The Mech Touch

Chapter 5987  A Set of Trials

"TUSA!"

The Dark Zephyr was supposed to be inactive, but the living mech had always been paying attention to the ritual.

When the expert light skirmisher observed that Tusa had actually been reckless enough to swallow the bowl of dangerous blood, the mech almost wanted to activate and run towards his battle partner!

However, Tusa immediately raised his palm.

"Don't!"

His expression immediately grew strained. His face grew redder as the foul and potentially lethal mixture entered his body.

Ves' phasewater concentration had reached 3.8 percent. Even though he had only shed a tiny fraction of his own lifeblood into the bowl, there was already enough phasewater mixed in to heavily injure or outright kill any baseline human!

The Larkinsons who watched Tusa with genuine concern all waited for disaster to strike.

When that did not happen, they steadily grew relieved.

This was because Tusa had mobilized all of his extraordinary willpower. After his resonance growth had exceeded the threshold of a high-tier expert pilot, it was no longer as weak and insubstantial as before.

Even though it was still inferior to that of an ace pilot, Tusa's willpower already had the ability to override reality to an extent!

Right now, Tusa's genuine and justified concern over his own health and life forced him to stimulate his willpower to the fullest!

Even though he wasn't able to resonate with the Dark Zephyr, he still managed to muster enough strength to force the minute amount of phasewater inside his body to remain calm enough to suppress their spatial activity.

"This… this is impossible!"

"He's not even piloting his mech!"

"Have expert pilots already become that powerful by themselves?"

The reactions from the Journeymen were not unjustified. It was general knowledge that expert pilots were not really strong enough to perform any of the feats they were famed for when they were by themselves.

Without the amplification and synergy of a compatible expert mech, expert pilots were almost just as weak and vulnerable as other mortals!

The reason why Tusa still managed to suppress the phasewater in his body was not entirely due to his willpower.

The truth was that he was not alone.

"Chip! Chip!"

Tusa's Blackwing became active and channeled all of his power to assist in the effort to suppress the spatial activity of phasewater.

The companion spirit was not weak, which helped a lot to exert enough strength to stabilize the fabric of space occupied by Tusa's body.

Even though Blackwing had no special affinity to space, he was able to produce a strong enough effect by drawing on all of the darkness and shadow energies from the environment.

Blinky's output of shadow energy empowered Blackwing just enough to keep the expert pilot safe!

Yet as Tusa almost keeled over, it became clear that he and his companion spirit were straining their utmost to maintain a stable equilibrium.

If they lost their strength for any reason, then the phasewater that was still swirling in Tusa's body may eventually create a spatial outbreak, causing a lot of short-lived spatial twists that always proved damaging or fatal to human bodies.

"Damnit, Ves." Tusa squeezed from his lips as he looked and sounded as if he suffered from a severe case of constipation. "Are you trying to turn me into a phase lord by force or something? This is an awful way to go about it. I don't even know why I accepted your dare and drank that foul bowl of blood. I can't keep this up forever. My willpower is getting more strained by the minute, and Blackwing can only help so much. What am I supposed to do, now?!"

"Endure. Adapt. Overcome." Ves intoned in a serious voice.

"What?!"

"Do you think I fed you my blood for fun? That is not the case. I exposed your body with phasewater because it is necessary. The Dark Zephyr Mark III incorporates a revolutionary new Ultimate Module that can allow the expert mech to phase into a shadow dimension of sorts and pass through solid matter. According to my theories and loose projections, it should not be a big problem for your upcoming expert mech to engage in destructive phasing for a second or so. However, there is no guarantee that all of the advanced hyper technology that I have applied to your expert mech will extend to your frail human body. There is a realistic possibility that when the Dark Zephyr Mark III activates his new Dark Wind Passage ability, your own body may get left behind in the current dimensions."

Ves did not need to explain why that was extremely bad. If the Dark Zephyr Mark III attempted to destructively phase through an alien warship, then Tusa's body would get left behind!

Worse, the expert pilot's body would crash against the exterior hull plating of the ship at an effective speed of at least hundreds of kilometers per hour, thereby causing all of his organic tissue as well as his piloting suit to get squashed with so much force that all of that matter would get obliterated!

Tusa's pupils shook in an uncontrollable fashion as he imagined this potential horror scenario.

"Ngh! I… even if that is a risk, can't you wait until you have finished the upgrade and allow me to test the new ability before resorting to this dangerous measure!? I can die at any minute if you don't pull the phasewater out of my body!"

Ves shook his head in disapproval. "That is unnecessary. I believe in you, Tusa. I believe in the strength of your willpower. You are an expert pilot who has charged into entire alien fleets with just your expert mech and come out on top every time. I am not too sure how our other expert pilots are doing, but as the earliest Larkinson to pilot an expert mech of my design, I believe you possess the traits that grant you the qualifications to rise above your peers."

"What are you talking about?!"

"Not even General Ark Larkinson or Venerable Benjamin Larkinson has survived the high-risk challenges that you have subjected yourself to. You are a light mech specialist. You have managed to survive time and time again by piloting the smallest and most fragile variations of mech types in widespread usage. How could you have survived all of this time without tempering your willpower to a higher degree than any of your peers in the Larkinson Clan?"

Tusa almost vomited out the contents of his stomach. A part of him felt tempted to, but the stubborn and proud streak within him refused to give in to his fears!

"Is this… a demented plot you cooked up to forcibly trigger a breakthrough? If it is… then the first thing I will do after I become a Saint is beat you up until you are but a centimeter away from death! I know you're a phase lord! I know you can take it! I will board my mech… and punch you… until I knock out all of your oversized teeth! YOU HEAR ME, VES!?"

"I hear you, Tusa." Ves grinned as most of his body continued to remain shrouded in darkness. "I am more than happy to accompany you. Just make sure you survive until then. I don't know how long it will take for your body to naturally expel the phasewater that you have just ingested, but I don't think you can suppress it long enough in your current state. You need to do better, Tusa. As strong as you may have become, there is still lots of potential in you. Stay put and don't move. If you want to overcome this challenge as honestly as possible, then try to rely on your own strength. Tame the phasewater. Control the space around you. The better you are able to command your own space, the more powerful you become after you finally get to pilot your new and improved expert mech!"

Ves moved away from the pained and struggling expert pilot and reunited with his fellow mech designers.

He told no one about the ritual he had in mind, so each of them looked at him with utter shock!

"If… if anyone else attempted to poison a client with phasewater, I would have put a stop to this upgrade run." Gloriana said. "I… will not question whether any of this is a good idea in the first place. As long as Tusa's body has yet to rupture, I will perform my work as I have originally planned. Given Tusa's tortured state, I will leave him out of the design network."

"Don't." Ves commanded. "Pull him in. Don't avoid him just because he is in pain."

"You have become even crazier than usual, Ves! I have no desire to share his pain when I am responsible for converting his Dark Zephyr into an archemech. I require the utmost concentration in order to fabricate the highest possible quality of archemetal parts."

"I think you can handle it, Gloriana. More than that, I think it will make you produce better results. As long as you can filter out the worst of the distractions, Tusa's pain and suffering will motivate you into working faster and better. The best way to 'cure' his condition is to deliver the Dark Zephyr Mark III in the best possible state. As soon as he hops inside the cockpit and resonates with his machine, the powerful true resonance generated by the two can completely neutralize the phasewater that still remains buried inside his flesh."

His wife carefully weighed this argument and found it plausible. She still looked at Tusa with concern.

"You are gambling with his life."

"He'll be fine." Ves said in a nonchalant tone. He looked and sounded a lot more evil when he continued to remain shrouded in shadow. "Consider this as a set of trials. I have subjected Tusa to one trial. I have subjected the both of us to another trial. Each of us must work at our best and push our capabilities to the limit and beyond in order to produce the best possible outcome. If either of us fall short in any way, then there is a substantial risk that Tusa will not be in a shape to pilot a mech for an extended period of time. If a bit of phasewater has entered his brain, then he may be forced to end his career."

"You… you madman!" Gloriana gasped.

"Accusations won't change anything, my dear. The only way we can provide definite relief to Tusa is if we get to work right away."

Ves was right. The mech designers soon split up and began to engage in their respective work.

This upgrade run was unlike any other.

When Alexandria pulled the mech designers, the agitated Dark Zephyr and the tormented Tusa in a single design network, it took a lot of effort for Ves and Gloriana to maintain their composure!

The mech workshop itself remained poorly lit, though that did not hinder the mech designers from their duties. Their augmented vision and the well-lit interfaces of the production machines ensured that they could still see what they were doing.

Ves also employed a variation of his Living Workshop ability.

Blinky sucked in a lot of ambient E energy and converted it into life energy to saturate the entire workshop.

Yet what was different was that Blinky kept the aperture that separated the universes from each other open.

The Blinkyverse continued to release its accumulated shadow energy into the main universe!

Life energy along with a bit of shadow energy continued to engulf the workshop, causing everything to become affected in subtle ways.

All of these abnormal conditions and more both tested everyone's ability to endure and adapt.

Though Gloriana initially stumbled a few times and accidentally produced a couple of defective achemetal components, she refused to allow her husband's latest antics to ruin her first attempt to produce an actual archemech.

After she spent a few minutes to pray to the Superior Mother, she regained much of her composure and began to work with considerably greater focus than before.

Soon, she managed to fabricate her first functional archemetal component of the current project!