The Mech Touch

As the duel between Patriarch Reginald and the bladed fish-whale entered a terminal phase after both approached their limits, their leaders had come to an important point in their dialogue.

After a lot of fruitful exchanges, Ves had learned enough from the Cerebral King to figure out a framework for cooperation.

The most basic level of this framework centered around the direct exchange of goods.

The Golden Skull Alliance was not poor in resources and other goodies. Its fleet was well-equipped and filled with all kinds of high-value materials and spare parts. Many of these goods were completely foreign to Purgatory and the fish-whales and could provide substantial boosts to fish-whales who had never come into touch with them before.

The Evolution Kingdom was not as rich or well-endowed, but that was only what was obvious on the surface.

Even though the fish-whale society here was shabby and primitive, Ves recognized that the Evolvers actually held a lot of unique and valuable goods!

The most prized possessions in the Cerebral King's hands were its intact lab machines and its vast pool of knowledge on alien biotechnology!

Unfortunately, the king fish had been adamant about holding onto both of them to its dying breath!

INHERITANCE BELONGS TO CHILDREN OF GOD AND NO ONE ELSE. HUMANS NOT ALLOWED TO LEARN SECRET KNOWLEDGE.

"Can you allow me to gain access to your Organ Forge? This is a fascinating piece of alien technology, and I am incredibly eager to understand how it works."

NO. ORGAN FORGE IS HERITAGE OF GOD. HUMANS CANNOT DEFILE ORGAN FORGE.

Ves grimaced when the Cerebral King stood its ground on this matter.

The reason why he persisted in making these demands was because both of his requests were extremely important to his development and the development of the clan.

When Ves listened to what the Cerebral King had done to strengthen so many fish-whales and tried out new mutations on them at the same time. A lot of fish-whales under its command had died due to complications arising from faults in the organ designs or lack of compatibility.

The Cerebral King had performed so many experiments through trial and error that it must have accumulated an incredible amount of theories on how to augment powerful fish-whales.

To Ves, this was highly similar to how mech designers continuously iterated on their designs. No mech was perfect and even a fantastic cost-effective product would fade out of popularity sooner or later.

This pattern resulted in the need to continue designing newer and more impressive mechs. It was a never-ending arms race as mech designers constantly sought to develop mechs that were a little stronger and a little more valuable than their previous works!

This was why Ves saw many parallels between mech designers and the Cerebral King.

Alien or not, the king fish was also a designer at heart!

The Cerebral King could aptly call itself a fish-whale designer for improving the 'designs' of an uncountable number of fish-whales over the years!

Whether it was its own body or the bodies of its subjects, the smart and powerful fish-whale embodied a creator that never gave up, never lost heart and never stopped developing stronger fish-whales throughout its extremely long life!

Ves truly admired the Cerebral King's dedication to its research.

This was why he believed that the deal he proposed to the king fish would definitely catch its attention. As a fellow designer, Ves understood the frustration of generating many wonderful and powerful design concepts only to abandon them due to lack of materials!

Ves theorized that phasewater was such a critical resource to the fish-whales that it played the same role as prime materials to his own mech designs.

He had long been frustrated by the limited quantities of Unending alloy in his possession. There was only enough of this resilient and spiritually-reactive material at his disposal to clad five expert mechs with this incredibly useful substance.

As for the expert mechs that Ves intended to design after the Everchanger? None of them would excel in manifesting prime resonance as long as they did not have the benefit of Unending alloy!

This was why Ves often looked at the Minerva with regret. While he was proud that he had been able to turn it into a natural masterwork mech without relying on any gems or other shenanigans, deep in his mind the expert mech wasn't as perfect as he wished.

There was nothing wrong with its design and implementation. Ves, Gloriana and the rest of the contributing designers all tried to make the best out of the limitations they were working under. Budget contracts, time constraints, technological constraints and so on couldn't prevent Commander Casella Ingvar from receiving a highly compatible expert command mech.

Yet… even if she never said anything, the Sentinel Commander could not have missed the fact that her expert mech was much more fragile than that of her peers in the Larkinson Clan! The lack of Unending alloy or a material with comparable properties integrated in her design was a source of tension and regret that would not just affect Casella, but many other Larkinson expert pilots that emerged afterwards such as her brother.

It was because Ves experienced these regrets that he believed that the Cerebral King would not be able to resist the temptation to grab a huge amount of phasewater.

The king fish already stated in its earlier speech that it needed a lot of phasewater to 'complete' the evolution plan of its body!

With the Cerebral King's own future and power progression at stake, it shouldn't matter whether the big fish was an alien creature that did not think like humans.

If there was one lesson that humanity learned after venturing into the stars, it was that every intelligent race was driven by their needs and desires!

With such an obvious and attractive benefit at stake, Ves believed that he could persuade this alien who he had only met a few hours ago to launch a risky and extremely dangerous attack against a rival kingdom!

However, was the Cerebral King truly that easy to persuade? Though the big fish showed plenty of desire and willingness after Ves had made his offer, the creature soon regained his composure.

As an ancient being that was the ancestors of the fish-whale race, the Cerebral King did not manage to survive this long if he foolishly gave in to his impulses all the time!

IMPOSSIBLE. ATTACKING LEADS TO DEATH. KIN TOO STRONG. GODBLOOD KING TOO STRONG. NO ATTACK. WILL ALL DIE.

Ves frowned. "Don't be in such a hurry to refuse. Think about the last time you directly fought against this 'Godblood King'. How much stronger have you become since then? With your ability to augment your body over time, you should have grown a lot stronger than before."

The enormous fish-whale shook its body.

FUTILE. IMPROVEMENT HAS STOPPED. NO PROGRESS. MY KIN ALSO TOO WEAK. GODBLOOD KING HAS STRONGER AND MORE KIN. TOO MUCH GODBLOOD. TOO MUCH POWER. TOTAL DISADVANTAGE.

"That may be true, but what if we are on your side as well? We humans may not be strong compared to your mighty fish-whales or your creator and 'god', but we can still fight by your side."

EXPLAIN.

Ves smiled wider. "It is simple. We humans will help you in two ways. First, the army of mechs that you have seen outside will fight alongside your army of fish-whales. We have enough mechs to defeat hundreds of Phaser fish-whales and we also have a few strong mechs that can fight against champion fish-whales such as your strongest deputy."

NOT ENOUGH. TOO FEW.

"That is why my second form of assistance is to make up for your current shortcomings. Your territory is not able to produce enough resources to make you and your fellow fish-whales stronger, right? Well, have you ever heard of the concept of trade?"

WHAT IS TRADE?

"We have already been trading, you and I." Ves spoke as he held his hand against his chest plate. "I provided you with information about humans while you reciprocated by telling me about your history. Now, I want to conduct a more physical form of trade. You can give me an item of value to us, and if we are satisfied, we can give you goods and resources that come from outside this phase whale enclave. Unlike you fish-whales, we are not limited by the resources produced in our own space. We have access to much more materials and more diverse varieties of them as well! We can even trade you completed products such as a power reactor similar to the one that provides endless energy to this mech before your eyes!"

The Everchanger had already wound down from its fully powered state by now, but Venerable Joshua still kept it at a relatively active power level.

Heat continued to radiate from the expert mech, giving it the illusion that it held the power of a star inside its frame!

The Cerebral King could not help but be impressed that a tiny mech was able to generate so much power without looking distressed at this degree of power consumption.

Lack of energy was one of the persistent shortcomings of the Evolution Kingdom's fish-whales!

Even if the Cerebral King was able to unleash enormous attacks that could wipe out thousands of enemy fish-whales at a time, the consumption of energy was horrible and could not easily be made up in a couple of days.

The lack of energy also limited the improvement of the bodies of its little brothers. The bladed fish-whale and the silver fish-whale might undoubtedly look extremely powerful from the perspective of the humans, but they were akin to expert candidates that had failed to take the final step and undergo apotheosis.

If the humans were truly able to provide additional sources of energy, then wouldn't these two powerful champion fishes be able to move one step closer to reaching the level of a king fish-whale?

With three king fishes belonging to the same camp, the chances of defeating the Phase Kingdom or at least pulling off a successful raid was much greater!

As the Cerebral King rapidly thought about the feasibility of this ambitious plan, it soon generated a bit of doubt due to one point of uncertainty.

The giant fish-whale stared at the projection of the power reactor. It was a metallic object that was just as unfamiliar to it as the mechs used by humans. It was based from a completely different tech base than what it had inherited from its god and creator!

DOUBT.

"What are you doubtful of? Is it this power reactor?"

UNKNOWN. CANNOT UNDERSTAND. USABLE?

"Oh, it's very much usable!" Ves quickly replied. "I know it must look confusing to you, but think of it as an organ. Instead of being made out of flesh and bone, it is made out of alloys and composites. Other than that, it functions the same as the organs that are in your body. You don't need to understand how it works or how to make it. Our intention in providing you with a complete and functional power reactor is for you to connect to these power ports here. Once you do that, this metal organ will provide you with a continuous stream of electrical energy! Oh, and don't worry about being unable to control its output. You can push these buttons here to control how much energy they provide at any time."

The Cerebral King's massive eyes shook.

HOW MUCH ENERGY? HOW MUCH CONTROL?

"One of our larger power reactors can double the energy that you consume during battle." Ves boasted even though he did not know whether this was true at all. "Our smaller power reactors aren't as powerful, but they are much smaller which you can easily implant in the bodies of your subordinate fish-whales. As long as we provide enough power reactors, we can completely upgrade the combat prowess of you and your troops! This should be enough for you to challenge the Phase Kingdom!"

If the Evolution Kingdom didn't take the bait this time, then Ves would seriously question whether the Cerebral King was actually smart!