let the first half of the battle go public. As soon as the Gravada Knarlax started spewing out different kinds of fog-like energy, he did not want the subsequent events to be leaked.

As his parents were ready to say farewell and go, Ves looked emotionally at the Devil Tiger and his mother floating just outside the Scarlet Rose's hangar bay.

"I guess we won't be meeting each other for a very long time." He sighed.

"You're leaving for the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy, right?" His mother asked.

"Yes. I want to explore new opportunities and get away from some of the problems here. I thought it would be a good way to distance myself from the Compact."

"Oh, you'll never be too far away from them. The Compact is everywhere. You can expect their people to be among the pioneers and colonists there. Don't ever let your guard down. As long as you take precautions and as long as you aren't too blatant with displaying your powers, you should be fine."

This happened to be one of Ves' latent concerns. Who knew what would happen if some hidden Compact member stumbled upon one of his mechs one day. Would the cultist be able to tell that Ves was connected to them? This was an outcome that he did not want to see!"

"Are there ways to reduce the risk of discovery?"

"It helps a lot that you don't practice your abilities like them. As long as you work more towards obscuring and mystifying your applications, you will probably be able to lay low. I advise you to take shelter under the Big Two, though. The closer you are to them, the more hesitant the Compact will be to approach you. While the MTA and CFA can't entirely be trusted, they are better than the alternative."

"I'll take that into account." Ves nodded. "Before you go, I just came up with a proposal. Aboard one of our other ships is an alien communication crystal. It's the same kind of crystal that you or your men used to transmit your blueprint. Would you be willing to take one along? While there are a lot of limitations to using the crystals, at the very least we can still stay in touch. That is, if it is secure enough for your liking."

His mother frowned and looked at the Devil Tiger. His parents must be having a private discussion.

"We know about the crystals. You can keep the two you have. Taking one will deprive you of a useful tool and may make your people wonder where it disappeared. Once your father returns to the Oblivion Hand, he will use his contacts to take over one of the other crystals, preferably in secret. Once that happens, we can remain in contact with each other, but only sparingly. We can't risk communicating too much in the event the connections aren't secure. Even I don't understand how this alien technology works."

It was better than nothing, and certainly a more palatable alternative than calling each other over the galactic net!

Ves felt fortunate that he was able to get his hands on the Xona Crystals. He suspected that the oversized crystals were able to communicate with each other through the heavy spatial warping that engulfed the core regions. He also believed their range was unlimited.

This meant that they did not have to make any special arrangements once he reached the Red Ocean.

Instead of forming a portal that would allow them to return to the core regions, his mother and the Devil Tiger instead sped up and began to fly into the distance.

"There are numerous eyes and observers as well as other troublemakers in the periphery. We'll clean them up before we go. Good luck, Ves, and don't play with fire next time."

"Goodbye!"

Ves saw them go with a mixed expression. While the Xona Crystals offered some hope for him to remain in touch with his parents, it was not possible for him to call them daily and have a chat whenever possible.

"Well, let's begin the cleanup."

It didn't take long for the first Larkinsons to wake up. They opened their weary eyes in wonder as they saw the disastrous aftermath of the battle.

So many assets were wrecked! The pirates suffered horrendous losses, but the Larkinsons weren't in good shape either!

Ves immediately took charge of his men. "Stop dazing around and wake your fellow clansmen! Although it doesn't look like it, we won the battle. Please organize yourselves so that we can police the battlefield."

The Larkinsons hesitantly and confusedly began to do what they could. They bumbled around for a time until some of the officers woke up. When leaders such as Major Verle, Commander Melkor and so on began to issue orders, the Larkinsons became more organized.

During this time, some pirates with spiritual potential had begun to wake up as well, but their numbers were too small to threaten the overall picture. The Larkinson mechs began to sweep the enemy mechs while transports and assault shuttles filled with infantry began to board the surviving pirate ships.

While Task Force Predator had lost a lot of ships, the Allidus Alliance still retained much of them. There were not only a lot of intact pirate carriers, but every warship aside from the Gravada Knarlax and Mortis Greyson had made it through without suffering heavy damage!

None of the Larkinsons needed a reminder that securing these warships was a top priority!

In fact, even the crippled hull of the Gravad Knarlax had to be swept clean of pirates. Ves wanted to prevent the surviving pirate crew inside from doing something stupid, such as destroying his loot, activating an intact weapon system or inducing the working power reactors into overloading. A heavy cruiser was still an exceedingly dangerous beast even if it looked as if she was on her deathbed!

Fortunately, the Larkinsons worked quickly and efficiently. Due to manpower and vehicle constraints, they couldn't be as thorough as they liked.

For example, the men only bothered to secure the more valuable-looking assets. There were too many pirate mechs floating in space for the Larkinsons to bother with retrieving them as intact as possible. To prevent their mech pilots from waking up and wreaking havoc, the Larkinson mechs simply pierced their cockpits and killed the pilots inside.

Something similar happened to many pirate carriers and other ships. There wasn't enough infantry to take possession of all of them, so the Larkinson simply blew them up no matter who or what was inside.

Ves winced a bit at the destruction of so many usable assets. The Larkinson fleet lost too many ships. His task force didn't even have enough carriers left to berth all of its surviving mechs!

This meant that his Larkinsons had to capture a lot of carriers in order to accommodate all of the surviving mechs.

Two hours later, Major Verle called Ves to appraise him of the latest developments.

"How is it going? I hope the pirate warships are no longer a threat."

"We have tentatively taken control over them, sir. We have already swept the Artis Fly and the Sundown at least two times as they are only frigates. It is taking longer to sweep the The Ailing Frey, the Cartin Motiva and the Livid Seven. As destroyers, they are larger and more complicated. Our men have already encountered various boobytraps inside. We will need to bring in engineers to thoroughly go over every system to make sure they won't follow malicious programming the pirates have planted as a precaution."

"Well, just shut off the systems. There isn't much they can do if they don't have access to power."

"Believe me, our boarding parties are doing our best, sir." Verle tiredly smiled. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Dealing with these problems is better than suffering a defeat. It is just that the number and scale of our surviving opponents is a bit too big for us to secure right away."

"We're suffering from success." Ves put it succinctly.

The Major nodded and looked sharply at Ves. "Indeed. There.. are a lot of stories circulating around. Many of them sound astounding. What.. happened in the later stages of the battle?"

"Haven't you looked at the footage?"

"I did, but that has only made me more confused. The footage is not only fuzzy, but each of us are getting headaches whenever we try to think back on what exactly occurred."

Ves smirked. His mother didn't let him down in this regard. "I can't satisfy your curiosity. It will harm the Larkinson Clan if the details are spread. Make sure that everyone doesn't look too hard on what happened at the end. Have I made myself clear?"

Though Verle obviously did not like to be deprived of information, he understood the danger of spreading dangerous information. As a former intelligence operative, he took part in several coverups. This was no different in his regard.

"Understood, sir. I have already received word that Calabast and the Black Cats are scrubbing as many systems as possible."

Ves knew, because that was the first order he gave his spymaster after he slapped her awake. "Let the Black Cats do their work without obstruction. Now, what can you tell me about the state of the Gravada Knarlax?"

"I believe Ophelia Kronon can tell you more about the ship's condition. Right now, our boarding parties still haven't finished their initial sweeps. There are too many decks and compartments to go through."

"Have you found Lord Hivex? I can't imagine how much damage he can do if he wakes up and takes control of the remaining systems of the heavy cruiser."

Crippled or not, Ves knew that ships were built to take a beating! This was especially the case for warships and large ones at that. Her rear turret had not suffered any significant damage. As long as it woke up, it could do immense damage to the remnants of the Larkinson fleet!

"We are on it, sir. Trust in our men. While our infantry aren't as flashy as our mech pilots, they know what to do in this situation. They have drilled extensively on how to board and take over many different varieties of warships in the last month."

This was the power of preparation. It would have been a lot different if the pirate armada ambushed Task Force Predator out of the blue!

Though Ves still felt concerned about possible accidents, there wasn't much he could do short of boarding the crippled flagship himself. While he was very interested in doing so, he doubted that his circle of advisors would agree to such a reckless decision.

"Have your men retrieved all of the expert pilots and expert candidates?" He changed the topic.

Verle smiled a little brighter. "Yes. As the current and future standard bearers of our clan, I have made sure that they are receiving our best care. Of the expert mechs, all of them are exhausted. Venerable Tusa has suffered heavy injuries, though. Something smashed his mech apart and transferred a lot of shock to the cockpit."

"Will he survive?"

"He'll make it. Dr. Ranya Wodin is already administering to him in person. She is optimistic about his recovery, though it will take a lot of time and treatment."

"Oh. Okay." Ves no longer worried about the light mech expert pilot. "What about our expert candidates? How many survived?"

Verle shrugged. "We don't even know how many have originally broken through to expert candidates. According to the current figures, we have brought in nine injured or exhausted expert candidates. I don't think there are any more. None of the other surviving mech pilots have triggered the resonance sensors."

Only nine made it through. The Inexorable One had slain the rest. Ves lowered his head. This was a heavy loss.

"There were others. They burned bright and sacrificed themselves so that we may live."

"They deserve to be honored."

"Our clan will not forget their names."

Chapter 2410: Fallen Grandeur

Occasional fighting erupted inside the ships of the pirates. Boarding parties consisting of well-armed and well-trained infantry stormed through the passageways and compartments like enforcers quelling a riot.

The difference in gear and organization gave the invaders a considerable advantage. While the internal defenses of the ships were quite robust, the Larkinsons possessed too much excellent gear for those measures to make a difference!

Infiltrators ran ahead to sabotage key defenses. Saboteurs blocked essential power flows. No matter how well the pirates built their warships, their tech and sophistication fell far short of that built by proper organizations.

Not even the flagship of the Allidus Alliance resisted the invasion. Already damaged and partially crippled, there was too much chaos to organize the surviving crew properly. They barely woke up and couldn't do anything.

undefinedThe Black Cats prioritized knocking out as many command and control systems as possible, thereby isolating the crew from each other. They also deployed numerous jammers throughout the ship, thereby preventing the pirates from relaying messages to each other through short-ranged wireless communications.

All of this enabled the Larkinsons to divide and conquer the considerably large ship! By attacking the numerous sections of the ship one by one, the Larkinsons didn't have to employ too many squads of infantrymen at a time, thereby allowing other troops to be sent to other ships.

Ves constantly kept himself appraised of the situation as the massive cleanup operation continued.

Just to be safe, Major Verle prioritized resupplying and servicing the most intact mechs the Larkinsons retained.

There wasn't much left. The secondary gun batteries of the pirate warships had ripped through numerous mechs. The thousands of pirate mechs had also exacted a considerable price.

The Larkinsons were still counting their losses, but in the initial hours, less than forty percent of mechs were still capable of putting up a fight.

Ves did not mourn too much for the fallen mechs. Alive or not, they served their purpose. Ves could easily rebuild or replace them in time.

What he truly cared about was the loss of life, particularly the lives of mech pilots. Ves considered every bloodied, veteran mech pilot to be a treasure. After all of the battles they lived through, they were destined to become the backbone of the militant arm of the Larkinson Clan.

Forged in battle, united by brotherhood, tested through hardship, Ves knew exactly how important it was to have his future mech forces led by those who experienced true war together rather than training for it in false simulations.

"This is something that money can't buy." He murmured as he sat behind his desk while stroking Lucky's back.

"Meow." His cat tiredly replied.

Even hiring existing veteran mech pilots didn't quite cut it. No matter their prior experiences, they weren't brothers yet. The newcomers wouldn't be able to integrate with the Larkinson Clan's martial tradition unless they fought at the side of other Larkinsons!

In the future, the Larkinsons who earned glory in this bloody campaign would definitely dominate the hierarchy of the clan. This was inevitable as the Larkinson culture centered around rising to prominence by achieving great and difficult feats.

The Larkinsons who had stayed behind at Cinach VI may be happy that their lives were never at risk, but this safety came at a price!

"I will definitely continue to have more say over the clan than Gloriana after I reunite with her." He confidently stated.

"Meow?" Lucky swatted his tail against his hand.

"I am being serious!"

"Meow meow!"

"You've been sitting out the entire last battle. Your opinions don't matter!"

"Meeeeoow!"

"Producing some gems is hardly a contribution! It's your job to begin with. If you weren't so bad at digesting Unending alloy, you could have produced a lot more of them in the same time span. If we had a dozen more Highly Unstable Chaos Essence gems, we could have probably blown up the Gravada Knarlax straight away before the cultists inside had a chance to summon their dark gods!"

The painful battle illustrated that the Larkinsons were still too weak. If his mech pilots all piloted second-class mechs, then they likely wouldn't have lost so many lives.

Upgrading the combat assets of his clan would likely become his highest priority after his wedding.

He was tired of seeing his clansmen die because they were still making use of third-class mechs and ships.

These low-tech, thinly-armored constructions may have been suitable for him once, but he no longer placed third-class states and organizations within his eyes. Only second-class states offered what he and his clan needed to grow stronger!

"Acquiring ships won't be a problem, but the mechs are going to take a lot of work." He muttered.

The LMC's design capacity was limited. He wanted his clan to depend entirely on his own mechs. With the various innovations he developed, he could offer each and every Larkinson mech pilot numerous unique advantages that would definitely put them ahead of the competition.

As Ves ruminated over his future plans, he received an incoming hail.

The projector came to life, displaying Calabast in infiltrator gear. The background showed that she was in some sort of command center.

"Have there been any new developments on the takeover of the Gravada Knarlax?" He asked.

"We're still working on it. There are some stubborn holdouts who have locked themselves in vaults and other difficult-to-breach compartments."

"Did you focus on securing the ammunition stores? I don't want any crazy pirates getting the bright idea of detonating the ship's entire complement of nuclear missiles at once."

She looked contemptuously at him. "We're not stupid. Our men immediately secured the most volatile compartments like the engineering bay and central control systems after we managed to obtain some maps of the ship. Still, there are plenty of other compartments that we are trying to clear. It will take at least two days to gain initial control over the vessel."

The internal volume of an 800 meter-long ship was huge. A small city might stretch across a wider surface area, but the most defining traits about modern starships was that they were composed of many different decks stacked on top of each other. This effectively made it so that a ship as large as the Gravada Knarlax offered a lot of ground for the pirates to make their last stand!

"How stubborn are the pirates?"

"Very." Calabast replied dryly. "The Allidus Alliance is one of the most powerful pirate factions in the Nyxian Gap, and the crew of the flagship largely consists of the most well-trained, diehard elites. It's safe to say that most of them aren't willing to surrender. So far, we have killed the majority while injuring the remainder to the point where they can't resist."

Ves thought for a moment. "You don't have to try too hard to capture them all alive. If it's easier to kill them on the spot, then just do so. It's too dangerous to leave them to their own devices."

"We can earn a greater bounty if we surrender them to the authorities alive, Ves. All of them have valuable intelligence that is of great interest to many people in civilized space."

"We have already won the most important prizes as far as I'm concerned."

"Very well. I'll tell the men to speed up their work."

They moved on to the reason why Calabast called.

"There is an update on the status of Lord Hivex. He's.. dead."

Ves closed his eyes and let out a disappointed breath.

On one hand, he felt relieved. The owner of the heavy cruiser could have used his remaining authority to trigger a lot of mischief.

On the other hand, he was disappointed. Capturing him alive would have yielded Ves a lot of high-level intelligence on the Nyxian Gap. Parading him around in chains would have also brought a lot of glory and honor to the Larkinson Clan. It just wasn't the same if the enemy leader was reduced to a corpse.

"How intact is the body?" Ves asked another important question.

"I'll let you see for yourself."

A new projection appeared that depicted a luxurious and spacious compartment that was filled with trophies.

Ves immediately recognized it as Lord Hivex's stateroom. When he compared the pirate lord's abode with the compartment he currently resided, he felt deeply inadequate.

The plush compartment in the projection befitted how a true great leader should decorate his personal space! The wall of weapons, the display cases of personal effects and the banners of fallen organizations all exemplified the past glory of the Nyxian pirate leader.

When Ves finally received his factory ship from the Hegemony, he resolved to set up something similar. He already set aside a bunch of trophies from the strong opponents he defeated in the past.

Ves focused on the only discordant element in the room. Sitting behind a desk that was much more imposing than his own was the former leader of the Allidus Alliance himself.

His grand armor with its numerous trophies and markings looked as magnificent as ever. What was wrong with this picture was that Lord Hivex's head was missing!

He had to zoom in the projection in order to figure out what had happened to it. He could see that the corpse had dropped a laser pistol onto the deck. That explained why the neck featured strong burn marks.

"I see. He destroyed his own head in order to deny us the opportunity to parade him as a recognizable captive."

"I can imagine he also did so to destroy every cell in his brain." Calabast added. "That's a shame. The good news is that not every senior officer aboard the Gravada Knarlax has chosen to go out prematurely like their leader. If we storm them fast enough, they won't have the time to shoot their own heads."

"Hmm. They probably don't know as much, though. From what we have seen from the other pirate organizations, most of the secrets are concentrated at the top."

"That's pirates for you. Trust is in short supply here. Well, I'll get back to supervising the takeover operation."

"Good luck."

Some time after this call, Ves received an update from Major Verle.

"Sir, our security situation is deteriorating. Right now, we are still in the middle of pirate territory, and I don't trust the surrounding pirate groups to sit still for long. While it is rather strange that the scouts and other groups in our vicinity have disappeared, our forward scouts have detected some pirate gangs forming temporary alliances. It's clear that they think we are weak."

Ves frowned. While he was grateful that his parents cleaned up the peripheral threats, they couldn't linger too long. There were still many pirates left in Maynard Fields that had adopted the attitude of waiting to see whether they could pick up a bargain.

"Do we have enough mechs to deter these hyenas?"

"We're not sure. Certainly, I think we probably have enough strength left to defeat these rabble, but even with our new expert pilots and expert candidates, it's inevitable for us to suffer further losses. We need to project greater strength during this sensitive time. As long as we can stall the gathering pirates for a few days, we can restore enough mechs."

"How do you intend to do that?"

Major Verle smirked. "We have the opportunity to take over basic control of the relatively intact pirate warships. Would you like us to expend our efforts on a single destroyer or a pair of frigates?"

If he uttered those words in civilized space, the Big Two would have marked him for death!

"I don't think the frigates are big enough to form enough of a deterrent." Ves thought.

"I agree, but having two ships instead of one offers us more tactical flexibility."

"The smaller and weaker pirates we are facing don't respect that concept. They're much simpler, I think. The bigger the gun, the greater the deterrent. Even if it's a lot more difficult, just focus on controlling a single destroyer as soon as possible. Shoot some asteroids with its guns. Give the secondary gun batteries some exercise. I bet as soon as the pirate scouts observe these movements, their superiors will think twice about launching an attack!"

"I like how you think, sir."

"I learn from the best."

Chapter 2411: Braver

The Larkinsons succeeded in bringing a warship online. They chose to spend their efforts on the Ailing Frey, as that happened to be the latest and most modern warship of the Allidus Alliance.

While it was too much to ask the incoming personnel to control the ship as well as the original crew, the Ailing Frey was not that difficult to bring online.

As long as the Black Cats hacked the ship systems and made sure to sweep them for traps and safeguards, the engineers and officers came face-to-face with friendly, user-friendly control systems.

This did not surprise Ves. A good maker always took his target audience into account. While the Allidus Alliance was certainly well-run, it couldn't ask too much of its own personnel! Most were pirates with mixed backgrounds. Expecting them to run a ship as complex as a CFA warship was way too unrealistic.

undefinedTherefore, the pirate shipwrights who designed and built the Ailing Frey not only made sure to keep the interfaces and control systems as self-explanatory as possible, they also made sure include dummy modes!

Though relying on simplified controls did not allow the Larkinson prize crew to make full use of the Ailing Frey's capabilities, it took a record couple of hours to get the powerful destroyer to move.

It only took a half hour after that for the temporary crew to figure out how to operate the main gun battery.

When her forward turret started swiveling, many of the Larkinsons in the vicinity grew nervous. Nearby Larkinson mechs on patrol went on high alert. As soon as the massive gun turret directed its aim at an existing Larkinson asset, they would definitely do everything possible to shut it down by force!

Fortunately, no weird programming took over the turret's systems. No traps triggered. The Black Cats already surmised that the Allidus pirates were too confident in their own strength to believe that their enemies would capture their own ships.

Ves was in the design lab of the Scarlet Rose when the captured Ailing Frey fired her main armament once again.

The turret slowly swiveled until its triple barrels were able to point their muzzles towards a certain direction in the distance.

A moment later, the three laser cannons simultaneously fired! Three bright red beams instantly soared across space, threading numerous nearby asteroids and striking a distant pirate carrier at once!

Ves clapped with glee. "Great accuracy!"

The ship hit by the lasers was just a small converted carrier. Her thin hull barely offered any resistance against the powerful lasers. The beams managed to transfer an enormous amount of heat inside, thereby causing untold internal damage.

Just a minute after getting hit, the pirate vessel was already flying out of control. A small number of escape pods and mechs desperately launched from the doomed ship as she finally crashed into an asteroid!

Many nearby pirates managed to observe the disastrous sight. Their ships and mechs quickly raced away from the battlefield. If the Larkinsons managed to get the Ailing Frey to hit one of their own at this distance, then remaining here was suicide!

"Hahaha! Look at them run! Serves those pirates right!" Rina Orion gloated.

The others in the design lab became impressed as well.

"So this is the power of a warship in our hands." Zanthar sighed with admiration.

Dukan French crossed his arms. "The Ailing Frey is pretty nice, but the real prize is the Gravada Knarlax."

"Can we step aboard those ships to study their systems, sir?" Estelle Lynwood asked. "I'm especially interested in taking a look at how they engineered their massive primary armament!"

"All in due time." Ves replied. "We haven't completely swept it clean of threats as of yet. Give our crews some time to gain more control over the systems."

The battle that the Larkinsons had just won had impacted the Braves remarkably. Though Ves hadn't spared any attention for his assistants, they acquitted themselves decently this time.

The Battle of Ulimo Citadel had caused them to enter into full-blown panic. This time, they made sure to control themselves and each other. Though they did not play any role during the fight, Ves was already proud of the progress they achieved. They were truly beginning to live up to their moniker as Braves.

"Teacher, we've gained a lot of new expert pilots, right?" Maikel asked.

"All of the candidates we used to have broke through." Ves confirmed. There was no reason for hism to keep this secret. "In addition, we have also welcomed a batch of new expert candidates to the fold."

Maikel looked incredibly impressed. "Wow. I never heard of so many experts breaking through! This is a miracle! Did they all break through with the help of the work you have performed on your mechs?"

"There are many factors that affect a mech pilot's chances of advancing." Ves awkwardly coughed. "Certainly, although I would like to believe that piloting our living mechs has helped, there are too many variables in play to know for certain. I think the single most significant contributing factor is the fact we clashed against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent. Situations like these always squeeze out the potential in those who have the courage to face the enemy despite the odds."

Many mech designers in the design lab nodded in agreement. This was not an exotic theory in the mech community. The Larkinson Clan highly advocated for its truth as well.

It was just that not everyone had the stomach to develop themselves when they were weak and vulnerable. Too many mech pilots preferred to take it slow and steady and only begin to fight in glorious battles when they advanced to expert candidate.

This mentality was entirely wrong as far as Ves was concerned! True courage came from facing adversity rather than bullying the weak. Strong pilots such as Joshua and Tusa both polished their wills long before they became exceptional. It was the progress they made during this early period that largely formed the foundation of their future success.

However, Maikel, who was very interested in living mechs, was not entirely satisfied with this answer.

"Could our new expert pilots have reached this level if they were piloting something other than your mechs?"

"I don't know." Ves truthfully answered, though he interpreted his student's question very loosely. "We would have to perform a large-scale systematic investigation to make any solid conclusions. A small sample size of four mech pilots, five if you count Venerable Jannzi, is wholly insufficient to make any definite statements. We would need to perform a massive quantitative experiment involving at least several thousand mech pilots split into at least two different groups. One group would be piloting our best LMC mechs while the control group would be stuck with piloting the closest non-LMC equivalents."

"Aren't we doing that now? Our clan's mech troops are already split up like this. Maybe we can announce to the galaxy that our mechs are truly capable of helping mech pilots advance. We'll become famous!"

Bonk!

"Ouch! That hurts, teacher!"

Ves did not regret knocking Maikel on the head. "Don't be crazy! Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. What if you're wrong? What if some other factor such as the unique environment is the main cause? We'd be ruining our reputations if we're proven wrong!"

"We would also be painting a target on our backs if your guess happens to be true." Catherine Evenson-Larkinson added. As a former scion of a noble house, she was much more astute in these matters. "While it shouldn't be unusual if one or two expert pilots or expert candidates emerge from the Battle against the Abyss, gaining four of the former and nine of the latter is a bit too exaggerated, especially when you consider that we fielded less than a thousand mechs."

"We're Larkinsons." Maikel retorted. "Our mech pilots are way better than others. Combined with the fact that many of them have been piloting our teacher's mechs, it shouldn't be a surprise we gained so many powerful additions."

"You fool! Just think about it. We have witnessed thirteen breakthroughs when we fielded less than half of a mech regiment's worth of mechs. That's a ratio of roughly 1 percent. While a single percent doesn't sound that much, the ratio is at least an order of magnitude smaller in any other outfit or military unit, and that is usually expressed across years, not the span of a single battle!"

Catherina had a good point. Ves worried a lot about the concerns she raised. If she could make this basic observation, so could others. He was already dreading his next conversation with Master Willix. Other authorities might also wish to investigate the circumstances of the so-called Battle against the Abyss.

Ves didn't know where that name came from. It certainly sounded dramatic enough to reflect the astonishing events, and it sounded a lot better than something generic such as 'Battle of Some Random Asteroids' or 'Subjugation of the Gravada Knarlax', among other suggestions.

He was already thinking about how to address these issues. The last thing he wanted was the MTA forcing him to take up residency at Halcyon Citadel. There was no way that he was willing to give up his freedom and autonomy!

"Ugh. This isn't going to be easy."

At least it was better than suffering a defeat. This was one of the better outcomes that he and his clan achieved.

Ves continued to check up on his Braves on an individual basis. He approached and talked to each of them in person for several reasons.

First, he wanted to verify how much they remembered from the previous battle. Those with stronger spiritual potential managed to remain conscious longer than the others.

Second, he wanted to check whether the Battle against the Abyss had left any serious scars in their psyche.

His quick inspection did indeed allow him to observe some worrying signs. Ves mentally noted down the names of those who showed signs of trauma and made sure to assign some counselors to them as soon as possible.

After witnessing how much battlefield trauma could warp someone like Carlos into a different person, Ves did not want his Braves to break before he could even earn a return on his investment in their development!

During these quick checkups, Ves encountered a very unexpected surprise.

As Catherine Evenson confidently sat down, Ves noted a change in her demeanor.

That wasn't strange in itself. Harrowing battles usually had that effect.

What was different about Catherine was that she appeared to be more confident and brave! This was the opposite of what he saw in others.

When Ves observed the former Sentinel noble with his spiritual vision, it took all he got not to jump in surprise.

To his utter amazement, Catherine had abruptly gained spiritual potential!

While it didn't look exceptional to him, the fact that she had become spiritually active at all was a very positive development.

If Catherine could do it, so could others!

Still, Ves grew confused. How did she manage to develop spiritual potential? Was it the same as mech pilots, where overwhelming pressure caused them to bring out their latent strength?

That didn't sound quite right.

"Catherine. What do you think of the previous battle?"

It is an amazing fight, and one that we will never forget." She said with a smile. "Aside from the trouble that I have mentioned, our clan will definitely gain a lot of prestige for this. If we can haul the Gravada Knarlax and the other pirate warships to civilized space intact, then I suggest we hold a triumphant celebration. With props like these, our reputation will definitely rise to meteoric heights! This will grant us numerous advantages in the coming years."

"You're right, Catherine. I'll take your words into account. You don't need to worry too much about these issues. You're a mech designer. You have been making some good progress already. Keep it up and there might be a promotion in store."

"Truly?"

"I am a man of my word."

Pushing her into working harder would enable her to tap into her new potential more quickly.

Chapter 2412: Celebrity Endorsements

The Battle against the Abyss did not just ripple through the Nyxian Gap, but also beyond!

Of course, it took some time for those in the Komodo Star Sector to learn about the outcome of this long-awaited confrontation.

For more than a day, the Larkinsons in the Nyxian Gap hadn't transmitted any messages back to the clan members who remained in civilized space.

There were good reasons for that. First, they didn't want to transmit any sensitive information that Ves and the clan would rather keep under wraps. Second, even if they wanted to share the good news, they had no way to transmit their messages.

undefinedThis was because their ships no longer possessed any quantum entanglement nodes!

A short time before the Battle against the Abyss commenced, Ves commanded all of the nodes to be destroyed.

The Black Cats made sure to remove every single communication device capable of communicating with the galaxy outside! Without any means to connect to the galactic net, Ves didn't have to worry about the Larkinson fleet leaking out sensitive information.

He did not even let off the Darkbreak module. His men had secretly removed the MTA communications device from the Scarlet Rose and hid it inside a random asteroid.

Right now, a detachment of Larkinson mechs were cautiously on their way to retrieve the precious device. Ves needed it back to talk to Master Willix on a frank basis. The clan also needed it for other communication.

In fact, the Gravada Knarlax and some of the other pirate ships that fell into their hands possessed quantum communication nodes as well.

According to Calabast, the pirates didn't build or buy them legitimately. Instead, they just stole from their prey.

None of these quantum communication nodes survived the battle. As soon as the dark gods appeared onto the battlefield, the pressure and interference they emanated caused the sensitive nodes to break.

"That is an unexpectedly good outcome." Calabast reported to Ves as the initial takeover of the Gravada Knarlax neared completion. "Quantum communication nodes are fairly sensitive to outside shock and influence. While there are reinforced nodes for sale that are better able to cope with adverse conditions, the pirates all sourced their nodes from privately-owned ships."

Third-class private sector starships rarely hosted reinforced nodes. They cost so much that they could easily eat through half of the budget of the ship in some cases. There was no way that any customer wanted to pay such a huge premium to obtain a simple ship! They would rather spend their money on other features such as faster propulsion or larger cargo holds.

Though Ves preferred not to talk to Master Willix again so soon, he knew he had to take the initiative to act proactively. If he simply did nothing, then the MTA would certainly begin to demand an explanation.

Due to the enormous power disparity between the Larkinson Clan and the Association, Ves would have no choice but to obey every instruction!

"I need to control the narrative."

This extended beyond just his relationship with the MTA. Though his clansmen were still in the process of tallying losses and comprehending the magnitude of what had taken place, the scope of casualties would soon become known to everyone.

The figures didn't look good.

"How many dead, major?"

Major Verle recited the figures from his data pad. "Sir, during this battle alone, we have lost around 140 Avatar mech pilots, 80 Sentinel mech pilots, 30 Battle Crier mech pilots, 30 Vandal mech pilots, 2 Swordmaiden mech pilots and also 60 Penitent Sister mech pilots. Naturally, we lost a lot more of the other personnel when so many of our ships went down. With more than thirty ships lost so far and many more damaged, over 6,000 Larkinsons have died, along with plenty of Penitent Sisters as well. This is the first time in our entire run that we suffered such serious losses from our ship crews and support personnel."

Before that, the only significant loss in that area was when an anomalous hazard caused the disappeare of the Nova Krokaw. Compared to that little incident, the deaths from this battle were much worse! Not even the preemptive evacuation measures helped reduce this figure all that much.

Ves rubbed his forehead. "It could have been worse. Still, with so many clansmen gone, the hole they've left in the clan is enormous. It will be difficult for our remaining men to get over so many deaths."

He grew concerned about whether he could hold onto his position. When he and the Larkinson Assembly formulated the governing rules of the clan, the position of clan patriarch did not come with absolute power.

This was necessary in order to reassure the rest of the clan that their highest leader remained accountable. While the barrier to remove the clan patriarch was high, it was not an impossible hurdle to overcome.

Right now, Ves felt it was very realistic for eighty percent of the Assembly members to vote for his removal! While he had helped the clan rise, ruinous battles like these also proved that he could easily lead it to ruin!

"What I'm worried about are the reactions from the Avatars and Sentinels, sir." Major Verle noted. "These two groups comprise the mainstay of our clan. Any dissatisfaction from them will have far-reaching effects. At the same time, gaining their support will offer you a lot of internal support. The influence of the soldiers in our clan is very substantial. Buying them over means you automatically gain the support of the majority."

The former Brighter possessed a good grasp on what it took to swing people's opinions. When he pointed out that Ves only needed to focus on swaying the Avatars and Sentinels, the problem didn't appear to be so unsurmountable anymore.

Still, Ves wasn't sure whether the two groups would be easy to persuade.

"The Avatars are my original loyalists." He surmised. "While my standing in their eyes has certainly taken a hit from this battle, I can still bank on my existing popularity. After all, out of all of our mech forces, I invested a lot of resources and attention in them. I also have a good relationship with some key personnel. As for the Sentinels…"

His face grew ugly. He called up the casualty figures of the Sentinel mech pilots.

When his task force initially crossed over into the Nyxian Gap, the Sentinels boasted a grand mech roster of 500 mech pilots.

While the Avatars brought 600 mech pilots, that was mostly because Ves did not give them a choice.

The Avatars were the elites of the Larkinson Clan. As the prime mech pilots who everyone in the clan should look up to in the future, they needed to be prepared to fight any battle under any circumstances so long as they wore their gold-and-white uniforms.

If any of them disagreed with these terms, then they were welcome to depart after they ended their tours.

In contrast to the high expectations placed upon the Avatars, the Sentinels had it relatively easy. This was the organization for soldiers and mech pilots who wanted to commit to defending the Larkinson Clan but still be able to maintain an optimal work-life balance.

In the old Larkinson Family, Ves met plenty of people like that. Not every Larkinson was cut out to be a full-throated soldier. In fact, many survivors of the Bright-Vesia Wars typically transitioned from full dedication to looking to start a family.

His father was no exception.

Therefore, subjecting the Sentinels to successive battles where they sustained heavy losses was not a good reflection of his leadership!

It did not matter that these 500 Sentinels consisted of volunteers. Each of them entrusted their lives to him. When they signed up to take part in this excursion, they looked forward to taking part in a great endeavor.

They did not expect to go through a gauntlet where those who showed any weakness were mercilessly culled!

Yet that was exactly what happened. Of the 500 Sentinels that initially took part, only around 120 mech pilots were left alive!

Of that figure, some were heavily injured and some had lost the ability to pilot mechs, thereby making the overall picture worse.

Ves continually furrowed his brows. If he was a Sentinel, he would probably feel pissed at the insanely greedy clan patriarch that constantly picked a fight against the pirates!

Even though the Sentinels were the weakest mech pilots of the Larkinson Clan, their influence reached far. They were the closest to the non-militant Larkinsons, and they valued family the most.

Fortunately, Major Verle was not without ideas. "The situation is not as hopeless as you think, sir. Directly gaining the support of the Sentinels is a bad idea. We are both good speakers, but there is only so much of the ugly truth that words can cover up. Engaging the Sentinels directly when they have suffered such a huge loss is.. not wise."

"Then what do you suggest instead?"

"We approach a small but key group of mech pilots that the Sentinels universally respect."

"Pardon?"

"Our expert pilots, Ves!" Major Verle smiled. "The one trait that every mech pilot has in common is that they always admire and respect the few who have managed to become expert pilots. We have five of them in our fleet. Gaining the support of this small group of stakeholders is a much better way to influence the Sentinels than any direct appeal. It's no different from leveraging celebrity endorsements."

This was quite an astute plan! Ves lit up after he heard this. While expert pilots were different from normal people, he was still confident he could sway all of them to support him as long as he talked to them on an individual basis.

"I already have Venerable Joshua in the bag." He confidently stated. There was no doubt that his greatest fan would stick to him unless he literally started eating babies! "Commander Dise probably doesn't care about the losses suffered by the rest of the clan, but that in turn means her influence isn't great. Commander Orfan has a bit more sway, but I'm not sure of her stance."

"Venerable Orfan may have developed some misgivings, but I believe she is still on your side." Verle noted. "She is no stranger to losses. She just needs to believe that we haven't needlessly thrown the lives of our clansmen away. The deaths have to be meaningful for her to accept the outcome."

That didn't sound too tricky. Ves was already beginning to warm up his Devil Tongue.

"It's always refreshing to talk to an expert pilot. While they're annoyingly stubborn, they're very predictable as a response. I just need to know how they think and how they act to formulate my approach."

"I will send you the updated behavior profiles of our expert pilots later today."

"That leaves us with Venerable Tusa and Venerable Jannzi. Both of them aren't exactly my fans."

"Are you confident that you can get them to back you up for the decisions you've made up to this point?" Verle asked.

"Uhmm… no? I've already talked to Venerable Jannzi about a similar topic before. She's very difficult to budge. As for Tusa, I don't know what he thinks, but I haven't exactly treated him well."

"Well, the effect we want to accomplish won't be as good if you can only receive the endorsement of three expert pilots rather than five. You truly need all five of them to give the Sentinels the impression that every new pillar of the Larkinson Clan is fully in favor of your leadership. It will be very difficult for the dissenters to continue to voice their doubts on you. It would be like hitting on the faces of the expert pilots."

This sounded like a relatively clever scheme.

"Let's do this, then." Ves said. "We'll have to move quickly before the negative sentiment spreads."

Getting all five expert pilots to support him was difficult, but Ves believed he could find a way!

Chapter 2413: Unforgettable Tour

Just like before, Ves brought his students and Braves on an eye-opening tour.

Hardly any human in the galaxy enjoyed the unique privilege of stepping aboard an actual warship!

The myths and legends surrounding this incredibly destructive class of warships caused the younger mech designers to feel apprehensive about getting close.

Yet hidden behind the glint of their eyes, Ves noticed their intense curiosity and excitement.

undefinedAs mech designers, their job was to make weapons of war. While they favored mechs the most, they eagerly looked forward to studying an actual warship from within!

"Alright. We're here. Put your helmets up and remember the safety rules."

As soon as their large shuttle descended in one of the hangar bays of the Gravada Knarlax, they emerged from their vehicle in hazard suits and other protective gear.

The hangar bay used to be organized pretty well. The Allidus Alliance may not have been so diligent in organizing its other vessels, but it did not dare to neglect its pride and flagship.

If not for the collapsed sections and all of the vehicles and equipment crashed into the bulkheads, the clan could have made use of this place as an extra place to store the numerous wrecks floating in space!

"Wow. Does the rest of the intact portions of the ship look as bad?"

Ves shook his head. "Not quite. This hangar bay is fairly close to the damaged starboard section of the ship. Further ahead, the compartments aren't in as much disarray. Loose objects and unsecured equipment may have been flung against bulkheads or other obstacles, but there aren't too many of those. The ship is designed to take a lot of punishment. In fact, if not for certain abnormal circumstances, the Gravada Knarlax could have fought on even in this awful state."

It took a lot of sacrifices for his task force to even inflict this much damage.

The Penitent Sisters lost most of their combat carriers to the Gravada Knarlax's main cannons just to allow two more vessels to crash into the starboard side of the heavy cruiser.

Even then, the ship still held on with the help of the Hallowed Abyss Temple!

The warship's bow section suffered a lot of damage when Joshua charged into it. Flush with power from his perfect breakthrough, he managed to summon a powerful energy projection of the Larkinson Clan's ancestral spirit. This was the first time that the Golden Cat directly fought in a battle!

Many Larkinsons still remembered this glorious moment. This was before the dark gods emerged and exerted their soul-pressing auras. Ves had no intentions of hiding it because he wanted to boost the reputation of one of his strongest supporters.

"Let's take a look inside."

Ves and his mech designers proceeded to cross the messy hangar bay. They moved through the passageways and entered some random compartments. The Gravada Knarlax packed a lot of functions. Some of the more important ship components took up multiple decks. Witnessing the sheer scale of some of those systems left an unforgettable impression in their minds!

Of course, the most exciting stop of their tour was when they visited the aft turret system. This behemoth of a turret could fire enormous rounds that were capable of piercing through dozens of mechs or punching a hole in most of the ships of the Larkinson Clan!

The sheer amount of decks occupied by the turret mechanisms reflected the enormous capacity it took to host such a powerful weapon.

"Look at all of the space the pirates had to reserve for this weapon system!" Moltar Ringer remarked. "The turret that is exposed on the hull is just the tip of the iceberg."

Rina nodded and grunted. "Turrets that big don't rotate by themselves. The ammunition feeding system also has to be big enough to make it safe to insert another round in the main cannons."

"Just look at the size of them!" Zanthar stepped towards a secure stack of ballistic shells that looked ready to be fed into the cannons. "They're almost as big as a light mech!"

What was interesting about the Gravada Knarlax was that the ship actually possessed multiple types of rounds. Ves along with many of his assistants closely inspected these huge projectiles.

"They're all simple, but big."

"That's enough to turn this ship into the terror of the Nyxian Gap."

There was something very inspiring about studying the armament of a huge warship. This was a completely new experience for all of the Braves.

While Ves once had the pleasure of residing in a crashed CFA battleship, he never really got to access any of her formidable armaments from the inside.

There was something brutally inspiring about pirate engineering. Simple and uncomplicated, the pirates harkened back to an early age when they built their warships.

"How barbaric." Catherine Evenson shook her head in disapproval. "We no longer live under the tyranny of warships. These blasted pirates should all be wiped out for trying to bring back the Age of Conquest."

She still shared a lot of sentiment for her former state. The Sentinel Kingdom often bore the brunt of Nyxian pirate attacks. Taking down the main fleet of the Allidus Alliance and capturing a large portion of their warships definitely weakened them as a whole!

In a way, the Larkinson Clan performed a huge favor to the surrounding states. Ves narrowed his eyes a bit at that. He resolved to make sure that the Sentinel Kingdom and any other beneficiary would pay sufficient compensation. With the astronomical amount of fame, honor and prestige the Larkinson Clan was about to gain from this overwhelming victory, it would be hard for those bystanders to remain idle!

The tour continued for many hours. They crossed many areas which not only bore the aftermath of the crippling attacks inflicted on the ship, but also became the sites where many remaining pirates held their last stands.

Hardly any cleaning took place in the days before. The Larkinson infantrymen may have tried to put some effort into capturing the pirates alive, but if they fought too hard, there was no other alternative than eliminating them on the spot.

Though the follow-up parties had hauled the bodies away, the blood and broken pieces of tissue and gear still scarred the compartments. The Braves may have been spared from the awful smell by virtue of their vacuum-sealed suits, but the lingering presence of death still affected their mood.

Fortunately, this was not the first time that his assistant mech designers confronted such ugly sights. They had experienced so many ups and downs throughout the campaign that they were starting to become desensitized.

This was exactly what Ves sought.

His two protegees had it worse than the others. They were still young and impressionable, so the impact of this tour was greater on them. The sights they had seen today would be seared in their minds for the rest of their lives!

"I knew it would be bad, but I didn't know it was so much worse." Maikel queasily said. He almost looked ready to vomit! "Human body parts aren't supposed to look like that!"

The ugliest sight by far was observing the aftermath of a heavy pipe weighing hundreds of kilograms slamming into a pair of legs.

Ves didn't like to stare at it either. He was a lover of aesthetics and did not enjoy this eye torture.

Still, he felt it was important for his mech designers to witness the consequences of battle.

"Everyone thinks that human society has reached a high standard of civilization." He spoke. "Many humans have the privilege to be born in a decent home in a decent planet and state. As long as they don't go astray, they grow up and become someone normal. Yet that is only the surface of how our society works. Underneath this civilized layer is a more brutal society that is based solely on might. Stronger organizations and states get to dominate weaker organizations and states. If the latter thinks that society will protect them against abuse or exploitation, then they will easily fold once they meet someone that doesn't care about the rules!"

His words made a very deep impression on the Braves. Ves grasped the situation well and couldn't help but take advantage of the situation to imprint some views onto them. He wanted to groom each of his Braves into his loyal and like-minded subordinates.

After half a day of touring, Ves eventually parted ways with the group. The Gravada Knarlax had a lot more to offer. He didn't have time to experience the full breadth of a ship with an internal volume that was so large that she could fit an entire city inside her dimensions!

"She's truly massive." Ves sighed as he walked alongside Calabast. "Sure, the Starlight Megalodon is positively enormous, but we were guests back then. Now, we own this prize."

"For now." Calabast answered.

She still wore her high-quality Hexer-built infiltrator suit. The heavy-duty suit offered both stealth and protection, though Ves doubted she actually made use of it these days. Just like him, she had transitioned to letting the grunts do all of the heavy lifting.

"Let me enjoy this illusion for a little longer. It would be great to parade our captured warships during my upcoming wedding. I'm sure it will make an unforgettable impression on our guests!"

"You'll have to make some arrangements with the MTA to pull off such a stunt, and I don't think they will think highly to your request. The MTA has worked hard to make people revolted at the sight of warships."

"I'll figure something out." Ves muttered.

"You're going to have to figure a lot of things out. The Battle against the Abyss won't be easy to explain to the authorities."

"Don't I know it. I don't want to become a 'long-term' guest of the local branch of the MTA."

Calabast didn't want to see this outcome either. How would she ever be able to exploit him when the MTA already had him in the palm of its hands?

The two talked a little about how they should approach the inevitable inquiry. They didn't go too much into the details because they weren't speaking in a secure location. Even with this limitation, Calabast provided him with plenty of useful advice.

"The MTA is known for its long-term perspective. The officials in charge pay much more attention to the future rather than the present. The key to gaining their support is to present an argument that encourages the Association to miss out in the short term in the hopes of gaining a much bigger prize in the long-term."

This was the reason behind most of the MTA's decisions. Its public history was rife with lots of decisions that seemed illogical at the time but made a lot of sense a century or so later. From regulating the mech market to encouraging the mass-education of mech designers, many of its policies went on to spark a golden age for mechs.

When Ves thought about his problems in this context, he came up with several new approaches on how to handle his upcoming discussion with Master Willix.

"We're here."

He interrupted his thoughts when he realized that they had arrived to a very special destination.

Hidden within the bowels of the Gravada Knarlax was a huge hall that hosted a shrine.

It was larger and more elaborate than the one built at Ulimo Citadel. Made out of the same unknown obsidian stone, the Larkinsons had already tried to damage it. The stone resisted all manner of attacks.

Ves had packed up the previous shrine in a ship somewhere and he intended to bring back this one as well. There was no way he would let off all of this stone!

"I'll have to bring Lucky to split up this shrine." He muttered. "It's way too big to cart off as a whole."

The material the shrine was made of was just an extra to him. He withheld most of the excitement until he finally entered the shrine.

Amidst all of the blood, remains and ruined ritual markings, a large amount of broken metal pieces were strewn throughout the floor!

A brilliant smile appeared on his face. "So much Unending alloy!"

Chapter 2414: Requirements of Great Works

The main hall of the dark shrine inside the Gravada Knarlax looked like someone launched a terrorist attack in the middle of a demonic ritual.

While Ves had seen a lot of shocking sights, he still felt awfully disturbed at the scale of the ritual circle.

The floor didn't offer enough space! This forced the Nyxian cultists to extend the ritual circle onto the walls and ceilings. All of this blood made it so that the entire space looked like the insides of a bloody stomach!

It was a good thing the blood had dried out by now. The Watchers who presided over this immense ritual had already died in order to summon the main bodies of their dark gods

undefinedNo matter how strange the ritual circle made him feel, it did not distract him for long. He couldn't keep his eyes off all of the Unending alloy pieces that were laying on the ground. To Ves, they were simply begging to be picked up!

"All of this metal will definitely go into my strategic materials reserve!"

The strategic materials reserve was his new inventory dedicated to exotics and other valuable materials. Ves only intended to draw out the materials stored inside the reserve when he needed to make exceptional products such as expert mechs.

Ves took in all of the broken pieces of Unending alloy and estimated how many mechs he could make from all of it. "I can make at least four mechs out of this material!"

And that was if he used it on a mech that incorporated Unending alloy liberally. If he held himself back and made greater use of substitute materials, he could easily stretch it out to double the amount of mechs.

He already decided to make extensive use of this bounty in the expert mechs of his first batch of expert pilots!

With expert mechs that were structurally made out of Unending alloy, his expert pilots would gain a decisive advantage against other expert mechs. Ves seriously doubted that many second-class expert mechs incorporated so much first-class material.

Seeing that Ves had gone mad at the sight of so much precious materials, Calabast quietly shook her head.

"Boys and their toys."

Ves did not care about what others thought. Nobody in the clan except him understood the full value of Unending alloy. While he still needed to inspect the custom mechs he had built for his expert pilots, he already knew that the Unending gear he crafted for them had performed admirably.

What impressed him the most about the new equipment was that the expert pilots were able to take advantage of the spiritually-reactive properties of the material. This had massive implications for the future and only stoked his greed for Unending alloy even further!

"Those blasted Watchers don't deserve to make use of this material!"

As far as he was concerned, the Hallowed Abyss Temple solely existed to donate precious quantities of Unending alloy to him. If not for the growing discontent in his clan and the need to distance himself from his parents, he would have loved to plunder more Unending alloy for a few years.

He lovingly approached a couple of the bigger chunks. Each of them were no larger than a cow, and most were actually smaller.

Despite their irregular shapes and sizes, Ves scanned each of them with his Vulcaneye and confirmed they were all uniform in their physical makeup. Whoever made these statues did not cut any corners. He silently thanked whatever alien was in charge of their production.

The Larkinson personnel who entered the shrine had already scanned the broken pieces. By piecing them together in a virtual program, they ended up with a simulation of three statues that all bore a disturbing resemblance to the dark gods.

Seeing the complete forms of the Unending One, the Blinding One and the Inexorable One brought up a lot of awful memories to Ves. Suppressing them took quite a lot of effort, but the realization that he had made it through in the end was enough for him to find some peace in his mind.

"Heh. All of these powerful dark gods have become history now. Serves you right for targeting the Larkinson Clan!"

After he had his fill of inspecting the Unending alloy, he commanded his men to carefully collect each and every piece and bring them away.

While the Larkinsons already intended to bring the Gravada Knarlax with them, none of his people were sure they would be able to do so. Although her propulsion systems were still reasonably intact, the damage sustained by the heavy cruiser severely affected her structural integrity.

His men needed to perform a lot of repairs on the move in order to have any hopes of bringing the huge warship back to civilized space!

"We're lucky the Allidus Alliance hasn't skimped on FTL drives."

This was the most pleasant surprise of all. While the Allidus Alliance never showed any indications of wanting to bring their warships out of the Nyxian Gap, they were obviously thinking about it. The Gravada Knarlax actually boasted two large FTL drives that were seemingly tailored to the heavy cruiser.

The destroyers and frigates that accompanied the flagship also boasted FTL drives of their own. All of them were well-maintained and in good condition.

Of course, that did not mean that Ves and the Larkinsons were willing to trust them. One of the upsides to losing a lot of ships was that the Larkinson Clan were currently coping with an excess of evacuated ship crews. Many of them would soon move into the captured pirate ships to crew them and to inspect every critical system.

Even if Ves intended to sell or scrap most of them shortly after his task force returned to civilized space, they still needed to make sure the ship would even make it all the way there. Pirates always liked to bury various boobytraps and other nasty surprises in their own vessels.

Ves and Calabast visited some other important sections of the ship.

They stopped by the vast server rooms and data banks. The Black Cats were already having a great time extracting all of the useful data.

They visited several vaults. All of them contained valuable materials and other trinkets. Ves did not care so much for the latter, but the former would definitely go into his strategic materials reserve.

To his pleasant surprise, Ves found a large stash of B-stone in one of the vaults. When Ves scanned the entire collection, his eyes almost popped out of his sockets!

"There's enough B-stone here to build a shuttle out of it!" He celebrated. "I don't even know what to do with all of this material yet. This is definitely the second-best loot after all of that Unending alloy!"

As a mech designer and a maker of products, he benefited immensely from obtaining rare and valuable materials. He stood to make a lot of progress in his development as long as he made good use of their properties!

"It will be like the Devil Tiger, but grander." His eyes glinted with glee.

The gains he harvested from designing and making the Devil Tiger were incredible. Ever since then, his subsequent mechs never quite reached its level.

With materials as remarkable as Unending alloy and B-stone, Ves could once again produce miracles with them. Whether it was Unending weapons or his fantastic Unending Regalia, each product he could make with these exceptional materials would certainly be good enough to turn into heirlooms!

He was so preoccupied with thinking about how to put all of these valuable materials to good use that he hardly paid attention to the rest of the stops that Calabast brought him to. Not even Lord Hivex's stateroom with all of its trophies and trinkets impressed him much.

"The Gravada Knarlax is interesting, don't get me wrong, but I would rather appreciate my own work." He said as he was ready to depart the warship. "Besides, there is no way the Big Two will allow us to keep hold of any of the warships. Just strip of as many valuables as we can get away with before we inevitably have to hand the prohibited vessels over to the authorities."

"Understood. We won't waste this opportunity."

Calabast still had to remain behind in order to supervise some of the ongoing salvage and recovery operations aboard the ship. Ves returned to the Scarlet Rose alone.

Upon arrival, he returned to his own space and proceeded to work on his approach towards the MTA. A reckoning was about to come, and Ves needed to employ all of his wits in order to avoid an undesirable outcome.

Several hours later, he received an incredibly important notification. His men had retrieved the Darkbreak module and had just returned it to its old spot inside the Scarlet Rose.

He sighed. "I've been keeping the MTA waiting for too long."

The news about the pirate armada's shocking defeat had already spread throughout the Nyxian Gap. Even if the participants of the Battle against the Abyss weren't able to transmit any news yet, distant onlookers observed just enough to realize the Allidus Alliance was about to become history.

While the powerful pirate organization still retained a lot of assets in its territory, the loss of its flagship and several powerful escorts meant that Allidus no longer possessed enough power to defend its expansive territory!

The subsequent pirate movements would definitely lend credence to the rumors that Lord Hivex and his punitive fleet had met their end! Ves knew that not only the MTA, but also Gloriana and many other people wanted to get in touch with the victors.

When Ves reached the isolated chamber where the Darkbreak module had just been put back into place, he felt tempted to call Gloriana first.

The MTA wouldn't mind, right? They were eavesdropping on every conversation that took place in its private network anyway so it was not as if Ves snubbed them from his conversation.

Unfortunately, he did not have the choice. Apparently, the Darkbreak module was already active by the time he entered the compartment. As soon as he took a few steps closer, the physical projection of Master Willix immediately came into view.

She wore a stylish white lab coat, which meant that she had immediately interrupted her work in order to meet with Ves. Impatience radiated from her entire form.

"Hello, Master Willix. Are you here to congratulate us for our grand victory?"

She tapped her heels against the deck. "You have made a great contribution to society. You deserve all of the credit for removing a cancerous growth from this region. That said, you didn't need to remove the Darkbreak module from your ship before you entered into battle against the pirates. The MTA could have provided you with some helpful advice and technical support if kept it within reach."

Ves tried hard not to wince. "We will do better next time. I don't think we'll be confronting pirates again anytime soon, though. We thrashed the Allidus Alliance so hard and showed so much strength that I doubt anyone wants to tussle with us. Despite our losses, we have made immense gains."

"Please report on the battle you fought from the beginning. Do note that your words will be logged and included in our archives."

The interrogation had already begun. Ves expected some other MTA Masters or dignitaries to show up, but they never did. Perhaps they thought that he would be more candid if he spoke to a familiar and friendly face like Master Willix.

Keep dreaming.

He proudly presented a vague and hyperbolic story of the battle. He also transmitted a pile of doctored logs and reports that the Black Cats had prepared beforehand.

By all accounts, the first half of the battle was mostly true, yet the second half began to border on fiction.

Master Willix quickly began to frown as she went over the footage that was practically filled with noise. Reading the reports hardly provided her with any clarity. All of the references to gods and heroes quickly strained her tolerance.

"ENOUGH, Mr. Larkinson. What in humanity happened after Mr. Joshua Larkinson broke through and attacked the Gravada Knarlax?!"

Chapter 2415: Insistent Invitation

Ves had to exercise his Devil Tongue to the limit in the next half hour!

Under Master Willix's direct questioning, he could not gloss over the details he most wanted to skim over. He continually had to find creative angles to direct attention away from sensitive matters throughout the session.

"The pirates summoned these supremely powerful dark gods…"

"Our newly-advanced expert pilots fought against these terrible alien gods and acquitted themselves well for demi-gods. It's unfortunate that they weren't able to hold out against the Nyxian gods after they exhausted their initial breakthrough release…"

undefined"Our multiple expert candidates managed to distract one of the enemy gods, the one the pirates call the Inexorable One. They stood even less of a chance against this Avian God than Venerable Tusa, since they only attained a bit of divinity. Their mechs aren't as good and their releases didn't have as much power…"

As for explaining what happened afterwards, Ves talked as if nothing about it had anything to do with him and his clan.

"The Nyxian Gap is not a completely dark place!" He falsely enthused. "In our darkest hour, we gained the assistance of a friendly god! I don't know who she is or why she decided to lend a hand against us, but it was clear that she is opposed to the dark gods. The divine confrontation that subsequently took place shook the surrounding space and knocked everyone unconscious for some reason."

"Including you?" Master Willix pointedly asked.

Ves nodded. "Yes. Do you know how powerful those dark gods are? Mortals can't withstand their majesty! While I was a bit better off than most, I eventually missed out on what the friendly god proceeded to do. All I know is that when I woke up shortly afterwards, every god was gone. We won, apparently, and I was not about to let the surviving but snoozing pirates off! I woke some of my people, who proceeded to wake our other clansmen and swept the Gravada Knarlax and other pirate assets before the scum even had a chance to mount a proper resistance!"

"I.. see." Master Willix drawled. "How did you conclude that your side has won the battle?"

While she retained her composure, it was clear that she did not enjoy the fact that he and the rest of his people conveniently lost consciousness at some point!

"Oh, that's simple. When I woke up, none of the gods were present. If the dark gods managed to beat the friendly god, then they would have proceeded to crush us while we were still knocked out. That didn't happen, so I guess the friendly god succeeded."

"This 'friendly god' had to face three of her kind. How do you think she won?"

"Beats me." Ves ignorantly shrugged. "I guess she's stronger. I think I did feel that she possessed remarkably more strength than any of the dark gods alone. She also looks human, so she probably employed strategy rather than brute force to overcome her enemies. It's a shame she left before I woke. I would have wanted to show my gratitude to her for saving us. Maybe she isn't interested in regular humans."

A pregnant pause ensued after he spun this tale. While his words sounded outrageous, he made sure to don a mask that truly believed that the battle proceeded in this fashion.

Master Willix frowned while remaining silent. Ves guessed that she was going over the data that he transmitted in her implant. She could also be corresponding with other MTA officials who were paying attention in the background.

"I am sorry, Mr. Larkinson, but I find it difficult to believe that 'gods' have interceded on behalf of both sides. Do you have any solid proof of this account?"

"We already sent our sensor data and logs to you. Our expert mechs and expert candidates clearly fought against the gods for a time."

"The amount of noise in the footage and sensor data is remarkable. The sensors of your ships are very deficient. It is rather astounding how even the surviving vessels of the Penitent Sisters are hardly able to resolve more details."

"The Gravada Knarlax focused all of her heavy firepower onto our second-class ships. They correctly concluded that the Penitent Sisters pose the greatest threat. I guess it was hard to leave them alone when it became clear that we converted them all into suicide vessels. We lost all of the combat carriers that carried the best sensor systems without being able to retrieve all of the data they collected."

"What about the other Penitent Sister ships?"

Ves helplessly smiled. "They're merely logistics ships, and rather low-specced ones at that. The Hexers who exiled the Penitent Sisters didn't want them to get any of the good stuff."

"Your Scarlet Rose is a considerably more modern Fridayman vessel, though. I know for a fact that her sensor and scanning systems are quite capable for her class."

"She's just a frigate. What can you expect from a ship this small? When those gods appeared onto the battlefield, my ship was already having trouble keeping track of them in battle. Almost everyone fainted except our expert pilots who managed to keep their wits, but they exhausted themselves quickly after expending their strength against these powerful existences."

"We would like to interview them." Master Willix stated.

"That.. is going to be a problem. They are still recovering from their breakthrough and subsequent battle."

This happened to be the truth. Ves did not have to lie about this. While it was possible for expert pilots to recover quickly after they had broken through, each of them overdrafted their strength in order to resist the dark gods.

"Please bring them before us as soon as they are fit to talk. In fact, we would like to invite all of you to speak with us more extensively about this battle. Gods or not, this is an extraordinary achievement and one of the few instances where a native mech force has overcome a stronger fleet that is centered around actual warships. We are already dispatching a fleet of ships to receive your forces outside of the border of the Nyxian Gap. We are happy to escort you and your expert pilots straight to Centerpoint."

That was exactly what Ves didn't want to hear! He seriously doubted that the MTA would ever want to let him go after confirming that the Larkinson Clan truly welcomed so many expert pilots and expert candidates in its ranks.

Ves modestly shook his head and spread his hands. "I am afraid that I have to decline your generous invitation. I have a wedding to catch. In addition, our clan doubtlessly wishes to celebrate our grand victory. People will raise a lot of questions if I am absent. I am sure the public is eager to witness this historic and defining moment for our star sector."

While the MTA did not have to pay attention to the public, Ves hoped that their expectations would be able to play at least some role. After all, the upcoming wedding of the Miracle Couple was already gearing up to become a high-profile spectacle involving guests from other star sectors!

Master Willix didn't give up that easily, though.

"We can hold a much grander wedding for the two of you in Centerpoint. With our support, we can turn your wedding into the most perfect possible occasion. You can also celebrate your clan's considerable contribution to society at the same time. Our Association is willing to organize and fund the events."

"That's not entirely appropriate, ma'am." Ves coughed. "My fiancé is a Hexer, and I'm already on the side of the Hegemony. Hosting and organizing our marriage will definitely break some neutrality rules, I'm sure. What will the Friday Coalition think? Those poor Fridaymen will all have the impression that the MTA wants them to lose so that the Komodo Star Sector turns into a bastion of female supremacy as soon as possible. In fact, not just the Fridaymen, but also many other people from other star sectors will begin to think that the MTA is not beneath playing favorites."

This was not something that the MTA could easily patch up! One of the biggest reasons why most human states in the galaxy put up with the Big Two was because all of the petty kingdoms and republics were still able to run their societies in their own way if they kept within their boundaries.

If the MTA did anything that broke its image of neutrality, a lot of people would begin to think they were better off living under the heel of the Big Two!

"Perhaps you may have a point, but we would still like to bring you and some of your men to our headquarters. We can wait until you have your little wedding and victory celebration to transfer you to Centerpoint. We can then properly verify your accomplishments and award you with the merits that you are entitled to. The proof and testimony that you have provided to us so far is not.. sufficient."

Ves inwardly grumbled. The MTA really wanted to 'debrief' him and his men in their stronghold! Master Willix even implied that she would hold back the astounding amount of merits he was supposed to obtain.

No one was allowed to touch his merits!

Seeing that Master Willix was so insistent on this course of actions, Ves decided to adopt a firmer tone. Since persuasion alone didn't work, he felt he needed to employ more tangible means to stop the Association from carting him off to Centerpoint.

He relaxed his shoulders and pressed his fingers against each other. His slight change in demeanor was fairly obvious.

"I have places to go and merits to earn. I am hungry to explore the greater galaxy. I am sure that Centerpoint is a cozy place for professionals like you, but I'm the kind of mech designer who will go crazy if I stay in a single place for too long. I could have never accomplished so much so quickly if I didn't travel and explore so much. So please, if you want to investigate us, you are free to step aboard our ships and question our men while we are on our way back to the Cinach System."

"There are several important people here at Halcyon Citadel who wish to meet with you, Mr. Larkinson. It is not possible for them to leave their posts at this time. These are very powerful and influential people, so it is not wise to snub them. Just get over here already and satisfy our curiosity. We can learn so much from studying the circumstances that led to the advancement of so many expert pilots and expert candidates."

She finally revealed the actual reason why the MTA really wanted to get their hands on Ves and his expert pilots. If he was in her place, he would probably issue the same demand!

That made it difficult for him to parry this request. One of the main goals of the MTA was to find ways to increase the rate of advancement of mech pilots.

The more expert pilots, the better! A larger pool of expert pilots produced more ace pilots, which in turn produced more god pilots, which the MTA was desperately short of! Halcyon Citadel was probably slobbering over the opportunity to present revolutionary research that actually increased the chances of mech pilots advancing to the next rank!

Though Ves wanted to retort that the MTA would never be able to accomplish this without his help, he knew the local MTA officials wouldn't believe him. He needed to give them a reason to back off and let him go on his way.

He directed a pointed stare at Master Willix.

"I would like to suggest a proposal to you, ma'am."

"Oh?" She curiously raised her eyebrow. "I suppose your proposal is not a trivial request."

"Not at all! I would never waste your precious time. I believe you will be very interested to hear what I am about to suggest."

"Well, let's hear it, then, Mr. Larkinson. I am all ears."

Chapter 2416: A Bold Proposal

Ves thought a lot about this conversation. It didn't take a genius to see that the MTA deeply wanted to know the secrets behind the Larkinson Clan's success. After the Battle against the Abyss, the clan suddenly gained four new expert pilots and nine new expert candidates.

In fact, there should have been even more expert candidates if some of them didn't die straight away!

Such a result was so extreme that even an idiot could tell there was something fishy about how all of these powerful mech pilots came into power!

Therefore, Ves could already tell the MTA would come calling.

undefinedIt was difficult to find a way to resist their insistent advances.

While the MTA did not technically rule humanity as a whole, their power, influence and reach pretty much turned the Association into a de-facto hegemon.

When the MTA wanted something, few were able to say no.

Ves and his closest advisors discussed and analyzed how to keep himself and the Larkinson Clan free from the MTA's clutches.

The MTA did not expose its hierarchy and internal workings to the outside galaxy. It was rather difficult for outsiders to get a sense of how much say certain officials possessed within the organization.

Fortunately, there were plenty of clues. Both Calabast and Major Verle possessed deep insights into how organizations worked. The two already came to a consensus on what angle Ves should take to extricate himself from his current predicament.

Similar to the issue of his continued leadership in the clan, Ves did not need to persuade the MTA as a whole to leave him alone. That was impossible.

He only needed to win over someone powerful enough to cover for him and protect him from within the organization.

According to the public profile of Master Moira Willix, she was a distinguished Master Mech Designer who climbed up the ranks of the Mech Trade Association.

She originated from the galactic heartland, and quickly showed her talent in mech design. She traveled extensively and gained much from experiencing different locales and exchanging with many different mech designers along her journeys.

When she reached Master, she slowed down, but did not stop her travels. Right now, she had reached the edge of human space and was residing at Halcyon Citadel as a guest of sorts.

While Halcyon Citadel hosted many MTA Master Mech Designers, Ves did not believe they all had equal say in important matters.

The public profiles of the other MTA Masters mostly stated that they came from the galactic rim. Perhaps they were born and raised at Centerpoint, perhaps they came from a neighboring star cluster, perhaps they originated from another region in the periphery of human space.

The point was that these Masters were likely not very prominent due to the fact they emerged from the backwaters.

Certainly, the members of the MTA were technically equal to each other. Yet no organization was perfect, and no human was unbiased. Even if the Masters were of equal rank, Ves bet that those who originated closer to the galactic center had slightly more say than those who came from the galactic rim.

This was not the only part that was special about Master Willix. From what Calabast and Major Verle surmised, the visiting Master should wield a lot of power.

They weren't sure whether she possessed a higher rank in the hierarchy of Masters. What the advisors did know for sure was that Master Willix ought to possess a lot of soft power!

This was because of the huge network of contacts she must have developed through her travels. She resided at various MTA strongholds throughout her journey. There, she befriended fellow MTA mech designers, collaborated with them on certain projects and may have even stayed in touch with them. It was likely that at least some of these friends of hers were promoted to very high ranks after a time!

Admittedly, all of this could be wrong. Yet, Ves still felt very confident about this judgement. He had spoken with Master Willix often enough to get a sense of her identity.

While she mostly portrayed herself as an approachable Master who was easy to befriend, she occasionally revealed an arrogance that more closely reflected her exalted status.

These observations allowed him to make two tentative guesses.

First, Master Willix was very flexible. While she was obliged to project the authority of the MTA, she was more inclined to employ gentler means. This was probably a good approach to take when she traveled so widely and encountered so many different cultures.

Second, Master Willix possessed a lot of power. She was not above resorting to firmer means if that was what it took to get what she wanted. Of course, if the former solution could be employed, then there was no need for her to generate animosity.

Needlessly making enemies was not something a rational mech designer would do. There were too many downsides and not enough upsides.

The fact that Master Willix was mostly rational was a third additional factor that Ves considered. Different from passionate mech designers, someone like the woman whose projection he was facing should be making decisions based on objective costs and benefits.

While Ves did not believe that she had cut off her emotions entirely, at the very least she should be less affected by humanity's common faults such as pride, jealousy and greed.

This made it easier for him to formulate a proposal that appealed to her. He simply had to give her enough benefits.

Ves was about to commence his most difficult and riskiest negotiation to date. If he and his advisors had gotten the wrong read, then his upcoming pitch might easily backfire!

Even so, he made sure to project complete confidence in himself. He needed to show boldness, not timidity. There was no room for doubt or hesitation if he wanted to pull off this move.

"Master Willix. Before I make my proposal, can you guarantee that our upcoming conversation will remain between the two of us? I would like to make an appeal to you in private, not just as a Master of the MTA, but also as a friend."

This was the first time he called her a friend. Inwardly, he felt sick to his stomach for even calling her that.

Though they had developed a cordial relationship as of late, Ves never put down his guard in her presence.

He merely considered her to be a necessary evil and that he should make sure he remained on her good side.

It was kind of like pretending to like your boss. Even if you hated the stupid bastard so much you wanted to whack his head and trample him under your legs, it was best if you just acted as if you genuinely liked him as a person.

He never cared too much whether Master Willix saw through him or not. Human interaction was all an act to him. The masks that people wore in public played a vital role in smoothing over differences.

This time was no different. While Ves loathed Master Willix and wanted her to get out of his life most of the time, this time he needed something from her. He felt no shame at all for lying if that was what it took to further his cause!

A few tense seconds passed after he issued his request. Ves had the sense that she was contemplating whether it was worthwhile for her to indulge him. The matter they were discussing had wider implications.

"I cannot do that. As I have already said, what you and your fellow Larkinsons have managed to accomplish in the Nyxian Gap is of great importance to the MTA. I cannot deny you from my fellow colleagues. I hope you understand."

Damn. He really wanted to speak to her in private. Getting shot down meant that his plan would definitely become a bit more complicated.

He had no choice but to proceed onwards.

"Very well, then." He said as if it was not a big deal. "Let me begin by summing up our current circumstances. My clan has just won a difficult battle where we have done our utmost to defeat an overwhelming opponent. Facing warships is no joke, especially when one of them is the Gravada Knarlax, a heavy cruiser that not even your Association managed to destroy despite placing a bounty on her for several decades."

Master Willix did not like it when he pointed out the fact. "We would have punished the transgressions of the Allidus Alliance sooner or later."

Ves casually waved his hand. "The point is that we are the ones who have managed to accomplish this feat. Even if we had some unexpected help, the Allidus Alliance would have never lost their flagship and other prized warships if not for us. This is indisputable. We lost a lot of good men, but gained something great as well. Right now, our clan has five expert pilots, and that is just the start. Unfortunately, none of them have any expert mechs."

"I believe Miss Wodin is still in the process of approaching various Masters to address this need."

"That is so. Yet what if instead of approaching some random mech designer who is qualified to design expert mechs, I turn to you? You're a Master. You must have worked on plenty of expert mechs."

Master Willix frowned and crossed her arms. "I recall that we have already spoken about this topic. I am engaged in projects that are far more important than any private project. In addition, the neutrality issue you have mentioned earlier applies here as well. The MTA cannot show favoritism to any single human state, faction or organization."

"Come now." Ves smiled as if she had just made a joke. "Everyone knows that's nonsense. If the MTA is truly neutral, then your relationship with the first-rate superstates wouldn't be so tense."

"That is not something you are qualified to comment upon." She said to him with a chilling undertone.

Ves innocently raised his hand. "I just think that the MTA is flexible and open-minded enough to make exceptions. How else can a trans-galactic organization remain dominant across human space for so many centuries? Not even the Terran Confederation or New Rubarth Empire managed to attain as much legitimacy and support as the Association. Clearly, your approach to governing and living alongside local humans such as myself is more enlightened than the hamfisted approach employed by your predecessors."

"While I appreciate your views, I do not see how this is relevant."

"Oh, it is very relevant. You see, I think it is in your best interest to make an exception of the rules. I want you, or one of your subordinates if that isn't possible, to help our clan develop our new expert mechs."

Master Willix began to grow impatient. "I have already told you the reasons why this is not possible."

"I think you are wrong, ma'am! You are not looking at my proposal closely enough! Look, do you want to examine and work with my design philosophy? You can do this if you collaborate with me on some expert mech design projects. The mechs I intend to design for my expert pilots are so important that I will definitely pull out all the stops. Wouldn't it be nice for you to work alongside me and understand my perspective on mech design as it happens?"

"That is not a reason to set aside our objections, Mr. Larkinson."

"The neutrality rules only prohibit individual MTA officials from playing favorites with the locals, right? This is not the case this time! Participating in our expert mech design projects is a matter of public interest to the MTA. There is no better way to understand my design philosophy and learn what is special about LMC mechs than to design a couple of expert mechs with me. Isn't this what you want?"

Master Willix looked a bit perplexed at his specious argument. "You are twisting my arguments. Why should I possibly agree to your proposal?"

"I'm a very private person, as you might undoubtedly know. My ideas are rather unconventional. I have only shared them with Gloriana up until now. I am willing to extend my trust to you if that is enough to end any intrusive inquiries from the MTA. Since you are a part of this organization as well, I think it is enough to reveal some of my trade secrets to you, but only if you promise not to spread what you have learned from me. My design philosophy is not yet ready to be shared with the MTA as a whole. So what do you say, ma'am?"

He looked at her with a hopeful smile.

Unfortunately, Master Willix did not appear to be very receptive.

"Are.. you bribing me, Mr. Larkinson?"

Chapter 2417: Attracting Master Willix

"Not at all, Master Willix!" Ves quickly refuted her accusation. "I am merely offering an arrangement that should provide mutual benefits for everyone involved."

He raised a finger. "First, my concerns about my trade secrets spreading to the entire mech community will be assuaged if you are the one from the MTA that manages this case. As my friend, I trust you not to betray my trust and put me at a disadvantage without at least discussing the matter with me. I am sure that any deal you want to make with me over the course of our partnership will be equitable to both myself and the MTA."

The physical projection of Master Willix looked quite impressed at what he said. It was too bad that she did not see how this could work.

"As professionals, it is important for us to separate our personal lives from our professional lives. While it is good to maintain friendships, it is not proper to allow personal bonds to interfere with your professional obligations. You may not fully realize it, but the responsibility that I bear as a Master Mech Mech Designer in the employ of the Mech Trade Association is immense. I oversee quite a number of matters of great importance to the MTA and the people it watches over. I cannot allow my personal biases to affect my judgement when I exercise my duties."

undefinedThat sounded like a very officious answer. It was the kind of spiel that politicians said when their constituents questioned their integrity.

While Ves guessed that Master Willix was indeed someone who acted with integrity, he still believed he had a way of changing her mind.

No one was perfectly honest!

No one was completely selfless!

No one could deny every temptation!

In his opinion, humanity was flawed by nature. They possessed both virtues and vices. It was what made people complex and diverse. From the lowest administrator of a backwater village to the greatest Galactic Mech Councilor that ruled the MTA as a whole, Ves believed that all of them were equally susceptible to temptation!

He just had to offer the right incentives. Master Willix should still be a human with goals and ambitions. Otherwise, she wouldn't have worked so hard to attain her current accomplishments.

He continued listing out his reasoning despite her refutations. He raised a second finger.

"Second, what I am offering is experimental, dangerous and radical knowledge that could easily lead to disaster if something goes wrong. I care for the wellbeing of my fellow colleagues. I cannot subject them to dangerous fruit that they cannot resist taking a bite of. Don't believe me? Let me show you the outcome of some of the perfectly legal experiments that I recently conducted during my excursion into the Nyxian Gap."

He dug into his implant and began to dig out and decrypt some of the sensitive research data he accumulated.

He rapidly selected a few noteworthy excerpts and transmitted them to Master Willix through the Darkbreak module.

She frowned and lifted a finger.

The projector began to display a recording of one of his more dramatic experimental results.

[There is no reason to worry.] Ves transmitted to the cockpit. [Calm down and don't resist. Just interface the mech and everything will be over soon.]

[MMHMMHPHMM!]

[Wait a minute. This is heading into dangerous territory!]

["MMMFFWMEFWMEWOWW—]

Bang!

[GODDAMMIT! NOT AGAIN!]

The short recording ended at that point. Master Willix paused for a few seconds before directing a cold glance towards Ves. "Have you been engaging in human experiments?"

"I was engaging in legitimate science!" He defended himself! "As the extensive and complete documentation that I have sent to you will show, I did not cross any boundaries that merit sanction. It is your Association that has ruled that individuals who are proven to be pirates are stripped of their human rights. Am I wrong?"

This was literally one of the MTA's rules! It was meant to serve as a chilling deterrent to any malcontent who was thinking about going pirate. Perhaps most people might treat the rule as a symbolic signal, but as long as it was in the books, there was no problem for Ves to take advantage of it! Plenty of researchers who needed to perform experiments on humans already did so as well!

"No, but I cannot fathom why a mech designer who does not specialize in neural interfaces or any other apparently dangerous specialty has a need to conduct experiments that may result in.. fatal consequences. Did you leave something out when you initially explained your design philosophy?"

Ves began to sense actual anger from Master Willix! He was entering really dangerous territory this time!

"My design philosophy is based on the symbiosis between man and machine!" He quickly stated. "As various disasters involving improperly-designed and configured neural interfaces have shown, trying to do anything that puts the two together is inherently risky! While I have not messed with the neural interfaces, my specialty does entail some aspects that affect the man-machine connection on a different level. This is the reason why those experiments sometimes produced undesirable results."

"Did you perform any of these experiments on non-pirates, Mr. Larkinson?"

"No! Absolutely not! Never!" Ves lied.

Master Willix looked incredulous.

"Well.. I didn't do it before I entered the Nyxian Gap." He offered her a less outrageous falsehood. "You see, after we learned that the Allidus Alliance is targeting us, I became a little.. desperate. On paper, my forces were wholly incapable of overcoming the might of the Gravada Knarlax and her escorts. If I didn't do anything, the pirates would have surely crushed my fleet!"

"And that led you to perform dangerous human experiments?"

"I had to pursue unconventional solutions in order to narrow the gap, and some of them involved new and creative applications of my design philosophy. I tested my ideas on the pirates first. After understanding what I shouldn't do, I conducted more refined experiments on my own men. Each of them has volunteered to take part in them. I did not supply any of my newly-developed solutions to mech pilots who did not offer their consent."

To be more precise, there weren't any mech pilots who refused the offer to allow the clan patriarch to upgrade their assigned mech. Ves built up a towering reputation for his ability in mech design. His mech pilots would have to be stupid to refuse this opportunity!

"And have those experiments succeeded?"

"Yes." Ves nodded. "While I do not dare to transmit any data on them because of how much they reveal, it is safe to say that I have found a measure to improve the effective performance of my mech pilots by as much as twenty percent! And this is without changing any component or setting of my mechs!"

The Master looked a little shocked this time! If Ves was truly telling the truth, then his solution might have very large implications for the future of mech design in the galaxy!

Ves knew he was taking a huge gamble, but he believed that it was very difficult for others to believe such a ludicrous statement. He was just a Journeyman. What could he do when he was still in the early stages of his development?

Nonetheless, Master Willix knew him better than most people. Perhaps she was used to hearing nonsense from him, but in the few times he made any concrete claims, he was usually honest!

"I have solid, empirical proof." Ves spoke the magic word for mech designers. "I have tracked the performance of every mech pilot who utilized the mechs that I have altered. There is always an immediate boost depending on how much I invested in them. After that, there is a gradual but very accelerated trend of improvement as the symbiosis between the mech and mech pilot continues to deepen. It's also fairly safe as long as I don't go too far. This is perhaps one the greatest reasons why our clan has managed to overcome the odds."

"Can you send me the data?" Master Willix leaned in. Her eyes expressed an increasing amount of interest in his claims! "I would like to verify whether you are representing your research properly."

Ves immediately shook his head. "The data is proprietary. Anything that can elevate the performance of the mech pilots of my mechs to such a degree is incomparably precious. No offense, but I do not want to share the fruits of my hard work and labor. Even if I agree to show them to you, I am not going to transmit it over any network. You'll have to come and study my research data in person. You are the only mech designer from the MTA who I trust to keep my work confidential."

"Improvements as drastic as these are usually subject to stringent conditions."

"There are limits.. but they are not as severe as you think. At the very least, it is not based on an expensive component or unique material. While it is not entirely feasible to apply this solution on a wider scale, it can theoretically be applied to every mech design that I have contributed to. I empowered hundreds of mechs with this specific solution before the battle. The result? A victory, and several new expert pilots to boot."

"Those are bold claims."

"I know. This is why I don't want to share it with anyone except you. The implications of my research is great, but so is the danger and risk of abuse. As far as I see it, the most responsible course of action you can do is to vet my research and work alongside me on a couple of private projects. To prevent many mech designers from engaging in experiments that causes millions of mech pilots to lose their heads, you should keep what you have learned to yourself until my research has matured to the point where it is safe!"

Another pause ensued as Master Willix fell silent. She was probably contemplating what he said while also deliberating with her fellow colleagues.

Meanwhile, Ves was sweating inside. When he saw that regular arguments didn't work, Ves had to resort to exposing sensitive and dangerous information in order to generate interest in her. As a powerful Master who had traveled the galaxy, she must have witnessed a lot of great solutions from many different mech designers.

In order to generate a sufficient amount of interest in Master Willix, Ves had no choice but to appeal to her inner mech designer.

Everyone who designed mechs for a living wanted to attain better results. He believed that rational mech designers who stole other people's design philosophies as a habit should not be immune to this temptation! Their desire to improve their own work should be just as great as their passionate counterparts!

Eventually, Master Willix broke the silence.

"We should continue this discussion on a more private channel. Please stand by for a moment while I switch us to a more secure setting where you may speak to me in greater confidence."

"Wait a minute, Moira!" A white-bearded figure dressed in a resplendent suit appeared. "Mr. Larkinson is a native of the Komodo Star Sector. Any work he produces falls under the purview of Halcyon Citadel. You cannot just shove us aside while Mr. Larkinson has the potential to propel our branch to greater heights!"

Ves recognized the second figure. According to his research, Master Colin Drexel was a 200-year old Master Mech Designer who originally came from the Winged Serenade Star Sector. He didn't know much else about him other than that he specialized in quantum teleportation systems, whatever that meant.

Moira calmly faced the newcomer's projection and raised her finger. "You are not invited to this conversation."

A small zap shot out from her finger. After striking Master Drexel's projection, it quickly began to break apart!

"MOIRAAAAA!"

Once the projection disappeared, Master Willix paused for a while before she calmly turned back to Ves. "Now, let us proceed with our discussion. You were saying?"

"Uhmm…"

Chapter 2418: Mech Designers With Integrity

Ves succeeded in making Master Willix hot.

As soon as she expressed her intent to move their conversation to a more private channel, he knew he had succeeded in arousing the great MTA Master's desires.

While he knew that he did not present a flawless case, he managed to persuade her just enough to gain a chance!

Still, just because she pushed out Master Drexel did not mean that she was onboard with Ves' proposal. He knew he still had some ways to go before he gained her support.

undefinedVes did not receive any indication that they changed to a different channel. He had no control over how the Darkbreak module worked.

"Can we speak.. more openly now?" He tentatively asked.

"I cannot guarantee that no one else is listening in." She warned. "However, I am confident that none of the other Masters from the Komodo Branch should be able to patch in. There are others within our vast organization who can do so, but unless they vastly outrank me, we will receive a warning if they attempt to intrude."

"Okay."

"We take privacy very seriously within the MTA." She said with a straight face. "Many mech designers within our ranks collaborate with colleagues who are located many light-years away. Our internal network is designed to be extremely secure and resistant to any unauthorized intrusions. This is the only way we can facilitate earnest cooperation without burdening ourselves with concerns that our work will be leaked."

Yeah, right. Ves would be a fool to take her at her word! Not a single network was truly secure as far as he was concerned. When two people wanted to communicate to each other, there was always room for others to sneak in and intercept some crucial tidbits.

He had little choice but to continue on his current course. After successfully working Master Willix up, he needed to do his best to take advantage of her receptive state.

She had opened herself up to Ves. How could he refuse her generous invitation?

The two began to enter into a deeper discussion. Ves put down his guard a bit and revealed a little more information.

"One of the goals that Gloriana and I are pursuing is to find a method to increase the chances of breakthroughs."

Ves felt very nervous about saying this, but he knew that Master Willix would not be satisfied anymore with his usual routine of misdirection and obfuscation.

This was not the time to flood her with nonsense about proto-gods and divinities!

His serious and plain approach may have been one of the reasons why she paid more attention to his words. He usually wasn't as straightforward about his specialty.

"Go on. Please explain why you think that the two of you are able to accomplish a feat that many other mech designers have failed to achieve. What gives you the confidence that you have any chance to succeed."

Ves raised one finger. "One battle."

He raised four fingers. "Four expert pilots."

He raised ten fingers before lowering and raising one of his palms. "Fifteen expert candidates."

For her part, Master Willix looked intrigued. "That is certainly a persuasive argument. The issue is that it is difficult to attribute these outstanding outcomes on whatever innovation you have claimed to develop. I am sure you agree that there are many other factors that may have played a role in facilitating those breakthroughs."

"You are free to inspect our data once you meet me in person, but only if we can come to an agreement."

She frowned and tapped her heel against the deck. "You are putting me in a difficult situation. While I am inclined to accept your views on the implications of your groundbreaking research, it is very difficult for me to deny it from the rest of the MTA. What you are asking is not normal procedure. I will face considerable pressure from my colleagues and supervisors if I insist on breaking protocol to accommodate your requests."

"I believe in you, ma'am. You're a big shot within the MTA, right? I am confident you can make things done."

"..Perhaps." She conceded, but she did not soften her expression. "That does not mean that I am willing to do so. I will have to cash in many favors and expend a considerable amount of political capital in order to keep our cooperation between ourselves. This is a private deal that breaks many rules."

"I disagree. That's the wrong way to look at it. Even if our arrangement breaks some rules, you can justify it as long as it serves the greater interest of the MTA. Some of my experimental innovations are literally head-popping. Do you think that faced with the temptation of unlocking the secret behind producing more expert pilots, your fellow mech designers within the MTA could resist the urge to conduct experiments on a massive scale?"

The silence was deafening. Though she did not explicitly deny his prediction, her silence was a very obvious signal in itself.

Ves inwardly grinned. He knew it! From what he heard about their secret manipulations and unethical experiments on unwitting mech pilots, the MTA was hardly as pristine as outsiders thought.

Those lurid tales shared by fellow mech designers made Ves suspect that the researchers of the MTA may not be so different from their counterparts from the Five Scrolls Compact!

Of course, Ves did not think that his own kind were too unscrupulous. Unlike the nutcases of the secretive cult, the mech designers of the MTA generally served a greater cause. An organization as strong as the MTA probably invested a lot in indoctrinating its members.

This was why Ves never phrased his suggestions in a way that gave Master Willix the impression that she would be turning against her own organization.

He needed to delude her into thinking that his attempt to bribe her would actually serve the MTA's overall interests!

The opening was small, but as long as it existed, Ves was confident he could succeed!

Since Master Willix didn't say anything, he proceeded as if she tacitly consented with his words. He continued to paint a distorted picture.

"Mech designers like us are greedy for progress. That is not inherently bad. I am sure that Masters such as you have managed to achieve great feats that have elevated the standard of mech design. Yet the pursuit of knowledge can easily go astray. I am also plagued with temptations."

"Are you saying that you are filled with unclean desires?"

"I wouldn't put it that way." He frowned. "Many of my ideas are both great and terrible, but that does not mean I am eager to try them out. You are lucky that I am someone who possesses excellent restraint. As a classically-trained and educated mech designer, I follow the scientific method to a tee. I have never let my intense desire for progress override my sense of what is right. We have seen how depraved researchers can be during the Age of Conquest. We have moved beyond that and become better humans as a result."

"Well said, Mr. Larkinson." She offered him a warm smile. "Many people take this for granted, but it is truly important to safeguard our current standards. When we no longer show any restraint, we devolve into monsters."

"I feel as if you and I are like-minded mech designers." Ves quickly continued. "While we are completely different in terms of age, background, design philosophy and many other details, we are still mech designers who humbly wish to serve mech pilots. How many of your fellow Masters will keep this mission in mind when they have gained access to one of my dangerous new methods?"

"The Association holds its mech designers to a higher standard."

"Do you truly stand by this statement? Can you seriously tell me that the MTA is truly filled with virtuous mech designers?"

While it was difficult for Master Willix to acknowledge the MTA's dirty laundry, she possessed too much integrity to say anything disingenuous.

"It is not wise to speak of this. As with any large organization, the Association has its fair share of bad apples and skeletons in its closet. As a whole, the MTA still serves a noble cause. The proliferation of mechs is key to pacifying humanity. The advancement of mechs offers everyone the hope of moving beyond warships. Developing the minidrive has brought us one step closer to phasing out destructive warships as humanity's ultimate weapon of choice."

She was simply waving the flag at this point. Her words were largely hollow to Ves. She merely wanted to restore some dignity.

"Let's be real. If I told you that my method can potentially double the chance of breakthroughs, but can also backfire and kill 10 percent of the mech pilots who participate in an experiment, will all of your fellow mech designers really show restraint?"

Ves certainly wouldn't, that was for sure!

"You have made a very persuasive argument." She conceded. "However, it is not enough for me to take you at your word. If your experiment is truly dangerous enough to warrant withholding your research data from the rest of the MTA, then I will need to inspect your complete records in person."

"Does this mean you agree to my proposal?"

She shook her head. "Not so fast. While I am open to studying your complete research data, that does not automatically mean that I am receptive to collaborating with you. Aside from the substantial gap between us, the services of a Master of my stature is immensely valuable. You do not deserve my help."

"I disagree. Sharing some of my research with you and letting you see me at work during our collaborative mech design projects should be enough, right?"

Ves began to fear that Master Willix would suggest that he pay her with much of the merits that he had earned from defeating the Allidus Alliance.

This was not acceptable! Ves needed to steer her away from this topic as soon as possible!

"Don't discount the value of my accomplishments just because I'm a Journeyman. How many Journeymen developed something as unique and effective as glows? How many Journeymen produced mechs with enhancements that have contributed to the sheer amount of mech pilots breaking through during just a single battle? Even if my methods are still rudimentary, my radical paradigms are completely unique and unlike any other established methodologies. In the future, my methods will only become more effective. Wouldn't it be better for you to get in on the action before they have lifted off? With you involved, you can also make sure that I do not go astray."

Master Willix raised her palm. "Enough. You have made your case. While I have not made any definite decisions, I am open to make some exceptions if it turns out that this course of action is truly the best way forward. Let us meet when you reach Cinach. I need to comb over all of your research data and study your mechs."

Yes! While she hadn't accepted his proposal, Ves knew that he had passed the most difficult hurdle. Her willingness to do this much already showed that she was inclined to accept his proposal!

The thought of gaining the services of one of the best Master Mech Designers in the star cluster in his expert mech design projects already made him salivate!

There were hardly any other mech designers who could fulfill his need better than Master Willix!

Though Ves no doubt had to make a lot of concessions, it was worth it if he gained her support!

"Can you keep the rest of the MTA off my back?" He asked. "As I have already stated, I work best if I have ample space to innovate. Too much meddling and intervention will only slow me down and rob the mech community of my revolutionary new solutions."

"I can do that, but remember, you better make sure that you can justify these extraordinary measures. I do not enjoy breaking or bending the rules without a good cause."

Ves grinned. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. My mechs will prove you have made the right decision!"

It was at this moment that he truly began to relax. He succeeded in hooking Master Willix! Now he just had to reel her in so that he could have fish for dinner!

Chapter 2419: Happy Gloriana

The conversation ended after he agreed with Master Willix to discuss their new arrangement in greater detail when he returned to civilized space.

He kept his face carefully composed as Master Willix's physical projection disappeared. Who knew whether this module was still transmitting recordings of him back to Centerpoint.

Inwardly, he felt both ecstatic and defeated.

The reason why he felt defeated was because he had no choice but to reveal some of his secrets to someone outside of his circle of confidence. There was no other way for him to get out of this predicament.

undefinedHe could either share his work with someone from the MTA, or expose it all to the MTA as a whole.

Between these two unpalatable options, he chose the least-bad solution!

Fortunately, his choice worked out. With the help of his persuasive ability, he managed to get Master Willix on his side.

This was the reason why he felt ecstatic!

It didn't matter if he managed to convince Master Willix completely. It didn't matter if she was more shrewd and observant than she showed.

What just took place was mostly theater. It was similar to trying to bargain with a stall owner to buy something on the cheap.

Ves certainly wasn't stupid enough to assume that Master Mech Designers were easy to fool.

There was no way a thirty-odd year old brat like him could get the better of a supreme Master who traveled the breadth of the galaxy! Master Willix definitely interacted with all kinds of people from many different parts of human space throughout her long life. Successful people like that ought to be very socially adept.

That simply meant that Ves had to be sincere enough. While he lied plenty of times throughout the previous conversation, his underlying message still conveyed an earnest concession. He was willing to share some of his trade secrets to her as long as she kept it to herself.

All of the excuses he spouted such as tempting other mech designers into performing dangerous experiments on mech pilots were merely window dressing. Ves didn't care if his research corrupted other mech designers to the point where they made the Skull Architect look like a compassionate researcher. Their misdeeds were none of his business!

He merely wanted to establish a convenient excuse to make their arrangement work. An organization as big as the MTA abided by a lot of rules, so it was important to ensure they wouldn't get in the way.

"Well, now that I've got this out of the way, it's time to talk to my beloved."

He called Gloriana. As expected, it took no time at all for Gloriana to accept the call!

"Ves! You've finally called! It was about time!"

She wore a stylish red fabric coat with golden buttons that depicted the emblem of the Larkinson Clan. The way it hugged her svelte body looked lovely, so much so that Ves couldn't hold back. He stepped forward, embraced her physical projection and dove in for a kiss!

"Hihihi!" Gloriana giggled as her projection leaned into him. "I heard the good news some time ago. You can't imagine how many fretted for your safety! Our fellow Larkinsons were deeply concerned whether we would lose all of our best soldiers. My blood relatives were also concerned whether the wedding would even go through. The Wodin Dynasty invested a lot to build a grand wedding stage for our coming union. Losing you would have dealt a great blow to our prestige."

"Did you ever doubt our ability to win?" He smiled as he brushed her soft cheek.

"I knew you would make it through. You're so great, Ves. Not even a bunch of overconfident pirates with some bootleg warships can take you down."

Ves wasn't sure whether she meant what she said. In the last month, she expressed plenty of concern. She placed plenty of blame on him for stirring up so much trouble in the Nyxian Gap.

Well, it wasn't important. His task force managed to overcome the unthinkable, though not without paying a heavy price.

The two of them began to sit down on the deck while leaning against each other.

"We lost a lot of good clansmen, Gloriana. I'm sending you the current list of casualties right now. Aside from losing hundreds of mech pilots, our fleet has also lost thousands of spacers and support personnel. You need to prepare the Larkinsons back in the Cinach System for the bad news."

She rapidly skimmed the list. "Did you lose anyone important?"

"Other than the six newly-advanced expert candidates, not really. All of our expert pilots are still alive, and we still have 9 expert candidates left. The Avatars lost more than half of their mech pilots, but the Sentinels that have traveled with us were almost wiped out. I don't look forward to explaining that to the rest of the clan.

"Expert pilots? Expert candidates? Did you gain so many?" Her eyes widened at him. The revelation that the Larkinson Clan gained so many exceptional mech pilots completely caused her to ignore what he said afterwards. "Tell me what happened!"

He began to spend a bit of time to explain what had taken place. Of course, since he was conveying his words through the MTA's private network, he made sure to control his information. He barely glossed over the fact that they were fighting gods, but even then Gloriana ate it all up. That was one thing he could count on. She never doubted him when it came to these matters!

"Those disgusting Nyxian gods had it coming. It's a given that they lost. They were fighting a female god!"

"Uhm, the Inexorable One is female according to the pirates."

"She fought for the wrong side! The moment she stood in your way, she was destined to lose!"

To Gloriana, the battle against the gods did not merit that much attention from her. She hadn't witnessed the battle up close, so it was difficult for Ves to convey the full magnitude of how difficult it was to defeat them. If not for his mother's timely assistance, the dark gods could have easily devoured his fleet!

Instead of focusing on the gods, she instead wanted to know more about their new expert pilots.

"Did all of our expert candidates back then break through?"

"Yep."

"That's remarkable!" She grinned, but her face quickly fell. "It also places a huge burden on us. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy that we gained so many expert pilots at once. The news will definitely turn a lot of heads once we announce it to the public. It's just..."

Ves grabbed her hand and took comfort in its warmth. "We need to supply them all with expert mechs as soon as possible. We can't allow Venerable Jannzi, Joshua and the rest to remain in squalor by depriving them of the machines they need to further their growth."

"It's already difficult for me to negotiate a single collaboration with a Master Mech Designer. Now we need to arrange for the development of four more expert mechs." She suddenly jerked. "Wait, defeating the pirates must have netted you at least 10 million merits, right?"

"I'm not sure. The bounty on the Gravada Knarlax and Lord Hivex is very generous. I'm also expecting a reward for all of the warships and illegal possessions we've taken from the pirates. We'll know for sure how much I've earned once the MTA completed its investigation."

"Well, it's bound to be a large amount. Instead of keeping it all to ourselves, we ought to invest a portion of it into our expert mech design projects. It is a lot easier to gain the help of a Master when we are willing to spend!"

Ves held up his palm. "Woah, before you take this idea any further, let me tell you about a new arrangement I've made with a familiar Master."

He quickly explained the preliminary partnership he struck with Master Willix. He left out a lot of details, but he knew that Gloriana should be smart enough to realize the implications.

She became impressed at his ability to negotiate this deal. "Did you really get Master Willix to make an exception for you? That's amazing! Someone in her position can't easily bend so many rules."

The way she looked at him was if he had convinced the Hexers to put a boy in charge. While Ves felt very flattered by her compliments, he knew that it wasn't entirely due to him that he managed to get Master Willix to play along.

They cuddled and kissed each other for a bit. Despite the immense distance separating them, they felt closer than ever to each other. The intense crisis he lived through had given him an even greater appreciation of life. He could have lost it all if he had fallen short in some way.

"Our wedding is up soon." She happily noted. "After so many years, we will finally bind ourselves to each other. We will be together forever!"

She lifted her finger to show off the engagement ring he made for her. One of Lucky's gems proudly glinted in the light. Ves lifted his own finger and clinked it with his own ring.

"The wedding preparations are pretty much complete on my end." She stated. "Have you prepared our wedding bands yet?"

"Uhm, I'm still working on them." Ves admitted. "Don't worry. I'll get it done. I managed to plunder a lot of special materials from our defeated opponents. The Gravada Knarlax alone is practically a treasure house when it comes to how many goodies she carried. All of it is ours now. I already have a great design in mind for our wedding rings."

"You better do a good job, Ves. I don't want to see any of the sloppiness that you usually exhibit in your work."

"Hey! I can be careful when I need to be! I know how important it is for my work to be perfect this time. Just trust me, Gloriana."

They discussed a few other household matters. Gloriana brought him up to speed on some of the developments that took place in civilized space.

"On our end, my assistants and I made sure to progress all of our mech design projects." She stated. "Even without your help, we have made a lot of progress. Some of them have even reached the prototype testing phase."

"That's great news!"

"He was worried whether the six projects would stall, but Gloriana did an admirable job of compensating for his absence.

Certainly, Ves knew that he might need to do a hefty amount of makeup work in the coming month, but it wouldn't take long for the designs to be complete.

He had waited a long time to complete all of these projects. All of them were running behind schedule and Ves was more than ready to move onto other projects. He also wanted to publish them so he could obtain a lot of Design Points from the System.

After neglecting it for so long, Ves intended to focus on it for the next few years. In order to lessen his dependence on Master Willix, he needed to gain the capability of designing his own expert mechs by himself as soon as possible.

To do so, he needed to accumulate at least 1 million DP. That meant he needed to design a lot of mechs.

As long as he didn't engage in any distractions for the next couple of years, Ves should easily be able to earn this sum of Design Points!

"There's something else that you should know, Ves. The Komodo War has taken a new turn."

"Did the Friday Coalition turn the tides or something?"

"In a way. Its Masters have finally begun to push out their counters against our mechs. The Blessed Squires can't exert their glows onto the battlefield with impunity now. While only a couple of counters have appeared, they are already nullifying some of the advantages of our mech design."

A heavy weight fell onto his heart. He knew this day was coming. "Show me."

Chapter 2420: The First Counter

Ever since the Blessed Squire debuted on the surface of Marrakath III, the Hex Army embraced the new mech model with great enthusiasm.

Not even the hesitation exhibited by the council of matriarchs could stop the adoption of the mech designed by the Miracle Couple.

Its unique benefits amplified the success of the Hexer mech pilots fighting alongside this seemingly-modest supportive knight mech!

With the Fridaymen defenders constantly being put on the backfoot by invigorated Hexer soldiers, the border territories of the Friday Coalition came under threat of Hexer aggression a lot sooner than the Fridayman strategists had anticipated!

undefinedAnd this was just due to a single odd mech model. Everyone could see that the Blessed Squire was just the start. The Miracle Couple had a history of publishing mechs that had the potential to change the way that mech pilots fought their battles. As long as the two unusually talented mech designers pumped out a few more mech designs, the tyranny of glows would probably swamp the Coalition!

Hardly any Fridaymen of importance looked down on the Miracle Couple's work. Many Fridayman strategists and analysts already concluded that they needed to find some way to counter Ves' design philosophy. It took almost no effort for the Hexers to employ glows as a force multiplier.

In fact, in just a few months, the majority of the Hexer military mech pilots had already become 'addicted' to the glows. They began to fight much better in the presence of a Blessed Squire, but also a little bit worse than normal if a glow was absent!

Before the introduction of counters, the Fridaymen mech pilots all learned that taking out the Blessed Squires within the ranks of the enemy was the most effective way to defeat the Hexers.

While the Hex Army units did not make it easy for their opponents to target their critical Blessed Squires, the Fridaymen had already begun to employ various solutions at ranges where the glows could not reach.

These were clunky methods. It forced the Fridaymen to favor ranged combat over close-quarters combat. It limited the options of their fighting forces and directed a lot of resources that could have been spent elsewhere.

All in all, these stopgap measures failed to stall the growing Hexer momentum.

This was why the Coalition tasked a lot of top-level design teams to develop true counters. While it still took up resources to design and produce these specific counters, as long as they proved effective, the Coalition wouldn't have to expend as much resources to counter the Blessed Squire as before.

This was a pretty good deal to the Fridaymen!

"Show me what Master Olson cooked up first." Ves requested. "My former Master knows me best. Her counter will probably serve as a reference on how other mech designers ought to be able to counteract my glows."

Gloriana frowned briefly when she mentioned the Master from the Vermeer Group.

"Master Olson is really shameless for targeting you. Masters normally don't bully their students like this, you know!"

"We're on the opposite sides of a war, Gloriana. She is merely doing her duty to her state."

"She still deserves to be scorned for betraying you! I hope the Hex Army manages to raze the Vermeer Group for her treachery!"

Ves decided it was best not to comment any further on this issue. He deliberately did not point out that Gloriana was at fault here. She was the entire reason why Master Olson cut ties with him and subsequently treated him as an opponent.

Gloriana projected a design of a distinct-looking lancer mech. The mech looked fairly economic relative to other second-class mech designs.

"This is the mech designed by a team led by Master Olson." She began. "It's called the Glow Crusher OGC-1000."

Ves studied the design schematics with great interest. He wasn't surprised that Gloriana had access to such detailed design files. The Hexer intelligence services probably obtained it within days or weeks of the Glow Crusher's release.

Leaving aside its purpose and distinctive features, the Glow Crusher design was a magnificent work. Master Olson designed mechs in a way that was elegant and efficient. Ves knew that he and his fiancé were far from reaching this degree of sophistication!

"What a well-designed mech!" He sighed. "Sure enough. A Master Mech Designer can easily surpass us in pure design ability alone. The degree of performance that Master Olson can achieve with such a limited budget is astounding!"

"Hey!" Gloriana angrily punched his arm. "Don't get all googly-eyed by the work of our enemy! This mech is causing my fellow Hexers a lot of grief on the battlefield!"

Ves tried to see how the Glow Crusher was able to counter a Blessed Squire.

Of all of the mech types that Master Olson chose, he was surprised that she opted for a melee mech. These days, the Hex Army treated its Blessed Squires like treasures. None of them stepped onto the battlefield without being accompanied by their own guards.

This was actually pretty ridiculous to Ves. He initially conceived the Blessed Squire as mech that was meant to take a beating. It was piloted by boys, after all. Before its introduction, the Hexers always valued their female Hexer mechs more!

"I don't see how this so-called Glow Crusher mech can neutralize a Blessed Squire." He murmured after some time. "Sure, in a one-on-one duel, the Glow Crusher can just charge forward and impale the Blessed Squire on its lance. In practice, this is never the case. The Glow Crusher has to go through at least one defensive line in order to attack any Blessed Squire mech."

Gloriana nodded. "You're right. As efficient and optimized as the Glow Crusher design looks, the chances of this mech running down a Blessed Squire is low, at least in the early stages of a battle. Later on when the Fridaymen have worn out the defenders, a Glow Crusher may be able to get a straight shot at impaling a Blessed Squire."

"It's too late by then. The Blessed Squire should have remained active up to this point. The Hexers gained plenty of advantages during this lengthy period."

"This is also true. I do have to mention that the Glow Crusher aren't designed to be deployed by themselves. They are relatively cheap because they are meant to be deployed in greater numbers."

He could see how that could make a considerable difference. A single Glow Crusher charging forth was hardly intimidating to the typical Hexer unit. It was a different story if an entire mech company of Glow Crushers rushed a Hexer position!

Nonetheless, he still hadn't figured out what made Master Olson's work so effective against the Blessed Squire.

With a name as plain and brutal as the Glow Crusher, the model was meant to restore confidence to the beleaguered Fridaymen mech pilots. It would be a disaster if the mech model failed to live up to its name!

"This design is not as simple as you think. There's more to the mech than what is obvious on the surface. Can you see what gives this mech the ability to counter the Blessed Squire?"

He already observed some unusual traits from the Fridayman mech design. These unique traces denoted the areas that high-ranking mech designers empowered with their design philosophies.

"The engines and movement systems clearly stand out to me. When I try to look at them closely, I begin to get a headache."

It was not so easy to decipher the inner workings of other mech designers. While rational mech designers possessed the ability to simulate someone else's design philosophy, they didn't always achieve success. Otherwise, Master Willix would have succeeded in replicating his design philosophy!

"I don't get it." Ves sighed after trying and failing to decipher the meaning of what Master Olsosn had imparted to the Glow Crusher design. "Can you just show me instead of teasing me like this? I'm dying to know what makes it so special!"

"Very well. There's plenty of footage available. I've selected some of the clearest ones for you. Watch carefully."

The first footage showed a typical urban battlefield on some Coalition planet. A lot of structures had been flattened by incessant bombardment and fighting.

At a certain supply depot, a unit of Hexer mechs were trying to overrun the defenders. Ves recognized the emblem of the Carnegie Group's Fortune Legion from the resisting mechs.

Though the Fortune Legionnaires put up a valiant fight, they were slightly outnumbered and fought with much less zeal than their Hexer counterparts.

Just as the Hexer melee mechs succeeded in collapsing the defensive line, a squad of reinforcements appeared from the flanks. The eight lancer mechs were all armed with long lances and kite shields.

The Hexer mechs were initially caught off-guard, but quickly redirected some mechs to engage the newcomers.

Ves paid close attention to what happened next.

As expected, the Glow Crushers did not back off. They all charged forward, building up a lot of momentum in a short amount of time. Not just their powerful legs, but also the boosters built into their rear made sure that the lancer mechs got up to speed without much delay!

As the new Fridayman mechs neared the closest Hexer mechs, something odd happened.

The Hexer mechs assigned to block the lancer mechs all jerked for some reason. Though the interruption was minor, the lancer mechs already ran through them by the time their Hexer mech pilots recovered!

"Huh?"

Ves wasn't stupid. He could tell that as the Glow Crushers neared the enemy mechs, the glow exerted from a nearby Blessed Squire somehow failed to cover the affected mechs.

How?

While he wondered what had happened, the footage hadn't ended yet. Not all of the Glow Crushers had stopped after impaling their lances on their unbalanced opponents.

Two more mechs designed by Master Olson proceeded onwards to attack the critical Blessed Squire!

A second defense line consisting of some Hexer knight mechs stood ready to meet the charges with their heavy tower shields.

Ves estimated that even if the charging Fridayman mechs managed to pierce through the shields of the enemy mechs, they shouldn't be able to go any further. The Blessed Squire should remain safe if that was the case!

However, just as the new mechs neared the Blessed Squire, Ves faintly sensed as if something significant occurred.

From the way the Hexer mechs all reacted abnormally for a moment, Ves knew that the Blessed Squire's glow no longer affected the entire unit!

"So this is why this model is called the Glow Crusher!"

What happened next surprised him as well. Instead of continuing on, the two Glow Crushers forked away and beat a very hasty retreat!

The Glow Crushers had done their job. Somehow, the lancer mechs managed to break the Blessed Squire's glow once they came close enough. As soon as they accomplished this job, they disengaged and let the other Fortune Legionnaires resume the fight.

While Ves was a bit confused why the Glow Crushers didn't continue to pressure the Hexers, it turned out that their presence weren't needed anymore.

Surprised and alarmed at the sudden loss of their Blessed Squire's glow, the confused Hexer mech pilots fought with a lot less enthusiasm than before.

For their part, the Fortune Legionnaires regained a lot of confidence. Not only were their opponents fighting significantly worse, they didn't have to fear anything if they fought their opponents at close range!

The final result was a complete rout for the Hexers. The surviving Hexer mechs pathetically ran back to friendly lines after losing over half of their attacking force.

The footage ended.

Ves remained silent for a time. The performance of the Glow Crusher completely surprised him, and not in a good way.

"How?" He asked with a hollow voice.

"Master Olson's new mech design is called the Glow Crusher for a reason, Ves. As far as we can ascertain, these mechs don't have to impale the Blessed Squires in order to fulfill their function. They only have to get within a certain range to overwhelm a glow! Once this happens, it takes up to ten minutes for a Blessed Squire to repair its glow!"

Ten minutes! This was enough time for the Fridaymen to swing a battle around!

Chapter 2421: Glow Crusher

The Glow Crusher was very effective at its job!

As a lancer mech, the mech was already good in regular combat. It didn't require a lot of time to build up speed, allowing it to exert its strength in many different situations. It could even function in cramped environments!

Though the mech was too cheap and barebones to incorporate other functions, it didn't need to incorporate any additional bells and whistles.

This was a mech with a very narrow scope. Against enemies that lacked glows, the Glow Crusher didn't function any differently from comparable lancer mechs.

undefinedIt was only when the Glow Crusher was employed against an LMC mech that it showcased its true value.

When Gloriana showed him other footage of the Glow Crusher at work, Ves began to understand the most important aspect of its operation.

"The Glow Crusher isn't attacking the Blessed Squire. It's attacking the glow."

Ves equated glows to auras. They were spherical fields that influenced anyone that entered its effective range. Glows were most effective up close but weakened considerably further away.

At a certain distance, glows weakened to the point where humans no longer came under their effect.

When Ves carefully studied how close to the Blessed Squires the Glow Crushers needed to be in order to pop the glows, he noted that the exact distance varied considerably.

All of them had to get very close, but those that had to get dangerously close were either outnumbered by Blessed Squires or hadn't gained the opportunity to build up a lot of momentum.

"I see now." He said and closed his eyes.

Gloriana curiously looked up at him as her physical projection leaned on his shoulder. She knew that the footage had dealt a considerable blow to his confidence in his work. He needed time to process this new development.

The footage she displayed to Ves showcased the performance of the Glow Crusher in many different situations.

What Ves paid attention to the most was the distances, the speeds and the quantities. He sensed that these three variables played a key role in determining the effectiveness of the Glow Crusher's main function.

If the footage of the early usage of the Glow Crusher model was representative enough, then he pretty much figured out its conditions.

"The closer the Glow Crusher gets to the Blessed Squire, the more likely the latter's glow will collapse."

"The greater the momentum of the Glow Crusher, the easier it becomes to collapse a glow."

"The more the Glow Crushers outnumber the Blessed Squires, the further away they can disable all of the glows."

These were the three characteristics that both the Fridaymen and Hexers needed to take into account when Glow Crushers fought against Blessed Squires.

It didn't matter whether the Glow Crushers were able to physically down the Blessed Squires. That wasn't necessary when they only had to get within a certain distance to accomplish their main job. This was the part about the new mech model that Ves really couldn't accept for some time!

"How many Masters participated in this design project?" He asked.

"Just two. Master Carmin Olson partnered up with Master Meredith Katzenberg to design this mech. That's why the Glow Crusher's design is fairly basic. I'm still amazed it is so effective, though. I thought it would take more Masters to defeat your glows."

Both Masters taught at the Leemar Institute of Technology, though Ves wasn't sure whether that was still the cause. With the fall of the Crestfallen Stars, the Leemar System should be vulnerable to Hexer attacks. The LIT should have certainly evacuated its students and personnel some time ago. This must have given the two Masters a very powerful motivation to design an effective counter against his mechs!

Ves already knew plenty about Master Olson. He also knew a fair bit about Master Katzenberg because she took in Tristan Wesseling as one of her direct disciples.

Whereas Master Olson specialized in enhancing a mech's mobility, Master Katzenberg specialized in developing better materials. More specifically, Ves heard that she was famed for developing new formulas that substituted the effects of more expensive exotics.

He couldn't quite see how these two Masters were able to grant such a ridiculous ability to the Glow Crusher design.

"Tell me how these two Masters managed to find a solution against my glows." He requested.

Gloriana did not string him along this time. She pointed at the mech engine of the Glow Crusher in the projected design schematic.

"There is something about the locomotion systems that causes it to transform some of its momentum into another form of energy. So far, the Hexer mech designers who have studied the design are temporarily calling it 'motion energy'. Generating this motion energy causes the lancer mechs to slow down to some extent because it isn't free."

"Why does motion energy have to be generated on the spot?"

"It disappears quickly if the Glow Crusher slows or stops. It's very fleeting and perishable and can't be stored in some kind of battery." Gloriana shrugged. "You'll have to ask Master Olson to learn more. I think this is one of the most advanced applications of her design philosophy. It involves so many advanced concepts that not even the Hexer Masters understand how it's made."

This wasn't actually rare. Many different kinds of energy existed in reality. Master Olson managed to touch upon one of the higher-level ones over the course of her career. Perhaps it was something that she could have only developed once she reached the rank of Master.

Whatever the case, this 'motion energy' ought to be the principal reason why the Glow Crusher was able to overwhelm a glow, for a lack of better word.

This wasn't the complete story, though. "What role does Master Katzenberg play?"

"Master Katzenberg has developed a new alloy that is able to contain motion energy." Gloriana answered. "If the Glow Crusher simply charges forward without incorporating any of the new alloy, then the motion energy will just drift away from the mech. The machine has to have something that can keep this motion energy together until it is ready to unleash it against the Blessed Squire's glow."

"Ah, I see. So that is what this odd material is for. It's built into the mech engine and the lance, among other parts."

The mech engine generated motion energy and also kept it around for a limited amount of time. If the Glow Crusher didn't expend this motion energy on an attack, then it would evaporate on its own after a time.

This meant that there wouldn't be any ridiculous situations where a Glow Crusher ran forward for several hundred kilometers, building up more and more momentum and motion energy along the way, enough to shatter the collective glows of a hundred Blessed Squires!

Nonetheless, despite the many limitations, Ves could already foresee that Master Katzenberg's latest invention might become a persistent thorn in his side!

Gloriana continued her explanation. "The special new material she developed for the Glow Crusher design is called Olson-Katzenberg alloy, or O-K alloy in short. It's an alloy made out of two valuable medium-grade exotics along with some other lesser materials."

"What are the key materials?"

"They're both metallic exotics with fairly mild effects by themselves. The first important material is Virma steel. It is notable for its ability to inhibit some higher-dimensional energies. The second important material is Fahae-33. It's also a medium-grade exotic and possesses a very weak ability to inhibit all kinds of energy. I don't know how Master Katzenberg managed to combine the two together to develop a vessel for motion energy, but some of my colleagues back home are very impressed."

"How widely available are the two exotics?"

"Not that much. The Fridaymen never specifically focused on mining these two exotics. While the Coalition has accumulated a sizable stockpile of both key materials, once that runs out, it will have to look elsewhere to obtain more. Trade will become the Friday Coalition's main source of Virma steel and Fahae-33 in the future."

It sounded as if the Friday Coalition truly couldn't pump out Glow Crushers as if they cost nothing. Certainly, the mech was already relatively cheap to the Friday Coalition. It was just that adding the crucial O-K alloy to the machine that would limit its production.

Still, for a first-generation counter to an LMC mech, the Glow Crusher should already be considered a success!

"Have the Fridaymen started using these Glow Crushers en masse?"

Gloriana nodded. "For months, We Hexers lorded it over to the Fridaymen. The constant losses must have truly infuriated our enemies to the point where they eagerly embraced any solution that worked! Already, hundreds of thousands of Glow Crushers have appeared on the battlefield. Its first variant has already debuted in space."

She waved her hand, causing hundreds of different footage to play at once.

He became fascinated by all of the sights. While most of the battles involving the Glow Crushers took place on land, a small but growing number of clashes happened in space!

Unlike the inelegant solutions the Hex Army resorted to in order to make the Blessed Squire fly, the two Masters designed a proper spaceborn variant of their Glow Crusher.

"The Glow Crusher OGC-1000 is the base model, and one that is intentionally designed to be adapted by different mech designers or organizations. The Glow Crusher OGC-1050 is a spaceborn variant that can serve the same purpose."

In other words, the basic incarnations of the works of the two Masters were just the start. In the future, the Fridaymen mech regiments and mech divisions that adopted the designs would develop their own variants of the Glow Crusher that excelled in certain aspects!

For example, an elite mech regiment might want to develop a higher-quality version of the lancer mech. Another mech regiment that specialized in aerial combat might take the OGC-1050 and turn it into a machine that was suited to fight in the skies.

The possibilities were endless!

Ves was a bit put off by this, but not too much. No matter how many variants the Fridaymen developed, they all abided by the same principles. Figuring out how to negate one Glow Crusher model meant that his solution should be equally as effective in negating the other models!

He already began to think how he could counteract the Glow Crusher with his designs. Though the work of Master Olson and Master Katzenberg was subject to many limitations, it nonetheless offered the Fridaymen a targeted means to negate one of the Hex Army's significant advantages in a fairly simple package.

"This cannot stand!"

Should he try to develop a means of reinforcing the glows of his mech designs? What if he focused on dispersing motion energy instead?

Many different ideas flitted through his mind. As long as there was a will, there was a way. Ves did not intend for his former Master to have the last laugh!

"Ahem." Gloriana gently interrupted his musings. "The Glow Crusher isn't the only mech the Fridaymen have designed to counteract our Blessed Squire. There are also several other mech designs that interfere with glows in different ways."

She began to exhibit another projection. An enemy spaceborn swordsman mech pushed through some Hexer mechs and managed to strike a Blessed Squire standing on top of a floater module!

Though the Blessed Squire easily managed to block the attack by putting up its shield, something happened that caused the glow to grow unstable!

The Hexer mechs surrounding the Blessed Squire exhibited the now-familiar reaction that signified that the glow was experiencing technical difficulties!

The more the swordsman mech struck the Blessed Squire, the greater this disturbance grew!

Unlike the Glow Crusher, the new model did not collapse the glow. Instead, it just disturbed it to the point it became a mess!

Ves could see from the reactions of both Fridayman and Hexer mechs that this chaos affected both sides without distinction. While the Fridaymen did not have it easy, the Hexers weren't feeling better either!

In this way, this unknown melee mech model managed to level the playing field!

Chapter 2422: Old Routine

Gloriana showed him some additional mech models that successfully interfered with the glow of the Blessed Squire.

The Glow Crusher was the unquestionable winner so far. It offered the Friday Coalition a strong, targeted counter against the unique Hexer mech model that had given them so much grief over the last few months!

The other mech models, such as the spaceborn swordsman mech called the Turbid Nightmare, sought to interfere with glows in different but more demanding ways. They were not as practical on the battlefield due to the simple fact that these mechs had to get very close to their targets.

So far, the Fridaymen mech designers failed to develop a solution that could disturb a glow at range. This was one of his greatest fears, because developing a new weapon that could counter the glows of his mechs would instantly decrease the added value of his products by half!

undefinedVes wasn't sure whether his competitors were close to developing such a solution, but he couldn't underestimate their ability.

The Glow Crusher designed by Master Olson and Master Katzenberg already exceeded his expectations! As an early, first-generation counter, it unquestionably did its job without any superfluous elements.

He could already foresee other mech designers developing more specialized and tailored variants from this excellent base model. As long as they all incorporated Olson-Katzenberg alloy and generated motion energy, then the new derivative designs should all be capable of popping glows as easily as popping soap bubbles!

When Gloriana finished presenting the counters designed by their competitors, Ves fell silent for a time.

Seeing one of the selling points of his mechs neutralized in such a fashion inflicted a severe blow to his confidence. He hadn't expected his glows to be so easy to negate. The Glow Crusher did not even have to physically thrust its lance through a Blessed Squire. It only had to get close enough in order to accomplish its purpose!

This meant that the Hexers needed to widen their security perimeter to adequately guard a Blessed Squire. It was not enough to deploy a bunch of knight mechs and surround the crucial mech up close.

"How has the Hex Army responded?" He asked.

"Our military hasn't abandoned the Blessed Squire." She reassured him. "Sure, it has become more difficult to take advantage of our work, but it is still a great benefit to the Hexers fighting on behalf of the Hegemony. The Glow Crushers are difficult to mass-produce at the moment, so there are plenty of battles where our Blessed Squires only have to stay on guard against the lesser counters. Even if the Glow Crushers become more ubiquitous, the burden on the enemy is still greater. These mechs have to get dangerously close in order to overwhelm a glow, and that puts them in a dangerous position."

Just because the new lancer mechs did not have to reach point-blank range did not mean that they were spared from taking risks. The Glow Crushers still had to rush close enough to put them at risk of getting surrounded by other Hexer mechs. Ves could easily imagine that the likelihood of casualties among the mech pilots assigned to this new model should not be optimistic!

Gloriana mentioned another piece of news. "The Hex Army discovered another simple means to ensure the glows stay intact. Some units have already begun to deploy multiple Blessed Squires at the same. Sometimes, they like to put some in reserve. If a Blessed Squire ever loses its glow, the commander simply replaces them with a fresh and fully-functional copy. The Fridaymen always get angry when that happens."

Both of them chuckled. It took a considerable sacrifice to pop a glow. In many cases, deploying just one or two Glow Crushers wasn't sufficient. If the Hexers pushed forward another Blessed Squire, then the Fridaymen would probably scream with rage!

Of course, the Hexers could also deploy many Blessed Squires together. While superimposing identical glows did make them that much stronger, it became much harder to break them because they mutually supported each other.

Over the course of the Komodo War, both sides learned a lot more about the properties of glows. It operated similar to energy fields, but possessed distinct properties that made them different. As the Fridaymen and Hexers researched them further, they began to develop better ways of employing or negating them in battle.

Even Ves learned a lot of new nuances about his glows!

"Are you okay, now?" Gloriana softly asked.

"I'm fine." He hugged her physical projection. It was so lifelike that Ves truly felt he was touching the soft red fabric of her coat. He even felt the warmth of her body as he pressed his hand on her hip! "Lately, I've shifted away from developing glows. They're nice and all, but they don't entirely relate to my ambitions. If there is one good outcome about venturing into the Nyxian Gap, it's that I've been forced to develop radical new solutions in order to survive. Once I return, we can design some truly revolutionary new mechs."

"I am truly looking forward to that." She giggled. "It'll be especially great if you can truly get Master Willix to co-design our expert mechs for us! I have long admired her and her work. As a Master brought up by the MTA, she is much more skilled than the likes of Master Olson and Master Katzenberg. Getting her involved in our projects will ensure our expert mechs will become even closer to perfection!"

He could already see the stars in her eyes, but Ves did not entirely share her optimism.

"Let's not get too excited, Gloriana. Our expert mechs have to be designed by us for the most part. We can't let Master Willix do all of the work. We need to own the expert mechs we design in order to ensure we can continue to iterate on them in the future. Expert mechs require a lot of care and attention and I doubt Master Willix is willing to babysit them on our behalf."

Her smile died down a bit. She sighed. "You're right. We can't expect her to stick around forever. I just feel it is a wasted opportunity if we insist on keeping her involvement as minimal as possible. Sure, our expert mechs will reflect our strengths, but their designs will be a lot rougher than other expert mech designs."

"That is only temporary. If we want them to become better, then we have to work harder to improve ourselves. If we let Master Willix play a bigger role in the design process, then it will be difficult for us to implement any improvements years later."

The most important part about expert mechs was that they never remained the same for a long time. It was customary to improve them as new technologies became available. Many owners also tended to change their configuration to improve their performance under specific circumstances.

Even if the difference amounted to only 1 or 2 percent, this could still mean the difference between a total victory and a dead expert pilot!

Ves deeply valued the lives of his new expert pilots. Talents such as Venerable Joshua and Venerable Jannzi were pretty much irreplaceable in his eyes. Their presence not only boosted the confidence of his men, but also enhanced the prestige and reputation of his clan!

He couldn't imagine what would happen if one of them died. He had to minimize this outcome as much as possible, and the best way to do that was to equip each of them with excellent expert mechs that could keep up with their evolution.

The two lovers talked a bit about what kind of expert mechs they should aim to design for their new expert pilots.

"You're not keeping the Quint for Joshua?"

Ves shook his head. "Our masterwork mech is a fine machine. However, I don't think it's a good choice to turn it into his exclusive machine. He's not like Venerable Jannzi who matches well with the Shield of Samar. The Quint is based on an adaptable, modular mech platform that is designed to fit to a wide variety of mech pilots."

"Venerable Joshua is a mech pilot that adapts well to nearly every LMC mech." His partner pointed out. "Doesn't that make them the same?"

"It's different. Joshua's excellent compatibility with my mechs is more a reflection of shared ideals. I believe it would be better if we design a mech from the ground up that specifically takes advantage to his unique traits."

It was difficult for him to explain his ideas to her without going into details he did not want to convey over the MTA's private network. Gloriana was used to that, so she did not ask for further clarification.

In any case, once they reunited in person, he could say anything he wanted to her without worrying about eavesdropping.

Before they ended their talk, Gloriana conveyed one more piece of good news.

"My sister Kellandra told me that the Wodin Warriors she sent to reinforce you and escort you back to civilized space has almost reached your position. You'll have to sit tight for five more days or so. Will your task force be able to fend for themselves before that?"

"No problem." Ves confidently grinned. "We just brought some of the systems of the surviving warships back online. We scared away most of the vultures by firing their main guns a couple of times. Nothing scares pirates away better than demolishing one of their carriers with a single volley!"

"That's great, but don't take any unnecessary risks. My sister dispatched roughly 5000 mechs to your position. Once they link up with you, I expect no further problems. I hope you appreciate how difficult it was for our dynasty to send so many troops into the Nyxian Gap."

"I know, Gloriana. I truly appreciate this gesture."

To be honest, he expected the Wodin Dynasty to be a lot more reluctant and act in a more self-serving manner. Yet just like Calabast, the dynasty at some point decided to commit to him in earnest. Hexers or not, that took courage.

Of course, that did not mean that Ves let down his vigilance towards the Hexer people. If Gloriana thought that he would be willing to become a citizen of the Hegemony or adopt more Hexer customs, she would be sorely disappointed!

When they ended their call, Ves closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"It's good to get back to normal."

He no longer spent as much time on thinking how to survive and how to defeat his next opponents.

Instead, he considered other matters such as his upcoming wedding, his mech design projects and the Larkinson Clan's impending migration. None of them entailed the sort of acute threats and dangers that continually haunted his thoughts in the last few months.

Ves embraced this change!

Perhaps the Battle against the Abyss succeeded in pushing him to the brink. After almost losing it all in his confrontation against the Allidus Alliance, he no longer felt so eager to repeat the experience. Some risks were too great for him to bear.

"That said, I did manage to progress my design philosophy by leaps and bounds." He muttered as he returned to his stateroom.

"Meowww.."

Lucky listlessly greeted him. So far, he still hadn't recovered yet from ingesting the B-stone.

"You look hungry. Fancy a meal?"

"Meow!"

"Wow. I still can't get used to the fact that you're not in the mood to eat."

Lucky looked indigently at Ves. How could a human ever understand his longing for minerals? It was torture for him to be unable to eat anything during this time!

Ves ignored his pet and sat down behind his desk. He activated his desk terminal and loaded up all of the messages and reports he had pushed aside for the last few weeks.

Work never ceased. "I missed this. It's good to be back."

Chapter 2423: Worthy Deaths

Ves took a seat in the conference room. Calabast and Major Verle followed suit and sat beside him. Both of them looked a little nervous due to the importance of the upcoming meeting.

"Relax. It will be fine." He attempted to project confidence. "Expert pilots can be unyielding if you confront them head-on, but they're easy to handle as long as you don't get affected by their force of personality."

"I really prefer not to be in the same room as them." Calabast grimaced.

"You need to become accustomed to their presence." Major Verle noted. "For better or worse, our new expert pilots have become the new fixtures of our clan. Even if they aren't interested in running the clan, they possess an outsized voice."

undefinedCalabast came from a pure intelligence background, which meant she mostly worked with regular people. Facing expert pilots was something reserved for the military.

As for Major Verle, he possessed experience with dealing with expert pilots. Just the Aeon Corona Mission alone forced him to deal with the likes of Venerable O'Callahan, Venerable Xie and Venerable Foster.

The Larkinson Clan may not be a military organization like the Bright Republic's Mech Corps, but it was still militaristic by nature. In an organization where martial strength earned great respect, expert pilots naturally commanded respect even when they didn't do anything special!

As a clan leader, Ves had to be wary of their motives. Every expert pilot possessed their own wants and needs, and sometimes they weren't above using their influence to support their cause!

This was one of the other reasons why many private forces and organizations were reluctant to employ expert pilots.

They not only demanded ludicrously expensive expert mechs which had to be designed by at least a Senior, but their existence alone also presented a latent threat to the leaders.

Instances where expert pilots became dissatisfied with their bosses and launched coups were not unheard of! It didn't help that the MTA's arbitrators often sided with them in disputes.

Only state militaries possessed the structure and legitimacy to keep expert pilots in line. The ability to pilot a mech was not correlated with the ability to command. Not everyone was as multi-talented as Colonel Ark Larkinson. Most expert pilots recognized that they should leave all of the complicated decision-making to their commanding officers and simply focus on improving their combat abilities.

Right now, Ves wasn't sure what roles his new expert pilots wanted to play, hence why he looked forward to talking to them. This would be the first time after the Battle against the Abyss where he could enter into a proper discussion with the new stars of the Larkinson Clan.

The hatch slid open. Five people entered. Each of them wore the uniforms of their respective troops. Three Avatars, one Flagrant Vandal and one Swordmaiden stepped inside.

None of them were average. Even before they entered the conference room, Ves already sensed their force of wills bumping into his mind, and from the faint reactions of his advisors, they felt it as well!

Neither Verle nor Calabast possessed spiritual potential. On one hand, that allowed them to escape the brunt of the effects. On the other hand, they possessed very weak defenses against this kind of influence. Both consequences pretty much balanced the other out, causing the two norms to experience changing moods.

It did not help that they were in the same room as multiple expert pilots, each of whom possessed different convictions.

Ves smiled as he came in touch with Venerable Joshua's life-oriented force of will. He felt slightly abrasive when he touched Venerable Jannzi's force of will. Both Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise felt prickly to him. As for Venerable Tusa, he hardly felt anything.

Once the newcomers took their seats, Ves gestured to Calabast. She promptly activated a jammer and some other security measures.

The air became charged with interference, giving both Calabast and Verle some relief. The sensation of jamming distracted them from the force of wills projected by the expert pilots.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. I hope that all of you have recovered from the previous battle. Tusa, how is your body doing?"

The light mech specialist smiled sardonically. "I enjoyed the best of care from Miss Ranya Wodin-Larkinson, though I do not feel as if my body entirely belongs to me anymore."

"I understand the sensation. It will blow over after a few weeks."

Of the five, Tusa had been the worst off. In his duel against the Inexorable One, he fell short once the fog projection became occupied with the avian dark god's true body.

In fact, Ves feared that Tusa may have died after the huge bird simply rammed through the Blueshift, causing the heavily-modified mech to break into pieces!

Seeing that Tusa was recovering nicely, he fully put down his concerns on his continued ability to serve the clan.

"Let's move on the first item of the agenda. First, congratulations to the four of you. While Venerable Jannzi has moved ahead of you, each of you have performed admirably by stepping up against our opponents when we most needed it. Your help was indispensable."

Venerable Orfan interrupted his speech. "That's all well and good, but when are you going to tell me about what we just fought against and who helped us out in the end? I asked some of my men to do some digging for me. And you know what they found? That winged tiger mech that appeared through the portal belongs to the Oblivion Hand. What are your ties with the dark mercenaries? Why did they decide to help us, and what the hell was that big alien woman?!"

Ves did not feel flustered at her sudden inquiry. He already anticipated these questions beforehand. He briefly looked into the eyes of the other expert pilots and recognized that they all wanted answers as well.

"We don't share a relationship with the Oblivion Hand." He told them. "In fact, none of us expected the mech and that female alien god to appear out of nowhere to help us in our hour of need. While we did cooperate during the battle, they left shortly afterwards without expressing any other intentions."

"Why did they take the initiative to help us out?" Orfan narrowed her eyes.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Ves readily answered. "If you have studied the history of the Oblivion Hand, then you should know that it has become a growing thorn in the side of the pirates. For some reason, the Dark Cleaver is hell-bent on toppling as many pirates as possible. The Oblivion Hand became interested in our clash against the Allidus Alliance and its allies because the dark mercenaries wanted to end the existences of the dark gods."

"What are those three giant monsters, really?" Venerable Tusa skeptically asked. "Are they truly gods? Why did three of them emerge from the Gravada Knarlax, and who exactly is the god that defeated them in the end?"

Ves shrugged and decided to offer an ambiguous answer. "Who knows? Gods or not, the Unending One, the Blinding One and the Inexorable One are all old and powerful existences that can't be fought with normal means. As for the alien woman who defeated them, I know even less about her aside from the fact that she must have been pursuing a vendetta against the three monsters."

Throughout this entire meeting, he did not say anything that could tie him and his parents together.

Fortunately, nobody knew that the Dark Cleaver who piloted the Devil Tiger was actually his father, though Joshua was looking at him a little differently.

Nobody happened to recognize the giant energy projection of his mother. All of the alien mutations that warped her energy projection pretty much made her unrecognizable.

At best, she was a completely unrelated half-human. At worst, she was an alien that only vaguely resembled humans due to convergent evolution!

Another indication was that the Larkinson Network didn't seem to work properly on his parents. He could already guess that his mother had done something to sabotage the connections so that they wouldn't inadvertently expose their identities or locations. This wasn't actually difficult to do. Even Ves cut off the connections if he wished.

None of the expert pilots had any reason to doubt his lies. They all believed that the Oblivion Hand genuinely had nothing to do with Ves or the Larkinsons. To them, the Dark Cleaver and the alien female god simply wanted to take advantage of the situation to weaken the pirates.

Though Ves felt tempted to tell them the truth, it was too dangerous for him to do so. They possessed their own principles that did not necessarily align with the clan. In fact, Ves believed that the Larkinson Network was no longer effective in influencing their mindsets.

This effectively meant he had to be very careful with exposing any information to them in the future.

The meeting moved on. After answering a lot of questions about the battle, the expert pilots finally relented.

They still looked unsatisfied as a whole. Ves hadn't provided them with many clear answers.

"Alright, now that we are done with discussing the past, let's address our current and future situation. First, the Wodin Warriors will soon arrive and escort us out of the Nyxian Gap. We won't be risking any further battles. This means we can start focusing on rebuilding. We have suffered a lot of losses. A lot of our clansmen are hurting right now, and we need your help to restore everyone's morale."

"Too many Larkinsons have died." Jannzi spoke up in an accusatory tone. "Out of our entire mech roster, we have lost more than half of our mech pilots on this disastrous venture. What's even worse is that we lost thousands more when the pirates targeted our ships. Why did we fight so much?"

Some of the other expert pilots nodded, which was a bad sign to Ves. He knew this reckoning was coming.

"I don't understand what we were fighting for either." Tusa said. "Is it experience? Is it loot? While I am glad that I managed to break through, I would gladly give up the opportunity to become an expert pilot if all of our fallen brothers and sisters never met their end in this forsaken place."

"Their deaths were not worthy. We weren't fighting to defend the Bright Republic. We were just fighting to advance your goals. I don't know how to face the Vandals who fell because of your decisions." Commander Orfan added.

"Cut him some slack." Venerable Joshua said. "What happened was regrettable, but we became stronger in the end. Not just us, but nine other expert candidates rose up. This is proof that our patriarch is right. Only by going through hardship will we be able to rise above our current height. Once we return home and digest our gains, our clan will grow by leaps and bounds!"

Orfan and Dise nodded in agreement, though his girlfriend did not look pleased.

"Joshua, do you care nothing about the Larkinsons who have died?"

"Don't get me wrong, Jannzi!" He quickly defended himself. "I do care. It's just that I think our clan will ultimately become better because of it. If we hadn't entered the Nyxian Gap, our force would have remained brittle and untested. That would leave us in a dangerous position when our entire clan comes under attack one day."

Commander Dise agreed with Joshua. "We are warriors. Living well sounds nice, but I never believed in putting my safety into other people's hands. While I care for my remaining Swordmaidens, I never thought of coddling them. That will only turn them dependent on others. I don't want the Larkinson Clan to breed weakness and become unable to defend or take care of itself. Trust me, with the survivors we have today, we don't have to worry about any weakness in our ranks for the next fifty years!"

The expert pilots expressed different views. Ves listened and took note of each expert pilot's inclination.

Chapter 2424: Questioning Leadership

Ves made the right choice by gathering all of the expert pilots together. If he spoke to them on an individual basis, then it would be difficult for him to fend off their remarks.

Now, the expert pilots pretty much argued amongst themselves. Ves, Calabast and Major Verle turned into inanimate props as the expert pilots each expressed what they thought about the current campaign.

Just as Ves expected, Venerable Jannzi found the most fault with his decisions. To her, trading lives for training and plunder was a horrible deal.

It didn't matter whether the Larkinson Clan gained 5 expert pilots and 9 expert candidates in total. Each breakthrough came at the cost of at least several dozens of lives!

undefinedTo Jannzi, this was no different from cutting off the necks of innocent Larkinsons in order to fuel a demonic ritual that directly enabled her to break through. It was a reprehensible trade that should have never taken place!

Joshua thought the opposite. Each Larkinson that took part in the expedition ultimately agreed to face the risks. They all volunteered except for the Avatars, but that was only because anyone who agreed to put on the yellow-and-white uniform already agreed to become the tip of the spear.

"Each of us had a choice, Jannzi. None of us are in the Larkinson Clan because we were forced into it. Both trueblood and adopted Larkinsons had to make several deliberate choices to end up here. Our clan patriarch has been very open about this. That many of our clansmen died in the end is not good at all, but… they all accepted the risks."

"You!"

The two may be in a relationship with each other, but they held different views. As Jannzi and Joshua continued to argue with each other, Ves found it increasingly difficult to imagine that they would stay together for long.

"You're not looking at it right, Joshua." Tusa shook his head. "Sure, the Larkinsons who joined the task force did so on their own volition. This was because they got the impression that we would only be mucking about a bit by honing our skills against a bunch of pirate outfits. This is what all of the Peacekeeper outfits do. None of us expected us to go so deep and crack open fortified pirate bases that are defended by thousands of mechs and an arsenal of illegal superweapons!"

That was indeed a bit difficult to defend. Joshua clearly didn't know how to respond to this argument.

Commander Orfan crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "Tusa has it right. While I like Ves, that doesn't mean I agree with him on everything. This time he really bamboozled us. None of us signed up to attack heavily defended pirate bases, let alone alien gods and actual warships!"

"Glory cannot be earned without sacrifice." Commander Dise surprisingly opposed her buddy. "What we gained from this journey is something precious. Who in the galactic rim can boast of fighting against and winning against a real warship? This victory alone will send our reputation soaring."

"What is the use of that?"

"Reputation can save the lives of many more comrades than we have lost in the past few months! Just think about it! All of the potential enemies in our way will never think about waylaying us when they heard we fought warships and came out on top. Even if they don't believe we have earned this victory, all of us expert pilots and expert candidates are already enough to force many people to respect our strength."

"Civilized space isn't as bad as the Nyxian Gap." Jannzi insisted. "Once we get back to normal space, nobody will randomly decide to attack us because they are greedy for our possessions. We live in a decent, normal society."

"Tell that to the pirates."

"The pirates in civilized space are nowhere near as strong as brazen as their counterparts here, Joshua. What passes off for pirates are usually poor and desperate criminals who only pounce on individual cargo ships because they can only muster up a couple of dozen mechs at most. With our strength and numbers, we have already grown way past the threshold where we need to be concerned about pirate attacks."

"That doesn't mean the galaxy is safe! Even well-defended trade fleets are at risk of attacks. It's too difficult to ensure our clan will remain safe and sound as we travel to other areas where the locals aren't as familiar with our clan. I bet that having ten-thousand mech pilots is not scary as a single expert pilot!"

Ves raised his hand. "Alright! That's enough. I think you are all arguing in circles at this point. You have all voiced your opinions. I have listened carefully to each and every one of you. You have all brought up some good points."

Though he felt a bit nervous at facing five expert pilots at the same time, he already knew them before they reached their current rank. They weren't so different from their old selves. As long as he accommodated all of their views, he should be able to achieve his goals.

"Venerable Jannzi." He spoke as he turned to the most outspoken critic. "We have talked before about this. Each Larkinson who joined our clan did so with the expectation that they will have to work to rise above their current station. Do you know how many dispossessed Ylvainans, downtrodden Reinaldan citizens, oppressed Sentinel commoners and other hopeful people have joined our clan? Each of them signed up with us with the promise that we would lift them from the mud."

She glared at him. "Our children and the Larkinsons born after that won't have a choice!"

"The rules can be amended if the Larkinson Assembly believes it needs to change. There are good reasons why we expect total loyalty from our offspring, but if you think that's wrong, you are welcome to push an alternative." Ves brushed off her argument. "We are in a different situation right now. Yes, I took risks. Yes, I've made mistakes. Don't let their deaths be in vain by throwing away the gains that they have secured for us. We should honor their sacrifices instead."

"Honor! What does that have to do with this! I see no honor in this ill-thought adventure! At least back in the Mech Corps, we didn't question our mission! I think we need a change of leadership! You're a good mech designer, Ves, but that's all you are. Either make way for someone steadier or we will force you out of your position!"

Uh oh. That did not sound good! Perhaps Venerable Jannzi had already come in touch with the dissidents. He could not let her push this proposal any further!

"We have made some decisions that did not quite pan out, but as a whole we become far stronger and wealthier than just a few years ago. This kind of progress is astounding no matter who you compare us to. No clan or organization has grown so fast to the point where we are already wealthy enough to reach the standard of second-class citizens! You can't obtain this progress with your own efforts in any other way. Do you think that our clansmen will remain satisfied if we remain as poor and inconsequential as we were before?"

"You are trying to move too quickly, Ves. What is wrong with taking it slow? Whether we become equivalent to second-class citizens tomorrow or ten years from now shouldn't be too much of a difference. With all of the sales your mech company is making lately, I don't see a strong need to seek so much battle."

"You know nothing." Commander Dise shook her head.

Jannzi ignored Dise's remark. "The last time we talked, Ves, I thought it was already enough to share my opinion. Now I think I should have pushed you harder. Maybe you should share some of your power to us. In the past, you were the only prominent Larkinson in the clan, but that is no longer the case. With us, we can return to how the Larkinson Family ran itself."

"Our clan is different from the old family." Ves quickly responded. "We have rejected many traditions that have held the old family back, and this is no different. Expert pilots like you have better things to do than to govern our growing clan. Also, putting people who know nothing except how to fight is not a good way to prevent more deaths. Just look at Vicious Mountain."

"We don't have to run the clan ourselves! We can just let the Larkinson Assembly and Executive Council continue to govern in our stead. We can hold veto power and reject any decisions that go too far. Isn't that a better arrangement?"

Ves shook his head. "You are some of the greatest Larkinsons we have, but that does not mean you represent the clan in its entirety. Vetoing any decisions by the Larkinson Assembly means that you are in effect opposing what the majority wants. Look, during the founding of the clan, we have already formalized the powers you gain when you become expert pilots. Each of you already hold the position of judge in the Larkinson Court."

"Larkinson Court?"

"Huh?"

Ves smiled. "I am not surprised you forgot about it. So far, no Larkinson has committed any crimes serious enough to warrant the involvement of the Larkinson Court. It's basically the institution that presides over the trials of clansmen who are accused of serious crimes. It doesn't waste its time on trivial issues such as stealing someone's comm or skipping work."

"What is the rationale for this? We aren't trained in law." Tusa frowned.

"The Larkinson Court will be filled with actual judges that will take care of most of the processes. The problem is that as our clan grows larger, they may grow partial to a faction or go astray in some way. Expert pilots like you are known for your integrity and adherence to values. I can find no better person than you to preserve our moral fiber. By issuing judgement during serious cases brought before the Court, you can wield power without imposing yourselves too much in other people's lives."

Several people looked confused. They didn't quite know what he was getting at. All of this judging business did not sound too appealing.

While Ves meant what he said, he also had an ulterior motive in mind when he pushed to put expert candidates in the Larkinson Court.

In a typical divided power structure, the executive, legislative and legal branches were all supposed to stand apart from each other. Each of them wielded power, but only in a specific way.

Ves always feared that expert pilots would somehow use their huge influence to force some undesirable changes to his clan. Blocking them from gaining power didn't help.

This was why he had the bright idea of shoving them into the court! Of the three branches, the Larkinson Assembly possessed the most decision-making power while the Larkinson Court possessed the least!

The job of a judge was to judge, not to legislate. Not only that, but judges were also expected to be fair and impartial. It was unseemly for them to be prejudiced and take sides before a trial had begun!

By pushing the expert pilots into the role of judges, Ves effectively hoped to muzzle their outspokenness. If they took their new responsibilities seriously, then they should firmly stay away from the actual decision makers. After all, in a divided power structure, it was a great taboo for judges to be in cahoots with executives and lawmakers!

"You'll understand in the future." Ves shook his head. "In any case, our clan already has a structure in place that the Larkinson Assembly has agreed upon. If people think I should go, then 80 percent of the Assembly must vote me out. That is the rule. It is not proper for you to break the existing rules. You should instead think about your future role. While our clan has largely stayed harmonious up until now, that will doubtlessly change in the future. The power to pass judgement is a heavy responsibility."

The expert pilots all looked uncertain at each other. Was this supposed to be their new role?

Chapter 2425: Blinding Carrot

"As much as I fault Ves for killing a lot of Vandals, I don't think it's a good idea to put someone else in charge." Commander Orfan said. "We all depend on his mechs. Our clan wouldn't be as great as it is now without his ambitions. I'm fine with letting him run everything so long as he promises we won't throw ourselves in another senseless adventure like this one."

The air in the conference room had become charged, and not just due to the jamming that suffused the compartment. Venerable Jannzi's insistence on taking Ves to account sparked an argument where the expert pilots seriously discussed whether they should support the current clan patriarch.

Commander Dise spoke next. "Only power matters. Whether you're in the frontier or in the middle of a peaceful state, this rule has never changed. Spending resources on soft, weak and complacent troops is not only a waste, but will weaken us as a whole. Just look at the performance of the Living Sentinels in the Battle of Ulimo Citadel and the Battle against the Abyss. It's not a surprise they died in droves."

"The Living Sentinels were never supposed to fight in offensive actions like the previous battle!" Venerable Jannzi objected to Dise. "Ves misrepresented his goals and sold a false narrative to the clan. The Sentinels are worse off by far because their mission is different from ours! All of the fiascos that took place since we entered the Gap reflect a failure in the leadership of our clan. The patriarch has too much power and the Executive Council hasn't done anything!"

undefinedMajor Verle shook his head. "You can't have too many leaders in charge during wartime situations. The moment our task force entered the Nyxian Gap, we followed the command of one indisputable leader, as is proper. We put our faith in him, and he has delivered, more or less. With multiple people in charge, any differences in opinion during battle can prove fatal. During critical moments, it is better to make a bad decision than no decision at all. In that respect, Ves has proven to be more than qualified due to his decisiveness and ability to maintain his wits under fire."

"I agree." Venerable Joshua enthusiastically nodded. "The clan patriarch is the sole person who is propping up the clan. Let's face it. He's responsible for everything and the entire reason why people like me have been able to transform our lives. I knew what I was getting into when I was signing up for the Larkinson instead of enlisting in the Mech Corps. If I chose differently back then, then I would have remained a worthless, normal mech pilot in a devastated state controlled by its neighbors. I'm truly grateful for Patriarch Ves for brightening my future. We all knew that the opportunity to increase our status wasn't going to be easy."

The tension between Venerable Joshua and Venerable Jannzi had steadily risen throughout the contentious meeting. Neither of them showed any inkling of affection between the two. Ves already guessed that a breakup might happen as soon as today.

Everyone looked at Venerable Tusa. He had mostly sided with Jannzi so far, but he didn't sound as strident.

"I think both sides have a point." Tusa stated. "There are plenty of clansmen who remained safe and sound at home. The Larkinsons who joined our task force did so knowingly that they might die. Yet they did so anyway because Ves dangled a juicy carrot in front of them, only for them to miss the minefield they were walking into. I think this entire sequence of events has exposed many shortcomings in how we run our clan. We need to implement some reforms to make sure that we won't ever suffer losses as severe again."

The expert pilots did not manage to come to a consensus. Ves tentatively figured he could count on the support of Venerable Orfan, Venerable Dise and Venerable Joshua.

Venerable Jannzi sounded as if she would be happy to see Ves resign from his position, while Venerable Tusa also wanted to see some change.

Seeing that the other expert pilots failed to nudge the two dissenters, Ves knew that it was time for him to step in and resolve this situation.

He abruptly stood up. Every expert pilot looked at him with expectation.

It was difficult for normal people to face so many expert pilots, but Ves did so with a domineering posture.

"I built each of you." He began as he stared in all of their eyes. "None of you could have reached your current level of strength without my mechs, my funding, my clan and other arrangements. As far as I'm concerned, your rise and the emergence of another batch of expert candidates vindicates my approach!"

Not everyone agreed with that, but Ves continued to speak.

"Do you know how much blood, sweat and tears other people shed in order to achieve this result? Trillions of mech pilots fight and die in order to better their circumstances and reach a higher rank. There are many people who are content to remain average throughout their lives, but the members of our clan are different!"

Ves activated his comm and projected some footage from the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy. A panorama of strange new planets, boundless resource deposits and pioneering fleets dazzled everyone's eyes.

"This is our future and our ticket to greatness!" He claimed. "This is where the Larkinson Clan shall truly rise. Everything we did up until now has brought us closer to this goal. If we did not push ourselves so hard, we would have never made enough progress. We needed to go above and beyond to earn the merits needed to pass through the inter-galactic gate, and we did that. We needed to accumulate strength in order to tackle our current and future challenges, and we have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."

He manipulated his comm and displayed a different set of footage. This time, his comm projected some footage of expert mechs in action.

Whether in space or on land, these dazzling machines unleashed powerful attacks or moved faster than the fastest light mechs. None of the expert pilots were able to resist the allure of obtaining such a powerful machine. Jannzi was no exception!

"Let me inform you of a fantastic new development." Ves smirked. "As you know, it is not easy to obtain an expert mech. Not even I can design such an advanced machine. It is for this reason that I have been in talks with Master Moira Willix of the Mech Trade Association. She has shown interest in co-designing your expert mechs. As long as I leverage my good relationship with her, I might be able to gain her help!"

"Really?!" Joshua burst out. "Will the MTA really design our expert mechs?!"

The reputation of the MTA was stellar. Everyone knew that the MTA employed the best mech designers and designed the best mechs. There was no way that any average mech pilot would be able to remain calm if what Ves said was true!

"Nothing is definitive yet." Ves cautiously said. "Friendly or not, it isn't easy to convince an MTA Master Mech Designer. However, we have contributed significantly to the security of the Komodo Star Sector with our deeds. Knocking out Ulimo Citadel and ridding the Nyxian Gap of some very dangerous warships has allowed us to earn a lot of merits and favors from the Association!"

Everyone began to dream about their future expert mechs. Ves paid special attention to Venerable Tusa, who happened to show the greatest longing.

Of all the expert pilots at the table, he was the only one who completely lost his mech. The Inexorable One smashed his converted light mech into pieces, and so far the search and rescue parties were still combing over the battlefield to recover some of the debris!

In that battle, Tusa experienced the helplessness of piloting a weak mech. While there was nothing egregious about the Blueshift, the pared-down Bright Warrior mech simply failed to meet his demands. It was too slow, too sluggish and too fragile!

Ves could already see the wheels turning in his male cousin's head.

As expected!

Nothing attracted an expert pilot more than obtaining a suitable expert mech!

When he shifted his gaze to Venerable Jannzi, he could see she was also tempted.

"Venerable Jannzi, the Shield of Samar deserves the best." He softly spoke. "Don't you want your personal mech to enjoy the best treatment? I made your mech. I know what it wants. The Shield of Samar wishes to become as great as Qilanxo. Together with Master Willix, I can fulfill its wish. Once it passes through the MTA Master's hands, your mech will become so strong that you can use your own strength to prevent future tragedies!"

He could see his words having an effect on her mind. Expert pilots such as Jannzi believed in their own strength. They wouldn't be so willful if that was the case. Having a good expert mech that complemented and enhanced their piloting ability was one of their persistent obsessions!

"What expert mech would you like to pilot? Think about it. With Master Willix presiding over their designs, the possibilities are endless."

Ten minutes later, the expert pilots left the conference room in a daze. Each of them were too preoccupied with dreaming about their expert mechs to think about the meeting.

Only Venerable Jannzi managed to hold back her urges. She glowered at Ves. "Well played."

"This isn't a game, Jannzi." Ves gently pushed back. "I have always tried to better the clan in one way or another. The sacrifices we made have pleased the MTA. Cleansing the Nyxian Gap of so many evil and destructive elements has effectively earned us the support of Master Willix. This alone will bring numerous benefits to our clan."

She glared at him for some time before she wordlessly rose from her seat and exited the conference room.

"Well, you survived, more or less." Major Verle finally sighed as the force of wills impacting his mind moved away.

Calabast did not look as optimistic. "Venerable Jannzi will remain a thorn at your side. She likes your mechs but despises you as a leader. She's struggling inside. She knows that you are the best, and only mech designer who can keep improving the Shield of Samar. That traps her."

That sounded bad to Ves. "Expert pilots perform the best when they are free to pursue their ideals. If she is struggling with her conscience, then her development might stall. That is bad for our clan."

"Is it, sir?" Major Verle questioned. "The way I see it, Venerable Jannzi will always be opposed to your agenda. There is no reason to go out of your way to accommodate her. She's not indispensable anymore now that we have four other expert pilots. Don't forget about our new expert candidates either. Each of them can replace her one day."

Calabast looked concerned. "Venerable Jannzi has earned a lot of renown in the clan. It's not wise to attack her directly. We should employ subtler means to diminish her influence. For example, we can raise the status of compliant expert pilots. Train them. Show them that they will be rewarded if they stand behind your back. You can give them priority on expert mechs, allowing them to improve faster than the naysayers."

This was a way of leveraging his power to compel the expert pilots to follow his lead. As the main mech designer of the Larkinson Clan, Ves pretty much controlled every mech his clansmen used. This was especially the case for expert mechs, as they each required his involvement in order to be designed and built at great expense.

"These are good methods. I'll think about it. Thank you for your advice. In any case, Venerable Jannzi failed to gain the support of her fellow expert pilots. This is a pretty good outcome."

Chapter 2426: Honorable Clan

It turned out that expert pilots weren't completely single-minded. Aside from obsessing about their principles, they also obsessed over their expert mechs.

It was hard not to! Expert pilots weren't philosophers. They were warriors first. Their entire existence revolved around their ability to pilot mechs.

Each of them knew that stronger mechs allowed them to exert more strength. With greater strength, they gained more influence, allowing them to spread their values more effectively.

This meant that if Ves wanted to remain in charge, he should manipulate these circumstances in his favor.

undefinedPromoting his backers and suppressing his critics was a classic way to remain in power. As long as he amplified the voice of Venerable Joshua and diminished the voice of Venerable Jannzi, the balance would slowly tip in his favor.

This was what Ves wanted to see. While he liked Venerable Jannzi as a person, her strong views threatened his ambitions. For this reason alone, he did not mind suppressing her in various ways.

The simplest method to do so was to simply hold off on providing her with an expert mech. In any case, Ves still had to exert a lot of effort in order to obtain any expert mech. If Venerable Jannzi was too ungrateful to appreciate his efforts, then he had no reason to amplify her voice.

Expert pilots each possessed an exalted status in society, but it was very hard for them to remain influential if they continually lacked an expert mech!

In the Mech Corps, no expert pilot worried about lacking a suitable machine. Each of them fought on behalf of the state, so it was extremely rare for them to dissent. Even if they had a problem with their mech regiments, they could simply request a transfer.

It was different in the Larkinson Clan. No matter what, Ves was in charge of everything, so Jannzi had no way of avoiding him in any way. This was especially so if he effectively controlled her access to an expert mech!

Calabast pushed Ves to take advantage of his position of power. "While Venerable Jannzi enjoys the distinct honor of becoming the first expert pilot of the clan, stars fade when others rise. As long as a more pliable expert pilot such as Venerable Joshua continues to astonish our clansmen, who will remember Venerable Jannzi after a few years?"

Though Ves recognized that her approach had a lot of merit, a part of him felt uneasy. There was something distinctly distasteful about engaging in such murky acts. It reeked of politics.

Major Verle happened to feel the same way. "The Larkinson Clan values honor and integrity. Sir, think very carefully about the repercussions of your actions. Once you scheme against your own people, our clan will change into something different. Others will follow your example and hatch their own schemes. Any notion about treating every Larkinson fairly will disappear, and it is all because you taught everyone that it is acceptable to abuse your power for your own gain."

"Everyone abuses their power for their own gain. That's what makes it worth pursuing." Calabast sneered.

"The Larkinson Clan is not a Hexer organization! My fellow Vandals and I initially joined the clan for two reasons. One, we believe in Ves. Two, we believe in the uprightness of the Larkinsons. Many other hopeful people have applied to join the Larkinson Clan because they are attracted to our fair and equitable culture. We are a brotherhood. However, just like any big organization, we have people who have different ideas. The proper way to handle them is to allow them to continue to voice their opinions freely. If Ves and his supporters are right, then they will naturally be able to remain in charge."

"Naive! Dissent must be managed, lest it fester and spread. You cannot imagine how malcontents can manipulate the majority by driving hysteria and spreading misinformation. The way I see it, Venerable Jannzi must be choked out of the clan. It's not worth it anymore to keep her around!"

Ves shot a glance at both of his advisors, forcing them to halt their argument.

"That's enough. I have contemplated both your suggestions. While I am tempted by your suggestion, Calabast, I cannot bring myself to do as you say. Major Verle has said it correctly. The Larkinsons must act honorably and with integrity. I do not want to preside over a clan that is rife with backstabbing and suspicion. Larkinsons shouldn't have to climb over each other's corpses in order to fulfill their ambitions. Kinship is one of our most important values. That means we should respect each clansmen even if they hold opposing viewpoints."

His words caused Calabast to look glum. Major Verle briefly gloated over his victory.

"I'm glad you made the right decision, sir."

This was the end of the matter.

While Ves had not discussed with his expert pilots to comfort the grieving survivors, it could wait. He ordered Calabast and Major Verle to lay the groundwork. He planned to address his men when they were ready to move out of the Nyxian Gap.

In the next couple of days, Ves remained in thought as he slowly began to pick up his regular work.

With his task force still busy salvaging the battlefield and restoring their damaged and captured ship, there was no need for him to pay attention to these chores.

This left him free to return to the design lab in order to resume his design work.

In the month that he and his Braves were occupied with preparing for the battle, Gloriana and her Erudites had achieved remarkable progress on every project.

The Valkyrie Redeemer, the Cat's Paw, the Chiron, the Ferocious Piranha, the Sanctuary and the Crystal Lord Mark II all came closer to completion.

Of the six projects, the Cat's Paw Project still required a lot of work while the Ferocious Piranha was very close to completion.

At least, that was before he lost one of his design spirits.

A major complication had arisen after the Battle against the Abyss. One of the repercussions directly affected the LMC's business operations!

"Benny! Long time no see!" Ves grinned as he finally greeted his personal assistant after more than a month of neglect.

"Boss." Gavin greeted while trying to stay as professional as possible. "A lot has happened over the past month. I've prepared an extensive report for you to peruse. In short, while our clan is doing better than ever due to your astounding victory against the Nyxian pirates, the LMC has suffered some setbacks."

"What's wrong?"

"Our sales are slowing down, boss. We are still selling more mechs each month, but our expansion has stalled. The local mech markets are beginning to lose confidence in our offerings."

"Why?"

"There are two reasons for this. The introduction of targeted counters has shown our customers that our glows aren't as infallible as they once assumed. When the Fridaymen developed the Olson-Katzenberg alloy, they did not keep the alloy formula for themselves. Instead, they put it up for licensing. While we can't count how many mech designers and mech companies have licensed the O-K alloy, it is sure to be considerable."

That sounded bad, but Ves did not panic. "O-K alloy is only part of the equation why the Glow Crusher works. Master Olson's ingenuity in generating motion energy and discharging it as an attack is the true brilliance of her design. That is not what others can replicate."

Ves truly admired his former Master for harnessing such a potent form of energy! It far exceeded his imagination of what her specialty entailed. It showed him that he should never underestimate any Master no matter how boring their design philosophies sounded.

"Well, from what we have heard from other sources, O-K alloy somehow makes it easy to generate at least some motion energy. This gives other mech designers a chance to target glows even if they have to put more effort into generating it. As long as the mech industry improves and refines the application of O-K alloy, our products won't be able to take advantage of their glows with impunity."

Ves remained stoic as he listened to Gavin's pessimistic assessment.

"This day would have come sooner or later. Nothing is infallible. Not even glows. Hell, this is why I pushed to design the Sanctuary. I don't believe that other mech designers can leverage the properties of O-K alloy as well as the two Masters. If you ask me, let these competitors of ours invest in developing their pathetic counters for our products. Once we publish the Sanctuary, the effectiveness of our solution will instantly conquer the market. We will be able to control our counter by that time!"

"Uhm, that sounds great, but what about the Fridaymen? What stops them from buying our Sanctuaries before employing them against the Blessed Squire?"

"That won't be a problem." Ves grinned. "It's hard coded not to suppress the glow of superior mechs. That's the greatest benefit to publishing our own counter!"

Gavin looked shocked. "If that is the case, then I have no complaints!"

So far, the Design Department had kept most of the details about the ongoing projects close to its chest. None of the assistant mech designers had leaked any information, which was good.

"You mentioned another issue that's slowing our growth. What's the problem?"

"Ah, it's about the Doom Guard. The mech has.. changed, boss."

"Oh. Yeah. That's my fault."

Ves quickly recalled that he had lost one of his design spirits in the Battle against the Abyss. He felt quite pained at the loss of Nyxie!

In hindsight, Nyxie had probably turned into a dark god. Unlike the Unending One and the other powerful spirits, Nyxie failed to join their club because his coffin trapped him in place.

If not for that, Ves might not have gained so many benefits from harvesting his spiritual fragments!

Ves personally witnessed the power of a dark god. Whether it was the Unending One, the Inexorable One or the Blinding One, each of them possessed enough power to wipe out his fleet by themselves!

This was because of the insane pressure they emanated. Their sheer presence was so heavy that most people couldn't even stay awake. Only those with at least some spiritual strength would be able to muster up some resistance, but even then none of his expert pilots were able to put up a fight because they lacked expert mechs!

Now that his expert pilots had already broken through, there was no way they could exert as much strength as before.

It didn't matter if his surviving forces managed to take over control of some of the captured warships. Their main cannons probably did little to deter a fully-descended dark god!

For this reason, a part of Ves was quite happy that he got rid of Nyxie while he could. Who knew when the powerful dark god would break out of his prison.

That said, Nyxie's death did present a considerable problem to Ves. In his haste, he filled up the void in the Doom Guard's design with Lufa. At the time, he did not have the time to check how this hasty solution affected one of his best-selling models.

From the look of Gavin's face, the consequences shouldn't be good.

"The Doom Guard mechs have become weird. They are still disturbing, but in a different way. It's like you are getting beaten by a stick one day, only to get splashed by boiling water the next day."

"In what way?"

"Well.. they're still uncomfortable, but they don't induce a sense of terror anymore. Instead, they're disturbing because anyone who enters within the range of their glows is subject to two conflicting influences. One of them is aggressive, and the other one is calm. Strange things happen when both of them are affecting people at the same time. Our customers are still trying to cope with the changes, but it is very different from what they are used to before. The mech pilots assigned to the Doom Guards have to learn how to cope with their glows all over again!"

Chapter 2427: Bipolar Guard

It was better for Gavin to show Ves what had changed. Words could not fully convey how differently the Doom Guard behaved.

The first footage showed a Doom Guard in the base of the Larkinson Clan back on Cinach VI. A dozen Larkinson mech pilots stared up at the mech with apprehension.

After receiving some sort of signal, they stepped forward and approached the mech.

Their faces contorted a bit as they got close. Some looked like they were about to punch someone. Others looked as if they were ready to sit down and relax.

undefinedThe problem was that these conditions only lasted a short time. Just a few seconds later, the people who looked excited had abruptly calmed down, and the people who appeared to be relaxed suddenly became alarmed.

Their progress forward slowed. The closer they approached, the more their emotions became subject to rapid flips. The mood swings also grew stronger at close range, which meant that the mech pilots experienced greater difficulties in maintaining a sober mind!

Everyone had a limit.

The weakest ones stopped halfway or so. They switched from battle excitement to unnatural calm like pendulums. The changes were so extreme that they simply did not dare to move any closer towards the Doom Guards for fear of losing their wits!

The people who possessed better control of themselves managed to go further. Ves noticed that the group of stronger mech pilots should probably be identical to the sort of individuals who were able to approach the old Doom Guard.

A strong mind and will allowed anyone to resist external impacts on their minds.

The next footage showed how the altered Doom Guard might affect the battlefield. In a live practice battle, a number of mechs attempted to swarm the lone striker mech.

The Doom Guard allowed the enemy mechs to approach without activating its flamethrower.

When the enemy mechs came close, their formation suddenly became ragged.

As the mechs neared, the machines seemed to lose control!

"This is different!" Ves widened his eyes.

He became intrigued by the changes. A simple change of design spirits caused one of his existing products to exhibit a substantially different effect.

As Ves continued to track what happened to the mechs that went out of control, he noted that they never recovered until the mechs automatically floated out of the range of the Doom Guard!

At that point, the stricken mech pilots managed to escape the field that induced artificial mood swings.

"Very interesting." Ves turned to Gavin's projection. "The mech pilots were unable to control their mechs?"

"They quite literally lost their minds at the time. The way they describe it, they were turning their heads from left to right and back again so many times that they were unable to look straight ahead."

"I see."

This was a different way of debilitating enemy mech pilots in battle. Rather than scaring them away, it rendered them helpless instead.

This was very fatal in a mech battle! Mech pilots controlled their machines through their minds.

The neural interface enabled mechs to transmit a lot of data to the minds of their mech pilots. In turn, if a mech pilot wanted a mech to do something, they had to transmit a mental signal that the neural interface picked up and conveyed to the mech.

If the mind of the mech pilot became compromised to such a degree that they were no longer able to think straight, then the mech no longer received any proper commands!

"While it has only been a few days since the Doom Guards have changed, the implications are staggering." Gavin said. "First, the mech no longer causes people to turn around and run. This is good because any enemies that get caught in the Doom Guard's glow will likely turn into sitting ducks. It's also bad because in space, the mechs will simply continue to soar into the direction of the enemy. Once the enemy mechs reach the other side, their mech pilots will not only be able to regain their wits, but also wreak a lot of havoc in the middle of the defending formation!"

The old Doom Guard excelled at deterring swarms of mechs piloted by weak-willed criminals.

The new Doom Guard was able to affect entire swarms of mechs as well, but the nature of its effects meant that the pirates were better able to overwhelm an outnumbered opponent!

As Gavin explained all of these repercussions, he did mention a beneficial change.

"Strangely enough, the new Doom Guard is more suited to mental resilience training. Some of the Avatars have already started to subject themselves to the new Doom Guard's glow. They all say that trying to maintain lucidity under these conditions is more effective training."

Ves could see how this was the case. The old Doom Guard's glow possessed a creeping and fluctuating sense of terror that was both inexplicable and unblockable. It was very hard for anyone to wrap their minds around it. This disturbing sense of the unknown was very difficult to cope with, even for the mech pilots assigned to pilot these fearsome machines!

In contrast, the new Doom Guard relied on different emotions to debilitate mech pilots. Instead of trying to unnerve and scare them away, the new glow instead forced them to cope with two familiar but rapidly-changing emotions.

Aggression and calm were two emotions that every mech pilot dealt with on a daily basis.

"Each mech pilot has to exhibit at least some aggression in order to fight better. A mech pilot who isn't aggressive won't be able to commit as much to a battle. That is usually detrimental to their ability to immerse and synchronize with their mechs." Ves noted. "Mech pilots also have to be able to remain calm on and off the battlefield."

Gavin nodded. "That's what the other Larkinsons who studied the changes think as well. There are already plans from our side to put all of our mech pilots through special training sessions."

"Hehe. They're in for a treat."

The news was not all good, though. Even though the new Doom Guard was still useful, if in different ways, the abrupt and unannounced changes in performance had deep implications for the LMC.

"We sold a product to more than a million customers with the promise that they get what they paid for." Gavin explained with a grave voice. "Right now, that's not the case anymore. Every Doom Guard has changed, resulting in a lot of disruption. The owners who aren't in a position to fight anyone have to change their plans for their copies, so the problem isn't as critical to them. It's the owners who have employed them in battle recently that have incurred many problems."

The assistant transmitted a few angry letters and official complaints to the LMC. Some of the buyers of the Doom Guards had made use of them in battle when their glows abruptly weakened before changing. The changes affected both enemies and friendlies alike, but because they came so suddenly, the damage was very serious to the side that deployed the new mechs!

The disasters sparked by these unannounced changes already resulted in a lot of inquiries. Angry customers wanted to know why their products changed in specification. The mech market became a lot more suspicious about the Doom Guard and other LMC offerings. What if their glows changed too one day?

The emerging scandal presented the LMC with a severe confidence crisis! If the company didn't do anything soon, its stellar reputation for reliability might take a heavy blow!

Ves frowned. This was a serious problem indeed. It was very taboo for mechs to alter so drastically without any reasonable explanation. None of the manuals or documentation ever mentioned that the glows of his products might be subject to change. This was a severe oversight.

"What do you think, Benny?"

"Our mechs are too useful for the mech market to drop. It's just that our customers will become a lot more reluctant to buy our products if this scandal continues to blow up in the news. Our competitors are grasping at this new development with enthusiasm! While it is only a few days, the shift in perception is already permanent. We'll never be able to restore the confidence of our customers to where it was before."

This was a great shame, but Ves accepted it with a stoic expression.

He did not regret flinging Nyxie to one of the pirate warships. Nyxie's outbreak pretty much demolished the Mortis Greyson, thereby weakening the pirates and sparing many lives. The freed spiritual entity also kept the Unending One busy for a time.

All of this was worth the repercussions! No matter how badly the scandal affected the LMC's reputation, his products would always hold some value. Even if people questioned their reliability, at most his mech company might drop prices in order to make up for lost demand.

"Why aren't you worried, boss? This is a serious problem! It's the greatest threat to the company since those worries about brainwashing crept up. Some of the more alarming scenarios even predict that our current sales will be halved as a result of lower confidence in our mech models!"

Ves grinned and waved his hand. All of the projections that illustrated the LMC's difficulties disappeared. "What is lost can be regained. Before, we already earned an astounding amount of money each month. What's the big deal if we earn half that amount? It's still an astonishing number that we can use to invest in our clan. Besides, the public hasn't heard about what happened in the Nyxian Gap. We can use that to force the news cycles to change their reporting."

He began to discuss a new plan with Gavin. The assistant slowly lost his concerns. He became excited instead.

"This can actually work! No, it's already a given that it will work. We just have to package the announcement in the right way." His smile dropped a bit. "Still, that doesn't solve the issue with our current customers. Unlike the public that don't have a chance of buying our mechs, the people who already bought and used our mechs all have legitimate complaints towards us. If we don't do anything, then the first ones who bring their complaints to the MTA will have a very good case against us. You should know how the MTA deals with these matters!"

The MTA disapproved of mechs changing midway for whatever reason. While not every mech had to be extremely reliable, for them to be so poorly-conceived that they transformed into something else was not a positive development.

If it happened too often, then mech buyers throughout the galaxy would become a lot hesitant about purchasing a mech!

This was what the MTA least wanted to see. Anything that caused mechs to be sold less often posed a serious threat to the supremacy of mechs in modern society.

This was why Gavin thought that Ves should be very concerned.

"If you ask me, boss, we should outright compensate the customers who have suffered real losses as a result of this incident. We can make them shut up if we offer them money up to the full price of a Doom Guard depending on how much losses they suffered. For the few cases where the accusers actively deployed a Doom Guard in the middle of a battle, we can selectively buy them off so that they won't take us to the MTA's court."

"How much will this cost?" Ves asked.

Gavin winced. "We sold more than a million Doom Guards, you know. While not every customer has suffered major damage, the ones that did usually demand a lot of money. As for the rest, they need some compensation as well because they are stuck with a product that no longer performs as expected. It doesn't matter if the new Doom Guard is just as useful as the old one. It's different, and it's not the mech we initially sold."

"How. Much?"

"Uhm.. at least 500 billion hex credits?"

Chapter 2428: New Candidates

The matter of compensation was a thorny issue. The LMC had to pay something in order to preserve as much reputation as possible, but paying the equivalent of half the price of a second-class capital ship sounded far too much!

Ves glowered as he dismissed Gavin with an angry wave.

"Don't make any decisions. Let me think about it. Prepare more data for me. I want to know exactly how many people are affected badly enough that they can raise a stink in court or in public."

"We should try and buy them out of possible." Gavin suggested. "Most of the seriously-affected complainers consists of regular mercenary corps who just happened to have deployed the Doom Guard in battle at the time of the incident. The numbers are fairly small, so we can easily deal with them in many ways before they can exert influence. In fact, one of the reasons why the total cost of handling this situation is so high is because we need to step in before our competitors have the bright idea of doing so instead."

undefined"What?"

"We'll be in trouble if the Friday Coalition buys out or obtains control over the damaged parties. There's no way to compromise with them then as they drag their case all the way to the MTA."

This was indeed something his enemies would do. "Move quickly, then. You have my permission to do whatever it is necessary to prevent the situation from going worse. As for the large group of customers who haven't suffered as much, I have something different in mind. I'll get back in touch with you after I flesh out my plan."

Ves issued some instructions to Gavin. He knew that time was of the essence and that they couldn't let the press report on the scandal without any input from the LMC.

"Before you go, is there anything you would like to add about the Hexers who have come?"

"Uhm, they're remarkably well-behaved, boss."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, when the first waves of Hexers arrived in Cinach, they looked down on us Larkinsons. They didn't stir up any trouble or anything, but they did little to conceal their contempt. That started to change once the Blessed Squire delivered them victory after victory. Now that we have all just heard about how you managed to smash a powerful fleet of pirates, the Wodins are actually starting to treat us with grudging respect. Of course, they're a lot friendlier towards our women."

Ves did not find this change of heart surprising. In any case, he was about to marry Gloriana soon, and that meant that his gains would partially become the Wodin Dynasty's gains as well. Mutual interest alone ensured that the Wodins would definitely support him as long as he continued to show promise.

"Has Gloriana been up to anything special?"

Gavin shook his head. "No. These days, she spends most of her time in the design lab. She is pushing her Erudites hard in order to make up for the absence of you and your Braves. She used to pay a lot of attention to the wedding planning before her mother arrived."

"Madame Constance Wodin has arrived as well?"

"Yes.." Gavin hesitantly replied. "She is.. quite a forceful individual. I can barely raise my head in her presence."

Anyone who could raise a daughter like Gloriana was bound to be strict. Ves had already heard enough to know that Madame Constance was not a woman to be trifled with. She may not be a matriarch, but she was pretty much the next best thing!

Seeing that his assistant was reluctant to talk about Madame Constance behind her back, Ves did not push any further. In any case, he would be meeting her in person in a month.

"What does the wedding venue look like?"

"It's big, and the Wodins recently decided to make it even grander. They're shipping sculptors and hiring a lot of local artists and craftsmen to enhance the visual impact of the giant space platform. They say it's needed to reflect your greater stature."

"I hope it doesn't look too Hexer-ish."

"Don't worry. Madame Constance may have her own ideas, but she isn't entirely inconsiderate towards us. The wedding shouldn't be a complete Hexer spectacle. If there is anything about the wedding that suggests that the groom is in any way inferior or subordinate to the bride, I'll bring it up to you. We all know how much you care about that. None of us want to become Hexers."

One of the points that Ves heavily emphasized to Gloriana was that he was in no way marrying into the Wodin Dynasty. She was instead marrying into the Larkinson Clan. Otherwise, he would hear no end of her trying to introduce more Hexer customs into their married life.

Hopefully, the wedding would be the first and last time he came in touch with so many Hexers. Once he left the Komodo Star Sector, he only had to deal with his newly-wedded wife and her Glory Seekers.

Though Ves felt slightly disgusted about the latter, they did bring 2000 powerful second-class mechs to the table. Perhaps these numbers might not mean much ten years from now, but in this early stage, he could use all the help he could get. The Battle against the Abyss had already taught him that his clan's foundation was still too weak.

Some time passed as Ves continued to think over his various issues. The Living Sentinels, the expert pilots, the Doom Guard scandal and his upcoming wedding continued to weigh on his shoulders.

Despite all of these troubles, Ves did not feel too encumbered. After confronting immensely powerful warships and dark gods, he didn't feel that any of his current challenges were too much for him to cope.

"Really. These problems are nothing compared to what I've faced on the battlefield."

He even felt as if his life was becoming more hollow now that he was about to return to a semblance of normality.

This was strange. During and after the Battle against the Abyss, he had clearly reached his limit. He wanted nothing more than to get out of the Nyxian Gap and escape all of the danger associated with this cursed region.

Yet now that he began to tackle the mundane problems of his regular life, some part of him wanted to stay.

As much as all of the dangers had pushed him to the brink, he didn't break in the end. Instead, he harvested enormous gains. From developing new methods of empowering his mechs and mech pilots to obtaining a large quantity of irreplaceable Unending alloy, it was clear that the Nyxian Gap still contained a lot of hidden treasures!

"No!"

He furiously shook his head!

He could not let his greed and desire for advancement warp his thinking. While he had gained much, he lost a lot as well. There was no way the survivors of his task force would support any further ventures in the Nyxian Gap!

Thinking about his gains also caused him to think about his losses.

They weren't trivial.

First, his task force had lost a lot of valuable mech pilots. A little over 1300 Larkinson mech pilots entered the Nyxian Gap in high spirits, but only around 530 of them made it to the end.

In other words, 60 percent of his mech pilots perished under his command! These were earnest, loyal and decent clansmen who all entrusted their lives to him. Ves failed his responsibilities, not that he would admit it to anyone.

He could not afford to feel guilty when doing so only disadvantaged him. He still had many ambitions, and he couldn't let a couple of missteps stop him from reaching Master!

"Besides, we can easily replace the slain mech pilots."

It sounded callous, but it was true. While it was still difficult for the Larkinson Clan to hire second-raters, it was not a problem to recruit thousands of third-raters. Unfortunately, it took a lot of time and effort to upgrade them into second-raters.

"Maybe I should just skip them and hire proper second-class citizens instead."

If he wanted to do so, the Larkinson Clan needed to leave the Komodo Star Sector first. There was no way he wanted any Fridaymen or Hexers into his clan. He only made an exception for the Penitent Sisters because of their meritorious service and their willingness to change.

Time passed as he continued to mull over these issues. After taking care of some matters, he finally met with the expert candidates.

Before his clan obtained any expert pilots, Ves cared a lot about expert candidates. Yet when the nine newly-advanced Larkinsons filed into the conference room and took their seats, his heart hardly moved.

He had better toys now. Why should he go back to playing with inferior ones?

"Welcome, everyone." He commenced the meeting while keeping his true feelings in check. "I hope that each of you have recovered from the previous battle. Let me thank you for stepping up in the previous battle. Fifteen of you managed to stall the Inexorable One long enough for help to come. Let us take a moment of silence for the six comrades that are not here with us today."

Ves waved his hand, causing the table projection to display the portraits of the six fallen expert candidates.

Each of the expert candidates looked solemn as they looked at the portraits. Each of them had looked them up already. A bit of guilt, regret and other complex feelings overtook the survivors.

They could have been among the casualties. When the Inexorable One used her innate advantages to torment the expert candidates, she could have picked off any one of them. That was one of the most fearsome moments of their lives. None of them enjoyed the feeling of letting others control their own fate!

Ves studied the expert candidates carefully. He sensed a burning desire to grow stronger from each of them. That was good. No one who advanced to expert candidates lacked ambition!

"Alright. We have paid our respects. Let us proceed." He waved his hand, causing the portraits to disappear. "Please introduce yourselves to each other."

It was all well and good to mourn for the dead, but he didn't want his men to obsess over them every day!

The new expert candidates proceeded to call out their names.

"Commander Casella Ingvar-Larkinson. Avatars of Myth."

"Imon Ingvar-Larkinson. Avatars of Myth."

"Tamarin Larkinson. Avatars of Myth."

"Isobel Kotin-Larkinson. Avatars of Myth."

"Percival Larkinson. Living Sentinels."

"Hector Larkinson. Living Sentinels."

"Trinity Larkinson. Living Sentinels."

"Avi Case-Larkinson. Flagrant Vandals."

"Zimro Belson-Larkinson. Black Cats."

The expert candidates had already gotten in touch with each other for the most part. This was the first time they met each other in person, though. They curiously studied each other and tried to see whether they should spend more time with each other.

Ves studied his new expert candidates as well. He could already see some interesting patterns.

It didn't surprise him that the Avatars boasted the greatest number of expert candidates. In fact, it should have been more, but the Inexorable One frequently targeted the gold-coated mechs in the previous battle.

What surprised him quite a bit was that the Living Sentinels still retained as much as three expert candidates!

This was an astonishing number considering the heavy attrition.

He supposed that the Sentinels who survived up to this point represented the very best. Ves had no doubt that the quality and skill of these Sentinels had already caught up to the Avatars for the most part!

Ves was still a bit wary towards this group, though. None of the Sentinel expert candidates looked at him fondly. Only twenty-four percent of their fellow mech pilots were left.

The last expert pilot was a bit of a surprise to him. According to the records, Zimra Belson-Larkinson used to be a Xona Stalker before the Black Cats absorbed the pirate defectors.

The final observation he made was that four out of nine expert candidates consisted of trueblood Larkinsons. This was a remarkable ratio considering how few of them were left.

It did not surprise Ves in the least that all the Sentinel expert candidates were completely made up of truebloods!

Chapter 2429: Dangerous Controls

Ves did not talk too much with the new expert candidates. He only held a perfunctory speech and began to detail some of their new rights and responsibilities in the clan.

They needed a lot of time to develop into their newfound power. While expert candidates weren't as reality-defying as expert pilots, they still stood head and shoulders above regular mech pilots. This was already enough to warrant special treatment.

Of course, Ves didn't have to sort out all of the details. Commander Melkor, Commander Magdalena and so on all took responsibility for nurturing the expert candidates.

As soon as they advanced, the nine Larkinsons had already turned into investments of the clan. The value of an expert pilot was at least a hundred if not a thousand times more valuable. There was no way his mech forces would let their potential remain buried!

undefinedSince Ves was already swamped with responsibilities, he did not intend to track the progress of his expert candidates too closely. He was only willing to spend some time on customizing and improving their mechs so that they enjoyed smoother growth.

The only problem was that Ves did not have any suitable mechs to pass on to them aside from the Bright Warriors.

Now that the Larkinson Clan was transitioning to a second-class organization, it did not make much sense to invest in this mech model. It had already served its role for the most part.

The only problem was that he hadn't prepared an alternative. Ves either had to design a second-class version of the Bright Warrior or design a set of new second-class mechs.

Either way, it was likely going to take years before he equipped all of his mech pilots with proper mechs!

After providing the expert candidates with some helpful advice, he dismissed them. Aside from providing them with improved mechs, they shouldn't need any further help from him. If they couldn't advance to the rank of expert pilot after this effort, then perhaps they weren't cut out to become demigods.

"Too many expert pilots is not necessarily good. I already have my hands full from managing five of them. It's going to be an enormous chore to design all of their expert mechs."

Ves could not borrow Master Willix every time one of his expert candidates broke through. She was not some kind of design bot that emerged out of its resting place and dutifully provided him with the assistance he needed on command.

Just thinking about all of the trouble he had to go through to design more expert mechs in the future gave him a headache. He felt it was even more important to design a lot of mechs in order to accumulate enough DP to exchange for valuable knowledge about expert mechs.

As the reinforcements dispatched by Kellandra Wodin was only a day away from reaching the surviving fleet, Ves decided to hold a press conference.

News and rumors about the Battle against the Abyss already started to generate a lot of interest.

At the same time, the scandal surrounding the Doom Guard was still growing unabated.

Even if the LMC acted quickly and bribed or outright bought the damaged parties, there were still plenty of opponents who wanted to take advantage of the situation. The LMC was already eating up a lot of market share in the market for spaceborn rifleman mechs and spaceborn striker mechs.

Once the Miracle Couple published some additional mech designs, even more mech companies were going to bleed market share!

Due to the magnitude of the planned announcements, the Larkinson Clan put a lot of effort into preparing a suitable venue.

Many people offered different suggestions.

Some wanted to build an opulent hall on the surface of Cinach VI that reflected the Larkinson Clan's splendor.

Gloriana wanted to hold the press conference aboard the flagship of the Wodin Warriors.

Suffice to say, every Larkinson shot down her suggestion.

In the end, Ves came up with a novel idea. When he shared it with his inner circle, most of them immediately approved!

The only people who disapproved were Gloriana and a couple of old fogeys like Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson. They thought that holding a press conference in such an unusual setting was highly inappropriate, but it was too bad they were horribly outnumbered.

Symbolism mattered. Every decision affected the impression they made to the public. Even if it was mostly theater, Ves needed every advantage he could get to solve his various problems.

Just before the press conference was about to begin, preparations took place in two different places.

On Cinach VI, hundreds of invited journalists entered a hall specifically prepared for the occasion. While the clan spent some effort to decorate it with the clan's developing architectural style, the broadcast wouldn't show any of it. This was because the Larkinsons would soon project a different setting around the journalists!

At some point, Gloriana entered the hall from the side. A number of Glory Seeker bodyguards accompanied her as she stepped to the podium.

She wore her customized clan uniform this time. Though she considered wearing a dress or something more elegant, she knew it was important to emphasize her association with the Larkinsons.

As Gloriana approached the empty stage, the environment changed.

A large number of projectors borrowed from the Hexers began to surround the journalists with an entirely different view!

Cold metal, broken control consoles, savage banners and various other crude markings came into view.

The people invited to the press conference each discovered that their slightly-unusual seating arrangement caused them to sit right behind one of the projected work stations!

When some of them curiously touched the controls, some sort of system recorded their movements and began to pass them to the consoles.

"It's turning on!"

Various menus and technical settings came into view. The journalists momentarily forgot about what was in front in order to satisfy their curiosity.

"Sensor system integrity has dropped to 35 percent." Someone read out.

"Catastrophic hull breaches in the bow and starboard sections… urgent repairs needed."

"Main aft cannons have locked target coordinates and are standing by. Please press to proceed…"

As soon as the unwitting journalist pressed the button to proceed, the setting minutely shook.

A large projection appeared in front of their faces that showed a large asteroid getting pounded by three successive cannon strikes!

The huge exploding shells blasted the huge asteroids into pieces!

The reporters all jolted at the sight! Even if everything appeared to be a projection, the setting was so realistic that they truly felt that everything was real.

"We're on the bridge of the Gravada Knarlax!" Someone shouted with shock!

A huge wave of awe and wonder spread from the invited guests. None of them could have imagined that the Larkinson Clan would opt to hold a remote press conference on the bridge of the infamous Nyxian pirate warship!

While some people wondered whether the Larkinsons were just putting up an elaborate virtual illusion, once Ves came into view, they weren't so sure anymore.

Ves wore his new Unending Regalia complete with a dashing red cape this time. He looked nothing like the stereotypical mech designer who looked like he would fit right into a peaceful lab.

He walked down the middle aisle of the large bridge and stood next to Gloriana.

Instead, his combat gear made it seem as if he had just concluded a battle!

Five figures garbed in piloting suits emerged from the entrance to the bridge. They strode through the middle of the bridge and stepped behind Ves with straightened backs and firm faces.

Nine more figures in piloting suits appeared and strode forward until they stood at the back.

Nobody said a word as Ves and the mech pilots took their place. Every journalist had already researched the circumstances beforehand and knew that none of the people who showed up were normal.

Even though the projected setting could not convey the force of wills of the expert pilots, just their appearance was alone to make the journalists more honest!

Ves swept his gaze across the large crowds. Despite inviting several hundred people, the bridge of the Gravada Knarlax was so large and expansive that there was still plenty of room left.

While the journalists were still taking in the new expert pilots, Ves decided to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the Gravada Knarlax. Yes, this projection reflects the actual bridge of the pirate-built warship that has fallen into our hands. I advise you not to touch anything. While we have locked some critical systems, we have left many of them open so that each of you can feel how much power this heavy cruiser contains. With one press of a button, you can fire shells that can crack open combat carriers. With another press of a button, the Gravada Knarlax can blanket a region in space with a rain of rapid-fire laser beams!"

After hearing this, none of the attendees dared to touch anything. Their awe and fear towards warships was considerable, and just thinking about activating something catastrophic was enough to give them nightmares!

In fact, the unwitting reporter who accidentally fired the aft primary turret cannons was already in tears!

Ves sneered as he saw the bubbling man. It was just a simple weapon discharge. Only a worthless asteroid got blown apart. What was the big deal?

"As you know, our Larkinson Clan has decided to dispatch a task force into the Nyxian Gap. I decided to personally lead this task force into this pirate-infested region in order fulfill the demands of the Mech Trade Association…"

He began to summarize the journey, including the various battles his men had fought. He did not really provide much details, but he did project some carefully-chosen footage to impress the crowd how valiantly the Larkinsons had fought!

Perhaps normally, the journalists would be a little more discerning about the presentation. They might ask questions or point out some undesirable details in the background.

However, changing the venue of the press conference to the bridge of the Gravada Knarlax had turned them all speechless. They did not dare to talk in such a dangerous place.

The battle footage became increasingly more action-packed. Unfortunately, the Larkinsons did not reveal anything sensitive!

Most of the footage merely consisted of mechs clashing against mechs. Only a small amount of footage at the end displayed how the Larkinsons fought against the Allidus Alliance's warships.

When Ves summarized through the final battle, he left out any mention of anomalies or dark gods. He only mentioned the expert pilots and expert candidates briefly and did not state how they contributed to the battle. The footage that accompanied his words solely depicted the first half of the battle. Nobody needed to know that the second half even took place!

Even with all of this editing, the footage already looked incredibly grand!

Sure, the public battle footage of the Komodo War was hundreds if not thousands of times more massive in scale. Yet rarely did anyone see mechs fighting against actual warships.

Seeing the huge amount of losses that both sides suffered gave them all the impression that the Allidus Alliance was incredibly powerful! If the Gravada Knarlax ever managed to reach a planet, her primary cannons alone could bombard every major city into ruins from orbit!

To them, it was a miracle the Larkinson Clan managed to overcome such powerful vessels with mechs alone!

Ves grinned and gestured to his rear. "To be honest, we couldn't have won the battle without the assistance of our expert pilots and expert candidates. This battle has pushed many of our mech pilots beyond their limits. Our Larkinson Clan is proud to announce that we have gained five expert pilots and nine expert candidates! Except for one, each of them achieved their breakthroughs during the final battle!"

Though the journalists already expected this answer, hearing it from Ves himself meant that the rumors were definitely true!

A huge amount of uproar emerged from the people tuning in to the broadcast! How many mech pilots did the Larkinsons field? How come they managed to achieve so many breakthroughs in a single battle? Something astounding must have happened to Larkinsons!

Chapter 2430: Contrition

An inquisitive journalist with a great amount of admiration towards expert pilots couldn't hold himself in any longer.

"How many breakthroughs took place?"

Ves looked sharply at the fellow. This was quite a clever question!

"Nineteen breakthroughs in total. Unfortunately, six expert candidates sacrificed their lives to obtain this victory. We still mourn for their loss."

undefinedThe deaths of six expert candidates was an incredibly painful price! Each of them were potential expert pilots, so not even military mech regiments dared to deploy them casually into battle.

For six of them to die in a single battle was enough to make the brass worried!

What was surprising that the Larkinson Clan still had plenty of expert candidates to spare. They gained so many of them that they could afford to lose a few here and there. This was an extravagant luxury that hardly any unit or organization enjoyed!

As the wheels started to turn in the minds of some of the journalists and the public, they suddenly became heated. Something very remarkable had happened. No one paid as much attention anymore to the astounding feat of defeating the Allidus Alliance or capturing most of its warships intact.

The only matter of importance to them was finding out why the Larkinsons managed to gain so many powerful mech pilots in such a short amount of time!

Even if the confrontation against the pirates was intensive enough to push many mech pilots beyond their limits, it just didn't seem possible for nineteen breakthroughs to happen out of less than a thousand mech pilots.

This ratio was too high! Anyone who followed expert pilots and learned about their circumstances could make this conclusion. They could tolerate three breakthroughs at most before the figure began to strain their ability to accept the news.

There was definitely something more to this battle than Ves had exposed.

Someone raised his hand. "Mr. Larkinson, how come so many of your mech pilots have broken through!? What is the secret behind their success?"

All of the journalists leaned forward. More and more people who heard about the astounding news began to tune into the broadcast. Throughout the Komodo Star Sector and beyond, an increasing quantity of mech pilots and other people watched carefully in order to find out the secret.

Ves briefly exchanged a glance with Gloriana. Both of them knew that they had attracted an unprecedented amount of viewers. Not just the Yeina Star Cluster, but also the neighboring star clusters began to pay attention!

With trillions of people hanging onto his every word, Ves knew that he could exert an untold amount of influence. He also knew that he needed to consider his words carefully. A single mistake might easily land him in a lot of hot water!

"Let me introduce myself to you and everyone else who is just tuning in." Ves did not directly answer the question. "I am Ves Larkinson, a Journeyman Mech Designer. Aside from founding and leading the Larkinson Clan in battle, I also design mechs. Perhaps you may have heard about the LMC's best selling mechs. Together with Miss Gloriana Wodin, my partner, we have pooled our efforts to design revolutionary new mechs."

He waves his hand. Some marketing footage appeared above his head that silently displayed several of his mechs in action. From the valiant Desolate Soldiers trying to resist the invading sandmen to the Doom Guards managing to repel hundreds of mechs at a time, the selected battle footage showcased the unique properties of the LMC's products!

While many viewers from the Komodo Star Sector were already familiar with his work, this was not the case for many people who were tuning elsewhere.

Since so many new people became exposed to him and his work for the very first time, he might as well take advantage of the occasion to promote his work!

"My mech company is called the Living Mech Corporation." He continued. "The name reflects my ambition to design mechs that are so responsive and helpful to their mech pilots that they are actually alive. Since the start of my career, I have worked hard to find new ways to refine the piloting experience."

He grinned. "I'm not only trying to improve the relationship between mech and mech pilot. I'm trying to transform it! By redefining this relationship, I believe my work has the potential to unlock the potential of both mech and mech pilot!"

Ves swept his arm over the partially-damaged bridge.

"To that end, I did not hesitate to enter the Nyxian Gap and enter into the thick of battle. It is only by studying the performance of my mechs and my men up close that I have managed to develop several novel solutions."

Gloriana stepped forward at this point. "My beloved and I have vowed to accomplish several goals that many of our colleagues attempted to achieve. Different from them, we succeeded. We designed several masterwork mechs, each of which are certified by the MTA. Our understanding of mechs and how they meld with mech pilots has reached a level where we can already redefine their roles."

Ves took over from here. "While we have already succeeded in becoming masterwork mech designers, our ambitions don't end there. One of our ultimate goals is to be able to design mechs that can turn any mech pilot into an expert pilot!"

Normally, any mech designer who made this delusion claim would have been ridiculed until they ran away. How many people tried to develop a solution that could make any mech pilot advance?

Too many mech designers and researchers had tried and failed!

Nobody was laughing right now. The brutal setting, the valor displayed by Ves and the astounding accomplishments of the Larkinson Clan somehow supported those claims.

Very few people cast doubt on the mech pilots standing stoically behind the Miracle Couple. While it was not obvious that they were expert pilots or expert candidates, there was no way that the Larkinson Clan would lie about it. Its reputation would suffer a fatal blow if it turned out that the Larkinsons never gained so many potent mech pilots.

He knew it was useless to hide this detail. It was better to announce it to the public so that he could take full advantage of the situation.

Of course, he knew he was also playing with fire. If he showed too much promise, he would probably attract an immense amount of scrutiny from the MTA. Not even Master Willix would be able to shield him if someone powerful enough took an interest in his work.

Therefore, he knew he had to dial everyone's expectations back.

"In truth, our progress towards this goal is still marginal." He said. "The nature of mech pilot breakthroughs are very mysterious. The best researchers of the MTA are much further ahead in this field than us. Our approach is different and more unique. We have made serious gains over the years."

"Do any of your solutions affect the chances of breakthrough?" The same journalist asked.

"I was getting to that." He replied and tried to look serious. "Our research is still at a preliminary stage. We are not even close to attaining our goal. Even so, we have tried out a lot of different possibilities that might or might not have the desired results. I simply can't tell you. We only resorted to some very desperate circumstances in the runup to the previous battle. During the testing process, several of our mech pilots incurred serious injuries. That will tell you how immature our ongoing research is at the moment. Our existing mech models do not feature the innovations that we have implemented to our internal mechs."

"They were successful, right?"

"The circumstances of our final battle were exceptional, and I cannot guarantee the safety and reliability of our new innovations." He perfunctory replied. "The MTA is already in the process of performing an investigation. I am not at liberty to say any more."

It was a huge risk to tell the public this much, but Ves reasoned that people would just continue to ask questions if he didn't address everyone's questions. Mentioning the MTA at the end was a nice way to shield him from any further inquiries. Since the MTA was on the case, it would publish a statement when it completed its investigation. That was how the Association usually handled these kinds of situations.

That said, Ves did not want to close off every door.

"Perhaps our subsequent products may incorporate some new solutions." He vaguely said. "The Living Mech Corporation is constantly striving to design livelier mechs. Each mech we release after another provides an increasing amount of assistance towards its users."

Though he hadn't said anything solid, imaginations were already beginning to run wild. A lot of people would definitely begin to look up the LMC after this press conference was over!

Seeing that Ves successfully dazzled his audience and deflected the matter of the abnormal frequency of breakthroughs, he moved on to his final point.

"Now, before I answer your questions, let me make an important announcement."

He waved his hand. The promotional footage disappeared. A bit of calm returned to the bridge.

"Recently, an incident has occurred that has affected one of our best-selling mech models. Its performance and properties have changed abruptly without warning. While the mech is still capable of performing the same role as before, its altered characteristics has led to considerable upheaval."

Ves lowered his head a bit as if he was contrite. "I'm sorry."

His current impression looked completely incongruous to the current setting. Just a moment ago, he announced some impressive accomplishments. Now he was saying sorry. The audience simply couldn't get used to such an abrupt switch.

Of course, he wasn't truly sorry. He just had to appear this way in order to earn some sympathy points from the ignorant crowd.

Not once did he mention the Doom Guard model by name. This was so that nobody could use his words to amplify and perpetuate the controversy. As long as he showed enough 'sincerity', the scandal would likely blow over after a time!

"The LMC did not intend for this mech model to change in such an abrupt fashion." He continued. "We are aware that many customers have suffered real and material damage as a result of this incident."

Ves took a deep breath. He thought long and hard about his response. "To that end, we are willing to offer generous compensation to any owner. Those who suffered damages and those who are merely stuck with a mech that is different from their expectations can readily contact the LMC to request compensation. Depending on whether you want to keep your changed mech or turn it in, you can choose to receive a cash refund or gain another opportunity."

"What is this opportunity, sir?"

"I'm glad you asked." Ves slowly began to smile. "In light of all of these recent developments, we wanted to do something special for those who are affected."

He snapped his fingers, causing a projection of a giant golden star to appear above his head!

The stylized six-pointed star bore the face of the Golden Cat, similar to the emblem of the Larkinson Clan.

"Instead of asking for compensation, those who are eligible for compensation can instead opt to join the Living Star Club!"

Living Star Club?

"The Living Star Club is an exclusive membership program of the LMC." Ves stated. "Any customer who becomes a member is entitled to receive various benefits. These benefits range from discounts, free mechs and the opportunity to order customized or limited edition mechs."

This did not sound very different from the membership programs offered by other companies, not just ones that sold mechs.

Ves knew he had to offer something else in order to make the Living Star Club stand out from the crowd.

He grinned. "Of course, that is not the most important benefit. Depending on their engagement in the club, members may be eligible to purchase some of our most desirable mechs that will never be sold on the open market. The reason why they are desirable is because they may incorporate some common elements to the mechs piloted by the fine men and women who are standing behind my back."

Everyone looked at the silent rows of expert pilots and expert candidates.

A lot of people widened their eyes.

"WE HAVE TO JOIN THIS CLUB!"

Chapter 2431: Living Star Club

Ves continued to grin even after the press conference ended. He turned around and bowed minutely.

"Thank you for showing up and lending me your support. Your contribution will help stave off the decline of the LMC. Don't forget that wealth is the root of our strength. As long as you continue to help our mech company by taking part in promotional campaigns, I can promise you that every single clansmen will thank you for our effort."

His expert pilots did not seem terribly pleased. Aside from Joshua, the others looked as if this chore was a waste of time.

"We're only doing this because we don't want you to deprive our fellow Larkinsons of their benefits." Venerable Jannzi spoke as she passed him by. "Don't call on us for these kinds of stunts too often. We exist to defend our clansmen, not to enrich your own pockets."

undefined"All of the money earned by the LMC will eventually be invested back into the clan in some way. Where do you think our future factory ship and combat carriers come from?" Ves retorted.

Expert pilots made for poor businessmen. This was a shame, as expert pilots also happened to be the most effective promotional material that a mech company could have. Almost every mech pilot in the galaxy admired expert pilots.

Unfortunately, it was not so easy to take advantage of their ingrained ability to attract followers. They were very principled and did not really understand the tremendous cost to keep them happy.

If Ves had not come up with the argument that lending their likeness to the LMC directly improved the lives of his clansmen, he wouldn't have been able to persuade Venerable Jannzi to show up today!

The fact he succeeded proved that he still had ways of making her do what he wanted. Ves was definitely going to milk her for all she was worth when he was ready to publish some defensive mechs.

"This will help us improve our upcoming expert mechs, right?" Joshua eagerly asked.

"Naturally. Expert mechs cost a fortune, and when it comes to second-class mechs, the upper range is very high. It's always helpful to have more money."

That was enough to satisfy Joshua. "I hope you can design a powerful mech that can grow with me for a long time."

"I will try. Continue to cooperate with the LMC's Marketing Department and we won't be stingy with the budget of your future expert mech."

Some of the other expert pilots and expert candidates chatted with him for a bit before they exited the Gravada Knarlax's bridge. They had a lot of duties to attend to as greedy pirates still lurked from afar. If the Larkinsons did not frequently show off their strength, who knew whether the pirates would all mass together and launch a costly assault!

"You know, even I didn't think you would stoop so low as this." Gloriana's projection teased as she dropped her mature demeanor.

"Not every private mech company has access to expert pilots like I do." Ves grinned. "More than that, those expert pilots just happened to be directly tied to the success of that same company."

In most states, expert pilots strictly served in the military. It was considered dishonorable for them to be used as advertising platforms.

Ves didn't care. Unlike conventional states, the Larkinson Clan did not earn any revenue from taxing its own members. Instead, it was almost entirely dependent on the wealth provided by his mech company.

This was a rather precarious situation. If anything happened to the LMC, his clan might directly go under because it did not possess any other means of earning money!

Well, that was not strictly true. Its considerable military strength was an asset in itself, but Ves was not willing for his clansmen to become soldiers for hire.

The time where the Larkinsons fought on behalf of a state or other employer was over. Ves wanted to cultivate a proud and independent mindset in his clan.

"Well, with the introduction of the Living Star Club, I don't think we'll have to worry about the Doom Guard scandal anymore. Our subordinates will take care of the rest. I have to say that starting up this association is quite an ingenious way to restore the trust we had lost from our customers."

"It also helps that we don't have to fork out as much as 500 billion hex credits to compensate the injured parties. If the buyers or owners aren't stupid, they will skip the cash compensation and cling to their exclusive membership."

Ves came up with the idea of starting a company membership organization due to his unwillingness to lose so much money.

The LMC could not avoid paying something back to its aggrieved customers. What happened to the Doom Guards was truly the fault of the company. Trying to shirk responsibility would not go over well.

For years, the LMC cultivated a reputation for quality, reliability and customer satisfaction. The Doom Guard scandal just so happened to affect all of them at the same time. If his mech company did not go above and beyond to make its customers happy again, then the LMC might never be able to regain their trust!

The difference this made was huge. So far, the mech market basically treated the LMC as one of the 'good guys'. While it charged a hefty premium for its products, its customers never regretted their purchases. Owing to this satisfaction, customers generated a lot of positive word of mouth to their fellow friends and acquaintances.

Advertising through word of mouth was at least ten times more effective than expensive marketing campaigns. As long as the reputation of the LMC remained high, both customers and non-customers were more than willing to generate positive buzz around its products, thereby perpetuating their sales.

Yet as soon as the scandal initially exploded, this positive buzz threatened to collapse. If the LMC did not offer adequate compensation quickly, then the public might begin to view it as a greedy, uncaring company!

Suffice to say, Ves did not wish for his company to acquire this false, totally, completely and utterly untrue impression!

After a lot of thought, Ves realized that there were multiple ways to regain the trust of his customers.

From a fundamental level, many of his customers felt that they had suffered a loss. Transferring money to them was the most direct way to solve this problem, but in fact anything that provided enough value sufficed.

Hence the club. Started up on a whim, the LMC's Marketing Department had already done a lot of work to set up its structure and fill it up with various activities and exclusive benefits.

In order to make the Living Star Club desirable, the LMC had to show some sincerity. Offering discounts was one way to do it. Offering rare, limited edition mechs was another way to excite the members.

There wasn't actually much to these so-called limited edition mechs. They were merely standard mechs with a different product number and some cosmetic changes. In order to increase their perceived value, the LMC strictly limited their production runs.

After all, owning just one out of a hundred copies of a limited edition model sounded a lot more impressive than owning one out of a million copies!

Though it had only been a few days since Ves instructed the LMC to set up the club, the Living Star Club already offered several dozen different variants.

For example, one limited edition model of the Doom Guard came in premium pink coating. It looked absolutely horrendous to Ves, but the fact that it looked so different was enough to make them valuable!

Another exclusive reward came in the form of an Aurora Titan that carried a round shield instead of a tower shield. The surface of the shield was coated with elaborate, decorative markings that the LMC's artists had hastily drawn.

None of these changes burdened the LMC. By simply applying some cheap and effortless cosmetic changes, the Living Star Club was able to offer 'rare' and 'exclusive' mechs that would surely excite its members!

It didn't matter that anyone with the right tools could modify an existing mech so that they looked identical to the exclusive products.

It just wasn't the same if the mech did not roll off the production line different from the start. Each exclusive mech came with some fancy documents, certificates of authenticity and a personal signature from the chief technician in charge to legitimize its provenance.

That was something of value that no third-party was able to provide!

In short, the Living Star Club was basically a vehicle for the LMC to create value from nothing. By manipulating customers into thinking that mechs that came in pink were somehow worth twice as much as mechs sold in standard coating, Ves ultimately believed the Club would be able to generate extra money from the same quantity of customers!

"If all goes well, the Living Star Club will become self-sustainable in a couple of months." He told Gloriana.

Ves deliberately hinted to his audience that the Club would become the only channel for the most desirable LMC mechs. Namely, the machines that assisted mech pilots with their breakthroughs.

Of course, without making an arrangement about these types of mechs with Master Willix, Ves did not dare to offer any of them to his customers.

This meant that the Living Star Club had to find other ways to keep its members engaged. So far, any member who logged in the LSC's virtual portal would be greeted with a number of activities where they could earn Star Points.

Star Points was the exclusive currency of the Club. They were necessary to redeem various rewards. They were also necessary to upgrade someone's membership status.

Ves already stipulated that only 10 Star Members were eligible to purchase so-called 'Living Star Mechs'.

This was just a marketing label for the mechs that Ves intended to make in the future that possessed varying degrees of spiritual saturation.

Due to the nature of this exchange, the LMC did not have to certify any mechs offered to people through this channel. The Living Star Club did not sell its products through the open market, after all. As long as the Club clearly stated that the mechs were not certified to its members, the MTA didn't have much grounds to complain if some mishap ever took place.

Another reason why Ves put up so many barriers was because he could not mass produce the Living Star Mechs. It cost spiritual energy to enhance their spiritual foundations, and his design spirits would definitely decline if he forced them to empower thousands of mechs!

Therefore, in order to offer his Living Star Mechs to the public without getting crushed by demand, Ves had to make it ultra-exclusive. Outside of commissions and internal use, only his most loyal and engaged customers should be able to obtain this kind of mech!

"By the way, Ves, what are the regular criteria to become a member of the Living Star Club?"

"So far, we have only put up one requirement. Any individual, owner or commander who purchases and actively makes use of more than a thousand LMC mechs through official channels is eligible to join the Club."

"That sounds harsh." She frowned.

"This is just the start. We'll think up some alternative requirements later in order to open the door to other committed fans. The requirements have to remain high in order to maintain the club's air of exclusivity. We have to make sure that all of its current members feel satisfied that they managed to become a part of it. In the future, these dedicated customers will become our fiercest supporters. I'm even thinking about granting the highest-tiered members the opportunity to become an external member of the Larkinson Clan."

All of these were very distant considerations. It wasn't necessary to arrange too much when the Club was only a few days old.

Chapter 2432: Mech Colonel Alexandria Wodin

Just as Ves anticipated, public opinion completely turned around after the dramatic press conference.

A day later, Gavin reported the good news.

"I knew you would turn our situation somehow." He lavished his superior with praise. "Even though you're called the Devil Tongue, it still surprises me how receptive the public can be towards your speeches. No matter if they are aware of your moniker, they still think that you are completely sincere when you address the public."

Ves threw a pointed look at his assistant. "I am always sincere, Benny. That's part of my charm."

undefined"Sure thing, boss." Gavin coughed. "Anyway, after the press conference, the news cycle has completely changed. We flooded the galactic net with too many newsworthy announcements. From capturing the Gravada Knarlax to achieving nineteen breakthroughs in a single battle, all of the news portals and opinion makers are buzzing with what we've accomplished. In addition, the introduction of the Living Star Club couldn't have gone any better. The rate of customers who opted to accept membership in lieu of receiving cash compensation has exceeded 90 percent."

"There are still customers who are stupid enough to reject our goodwill?"

"According to our investigation, these customers have already lost faith in our products. They don't believe our claims. They would rather obtain hard cash than fall for another scam."

Ves didn't blame them. He would have likely made the same choice if he was in their position. If the LMC broke their trust once, it could do so again. There were plenty of alternative mech companies in the mech market that still maintained pristine reputations.

Fortunately, the ratio was fairly small. The scale of defections wouldn't affect the LMC's overall market standing.

In fact, with the tremendous publicity generated by his press conference, he expected his mech company to enjoy a massive boost in sales!

No wonder Gavin looked so excited. It was a blessing for the LMC to be led by such an excellent speaker! Ves was so good with crowds that he could single-handedly resolve a crisis with some clever words and theatrics.

"Is the Living Star Club doing okay? We only set it up a few days ago. First impressions are important."

"We didn't have much time to organize the club, so plenty of issues have emerged. None of them are serious enough to require your intervention. We've already assembled a special team to build and manage the Club. While the initial member experience is somewhat barebones, it's not awful. We'll see some drastic improvements in the next two weeks."

"That's the best we can hope for, I guess. Make sure to stare at the Club closely. In fact, would you like to be in charge of it? You can be its very first club president."

The offer completely took Gavin by surprise. He frowned a bit as he forced himself to take his time. If there was one thing he learned from spending so much time around his boss, it was that Ves sometimes had other motives in mind.

Was Ves trying to get rid of him or something?

"Erm, your offer sounds interesting, but I am comfortable where I am now. I don't think I'm suited to be a leader. I can't handle that much responsibility. I'm used to playing a facilitating role. Helping you make decisions and ensuring that your intentions are carried out is much more fulfilling to me. I wouldn't know what to do if the buck stops with me. Please don't change my role."

An odd silence ensued after Gavin made his plea. Ves looked at his assistant with an odd expression.

"I guess I shouldn't have expected more from you, Benny."

As time continued to pass, the excitement surrounding Ves, the Larkinson Clan, the LMC and the Living Star Club only grew. The reputation of each of them soared, causing even people who never paid attention to these events to learn about their astonishing deeds!

The press had left the Doom Guard scandal far behind. In any case, despite the odd events surrounding the Doom Guard model, Ves and the LMC already apologized and offered adequate compensation. Hardly anyone retained any interest in following up on the root causes of the incident.

This was exactly what Ves wanted to see. Now that the crisis had passed, he handed over the follow-up matters to his subordinates and waited for the reinforcements to come.

The Wodin Warriors finally reached the survivors after arriving half a day later than scheduled.

The moment the long-ranged sensors of the Gravada Knarlax and the scout mechs detected a huge amount of energy signatures, the Larkinsons initially sounded alarms.

It was only a few minutes later that the Larkinsons confirmed that the incoming energy signatures consisted of friendly mechs.

When thousands of Hexers flew into visual range, each and every Larkinson felt a wave of relief that was so profound that they could fall to sleep right away!

Before the arrival of the Wodin Warriors, the Larkinsons were truly concerned about whether they could still make it out. Now that over 5000 Hexer mechs had showed up, the clansmen no longer had to worry about fending off any ambushes!

Even if some powerful pirate faction dared to attack them, the Hexers were more than strong enough to take care of any threats.

To most of the Larkinsons, it didn't matter whether they were willing to let a bunch of women fight their battles. Every survivor of Task Force Predator had already given them all in the previous battle. Aside from the expert pilots and expert candidates, the clansmen all needed a lot of time to recover from their traumatic ordeal.

When the magnificent combat carriers and support ships of the Wodin Warriors followed after the main wave, Ves already prepared himself to meet with the highest-commanding officer of the friendly fleet.

Since he was meeting with Hexers, Ves thought it prudent for Calabast to accompany him. Who knew if he would commit some kind of egregious faux-pas without his knowledge.

Calabast looked annoyed at his summons. Both of them wore their regular uniforms this time. Her black uniform contrasted strongly with his customary red-and-white outfit.

"Where is your cape?" She asked.

"I thought it was best to leave it in my closet. It looks a bit too ostentatious for my tastes. It's not necessary to puff myself up like a pirate lord this time. The Wodins already know my worth and our tremendous gains speak for themselves."

It was hard for the arriving Wodin Warriors to remain calm when they witnessed an actual warship up close. The huge primary turrets and the vast array of secondary gun batteries all possessed enough power to threaten the Wodin Warrior fleet!

The newly-arrived Hexers did not dare to move around excessively. Their mechs adopted a cautious posture around the captured warships.

Even if the Larkinsons claimed that the armed vessels did not pose any threat to them, it was difficult for the Hexers to shake off their suspicion. This was especially so when they found out that many of the Larkinson officers in charge of the captured warships happened to be male!

"I warned Major Verle that he shouldn't have put men in charge. Now look at how the Wodins are acting around your ships. They're hardly paying any attention to external threats. Most of them look ready to launch an attack on our vessels!"

Ves grimaced, but he did not take it too personally. "Everyone will probably react this way when they get close to ships like these. Too many people think that warships are just one step away from launching devastating attacks on innocents."

For their part, the Wodin Warrior mechs no longer adopted a highly-guarded posture after some time. They continued to hover protectively around the Wodin Warrior vessels.

A lot of communication took place between the two fleets. Various pieces of data flowed back and forth for some reason or another. Ves didn't fully understand the elaborate protocols.

"You should invite the ranking officer of the reinforcing fleet to the Scarlet Rose." Calabast suggested.

"Huh? Will the Hexer in charge even accept that?" Ves looked uncertain. "From what I heard about them, they always insist that boys should go to them instead of the other way around."

"That's only the case with average boys. You're different. Your status and the status of the entire Larkinson Clan has undergone huge changes. The Wodins have already shown signs that they are willing to disregard your gender. You should feel honored for earning this distinction."

"Are you trying to rile me up, Calabast?"

"Hehe." The older woman chuckled. "I'm just telling you the truth."

He did what she suggested. Surprisingly, the Wodins accepted. They were already readying a shuttle to meet with Ves at his comparatively tiny frigate.

"See? I told you so." Calabast clapped his back. "You're not only valuable, but also family."

"I'm not marrying into the Wodin Dynasty."

"I know, but the Wodins might not entirely see it that way. No matter what, as Gloriana's future spouse, the Wodins expect to receive some of the same treatment you bestow to your own clan. In fact, expect the commanding officer to beg you to supply them with some of your secret expert pilot-making mechs at some point."

While Calabast continued to pass on her theories to Ves, the Hexer shuttle eventually arrived.

Ves looked appreciatively at the elegant vehicle. Sleek and ornamental, Ves could instantly tell that its performance was very high compared to average second-class shuttles.

After landing in the hangar of the Scarlet Rose, a number of Wodin Warriors stepped out and looked around the small and cramped chamber.

As a former Fridayman vessel, the Scarlet Rose still bore too much evidence of her original ownership. Some of the Wodin Warriors sneered, but the older woman with epaulets on her shoulders and other distinctive markings looked elsewhere.

Upon Calabast's advice, he moved the second statue of the Superior Mother to the far side of the hangar bay.

As the Hexers proceeded forward, they soon felt the unusual nature of the replica statue. They ignored Ves and Calabast and automatically changed their course.

"So this is your handiwork." Someone uttered.

The glow of the Superior Mother released by the statue was stronger and purer than the glow of any Blessed Squire!

As the Wodin Warriors were technically the household troops of the Wodin Dynasty, they didn't have permission to field any Blessed Squires. Secretly, they still retained the prototypes, but the glows of those early copies simply couldn' compare against the original source!

Ves looked amused at their reaction. He did not mind that the Hexers initially passed him over. He found it much more important to know that the glow of the Superior Mother already exerted so much control over the Wodins.

"Ah. Mr. Larkinson. We could not help but appreciate your work." The commanding officer eventually pulled herself back from her mesmerized state. "I am Mech Colonel Alexandria Wodin. I am in charge of the Wodin Warriors sent to relieve your forces."

The two shook hands. The older woman applied a very strong grip, but it was too bad that Ves had plenty of strength to spare.

"Pleased to meet you." Ves put on his best diplomatic demeanor. "Thank you for coming here. Let's head somewhere comfortable to discuss business, shall we?"

Alexandria looked wistful at the statue, but she eventually nodded. "Very well. Lead the way."

As they moved to the conference room, Ves briefly took in the mech colonel. For a Hexer, she wasn't as tough and unyielding as he initially feared. That said, he sensed plenty of strength and steel within her. While it was difficult to estimate her age, he guessed that Alexandria belonged to the same generation as Madame Constance.

Ves didn't know where Colonel Alexandria stood in the Wodin Dynasty, but hopefully she wouldn't pull him into any factional rivalries.

"We've arrived. Please step inside."

Chapter 2433: Future In-Laws

When the Hexer officers sat on the opposite side of the oval table, they curiously studied Ves and Calabast.

For some reason or another, the Wodins immediately recognized that Calabast was a fellow Hexer. Yet the smirk the spymaster showed to them signalled that she was not on their side.

As for Ves, he looked quite unassuming outside of his public addresses. The Wodins should have watched his latest press conference. There, wearing his Unending Regalia, he came across as larger than life!

Now, wearing his relatively plain clan patriarch uniform that was devoid of any ostentatious medal, it was hard to place him as a brilliant mech designer and a notorious warlord.

undefinedOnly Mech Colonel Alexandria retained her composure. Ves had already secretly accessed some archives through his implant. He found out that Alexandria was a member of a side branch of the Wodin Dynasty like Ranya Wodin.

What was special about this 90-year old mech officer was that she had continually proven herself. While she was actually rather mediocre at piloting mechs, she had proven to be a competent and steady officer.

It was no wonder that the Wodins put her in charge of the reinforcement fleet. A Hexer commanding officer that was not as aggressive as her peers was the most suitable choice to lead a force in a notoriously dangerous region.

Ves grew tired of this staring game.

"Thank you for coming." He broke the silence. "Please forgive our lack of amenities. We are still operating under wartime conditions. We've learned the hard way that we can never let down our guard in the Nyxian Gap."

"Understandable." Alexandra lowered her chin. Her blond hair tied in some martial Hexer pattern shifted a bit. "We have received orders to escort you and your men back to the Cinach System promptly. The sooner we bring you out the Nyxian Gap, the lower the risk of any further complications."

Ves smiled a bit uneasily at them. "I agree. There is just one minor issue. It's not enough to bring us out. We would also like your help in escorting our captured warships back to civilized space."

The faces of some of the Hexer officers grew ugly.

"That sounds preposterous!" One of them burst out! "Such destructive machines ought to be scuttled as soon as possible!"

Unspoken was the fact that the Hexers probably thought it was extremely dangerous to leave the warships in the hands of boys.

Ves remained unyielding. "We have already made the necessary arrangements with the relevant authorities. Truthfully, the MTA is quite interested in the pirate-built warships that have fallen into our hands. We will eventually hand them over to Master Moira Willix after we are done with using them as props for my upcoming wedding."

He mentioned two important reasons why they should help bring the ships back.

First, he deliberately mentioned Master Willix's first name. Since a powerful woman was involved, the initial resistance from the Hexers instantly halved.

The mention of the wedding also caused the Wodins to lower their objections.

"Is it a good idea to parade savage warships in your upcoming wedding?"

In some way, she was right. Weddings were usually prim and proper occasions. Parading warships, especially the huge and heavily-damaged Gravada Knarlax, was no different from displaying the corpses of his defeated enemies.

It was unseemly!

Yet despite this fact, Ves did not change his mind.

"Nothing impresses the prestigious guests that we have invited more than parading these prizes. Wedding or not, both of us will be able to project an immense amount of strength. This is ultimately helpful to our stature."

"We shall see. With your permission, we will dispatch some of our officers and engineers to your prize ships." Alexandria offered.

Ves hesitated a bit. He did not look forward to Hexers crawling over his possessions, but the Gravada Knarlax was in such bad shape that she truly needed all the help she could get. In her horrendously-damaged state, numerous systems glitched and malfunctioned with every passing day.

"Please do. Make sure to dispatch your best engineers to the Gravada Knarlax. She's a half-crippled mess that urgently requires repairs that we are not able to perform with the equipment and supplies we have left. We expended too many resources on the pirates."

"Understandable."

This was just an initial discussion. The Wodin officers could discuss the details with the Larkinson officers later.

They discussed some other matters, such as how much time it would take to bring them out and how much medical support they could offer to treat the most severely-injured soldiers.

Ves did not encounter any hostility or rejection from Colonel Alexandria. This was quite refreshing as he expected to put up with the usual biased behavior he had come to expect from her kind.

At some point, Alexandria displayed an increasing amount of interest in the final battle.

"So you call it the Battle against the Abyss? That is quite the name."

Ves shrugged. "It's just what my clansmen have come up with. As far as they knew, they fought the toughest opponents the Nyxian Gap had to offer. The enemies we've faced were unquestionably strong and evil."

"Can you elaborate, Mr. Larkinson?" Alexandra leaned closer. "What exactly happened that caused so many of your mech pilots to break through?"

"I am not at liberty to say. When I reported to Master Willix, she commanded us to keep much of the details confidential." Ves lied.

That instantly shut her down. While Hexers did not exactly hold the MTA in the highest regard, they recognized the power it held over the galaxy. No sane Hexer dared to defy the Association.

Though Ves expected such a reaction, he didn't realize how convenient it was to wave the MTA's flag until now. Perhaps he should take more advantage of the MTA's notoriety in these kinds of situations!

"Say, may we speak with your expert pilots and candidates? We would like your permission to take a look at their mechs as well if possible."

Ves shook his head. "I'm sorry, but Master Moira's instructions are very clear. Please do not disturb our honored expert pilots as they are acclimatizing to their newfound powers. As for their mechs, you can take a look at them if they deploy in space, but make sure to keep a distance."

"Very well."

In the following minutes, Colonel Alexandra sounded a bit less engaged. It seemed that she was truly disappointed that her Wodin Warriors wouldn't be able to study the mechs that played a pivotal role in the battle.

Ves silently glanced at Calabast. She nodded back with her characteristic smirk.

It seemed his spymaster was right. The Wodin Warriors were mostly interested in the mechs that had made a lot of people excited lately. Colonel Alexandria gradually turned cold as Ves continually denied her requests to poke around.

Even if Ves used the MTA as an excuse, the Wodins still felt snubbed.

He decided to offer her an olive branch. "Progress can be slowed but not stopped. The MTA may slow some matters down, but eventually they will recognize that the benefits outweigh the costs. Naturally, the first beneficiary of our exclusive enhanced mechs is our own clan. Second on the list will likely be the MTA if it ever has an appetite for our modest work. Third-in-line is doubtlessly your dynasty. We have not forgotten all of the support your Wodins have offered to us. My future wife and I will be happy to fulfill some of your needs."

"It pleases us that you acknowledge that we are allies." Colonel Alexandria smiled again. "Miss Gloriana has chosen well. I predict that both the Wodin Dynasty and the Larkinson Clan shall rise to greater heights. It is a pity that you are determined to bring your clan away from this star sector."

"You have seen my talents. Together with Gloriana, we are capable of designing revolutionary mechs that are highly desirable no matter where we go. The Komodo Star Sector is my home, but eventually every son must depart and live on his own." He said.

"Not in the Hegemony."

"It's just a metaphor."

"Please consider settling in our grand and well-run state. While we are in the midst of a war at the moment, crushing the Friday Coalition is only a matter of time. If you prefer to settle your own planet or star system, I am sure we can arrange one for you after the war. Once we have swallowed up the territories of the former Friday Coalition, there is plenty of available real estate that needs redevelopment."

Not again! Colonel Alexandria sounded a lot more reasonable before she uttered this spiel. What was it with Hexers and their constant disregard of Fridaymen?

Right now, the Komodo War was no longer swinging in the favor of the Hexers anymore. With the appearance of more and more targeted counters, the Blessed Squire no longer granted the Hexers as much help as before.

"Our plans are already set in stone. It is too late to change our course." Ves replied in a firm tone.

As the discussion grew a little awkward, they eventually decided to end the meeting.

The Wodins stood up and headed back to the hangar bay. Ves had already passed on the contents of the meeting to Major Verle in order to get the ball rolling.

"You were right." He told Calabast after the guests had left. "The Wodins are truly greedy for my latest innovation."

"This is why it's important to keep it close to your chest. I don't know how effective it is, but don't pull out all of the stops from now on, okay? We can still muddy the account of the Battle against the Abyss by putting the blame on other factors such as the abnormal circumstances of the Nyxian Gap, but if expert pilots start popping up left and right, we'll attract far more scrutiny than we can handle."

"You don't need to remind me. I'll be very cautious about spreading my enhanced mechs. The problem is that we can't deprive other people of them entirely."

The cat was partially out of the bag. He needed to satisfy everyone's curiosity, so he already intended to release some weaker mechs.

He wanted to see how many more breakthroughs took place if he filled a mech up to 1 percent saturation. If that was too much, then Ves would probably pare it down to 0.1 percent.

As long as the actual result turned out to be a lot more subtle than people initially thought, Ves would probably lose some of the heat.

Of course, Ves had to convince his audience that he wasn't deliberately holding back for some reason.

"Well, if you don't require my assistance anymore, I'll be heading back." Calabast spoke. "I've got to keep a close eye on the Wodin Warriors, after all. Just because Colonel Alexandria said she would leave your special mechs alone doesn't mean she won't try anything underhanded."

An ugly possibility came to mind. "Do the Wodin Warriors have any stealth vessels?"

"It's a possibility." She admitted. "The Wodins might not employ them against your forces, though. The consequences are very severe if they get caught. In fact, if I ever detect any impropriety, I will likely warn them off silently."

Ves frowned. "I'm in charge here. You should ask for instructions before you make such a decision. What if I want to confront the Wodin Warriors?"

She reached out and pinched his nose with her long and sinuous fingers. "Don't be silly, kid. You're about to marry Gloriana soon. The last thing you want is to ruin her wedding by entering into a spat with her relatives. Let auntie Calabast watch over your household for you so that your marriage proceeds smoothly."

"Stop that!" Ves angrily swatted her finger away. "Whose side are you on?"

Calabast chuckled and swayed her hips as she headed for the exit. "I'm on your side Ves. That has never changed."

Why did Ves feel as if that was never the case?

Chapter 2434: Lost Capabilities

After a day of preparation, the two fleets finally moved back to civilized space. The Wodin Warrior fleet carefully escorted the surviving ships of the Larkinson Clan, including the various prize ships.

It did not take too much effort to get the captured warships and pirate carriers moving again. Due to the abnormal way the Battle against the Abyss ended, the Larkinsons managed to capture a lot of ships intact.

Aside from the warships, the other prize ships were fairly worthless. Certainly, the Allidus Alliance invested a decent amount of resources in their construction, but they paled in comparison to proper combat carriers.

What was worse was that only a portion of the ships possessed FTL drives.

undefinedThe main reasons why the Larkinsons wanted to bring back these extra vessels was because they needed room to accommodate extra mechs and salvage.

Task Force Predator truly lost too many ships. The Penitent Sisters alone sacrificed all of their combat carriers including the Surly Cockatrice.

None of the Penitent Sisters regretted the loss. The aged combat carrier had played a pivotal role in damaging the Gravada Knarlax. As far as everyone was concerned, the Surly Cockatrice met a glorious end.

The initial departure of the combined fleet proved to be a bit problematic. Major Verle and Colonel Wodin argued about the necessity to keep the main armaments of the Gravada Knarlax and the surviving escort ships on standby.

The Wodin Warriors believed that their mechs were sufficient to guard the entire fleet.

The Larkinsons did not like to be at the mercy of others. They had lived through too many reality-defying battles to assume the normal rules applied.

Ves had to step in and offer a compromise. The Gravada Knarlax's surviving turrets would remain active, but he allowed the Hexers to disable their automatic feeding systems.

This meant that the six powerful cannons would remain unloaded. If a situation ever came up when the combined fleet needed to borrow the Gravada Knarlax's might, a mixed crew of Wodin Warriors and Larkinsons would manually feed the rounds to the main guns.

While it sounded messy, the solution placated the Hexers. It did not escape anyone that the Hexer vessels and mechs conspicuously stayed far away from the firing lines of the heavy cannons.

Despite the numerous precautions, the Wodin Warriors still did not want to put themselves at risk in case of an accident!

Some of the Larkinsons found their behavior kind of funny.

"These Hexers aren't as tough as they look." An Avatar grinned. "We rushed straight at a pirate armada without any hesitation. These supposedly superior second-raters don't even dare to get within a thirty-degree angle from the muzzles of the big guns."

It was hard not to feel proud at the amazing accomplishments the Larkinsons had made. Together with the speeches and addresses conducted by Ves, Major Verle, the individual mech commanders and most importantly the expert pilots, a lot of the hard feelings began to fade.

Only the Living Sentinels remained problematic. Ves wisely kept his distance from their contingent. He trusted Major Verle and Calabast to soften their discontent.

With the remnants of Task Force Predator steadily heading back to civilized space, Ves put down his worries and resumed his old routine.

With the LMC getting back on track after introducing the Living Star Club, Ves could finally spend his time on mech design and other matters.

Before he committed himself to completing some of the six mech design projects, he first checked in on some other matters.

"How are you, Lucky?"

"Meow."

His cat still looked a bit lethargic. Ves grew a little bit worried at Lucky's lack of progress in digesting B-stone.

"Are you making progress. If this goes on, I think we need to find a way to make you regurgitate the contents of your stomach?"

"MEEEOOOW!"

Lucky reacted with such fright at his suggestion that he instantly jumped in the air! With a scared expression, the gem cat quickly padded away to the other side of the stateroom.

"Hey, I'm not that bad! I managed to treat your earlier condition!"

Well, since Lucky was healthy enough to move around, Ves did not pay any further mind to his pet.

He moved over to his display rack. He had messily piled up some trophies taken from his defeated opponents.

"I'll need to sort this pile. My record speaks for itself. I don't need to preserve too much garbage."

Of all of the Nyxian pirates he fought against, only the Crona Lords, the Dry Snakes and the Allidus Alliance deserved his respect. He threw out every trophy from the weaker pirate groups such as the Rust Grinders and the Mountain Kings. There was no glory to be earned from bullying weaklings.

He glanced at his grandfather's Prosperity Tree and noted to his pleasure that it was showing considerable signs of life now. While Ves did not believe in the superstition surrounding this stupid plant, he nonetheless felt inordinately pleased that it behaved correctly this time.

"You better keep growing, or else." He ominously hissed.

Checking up on the Prosperity Tree reminded him of the assets he no longer possessed.

"I lost three important components of my strength." He grimaced as he paced through his stateroom. "I can't make up for their absence."

Losing Nyxie, the Grand Dynamo and the potency of the life-prolonging treatment serum all at once dealt a crippling blow to his spiritual ambitions.

He already made his peace with the loss of the former. He always knew that the ancient alien tyrant was immensely powerful. After realizing that Nyxie could have been a dark god, Ves did not regret his decision to sacrifice the recovering spiritual entity.

The impact to the Doom Guard model had troubled him a bit, but it only took a single speech along with some other initiatives to smooth over this repercussion.

What truly depressed him was the fact that he had lost a powerful source of free spiritual fragments. Ves had become accustomed to harvesting potent spiritual fragments that were filled with energy from Nyxie's body.

Now that he had lost the Ancient Sarcophagus and its unruly prisoner, Ves needed to tap into another source of energy to create another spiritual product or design spirit.

"There's no way I can obtain another imprisoned dark god." He muttered.

The loss of the Grand Dynamo presented a more serious reduction in capabilities. He initially obtained it as a reward for making his first masterwork mech. The exquisite spiritual machine not only inspired him to pursue spiritual engineering, but also produced a horrendous amount of native spiritual energy in his mind.

With all of the spiritual energy he produced, he frequently transferred the excess to his P-stones in order to build up a considerable energy reserve.

Those days were mostly over now. Without the Grand Dynamo, his mind churned out only a miniscule amount of spiritual energy every day. If he drained his mind of half of his energy, he would probably need at least half a year to climb back out of his low state!

That was an agonizing long time! Time was precious to Ves. Entering in a low state made him more rational, which meant he was effectively impaired in his work.

Designing mechs just wasn't the same if he couldn't get fired up! His style of mech design was intricately tied to his passion.

"Who can understand my sorrows?" He dramatically sighed.

The chances of winning another Grand Dynamo Elixir should be minimal. He only obtained the first one after he used up his first radiant lottery ticket.

So far, the only reliable way for him to earn this premium lottery ticket was to make another masterwork mech.

"Yeah, that's not going to work."

It was still a matter of chance for him to accomplish this feat. What was worse was that he had to make an earnest contribution in order to win a radiant lottery ticket!

Due to the unusual circumstances surrounding the production of the Quint and the Little Angel, the System judged that he hadn't been worthy enough to earn this reward.

"Well, I'll have to try my best once I complete the six ongoing design projects."

Every completed mech design granted him a good opportunity to earn another masterwork certificate. After three successful attempts, his mech affinity should have risen considerably, thereby increasing his odds by a small but significant margin.

Combined with the quantity of projects he was working on at the same time, it would probably take a few years before he got lucky again.

"Even then, there is no guarantee I'll obtain the prize I want from my next radiant lottery ticket."

The whole point of lottery tickets was that the prizes he could draw were variable. The Grand Dynamo Elixir was probably just one out of hundreds if not thousands of prizes!

Ves shook his head. "Instead of pining over the Grand Dynamo, I should just accept this loss and move on with my life."

A part of him wasn't reconciled, though. As he ached over its loss, he tried to figure out alternatives.

He soon came to the idea of replicating it. What if he could build his own Grand Dynamo?

"It's way too complex!"

He had already thought about reverse-engineering the Grand Dynamo a thousand times in the past, but he always gave up because it was simply too complex!

Yet… didn't he develop a solution for that as well recently? When faced with his mother's work, Ves had gotten so stubborn about it that he came up with a growth-based production method!

That said, back then he possessed a complete design that outlined every essential parameter.

While Ves had studied the Grand Dynamo extensively and stored a lot of notes in his implant, he never got to penetrate its inner workings. Many properties remained a mystery because his spiritual energy failed to perceive anything solid.

He decided to take a step back.

"What if instead of recreating the actual Grand Dynamo, I instead start with something simpler?"

He judged that this idea was a lot more feasible. It was just like his inability to design expert mechs.

Instead of forcing himself to design the genuine article, he could instead settle for something simpler and design a standard mech instead.

Certainly, there was a huge gap in the performance of the two. There was no way that any regular mech could defeat an expert mech in the same class in a fair duel!

Yet having at least something was better than nothing. With no other means of producing extra spiritual energy, he was already happy if he could cobble something together that was just 1 percent as effective as the Grand Dynamo!

Ves became more and more intrigued at this possible solution. "I know how dynamos work, but only in a physical sense. I have no idea how the Grand Dynamo was able to tap into the forces of a spinning galaxy. Figuring that out is one of the biggest challenges to this project."

Not only did he have to find a way for his replica dynamo to leverage a galaxy, he also had to convert this input into spiritual energy.

One of the other fantastic traits about the Grand Dynamo was that it produced spiritual energy that was identical to his own. The spiritual imprint and spiritual attributes matched.

"Ah well, I'll solve this problem in my own way somehow."

He wasn't in a hurry to produce this second dynamo. His theoretical foundation in spiritual engineering was so shallow that he had to develop the individual mechanisms first.

Over time, he believed he could make up for the loss of the Grand Dynamo.

It was different for the serum. Ves slowly drew out the vial from his pocket.

Just like before, he sensed no activity from its contents. His mother had tyrannically stripped the exceptional serum of all of its life-attributed energy.

Without it, the liquid was pretty much dead!

"Argh!"

Chapter 2435: Catching Up

Inside the secret biolab aboard the Scarlet Rose, a woman wearing a lab coat meticulously adjusted her lab equipment. Numerous sensors and scanners thoroughly screened a sample of the serum taken from the vial.

"How is it, doc?"

The woman raised herself from the screens and frowned for a time. She idly adjusted her odd green hair as she recorded a few notes.

"It's bad." She eventually replied. "Every single sample of the serum is identical to the depleted ones you've given me before. While it doesn't make sense, they're all inert. None of the biological components exhibit any signs of activity. While I cannot make any solid conclusions, I think it is highly probable that it can't be used to extend anyone's life anymore."

undefinedVes looked crushed. Ranya's verdict matched his own judgement. If the mysterious life-prolonging treatments relied on life-attributed energy to achieve their intended effect, then a serum with no energy couldn't even add a single year to anyone's lifespan!

The loss was especially considerable when he considered that his vial contained a high-grade serum. If he saved it all up and used it at the right time, he could have lived up to four centuries old!

A lot of powerful people would literally kill to obtain this benefit! It took way too many merits to redeem such an advanced serum from the Big Two. Ves found it difficult to accept that he had lost all of the precious universal life energy.

While Ves felt very upset that his mother did not spare any of it, he knew he shouldn't blame her too much. She truly needed all of the strength that she could get. Not only did she manage to beat up the Unending One at his peak, she also exerted just enough strength to bring the material realm and the imaginary realm within touching distance.

He would have lost everything if he didn't sacrifice so much.

Besides, it was not as if all of the highly-potent energy disappeared. His mother retained much of it in the form of permanent growth. She had become more powerful than ever. None of the dark gods lurking in the Nyxian Gap should pose a threat to her anymore!

His mother had probably become the top predator of the Nyxian Gap with this power boost. Aside from some ancient hazards, she mainly had to watch out of the Five Scrolls Compact.

Ves was not sure how the Ruined Temple would respond once it found that Temple Protector Dista encountered a mishap.

Would the Ruined Temple dispatch another Temple Protector? What if they sent someone stronger?

One of his worst fears was encountering another Holy Son!

There was no way that Ves stood a chance against his nominal 'peer'. Compared to an actual Holy Son, Ves was probably worse off in so many ways. The Metal Scroll largely dictated their relationship and Ves also suspected that it was defective.

This was why he was in a hurry to leave the Komodo Star Sector! There was no way that he wanted to be within reach of the Compact's inevitable follow-up parties.

Fortunately, it should take a while for them to arrive. The new Milky Way Galactic Gate Network may have shortened travel times enormously, but the amount of gates was still sparse.

As Ves kept musing about how much time he had left in this star sector, Ranya slowly halted her examination.

"All of my attempts at inducing activity have failed." She spoke with a disappointed tone. "It's a huge shame we haven't preserved a single intact drop. I could have kept researching it even if the rest of the serum is ruined."

He heard a small hint of reproach from her tone. She still felt pissed that Ves did not entrust her with an active sample for more than a couple of hours every week.

It wouldn't have mattered. With the might displayed by his mother, she would have reached into this compartment as well in order to absorb any loose ends.

When it came to sucking energy, she was absolutely rapacious!

He coughed. "Let's not waste our time on recriminations. The serum has lost potency, but it should still have a lot of research value, right?"

She reluctantly nodded. "While it's not as good as a proper sample, we can still make use of the inert serum in several ways. We can separate each biological component and trace where they came from. We can feed some of the residue to other organisms in order to affect their growth. We can partially derive how the serum is synthesized and figure out how it affects the human body. In short, there is enough work to keep me occupied for decades."

"I'll leave the vial in your hands, then. I have no use of it anymore. Just make sure you don't waste any of the remaining serum on destructive experiments without my permission. I still have hope of reviving it someday."

He already tried to insert his spiritual energy into the serum. Alas, even if his spiritual energy was also based on life, it followed a different direction. There was no way for him to restore the serum's life at the moment.

Perhaps that might change in the future. Until then, there was little point carrying it on his person while it remained dead.

He proceeded to talk about other matters with Ranya. He hadn't paid as much attention to her in the last couple of months as fighting the pirates came first. Now seemed like a good time to make up for his neglect.

"How are the treatments of our injured Larkinsons faring along?"

"They're doing much better now that we've transferred them all to the Wodin Warriors." She replied. "We have been doing the best we can, but our medical specialists and treatment facilities are not up to par. The reinforcements can provide the wounded with much better care. I still envy the facilities aboard the Parma Imago."

The Parma Imago was the flagship of the Hexer reinforcement fleet. Classified as a 'light fleet carrier', the large sub-capital vessel packed up to 120 mechs in her hull.

He heard that the Wodin Warriors possessed even larger fleet carriers. It was a bit inconvenient for them to bring these proper capital ships in a region filled with asteroids, though.

"We'll solve both of the inadequacies you've mentioned." Ves promised. "Right after the previous couple of battles, we were unable to provide adequate treatment to hundreds of injured Larkinsons. They died unnecessarily because we didn't have the manpower and facilities to perform proper triage."

This was one of the areas he hadn't paid enough attention. Despite investing considerably in Ranya and the Larkinson Biotech Institute, a lot of the funding went towards expanding its augmentation capabilities.

"We'll be much better off once we return. Our institute has already recruited a lot of medical experts back on Cinach VI. The new Hexer vessels we've ordered should also come with much better treatment facilities."

"That sounds good, but don't go crazy. Once we begin our expedition, we'll stop by the Life Research Association. You can recruit as many doctors and biotech researchers as you want there. Don't be afraid of hiring more than we need. Our clan will continually expand as we go, but we can only stop by the LRA once."

"Understood, sir. We will make sure our Institute is filled with an abundance of doctors. With everything that has happened lately, it has become a lot easier for us to attract talented personnel."

They talked a bit more about what they expected to gain by visiting the Life Research Association. The unique second-rate state from Majestic Teal was a popular destination for many organizations looking to hire a large quantity of biotech experts.

"The LRA also offers other excellent services." She noted to Ves. "For example, we've often scratched our heads at the various mysteries that take place within your body. Your Jutland organ is especially mystifying. If anyone can help you decipher its bioprogramming, I believe some of the top researchers might be able to offer some insights."

"The CFA has already scanned my Jutland organ long ago."

"Did they ever get back to you about their findings?"

"..No."

Ranya chuckled. "That's the CFA for you. The fleeters only care about themselves. Look, your physique has changed drastically since that time. All the upgrades, augmentations and optimizations have turned your body into a puzzle from my perspective. While I haven't detected any serious concerns, it is truly best if you can consult a master in this field."

"Is it that serious?"

"Well, you can disregard my professional advice if you'd like. Just don't blame me if your Jutland organ spontaneously releases so much heat that all of your body tissue burns up in an instant one day. This is just one of the many accidents that can happen."

"...I see your point. I will put it on my list. I'm not sure if we can approach the LRA's top specialists. They're the equivalent of Master Mech Designers."

"I'm sure you'll manage somehow. Our Larkinson Clan is so famous these days that many powerful entities are willing to entertain us. Just make sure you offer something that is valuable enough to merit their attention."

She probably referred to his spiritually-enhanced mechs. It was not that much of a secret within the Larkinson Clan that Ves truly grasped a means of increasing the chances of breakthroughs.

Even if it had proven dangerous in some cases, Ves daily entertained requests to provide these specially-treated mechs to his mech pilots!

The surviving mech pilots who still retained their enhanced mechs attracted a lot of jealousy from the rest. Even after a month of reaping the benefits, the lucky mech pilots were still improving their skills and piloting acumen at a steady rate!

Even if these mech pilots never became expert candidates, they should still be able to become the premier elites of the Larkinson Clan!

Ves was not concerned about the Larkinsons who still lacked access to these precious mechs. It was too difficult to meet their demands without access to proper production facilities. He might as well wait until he returned to civilized space and produce a large batch of LMC mechs to placate his men. They all deserved to enjoy some of the best of what his design philosophy had to offer.

"How much progress have you made in your personal research?" He curiously asked as he looked around the lab.

He noted plenty of strange plants, some of which he hadn't seen before.

"Oh, if there is one benefit to this crazy trip, it's that I've managed to get my hands on a lot of rare and unique plants!" Ranya suddenly grinned. "You can't believe how much biodiversity the Nyxian Gap offers. I've found several interesting collections at Ulimo Citadel. I've found even stranger flora in the Gravada Knarlax. While I still have to sort through all of the new samples, I have already made several breakthroughs. I will probably proceed with the next stage of my self-augmentation after we have concluded our trip to the LRA."

"That fast?"

"I'm not getting any younger."

As Ves caught up with Ranya, he asked one more question before he left.

"Do you know Colonel Alexandria Wodin?"

Ranya nodded. "Of course. Every Wodin knows her. She's one of the most successful Wodins of her generation."

"Tell me something I should know about her. Is she related to Constance Wodin?"

"I don't know. I am not very familiar with what goes on at their level. I don't think they're close, though. Minister Constance is mainly preoccupied with internal matters while Colonel Alexandria mostly pays attention to external affairs. What I can say about the latter is that she's eager to take part in the Komodo War. I don't think you'll have to worry about her for long. Once she has completed her mission, she'll surely bring her troops to the frontlines."

"Ah." That explained the colonel's interest in his enhanced mechs.

Chapter 2436: Hall of Heroes

Commander Melkor Larkinson stood quietly as he waited next to a hatch. Its tight seal ensured that no sound escaped from the other side.

That did not hinder him from listening in through other means. He raised his hand and tapped the side of his visor a few times.

[I have had enough, Joshua.] A female voice spoke with emotion. [Ves is not the right leader for the Larkinson Clan! Your constant excuses for him ring hollow whenever I think how many Larkinsons ended up in graves due to his decisions!]

Melkor felt some of her rage impacting his mind through the bulkheads! She was a lot angrier than she sounded!

undefined[Come on, Jannzi, don't be like that! I know his leadership is controversial, but if you take the big picture into account, it's not as bad as it looks. Each of us isn't happy with how small we are. While I agree that the clan patriarch may be a bit too aggressive, our clan has continually grown stronger with his help. Without him, we'll never be able to obtain the second-class mechs and ships we need to travel the galaxies. Without him, we have no hope of becoming first-raters in our lives.]

A warm, soothing wave displaced the uncomfortable sensation from Melkor's mind. He always felt much more comfortable in Joshua's presence. The younger man was easy to get along with. Becoming an expert pilot hadn't changed his disposition that much.

Soon enough, the wave of righteous fury returned with twice the intensity!

[I cannot tolerate your presence any longer! Leave, and never return! We are over. Joshua. You are not the Larkinson who I thought you are. The more you express your admiration towards Ves, the more I can't stand your presence. Just face it. We aren't meant to be together!]

[You can't say that! You haven't given me a chance yet! I have worked so hard to get up to your level. A week isn't enough to show you how much I love you. Can't you think about the good times we had together? Just look at Ves and his girlfriend. They're two completely different people, but they managed to get along fine!]

Two minutes later, the hatch slid open. Jannzi firmly pushed Joshua through and kicked his butt for good measure!

"We're done." Venerable Jannzi hissed as her body radiated such an intense vibe that Melkor was forced to take some steps back! "Unless you stop worshipping the ground that Ves walks upon, I don't want you back."

A wave of alarm spread from Joshua.

"That's impossible! The clan patriarch is the greatest Larkinson in history! He's the only successful Larkinson mech designer, and he has already accomplished more with his mech designs than any of the expert pilots of the old family. Why can't you admit the truth that his mechs will make us all great?"

Jannzi was too infuriated to engage with her former boyfriend any further. She silently turned around and stormed back into her cabin.

An air of malaise spread from the fallen expert pilot. Melkor tried his best not to get affected by Joshua's depression and steadily moved forward.

He offered his hand. "Come on, Venerable Joshua. An expert pilot should never show any shame."

Joshua grabbed the hand and hauled himself up with a single pull. "Thanks. I… well, you've seen what happened. Jannzi doesn't want to be with me anymore."

"Welcome to the vagaries of life. You might be a hero, but you're still a human. Not every challenge can be overcome through fighting."

Melkor guided Joshua back to his stateroom aboard the Redfeather. Once the expert pilot made himself comfortable, the Avatar Commander studied the dejected young man with his visor.

A part of him felt envious at Joshua's great success. The adopted Larkinson not only possessed a lot of talent, but he possessed a special relationship with Ves.

Both of them came from Cloudy Curtain. This shared background tied them together. Apparently, Joshua not only became an early fan of Ves' work, but the clan patriarch also showered his fellow Cloudy Curtainer with attention.

While Commander Melkor recognized that Joshua ultimately deserved his treatment, a lot of other Larkinsons could have benefited instead.

What if Melkor piloted the Quint? Each time he studied the mech up close, he could feel some of its might.

As the commander of the Avatars, Melkor technically possessed the right to reassign the Quint.

For example, he could claim it for himself.

In fact, he didn't really need to resort to such an extreme. He could hop into its cockpit and take the masterwork mech out for a spin whenever he liked.

Yet whenever he felt tempted to do so, the Larkinson within him warned him that this was not a good idea.

It was dishonorable to pilot a mech that was exclusively assigned to a mech pilot!

The Larkinsons were especially sensitive towards this principle. Due to the influence of Ves, every Larkinson mech pilot slowly came to believe that their mechs were alive.

Piloting a mech on a consistent basis was similar to marrying it. How could Melkor possibly justify piloting Joshua's wife?

He shook his head. This was not the time to obsess over piloting the Quint. He knew he wouldn't be able to bring the most out of the mech. Unlike Joshua, he wasn't proficient in piloting multiple different mech types.

Joshua regained his composure. He calmed his roiling emotions and faced his superior.

"Thank you, sir. I needed a moment."

"No problem."

"What now?"

"That depends on what you want." Melkor gently responded. "This is why fraternization is so messy. I've tolerated it as long as it doesn't happen within the chain of command, but your case is a bit tricker. Tell me honestly. Will Jannzi be able to stand your presence?"

"...I don't think so. As long as we disagree on the clan patriarch, she'll continue to hate my guts."

They discussed Joshua's options.

"Maybe it is best if you transfer to another ship." Commander Melkor judged. "You can train the Ingvar siblings while you're at it. They're fresh expert candidates who aren't very familiar with their growing abilities."

The Gravada Knarlax blew up the Greenfeather in a single volley in the previous battle. The Second Mech Company had to adopt a new home for their surviving mechs along with some other scattered units.

While Joshua looked reluctant, he nodded. He showed none of the decisiveness expected of an expert pilot.

"I'll keep the Ingvars company. Is there something else?"

"Yes. Major Verle recently invited all of the senior officers to discuss an important matter. It's about you and the other expert pilots."

"What's the matter?"

Commander Melkor hesitated for a moment. "We discussed how to place you within our lineup. So far, we have followed the model of the Mech Corps and other military organizations. However, we don't believe that blindly copying the military is the right solution for every problem. Our circumstances are substantially different. When it comes to expert pilots and their entourages, we decided that they should serve the Larkinson Clan as a whole rather than a specific mech force."

Joshua tried to figure out what that meant. "Does that mean.. I'm not going to be an Avatar anymore?"

"The Avatars of Myth will only limit you. We chase after myths. We emulate them. You're better than us. You have already become a hero that is equal to a myth. You need to follow a different development trajectory, and I'm not sure that any of our mech forces can accommodate you. Also, unlike the Mech Corps, we trust our expert pilots. We don't believe in shackling you and surrounding you with an excessive amount of structure. Major Verle and the rest want to do something different."

"I'm being transferred, commander?"

"Correct." Melkor nodded. "Once we return to Cinach, we'll perform an extensive reorganization. Aside from consolidating our units and supplementing our ranks with fresh troops, we will also transfer every expert pilot to a new mech force that is dedicated to them. You and your Bright Companions will serve with greater autonomy."

"What's this new unit called?"

"We call it the Hall of Heroes."

The Hall of Heroes. This new and looser organization within the Larkinson Clan gathered every expert pilot and provided them with a lot of space. Joshua had never heard of expert pilots receiving this kind of treatment, but according to Commander Melkor, various other states and organizations adopted the same model with varying degrees of success.

One of the reasons why the Larkinson Clan decided to set up the Hall of Heroes was because the distribution of expert pilots would always remain unfair if the current situation didn't change.

There were also deeper reasons why the Larkinsons wanted to set up the Hall of Heroes, but they weren't relevant at the moment.

Venerable Joshua silently took in the news. He felt a bit floored since he had gotten to know many Avatars outside of his Bright Companions. Once he transferred to the Hall of Heroes, they probably wouldn't be able to hang out as often.

"What do you think? Do you have any objections?"

"I.. I don't know. I'm not an officer. I'll try my best to make it work."

"Don't be afraid to make your own decisions. If you don't want to assume more responsibility, then the clan will provide someone who can manage your unit in your stead. You just focus on what you need to take the next step. None of us want you to halt at your current stage."

Joshua shrugged. "The only thing I need to improve is an expert mech designed by the clan patriarch. I don't care about anything else."

That sounded simple, but Melkor didn't think it would remain that way. With power came ambition. One of the more hidden reasons why Major Verle wanted to transfer the expert pilots away from their current units was because they possessed way too much influence.

If the clan kept Joshua and Jannzi in their place, the Avatars of Myth would definitely take after their heroes!

The situation was a bit tricker for Commander Dise and Commander Orfan. Due to their dual positions, they had become the pillars of the Swordmaidens and the Flagrant Vandals.

While this transfer was never meant to isolate the expert pilots from their battle comrades, there were still good reasons to distance themselves from their current responsibilities. If the two mech commanders got bogged down by too much paperwork, how would they ever have enough time left for practice?

In any case, even if the two older expert pilots served under the Hall of Heroes, that didn't stop them from spending time with their original units. They just had to devote a bit of attention to the other mech forces.

For example, Venerable Dise would likely be able to provide a lot of assistance to swordman mech specialists. It was a waste to keep her in the Swordmaidens.

Joshua scratched his head. "What about Colonel Ark Larkinson? His example proves that expert pilots can still be successful while remaining in charge."

"He's an exception to the rule. Rarely do expert pilots ever reach this rank. It's simply not possible for most of you. If Venerable Ark didn't possess the foundation of a Larkinson and if he wasn't so good with people, he never would have become more than a mech captain during his time in the service. However, if any expert pilot proves that he can follow Venerable Ark's footsteps, we are willing to make an exception."

This had nothing to do with Joshua. He barely commanded the Bright Companions anyway as he wasn't cut out to be an officer. Whenever he got excited in battle, he only paid attention to himself.

"Okay. I think I get it, commander. I'll get ready to join the Hall of Heroes and assume my new responsibilities. I hope we all know what we're doing."

Chapter 2437: Retraction

"We've managed to secure sufficient support to establish the Hall of Heroes. Once we are ready to reorganize, we'll transfer all of the expert pilots and their retinue to the new mech force."

"Who will lead the Hall of Heroes?" Ves asked as he leaned back on his chair.

He attempted to grab Lucky from his desk, but the gem cat quickly jumped away.

"Meow!"

undefinedMajor Verle's projection paused for a bit. "We are still in the process of determining that, sir. The Hall of Heroes is unlike the other mech forces we've established. It is best to see it as an umbrella organization for expert pilots. We need someone in charge who can command respect from them without coming across as controlling. To emphasize this distinction, the officer in charge will carry the rank of commandant."

"Ideally, the commandant should be a former expert pilot." Ves thought about it. "Since those are hard to come by, we should choose an old and retired mech pilot. The older, the better."

"We still have a number of highly-respected trueblood Larkinson retirees who can fulfill this position." Verle grinned. "We'll just have to pick the least-crotchety among them. The duties of the commandant are fairly light anyway. His main role is to manage the personalities of the expert pilots so that they don't butt heads against each other or towards our clan. The staff can handle the rest."

The two went through a list of candidates and quickly settled on some older Larkinson. While most of the trueblood veterans desired peace and chose to stay with the Larkinson Family, there were several older men and women who opted to follow their younger and much more ambitious children and grandchildren.

"What about Cristoph Larkinson? He served for over forty years. He fought in two wars and reached the rank of mech captain. While he did not distinguish himself through piloting skill or command ability, he possesses the right social traits."

Ves studied Cristoph's profile carefully. The old man was part of his grandpa Benjamin's generation.

According to the record that he had access to, Cristoph was noted to be modest, calm under pressure and easy to chat with. On the other hand, this grandfatherly figure also became a bit more plodding as he grew older.

This was not someone who acted decisively. This was okay to Ves. It was not the commandant's job to direct the expert pilots in battle. That was up to Major Verle or whoever was in charge.

When Ves extended an offer to Cristoph, the old man only hesitated for a brief moment before he accepted.

"I thought I could enjoy my remaining years in peace, but I don't mind holding another desk job." Cristoph's projection remarked. The man resided on Cinach VI with the rest of the retirees. "If you need me to wrangle the new expert pilots, I'm your man. Just don't expect too much from me. I've served alongside their kind before. I know how they can be if they think they have to do the right thing."

"This is exactly why we must establish the Hall of Heroes. I'm hopeful that you'll be able to earn their regard. Don't be afraid to ask for assistance from myself or Major Verle. Keeping our expert pilots happy and occupied is essential. The Military Bureau will help set up your new office and transfer some capable staffers. "

"Understood, sir. I'll get right on it. It is an honor to assume responsibility over our strongest mech pilots."

The newly-appointed commandant saluted to Ves before he began to talk to Major Verle in private. Setting up a special unit centered around expert pilots could not be done in a day.

With these matters taken care of, Ves ended the calls and returned his attention to his other priorities. "It's high time to finalize some of my mech designs."

Several projects were already close to completion. The mech designs were no longer purely theoretical as Gloriana fabricated several prototypes to test their performance in reality.

Backed up by this data, Ves gained a very thorough understanding on how the mechs performed.

"Gloriana has done a good job in my absence."

While he wasn't truly absent in the last month, he spent far less time on the design projects as he wished. He wanted to make up for that now by finishing the spiritual components that only he could take care of. He didn't want to know how badly Gloriana waited for him to address this neglected area.

He waved his hand and called up an overview of all six projects.

"The Cat's Paw Project still needs more work. The Valkyrie Redeemer needs more hardening against the counters introduced by the Friday Coalition. The Chiron needs more finetuning in light of my latest innovations. I'll probably have to adjust my plan for the Ferocious Piranha as well now that Nyxie is no longer alive."

That left out the Sanctuary and the Crystal Lord Mark II.

Of the two third-class mech designs, the Sanctuary was a very simple and boring knight mech design. This meant that Gloriana and the erudites easily achieved their milestones on this project ahead of time.

If not for its exceptional design spirit, they would have finalized it already.

"Well, Lufa is pretty much ready to take on his role." He muttered.

The only question was whether he wished to impart any triggered abilities and other quirks onto the design.

Considering that the mech was designed to offer relief against the glows of his other products, he didn't believe it was necessary to empower it that much. The only alteration it needed was a spiritual construct that regulated what glows it was allowed to impair.

It did not take much effort to specify the list as he had already formed it beforehand.

In general, the Sanctuary was strictly limited to negating the glows of other third-class mechs. It would have been incredibly cheap if it was capable of impairing the glows of superior mechs.

There should be no way for the Fridaymen to employ this model against the Blessed Squire and other Hexer-commissioned mechs!

The final instruction he programmed in the design was that its glow was completely ineffective against any mech piloted by a Larkinson. This rule only became invalid when the Sanctuary was piloted by a Larkinson as well.

"With all of the glows in my clan, I think a mech like this is very necessary to give my men some relief."

That was one of the main reasons he designed the Sanctuary after all. Even he got tired of playing with glows all the time.

Just before he was about to call it a day, he suddenly stopped and remembered something important.

"Wait, I need to take the counters to my glows into account as well!"

While the Sanctuary was designed to counter glows, Ves predicted that the counters developed by his competitors such as mechs leveraging O-K alloy would definitely disrupt this function.

While Ves did not care so much if the Sanctuary was not able to leverage its strength all the time, that did not apply to his other mechs.

What if he published the Valkyrie Redeemer with great fanfare, only for the Fridaymen to develop a method that largely blocked its signature Marked For Death ability?

"It's not just my upcoming mechs that need strengthening. The Blessed Squire is also due for an update!"

He devoted some time to studying the current situation of the Blessed Squire. Gloriana frequently transmitted some internal documents and battle footage to keep him up to date.

So far, more counters have emerged onto the battlefield. Each new model only showed up on a couple of battlefields. This indicated to Ves that the Fridaymen were still in the process of iterating more effective solutions.

"Nonetheless, most of the counters they've come up with work on the same principle."

The Glow Crusher and other comparable mech models each attempted to disturb one energy field with another energy field. It was like crashing a concert by playing a different song over another song.

Ves had considered how to handle this situation for several days. He came up with various solutions, but most of them were rather convoluted and depended on conditions that he could not accomplish.

For example, one of the most direct ways to counter the Glow Crusher's motion energy from overriding glows was to force his mechs to output a stronger aura than usual.

Yet increasing this output could not be done without a price.

His mech needed a source in order to strengthen its glow. So far, he came up with the concept of a reservoir. If Ves found some way for his mech to capture and store some of its own glow, the pilot should be able to release the accumulated glow whenever a Glow Crusher came close.

Ves tried to create the capturing and storing mechanisms without success. He needed to advance his spiritual engineering, and that took time and effort that he couldn't spare at this moment.

"I'll get back to this after the wedding."

Right now, Ves wanted to come up with a faster and more convenient solution. The longer the Glow Crushers oppressed the Blessed Squires, the more likely the Hex Army lowered the priority on his mechs.

This was not what he wanted! He needed to the Hexers to adopt his Hexers mechs wholesale in order to spread the gospel of the Superior Mother.

Fortunately, he had another idea that didn't require so much effort.

"Much like any energy field, glows follow the inverse-square law. The greater the distance, the weaker the glow."

Before the appearance of specific counters, Ves always aimed to maximize the range of the glows of his mechs. There was no threat to them, so why shouldn't he aim for maximizing the coverage?

However, doing so turned the glows into a huge and vulnerable target. It was like comparing an apple and a cheap balloon.

If Ves held a needle and poked the balloon, it would probably pop in an instant.

If he did the same to an apple, then all he accomplished was releasing a small amount of juice.

Though the analogy wasn't accurate, the Glow Crusher pretty much played the role of a needle.

"If this is the case, then I just have to turn the balloon into an apple."

He had to compress the glow of his mech designs. As long as the glows clung a bit together to their mechs, enemies wouldn't be able to collapse them so easily anymore.

It was remarkably easy for Ves to implement this solution. He already possessed a fair amount of experience in manipulating the glow of the Valkyrie Redeemer design.

The only bit of uncertainty was that he hadn't actually tested it out. While he was confident in his theory, he needed to verify it before he was ready to expand it to his entire mech catalog.

"Once counters to my glows become ubiquitous, a defensive function like this is essential!"

The downside to retracting the glow was that it didn't cover as many friendlies and enemies around it. Yet Ves believed it was worth it in order to make his glows tougher and more intense!

He contacted Gloriana after he made some refinements to this solution.

"What is it, Ves? Are you ready to complete some of our designs?"

"Not quite. I need your help. Can you contact DIVA or the Hex Army in order to perform a little trial? I've just come up with a potential stopgap solution that should mitigate the effectiveness of the counters to our mechs."

"I can do that." She replied. "I've established a closer relationship with the Hex Army lately. I can contact some commanders who can provide us with the opportunity to test some updates or variants. Just make sure you've put enough effort. We'll be responsible if anything goes wrong."

"Don't worry, Gloriana. I'm always sure about my work!"

Chapter 2438: Mech Lieutenant Monroe

While Ves invested his time on coming up with a set of universal glow instructions, the Komodo War continued to rage in the center of the star sector.

To the warring Fridaymen and Hexers, the events that took place in the Nyxian Gap did not even come to their attention.

The war already consumed all of their attention! Who cared what the designer of the Blessed Squire was up to these days. The military mech pilots weren't even able to access any news aside from what their superiors wanted to know.

"Come on! The Hexers are getting battered! Let's push them out of the city while their reinforcements are still on the way!"

undefinedAfter successfully conquering and pacifying the Marrakath System, the Wrathful Doves only needed a few months to complete its reorganization. The Hex Army provided the victorious army group with a large amount of recruits, mechs and supplies over the course of a couple of months.

While the Wrathful Doves still needed time to return to its old level of strength, the war waited for no one. With the fall of the Crestfallen Stars, the interior of the Carnegie Group and the Vermeer Group became vulnerable.

The Hex Army decided to act boldly and launched several bold offensives. Each of them thrust deeply into the territories of the two Coalition Partners. The Hexers wanted to attack strategic and critical interior star systems before the Fridaymen took everything of value away.

One of the star systems that the Hexers just happened to attack was the Leemar System!

This academic star system used to be one of the Carnegie Group's centers of power. Many leaders, scientists and other notable figures studied at one of its many renowned universities.

Right now, the Hex Army was determined to conquer the Leemar System! As the home of the Leemar Institute of Technology, the Hexers wanted to send a strong message to Master Olson and Master Katzenberg.

Since the two Fridaymen Masters dared to target the Blessed Squire mechs with their Glow Crusher design, the Hexers were determined to hit back twice as hard by razing their cherished institution!

Of course, the Masters, the teaching staff, the students and almost everyone else had already evacuated the vulnerable star system. What troubled Leemar's administration was that it took a lot more time to transfer all of the expensive hardware and material stockpiles.

Since the LIT was home to at least five Master Mech Designers and many more Seniors, the LIT had built up an elaborate high-end infrastructure centered around research, development and production.

Leemar had been responsible for fabricating numerous expert mechs and high-end mechs for the Fortune Legion! Naturally, the infrastructure needed to produce the best mechs of the Fortune Legion was very considerable.

Now, much of it was under threat!

Hundreds of shells launched by distant artillery mechs smashed onto the tropical lands where the LIT was based!

A couple of explosive shells even impacted Master Olson's guest estate! Powerful explosions rocked the grounds, causing numerous new craters to appear.

While the mansion was made out of better materials than many other homes, the Hexers didn't give up. Dozens of other shells hit the mansion, collapsing its roof, several rooms and even entire wings!

Fortunately, Master Olson already took away everything she cared about months ago. Not even her private workshop contained any traces as the bombardment finally breached the underground chambers!

The destruction of Master Olson's mansion only served as a minor distraction for the Battle of the Leemar System.

"Crush this school and everything it has left! Don't let a single building stand!"

Both Fridaymen and Hexer mechs fought numerous different skirmishes across the Leemar Institute of Technology's expansive campus grounds.

Mechs from both sides hotly contested against each other in the air and land. With each passing second, an aerial mech crashed into the ground. Landbound mechs constantly fired and collided against each other.

"Watch out for the shore! Those amphibian mechs can sneak attack us at any time!"

Since the LIT was built on an archipelago, the combatants contested in the seas as well! Tens of thousands of aquatic mechs and amphibian mechs clashed against each other at various depths in order to secure the crucial waters surrounding the famed institution.

Little of that had anything to do with Mech Lieutenant Niklas Monroe.

As a native of the Leemar System and a mech officer of the Fortune Legion, Lieutenant Monroe received the distinct honor of piloting one of his unit's Glow Crusher!

Not every Fridayman mech pilot looked forward to piloting the new mech model. Due to the necessity of charging straight into an enemy formation in order to break the Blessed Squire's glow, the Glow Crushers that charged in regularly never made it out intact!

What was even worse was that the Hexer mech pilots developed an intense animosity towards the Glow Crushers. No Fridaymen mech attracted more fire from the maddened women than the mech that had the potential to ruin their parade!

The Fridaymen were human as well. Who would want to accept the 'honor' of piloting this necessary mech if it only turned them into the biggest target on the battlefield?

Lieutenant Monroe was not one of them. In order to defend the planet he grew up in, he eagerly embraced the only mech that could neutralize one of the Hex Army's trump cards!

Several mech companies advanced forward while enduring an increasing amount of fire. One of the downsides of defending the LIT was that it featured a lot of open space. The cities built around the institute mostly consisted of smaller structures.

"Come on! We only have one chance at this! We have to take out those artillery mechs!"

Up ahead, the Fortune Legionnaires finally reached a wide street where at least two Hexer mech companies escorted half-a-dozen artillery mechs as they slowly lumbered forward.

The huge, lumbering six-legged mechs each boasted a plethora of cannons. The artillery mechs continually fired heavy shells after receiving accurate targeting data from scout mechs and spy drones.

Occasionally, the Fortune Legion attempted to bombard the Hexer artillery mechs, but their targets either intercepted the incoming rounds with their secondary armament or projected a large shield to block whatever managed to slip through.

Even if a couple of rounds succeeded in passing through all of these obstacles, the heavy artillery mechs just accepted the blows before resuming their attacks!

"These big mechs are rare even for the Wrathful Doves." A Fridayman commander noted. "The Hexers will definitely feel pained if we manage to take them down. Get ready!"

Everyone received tailored instructions as the Fridaymen mechs came close enough to initiate a charge.

"Monroe, you know what to do. We'll open up a path for you as much as possible."

"Got it, sir! For Freedom and Fortune!"

"FOR FREEDOM AND FORTUNE!"

Due to the crucial role of the Glow Crusher mechs, the Fortune Legion no longer positioned them up front. Instead, the lancer mechs occupied the second row. Several offensive mechs adjusted for speed and frontal defenses covered them from the front.

After completing the final preparations, the commander issued the pivotal.

"Charge!"

Over a hundred mechs thundered forward! The avenue they were walking on quickly cracked due to all of the stresses it endured!

Soon enough, the slow-moving Hexer formation halted and opted to dig in as its ranged mechs began to fire at the vanguard of the incoming enemies.

A huge barrage of fire pushed against the offensive knights! Positron beams, missiles, gauss rounds and other powerful weapons smashed against the shields of the mechs at the front.

Even the artillery mechs directed some of their shorter-ranged mechs against the incoming Fridaymen!

Amazingly, the offensive mechs held throughout the charge. Each of the mechs mounted special shield generators on their backs. The shields they projected not only formed a powerful barrier up front, but also merged with any adjacent barriers.

The result was a large and powerful shield that was collectively supported by all of the mechs that carried this expensive shield module!

It didn't matter if the Hexers concentrated their fire on only one portion of the barrier. With the sharing arrangement enabled by this highly-advanced shielding system, every shield generator endured the exact same burden.

As the Fridaymen formation neared the enemy position, the shield generators were close to reaching their limits!

"Deactivate the shield generators! They've done their job!"

The offensive knights no longer projected their shields. Their modular backpack modules smoked as they worked hard to release an excess amount of heat.

The absence of the shield immediately affected the Fridaymen. The offensive knights traded durability for mobility and increased energy reserves, and now they were finally paying for this tradeoff!

Against the concentrated firepower of the Hexer mechs, the offensive knights quickly fell behind. Their shields only bought a short amount of time before they quickly collapsed.

"Breach an opening for us!" Lieutenant Monroe called as his Glow Crusher became filled with motion energy.

Even though his mech wasn't running at its top speed, Monroe knew it had accumulated a sufficient amount of momentum. Together with the Glow Crushers of his unit, he was confident he could break the enemy's glow!

Crash!

The surviving offensive mechs along with some other melee mechs physically collided against the defending Hexer mechs.

The powerful collisions disordered the Hexer ranks and momentarily opened up some gaps. Other Fortune Legion mechs quickly took advantage of the openings and tried their best to expand the holes.

Every Fridayman mech abruptly fought a little less vigorously as they pressed closer. Each of them had entered the outer range of the Blessed Squire's glow.

"Monroe! The way is open! Kill those damned boy mechs before they nag us to death!"

"With pleasure!"

The Fridaymen mechs had managed to create some openings in the enemy formation at great cost. Once their forward momentum stalled, it became a lot more challenging to reach the well-protected Blessed Squires.

Fortunately, Lieutenant Monroe managed to bypass the occupied Fridaymen mechs and charge forward. The other friendly Glow Crushers managed to press through as well as their comrades did their best to cover their advance.

All of this took place in a short amount of time. Before the Hexers issued their next orders, the Glow Crushers were already accelerating forward!

When Monroe felt the time was right, he activated a mental trigger.

In an instant, the lance of his mechs seemed to shine as it was about to bump into an invisible field!

"SUCCESS!"

The glows of the Blessed Squires abruptly disappeared as the Glow Crushers that managed to pull off their charge had dumped all of their motion energy!

The surrounding air became denser and more energetic as the invisible motion energy spread from the Glow Crushers.

The Hexer mechs simultaneously lost steam as the encouraging presence of the Superior Mother disappeared.

The Fridaymen succeeded in damaging their confidence!

As the motion energy rapidly dissipated, Lieutenant Monroe decisively commanded his mech to throw aside its unwieldy lance. After withdrawing a slim sword, his mech already turned around in order to link up with friendlies.

Yet just as the Glow Crushers took their first steps back, a familiar oppressive sensation overtook the mech pilots.

For a moment, both sides flagged a bit. "What is this..?"

Suddenly, the Hexer mechs became invigorated again! With the resumption of the glows of the Blessed Squires, the crazed Hexer mech pilots fought as if the Superior Mother had personally intervened!

"The Superior Mother is with us!"

"Crush these Glow Crushers!"

Lieutenant Mornoe was devastated! As numerous vengeful Hexers assaulted his Glow Crusher, he couldn't comprehend what had happened. He was sure his mech had succeeded in its charge!

"Why didn't it work! My mech broke their glows!"

He would find no answer as his mech quickly succumbed against the combined assault. The rest of his unit collapsed within minutes as the Fridaymen were forced to fight in the influence of a hostile while the Hexers had regained their confidence!

"The Hexers deceived us! They upgraded their Blessed Squires!"

Chapter 2439: Three Gifts

It did not take long for the test results to come back.

Across several different battlefields, a handful of units received secretive 'upgrades' to their Blessed Squires.

Nothing much had changed aside from some sort of software date and the addition of a new dial in their cockpits.

The male Hexer mech pilots who had the privilege of piloting these blessed mechs received some very basic instructions on how to use the latest addition to their mechs.

undefined"The Miracle Couple has come up with something that will help us thwart the Glow Crushers. Pay attention to this dial and the corresponding neural command. By default, the glow of your mech is unrestrained. If any of the counters to your mech comes close, you need to retract it as close to your mech as possible. To do that, just turn this dial anti-clockwise or issue a more precise command to your mech through your neural interface."

"Uhm, what is the purpose of doing so, ma'am?" The boy clad in a tight piloting suit asked the tall female engineer.

"Simply put, a Glow Crusher breaks the glow of your mech by throwing motion energy at it. What you need to do is to retract this glow so that the Glow Crusher misses its attack. As long as its motion energy doesn't come close to your retracted glow, it will not do anything aside from making the air feel heavy for a time."

With this small addition, the upgraded Blessed Squires completely gained the upper hand again!

With the ability to control the range of the glows, the rate of glows getting crushed dropped by 80 percent after a few days!

The Hexers had long sought a solution to the counters deployed by the Friday Coalition. Being able to retract the glows when they were vulnerable was an incredibly helpful ability.

Even if the glow no longer blessed the surrounding mechs, it at least remained intact. Once the Glow Crusher mechs completed their charge and released all of their motion energy, the threat against their glows should have passed.

Nothing stopped the Blessed Squires from restoring their glows to their original splendor!

The incredible utility of this little function was so great that demand for it skyrocketed. Other Hex Army units heard about the upgrade as well and began to ask for it as well!

Gloriana quickly called Ves once again in order to discuss this abrupt development.

"I don't know how you managed to implement it, but your fix worked!" She grinned. "According to the feedback from the mech pilots, the new retraction function you've added to the Blessed Squire is a great blessing. In fact, you should have implemented a long time ago. Why did it take so long for you to add it in? Were you saving it up or something?"

Ves sent her a reproachful glare. "I only came up with it recently. You should know that we never really had to worry about the range of the glows of our mechs. Only the Doom Guard posed a serious concern, but even then that wasn't enough for me to intervene."

It was different now that the Friday Coalition had deliberately taken advantage of this vulnerability. For many reasons, Ves needed his Hexers mechs to succeed. He needed to crush anything that threatened their superiority in battle!

The two quickly discussed the performance of the new retraction function. After studying the data and verifying that it hadn't glitched or anything, they decided to recommend that the Hex Army to to embrace the upgrade.

"I'll take care of it." Gloriana promised. "High command will be inordinately pleased with our quick response. The value of the Glow Crushers will certainly drop after the Blessed Squires have incorporated this upgrade."

In truth, the physical and software changes were mostly smoke and mirrors. Due to some obscure spiritual rules that Ves didn't fully understand, every copy of the Blessed Squire was connected to the design.

While the former was still able to grow and develop a unique character, its fundamental identity was still tied to its origin. This meant that any change to the design inevitably affected the existing copies.

In truth, Ves frequently scratched his head over this relationship. A mech design was imaginary while a physical mech was material. For the former to affect the latter in this fashion sounded like magic or very profound metaphysics.

Whatever. There was no reason to look at a gift horse in the mouth. This profound interaction allowed him to push any spiritual changes to all of his mechs without needing to go through their current owners.

The only reason why he bothered to add a dial was to fool the Hexers into thinking that they needed to apply the upgrade to the mech first before they gained access to the retraction function.

Ves would definitely attract way too much scrutiny if the mech community found out that he could alter existing mechs without accessing them! The security implications were considerable. No one wanted someone to have constant access to the core functions of an actual mech.

Once the pair completed their discussion about the upgrade, Gloriana was already looking to the future.

"This is only the beginning, Ves." She warned. "While I expect that this retraction function will shift the advantage back to our Blessed Squires, our opponents will likely find another loophole. Master Olson and Master Katzenberg succeeded first, but I have no doubt that other Masters are readying other mechs that can interfere with the glows of our mechs. It will only be a matter of time before a competitor develops a solution that can cripple a glow from a distance."

That was one of his greatest fears as well. While the retraction function enabled his mechs to concentrate their glow, thereby thickening it and increasing their resistance, it came with a very significant downside.

A Blessed Squire that continually retracted its glow was a mech that did not perform its main role!

What Ves truly wanted was to implement a solution that allowed his mechs to strengthen their existing glows.

He might have to alter his design spirits in order to achieve this goal. The glows of his mechs did not originate from the mechs or mech designs themselves. The spiritual entities that presided over them were the actual source of glows.

He could not mess with them lightly. Each of them were living, powerful entities whose existences directly depended on their spiritual composition. Any change, no matter how modest, directly altered their behavior in some fashion!

"Look, Gloriana, before Master Olson and Master Katzenberg introduced the Glow Crusher, I didn't even know that our mechs were vulnerable to their unique mode of attack. Now that we know, we can account for them. The same will happen again if they come up with another trick."

She sighed. "I know. I can already tell that you look forward to sparring against our opponents. It's just that I'm worried about the brave women and boys who are depending on our work. The Hex Army has already suffered numerous setbacks due to the vulnerability exposed by the Fridaymen. Next time, how many more Hexers will die because we failed to account for the methods of our enemies?"

"What do you want us to do? I have worked to develop my design philosophy up until this point, but I can only do so much on my own. I don't want the Fridaymen to regain the upper hand either, but it's difficult for me to anticipate how they will attack my work."

He knew that Gloriana felt very frustrated by her inability to help. She had waited for Ves to come up with a solution for a month, but because he was preoccupied with defeating pirates, he never implemented this little fix until now! This delay signified that she had a long way to go before she was able to design the perfect vessel.

Before Gloriana ended the call, she brought up one more important matter.

"Are you truly sure you want to upgrade our existing mech models with the same function?"

"We might as well. Let's start by implementing it onto our existing mechs. I'll go over our current designs and revise them a bit. Once I'm done, just let the mech technicians modify the machines we have."

"What about the mechs we sold?"

"I'm not sure. I think it's best if we just make the retraction function standard. Do you agree?"

"Our customers have consistently demanded more control over the glows of their mechs. We should do it, Ves. Adding it to all of our mechs will bring them a little closer to perfection. I expect the value of our mechs to grow as a result."

After agreeing on this point, Gloriana addressed one final issue.

"It's been more than a week since the Doom Guard irrevocably changed. While we have managed to stem the outrage due to our quick action, it's still a problematic mech. Do you want to keep it that way or try and change it back?"

Ves furrowed his brows. "I don't know. The mech has already changed. Doing it again will lead to greater disruption."

"There are many owners who want to regain the old Doom Guards. They're much more effective in buying time and keeping the enemy at a distance. Overall, the battle performance of the Doom Guard has worsened after it gained its new alternating glow."

Ves already predicted this outcome. Sales of the Doom Guard still declined. No matter whether their owners obtained compensation, the new Doom Guard clearly performed worse in battle. Their owners had to adopt more strenuous measures in order to take advantage of its new effect.

"I think it's best to leave it alone. Ideally, I'd like to restore the old Doom Guard, but the current incarnation is pretty interesting as well. Both are useful under the right circumstances. Ideally, I'd like to retain both of them. While there is a bit of overlap between the two versions, as long as we keep working on them, they'll eventually become two very different mech designs."

"That's.. acceptable. It's not the solution I would have settled for, but it will please the fans of both versions."

What Ves didn't mention to Gloriana was that Ves didn't have any suitable ingredients that could take the place that Nyxie once occupied.

Wait. Didn't his mother…

He recalled something very important. He hastily ended the call, much to Gloriana's chagrin, and raced to the vault.

After going through a security check, he stepped into the heavily-fortified chamber.

Ves began to pull out every P-stone. Just as he expected, three of them were significantly different than before!

"I was right!"

A grin plastered on his face as he realized what his mother had left him. Even though she called them trash, Ves did not care about her opinions.

What mattered was that he obtained three additional spiritual fragments!

Ves carefully probed the spiritual fragments and gained a sense of their principal attributes.

The most powerful fragment contained some very potent devouring attributes.

"The Unending One."

A weaker fragment exhibited some flighty attributes.

"The Inexorable One."

Another weak fragment seemed to be filled with light.

"The Blinding One!"

Ves didn't know how his mother managed to preserve these fragments, but they were extremely helpful to his current circumstances!

Of course, in their current forms, the remnants of the dark gods were polluted with a lot of undesirable attributes. Ves had no use for their evil and alien natures and wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible.

In fact, Ves believed it was best to use them as ingredients in the creation of fresh new design spirits. He did not want to make the same mistake he made with Ylvaine's spiritual fragment and revive someone from the dead!

"The Unending One and the Inexorable One should definitely remain buried. The Blinding One on the other hand…"

Ves grew a little intrigued about the last dark god. Even though the Blinding One was just as evil and hostile as the previous two entities, he was different.

The Blinding One was a humanoid alien, and a member of the luminar race to boot.

Ves always wanted to figure out the mysteries of the luminar race. What if he could tap into the Blinding One's knowledge and figure out the principles behind his race's wondrous crystal and light-based technology?

Chapter 2440: Spiritual Extortion Racket

To Ves, spiritual fragments held a special meaning. Drawn from spiritual entities, the concentrated accumulation of energies inherited some of their character.

When Ves studied a spiritual fragment, he evaluated them by several different criteria.

He first observed their spiritual imprint. To his understanding, an imprint was both a brand and a carrier of someone's fundamental existence. It possessed mysterious properties and served an essential role in ensuring that someone maintained possession of their own spirituality.

When Ves studied the spiritual imprints of the three fragments, he noted that all of them appeared to be strong and vivid. They were harvested fresh from the corpses of the dark gods, though the fragments of the Inexorable One and the Blinding One were a tad weaker.

undefinedConsidering that the Unending One showed no hesitation in devouring his fellow dark gods, Ves immediately formed a hypothesis.

"The Unending One specializes in devouring other spiritual entities. He likely possesses many means of efficiently breaking down foreign spiritual energy."

He could not help but remember what took place after the Unending One betrayed his fellow dark gods. The tentacled whale grew immensely in both size and power. Although it appeared that his rapid boost in strength produced many repercussions, it was a testament to its powerful digestion abilities that it could power itself up in battle.

Some interesting ideas came to mind as he speculatively regarded the fragment of the Unending One. While the dark god used to be his enemy, a remnant of the tentacled whale's existence had now fallen into his hands.

Considering his track record of what he did with other spiritual fragments, he could definitely find some way of converting it into his own strength!

The second criteria he paid attention to was the spiritual attributes contained within the fragments.

As far as he was aware of, no form of life embodied just a single attribute. Every living entity always possessed a mix of attributes. The purer ones possessed many different related attributes while more complex entities usually possessed a greater degree of diversity.

Each spiritual attribute reflected the character traits and the abilities of the entity in question.

By studying someone's spiritual attributes, Ves was able to understand the true nature of other people and entities to some degree. He didn't dare to look closely at someone whose power far surpassed his own for fear of exposing himself or suffering some kind of backlash.

For example, looking deep into the dark gods when they were at their prime was just asking for death!

"Well, I'm just looking at their fragments now, so it's okay." He muttered.

Each of the dark gods carried an air of antiquity. They had lived for eons and survived through many different ages. Living for so many years caused the dark gods to gain a lot of spiritual attributes, though most of their proportions were miniscule compared to their main attributes.

"It's the equivalent of dust."

Ves wasn't interested in these trivial attributes. They showed up so rarely that it took far too much effort to make use of them. He would rather turn his attention to the major attributes that defined the entities in question.

When he compared the attributes of all three fragments, he noted that much of them were identical.

For example, he sensed a set of attributes that felt dark, malicious and dangerous to him. "The evil within them is strong!"

Personally, he was reluctant to label something as evil, as many people and entities were usually righteous in their own way. Even his bastard of a cousin Ghanso fought for what he thought was right in his own twisted perspective.

Ves found it hard to rationalize the darkness that suffused the dark gods. Whether they descended into evil on their own accord or became contaminated by it, the three fragments posed a considerable threat.

If any of these fragments became conscious enough, he did not doubt that they would find some way to screw him over!

He could not afford to provide them with the same autonomy he granted to his other design spirits.

Different from hostile entities like Zeigra, the dark gods doubtlessly developed a wealth of methods and techniques that bordered on the arcane. Who knew what they would get up to if Ves left them alone.

"I need to process these fragments soon. Leaving them in their current state is just asking for trouble."

This was because unlike Nyxie, Ves did not possess any means of restraining them other than putting them in his B-stone lockbox.

Despite the filth marring the fragments, they possessed plenty of other attributes that attracted Ves like a moth to a flame.

As Ves had previously observed, the Unending One revolved around hunger, swallowing and digestion. The only downside was that the fragment suffered a higher degree of pollution than any other spiritual fragment that he encountered.

Evidently, the Unending One also absorbed some of the traits of its food by retaining a portion of their distinctive attributes. Ves did not see the advantages in this as the pollution probably warped the tentacled whale's personality even further.

"It's no wonder he turned against his fellow dark gods."

The spiritual fragments of the Inexorable One and the Blinding One both exhibited problems as well. Evidently, his mother had salvaged them from the Unending One's stomach as they were being digested.

"They're not in good shape." Ves muttered.

In general, none of the fragments were very pure. This was something that he paid a lot of attention to because it was much easier for him to leverage the advantages of purer attributes.

While Ves developed techniques that allowed him to excise the undesirable attributes from his fragments, the amount of waste was considerable.

Without the benefit of Nyxie, the Grand Dynamo and the serum, Ves had suddenly turned into a pauper in terms of spiritual energy!

Previously, he didn't care about how much spiritual energy he threw away whenever he processed his spiritual fragments.

It was different now. He needed to relearn how to value each and every unit of spiritual energy no matter how much it reeked. He had to adopt a new mindset oriented around efficiency and making the best use out of a limited supply of ingredients!

"My old methods are too wasteful. I can't just throw away potentially usable energy. This requires much further consideration." Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin.

He only realized up to this point how much he wasted in the past. As someone who initially started designing third-class mechs with heavy budget constraints, he felt as if he had completely forgotten himself when it came to spiritual engineering.

"Quantity matters."

This was the third criteria he watched out for. His mother harvested a considerably bigger fragment from the Unending One than the other two dark gods. She was quite generous, which Ves found strange because she was not much different from the Unending One when it came to her insatiable demand for juice.

"They're different but also similar now that I think about it. How is this possible?"

Both possessed different spiritual attributes. The Unending One reminded Ves of a hungry super-predator. The aquatic beast was very primitive but effective when it came to devouring and digesting his prey.

In contrast, his mother apparently developed a more abstract domain. It reminded him of the wonder and brutality of nature. Survival of the fittest reigned supreme and the weaker beings were destined to become nutrients to the strong.

Ves couldn't imagine what it took to develop such an elaborate spiritual orientation. It felt high-class to him, and there was definitely more to it than he observed from the surface.

"Despite that, she possesses the same devouring capabilities of the Unending One."

The main difference was that the Unending One digested his food by instinct while his mother likely had to take a more active approach.

In any case, the Inexorable One and the Blinding One did not possess these devouring capabilities. Ves wondered how they managed to grow up to this point if they did not rely as heavily on predation.

"Is it related to their supposed divinity?"

Now that was a can of worms that Ves did not like to open. At the end of the Battle against the Abyss, the distance between the material realm and the imaginary realm had become closer than ever before.

This highly-unusual condition produced numerous anomalous effects. One of them was that Ves gained the capability to peer deeper into the imaginary realm than ever before.

He discovered a facet of the imaginary realm that he had never noticed before. He not only observed the huge and powerful torrents of faith, but also managed to tap into them, if only for a moment.

This faith-based energy was very weird to Ves! There were so many aspects about it that put it beyond his capabilities. The quantity and quality of the faith surrounding the Holy Sons was so immense that his intuition rang alarm bells as he got close.

Back then, he deeply felt he would burn up if he actually embraced the potent faith energy!

"Obviously, it's a form of high-level energy that I'm not qualified to handle in my current state." He concluded after recalling his mother's reminder.

He didn't know whether this faith energy was actually different from spiritual energy. He suspected that they were actually the same thing. It was just that the spiritual feedback flowing through the imaginary realm was so dense and potent that its properties were incomparable to regular spiritual energy.

Perhaps only the entities that were called gods were capable of doing so. It would explain how a tiny luminar alien managed to grow so powerful and huge.

Ves would be lying if he said he was not interested in tapping into this huge energy source. There was so much of it and its quality surpassed the energy he was able to derive from the likes of Qilanxo and Nyxie.

Yet Ves was deeply suspicious of it as well. if embracing this faith energy distorted him to the point where he became as degenerate as the dark gods, he would rather stay away from it. Just because he wanted to harness more energy didn't mean he felt eager to poke his finger into a power socket!

As for deeper implications like whether this energy created or sustained gods, he dismissed these questions. The existence of the immense amount of faith energy flowing through the imaginary realm merely reinforced his views that faith was actually an extortion racket!

Spiritually-powerful entities took advantage of the power and information disparity between themselves and their worshippers to harvest faith.

If the unknowing sheep knew the truth that they weren't devoting themselves to actual gods, they would probably find some way to take power into their own hands!

"I'll never become like them!" He vowed!

Whether the other Holy Sons embraced the powerful faith energy or not did not matter to Ves. He was different from everyone else and always followed his own path. He instinctively felt repelled by anything related to faith and religion.

That said, Ves could not deny that he was a Holy Son anymore. No matter what he did in the future, he would probably come in touch with faith energy sooner or later.

He shook his head. "That's too far away. In normal space, the two realms are too far apart for me to venture into the deeper layers of the imaginary realm.".

He turned his attention back to the three fragments. He put two of the P-stones holding the fragments into his B-stone lockbox before stowing it away. He kept the P-stone that contained the fragment of the Blinding One and took it back to his stateroom.

He wanted to delve deeper into it. He had long developed a fascination for the luminar race and wanted to see if he could get something useful out of the remnant.

"Let's see what you are made of, little fragment!"

Chapter 2441: Living Fusion

Ves leaned back on his chair as he held the P-stone containing the spiritual fragment of the Blinding One in his hands.

Lucky lifted his head from the desk and observed the rock. A disgusted expression appeared on his face.

"Meow."

"Yeah, I can imagine that alien essence tastes awful. It's especially bad considering how luminars look closer to humans than exobeasts. I can never bring myself to eat sentient, bipedal beings."

undefinedHis cat purposefully moved forward and leaned over the edge of the desk. He skilfully opened one of the drawers with his paws.

"Meow!"

"What are you talking about? I'm not a hypocrite!" Ves defended himself. He quickly leaned forward to slam the desk drawer shut. "And don't touch my precious nutrient packs!"

He ignored his cat and went back to studying the P-stone. Now that it housed the remnant of the Blinding One, it acquired a special character.

"It's like I'm holding a crystal instead of a rock."

The illusion was weak and easy to dispel, but Ves found it interesting nonetheless. The more he looked at it without fully concentrating his mind, the more he got the sense that it was a crystal that radiated light. Some of the rays were so blindingly powerful that he felt tempted to look away.

Only spiritual fragments derived from powerful entities could make him feel this way. Their quality was so high that their attributes somehow bled over to the material realm without doing anything.

"Now what am I going to do with you?" He idly wondered.

Considering that he was close to finishing the Crystal Lord Mark II Project, he thought about spicing it up by adding the Blinding One to the mix.

After all, the Crystal Lord was a design based around his initial exposure to the luminar race and its technology.

"I intended to reform its current design spirit anyway, so this is a good opportunity to do so. With such a powerful ingredient in my possession, it's a waste to leave it alone!"

Before he did so, he first wanted to see if he could derive other benefits from the fragment.

He was particularly interested in whatever knowledge it possessed about the history, technology and culture of the luminar race.

While Ves possessed a small amount of insight on this diminutive alien race's technology by making a deal with Master Willix, he only scratched the surface of what it was capable of. Just recalling the power of the ruins left by the crystal builders left him with a deep impression.

"It's not related to my design philosophy, but who cares. Everyone has hobbies."

He began to concentrate his mind further in order to delve into the spiritual fragment. He cautiously prodded the fragment and tried to elicit some sort of reaction.

Aside from a few instinctual responses, the fragment did nothing.

Ves grimaced. "It's not in a good state."

He touched it deeper and began to run his senses through the fragment. He hardly encountered any resistance because there wasn't much that could stop him. The only reason why he stopped delving deeper was because he could not cope with the density of high-quality energy.

After exploring the spiritual fragment from different angles, Ves became surer about his verdict.

"It's dead."

Of course, death was not entirely absolute when it came to spiritual entities. The more powerful beings tended to be quite tenacious.

Yet Ves did not feel as if the Blinding One possessed the same chance of coming back to life. The fragment's outer structure was heavily compromised as the Unending One managed to digest it for quite some time before his mother scooped it out and stopped most of the decay.

It was too late.

Ves did not feel any active consciousness from it. If he pulled the fragment out of the P-stone, it would have resumed decaying until there was nothing left.

"Damn."

Perhaps only the spiritual fragment of the Unending One might be alive. The rest had fallen victim to the tentacled whale's formidable digestion capabilities.

Without an active personality, Ves couldn't do much with the fragment. There was no way to bargain with something that was unresponsive to communication.

That invalidated some of his methods.

As Ves continued to wrangle with the remnant, he eventually gave up. There was no way for him to extract any information out of it. The spiritual makeup of the fragment was indecipherable to him and it was missing a lot of parts because it had ended up in the Unending One's stomach.

He crossed out more and more options until he was only left with a couple.

"Aside from some nebulous future applications, I'm better off using it as an ingredient."

He thought back on his mostly-complete Crystal Lord Mark II design. Gloriana and her erudites had made good work on it. He just needed to round out its spiritual design by addressing something he had neglected for a long time.

"The design spirit of the original Crystal Lord is too weak."

The crystal golem represented his foray into creating powerful design spirits. It was rough, incomplete and did not possess enough growth potential.

"What a flawed product." He muttered as he briefly came into touch with the weak spirit.

The ingredients were bad and his methods were too rough. He possessed very little insight on spiritual products back then. It was a true first-generation product that had failed to keep up with the times.

"That's okay. I can always remedy this shortcoming."

He had to make an important choice on how to proceed.

Ves mentally and spiritually weighed the crystal golem and the Blinding One and tried to decide which one he should preserve.

"I have three choices. First, I can feed the crystal golem to the Blinding One. Second, I can do the opposite. Third, I can break them both and mash them together in order to produce a brand-new design spirit that takes after the two."

None of the choices sounded appealing to him. He had to give up something no matter what he chose.

The first one was the most promising but also the most heartless option. From a utilitarian point of view, it made a lot of sense. He essentially sacrificed a defective but loyal design spirit in order to return the Blinding One back to life, if only partially.

While the Blinding One also happened to be a dangerous and evil entity, Ves believed he could derive a lot of benefits from the revived entity!

Aside from trying to barter with the Blinding One, he also saw a lot of promise in installing it as a better design spirit of the Crystal Lord designs.

As long as the Blinding One retained a portion of its powers and techniques, he could probably elevate the performance of the Crystal Lord designs in many interesting ways!

Though all of these potential benefits sounded worthwhile to Ves, he struggled to commit with it. Whenever he looked at the pitiful crystal golem, he could not bring himself to betray one of his earliest actual design spirits.

"That's not who I am, I think." He sighed. "It's not who I want to be. I need to stick to my principles for once."

He always tried to be generous to those who trusted or helped him. Screwing over the crystal golem was a deeply dishonorable act.

In comparison to the first option, he felt much less hesitance about the second option. He felt no guilt over purifying and breaking apart the fragment of the Blinding One before subsequently trying to merge the pieces with the crystal golem.

There were two problems with this course of action. Feeding the remnants of a powerful entity to a weaker entity was very inefficient. The crystal golem probably wouldn't be able to handle most of the power.

"There's going to be a lot of waste." Ves frowned.

The other problem was that Ves had never done anything like this before. He would have to develop a new method of integrating the dead pieces of one fragment with a living entity without putting the latter at risk.

This was why the third option was the most practical one. If he disregarded the identities of both fragments and just broke them apart, he could merge the shards back together to form a fresh new spiritual product without any of the baggage that plagued the two fragments. The new luminar-based design spirit would probably lack the ignorance of the crystal golem and the grudges of the Blinding One.

Yet this elegant solution also entailed screwing over the crystal golem.

Though Ves deeply wanted to step up to something better, he couldn't treat his own child like a worn pair of shoes.

Perhaps certain conceited men would not hesitate to upgrade from their current wives to better ones when they became more successful in life.

Ves could never accept such horrid behavior.

He felt no qualms about discarding regular products if they no longer fulfilled the job. He could not do so to his own design spirits. His design philosophy strongly opposed it, and that was enough for Ves to make up his mind.

"I guess I only had one option from the start." He sighed.

The temptation of reviving or making better use of the spiritual fragment of the Blinding One no longer twisted his thoughts.

The potential gains were considerable, but it was not worth the price of betraying one of the principles he really believed in. He deeply despised unwarranted treachery. Trust was something precious to him. How would he be able to maintain a friendly relationship with his other design spirits when they found out that Ves butchered one of their peers?

"Well, I shouldn't delay any further. The Crystal Lord Mark II has waited too long for this upgrade."

He felt much better now that he decided to keep the crystal golem alive. Without noticing it, he entered into a peculiar state of mind that was filled with optimism.

Of the plethora of spiritual techniques he developed, none of them revolved around upgrading an existing spiritual entity by sacrificing another one. The only times he merged different ingredients together was when he shattered them first.

Yet despite having to consider doing something new and unprecedented, Ves did not shy away from the challenge.

He had at least some reasons to feel optimistic. For example, the two ingredients both shared the same root.

"It's just that the Blinding One is much more complex than the crystal golem. I should take care of that."

Ves began to concentrate his mind to the point where he was able to form a strong and sharp spiritual blade.

He proceeded to separate all of the energy with undesirable attributes. He removed everything that felt evil or irrelevant from the main fragment.

Normally, he would throw away the trash, but this time he made sure to preserve it. No matter how much the attributes repelled him, energy was energy.

Since Ves had plenty of practice with this procedure, he skillfully purified the fragment of the Blinding One until it sparkled.

"That's better." He smiled as he evaluated his work.

Compared to before, the dead fragment lost a lot of energy. It no longer matched his impression of a dark god.

Aside from preserving its strong light and crystal attributes, he also retained most of its alien characteristics. This was a conscious choice on his part as the Crystal Lord designs were distinctly luminar in appearance and character.

"Now, I need to fuse this purified fragment into the crystal golem. Let's pull it up to the same level as my other design spirits!"

Acting on a hunch, Ves straightforwardly shattered the purified fragment of the Blinded One!

As Ves gained a lot of shards, Ves wrapped them up with some of his spiritual energy before pressing them onto the crystal golem!

"Come on! Fuse!"

What he was doing didn't make sense. It was like taking a steak and pressing it against his skin!

Chapter 2442: The Yearning of the Luminar Race

Initially, nothing happened aside from eliciting a weak rejection reaction from the crystal golem.

Ves was not discouraged. He kept pressing the shards of the Blinding One against the crystal golem as if he expected them to fuse.

Perhaps it was silly for him to think so. Forcing the crystal golem to absorb the shards of the Blinding one could be considered cannibalism.

He did not see it that way. As far as he was concerned, the crystal golem should feel grateful that he was willing to improve its strength!

undefined"Come on. Eat already! It's your brother. Doesn't he taste yummy?"

Unfortunately, just because he wanted something to happen didn't mean he was able to get his way. The crystal golem kept repelling the shards to keep them out. Even if the design spirit stopped resisting, there was little reason for his body to absorb the shards.

"I may have overlooked an essential step."

He frowned and halted his current action. He tried to figure out a way to initiate a fusion process.

"I need to create an opening, but I can't allow the crystal golem to die. How can I do that?"

Clearly, pressing a steak against his skin didn't work. How was he supposed to absorb it, then?

"By eating it, of course!"

The problem was that the crystal golem did not possess any innate devouring capabilities. Its existence did not revolve around preying on other spiritual entities in order to fuel its growth.

"Maybe I can change that!"

If the crystal golem didn't take the initiative to open itself up, then Ves would just have to create the openings himself!

Ves split his concentration in order to form another spiritual blade. As soon as it finished forming, he drove the knife to the crystal golem and began to cut a small opening!

The crystal golem convulsed! Pain and confusion radiated from the design spirit as Ves made some additional cuts.

"I know it hurts, but I'm doing this for your own good! Just endure it. Once I'm finished, you'll feel much better in the end!"

Once he made enough cuts, he dissipated his blade and began to shove the shards into the open wounds.

The crystal golem convulsed even harder as Ves kept shoving foreign shards into the wounds before they had time to close!

It didn't take long for Ves to complete this step. Once he inserted all of the shards, he made sure to embed some of his spiritual energy into the shards in order to encourage them to fuse with the body of the crystal golem.

"Come on. Don't reject my gift! You've been with me for so long. Have I ever mistreated you? This is your golden opportunity to transform yourself and become a fully-fledged design spirit."

Ves continued to coax the crystal golem. While the spiritual entity instinctively wanted to push away the intrusions, some changes took place.

"Yes! That's the spirit! See? The shards aren't as foreign as you think!"

The crystal golem tentatively began to absorb the shards. Ves grinned as he confirmed the viability of this new method. While it was incredibly crude, he had no reason to complain as long as it worked!

Even so, Ves still remained on guard. The most dangerous aspect about this new and unknown fusion process was that the crystal golem wasn't able to stomach something as potent as the remains of the Blinding One.

He also feared that the differences between the two might elicit some sort of rejection reaction.

He just hoped that the two were similar enough to accept each other. He imparted ten percent of his spiritual energy reserves to facilitate the merger process.

The move worked.

As Ves carefully observed the gradual fusion process, he noted that his spiritual energy accelerated and eased the fusions.

Though the crystal golem exhibited more and more strain, Ves kept encouraging it with his words.

"Keep going. I know it hurts, but it will definitely pay off if you persist. Just think about it. Do you want to grow as powerful as the Blinding One? Then absorb his remains and turn his strength into your own! A bright future awaits!"

Numerous profound changes took place inside the crystal golem. The design spirit's entire spiritual composition experienced drastic shifts as the essence of the Blinding One sought to find a new home.

While Ves feared that the crystal golem wouldn't be able to persist, its determination was surprisingly strong.

The crystal golem yearned for strength. This was something that the design spirit inherited from the original luminar leader.

For a moment, Ves gained a vague connection to the crystal golem.

He could sense the inherent sense of inferiority of the luminar race.

When the luminar race was at its prime, the crystal builders experienced constant suppression from the other alien races.

The root of all of this bullying was their small physical size. Unlike most successful alien races in the galaxy, the luminars only grew to the size of a human finger. Though their civilization made incredible advances in the manipulation of light, energy, crystals and space, their tiny sizes earned them remarkably little respect when the dominant alien races literally towered over them!

Unless the luminars were willing to abandon their biological origins, their race would always experience suppression!

The luminar society became split.

As the race stubbornly sought to carve a place in the galaxy in the distant past, most luminars believed that they could eventually earn the respect of other aliens by advancing their technology.

In fact, the most ardent advocates of this approach believed they might even surpass and rule over the other alien races one day!

Ves felt very much in tune with this mindset. As a mech designer, he constantly worked to improve his mechs and make better ones every day. The charm of technology was that there was always a way to improve it. Progress never ended.

Yet not every luminar believed that relying on technology was sufficient.

A smaller faction of Luminars developed a different belief. Relying on crystals and crystal-based machines alone was not going to cut it. Many of the powerful alien races that dominated the galaxy did not solely rely on their intellect and mastery of technology to maintain their superiority.

They relied on the innate strengths of their physical bodies as well!

Having evolved from planets rich with powerful exotic deposits, these aliens grew larger and developed powerful abilities by leveraging the potent materials they absorbed.

To the radical faction of luminars, the only way forward was to imitate their betters!

What happened next was very vague to Ves. Evidently, a huge amount of time went by as the radical faction slowly diverged from the main luminar society.

The extremists engaged in radical research that increasingly disgusted the more mainstream part of their society.

Yet despite the many setbacks the researchers suffered, they gradually succeeded.

With each passing generation, the luminars became taller and bigger.

Their bodies diverged from the baseline luminar genetic pattern as the descendents of the radical faction gained more mass.

What happened next… was unknown to Ves. He received no more information from the crystal golem.

"Damn." Ves cursed as he pulled his mind out of the illusion generated by the transforming crystal golem. "I really want to know what happened next."

While the impromptu history lesson did not teach him much, he did learn something important.

The crystal golem was aligned with the main faction of the luminar race.

The Blinding One belonged to the radical faction!

"Just as I expected! It's no wonder this dark god was so big and tall. He really went all out to make himself as big as possible!"

Every luminar yearned to grow bigger. No matter if they pursued pure technology or self-evolution, they both believed that size mattered. The bigger, the better! No exceptions!

"What a dysfunctional race of aliens." Ves concluded as the fusion process neared completion. "I wonder if their desires eventually resulted in their extinction."

At this point in the merger process, the crystal golem experienced drastic changes!

It became bigger, stronger and more intelligent with each passing second. Ves sensed a lot of other profound changes that he didn't fully understand.

Yet no matter what was happening, Ves became increasingly more convinced that the transformation would succeed!

His intuition and his sensitivity towards life both pointed out that the transforming spiritual entity had succeeded in absorbing the shards. The crystal golem was truly inheriting some of the Blinding One's strengths!

Due to the incredible difference this made, the entire character and feel of the crystal golem changed enormously. Ves even felt that it was losing a part of its original identity.

Change was inevitable. After absorbing so many powerful shards, the crystal golem experienced a great transformation.

When the process finally ended, a small but powerful spiritual shockwave emanated from the evolved design spirit!

A blast of imperceptible light and energy washed over Ves!

With his spiritual strength, he easily blocked the energy wave. The radial blast spread and affected the rest of the Scarlet Rose, momentarily shocking everybody aboard the ship.

"Meow!"

Lucky jumped from the desk and stared vigilantly at Ves.

"Calm down! It's fine! The Blinding One isn't back!"

Someone else emerged instead. The transformed design spirit was undeniably the crystal golem, but he looked much different to his senses.

A plethora of light radiated from his larger form. The crystal golem had grown at least ten times larger. Part of it was because of the infusion of an abundant amount of energy, but Ves suspected there was more to it. Whatever the case, the improved design spirit was anything but weak!

"How are you? Are you still in control of yourself?"

The altered design spirit had become a lot more intelligent and responsive. The radiant entity nodded his head and communicated both gratitude and optimism.

"Good! I told you it would work! Let's celebrate your successful transformation by giving you a new name! I used to call you the crystal golem because you weren't very lively. That's not the case anymore. Now that you have inherited the power of the Blinding One, you have the potential to become just as powerful. From this day onwards, you shall be known as the Illustrious One!"

The moment Ves renamed the crystal golem, a shiver of excitement ran through the spiritual entity. The rainbow lights radiating off his form varied at a greater and greater frequency!

Ves relaxed his mind and let the Illustrious One celebrate his evolution by himself. The dazzling lights that his body released was disorienting.

Even though Ves paid the modest price of ten percent of his spiritual energy, he still had some reserves to spare, however meager they may be. This comparatively small loss did not impair him too much.

The price was worth it! Ves may not have created a new spiritual product as remarkable as the Superior Mother or Lufa, but it did not cost him too much to transform the crystal golem into the Illustrious One!

"I hope you succeed in realizing the ambitions of your predecessors one day." He sincerely wished.

Despite the fact that humans shouldn't sympathise with aliens, his close connection to the Illustrious One made it difficult for him to remain unmoved.

"This is why I love my work."

Compared to developing a crude but effective method of upgrading his existing design spirits, finalizing the Crystal Lord Mark II hardly took any effort.

Ves wasn't really sure what the Illustrious One was capable of, but the Crystal Lords would definitely gain a powerful blessing.

For this reason, Ves did not feel any need to add too many extra abilities to the Crystal Lord Mark II. He just added a single triggered ability called Final Light.

Unlike the other triggered abilities, Final Light only activated under very specific circumstances.

As its name suggested, it was a measure of final resort. Even Ves didn't know what would happen if the mech pilot triggered the conditions to activate this hidden ability!

Chapter 2443: Luminar Synergy

The creation of the Illustrious One did not go unnoticed.

Throughout the Komodo Star Sector, owners and users of the original Crystal Lord suddenly found their old mechs changing in unexpected ways.

While the Crystal Lords always possessed a glow, it had always been fairly weak. Only the mech pilots themselves experienced the differences.

All of that changed when the crystal golem morphed into the Illustrious One!

undefinedAs his name suggested, the Illustrious One inherited much of the potential of the Blinding One. While that didn't immediately translate to increased ability, the integration of the fused elements would only deepen over time. Ves looked forward to what abilities he might wield at that time.

For now, the Illustrious One just gained a massive boost of strength through unorthodox means. It was a given that his condition was not stable. The uncontrolled rainbow lights radiating off his sparkling form was a symptom of his lack of control!

The effect immediately altered the hundreds of thousands of Crystal Lord mechs the LMC sold of its customers over the years!

As Ves' second original mech design, the Crystal Lord was an aging lastgen mech model. It never reached the critical success of the Desolate Soldier and Doom Guard model, but it was already a profitable offering by itself. It's luminar crystal-based laser rifle was slightly ahead of its time during the rifleman mech model's release, but its performance could not keep up with the currentgen laser rifle models.

Nonetheless, its existing pilots had gotten used to the benefits of wielding a lighter, slimmer and less cumbersome weapon. As a premium mech, the Crystal Lord already performed well above typical rifleman mechs. It was no big deal for the mech to effectively keep up with its more modern counterparts.

"What is happening?" A grizzled mech sergeant wondered.

The mechs piloted by his mercenary buddies slowed down. Their unit was assigned to patrol a stretch of sandy plains on a planet that had been scoured during the Sand War.

Sensing an abnormality, the mercenary squad immediately entered into a higher state of alertness. Several light mechs roamed around in order to detect possible enemies while a knight mech protectively hovered next to the frozen Crystal Lord.

Suddenly, the mech seemed to bloom. The sergeant and his comrades immediately became affected by a glow that was suffused with an outpouring of light and ambition!

Every other Crystal Lord exhibited the same reaction! The mechs in the hands of mercenaries, security companies, secret organizations, pirates and even the Larkinsons themselves all seemed to undergo a universal evolution that made them greater than before!

Unfortunately, it didn't last. Several minutes after their owners and pilots greeted this unexpected surprise, the mechs quickly lost their new glows. The vibe of the mechs became muted to the point that it closely resembled its original level.

"What?! Is that it? Where is the glow?!"

"No! Come back!"

"What is the LMC doing? This is the second mech model that has gone out of control!"

When the Illustrious One completed its evolution, Ves stepped in to prevent the changes from affecting the Crystal Lord. Since this was the first time he tried to restore a mech's glow to its old level, Ves needed some time to fiddle out the right solution.

Many people noticed the dramatic changes before they died down!

The LMC became flooded with inquiries once again. Though the media had picked up on the story, the outrage was much less this time. The Crystal Lord wasn't as popular as the Doom Guard and the changes didn't negatively affect any customers aside from a few rare exceptions.

In fact, the owners of the Crystal Lord Mark I's demanded a return of the abortive 'free upgrade'!

Ves briefly discussed the matter with Gloriana, Raymond, Gavin and a couple of other executives in a series of conference calls.

After considering every angle, they eventually came to a consensus.

"The market needs sufficient reasons to purchase our upcoming Crystal Lord Mark II." Ves issued his final thoughts on the matter. "While we can offer either a free or paid upgrade to the customers who bought the Crystal Lord Mark I, this kind of change falls well outside of the scope of the original products. When we initially sold it, we never promised or generated the expectation that the LMC would implement incremental updates in the following years."

The projection of Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson nodded in agreement. "The LMC's business model is centered around developing new product lines and keeping them fresh by releasing updated models with significant improvements. We will only muddy this arrangement if we narrow the gap between new and old by improving the latter."

It was a pure business decision to withhold the 'upgrade' that Ves developed from the Crystal Lord Mark I. As much as Ves wanted to side with his customers and give them a reason to cherish their old mechs even more, the profiteering side of him won out this time.

The LMC may be relatively flush with cash these days, but the Larkinson Clan needed much more capital to acquire more capital ships and fund the development of its upcoming expert mechs.

To that end, Ves needed to build up as much momentum as possible for his commercial mechs.

With the incorporation of improved luminar crystals and the addition of a vastly-improved design spirit, Ves believed that the Crystal Lord Mark II had the potential to achieve the same critical acclaim as his other bestsellers!

On land, the Crystal Lord Mark II performed quite well. Its moderate armor coverage, its nimble movements and its light but very potent laser rifle promised stellar performance when paired with skilled mech pilots.

The design teams assigned to the project that led to its development had done an excellent job. Even without the constant supervision of Ves and Gloriana, the assistant mech designers such as Rina Orion did not disappoint.

Soon after Ves created the Illustrious One, the Crystal Lord Mark II Project entered its final track. New prototypes were being built to test the last round of adjustments and fixes.

The tests also served as an opportunity for the LMC to observe the effects of the Crystal Lord Mark II's improved design spirit.

Compared to the likes of the Solemn Guard or the Superior Mother, the Illustrious One did not induce a strong psychological effect on others.

It did not affect reality as blatantly as the likes of Lufa either.

Instead, the test pilots and observers noted that the glows projected by the prototype exerted a hybrid influence.

The mech pilot and any friendlies within the area of effect gained a higher affinity towards energy, directed energy weapons and crystals. While they didn't gain any concrete knowledge, their intuition and feel towards these subjects had noticeably improved. The mech pilots knew their limits and also exhibited better judgement whenever they piloted the prototype in simulated battles.

Overall, their ability to make split-second decisions in battle had improved!

Yet this wasn't all. When the glow was active, the performance of the luminar crystals inexplicably increased by five to ten percent. This was significant enough to warrant a considerable investigation.

Even Gloriana visited the testing grounds in person in order to study the effect!

No one came up with any answers aside from confirming that the strange luminar crystals were indeed sensitive towards the Crystal Lord Mark II's glow.

When Gloriana acted on a hunch and replaced the luminar crystals of a prototype with normal substitutes, the glow of the mech seemed to grow substantially dimmer.

"It turns out they compliment each other!"

No one anticipated that such a relationship existed. Not even Ves suspected that luminar crystals were so responsive to the spiritual signature of a strong luminar specimen!

"Maybe we've been misusing luminar technology all this time!" Ves guessed.

In fact, Ves believed that not even the MTA research team that delved into luminar technology anticipated this outcome!

A headache immediately formed in his mind. "Ugh. As if I don't already have enough on my plate."

Despite these oddities, the Crystal Lord Mark II prototypes performed well enough to make additional testing superfluous. Ves and Gloriana carefully studied the mech's improved performance parameters and tweaked the design of the laser rifleman mech to account for the changes.

After a final round of touch ups, the pair formally concluded the project.

In two different design labs, the Braves and Erudites both stood up and clapped their hands. The three design teams responsible for realizing Ves and Gloriana's vision basked in the honor of completing the LMC's first minor design project!

Ves proudly addressed the contributors of the finished project.

"Thank you for your efforts. Your assistance was crucial to the development of the Crystal Lord Mark II. We will mark your performance later and award you with additional Larkinson merits if your contribution is great enough. Remember, as long as you go above and beyond what is expected of you, we will always reward your efforts as long as they are helpful."

The members of the remaining design teams became more eager after hearing this announcement.

Earning more Larkinson merits was the best way to improve themselves!

As Ves studied the faces of his assistants, he noted that the Erudites exhibited a much stronger reaction than his Braves.

This was no surprise to him. Due to the fact that his Braves had all taken part in the Nyxian Gap Campaign, they were automatically entitled to receive a set of second-class augmentations.

Though Ves somewhat regretted this expensive promise, he was still determined to abide by it. No matter how much he had to delay his other procurements, he wanted to improve 'his' men so that they would quickly be able to expand their influence in the Larkinson Clan.

Obviously, the fact that the Erudites were left out did not make them happy. Intellectually, they understood that they weren't entitled to any 'hazard pay' as they did not take part in a life-threatening mission.

It did not prevent them from growing jealous.

Seeing the Braves earning some very desirable augmentations without doing anything special was infuriating! Aside from helping to implement some upgrades and modifications, the Braves had not done anything that strengthened the Larkinsons in battle.

Of course, the Eridutes could never understand the fear and desperation of the Braves during the Battle of Ulimo Citadel and the Battle against the Abyss. It took nerves of steel to remain calm during the escalating clashes!

As far as Ves was concerned, the Braves deserved this special treatment. In any case, they were his boys and girls. He selected them for their courage. In terms of pure design ability, they were not as good as their Erudite counterparts.

It was for this reason that Gloriana insisted on leveraging bonuses to provide her assistants with an alternate means to earn rewards. After all, as better mech designers, the Erudites should be able to harvest a lot more bonuses.

The smartest and most capable Eridutes should be able to climb up by themselves. Those who weren't good enough to earn any bonuses deserved no attention from Gloriana. She was quite fair and transparent about her intentions.

"Alright, folks, let's not get too excited." Ves spoke after the excitement died down. "We only finished a single project. There are five more that haven't reached the finish line. Let's work hard in order to finalize the remaining mech designs before my return!"

The LMC's Design Department became more productive as ever. The Miracle Couple devoted all of their available time on the ongoing projects, thereby speeding up progress considerably!

Ves also devoted a lot of time to fleshing out the spiritual characteristics of his various mechs. He implemented retraction dials to each of them and also added them to the LMC's existing mech catalog.

Pushing out this 'update' was very easy. Many customers had been asking for this function for a long time, so when the LMC officially released these minor updates, millions of existing LMC mechs soon gained the same ability!

Chapter 2444: Completing Projects

The Wodin Warriors detachment under the command of Colonel Alexandria Wodin continued to escort the remnants of Task Force Predator.

As the combined fleet exited Maynard Fields and entered the much sparser Wreckage Paradise, no pirates dared linger in the vicinity.

The aggressive Wodin Warrior patrol mechs accurately sniped any pirate mech that attempted to scout the combined fleet.

With their superior sensor, targeting and weapon systems, the Hexer mechs severely outmatched any pirate mech by a huge margin!

undefinedUnless a major faction similar to the Allidus Alliance stepped forward, the paltry pirate groups based in Wreckage Paradise stood no chance of winning against the Wodin Warriors!

Even if they all pooled up their mechs and mustered up their prohibited superweapons, there was no doubt the audacious pirates would suffer crippling losses. While pirates weren't known for their intelligence, they were some of the shrewdest people in the galaxy when it came to judging the profitability of a potential raid.

The pirates would have to be idiots if they decided to attack the powerful Hexer fleet head-on! The significant commitment by the Wodin Dynasty succeeded in preventing a lot of unnecessary trouble.

No troublemakers rose up and attempted to bar their path. They did not even waste their time on setting up traps and mines that the powerful Hexer scanners could easily detect from a distance.

In fact, many of the local pirate gangs instead converged on the previous battle site.

While the survivors of Task Force Predator captured the most valuable pirate ships and swept up the most valuable salvage, plenty of untold valuables were still floating and spinning through the battlefield!

Scuffles and skirmishes had already erupted in the battlefield the Larkinsons had left behind. Unruly and greedy pirate gangs fought among themselves to claim the most valuable pieces of trash. Additional pirate groups were also heading over, ensuring that the area would doubtlessly be showered with more debris!

Throughout all of this chaos, any notion of 'punishing the Larkinson Clan' or 'defending the pride of the Nyxian Gap' had disappeared.

The tentative unity that held the pirates together had collapsed the moment one of the strongest pirate factions paid the price for taking the initiative!

With bloodthirsty rivals like the Krella Alliance invading the territories of the loser, it was only a matter of time before the Allidus Alliance collapsed!

Meanwhile, the mysterious Hallowed Abyss Temple fell silent. Its shrines closed their doors and its main temple rejected every visitor.

Seeing that the Nyxian pirates no longer possessed any appetite to fight the Larkinsons, Ves let go of his concerns and continued to devote himself to completing his design projects.

Over the course of a couple of weeks, several more design projects reached completion.

Ves focused on finalizing the Sanctuary design after he completed the Crystal Lord Mark II.

As an offensive space knight, the Sanctuary did not possess a lot of complexity. The biggest challenges the design teams faced was trying to hit the right sweet spots. This was a purely technical challenge that didn't require Ves' intervention.

He mostly spent his time on expanding and fine tuning the ruleset that governed the behavior of its glow. The Sanctuary possessed the ability to neutralize or suppress every glow other than its own. Such a mech had the potential to wreak a lot of havoc if it was left to achieve this effect indiscriminately.

Aside from perfecting the rules he formed beforehand, he also added some additional instructions for future-proofing reasons.

For example, the Sanctuaries shouldn't be allowed to suppress the glows of any expert LMC mechs. No matter whether they were piloted by Larkinsons or clients, the expert mechs designed by Ves should not be so easily suppressed.

"I don't even know if it makes a difference." Ves muttered. "Expert pilots mainly rely on resonance. The influence of glows on their strong wills should be minimal to non-existent."

He sneakily added another rule to the Sanctuary's glow. When piloted by a Larkinson mech pilot, the Sanctuary invalidated almost all of the rules and restrictions that Ves had set. This meant that the third-class mech could negate the glow of every mech by non-Larkinsons!

Theoretically, this meant that a single Sanctuary had the potential to neutralize the glow of a first-class multipurpose mech!

"This is silly. I haven't even designed such an extravagant mech yet." Ves shook his head. "Even if I did, the first-class mech possesses so much power that it can easily wipe out entire armies of Sanctuary mechs!"

Nonetheless, the principle remained. The Larkinsons weren't obligated to play by the same rules as everybody else. This was his prerogative as a mech designer and a Larkinson. His customers were welcome to lodge a complaint with the LMC, not that it would have make any difference.

"Don't like it? Then don't buy my products!"

He didn't want any business from anyone who thought about using his own products to fight the Larkinson Clan. He would gladly wipe out anyone who was stupid enough to do so. Let's see them issue any complaints after that!

The final prototype phase proceeded smoothly as expected. With Lufa presiding over the mech design, the Larkinsons even managed to test how its neutralizing glow performed against the glows of other mechs.

In general, the newer LMC mech models fared better than the older ones. The strength of the design spirit also played a significant role. The stronger the design spirit, the more effort the Sanctuary had to exert in order to negate its influence.

In practice, the Sanctuary was able to invalidate almost every glow. If one was not enough, then two might do the job.

This indirectly meant that anyone wishing to leverage the glows of LMC mechs would have to field more of them in order to ensure their effects remained active!

The side that wanted to make use of Sanctuaries would therefore have to bring even more copies in order to succeed.

No matter what, the LMC ultimately benefited by selling more mechs!

"Hahaha!" Ves laughed as he looked forward to seeing this chain of events play out. "Since my counter is more effective than others, I'll definitely be able to displace most of my competitors!"

He was slightly careful in his expectations. While he possessed a lot of confidence in his Sanctuary design, he knew that the Masters of the Friday Coalition still hadn't revealed their full ability.

Even so, despite all of the rules that restricted the Sanctuary's effectiveness, it was probably the most effective counter to glows in the private market. Every other counter developed by others so far were either costly or difficult to implement.

Compared to an unwieldy counter such as the Glow Crusher, the Sanctuary possessed an undeniable advantage.

It did not have to do anything to charge up its effects. Its glow was constantly active, and also took effect in a wide radius around the mech.

Such a convenient effect was by far the most convenient alternative out of all the counters currently in existence!

The Larkinsons attempted to keep the test results and the existence of the Sanctuary close to their test. Just as with the Crystal Lord Mark II, Ves and Gloriana did not believe the time was right to publish this extraordinary new mech design.

"We should wait until our rivals and competitors have wasted even more time on designing their counters." Gloriana vindictively suggested.

Ves agreed with her decision. "The demand for counters from the private sector isn't high enough yet. Our mechs are still making their way into the hands of customers throughout the neighboring star sectors. Once more people have suffered at the hands of our products, demand will definitely soar."

When someone's house was on fire, their demand for firefighting services multiplied by at least a million times.

To most people, their houses were just starting to smoke. It still took some time for a proper blaze to form. Publishing the other mech designs such as the Crystal Lord Mark II first would definitely fan the flames!

As the arsonists, Ves and Gloriana eagerly directed their attention to the remaining four mech design projects.

With the Crystal Lord Mark II and the Sanctuary out of the way, Ves concentrated on the next low-hanging fruit.

The Chiron long attracted his fascination. While its actual performance was far worse than any of his other mechs, its durability and longevity was exceptional in relation to its budget.

As a training mech designed to produce the next generations of Larkinson mech pilots, Ves went all out. His spiritual engineering had advanced considerably since he initially conceived of the mech design.

With several new innovations under his belt, he discovered that several problems that used to stump him in the past no longer hindered him as much. As long as he wanted to accomplish something, he more or less found a way to do so after a bit of thought.

While Gloriana quietly worked to refine its complex, self-adjusting limbs, Ves proceeded to mold the Chiron's spiritual foundation.

He added several new functions and enhanced its existing abilities that it derived from the Golden Cat.

Ves held the Larkinson Mandate in his hands as he openly altered the Chiron's spiritual design in front of the Golden Cat.

"Watch closely, Goldie. The future stars of the Larkinson Clan will definitely pass through this mech before they rise. I need your cooperation in order to maximize the Chiron's results."

Nyaaaa.

The Golden Cat still hadn't fully recovered from the time when Venerable Joshua summoned her energy projection to do battle against the dark gods.

Even with the power of Unity of Man and Machine at their side, the expert pilot and the ancestral spirit failed to overpower their opponents.

Together with all of the losses the task force suffered, Goldie still hadn't recovered her old cheer.

"Come on. Don't feel so glum. We survived, didn't we? The Larkinsons who sacrificed themselves for us wouldn't want us to feel depressed all the time. We should cherish our lives."

Nyaa. Nyaaa.

Though Ves failed to cheer her up, she at least became more invested in the Chiron. To her, the training mech would make the Larkinson Clan stronger in the long run. With superior mech pilots that possessed greater foundations than the older generations, Goldie wouldn't have to experience the sensation of losing contact with thousands of Larkinsons at once!

As Ves worked on the Chiron with occasional input from Goldie, the training mech finally distinguished itself from the pack.

The mech channeled its design spirit in a more targeted fashion. Ves theorized that his implementation produced several positive effects.

The mech constantly reinforced the loyalty of its pilots towards the Larkinson Clan. The Larkinson Network already did an adequate job of that, but Ves believed it was very important that the mech pilots of the clan remained committed!

The Chiron also fostered greater trust in the mech cadet's fellow classmates and other Larkinsons. Hopefully, this resulted in greater and more sophisticated teamwork among the mech pilots.

The Chiron also served as a channel for the Golden Cat to pass on some of the more difficult-to-learn insights and instincts. Goldie was connected to every mech pilot in the clan, so she should theoretically be able to propagate what made them strong to the mech cadets.

Ves was still a bit unsure whether this function actually worked. He had a good feeling he nailed it this time.

As long as this spiritual knowledge sharing function came into effect, the mech cadets might also be able to derive other benefits. Perhaps any aspiring mech pilot who struggled to learn how to pilot a new mech type might suddenly gain some help from the Chiron.

"Whatever the case, in time, every Larkinson mech pilot should be shaped by their experiences with the Chiron!"

This was very important to Ves. The Chiron served as an essential channel for him to mold the mindset and ability of the soldiers of his clan. The mech was an excellent way for him to instill honor, loyalty, kinship and other desirable traits!

Chapter 2445: Yandra Blocker

Ves felt better and better as he completed his stalled mech design projects. While the minor design projects didn't provide him with as much satisfaction as completing his prior projects, he still felt his design seed churning at the visible progress he made.

The Crystal Lord Mark II, the Sanctuary and the Chiron each contained several new innovative features that Ves had not implemented before!

This made his design seed very happy. His design philosophy advanced considerably faster after just a few months in the Nyxian Gap than several years in civilized space!

"Of course, I'm not stupid enough to stay." He muttered to himself.

undefinedHe had gained a lot of progress but suffered progressively worse losses further into his journey.

The deaths of 60 percent of Task Force Predator's mech pilots dealt a heavy blow to him. Losing Nyxie, his Grand Dynamo and the high-grade serum all at once permanently hampered his ability to create spiritual products.

Nonetheless, Ves would gladly trade away these external enhancements to improve his core abilities. The knowledge he gained, the extraordinary events he witnessed and the battles he experienced all enriched him as a mech designer.

To him, it wasn't enough to design mechs from the comfort of a lab before proceeding to see them in action from a remote location.

He would rather experience his mechs up close! Not just him, but also his Braves gained a greater understanding of mechs. They learned what aspects mattered and what kinds of mistakes to avoid. They saw for themselves which theories held up in an actual battle and which myths turned out to be untrue.

Mech designers didn't learn these kinds of lessons as poignantly if they remained averse to battle. Ves ultimately believed that despite the inferior intellectual capabilities of his Braves, the mechs they designed on their own should definitely be more practical than the fancy products developed by the Eridutes!

"If the two of them work together and contribute their own strengths to the mech design, then that's even better!"

This relationship pretty much applied to the Miracle Couple as well. Ves never expected Gloriana to follow him on every adventure. In fact, he didn't want to subject her to any risk at all. She had no need to sharpen her superior technical design prowess by pursuing extremes.

Any shortcomings she might have for being a relatively sheltered mech designer shouldn't impact their collaborative mech designs as long as Ves compensated for this weakness. This was just one of the many benefits that their synergistic relationship produced.

The prospect of marrying Gloriana made Ves feel both excited and apprehensive.

"That reminds me, I should complete our wedding bands before I return."

He developed several new interesting ideas to make them special, but he wanted to wait for the right time before he made them. He wasn't entirely confident he could pull off what he wanted. He wanted to flex his spiritual abilities a little bit more before he tackled this small but crucially important project.

After all, if his mech design projects failed, he would only lose a lot of potential income.

If he botched the wedding bands, then Gloriana would definitely grow furious with him, and that was an outcome that Ves had to avoid at all costs!

"Well, I'm definitely on track to return in time for the wedding, so I don't have to worry about that anymore."

The pirates were nowhere to be seen as any scum that haunted the route taken by the Wodin Warriors had already gone on an extended vacation.

The Hexers weren't vegetables!

Bored with the lack of activity, Colonel Alexandria Wodin granted her mech pilots permission to form hunting packs that ranged further ahead from the fleet.

Typically gone for at least half a day, these roving Hexer mechs eagerly tracked down any presence of nearby pirates and ruthlessly blew up their mechs and ships regardless of their threat level!

Once this happened, a very broad corridor formed within Wreckage Paradise. No sane pirate gang wanted to be anywhere near this corridor until the Larkinsons and Wodin Warriors had finally left their space!

In the meantime, Ves took a brief break from his design marathon to perform some of his other responsibilities. He spent some time tutoring his two students before turning his attention to Ketis.

His first student had not been idle in the past few weeks. After significantly revising and refining some of her personal designs, she quietly completed her first original work.

Now, she drew on the stockpile of salvage and materials of the fleet to fabricate her work in person.

Since this was such a pivotal moment for her development, Ves had to be there.

As he entered the mech workshop of the Scarlet Rose, he remained quiet as he calmly studied the mech she was assembling.

He frowned a bit as he recognized what mech she chose to produce first. The large and thick mech lacked some of the nimbleness of more classical swordsman mechs.

Oriented towards defense, Ketis' first work stood out for its default armament. Two thick and broad swords that were not too long were already placed to the side. Their sharp edges gleamed in the light. While Ves did not have to employ much imagination to conclude the heavy swords were capable of slicing through a lot of armor, he was still skeptical whether the entire mech concept worked in practice.

Still, this was what she chose. Whether she was right or wrong, she would gain something from the experience regardless.

As soon as Ketis put the final piece of the puzzle together, she paused.

An unprecedented feeling swept over her. The satisfaction of completing her first actual mech was indescribable!

Ves understood what she was going through and did not disturb her. Several minutes went by as his student continued to embrace the distinct sense of euphoria that greeted any creator when they completed a significant work.

Now, several years after she initially came under his wing, Ketis finally joined the club of mech designers who succeeded in designing their first original mech design!

Once she came off her high, Ves slowly approached until he reached her side. "Do you know what it's like, now?"

"I do. I.. no wonder you insisted that I complete my mech designs. I'm grateful now that I've finally finished what I started. My Yandra Blocker design is so much more real now that I finished this beautiful mech."

"Is that what you've decided to call your first product?"

"Yandra is the name of one of our fallen Sisters." Ketis quietly responded. "She would have loved to pilot this mech. I designed it in her honor."

The mech held greater sentimental value to her than he thought. Ves did not comment on it. Just like her, he always put more effort into his work whenever it got personal to him. This was how passionate mech designers produced some of their greatest works.

"Well, now that you've finally made your first mech, why not take it out for a spin?"

"Uhm, sure. I already contacted someone from the Swordmaidens to pilot my first official work."

"Did you perform any prototype testing?"

"I skipped that step."

Ves frowned. "That's irresponsible, Ketis. I can see from here that there are several problematic elements about your mech designs that will likely hamper the performance of your mech. Many of these problems should have stood out to you as long as you bothered to test at least one prototype."

"I don't intend to do anything else with this design. I just wanted to complete it in order to make progress. I want to get as much practice as possible in order to design the Monster Slayer. That will be my actual contribution to the Swordmaidens."

As Ketis showed Ves an updated version of her plans for the Monster Slayer, her first mech was being moved to the hangar bay. The two of them moved to the bay as well.

"You still plan to design the Monster Slayer as a second-class mech? That's very ambitious, Ketis. I advise you to wait and get more practice."

"I know, Ves. I already intend to finish four more mech designs in the next two months. They're similar in quality to the Yandra Blocker because they represent my early work, but I'll definitely do better after that! I can hardly hold myself back from designing the Monster Slayer in earnest. I've made sure to keep up with my studies. I'm pretty confident that I have learned much of what is necessary to design a basic second-class swordsman mech. Just don't ask me about other mech types."

Ah, he overlooked that aspect of her. She didn't need to learn as much knowledge as Ves because of her narrow specialization.

"While I can accept you made a lot of progress on that front, your Yandra Blocker design is quite crude. It shows that you still have much to go before you are truly able to translate book learning into better designs. I recommend you design at least five more third-class mechs to achieve the necessary level of practice."

"Ves! That's too much! I can't wait that long!" She whined.

"You'll thank me for it later when you finally begin to design the Monster Slayer in earnest. I can tell it's your first passion project. There is so much at stake that it is truly worth the wait."

"The Swordmaidens can't wait that long! My sisters are long overdue replacements for their old mechs. The sooner they obtain their new mechs, the sooner they can catch up to the Penitent Sisters."

Ves turned to Ketis and looked at her in the eyes. "If you truly can't wait, then consider turning the Monster Slayer into a collaboration project. As long as you advance to Journeyman, you're qualified to work with Gloriana and I as equals. In fact, we'll even let you take the lead since the project is your brainchild after all. Does that sound better?"

She struggled with the decision.

Collaborating with the famed Miracle Couple ensured that the performance of the Monster Slayer would definitely be up to standard. This was very important because the Swordmaidens could use all of the help they could get from their machines.

The stronger the mechs, the stronger the Swordmaidens.

This reason alone pushed her close to accepting Ves' offer.

Yet another, more ambitious part of her wanted to design the Monster Slayer by herself. Neither Ves nor Gloriana had fought across the interior of Ulimo Citadel. The two Journeymen simply couldn't understand what she experienced when she dueled the mutated Grey Watcher in single combat.

As long as she remained in full control over the Monster Slayer design, she had room to realize her complete vision no matter whether there were better alternatives available!

One of the lessons that Ves had taught to her was that developing her own solution was sometimes more important than borrowing someone else's solution.

Even if the latter was superior in every way, Ketis wouldn't have gone through the arduous process of creating her own solutions. Without this essential experience, how could she ever tackle other problems over the course of her career?

"I… have to think about it, but I'm not inclined to accept it. I'm sorry, Ves, but the Monster Slayer should truly be designed by myself."

"It's okay." Ves nodded in understanding. "Just do what you think is best. Listen to your heart, not your mind. In any case, once you've successfully completed the design by yourself, there's nothing stopping you from coming to me afterwards in order to develop a more refined variant."

Ketis clearly did not intend to sell the Monster Slayer to the market. This meant she didn't have to abide by troublesome rules. If she wanted to tweak or update the design, she could do so whenever she wanted! No troublesome bureaucrats or administrators stood in her way. This was the benefit of keeping a mech design private.

As the two chatted a bit further, the test pilot finally arrived.

"Hey, sister!" Lieutenant Sendra waved as she marched over to the pair. "So you've finally done it, Ketis. You actually made this big mech. Well, let's see how far you've come."

Chapter 2446: Life Mates

As a mech designer, Ketis followed a very unusual development trajectory. Having been raised by a pirate mech designer, the moment Ves came into her life, she gained a tremendous amount of help.

Aside from stuffing her with Attribute Candies, Ves also filled up the gaps in her knowledge due to her lack of structural learning.

What caused him to feel a bit of regret was that no matter how much he instructed her, he could not adequately replace a proper educational institution.

This caused her upbringing as a mech designer to remain crooked. Her determination to concentrate solely on designing sword-wielding mechs was not just a personal choice, but also a necessity.

undefinedIf she wanted to design something other than a swordsman mech, her shortcomings would soon become obvious.

Yet because she decisively specialized in a narrow field, those issues largely became irrelevant. Her strong dedication and passion towards her design philosophy gave her the potential to design unique swordsman mechs with traits that Ves could never possibly replicate.

The Yandra Blocker piloted by Lieutenant Sendra showcased a glimpse of the future. The large and slightly unwieldy mech performed like a hybrid between a swordsman mech and a knight mech.

When set against some practice targets, the Yandra Blocker's twin swords struck slow but hard. Their considerable mass also enabled the swords to be used as adequate shields, though their coverage was not ideal.

As a number of rifleman mechs carefully fired at the Yandra Blocker, its swords appeared to cope well against laser beams but poorly against kinetic rounds.

"One of the main flaws of this mech is that its main means of blocking damage also happens to be its only weapons." Ves noted as he studied the live footage and telemetry of the mech in action.

"It has a backup blade."

"The powerful arms necessary to wield these heavy swords aren't very fast or agile. Pairing this mech with a short sword or knife leads to a severe mismatch."

"It's better than nothing." Ketis pouted.

That was true. He should not expect too much from a third-class mech. The budget, tech and material constraints forced every mech designer to make some hard choices.

Once the test run came to an end, Lieutenant Sendra piloted the slightly beat-up Yandra Blocker back to the Scarlet Rose and emerged from the cockpit with a satisfied smile.

"Good first attempt!" She gave a thumbs up to Ketis.

"What do you think about my mech? Be honest."

"It could be better. I would say the mech is too rough for my liking. Compared to Mayra's work, your mech has a lot of minor elements that trouble me a bit. I'll tell you about them later. What I do like is that your mech comes closest to complimenting our swordsmanship style. I see the potential in your work. Keep them up, and soon you'll have every sister of ours begging to pilot your mechs!"

Ketis looked both happy and disappointed. Ves gently clapped her back.

"No one gets it completely right the first time. Just be happy that she thinks you're on the right track. That's more important than anything."

"I.. you're right. I should be happy that I've made it this far. If the Swordsmaidens like my work, then I'm definitely getting closer to achieving my goals!"

Overall, this was a happy moment for Ketis. Ves noted with satisfaction that Lieutenant Sendra spoke quite thoughtfully and took care not to damage the younger mech designer's confidence.

Now that Ketis completed her first original mech design without any serious complications, she finally gained the confidence that a mech designer ought to possess. Even if she botched her subsequent mech designs, her belief in her design ability should see her through.

Aside from spending time with Ketis, Ves also made sure to keep in touch with a number of other people.

One of the people he cared about the most was Venerable Joshua. Ves just heard that the young prodigy had just broken up with Venerable Jannzi.

Though Ves predicted that this would happen, the depression rolling off Joshua as he sat in his new cabin aboard another ship was palpable.

That changed as soon as Ves entered the compartment.

"Patriarch!" Joshua shockingly uttered and jumped to his feet. "Why are you here, sir?!"

Ves smiled. "I wanted to see how our expert pilots are doing. You look like you could use some company."

"I… I'm sorry. I'm not very presentable right now."

"That's okay. This is not a formal inspection or anything. Don't force yourself to be someone you're not. Just behave naturally. That's your prerogative as an expert pilot."

"Thank you, sir."

As the two tentatively chatted a little, Ves noticed that Venerable Joshua lacked the distinct sense of arrogance and alienation that he was used to seeing in other expert pilots.

Of the five expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan, Venerable Jannzi exhibited the most drastic shift in personality. Ves wasn't really sure why that was the cause. He remembered what she was like from the start. The current version of Jannzi was practically unrecognizable from the shy and deferential space knight specialist in the past.

In contrast, Venerable Joshua came across as friendly, casual and even intimate. He was an expressive young man, and Ves found it hard to dislike him. If not for his strong and vigorous force of will, the mech pilot would have been no different from a random person on the street.

It was as if Joshua still retained much of his humanity.

Perhaps his domain had something to do with it. Compared to the convictions of other expert pilots, Joshua dedicated himself to a much less common ideal.

He was the first expert pilot who developed a force of will that completely aligned with Ves' design philosophy.

What were the ramifications of this development? What kind of synergy could the two achieve? What miracles could they perform if they joined forces?

All of these questions and more deserved answering.

"Can you do something for me, Joshua? Please stay still while I try something out."

Ves ignored the expert pilot's confusion and concentrated his mind. He first began to 'emulate' an expert pilot's force of will by shaping his free-floating spiritual energy in a peculiar way.

With the new insights he gained from James, Ves observed how his attempt was too frail.

The root of it was because his willpower simply didn't measure up. He was only able to imitate the surface of a force of will because he relied on his abundance of spiritual energy to amplify what little willpower he truly possessed.

True expert pilots required much less leverage to empower their will. When Ves expanded his false force of will, it immediately made contact with the real deal.

"Wha!" Joshua widened his eyes as he felt something very familiar bumping into him. "Is that you, sir? Are you a mech pilot?!"

"No. I just know a few tricks. Now, please stay calm. Let's see what will happen if I do this…"

Ves pushed his false force of will into Joshua's domain. Though he felt a bit of hindrance, it did not take too much force to push through the bubble.

Surprisingly, both of them felt rather comfortable. The two's spiritual attributes and domains were very compatible and almost identical to each other.

They were not the same, though. Ves and Joshua were both different in many different ways, so it was impossible for them to develop the exact same priorities.

What Ves noted from Venerable Joshua was that the expert pilot attempted to mold his conviction as closely to the mechs he piloted as possible.

Due to differences in background, knowledge, mindset and etcetera, Joshua failed to accomplish a perfect match.

Ves did not really mind this outcome. A complete match may bring surprising benefits, but he was already happy with the extraordinarily high compatibility between Johshua and him. Their domains were similar enough that they might as well be life mates.

In fact, according to his own views on synergy, it was best if both sides brought something unique to the table.

If Ves had to describe the difference between their two domains, it was that he possessed a much deeper comprehension in how mechs were put together. His life attributes were geared towards facilitating the design and creation of mechs by infusing them with life.

What Venerable Joshua's willpower centered around was utilizing living mechs to the greatest possible degree. His force of will was especially attuned towards mechs that possessed life.

In fact, not any living mech would do. The expert pilot was so picky that he could only exert his full potential of his force of will when he piloted a mech that conformed to Ves' distinctive design style!

Could he pilot other mechs? Probably. It was just that Joshua would never want to go back to what he considered inferior goods. Only mechs designed by Ves and possibly the inheritors of his design philosophy would satisfy the discerning expert pilot.

This was a very onerous condition. It ensured that Joshua became dependent on the mechs that Ves designed for the rest of his career.

While he did not think it was wise, Ves appreciated Joshua even more because of it. This relationship ensured that Joshua would always remain loyal. The thought of betraying Ves would never come up, as doing so was anathema to his obsession!

This was the only unreasonable part about Joshua. After conducting a number of other spiritual experiments, Ves gained a preliminary understanding of the expert pilot's other possible traits.

Attributes related to cooperation and symbiosis not only enhanced Joshua's ability to meld with living mechs, but also made it remarkably easy for him to get along with other people.

The attributes related to growth meant that Joshua was able to improve any living mech just by piloting them on a regular basis. He was probably the most desirable mech pilot that any living mech could yearn for! Perhaps when he grew stronger, he might even be able to help a mech surpass its limits!

Aside from these amazing advantages, Joshua possessed some other helpful life attributes. For example, during his first breakthrough, Joshua was able to force a mech to repair some of its damage through resonance.

This regeneration attribute was extremely desirable!

There were plenty of exotics such as Rorach's Bone that could add self-repair capabilities to a mech. Venerable Foster's Belisarius came to mind. If Joshua piloted something similar, then the boost he could provide to those self-repair capabilities would ensure that his mech was able to endure a lot more punishment!

This was an essential advantage as far as Ves was concerned. Keeping Joshua alive was much easier if his mech made it through to the end of a battle.

Once he completed his examinations, Ves loosened his mind and withdrew his presence. "Alright, I think I have a good idea of what you are good at as an expert pilot. Let's proceed to the next item on my agenda. Tell me, what kind of expert mech would you like to pilot?"

"Are you about to design my expert mech?!" Joshua immediately became excited.

His force of will pulsed with anticipation!

Ves held up his hand. "Not so fast, Venerable Joshua! It will take a lot of time to design your expert mech from scratch. I'm just here to listen to your initial demands so that I can get a sense of what mech type and traits I should focus on. You possess a broad skillset that makes you suitable for many different mech types. A single expert mech can't possibly encompass everything, so you'll need to make some important choices."

The only exception to the rule was if he had the opportunity to design a first-class multipurpose mech. A qualified mech designer was able to stuff so many modules and functions in them that they could essentially have their cake and eat it too. Many first-class mech designers in fact did attempt to cover all of their bases. This spared them from the hard decisions that lesser mech designers had to make on a daily basis.

Perhaps one day, Ves might reach that level.

Chapter 2447: Expanding Pool

When Ves encouraged Venerable Joshua to think about what he wanted from his first expert mech, the cabin fell silent for a time.

Though expert pilots were usually decisive, a matter as important as this required very careful thought.

It didn't help that the young expert pilot possessed the unusual luxury of having too much choice. Due to his obsessive desire to pilot as many LMC mechs as possible, Joshua forced himself to become good at piloting many different mech types.

Whether it was ranged mechs or melee mechs, spaceborn mechs or landbound mechs, if Ves designed something, then Joshua was able to pilot them. Only a small number of exclusive mechs such as the Kinslayer and the Devil Tiger were missing in his collection.

undefinedHopefully, Joshua wouldn't come up to him one day and request to pilot the Blessed Squire or the Valkyrie Redeemer!

The expert pilot finally made some decisions. "I think.. I'd like to pilot a mech that is equally capable at range and up close. I'm used to piloting medium mechs, and I hope the mech is useful in space and land battles."

His first demand was a bit problematic, but Ves didn't have much issue with the second demand.

"Second-class mechs can easily be designed to function well enough in multiple environments. In most cases, this means designing a mech that performs best in space and decently in the air. If the mech is forced to fight on solid ground, then it will probably lose a considerable advantage. This is the typical tradeoff of flexible mechs."

"Ah, will my expert mech be a third-class or second-class machine?"

"The latter." Ves quickly answered. "There's little point in pairing you up with a lesser expert mech. A regular squad of Penitent Sister mechs could probably beat you black and blue if that was the case. Our clan has already grown powerful enough that we are able to disregard most third-class threats. The enemies we truly have to worry about possess second-class backgrounds. Your expert mech will have to be strong enough to fight off their champions."

"That makes sense. Aren't they expensive and difficult to build?"

"Let me worry about those matters. Don't hold back on your demands. If you want something, just ask for it. I'll tell you whether it is viable enough to add it to the list."

"I understand. Then.. if it's possible, can you design a hero mech for me? I have long admired your Transcendent Messenger. If you can design something better, then I would gladly pilot it for many years!"

Ves blinked. Though a hero mech truly sounded like a good match for a versatile mech pilot such as Joshua, it was also a controversial mech type to say the least.

However, hero mechs weren't as impractical in Joshua's case.

First, Joshua already developed many of the necessary skills to pilot such a difficult mech type.

Second, second-class mechs possessed a lot more capacity than lesser mechs.

Third, expert pilots picked up skills very quickly, so they never experienced any problems with piloting hero mechs.

His case was similar to that of Venerable Foster. Now that Ves thought about it, the parallels were a bit disturbing. He even thought about incorporating Rorach's Bone or something similar to Joshua's expert mech!

Ves hesitated a bit. "Hero mechs are strong because they are versatile. They are all-rounders that can fight adequately in most situations, but the downside is that they might not be able to match up against more specialized mechs. This rule applies to both standard mechs and expert mechs. In practical terms, this will put you at a constant disadvantage in duels against your peers."

"I can deal with that." Joshua confidently smiled. "I believe in your work. My expert mech will be better than the machines of my opponents. Besides, with the versatility of an expert mech, I don't have to play by their rules. I can rush in and attack up close if my enemy is a pure ranged specialist. If I'm squaring off against a melee champion, I'll just do my best to maintain my distance."

Since the young expert pilot had made up his mind, Ves accepted the decision.

"Okay, I'll note down this wish of yours. I have already designed a hero mech so I am pretty confident I can design a more advanced one. Now, do you have other demands?"

The expert pilot thought for a moment. "It has to deal a lot of damage. Expert mechs are difficult to damage. I need enough punch so that I don't end up like Tusa when he fought the big bird."

"Okay, so offensive power is your greatest priority."

"Oh, don't forget about defense! While I'm confident in my evasion abilities, I can fight a lot better if I can trade hits every now and then. I wouldn't have been able to last as long in the previous battle if you didn't reinforce the Quint."

"Okay…"

"Ah, just make sure it's not slow. As I've already mentioned, I'm pretty good at performing high-speed moves. As long as my mech is fast and agile enough, I'm confident I can outmaneuver most of my enemies!"

Ves grew a little irritated. "Joshua! You're not a child anymore! You should know better that every mech has tradeoffs. No mech has ever succeeded in earning full marks in offense, defense, mobility and utility. You need to set a list of priorities and make some sacrifices. Now, choose carefully. Which one do you care about the most?"

In the next few minutes, Joshua tried but failed to make a choice. He leaned towards emphasizing offensive capability, but did not want to sacrifice too much defense and mobility. In his opinion, his expert mech should not have any major shortcomings in any area.

"Can you just make an all-round expert mech for me?" He eventually proposed. "I've heard that it's not a good choice, but that applies to other people. With my piloting style, I can do a lot as long as my mech is versatile enough to depend upon. I'm not like Jannzi and Tusa who absolutely need the greatest defense or mobility. What I need are choices so that I can pick the right approach for any given situation."

While Ves understood his rationale, it was not that easy for a mech pilot to make the most out of such a muddled mech. The success of a balanced mech imposed a heavy burden on Joshua's judgement and piloting skill.

With specialized mechs, the mech pilot only had to focus on following a prescribed approach dictated by their mechs. This simplified their choices and forced them to excel in their chosen specialties.

In general, Ves preferred this approach. While making his mech pilots specialize in narrow roles did not make them useful in battles that restricted them, the key was that they never fought alone.

For example, Venerable Jannzi was as solid as a rock but could not chase after faster opponents. Venerable Tusa was as swift as a gale but as fragile as a nutrient pack.

If they fought by themselves, then an enemy could easily exploit their weaknesses. If they joined forces, then the equation suddenly changed! Both of them were able to cover up for their weaknesses, leaving only their lackluster offensive ability as a common weakness.

To be honest, Ves hoped that Joshua dedicated himself to piloting lancer mechs. The Larkinson Clan needed a champion that could pierce through the toughest armor and present the greatest threat to stronger opponents.

Of all of the mech types, lancer mechs were one of the few varieties that were able to leapfrog past its tier. The galactic net was filled with glorious tales of lesser lancer mechs demolishing complacent superior mechs.

"Lancer mechs are powerful, to be sure." Venerable Joshua remarked. "It's just that I don't want to be limited by this choice. If you can, try to include it in my hero mech, but don't weaken its ability to fight up close."

Ugh. Ves hated picky and indecisive clients the most. Despite their excellent compatibility, he could already foretell that designing Joshua's mech was going to be quite the ordeal.

"It will take time to translate your demands into an actual expert mech." He cautiously said. "In the process, we'll likely have to make a lot of compromises. Don't set your expectations too high."

"I trust you, sir. I have faith in your ability to design the right mech for me. I don't mind waiting a bit as long as I can get the mech of my dreams."

"That's good to hear. I think I have a decent idea of what you want. I will focus on coming up with a mech concept that is centered around a balanced hero mech. It's just… it still lacks something that ties it all together. It lacks a theme that shapes its identity."

This was not something that they could proceed on at the moment. Ves barely knew what he was capable of adding to an expert mech. He felt it was best to discuss the matter with Master Willix prior to deciding anything else. Mech designers needed to take a different approach when they tackled this special category of machines.

Once their fruitful discussion ended, Ves said goodbye and left Joshua's cabin.

Before he shuttled back to the Scarlet Rose, he briefly took a look at the Quint.

The mech had become a lot more impressive than before. Its battle scars made it look aged, but what really impressed Ves was how vigorous it had grown.

The Unity of Man and Machine that Venerable Joshua accomplished during his astonishing breakthrough had permanently marked the Quint!

Not only did it develop a considerably more distinct character, its spiritual foundation had grown considerably!

It was still a fully-saturated mech, but the pool had grown at least 50 percent bigger!

What this essentially meant was that the Quint became even more dangerous to regular mech pilots.

In his previous experiments, Ves determined that mech pilots with spiritual potential were reluctantly able to interface with a mech with 100 percent saturation.

The problem was that this only applied to regular mechs that were only recently enhanced. They all pretty much possessed identical pools.

Ves hadn't really accounted for the growth and expansion these mechs might go through. While not every mech would have the opportunity to achieve complete resonance, the Quint was a notable exception.

He was really scared of what might happen if he put any standard mech pilot in its cockpit!

"My masterwork mech has become too good to be piloted by ordinary people."

In his estimation, the only mech pilots who were able to withstand the greater pressure of a 150 percent load were expert candidates and higher!

"However.. a mech as potent as Quint should provide the mech pilots who can pass its test with enormous benefits!"

Ves even theorized that if he assigned the Quint to an expert candidate such as Imon Ingvar, a breakthrough might happen faster!

"This mech is still dangerous, though. I can't allow other people to take it out for a ride."

He activated his comm and drafted an emergency order that restricted its use. While no one in the clan would ever dare to play around with a mech assigned to an expert pilot, it was better to be safe and sorry.

Once Joshua finally received his expert mech, the Quint would become free again. Ves needed to think very carefully about who should pilot the mech next.

"Well, I have 9 expert candidates, so I have plenty of choice."

Although the Quint was derived from the Bright Warrior design, all of the modifications he made to the mech had already caused it to diverge from its origins. If Ves wanted to make use of the Quint as a legacy mech, then he needed to upgrade it into a true second-class mech design.

"The effort is worth it as long as my guesses are true." Ves grinned as he looked appreciatively at his handiwork. "As long as I keep taking care of it, the Quint will surely become a part of the Larkinson Clan's legacy!"

Chapter 2448: Step On Me

When Ves successively visited the other expert pilots, their demands all fell in line with his expectations.

He had already gotten a good sense on what they sought in a mech. Since each of them started off as third-class mech pilots, their tastes and desires strongly leaned towards specialization.

This meant that they didn't ask for too many incompatible options. They had little need for bells and whistles. They just wanted a mech that worked just like the machines they were used to, but with much better performance.

Each expert pilot had looked up on expert mechs and became dazzled by the countless examples of powerful works. This helped them gain a better sense of what was possible.

undefinedAfter collecting every expert pilot's opinion, Ves mulled over them once he returned to the Scarlet Rose.

"Venerable Tusa is the easiest to satisfy. His expert mech is smaller and his demands are simple."

An expert light mech was still very capable, but the size of its frame limited its capacity. It had less room for modules and other functions. While this limited the versatility and other parameters of a light mech, it at least reduced the scope required at development. This meant that designing Tusa's expert mech first delivered the fastest results.

This was a very important detail to Ves. He felt far too exposed even if the Larkinson Clan was about to gain a lot of new hardware in the coming months.

The sooner his expert pilots were able to exert their full strength, the safer they would all be. Hardly anyone had the guts to mess with a fleet protected by an expert pilot.

"There are other reasons for designing Tusa's mech before the others."

Ves was very well aware that Venerable Tusa felt he was being overlooked too often. If the aggrieved light mech specialist was the first one to receive an expert mech, then all of that resentment would probably fade away.

This should especially be the case if the mech was good!

The other reason to satisfy Tusa's demand first was due to the political influence he wielded.

Of the five expert pilots, Venerable Joshua and Venerable Dise were solidly behind his back. Venerable Orfan may be more reluctant but tentatively fell into his camp.

Opposite to them, Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Tusa were both opposed to the direction that Ves had taken the clan.

Of the two, Venerable Jannzi had become quite vocal about her opposition. While Venerable Tusa also disapproved of Ves, he was clearly more open to persuasion.

As long as Ves met Tusa's needs by providing him with an expert mech first, the latter's opposition would certainly fade!

"This is a good way to solve numerous problems at once." He muttered.

Of course, Ves still needed to discuss his plans with Master Willix. She might have a different opinion.

Ves yawned as he stepped into his stateroom with Nitaa following as his constant guard.

"Meow!"

"What? Are you serious?"

"Meow meow!" Lucky shoved a pair of gems on the desk before jumping away and phasing through the deck.

"You regained your powers!"

After several weeks of trying to digest the B-stone that Ves had used as a laxative for his cat, two odd gems came into existence.

Ves eagerly stepped forward and swiped up the gems.

The gems were dark and hardly any light passed through. Their surface was coarse as they were covered with rounded spikes that ran all over their surface.

His face turned odd. "How painful was it for Lucky to push out these spiky gems?"

He couldn't imagine the pain he would go through if he was the one who was forced to squeeze out these oddly-shaped gems!

"Well, at least I'm not a gem cat, haha!"

He proceeded to study them with his System vision in order to discover their details.

[Antithesis Essence]

?

[Antithesis Essence]

?

"...That's it?"

Ves patted his head and rubbed his eyes. When he inspected the gems yet again, they delivered the same description.

"You defective piece of crap! You're growing lazier and lazier!"

No matter how much he complained, his System vision never improved. For some reason, the latest two gems produced by Lucky possessed indeterminate properties. The only clues that Ves received were in their names.

He frowned in puzzlement. "What is essence? What does it mean when they are associated with the word antithesis?"

When Ves retrieved the definition of antithesis from the dictionary in his implant, he gained a very simple definition.

"Antithesis: person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else."

While this was an easy description for him to understand, he didn't see how it applied to gems. When he considered the effect of B-stone, did this gem possess the ability to neutralize the effect of other gems?

"Maybe its power is even greater than that!"

Ves experimentally retrieved some of his other gems and put them close to an Antithesis Gem. Nothing happened, but he separated them anyway just to be safe. He didn't want any of his other gems to lose their potency.

Just like the question marks in their description, the gems remained a mystery. Ves wasn't really sure what would happen if he embedded them in a mech.

He had some guesses, though.

"These gems are most suited to the Sanctuary or any other mech presided over by Lufa."

Perhaps such a mech would gain powerful neutralizing abilities that were capable of negating spiritual energy and other manifestations of power.

"What if.. I use them myself?"

For a moment, he felt tempted to embed a into his Unending Regalia. He reluctantly set aside this plan when he considered that the effects of Lucky's gems were usually exclusive to mechs. He also felt that it might be a bad idea to keep them on his person for a lengthy amount of time.

As a mech designer and spiritual engineer, it was essential for him to manipulate spiritual energy. Constant contact with a gem that might very well interfere with that was just asking for trouble.

After he made this guess, Ves resolutely decided to put them in his vault rather than in one of his pockets.

Once he took care of that, he collected his thoughts before turning his attention back to his main work.

"I've already fooled around long enough. Let's get back to completing my remaining design projects."

After finishing the Crystal Lord Mark II, Sanctuary and Chiron designs, he only needed to tackle three more before he cleared the board.

Of the three that remained, the Valkyrie Redeemer Project was the most important to him. Introducing the Blessed Squire to the Hexers caused them to change the way they fought against the Fridaymen, mostly for the better.

A fair amount of time had passed since the LMC introduced a global update across all of its current mech models.

Every opponent who fought LMC mechs in battle faced much trickier circumstances now that they were capable of manipulating the range of their glows!

This presented a great advantage to every LMC mech, not just the Blessed Squires and the altered Doom Guards.

Certainly, the two aforementioned mech models gained the greatest boost in value.

After tricking the Fridaymen many times, they finally learned their lesson. Before the release of the retraction dial update, the Glow Crusher reigned supreme among the counters of LMC mechs.

Now that the mech pilots of the Blessed Squires became very proficient in controlling the radius of their glows, there was almost no chance that Master Olson and Master Katzenberg's work succeeded in crushing any glows!

In order to fulfill its original function, the Glow Crusher had to discharge its accumulated motion energy directly into a Blessed Squire.

This was incredibly difficult to achieve! With the amount of protection that Hexers afforded to their Blessed Squires, the Glow Crushers rapidly diminished in importance.

Ves grinned as he read through the reports and watched some of the latest battle footage. Skillful use of the retraction dial provided other benefits as well. The smaller the radius, the more resilient the glow. The Hex Army increasingly favored deploying multiple Blessed Squires in a single formation, but with their dials set half-way.

While this massively reduced the range of their influence, their glows gained just enough resilience to withstand the pressure of individual counters.

"This is quite clever."

The battle tactics developed by the enterprising and ambitious commanders of the Hex Army were very novel.

Not only that, but once any of them developed a clever tactic, the Hex Army quickly propagated them to other units.

Since the mech divisions and mech regiments of the Hex Army were much more homogenous than the forces of other local states, they encountered significantly less barriers to sharing know-how and best practices. What worked in one unit of Hexers typically worked in many other units of Hexers.

This was not the case for the Friday Coalition. First, each partner organized its own separate military mech armies. Second, each mech division and mech regiment adopted their own distinct traditions, tactics, mech designs and so on. This severely hampered their ability to form a broad and unified response.

Of course, the high degree of uniformity in the Hex Army wasn't without flaw. Just as the Glow Crusher had proved, a single counter successfully weakened the Hexers as a whole!

It was fortunate that Ves managed to come up with a quick response by implementing the retraction dial. Not every designer was able to solve this kind of problem with ease.

Ves was sure this wasn't the end of it. He could smell the vengeful Fridaymen cooking up yet another way to crush his work.

To be honest, he wanted to delay the completion of the Valkyrie Redeemer until the Fridaymen made a move in the second round of their little competition.

Gloriana hit back at his proposal.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE WAITED FOR YOU TO BE DONE WITH YOUR FRIVOLOUS GAMES?! THE HEX ARMY IS STARVING FOR OUR MECHS, VES! NOW STOP DILLY-DALLYING AROUND AND DO YOUR PART SO WE CAN FINALLY HAND OVER THE VALKYRIE REDEEMER DESIGN TO THE HEGEMONY!"

Faced with such an impassioned demand, Ves could only acquiesce.

"It'll be okay." Ves comforted himself. "I can just publish an update just like before when the Fridaymen come up with their second response."

He studied the second-class light aerial marauder mech design in detail. The technical design work was already complete for the most part. Gloriana clearly showered it with a lot of attention as Ves discovered that it had gone through four iterations.

In fact, according to the logs, she even worked together with some of the institutions of the Hex Army to gather the most comprehensive test data and provide her with numerous helpful suggestions!

It didn't take much effort for Ves to discover that these very clever suggestions came from Hexer mech designers.

While they were so repelled at the thought of contributing to a mech design that was tainted by a male mech designer, the snobby Hexers had no qualms offering their advice anonymously.

Ves frowned a bit. "Meddling cows."

Regardless, the insightful suggestions allowed Gloriana to optimize the Valkyrie Redeemer design to a far greater extent than usual. The performance of the latest prototype exceeded his estimates by at least five percent.

"That is quite a difference!"

One of the reasons the Hexers invested so heavily in the Valkyrie Redeemer was because it was a female mech design. As a mech that was meant to be used by the superior gender, the Hexers wanted to make sure that their most important soldiers received the best!

Though Ves was not pleased that his territory was being encroached upon, he knew that he had to abide by the demands of his clients.

Technically, Ves answered to DIVA, but these days the Hex Army took over from the intelligence agency and liaised directly with the Miracle Couple.

"Maybe I should impose some rules next time." He considered. "It's one thing to listen to my clients. It's another thing to let them walk all over me! I'm not the kind of boy who likes being stepped upon!"

Chapter 2449: Auto-Enhancement

Ves did not like other mech designers meddling into his projects.

Sure, he was not against cooperating with other mech designers. The important point was that he agreed to it. He gladly collaborated with Gloriana due to the fantastic synergy they achieved. That did not mean he was in favor of getting help from others, especially when he didn't have a say in the matter!

Fortunately, the violation this time was light. As Ves carefully studied the latest iteration of the Valkyrie Redeemer design, he clearly noted traces that resembled Gloriana's design style but not entirely.

He knew how his partner designed her mechs. She was ambitious but also exceedingly perfectionist. She constantly struggled to balance her urges, and sometimes she failed, much to her chagrin.

undefinedWhat was odd about the current design was that Ves no longer spotted any of these quirks. All of the areas that were usually prone to suboptimal solutions looked suspiciously polished in his eyes.

Every mech designer possessed a different style. Even the blandest design style still stood out in some way.

To Ves, the Valkyrie Redeemer was like a glass of water with a few extra fingerprints on its surface. It was still a glass of water, but who knew who already took a sip at it while he was looking away.

"Well, at least the meddlers didn't try to change anything substantial."

The overall character and performance profile of the Valkyrie Redeemer remained unchanged. It was just a little bit better at performing its purpose due to the additional optimization it received.

Ves could easily guess why that was so. "The Hexer Masters probably didn't hold themselves back out of the goodness of their hearts. They're just afraid they'll ruin the glow of the mech."

Without his intervention or guidance, anyone who implemented major changes to the design quickly tarnished its spiritual foundation.

He had to spend a lot of effort in instructing Gloriana to keep her mind focused and free of distractions in order to minimize the impact, and even then she still muddled up the spiritual foundation sometimes.

The problem was so much worse for stronger mech designers who exerted a disproportionately powerful impact on any design they worked on! With the strength of a Master, they could easily wipe out the glow of a mech entirely if they invested themselves in a design!

This was actually one of the hidden reasons why there were no good variants of LMC mechs. The mech designers who were best positioned to develop them were also the most likely to ruin their spiritual nature!

Considering that the Hex Army just happened to be the client, Ves did not begrudge the Hexers too much. The quality of the Valkyrie Redeemer design directly impacted the lives of their mech pilots and many other citizens.

A 5 percent difference in performance might sound minor, but this margin might prevent the Hexers from losing tens of thousands of mech pilots over the course of the Komodo War!

"One of the fundamental flaws of this commision is that we didn't account for the increase in scope. The mechs I've promised to the Hexers are too important to be left in the hands of two Journeymen."

There was too much at stake in a war that affected an entire star sector. The fate of trillions of lives and a large amount of states hung in the balance. This was why the works of Master Mech Designers dominated the rosters of mech militaries.

States wanted to fight with the best machines that they could get! Why settle for the rough and immature designs of Journeymen when they could easily obtain something better from Masters?

The oddity here was that neither Ves nor DIVA anticipated that the Hegemony as a whole embraced the Blessed Squire so quickly.

In his discussions with Calabast, she often brought up the intense bias towards mechs designed by boys.

The notoriously strict and female-centric council of matriarchs literally burned any applications sent by boys without even taking a glance at them! To the matriarchs, the moment Hexadric Hegemony resorted to mechs designed by boys, their state had already fallen!

Ves snorted in disgust. "It turns out you're not so principled after all. I guess reality sometimes has a way of whacking some sense in fanatics."

The actual Hexers fighting against the Fridaymen in the trenches did not care as much for ideological purity. They just wanted effective solutions, and a pair of Journeymen just happened to meet their demands.

With his glows, Ves possessed a unique advantage that the Hexers weren't able to assail. This gave the Hexer leaders little choice but to make an exception to the rules.

A part of him admired the burst of pragmatism from the Hexers. As long as they weren't unreasonable to the point of absurdity, Ves did not have too many qualms of working for them. An honest mech designer and businessman should always uphold his end of a deal.

"I have principles, after all."

As Ves continued to study and work on the Valkyrie Redeemer design, he became increasingly more eager to see it in action.

Different from the Blessed Squire, the Valkyrie Redeemer was a female-centric mech design. Its budget was double that of the Blessed Squire despite being considerably lighter and smaller. Every square meter of mech was packed with advanced components and exceptional alloys.

Armed with a short spear, hexagon-shaped shield and pulse submachine gun, the aerial marauder mech possessed a versatile loadout that was tailor-made for independent raiding and harassment missions.

The Valkyrie Redeemer was arguably the most powerful and most impactful mech he had designed up until now! Certainly, the Devil Tiger and the Ouroborus were vastly more expensive and exceptional, but they were outliers as far as he was concerned.

Unlike those one-off mechs, the Valkyrie Redeemer was a standard military mech design that was likely to be used by millions of highly-trained military mech pilots. The women who were slated to pilot it would probably go on to achieve great victories that they couldn't have achieved with any other machine.

Ves briefly felt burdened by the sheer amount of influence of this mech design. A lot of people were paying attention to his next entry into the Komodo War. If the Valkyrie Redeemer somehow fell flat, then not only would he lose a huge amount of reputation, but he might indirectly contribute to the additional deaths and suffering of many Hexers!

"Why am I so nervous? I've always shouldered this burden ever since I sold my first Marc Antony."

The biggest difference was that the scope had increased. The influence of a single, cheap variant was countless times less than a new military mech model that might decide whether the Hex Army succeeded in overrunning the Carnegie Group!

"Well, I can only do what I can. Let's finalize this mech design."

He already added two triggered abilities to the design. They were the defining traits of the Valkyrie Redeemer and would likely become synonymous with the design.

Considering that he designed the abilities before he made some major advances in the field of spiritual engineering, he saw plenty of room for improvements. He resolutely broke up the spiritual constructs that carried the abilities and rebuilt them from the ground up with several advancements in mind.

He first tackled the Shock Pulse ability that was designed to work in tandem with Valkyrie Redeemer's Starburst grenades. Inspired by the rapid emotional disorientation induced by the new Doom Guards, he added strong emotional components to the pulsing discharge.

"Hehehe." He chuckled. "It's not enough to shock the enemy's minds and spirits. I want them to be awed as well so that they will worship the valkyries as they die!"

He always enjoyed developing more creative ways to kill. The entire point of designing mechs, especially those purposed for the military, was to increase their lethality to the limit!

By adding an awe effect that was closely related to the Superior Mother, the new Shock Pulse became even more difficult to shrug off. The Blessed Squire's performance on the battlefield already proved that even elite Fridaymen mech pilots weren't immune to the disruption that emotional changes could bring.

"They're still human underneath their fearsome shells."

Considering the alterations he made, he might as well adjust the name of the ability to Shock And Awe Pulse.

"It's quite a good combination! No wonder it's a classic!"

The changes he made to the short-ranged triggered ability paled in comparison to what he did next.

The Marked For Death ability drastically narrowed the angle of the glow so that it was effectively able to affect a distant target.

As Ves broke down and rebuilt the spiritual construct responsible for this ability, he integrated the functionality of the retraction dial into it. This allowed the mech pilot to selectively reduce the range in order to affect multiple opponents with its suppressive glow.

He also tweaked the death-based glow in order to increase its effectiveness at inducing terror.

Nyxie along with the dark gods of the Nyxian Gap had taught him plenty about suppressing people through spiritual means. While he wasn't able to replicate their methods entirely, he was able to imitate a small portion of their effects.

The final change he made to the ability was that the Valkyrie Redeemers could pool and superimpose their targeted glows more effectively.

When it came to glows, 1 + 1 did not equal 2. Most of the time, the strengthening resulting from overlapping glows mostly led to a modest increase such as 1.05.

What Ves had done was to introduce some slight variance to the individual glow signature of every unique mech.

Because each Valkyrie Redeemer exerted a slightly different glow, Ves theorized that overlapping them together might be able to induce vastly greater emotional turmoil towards the targets!

"It's boring when everything is the same. Just making every little glow a little more unique will doubtlessly add some excitement!"

He was very proud when he came up with this little trick. While he hadn't tested it out, he was certain it would work out the way he envisioned. If he happened to be wrong, he could always correct the mech design.

"Unlike other mech designers, I don't need to go through any approval process to alter my mechs!"

It only took hours for him to upgrade the abilities. Just as before, the two triggered abilities were also alive. Infused with a small amount of his spiritual energy, they were capable of growing and evolving over time, though in what way, even Ves didn't know!

In theory, the triggered abilities evolved according to the wants and needs of the mech, the design spirit and the mech pilot.

If they wanted to increase the range of the Marked For Death ability, then the spiritual construct responsible for it would aim for this improvement at the expense of other possible choices.

If a lot of Hexer mech pilots wanted to abuse the Shock And Awe ability even further, then the Shock And Awe ability would likely experience greater growth.

"Resources are limited. Not everything can be improved at once."

After he was done with revising the triggered abilities, he directed his attention to the other spiritual aspects of his mech design. He smoothed out anything that looked sloppy and built up and added some additional elements that strengthened the Valkyrie Redeemer's spiritual character.

In particular, he made sure to set it up for individual growth and development. While Ves wasn't willing to set up any mechanisms that induced the Superior Mother to invest some of her energy to enhance the spiritual foundations of the mechs, he did open up a door for other sources.

"If the mech pilot can pay the price herself, then by all means do it! Just don't ask for a handout from my mother!"

Inspired by the changes to the Quint, any mech pilot who advanced to expert candidate or expert pilot was able to enhance their individual Valkyrie Redeemers.

While Ves risked exposure when he implemented this quirk, he couldn't resist adding it in once he conceived of the idea.

He really wanted to develop methods of enhancing his mechs without relying on himself or his design spirits to make a move. By implementing a secret auto-enhancement function, Ves hoped that this solution might be able to deflect some suspicion in the future!

Chapter 2450: Ves the Great Scientist

Ves felt quite accomplished after he completed his work on the Valkyrie Redeemer design.

The auto-enhancement function he developed was a more purposeful way of enhancing the spiritual foundations of his mechs.

Even without this function, his mechs would have gained a boost regardless, but the process wouldn't be as efficient.

Now, any mech that was lucky enough to be the carrier of a breakthrough would definitely be rewarded for its contribution. It was only fair for the lucky mech pilot to share some of the benefits.

undefinedJust to be sure, Ves implemented a hard ceiling of 25 percent saturation of base foundation.

At 50 percent saturation, the mech in question became capable of killing its own pilot. While the odds of this happening were very minor, the fact that the victims all consisted of mech pilots with spiritual potential would have massive repercussions.

Ves did not want to be responsible for killing off an entire population of future expert pilots!

"The MTA will definitely hunt me down once it finds out!"

He set the limit at a percentage of the base foundation because he needed to account for expansions of the pool.

Considering that referring to percentages of saturation of base foundation quickly got tiring, Ves invented a new unit of measure to express the level of enhancement of any given mech.

"As the inventor of this new and unprecedented phenomenon, I have the right to call it however I like. Since I'm naming a new unit of measurement, let's call it.. the Ves scale!"

Of all of the possible choices he could make, he settled for his own name! An intense wave of pride and accomplishment burst from his mind!

"Yes! That's it! What a brilliant choice! I deserve a prize for my fantastic naming sense! Hahaha!"

As Ves erupted in laughter, Lucky woke up from his nap and studied the current state of his owner.

"Meow!"

The cat recognized that type of laughter and instantly knew he needed to be somewhere else! He quickly phased his body and dove straight through the deck!

Ves took no notice of his cat. Instead, he became engrossed with the illusion that he had joined the ranks of the greatest scientists of human civilization!

Many pioneers in science who discovered and quantified a new unit of measurement put forward their own names. This was an ancient and long-standing custom in the scientific community.

"As long as other qualified people accept my unit of measurement, then it's settled!"

Right now, Ves was the only one who was versed in spiritual foundation enhancement. The rest of human civilization had no clue what the Ves scale actually stood for. This meant that his voice was the only one that mattered.

As Ves cast his vote on his suggestion, he won the naming competition by default. After all, he won 1 out of 1 total votes!

"I have made history today! Hahahahaha!"

In his mind, he had reasons to be proud. He formally joined the ranks of other shameless scientists such as Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, Anders Celcius, James Watt, James Prescott Joule, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz and many other people that often showed up in science textbooks.

Perhaps in the distant future where he finally felt secure enough to publicize his methods, every mech designer would eventually make use of the Ves scale throughout human space!

To define the unit of measurement, he arbitrarily equated 25 percent saturation of the base spiritual foundation of a fresh Bright Warrior mech to 25 Ves.

Since each mech was able to grow their spiritual foundation over time, thereby stretching what a certain percentage of saturation actually meant, it was important for him to come up with an absolute rather than a relative unit of measurement.

After all, 25 percent of a single glass of water was a lot smaller than 25 percent of an entire swimming pool!

He made sure to record the degree of strength that corresponded to different amounts of Ves in to calibrate his internal Ves meter.

"Alright, that's done!"

Once he was done with admiring his new unit of measurement, he turned his attention back to the Valkyrie Redeemer. So far, it was the only mech design that incorporated the experimental new auto-enhancement function.

"Its target audience shouldn't be weak, but just to be sure, it's best not to exceed 25 Ves for any LMC mech used by outsiders.

LMC mechs with 50 Ves already became deadly. Machines with 100 Ves became deathtraps to every mech pilot that induced the hostility of their own machines.

The relationship between the mech and mech pilot mattered a lot! An LMC mech with 100 Ves could still offer a huge amount of help to mech pilots that truly respected it and treated it with care.

Yet because Ves couldn't account for the behavior of mech pilots outside of his clan, he needed to take the worst-case scenario into account.

"If there are any Hexer mech pilots in the Hex Army who frequently abuse their own mechs, then I don't want to be responsible if their machines hit back!"

Aside from shielding him from liability, setting a hard cap of 25 Ves also ensured that his products wouldn't attract too much attention from the public.

While any mech that reached 25 Ves was still able to grow and develop a unique character remarkably quickly, only a few mechs would ever be able to hit this maximum. The odds of mech pilots of the Valkyrie Redeemers breaking through was miniscule, and the advancement of expert candidates did not unleash as much energy as true apotheosis.

"Even if the chances are small, I can't endanger the few winners."

For now, it was only safe to handle mechs with higher Ves if Ves directly controlled their usage. He could only do so if the mechs remained in his clan.

The mechs piloted by the expert pilots when they broke through during the previous battle were all off-limits to others. The Quint that measured a whopping 150 Ves was the most dangerous of the surviving custom mechs.

Even if the masterwork mech did not mean to harm any Larkinson mech pilots, its presence alone was enough to crush a mech pilot's head!

The Quint was sacred to Ves. He did not want one of his greatest works to tarnish itself by bearing the guilt of killing one of its own users!

In order to ensure that no one developed any crooked ideas about mechs such as the Quint, Ves wrote up a formal order and passed it to Major Verle. The clan needed to impose a new structure to restrict the usage of the most dangerous mechs.

In addition, he also wanted to explore ways to set up a reward structure around spiritual enhancement.

Mech pilots that earned a lot of Larkinson merits in battle or elsewhere should be allowed to exchange them for boosting their assigned mechs.

Right now, he wasn't sure whether it was still necessary to enhance the foundations of the mechs used by his clansmen. With 5 expert pilots and 9 expert candidates, the Larkinson Clan could not handle any more breakthroughs.

"It will be different in the future."

When the Larkinson Clan expanded and matured, he wanted his mech forces to have a structure in place that automatically enhanced every LMC mech by a modest amount. That was the extent of the freebie that mech pilots received.

"If they want more, they have to work for it. This is the best solution."

People cherished something less if they did not have to sacrifice anything to obtain it. Ves wanted to keep his mech pilots motivated, so dangling this mysterious reward after some time would definitely give them another reason to push themselves.

With that out of the way, he returned to the Valkyrie Redeemer design and carefully inspected it from top to bottom several times. Once he made sure that the mech did not contain any problematic issues, he packaged up the files and sent them to Gloriana.

Sure enough, she called him less than a minute later.

"You've finished the Valkyrie Redeemer design?" She asked with a hopeful glint in her eyes.

Vs nodded. "Yes. I've updated the documentation to describe the changes I've made to its glow and.. some other aspects. In particular, the retraction dial opens up a lot more options. The glow of the Valkyrie Redeemer has definitely become more remarkable."

The one regret he had was that the mech may score high on uniformity, it did not offer that much individuality. The auto-enhancement function helped a bit, but it was effectively limited to expert candidates.

That did not conform with his desires. Ves constantly sought new ways to improve the performance of regular mech pilots, not the privileged elites.

Gloriana quickly studied the updated design files. She stared long and hard at the design schematics. Though she couldn't see the changes that Ves had made, she could feel them, if only a little bit. Her perception of spiritual energy was still lacking.

"The mech feels.. more real. More emotional. More eager to deliver death." She spoke. "I'm quite happy with it! Compared to the Blessed Squire, the Valkyrie Redeemer is more advanced in every way. We can truly prove to the Hegemony that our work is transformational."

She rambled for a few minutes how it was a great honor to help the Hegemony crush the Coalition and 'liberate' the entire star sector.

"So what will you do with the design now that it's complete?" He asked.

"Ah, as I said, I'll handle our communications with the Hegemony. I will send it to the Hex Army and some government institutions so that they can rigorously test and verify our work. As long as they don't spot any serious flaws, the Hex Army will soon be able to field them in battle."

"How long will that take?"

"The stakes are higher, now. While our mechs are powerful, the Hexers are also apprehensive at their effects. They need to perform much more rigorous testing than we have ever performed. I would say the Valkyrie Redeemer will truly make its debut in one or two months."

"That's a rather long time."

"It would have been far longer if there wasn't a war going on. The Hex Army is usually very strict when it comes to introducing new mech models into its lineup."

"Maybe the mech will finally be able to show off its prowess at the date of our wedding. That would be a nice wedding gift."

"What a great idea!" Gloriana gushed. "I will definitely have to pass on this suggestion to the Hegemony. All of the foreign dignitaries that we've invited to the wedding will doubtlessly become impressed when they see how easily our Valkyrie Redeemers are able to crush the Fridaymen!"

They chatted a bit more about the design. Ves tried his best to convey some of what improved or added without going into details. As Gloriana was already familiar with his work, she was able to figure out a lot by herself.

"The Valkyrie Redeemer marks another evolution in my development." Ves summed up. "The innovations I've implemented have made this mech very different from our previous works. Every mech we design in the future will at least be able to reach this standard."

Both of them were happy with what they accomplished. Just like Ves, Gloriana accomplished some breakthroughs of her own. She had finally begun to digest the many insights she harvested from examining the masterwork mechs and receiving instruction from Master Willix.

If she hadn't improved by such a considerable margin, then the anonymous mech designers who optimized the Valkyrie Redeemer would have been able to make a greater difference.

Ves already looked forward to the next wave of mech design projects. He wanted to translate all of his gains into better mechs, both for the Hex Army and the Larkinson Clan!

He wanted to design so many mechs that he felt that the current limits were not enough anymore. Engaging in just 2 major design projects and 4 minor design projects meant that Ves would have to spend years to finish all of the high-priority mech designs on his agenda!

"Honey?"

"What is it, Ves?"

"Have you ever thought about expanding the Design Department?"