The Mech Touch

Chapter 7386  The Final Opponent

Ves had to admit that he underestimated the Voice of Liberty.

He managed to complete the first 3 phases of the Mech Body Merger Process.

It turned out that Saint Conrad Morgenstern was not only a schemer, but also an opportunist.

When the ace pilot slowly merged his physical human form with the less definable existence of his mech, Ves could vaguely sense clear similarities between this case and that of the Riot Mark III!

It became obvious that the Voice of Liberty had taken notes during his encounter with the Riot Mark III.

Perhaps in his eyes, the superdimensional ace mech was less of an obstacle and more of a teaching example!

Though Ves considered Conrad's conduct to be a little shameful, all was fair in love and war.

Given such an 'excellent' example of a version of corporeal union between pilot and machine, how could the radical saint not resist the urge to attempt a similar transformation?

Of course, the two cases still diverged a lot from each other.

The Sound of Revolution was nothing like the Riot Mark III.

The former had never been turned into a D-mech, and did not possess a particularly strong and adversarial living spirit.

Though Ves could not deny that long and extensive use of the guitar-wielding mech by a particularly powerful ace pilot had caused it to develop a life of its own, the Sound of Revolution still lacked the qualities that stimulated Saint Orfan's successful breakthrough!

Ves grew concerned about that. He did not think it was a good idea for the Voice of Liberty to rashly copy a model that worked well enough for Saint Orfan but not necessarily for himself.

Oh well.

The man who aspired to become a god clearly did not let these doubts and considerations hold him back.

The fourth phase commenced.

At this time, the boundaries between Conrad Morgenstern and the Sound of Revolution had already blurred to non-existence.

The man was the mech and vice versa.

Due to withdrawal of the Saint Kingdom, the people in the vicinity did not get subjected to any excessive pressure.

The only influence that continued to affect their moods was the guitar music that had softened up and developed a more anticipatory chapter.

The Voice of Liberty knew that the most crucial phase had arrived.

After completing three arduous and costly phases, he had reached a highly unstable state of existence.

Though he had technically merged into his machine, his current state was not stable in the slightest.

Ves had the feeling that if the hopeful pilot made a single crucial misstep, he would lose complete control of himself and completely burst apart!

The loss of an absolute corporeal form apparently was a very big deal.

Not only had he sacrificed the human body that nurtured him and anchored his willpower for most of his life, but his mech had also turned into a type of energy object, causing it to become less suitable to anchoring his existence in the material realm.

Therefore, the most important step that remained was to ascend to a higher level of existence!

The only way the bloated and overloaded version of the Voice of Liberty could maintain his existence as an energy-based life form was to become a god that encapsulated both a being of extraordinary willpower as well as a powerful machine!

There was truly no way back for him. He did not even have any opportunity to rest and recover, as his current state was highly volatile.

The Voice of Liberty decisively commenced the fourth phase of the Mech Body Merger Process.

Total union.

The phrase suggested that the Voice of Liberty had not yet fully merged with his mech, which was technically true.

Despite merging his Saint Kingdom and his physical body with the Sound of Revolution, he still had not merged the totality of his willpower into his current state.

This step was rightfully considered the hardest of all because the pilot in question had to merge two different forms of energy into a single impossible amalgamation.

Willpower was highly exclusionary in nature.

Sure, Saint Morgenstern was able to use it to resonate with his ace mech and develop a bond with it in the process.

Yet that was more of a partnership than a total and complete union.

Although he had already completed an important step by merging his Saint Kingdom with his mech, that was just folding a byproduct more than anything.

The true criteria for attaining total union was to fuse his extraordinary willpower into his highly enriched mech to the point they became indistinguishable from each other!

Total union could be seen as a true miracle, as it was a concrete manifestation of an impossible phenomenon.

This was also another reason why it was considered the hardest step of all. The preceding steps could also be regarded as impossible phenomena, but the pilot only needed to bend reality to a moderate degree in order to make them happen.

What needed to happen next corresponded to a difficulty to a much higher order!

"I AM THE MASTER OF MY WILLPOWER, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!"

The Voice of Liberty's self-declaration encapsulated his final struggle.

The willpower that he had cultivated for most of his career had ironically become the ultimate stumbling block of his ascension!

While it was true that he was the origin of his own power, the latter possessed intrinsic traits that he had long taken advantage of, but now had to overcome through his own efforts!

In other words, Saint Conrad Morgenstern's final opponent as a mortal existence was himself!

This was an incredibly confounding situation.

For a long time, high-ranking mech pilots relied on their willpower to defeat other opponents.

Yet when they had reached far enough to reach the final phase of their path to godhood, they were all confronted by the source of their own strength.

How could an ace pilot possibly fight against himself and win?

Logic stated that an ace pilot could only ever match the strength of himself. There was no obvious way that he could exceed his own limit.

What was worse was that the only entity that was capable of defeating a saint at his height was a god!

Only by gaining the supreme power to rewrite reality and turn the impossible into possible could a pilot vanquish his own self and ascend to godhood!

In other words, the Voice of Liberty needed to harness the power of a god pilot in order to become a god pilot!

The inherent paradox in this statement exemplified how difficult and exceptional it was to make this happen.

After all, if the Voice of Liberty was able to wield the power of a god pilot, then why would he still need to undergo the Mech Body Merger Process?

No other god could lend a hand. The god prospect in question needed to pass this test through his own efforts. Relying on another powerful deity's assistance contradicted the very foundation of his willpower!

Therefore, most peak ace pilots remained stumped on this problem for a long time.

Yet the fact that a hundred or so succeeded throughout human history showed that this was not a truly impossible test.

Many god pilots relied on a variety of means to achieve their ascension.

Some had prepared for their breakthroughs for decades, while others relied on a combination of coincidences and favorable environments to ascend in one fell swoop.

The most common method was to pull off a feat so great that it became a legendary deed.

It had the smell of a ritual, so it made sense of how it could provide peak ace pilots with a vital boost that could still be regarded as a reward for their own efforts.

Ves believed that the Voice of Liberty deliberately confronted the escort fleet and defeated the Riot Mark III just so that he could forge his own legend on the spot!

This was evident when the ambush ships that accompanied him and his machine had not hesitated to broadcast the entire spectacle onto the galactic net!

Ves did not know how many people had tuned into the broadcast at the moment.

Even if not everyone had developed an interest in the current affair, they most definitely tuned into the live feed en masse as soon as the Voice of Liberty had begun his breakthrough process!

Now that he had become the center of attention for all of red humanity, the Voice of Liberty reached out through them with both his music and his words!

His transformed ace mech played a sequence that gradually became grander and more bombastic.

It had already gained the power to pass through light-years of distance and reach directly into the hearts of those who wished for the rise of a new god pilot!

As their hopes and expectations cautiously rose, the Voice of Liberty addressed them directly!

"HEAR ME, CITIZENS OF RED HUMANITY! TODAY, I PLEDGE TO BECOME YOUR VOICE. I SHALL LISTEN TO THE MAJORITY AND GIVE CONSIDERATION TO THE MINORITY. I SHALL GIVE POWER TO THE VOICES OF THE UNDERSERVED. I SHALL NOT BE IMPARTIAL, BECAUSE INDIFFERENCE CUTS THE DEEPEST. I SHALL BE YOUR SHIELD AGAINST THE ENEMIES FROM WITHOUT, BUT I SHALL ALSO BE YOUR SWORD AGAINST THE ENEMIES FROM WITHIN. IF YOU WISH TO SUPPORT MY CAUSE, THEN PRAY FOR MY SUCCESS!"

Ves found the speech relatively normal until Saint Morgenstern spoke the last words.

That put his appeal in a substantially different light!

As the Voice of Liberty finally threw himself fully into completing the fourth phase of the Mech Body Merger Process, it became clear why he made such a deliberate move.

His condition was already poor! He had exhausted much of his energy during the previous three phases and had damaged himself in ways that should have ended his life if he was not in his current state.

So how could he possibly think he could achieve total union with his machine and shed the final remnants of his mortality?

By exercising one of the exclusive privileges that belonged to gods, which was harvesting and harnessing the power of faith!

Though Ves was unable to feel or sense the passing of faith power, he could observe its effects on Saint Morgenstern.

His guitar music immediately reflected his gargantuan struggle by playing choppy and heavy chords.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

He also screamed or roared continuously as he bore great pain while forcibly trying to channel the power of faith!

Only by using the magical power of faith could the Voice of Liberty ever hope to complete his impossible transformation!

Yet as he continued to scream, he showed increasing signs of struggle.

Only gods were allowed to wield the power of faith.

The senior ace pilot already broke a fundamental taboo by tapping into it while he had not yet ascended to godhood.

This was also why not every god pilot relied on the power of faith to complete their own breakthroughs!

Those that did utilize the power of faith all endured similar struggles.

To touch upon the forbidden was to court death.

The power of faith was a powerful tonic to True Gods, but it was far too lethal to the unworthy!

Perhaps the main reason why the Voice of Liberty did not collapse right away was because he was already close to reaching the third major cultivation rank!

Only a thin barrier prevented him from passing through the final barrier.

He just needed a single push, one that was strong enough to poke through this deceptively thin wall and evolve into a new state of existence!

Yet…

The screams grew increasingly less forceful.

Instead, they sounded… increasingly more desperate.

The power of faith was highly corrosive, and the ace pilot's prodigious willpower could not block its harmful effects very well.

With every second that passed, another piece of the Voice of Liberty crumbled apart!

While he was gradually making progress, the cost of defeating himself may be too great for him to bear!