The Mech Touch

Both sides still needed time to prepare for the upcoming assault on the Lake Continent held by the Phase Kingdom.

Out of all of the landmasses in Purgatory, the Lake Continent probably held at least 60 percent of all of the phasewater produced in this pocket space!

In fact, this was only the most conservative estimate made by the analysts. There was a high probability that it actually contained 80 percent or more of the total amount of phasewater reserves available to the fish-whale race!

There was so much phasewater on this continent that the very space around it wobbled all the time.

If not for the fact that the continent itself seemed to stabilize the surrounding space, the landmass would have long fractured apart!

Naturally, Ves wouldn't make the mistake of breaking open the Lake Continent only to find himself unable to take away his loot. The Golden Skull Alliance already prepared special containers and vessels that should be able to carry a certain amount of phasewater without inducing any damage.

If they happened to obtain more phasewater than what they could carry, then they could ask their temporary fish-whale allies to act as porters.

Time passed by as both sides got ready to launch an ambitious raid.

One of the biggest reasons why they needed to wait was because the Cerebral King was busy with implanting the newly-received power reactors into the bodies of its strongest and most elite fish-whales.

Each creature that emerged out of the underground lab compound looked as if they had all been reborn.

None of their bodies showed any signs of rejection. In fact, they looked as if they were plants that were previously deprived of light but suddenly gained access to open skies!

Now, they just needed to gain a lot of water to further their growth even further. Each of the Evolver fish-whales looked hungrily in the direction of the Lake Continent.

The atmosphere around the humans and the Evolvers became more charged as they mentally got ready to fight a major battle.

Neither of the groups were stupid. They both knew that this would be a hard battle. The Phase Kingdom had managed to survive the survival game for so long because of the destructive abilities of its members.

They were so good at cracking and warping the physical dimensions that it was not advisable to attack them with melee mechs!

Letting them get close just made it easier for the Phaser fish-whales to mop them up en masse.

The safest way to attack the powerful creatures was to attack them from afar with spread ranged mechs. As long as the machines did not crowd around each other too much, the efficiency of enemy area attacks was much reduced.

However, this was not a proper way to attack the Phase Kingdom at all. The Cerebral King already told Ves that the Evolvers attempted to attack the Lake Continent by relying on massed ranged attacks.

None of these attempts succeeded!

The Phaser fish-whales were not only proficient at attacking, but were also good at erecting shields!

As long as enough of them generated overlapping shields, virtually no ranged attack could get through!

The only way to break apart the strong defenses was to flood the shields with a huge amount of charging fish-whales. The price to do so was too great so the Cerebral King never thought about attacking the Phase Kingdom anymore.

It wasn't until the humans presented it with another chance that the king fish reconsidered its decision, but that didn't mean it was ready to launch an immediate assault!

It was time for the humans to prove that they were able to enact a realistic plan to assault the Lake Continent without suffering an excessive amount of casualties.

As the Everchanger and the Cerebral King gathered together again, the latter already looked as if it had been reborn!

While the other Evolvers such as the bladed fish-whale and the silver fish-whale all looked pumped up due to the addition of their new power reactors, the difference was much greater with the king fish!

Out of all of the recently-augmented fish-whales, the Cerebral King obtained the most powerful human gift!

"This big fish…" Venerable Joshua frowned as he studied the sensor readings. "It's as if we are approached by a volcano that is ready to set off at any time. There is so much dormant power hidden in its body!"

It was not a surprise for him to develop this impression. The Cerebral King of now was not the same as the Cerebral King of before.

Ves roughly compared the king fish's situation to an extremely powerful hybrid mech like the Bolvos Rage.

The biggest difference was that the Cerebral King's previous situation was too unbalanced. The Organ Forge allowed it to develop a lot of powerful organs, each of which was capable of converting energy into useful output.

Whether it was launching devastating attacks or generating formidable shields, the Cerebral King possessed a lot of different options, each of which was enough to tilt the outcome of a battle in its favor.

The biggest issue was that all of those king-grade organs were power hogs!

It couldn't be helped. Everything had a price, and the Lab Continent's lack of resources made it difficult for the Cerebral King to feed all of its hungry organs.

Now, this shortcoming was no longer as big of an issue as before. Out of all of the assets that humanity relied upon, starships were definitely among the most potent and powerful of them all. Many of them required enormous power reactors just to keep them running!

Although the Golden Skull Alliance only handed over the smallest starship-grade power reactor that it had on hand, the energy output of this large component far exceeded that of a mech!

One of the reasons why the Cerebral King appeared to be brimming with suppressed energy was because it was steadily nurturing all of its powerful but starved organs.

The king fish no longer had to operate as if it was put into a low power mode anymore! With the abundant amount of energy produced by a ship reactor, it had turned from a homeless beggar into a wealthy business overnight!

SATISFACTION. POWER REACTOR GOOD. EVOLUTION PLAN HALF-COMPLETE. GRATITUDE TO HUMANS. MUST ATTACK GODBLOOD KING. MUST OBTAIN GODBLOOD. MUST COMPLETE EVOLUTION PLAN.

Ves smiled. "That's what I want to talk about."

From what he could tell about the Cerebral King, there was no way this ambitious fish-whale would leave a project half-complete!

Phasewater was too important to the fish-whales. Since their species was derived from the phase whale race, it was far too difficult for them to round out their growth if they lacked this essential resource.

Although the Cerebral King accumulated a respectable amount of phasewater over the many years of its existence, it simply wasn't enough. Perhaps it might take another couple of million years until its body was finally full, but would it even be alive at that time?

The other three fish-whale kingdoms weren't sitting still! The other three fish-whale kings were all accumulating strength in their own way. Since each of them had access to large amounts of specific resources, their strength would undoubtedly grow over time!

This was the greatest reason why the Cerebral King must act soon. It was smart enough to recognize it was living on borrowed time.

Ves and the Cerebral King rehashed their attack plan and made sure their troops didn't get in each other's way when the assault commenced.

Neither side were eager to get too close to the Phaser fish-whales, but that did not solve the fundamental problem of cracking open their formidable defenses.

NEED SWARM KIN. NEED THEM TO ATTACK PHASE KINGDOM. WILL NOT ATTACK WITHOUT SWARM KIN. HOW TO MAKE THEM ATTACK?

"We have prepared several different solutions based on what we have researchers and what we have learned from your information package." Ves replied to the big fish. "We will first try to provoke the fish-whales with our own unique method. Joshua, can you give the big fish a demonstration?"

"Sure thing, sir."

The Everchanger switched its design spirit from the Golden Cat to Zeigra. This immediately caused its demeanor to change!

Previously, the Everchanger was like a kitty.

Now, it had turned into a ferocious tiger!

The change was so dramatic that not even the Cerebral King remained unaffected! While it didn't back off or anything, its body grew tenser than before.

However, the king fish's eyes did not show much elation.

NOT ENOUGH. WILL NOT WORK.

"We have taken that into account." Ves replied. "This is why this is just one of several solutions that we have prepared."

WHAT SOLUTION?

"Let me explain…"

Ves explained the various tricks and schemes that he and the other experts of the Golden Skull Alliance had come up with. When he mentioned the last potential plan, the Cerebral King's body shook.

GOOD PLAN. WILL WORK. WILL MAKE SWARMERS FURIOUS. GOOD GOOD GOOD.

"I am happy to hear that you are confident about our chances." Ves smiled. "Do you agree to proceed with our attack? My forces are ready to depart at any time."

MUST GO. MUST ATTACK PHASE KINGDOM. MUST KILL TRAITOR AND OBTAIN GODBLOOD.

With the Cerebral King's enthusiastic assent, the alliance between the humans and the fish-whales agreed to cooperate with each other.

Both groups had set their sights on the Lake Continent!

However, before they reached this heavily-defended place and launched their offensive, they first needed to pick up their batch of cannon fodder.

This was why they diverted to another landmass that just happened to be situated next to the Phase Kingdom.

The continent wasn't that remarkable among the ones in control of the Swarm Kingdom. When Venerable Tusa made his scouting run, he called the medium-sized asteroid the Spiral Continent because of the peculiar shape of the landmass.

One of the interesting parts about the Spiral Continent was that it hosted a lot of Swarmers. The landmass bordered both the Evolution Kingdom and the Phase Kingdom, so the Hive King made sure to station extra troops in order to raise the price of conquering this strategically-located asteroid.

Now, it looked as if one of the concerns of the Hive King was about to come true!

Although the allied force composed of human mechs and many different Evolver fish-whales did not get too close, the Swarmers should definitely notice that something was wrong soon!

The Everchanger flew out of the group and approached the Spiral Continent under escort.

The Dark Zephyr and a particularly fast Evolver referred to as the redline fish accompanied the expert hero mech.

Ves went over the plans one last time before he was ready to start luring the fish-whales out of their places.

"Okay, Joshua. Let's try a couple of experiments. Start with stimulating them with Zeigra's glow."

"Roger that, but… are you sure you want to remain in my cockpit? I don't think it is necessary for you to stay anymore. We already made a deal with the king fish and we both agreed on what we should do. Our task force can complete our objectives without your help."

"I'm not going anywhere." Ves shook his head. "The attack on the Phase Kingdom must succeed. I need to be there when it happens because we might be able to plunder other valuables aside from phasewater. I also need to make sure that we can keep communicating with the Cerebral King in case the situation spins out of control."

He never thought about leaving the cockpit. Although the risks were considerable, the Everchanger wasn't weak by any means. He trusted his machine to keep him safe!

Besides, how many times would he be able to experience a massive battle as exciting as this? While ordinary mech designers would definitely scream and run away as far as possible, Ves was the opposite!

His body grew hotter as his blood circulated faster in his body. His mind grew more active and his imagination already conjured up new ideas for mech concepts that would be able to contribute even more to this battle!