The Mech Touch

Chapter 7272: I Hate You, Ves

The scope of the Promethea Mark Il Project vastly exceeded Ves and Gloriana's initial expectations.

They corresponded with multiple liaisons and head researchers. After receiving a large amount of data and feedback, the Miracle Couple gradually fleshed out the new vision for Saint Isobel Kotin's new machine.

“I feel bad for the Saint General," Gloriana said in the middle of their brainstorming session.

"Why?"

“Look at how luxurious this project has become," she said. "We are planning to add two new signature weapon systems to the Promethea Mark Il. We are collaborating with both Terran and Cyber mech designers. We have gained extensive leeway when it comes to incorporating CE tech into the ace mech design. Furthermore, we are making use of two artifact-level components, namely the mysterious Ice Fire Stone and the Artificial Fire Heart gifted by the Cybernetic Empire. That last one is truly exquisite. Its ability to generate a large amount of heat and fire-attributed E energy in a controlled fashion is truly a pinnacle of CE science and engineering."

There were only a few mechs that deserved to be implanted with the Artificial Fire Heart, but the Promethea Mark II was by far the most suitable choice.

Neither Ves nor Gloriana wanted to reserve it for another high-ranking mech despite the fact that the Promethea Mark Il already received a massive amount of investment. However, the Artificial Fire Heart was an exceedingly complex device, one that carried a fragment of a True God that embodied both fire and humanity.

its preciousness was beyond doubt. Ves felt tempted to use it for himself. He could think of many different ways to integrate it into a powerful weapon or a formidable raiment.

He ultimately forced himself to turn away from those possibilities.

As a mech designer, Ves should always look for opportunities to serve his clients better. Ves was not ashamed to reserve precious resources such as phasewater, superior superdimensional matter and unique resources such as the Corrupting Orb for his own uses.

He did so with confidence as he could rationally explain his selfishness. He had been elevated to a tier 2 galactic citizen, a man of supreme import, yet possessed a head that many would love to claim!

Who knew how the Red Cabal responded to his recent elevation. They already treated him as a tier 2 galactic citizen when it came to measuring the value of his head.

Now that his actual rank matched his bounty, Ves was afraid that the crusty old phase whales would pettily raise its value even further!

Given these fears, was it not reasonable for him to allocate a modest proportion of high- value resources in his direction?

He could justify the use of the aforementioned materials because the Larkinson Clan had enough of them to spare and because he could make better use of them than many other possible clients.

For example, he would never entrust the Corrupting Orb to another individual. It possessed an extremely insidious nature and could tarnish any honorable fighter so long as he exposed a single vulnerability.

Even the most confident and driven expert pilot or ace pilot could falter at different points of their careers. Ves had witnessed their vulnerable states too many times to convince himself that they were infallible.

The Corrupting Orb only needed one opportunity to taint their willpower and lead them to the road of damnation.

The case of Saint Rosa Orfan served as a particularly stark example of what could go wrong.

Even now that she was beginning to wake up from her traumatic experience, Ves had yet to detect any indications that her willpower would cleanse her of any of her existing taint.

It was as if the darkness had taken root in her being and turned into a naturalized part of her soul.

Ves frowned in thought.

Not everyone was qualified to wield the power of darkness. Ves was only able to do so because of the direct intervention of a higher power.

Without earning this literal deus ex machina for turning the Dominion of Man into a godship, Ves would never dare to come into direct contact with darkness-attributed E energy, let alone use it as fuel for his various techniques.

Ves had studied the reactions of other people when exposed to darkness energy or any other form of negative energy.

Each incident tested their ability to stay true to themselves, and not many were able to maintain a clear head.

The greater the exposure, the higher the failure rate.

Fortunately, mechs provided a substantial amount of protection, but it was still far from perfect.

Perhaps only the so-called true mechs that Ves had not seen much of provided much more effective protection.

However, Ves had also learned that piloting true mechs imposed a greater toll on the poor pilots.

The extreme neural interfaces used in those machines were much more invasive and prone to transmitting damaging feedback.

What was even worse for Ves was that the fundamental nature of true mechs prevented Ves from turning them into living mechs. They pretty much sat on opposite ends of a spectrum.

Therefore, there was no conceivable way for Ves to design a mech that could allow mech pilots to safely wield the power of darkness without contaminating their spiritualities in one way or another.

This did not necessarily apply to all forms of negative energy.

Ves was aware of attributes that either straddled the line between light and darkness or generated relatively minor side effects.

A good example of that was the power of death.

Many mech pilots made use of the Valkyrie line of mechs without becoming too distorted... as far as he was aware of. Sure, the predominantly Hexer mech pilots developed fanatical feelings about death, but they still remained functional human beings. Their madness... remained within a controllable range.

Perhaps much of the reason why the mech pilots of the Valkyrie Redeemer model and its many variants was due to the fact that they were governed by a powerful and relatively rational design spirit.

Having Helena around to guide their thoughts and emotions in a healthier and more productive direction did wonders in reining in their more destructive impulses.

Without this high-level guidance, the Valkyrie mechs would have produced a lot more distorted personalities.

Perhaps the mech pilots might even degenerate into outright cultists!

This reminded Ves that he needed to create a spiritual product that could regulate the power of darkness.

Perhaps he might not have the guts to design a mech that would expose pilots to the insidious nature of darkness, but there were plenty of other ways for Ves to make use of a spirit of darkness.

Ves turned his attention back to the situation at hand.

The Promethea Mark II Project had become much more ambitious in scope.

Gloriana was correct to point out that the Lionheart Mark Il Project simply couldn't measure up in comparison.

It couldn't be helped. The Promethea Mark Il had become an incredibly suitable platform to implement many different experimental technologies related to the fire element.

The strong interest demonstrated by the Cybernetic Empire would definitely turn the Promethea Mark Il into one of the most technologically advanced junior ace mechs by the time she had reached her promised form!

As for the Lionheart Mark Il, the powerful command mech was based on the more abstract and less prevalent light element.

As Ves continued to think on how to make good use of the Artificial Fire Heart, he suddenly became struck by a particularly radical idea!

"Are you crazy, Ves? You already created a disaster with the Riot Mark lil. How dare you come up with another proposal that directly puts the life of an ace pilot at risk? Do you even know what you are talking about?!"

Ves sheepishly smiled and raised his palms. "Calm down, honey. It is just an idea for now. I haven't done anything yet! I just want to explore the feasibility of what I just suggested. The Artificial Fire Heart is a wonder of CE tech and engineering. It is a natural wellspring of fire energy that has been compressed into a device that is larger than a human heart but not by a large extent. Given that Saint Isobel is currently walking around as a heavily mechanized cyborg that is specifically designed to tolerate heavy exposure to thermal energy and fire energy, I think we can produce an amazing result if we implant the Artificial Fire Heart in her torso."

Gloriana couldn't believe that Ves seriously thought that this was an idea worth pursuing.

She had studied the energy levels of the Artificial Fire Heart when it became fully unlocked and could not for a moment believe that any human, even a fully empowered ace pilot, could withstand the exaggerated output!

“You are talking about placing a metaphysical version of a mech-grade power reactor into the body of a human! There is no way we can make Saint Isobel strong enough to endure the output of the Artificial Fire Heart when it is in such close proximity to her brain! In fact, before her only remaining biological tissue burns up, her mechanical organs and structure will fail first because they have never been rated to channel enough energy to power a mech!”

Ves shook his head. "You are worrying too much. This won't happen so long as Saint Isobel carefully limits the output of the Artificial Fire Heart. When she is outside of the cockpit of the Promethea Mark Il, she should keep it closed or at the very least at its lowest powerful setting. She should be able to withstand continuous low-level exposure to fire energy. She may even be able to use this to constantly increase her affinity and comprehension towards the fire element.”

Gloriana frowned. "That is not enough of a justification to conduct this reckless and exceedingly dangerous experiment.”

“I am not finished yet. It is only when she interfaces with the Promethea Mark Il that she should gradually raise the limiter. She can use the output of fire energy to deepen her control over her ace mech, especially after she has formed a Bloodfire Pact with her battle partner. There should be a substantial difference if the principal source of fire energy has swapped from machine to man. This should normally fry her body, but don't forget about her Saint Kingdom. Ace pilots only come to their full power when they are piloting compatible ace mechs. With the activation of her Saint Kingdom, her extraordinary willpower should be more than powerful enough to bend reality and allow her body to withstand the load. In fact, due to the fact that she is putting her life and health in constant danger, she will live with a constant sense of crisis. Her speed of progression should definitely accelerate!"

His wife widened her eyes in realization. She finally understood his full scheme.

“This is what you really want to accomplish. Mutual Growth in Adversity. Just as in the case of Joshua and Orfan, you want to manufacture an artificial crisis for your chosen mech pilots in the hopes of accelerating their growth and spurring them on to break past their bottlenecks. You want to do this even if it means killing the mech pilots who you are supposed to serve."

“The theory might sound crazy, but it is still sound," Ves argued back. "Sure, a few accidents occurred when we handed the Riot Mark Ill over to Saint Orfan, but at least she fulfilled her greatest wish at the time and helped her become an ace pilot."

“THE RIOT MARK [Il WAS ALREADY MAGNIFICENT BEFORE YOU CONVERTED HIM INTO A D-MECH! ROSA ORFAN WOULD HAVE BROKEN THROUGH WITHOUT YOUR SO- CALLED SPECIAL TREATMENT!"

Ves snorted. "You don't know that. Perhaps it would have brought her 99 percent on the way to her second apotheosis, only for her to falter at the final step. We may never know. All I care about is that my previous experiment succeeded. This time is different. You should feel grateful that I have no intention of turning the Promethea Mark Il into a D-mech this time."

Ves suddenly became thoughtful.

"However, I am considering whether to turn my new ice fire energy projector into a D- arm. It actually has great potential to become a demonic artifact given that it will be centered around the use of an Ice Fire Stone."

"...l hate you, Ves." (More chapters in Buyers club for TMT)