The Mech Touch

The Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers each contributed a lot to the upcoming operation.

After everyone gained a better idea on what they were working on, they resumed their preparations and hoped that their efforts would pay off. They did not want to open up another portal at great cost only for the gigantic skeleton to remain as pristine as ever!

Several days went by as the different parties completed their work.

Ketis and Professor Benedict have worked day and night to design and fabricate the whale-cutting saber.

Ves became so intrigued by this project that he decided to see the new weapon for himself. He shuttled over to the Cyclical Engine and entered Professor Benedict's high-end workshop.

Once inside, Ves briskly approached the two mech designers as they gazed at their work.

It did not look like a rushed product at all. Despite developing it for less than a week, the heavy saber looked as if it took weeks if not months to design this impressive armament!

While it was not a masterwork weapon like the Decapitator, the new heavy saber was remarkably high in quality.

Ves had no doubt that Ketis had poured in all of her passion in this rushed project, but that wasn't enough to explain how this mech weapon became so good.

The only explanation that made sense was that Professor Benedict had learned a lot about quality and masterworks during his last collaboration with the Larkinson mech designers.

If Ves studied the nuances of the whale-cutting saber carefully, he could spot a few elements that vaguely looked as if Professor Benedict took inspiration from Ves and Gloriana's approach.

Ves had no reason to be unhappy about this. Any solution was fine as long as the whale-cutting saber performed better in the end!

"What do you think? Are you satisfied with your work?"

Ketis shrugged. "I wish we had more time to make this weapon, but we did the best we could. This is a worthy weapon for the Bolvos Rage and only needs modest changes in order to be just as good in the hands of the Mars Project."

"Professor?"

"I have never designed a melee mech armament that is as odd as this work." Benedict said as he sounded as if he still had trouble recognizing his own work. "Miss Ketis here is able to impart her weapons with several advantages, a few of which I have never seen from other mech designers. I cannot say whether Patriarch Reginald will take a liking to all of its features, but I do not doubt its cutting power."

"I couldn't implement as many of my design solutions as I liked since Patriarch Reginald is neither a saber wielder nor a Swordmaiden." Ketis let out a regretful sigh. "I had to cut back on what I could add from my swordmaster powers. I developed a new saber style that I have adapted from my other styles and condensed the moves into just a handful of powerful moves. If Reginald accepts my teachings and takes the saber style seriously enough, he may be able to master the moves within a week. That will give him a better chance at cutting through the resistance."

"Will it be necessary, though?" Ves wondered.

Ketis thought for a moment. "Maybe not. Patriarch Reginald is not a novice in combat. He has developed his own methods and techniques to enhance the strength of his melee attacks. Still, the new techniques I've imparted to this saber perfectly matches the properties of this weapon. They also make the most out of the sharpness that I have tried my best to maximize for this weapon."

The whale-cutting saber was a departure from many of her other weapon designs. Unlike the greatswords that she designed for the Monster Slayer and Second Sword designs, the heavy saber made no pretense about its unsuitability for dueling.

Its blade was way too long, heavy and thick to be swung around with skill and precision. The weapon was solely made to perform the simplest swings. Nothing more was needed to leverage more power from the blows!

With the mechanical strength of the Bolvos Rage, the expert hybrid mech was not able to swing the weapon quickly at all, but it was worth it as long as the individual attacks were powerful enough!

Ves came closer to the finished weapon and examined the cutting edge closely. He clearly identified the influence of Ketis' core design philosophy.

"This saber is designed for cutting and nothing else." Ketis said as she approached her own work and knocked her armored fist against the flat surface of the gigantic blade. "The Decapitator is more refined and benefits from having Bissonat, but my new work is designed in a way that can give a high-tier expert pilot a better chance at condensing and converging his power. I couldn't have done it without this guy's help."

"This saber incorporates a large quantity of materials that we intended to save up for the Mars Project's axe. I could not allow their efficacy and potential to go to waste." Professor Benedict said.

The Cross Clan supplied all of the resources to make this saber, so Ves did not feel bothered by its cost.

"Have the two of you come up with a good name for this weapon?"

"...I'm happy with calling it the Whale-Cutting Saber." Ketis replied after a few seconds. "With capital letters, that is. It's a simple and unpretentious name, but one that will hopefully strike fear in every space whale's heart one day."

Ves turned to the Senior Mech Designer. "Are you okay with this name?"

Benedict looked as if this was a childish matter. "Miss Ketis is the lead designer of this project. She deserves to name the weapon."

Since he did not object to the name proposed by Ketis, the weapon would henceforth be known as the Whale-Cutting Saber.

Ves wondered whether this direct and brutal-sounding name would attract the hatred of any phase whales. How would these space creatures feel if they stumbled upon a weapon that was expressly designed and named to kill the strongest of their kind?

"Let us pack this weapon up and bring it to the Bolvos Rage." Ketis said. "Patriarch Reginald must get accustomed to it as much as possible. I will personally advise and help him master the techniques associated with this saber."

"You do that. I will talk with Crossers a bit longer before I return to my flagship."

Ves lingered for another hour as he talked to Professor Benedict about their recent challenges in the Garimel System.

Surprisingly, Benedict showed substantial concern towards Ves.

"You are heavily committed to this operation. Maybe too much. Have you ever thought about what state you will be in if we have used up much of our time and resources in vain?"

Ves pressed his lips. "We are indeed taking a big risk, but I would not feel good about myself if I passed on this attempt to obtain a fantastic material that is definitely unique. These bones are not only strong and light compared to the other materials, they are also organic."

"And that matters?"

"It does to me. I have… a special affinity for organic materials and components." Ves replied. "While I am not a biomech designer, I have always wanted to incorporate more biological components in my classical mech designs. Any mech that I design with this bone material will probably possess a lot of extra advantages that cannot be easily substituted with other materials."

Ves had a strong hunch that he could develop mechs that were stronger than the expert mechs he had designed so far! Unending alloy was great but it was ultimately a cold, hard metal material.

The bones in the Royal Tomb were not only organically grown, but also accompanied the life of an ancient phase whale for many years!

This should have left a strong imprint of the enormous beast in the bone. If Ves could extract or take advantage of this property in another way, he had a strong suspicion that his design philosophy would be able to advanced by leaps when he succeeded!

This was why Ves was determined to go through with this gamble. Costly or not, this might be his only opportunity to get his hands on the bones of such a stupendously powerful organic existence.

Considering the rarity of creatures of this power, it might take a century before Ves stumbled upon a similar chance!

After Ves had made his determination clear, Professor Benedict no longer tried to temper the younger mech designer's expectations.

"We will see tomorrow whether our work is sufficient."

The next day arrived pretty soon. A lot of mechs and personnel got ready as they prepared to open the space portal a second time.

This time, the Golden Skull Alliance prepared to use up almost two-thirds of all of the resonating exotics excavated from the site.

This was a hefty sacrifice, but also a necessary one according to the calculations.

The Glory Seekers had actually taken it upon themselves to calculate the exact quantities and usage of the resonating exotics.

While they did not possess any strong advantages in this area, they still possessed ties to many Hexer organizations.

The Glory Seekers therefore supplied all of the relevant data to a distant research institution. After a lot of research, the external scientists came up with a way to open a portal that was large enough to accommodate the giant bones with moderate room to spare.

There was no need to waste more resonating materials in order to make the portal any bigger.

Ves looked impassively from a commander center as lots of bots as well as gravitic modules slowly brought the resonating materials together.

Each of them had been lightly processed so that they touched each other as much as possible.

Once all 49 resonating materials pressed together, the same changes occurred as last time!

"The resonating exotics are disintegrating!"

"Detecting strong spatial fluctuations. The space portal is larger and more powerful than before!"

"How long will it last?"

"Unknown, sir, but our preliminary readings suggest that it will last beyond the deadline."

The formation of the portal was a lot slower and more violent than the first time. It was as if this unknown process had to put a lot more effort into ripping reality apart to form this portal!

Ves grew a bit nervous as several minutes went by. The space around the entire underground site seemed to shake.

"Pull back! Don't stay too close!"

Many shuttles, mining mechs and other assorted vehicles and equipment left the mining tunnel entirely.

The Living Sentinel mechs backed off as well but still maintained their battle-ready posture. The Minerva floated behind them as Commander Casella Ingvar began to feel less at ease with the developing portal.

After four minutes of spatial convulsions, the portal finally stabilized!

An opaque surface came into form. Just like usual, its surface did not offer people at this side a glimpse of the other side.

A large collection of bots and probes immediately flew through the portal.

Strangely enough, none of them returned.

Ves began to frown. "What is the matter? The first bots should have arrived up to a dozen seconds after they entered the Royal Tomb."

As other people grew confused as well, an unexpected development occurred.

A biological monster that was half the size of mech emerged out of the large portal!

The creature looked like a fat and oval fish that had somehow swam into space.

"What… is that?"

"Unknown organism. We have yet to find a match in the database."

"Our scanners have detected partial phase whale DNA from this new creature."

"What?!"

Just as Ves tried to figure out what was going on, a second fat 'fish' flew out of the portal. The unsympathetic-looking monster bumped into the first one.

Then a third one appeared.

A fourth one arrived right afterwards.

The fifth and sixth fish monster squeezed through the portal at the same time!

The stream of fish monsters kept pouring out of the portal as if this was just the start!

In the meantime, the first fish monsters to appear on this side of the portal finally regained their bearings.

They observed the expanded mining tunnel and quickly set their predatory sights on all of the mechs in the vicinity.

The monsters seemed to take offense at the mechs and rapidly dove forward in order to smash the metallic machines!

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"