The Mech Touch

Though the anti-resonance sword looked the least impressive out of all of the three main weapons of the Neo Amadeus, its properties were extremely effective against the current form of the Mars!

Now that Reginald had strengthened his Saint Kingdom, it took a lot more effort for most weapons to invade his territory.

The anti-resonance sword happened to be able to ignore this measure entirely!

Patriarch Reginald already felt it as soon as Jeremiah's changed domain field pressed close.

Strangely enough, the latter had acquired some of the properties of the anti-resonance sword as well, allowing the Neo Amadeus to press into the territory of the Mars with greater ease!

"Ah!"

Due to how closely Patriarch Reginald invested in his Saint Kingdom, the damage it suffered at the hand of his opponent's domain field also reflected back on his own mind and will.

The Mars at least managed to block the anti-resonance sword with its thick and sturdy axe, but Saint Jeremiah was anything but done with his attack routine!

Jeremiah Gauge spent most of his life as an expert pilot. He trained, developed and honed his swordsmanship over many decades, focusing the most on deepening his skill and control over his weapons.

Now that he had gotten rid of the distraction of wielding many different weapons, Jeremiah was able to invest his complete focus into his swordsmanship!

The result of this was that the Neo Amadeus turned into a terror with a sword.

The ace swordsman mech started to fight in the most classic manner of its mech type and sought to overcome the Mars by relying on excellent skill, refined techniques and strong intent!

Despite Patriarch Reginald's more powerful control over the Mars, he found himself unable to keep up with his opponent's movements.

Though the Mars was still able to block around half of the incoming sword attacks, the Neo Amadeus attacked so quickly and with so much brilliance that its naked blade began to strike the surface of the Abasis Armor with great force!

Fortunately, the anti-resonance sword did not possess any transphasic properties of its own. This granted it no bonuses in its attempt to overcome the strong spatial reinforcement of the Abasis Armor.

"This damned patterned armor plating is constantly getting in my way!" Jeremiah uttered a complaint.

If the Mars didn't possess such an unreasonably expensive and powerful armor system, it would have suffered damage already!

Even so, Patriarch Reginald was anything but comfortable at the moment. Each solid cut from the anti-resonance sword took a lot of energy to resist.

The Abasis Armor might be strong, but that was only the case when it was active and powered by true resonance.

Reginald could not allow his opponent to consume him in this manner!

"The actual surface of the Mars seemed to glow brighter. It was as if its heart beat faster and its body got infused with more blood.

In actuality, Reginald connected and resonated more deeply with both the Magma Vein System and the Endex System. His immense willpower amplified their performance to a greater degree, allowing them to supply more energy to the power-hungry systems of the Mars!

The Mars began to move again. Its Pulsvar V-1 transphasic flight system received a greater injection of energy than before, allowing the ace hybrid mech to move faster without compromising the performance of its other capabilities.

The Neo Amadeus no longer had an easier target to strike!

Saint Jeremiah had little choice but to make his ace swordsman mech keep up, investing more energy and true resonance into its transphasic flight system so that the Neo Amadeus could continue to get in range to assault the Mars with its sword!

The Neo Amadeus was not able to strike the Mars as much as before, but it still managed to land enough attacks to strain the Abasis Armor.

However, the Mars hit back even harder during this dance.

Unlike the Neo Amadeus, the Mars didn't have to get close in order to deal effective damage. Its damaged transphasic shotgun, its surviving transphasic gauss cannon and the intact parts of the ARCEUS System and struck the Neo Amadeus in synchronized attacks.

Patriarch Reginald specifically targeted one of the physical arms of the Neo Amadeus whenever possible. Just like Saint Jeremiah, he wanted to degrade his adversity's ability to deal damage.

Though the Mars made slow progress in damaging the Neo Amadeus, the concentrated attacks were starting to take effect, even if the ace swordsman mech was able to weaken the incoming attacks considerably by leveraging the anti-resonance properties of its domain field!

The Neo Amadeus began to show more signs of battle damage as a result. One of its shoulders bore the brunt of enemy fire as powerful positron beams and various physical slugs pounded it on a regular basis.

Patriarch Reginald wasn't satisfied with his current progress, however. Now that he assumed greater control over his ace mech, he felt that it still possessed a lot of untapped potential!

Since all of this was completely new to him, he did not have the time to explore all of the hidden possibilities of his Mars. He mostly tried to keep it simple by constantly deepening his imprint onto his ace mech.

The more he pumped his power into his ace mech, the more he gained the illusion that he was merging with it. The line between mech and human began to blur as Reginald increasingly began to think and act as if he was a mech rather than its pilot!

While this sounded like a dangerous development, Reginald was fully able to retain his identity by relying on his extraordinary willpower.

Patriarch Reginald quickly learned a lot of crucial lessons as he continued his attempts to merge with his ace mech.

Only a powerful will could match a powerful body!

The Mars was more powerful than any mech in the Golden Skull Alliance, but Reginald was also its most powerful pilot!

He refused to give in to his mech! His overwhelming pride and need to control his own war machine continued to affect the Mars in deep and profound ways.

Slowly but surely, the spiritual foundation that had once spawned an independent personality was now reshaped into an entirely different form due to Reginald's efforts.

The closer the spiritual foundation completed its wonderful and mysterious transformation, the more the Mars closed its distance to its ace pilot.

Unfortunately, the transformation stalled as it reached some sort of invisible limit. The spiritual foundation of the Mars lacked the depth and background to match the powerful strength of its ace pilot!

Reginald did not mind this too much. He had already done everything he could to reshape the Mars according to his own image.

As the ace pilot resonated with the new Mars, Reginald gained a vastly different experience from before.

The Mars had already become a lot more comfortable to him after he wiped out its weak personality and opened up room for himself.

Now that its spiritual foundation had completed its mysterious and unprecedented transformation, something seemed to click between Patriarch Reginald and the Mars.

It was as if Reginald plugged a cord into a socket, thereby connecting two complementary systems together!

"Huuu!"

Reginald took a deep breath as his force of will not only forged a permanent connection to the Mars, but also took total ownership of its spiritual foundation!

"What?!"

Back on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves had become completely shocked to the point of lifting his armored body off his feet!

Though other people were unable to observe the profound changes taking place within the Mars, Ves was different.

Through his connection to his masterwork mech and his powerful spiritual senses, he could sense that Patriarch Reginald had somehow initiated a process that was highly familiar to Ves.

Reginald had spontaneously turned the spiritual foundation of the Mars into his spiritual incarnation!

Ves never imagined that a mech pilot could pull off such a such!

From the moment the Mars became another part of Patriach Reginald, the two were able to deepen their cooperation to another level!

After all, the Mars could no longer be described as an independent, self-contained entity.

It had become the second body of Patriarch Reginald!

The consequences of this radical merger was profound. The Saint Kingdom around the Mars not only grew stronger and more condensed, but the mech itself also gained a bit more charm that reminded a lot of people of Reginald himself.

This wasn't all. The changes that took place on a spiritual level also affected the Mars on a physical level!

As the Mars increasingly embodied its powerful ace pilot, the latter was able to strengthen the performance of his machine in deeper and much more drastic ways.

It was as if the Mars was putting up a lot less resistance against Reginald's attempts to upgrade its performance.

The Mars was changing before everyone's eyes. Few people were able to detect that it was changing at all, but those with enough familiarity or expertise could clearly see that the Mars was undergoing a physical transformation!

Its armor became harder and more resilient.

Its weapon systems became stronger and more threatening.

Its flight system became more powerful and more efficient.

It was as if the Mars had merged with a supergem produced by Lucky.

The difference was that Patriarch Reginald initiated this powerful process directly through his full force of will rather than through any medium!

One of the most distinct aspects about this extraordinary physical transformation was that its direction was strongly influenced by Patriarch Reginald's domain and spiritual attributes.

His domineering attitude, his need to exert his power and his obsessive pursuit of glory all shaped the Mars in a way that aligned with those traits!

As the fit between ace pilot and ace mech reached a new and wonderful state, the Mars exploded with power!

The Neo Amadeus which previously managed to cut through the domain field of its target with ease now found itself unable to do so as easily as before!

The true resonance generated by Reginald and his mech incarnation had become so qualitatively better that it was actually able to resist the power of the anti-resonance sword!

Saint Jeremiah lost his rhythm as he was unable to keep up with the constant changes of the Mars.

His opponent continually defied his expectations and constantly underwent different breakthroughs.

Such an enemy was incredibly horrible to fight against! Not even a battle-hardened veteran ace pilot like Jeremiah Gauge was able to maintain his composure after witnessing so many miracles in quick success.

When the transformed Mars fired the working weapon modules of its ARCEUS System at the Neo Amadeus yet again, this time the latter's armor plating suffered greater damage than before!

The absolute power behind the attacks had increased by a significant margin! It was as if the Mars was utilizing a version of the ARCEUS System that was 20 or 30 years ahead of its time!

Not only that, Reginald's ability to empower his ace mech's with true resonance had also improved.

This meant that the anti-resonance domain that Jeremiah had formed by resonating with the current weapon of the Neo Amadeus had lost much of its effectiveness.

As the Mars launched repeated attacks against the Neo Amadeus, the ace swordsman mech's transphasic armor experienced significantly greater strain than before.

It would only be a matter of time before the transformed Mars was able to breach its target's armor if this pattern persisted!

While the Mars turned the tide against its adversity, Ves and Gloriana had both become increasingly more certain at the phenomenon that just took place.

Ves behaved as if his entire mind had just gotten stuck on an error and crashed.

He almost couldn't believe what Reginald managed to pull off after killing the spiritual foundation of the Mars.

"If I'm not mistaken… then Reginald has just completed the first phase of the Mech Body Merger Process."

Gloriana happily nodded as her grin couldn't grow any wider.

Her entire body glowed as Patriarch Reginald and the Mars validated her assumptions and her design philosophy in the strongest way possible!

"Patriarch Reginald… has taken the first step to becoming a god pilot in advance!"