The Mech Touch

After hearing about the strengths of every fish-whale king, Ves finally succeeded in getting the Cerebral King to explain its own source of strength!

This was what he always wanted to know! Out of all of the powerful fish-whales in Purgatory, the chances that he could approach them and hold a conversation with them without getting eaten was slim!

Only the so-called Cerebral King who appeared to be a combination between a scholar, a warrior and a king was smart and rational enough to speak to conduct talks with the outsiders.

Even though Ves thought the fish-whale king was a fool for agreeing to his request, he was grateful that the isolated alien was so easy to hoodwink.

He casually adjusted his posture as his armored body sat on the extra chair in the Everchanger's cockpit for many hours on end. Even though he really wanted to stretch his body and limbs, he did not want to shift any of his attention away from this fascinating interspecies exchange.

Joshua and the Everchanger had turned into silent presences during this entire event. They both understood the precariousness of the situation and did not interject in any way to prevent the current dialogue from spinning out of control.

That said, neither of them remained completely still. Both of them kept their senses peeled and sneakily studied the Cerebral King's gigantic body in order to figure out its strengths and weaknesses.

The king fish did not appear to notice any of this. In its hunger to obtain more information about the much larger expanse of space beyond the phase whale enclave, it eagerly traded away information about itself.

It had been an extremely long time since the Cerebral King last learned anything new. What Ves had told the king fish was already a hundred times more valuable than what it had managed to learn in the last thousand years!

The Cerebral King possessed a completely different valuation of old and new information. The deep reserves of knowledge that it had accumulated over time was stale and of little value in its opinion.

Compared to everything it had learned and discovered over a span of hundreds of thousands of years, the completely new and foreign information about the universe beyond Purgatory was like a lighthouse in the dark.

Ves was like the lighthouse keeper that could single-handedly guide the Cerebral King to a greater universe where it could get in touch with much more information than it could imagine!

The longer the dialogue lasted, the more the Cerebral King showed its eagerness to learn more. It did not even hide its lack of impatience, which made it easy for Ves to recognize that he held the initiative in this conversation.

Being able to trade useless information that pretty much every human in the Red Ocean already knew for the valuable secrets of the Cerebral King was definitely a worthwhile tradeoff!

Ves leaned in while listening carefully to the Cerebral King explain its own growth.

The king fish turned to the third and fourth murals with nostalgic eyes. Both of the early images that he had painted in the past depicted what had happened after the cultivation of its species.

The Flesh Conqueror, elated with the success of its initial project, created more fish-whales based on the templates of the first generation.

While the second generation of fish-whales were weaker and less intelligent, they had one advantage.

They reproduced a lot faster and easier!

"How do they grow their population, exactly?" Ves curiously asked.

The Cerebral King gestured its massive head at one of the murals that depicted the growth environment of the subsequent generations of fish-whales.

POOL OF LIFE. YOUNGLINGS SPAWN AND GROW WHEN FED. ONLY STRONGEST WILL SURVIVE AND EMERGE FROM POOL. WILL HAPPEN MANY TIMES IF FED WITH ENOUGH FOOD.

"I see. If I am understanding this correctly, the fish-whales under you reproduce through an asexual method for the convenience of birthing lots of offspring at a time, is that correct?"

WHAT IS ASEXUAL?

"Err, never mind." Ves awkwardly replied. "Anyway, please continue with explaining the growth of your species. What I want to know is what will happen to these fish-whales as they mature. How do they grow as big and powerful as the ones outside?"

The Cerebral King slowly swished its massive tail as it contemplated a decision. Eventually, it turned around and headed towards the exit.

FOLLOW. I WILL SHOW.

Ves wordlessly commanded Venerable Joshua to follow the king fish. The Everchanger moved and hovered after the massive king fish as they both emerged out of the ruined hall.

Now that they had appeared in the open, they were able to look directly at the duel that was still progressing despite the intensity of the fighting.

Neither the Bolvos Rage nor the bladed fish-whale had managed to gain the upper hand so far. This left them unreconciled about the results they had gained so far and pushed them to fight back even harder! They were unwilling to relent and allow the duel to end in a draw!

Ves took one casual look up and felt that Patriarch Reginald the bladed fish-whale were both knuckleheads among their species. Despite all of their inherent differences, the desire to compete and win was rooted in the DNA of many races!

The Flesh Conqueror obviously hadn't wiped out this trait from the fish-whale race it had created. Perhaps the maker of this species had even reinforced this tendency, which had led to the Fusion King betraying the rules and undermining the foundation of Purgatory!

Ves wasn't too worried about the outcome of the duel. From what it looked like, neither side was weak. The duelists also looked like they possessed a high degree of control over their own attacks, which gave him confidence that they possessed at least a decent sense of proportion.

He did not detect any desire to kill from the expert pilot or champion fish-whale. The chances that the Bolvos Rage would suffer serious damage should be fairly slim as long as neither side went overboard.

When Ves glanced at the Cerebral King, the creature also didn't look concerned. It hadn't even thrown a serious glance at one of its most powerful subordinates.

The powerful fish-whale had much more important concerns in mind at the moment!

The Everchanger and the Cerebral King continued to move until they reached one of the central structures.

Although it looked a little small, Ves soon discovered that it was actually a gateway to a massive underground compound.

As they slipped through the entrance, the first humans to enter this hallowed space became fascinated by the amount of decay and destruction that had marked the interior.

The degree of destruction was much greater in this space! It was as if a stampede of fish-whales had squashed every piece of furniture and fixture inside this underground hall!

THE TRAITORS SHOWED NO RESPECT TOWARDS OUR CREATOR. THEY DARED TO DEFILE THE WORKS OF GOD. EACH OF THEM DESERVE TO DIE.

"I see."

The scope of the devastation was much greater than Ves anticipated. As they passed from one underground hall to another underground hall, he was unable to figure out what purpose they originally served.

The walls were cracked. The floors were riddled with craters. It didn't help that the entire facility was made out of organic materials. While the bone materials managed to withstand the test of time, the softer items made out of more vulnerable flesh had all disappeared for the most part.

Since this was still a vacuum environment, Ves assumed that a bunch of hungry fish-whales had ignorantly eaten it all. The species weren't exactly picky about their diet. Their digestion system could pretty much absorb any kind of flesh. Perhaps it was not impossible for them to eat bone as well if they grew particularly hungry!

Ves continued to study the surroundings until the Cerebral King stopped in front of a broken gate.

"Is this…?"

THE SOURCE OF LIFE. ENTER BUT DO NOTHING ELSE. DO NOT DEFILE THE TOOLS OF GOD.

"We won't touch anything." Ves quickly promised.

The Cerebral King had finally led him to a key site!

He tried his best to suppress his excitement as the Cerebral King reluctantly passed through the broken gate.

The massive chamber past this opening looked vaguely familiar to Ves. After observing the surroundings a bit, he soon spotten the broken cultivation tanks that had once contained numerous powerful fish-whales!

This was the lab where the so-called Flesh Conqueror had originally created the fish-whale kings!

While the underground laboratory was built to be large enough to accommodate massive life forms, Ves was surprised that the Cerebral King could barely fit through the middle.

He frowned. Now that he thought about it, the gates, the corridors and numerous halls were too small to fit a massive phase whale. Did the phase whale whose remains were buried in the Royal Tomb possess a different identity than the Flesh Conqueror?

Perhaps the creator of Purgatory and the fish-whale race also happened to be the creator of the powerful clean whale that had once dominated the Red Ocean!

Of course, the other possibility was that the Flesh Conqueror possessed such an excellent mastery over its biological form that it was able to shrink the size of its body!

The Cerebral King approached one of the broken cultivation tanks. From the murals that Ves had studied earlier, he immediately figured out that the clever king fish had originally emerged from this very construct!

"Does it still do anything?"

NO. BROKEN. ATTEMPTED TO HEAL BUT FAILED.

"That is regrettable. Too much in this lab has been destroyed."

NOT ALL. FOLLOW.

The Cerebral King slowly led the Everchanger to the far side of the laboratory. The degree of destruction was much less here. There were actual giant lab machines that still looked intact to a degree!

While Ves did not see any markings nor spotted any obvious buttons or control interface, he had a strong suspicion that a couple of the lab devices were still intact and usable!

"They're… still alive!"

This was the first time since entering Purgatory that he actually came across organic technology that was still alive to his senses!

Not even the ancient space gate registered as alive to Ves. The device may have retained some of its functions, but it had lost much of its former glory. What remained intact was probably a backup option that the creator had added in the case of a calamity.

Ves guessed that the lab machines in this giant laboratory did not possess this redundancy.

He would have loved to know what the Flesh Conqueror was capable of doing if this facility was still intact.

The Cerebral King approached the biggest intact lab machine. It looked like a superfab with rounded edges that was scaled for phase whales. The sheer size and mass of this device was impressive to the tiny humans!

The king fish suddenly activated the device through unknown means. Light sources reluctantly turned on while a projected interface started displaying many different alien glyphs.

The fact that this ancient lab machine was able to boot up was already amazing to Ves. What surprised him even more was how the Cerebral King deftly managed to operate the device!

Soon enough, the king fish activated a single command that opened a giant port.

"Is this the device that is responsible for augmenting your bodies?"

YES. BLESSED MACHINE OF GOD. I AM THE ONLY OPERATOR. ONLY I HAVE INHERITED THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. I CANNOT CREATE NEW LIFE, BUT I CAN MAKE MYSELF MORE PERFECT.

"This… is a great machine. How much can you change?"

ANYTHING CAN BE CHANGED AS LONG AS I UNDERSTAND. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING. MUCH KNOWLEDGE OF GOD HAS BEEN LOST. TRAITORS HAVE DESTROYED TOO MUCH.

This explained a bit more why the Cerebral King hated the other king fish-whales. The violent breakout attempt had led to the destruction of almost every lab machine!

The only reason why this massive device was intact was because it was located on the opposite side of the exit.

When the first generation of fish-whales originally broke out of their confinement, they likely wanted to leave as soon as possible, so it was natural that they neglected to move to the rear!

As Ves studied the lab machine, he noticed that the Cerebral King grew more emotional and less stable. The significance of this lab machine to the alien creature was massive!