The Mech Touch

The Amaranto Mark III had reached her strongest state since her creation.

Even if Saint Davia Stark did not actively resonate with her powerful machine, her passive willpower still resonated with the recently updated mech on automatic basis!

Ves could feel how Saint Stark had weaponized the power of light.

While her domain was largely centered around the concept of vengeance, she did not pursue any simple grievances.

She instead carried herself with the bearing of an adjudicator who did her job not because she liked to kill powerful enemies, but because she felt a responsibility to deliver retribution to those that carried out injustices against the people!

This was why Saint Stark was able to retain a greater semblance of control and rationality over herself. She did not lose her sense of nobility and justice. The light that had become her favored element shone so harshly that it not only vaporized her enemies, but also put her under her own spotlight.

She could never bring herself to perpetuate the injustices committed by her targets!

If one day a future came to pass where she became no different from the cruel leaders who made the lessers suffer, then Saint Stark would not hesitate to end her own life lest she made the people she protected further!

This was a matter to consider more deeply in the future. For now, the Amarnanto Mark III could use a light amount of servicing as well as a configuration change. The machine was optimized for use by Venerable Stark rather than Saint Stark.

It shouldn’t take too long to make the necessary modifications and recalibrate the Amaranto Mark III, but it would be a time consuming process where he and his wife would remain busy for a few days.

The Amaranto Mark III slowly powered down. Though the living mech always remained active, lowering the activity of her power reactor minimized the chance of accidents.

Also, it made the mech technicians and other crew members a lot less nervous to work around the powerful machine.

"Stark." Ves greeted the new ace pilot.

Just as expected, Saint Stark couldn’t help but point her harsh light to Ves. Her Saint Kingdom had lost a lot of its power and potency after she left her cockpit, but she was still able to alter the rules in a short area around her physical body.

Ves could feel Saint Stark judging him. Her expression told him that whatever results she expected to attain, she did not expect them to be so confusing!

"Do you know how rude it is for you to judge my soul or weigh my karma or whatever?" Ves spoke.

Saint Stark showed no remorse. "I am only continuing to observe whether you are still a leader who is worth following. So far, I have sensed both extreme merit and extreme punishment inside of you. I… cannot judge whether one is more powerful than the other, but the way the two mix and counterbalance each other is… I have never witnessed such a phenomenon in the past."

Ves pressed his hands in his pant pockets and smiled in a conceited fashion. "You are not ready yet to judge me. Besides, I am not afraid of you. I know what I am fighting for. My hands may not be clean anymore, but you can trust that I am doing everything I can to help red humanity survive the current storm. I have a stake in the survival of my people as well, you know. Rather than using your fancy new Saint Kingdom to judge your fellow human, you should save up your energy and direct your hostility towards the hostile aliens who unquestionably demand your retribution." ɽäNÓＢËŠ

His words sunk into Saint Stark’s thick skull. Her breakthrough and drastic increase in strength had significantly altered her mentality.

Was it for the better? That remained to be seen, but Ves wanted to teach the overconfident ace pilot a lesson in order to rein in her overbearing behavior.

The ace pilot closed her eyes and remained still for a moment. She exhaled and deliberately tried to relax her posture. The harsh and judgemental light of her domain grew softer and duller.

This was a good development. Saint Stark demonstrated a capacity to withdraw her aggression and focus during times when it was not necessary for her to assume a combative posture.

She should learn to conserve her power and save it for their real enemies. All forms of human infighting had to take a backseat against the threat of total extinction at the hands of the native aliens.

Now that the posturing phase was over, the two could finally begin to talk about actual useful topics.

Ves first quizzed Saint Stark about her short but highly impactful performance at the start of the final battle of Viola Magnifica.

In the meantime, automated elevators and other systems slowly brought the Amaranto Mark III and the remains of the Riot Mark II to an underground workshop chamber.

High-powered scanners were already at work trying to map out the current physical parameters of the two drastically different machines.

The Amaranto Mark III had become even stronger than when she exited the workshop not too long ago. The powerful marksman mech had endured a potent wave of willpower baptism. This caused the machine’s performance to increase further past what her actual parts should be capable of producing.

It was all fascinating, but of limited use to Ves. He could not reproduce these parts because he lacked the means to replicate willpower baptism. That remained an exclusive ability to willpower cultivators for the time being.

As for the Riot Mark II…

"Venerable Rosa Orfan is lucky that enough of the torso remains intact for her battle partner to cling to life." He said as he approached the pile of loose debris. "Even so, it is rather sad to see one of my works reduced to such a state. While I will refrain from performing a complete rebuild and reconstruction of this expert mech until our Design Department has completed the Riot Mark III Project, I can at least spend half a day to quickly weld the relatively intact pieces together again. That should relieve the living mech’s suffering and make it more bearable for him to survive the months it takes for us to be ready to upgrade him to a much greater state."

"Orfan will be happy." Saint Stark smiled. "She has shown admirable courage and valor in the last battle. She cares much about the Riot, as she considers him the best living mech that she has ever piloted. It would be a great loss to her if he ends up beyond salvaging."

"Don’t worry. When we complete the Mark III iteration of the Riot, we will make sure to upgrade him to a seventh generation living mech. One of the new features of this generation is the installation of a hyper keystone. This will ensure that even if the mech is destroyed beyond recovery, a seed of the living mech will still be preserved by the keystone. I originally designed this to give Carmine mech pilots a chance to preserve their ability to pilot a mech, but it holds value to those who have not formed a Blood Pact with their machines."

The mention of a new generation of living mechs clearly intrigued the older woman.

"Given that my Amaranto Mark III lacks this hyper keystone, she should still be a product of the previous generation, I assume."

"That is correct, Stark. Don’t worry. Since we are already scheduled to reconfigure your machine, I will take the time to upgrade her into a seventh generation living mech. It shouldn’t take much time to install a larger and more powerful version of a hyper keystone. As for the other characteristic of the seventh generation, its application will slightly be different for an ace pilot as yourself."

"How so, sir?"

"I originally chose to embed an auxiliary qi cultivation method to help the mech pilot develop his talents in a useful area, but this is redundant for you. However, I can still allow this new feature to benefit your companion spirit. Can you present her to me for a moment? I need to take a good look at your Witch Crow in order to match her with the right auxiliary qi cultivation method. I may need to develop one myself if it is too obscure."

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"Chip chip!"

Vail appeared to be in a good mood as the ominous crow made an appearance.

She served as another means for Saint Stark to control her darker thoughts and impulses. By shunting them over to her Witch Crow, Saint Stark was better able to maintain her stability.

The contrast between Saint Stark and her rapidly grown companion spirit was strong. The two looked like they could not possibly be the same person!

Ves briefly smirked. "I see. Curses, huh? I am pretty familiar with those. I think I know how to implement that in your expert mech. There is an important discussion we need to talk, and I prefer to hold it before Gloriana comes down and dominates the conversation."

He activated a projection that showed a few edited clips of the Everchanger in action.

What came into prominence was the expert mech’s new mech scimitar. It was a weapon that exuded a lot of menace. Anyone who had gotten physically close to this new blade clearly felt that they were being stared at with great hostility!

However, as much as the D-arm had driven Joshua in a corner that he saw no other choice but to make a few pacts, its power when it was able to unleash its full potential was massive!

Saint Stark quickly figured out what Ves intended to do after showing her this example.

She did not reject the idea entirely, but…

"This transformation clearly comes with peril, or else Joshua wouldn’t have to struggle for so long to wrangle his new scimitar. I am not certain it is wise to add greater instability to the weapon that I rely on to launch critical shots from afar."

She made a good point. Ves really wanted to give the ace marksman mech a more powerful edge, and equipping it with a D-arm that was tailored for her use could increase her firepower even further!

Saint Stark did not allow herself to get obsessed by this offer. "I fear the Amaranto Mark III cannot keep up. She can only accumulate so many energies before hitting an upper limit. Adding in a transformed and much more powerful firearm will not change that limit."

"Hmm, you have made a good point. I will look into possibilities to raise her upper limit, but without access to super-class materials, it will be difficult."

There was still plenty of time to conduct research and collect her own data. That would determine whether it was feasible for him to go through with his plan to add a D-arm to the Amaranto Mark III’s loadout.

As for the Riot… for whatever reason, he considered the crippled machine an ideal candidate for the development of her first true D-mech!

Ves felt annoyed that Rosa Orfen had been evacuated to a well-equipped hospital and was undergoing intensive treatments.

That meant that she remained out of contact and not in the right mind for the entire duration of her stay.

He needed to share his ambitious plans for the Riot mark III to her and win her approval to realize his vision for a D-mech!

Alas, since Rosa Orfan was still stuck in recovery, Ves would shelve the plan for the time being and deal with more urgent affairs.

"Given what I know about Orfan, she will yearn for greater power after suffering such a devastating defeat at the hands of a lesser phase lord." Saint Stark said. "She should welcome a solution to make the Riot Mark III as threatening as the current Everchanger if not more."

"Mhmm. You make a good point. High-ranking mech pilots are always good at recovering after getting defeated. So long as they survive, their drive for greater power will become much stronger than before."

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