The Mech Touch

Ves regretted the creation of the Aspect of Transcendence. He should have never acted upon one of his inspirations and created a fourth organic statue that was meant to isolate and amplify the strongest obsessions of people subjected to its glow.

It would have been a different story if he succeeded in making it work, but so far the cleaning bots had to sanitize the testing chambers so many times that the blood had seeped into their circuits.

Of all of the test subjects that Ves had the pleasure of subjecting to his experiments, he never worked with such a high-quality expert pilot.

There was no doubt that out of every expert pilot in the expeditionary fleet, Patriarch Reginald Cross was undisputedly the most powerful of them all. The resonance meters all hovered at around 55 laveres in the few times he deployed with his Bolvar Rage. This was close to the upper limit of expert pilots and made him eligible to undergo a second evolution.

Yet for all of his efforts, Reginald never managed to make any progress over time. No matter what he tried, the resonance meters had not gone over 55 laveres at all in the span of a year.

This was a sign of stagnation and signified that the leader may have exhausted his natural potential a long time ago. This was why he said his talent was not as good as his father.

The only way for him to make meaningful progress was to resort to external pressure. The traditional solution had always been to drop into a battle and hope that everything worked out, but this was an exceedingly risky and reckless proposition.

Ves actually found it quite novel for Reginald and Benedict to come up with the idea of using the Aspect of Transcendence as a more convenient alternative. If it works the way that the pair expected it to, then it could present every desperate mech pilot with a more direct source of stimulation without endangering anyone else.

To certain kinds of people who valued power, attainment and success over their lives, the price of failure was not unacceptable to them! Ambitious individuals such as Patriarch Reginald were already accustomed to putting their lives on the line. Facing an unknown statue with a history of executing the unworthy was not that much a worse prospect.

It was still a troublesome request, though. Ves wouldn't mind if Patriarch Reginald wanted to die, but the problem was that Ves and his clan didn't want to attract any blame for the expert pilot's untimely death!

Just like Ves, Reginald played a crucial role in keeping the Cross Clan together. He was such a forceful and impressive figurehead that the Cross Clan would definitely descend into chaos if the heir and son of Saint Hemmington Cross died in a macabre experiment rather than perish gloriously on the battlefield!

The Golden Skull Alliance would definitely get messed up as a consequence. Ves could not allow this pivotal figure to throw away his life!

"Aren't you being too hasty, Reginald? You are making way too many assumptions here. First, who says you can't progress any further at this stage? Ace pilots never tend to be young. You may have grown older, but you still have plenty of years left in your life as long as you are able to receive at least one round of life-prolonging treatment."

"It's not that simple, young man." The expert pilot shook his head. "There are ways to extend the lifespan of my body, but it is a lot harder to ensure my will remains sharp. My goal isn't to maintain my current level of strength. My goal is to surpass it. Seeking ways to preserve and prolong my life will not bring me closer to my real goal. How else do you think that there are so few ace pilots in existence? In the Garlen Empire, we expert pilots all know that to achieve greatness, you must have the bearing of a great warrior. Letting time pass by while taking your time to become stronger does not conform with the standards of someone who is eligible to become an ace pilot."

"I see."

Mech pilots had it much harder than mech designers.

The latter was mostly an intellectual occupation that did not impose any heavy demands on fitness and fighting capabilities. This granted the mech industry a much greater tolerance to those who advanced when they were older than the average.

This was not necessarily the case for the former. Age was correlated with all sorts of variables that affected combat effectiveness. Even if piloting mechs was not as physical as swinging a sword in person, there were still many biological factors such as reaction time that still played crucial roles in determining overall performance.

Reginald's chances of breaking through would continue to drop over time. Even if the Cross Patriarch managed to succeed in his later years, there was not as much meaning to an ace pilot who already had a foot in his grave.

"I still have doubts about whether this is viable at all." Ves said. "The Aspect of Transcendence has never yielded a positive result. You chalk that up to the quality of test subjects that I have used, but the results aren't necessarily different if someone better comes forward. This is all untested and this will remain this way because I will not betray the people we are tasked to protect."

This firm response earned a rare look of approval from Patriarch Reginald. "I think the same way, so I will only make the attempt myself. I alone shall bear the price of my decision!"

This was false! Didn't Patriarch Reginald release that he would be doing his clan a great disservice by dying early and abruptly without preparing a suitable successor? Though he wrapped up his words with noble-sounding intentions, the expert pilot was only thinking about himself!

It appeared the apple did not fall too far from the tree. Saint Hemmington Cross had also been consumed by his self-centered views. Ves shouldn't have expected that the deceased ace pilot's son had learned enough lessons.

Ves let out a sigh. "Look, if you really insist, then I won't stop you any further, but at least we should do this properly. I admit that I have at least some belief that the Aspect of Transcendence can induce breakthroughs, but it does so in a very invasive and forceful manner. Those who fall short in any way will fail in the most gruesome manner possible."

"It may be the case that your Aspect of Transcendence is only effective to those who are already close to breaking through." Professor Benedict suggested. "From what you have told us, the test subjects that you have experimented on before are sub-standard individuals who are most certainly nowhere close to advancing to a greater stage. Your statue's glow had to do too much work in order to make them improve, and due to their inferior cognitions, they were incapable of withstanding the rapid buildup of pressure."

That was quite an extensive deduction considering that the Senior Mech Designer shouldn't have access to any details! If Ves didn't know any better, he would have thought that Professor Benedict was the one performing this experiment!

"That's a nice theory, but we have no idea whether it is accurate. We should be a bit more careful in making assumptions here, especially when we are dealing with a deadly subject. We can never be too careful."

The professor grinned like a shark. "On the contrary, young man! We should be bolder and explore the truth even harder. The greater the extreme, the greater the results! Something that induces so much danger is bound to be remarkable in a way. In order to harness it, we merely have to find the right solutions. It is inevitable that we must make some hard choices in order to achieve progress, but that is what separates true inventors from those who wish they were as successful as us. Face it, Ves. You are eager to try your experimental creation on an expert pilot, am I correct?"

"I.."

"You don't have to lie. If I were in your shoes, I would have tried to march Patriarch Reginald to the lab straight away. It is not every day you get to conduct a study involving an expert pilot."

Ves clutched Lucky against his body and frowned. Though he identified himself in the professor's words, that did not mean he liked it when he was being pressed in this manner!

"What I feel and what I desire has nothing to do with what is necessary. We Larkinsons always put duty and honor before greed and selfishness. Please don't lump me in the same category as you. We cannot be any further apart from each other. If you were indeed in my place, then the Aspect of Transcendence might have produced a bodycount that was a hundred if not a thousand times larger! The Larkinson Clan would have already come to an end if that was the case!"

Patriarch Reginald reached out with his hand and pressed the Senior Mech Designer back in his chair.

"Enough, Benedict. I am not here to discuss science with the two of you." The clan leader admonished before turning to Ves. "As for you, I have issued my request and I expect you to honor it. I shall wait and see if you are able to produce a masterwork expert mech for me. If you succeed, then you can forget about this. If you fail, then I will make sure that I shall succeed in your stead."

Ves wanted to palm his face. He was done with all of this nonsense. While he ordinarily welcomed anyone who volunteered to become his test subject, the latest person to step forward was too important to die under his care!

Expert pilots were so mule-headed that they became persistent sources of headache for Ves. Only a rare proportion of them managed to retain their common sense. The rest had become so warped by their extreme convictions that they literally thought that reality had to conform to their will rather than the other way around!

This was both the source of their extraordinary strength and the flaw that caused many of them to suffer from their self-inflicted wounds.

After a brief discussion, Ves finally had this tiring and stressful discussion with the Crosser leaders. He stormed back to his shuttle and waited for the vehicle to move away from the Hemmington Cross before letting down his guard.

"Goddammit!"

"Meow."

Lucky blinked as he floated next to Ves' head.

"Do you think that Patriarch Reginald has a chance of surviving this experiment?"

"Meow."

"Yeah, thought so. The Aspect of Transcendence should not be trifled with. Even I don't want to try out its glow."

Ves suddenly recalled an important detail. Back when he worked together with a Lifer biotechnician to create the statues, they used hastily-grown human clone tissue to form its organic composition.

"Wasn't it supposed to last three months at most?"

A lot more time had passed since the Aspects of Lufa initially came into existence. By now, it should have turned into a rotting mess. Yet Ves never heard anything about his old products decaying to such an extent.

When Ves returned to the Spirit of Bentheim, he headed straight to his workshop and entered the locked compartment where he had stashed all four Aspects of Lufa.

"They're.. they're still alive!"

All four organic statues looked as pure and pristine as the day he initially created them. The low-quality human tissue that made up their flesh and other organic features did not show any sign of aging or breaking down.

"How is this possible?"

When Ves inspected the organic statues with his spiritual senses, he slowly widened his eyes. He even took a few steps back in shock. What he discovered was such a huge surprise that he even felt a surge of fear coursing through his spine!

In his spiritual vision, the organic matter that covered all four statues were glowing with power. They were so tightly infused with spiritual energy that it was as if their flesh had transcended the limitations of ordinary human tissue!

"Monsters!"