The Mech Touch



Unlike a number of fabrication runs that took place in the past, Gloriana had no need to take any extensive breaks.

She was not pregnant at this time, and her children no longer required constant attention from their parents.

Though Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine visited the workshop inside the Genesis Lab at least once every day, they conscientiously maintained their distance.

They all understood how important it was for their father and mother to devote their full concentration on their work.

"They're so cool." Little Marvaine said as his eyes turned into stars. "I want to make a mech alongside papa and mama too one day."

Andraste started to yawn. "It's so boring now that Ketis isn't available to tutor me in person."

"Aunt Jannzi will finally be happy again once she gains her new expert mech." Aurelia said as she paid close attention to the enraptured expert pilot. "It has been too long since our clan last had a strong defense mech at its disposal."

The three young children continued to talk and remain on their best behavior as they watched their parents do all sorts of complicated work.

Once they started to get bored or tired, their nanny soon ushered them away.

"Let's get you back to the Royal Mansion. Your meals are already being prepared. You will enjoy what the chefs have prepared for you tonight." Shannon Maris said as she gently pulled Marvaine from the observation window.

Ves could vaguely sense the presence of his children in the distance each time they entered the Genesis Lab, but he did not pay a visit to the adorable munchkins.

His work was much more important at the moment!

There was only one good chance to fabricate a good expert mech for Venerable Jannzi. Even his wife understood the importance of working as continuously as possible so they could build up a lot of momentum.

In the past few days, Sara Voiken helped propel everyone's moods.

Ever since Ves whacked her head with a special hammer, Sara not only managed to solve a lot of confusion that had been bothering her in the past, but also made notable advances in her understanding of phasewater theory.

On top of that, she also managed to master the improvements to the Superpublished design to a greater degree!

Though she still experienced her fair share of difficulties as she tackled her work assignments, she clearly demonstrated greater fluency in her actions than before!

It was a pity that neither Sara nor the other people she infected with her passion managed to reach a high enough threshold to catch enough fire.

The false inspired state might have provided Sara with an invaluable moment where she became more productive than ever before, but it soon faded after it had run its course.

They all returned to a more sedate mood after that. No one gained any remarkable inspiration that was significant enough to have a major positive influence on the work in progress.

Gloriana felt a little upset about that. She had high hopes for the Dullahan Project and strongly believed that it would lead her to obtain another masterwork certificate.

However, if the current pattern persisted, then the chances of producing a high quality mech was not that great.

The Dullahan Project was ultimately too ambitious for mech designers at their level.

The quasi-first-class expert mech design not only integrated phasewater in as many of its parts as possible, but also incorporated high technologies that were more commonly seen in first-class multipurpose mechs.

No matter how much Ves was confident about his ability to catch up to first-class mech designers, he was still far from reaching their standards.

Fortunately, Master Benedict possessed a much greater proficiency in this area and undertook the responsibility of fabricating the most high-tech parts whenever necessary.

This relieved Ves and the others of the burden of tackling work that they were not exactly qualified to handle.

After five nearly continuous days of working, the mech designers finally fulfilled their fabrication responsibilities.

Ketis completed her work the fastest. Her contribution to the Dullahan Project was by far the least consequential. The Dullahan Project was primarily a defensive mech after all. The only reason she had been brought along was because Ves wanted the expert space knight to become a more competent duelist.

As such, it had become especially important to arm the Dullahan Project with a transphasic sword that could do more than parry melee attacks. Jannzi's primary means of attack needed to be sharp and strong enough to pose a real threat to opposing expert mechs!

Ketis wanted to design a more distinctive sword this time. She not only wanted it to fit Venerable Jannzi's personal fighting style, but also match the characteristics of the Dullahan Project.

Just like the old Shield of Samar, the successor mech made extensive use of GT-535 to bestow the expert space knight with gravity manipulation powers.

By working together with Master Benedict, Ketis was able to design a sword with a modest amount of this artificial resonating alloy in its core.

This should be enough to allow Jannzi to increase the mass of her expert mech's weapon and deliver considerably stronger strikes when needed!

Once Jannzi became more proficient in manipulating the Gravity Sword, she could come up with more advanced tricks that could give her an additional edge against her opponents.

Due to all of these demands, Ketis chose to deviate from her usual style and design the Gravity sword as a single-edged sword.

Ketis was normally a great fan of double-edged swords, particularly larger ones, but it made more sense to take a different route for this design project.

The sharp edge of the Gravity Sword naturally excelled at piercing through armor. It could also cut through certain energy barriers as long as the difference in power was great enough.

This was not possible under normal circumstances. In case the Dullahan Project entered into a confrontation against an opponent protected by a resonance shield or a transphasic energy shield, it was not necessarily a good idea to wear either of them down with a sharp edge.

This was why the Gravity Sword featured a notably wide and heavy blunt edge. It made the cross-section of the sword take on a triangular shape.

The additional mass and thickness added much-needed reinforcement to the sword when used as a bashing implement. It might not be as good at its job as a solid hammer, but it saved the Dullahan Project from carrying a spare weapon.

Perhaps in the future the Design Department might design additional weapons for the Dullahan Project that possessed different characteristics, but the Gravity Sword should be sufficient for the time being.

In any case, Ketis managed to successfully create the Gravity Sword. This was not easy. Not only did she have to work with phasewater, she also had to pay extra attention to properly handling the precise quantity of GT-535 needed to turn the weapon into a powerful resonating tool.

She had already moved on to performing numerous assisting jobs after that. This allowed everyone to move on to the assembly phase of the fabrication run with considerably less delay than normal.

Ves smiled as he looked back on all of the parts that he and his collaborators had made. They had managed to overcome the most difficult hurdles of the fabrication runs. The assembly phase was much less prone to failure as long as everyone worked carefully enough.

"Let's see if I can successfully complete my first cyborg mech." He muttered.

Although he did not consider the Dullahan Project to be a true cyborg mech, it was undeniable that a part of the design called for the integration of biomechanical components!

The addition of the recently renamed Carmine System added a lot of extra complications to the assembly process.

None of his other collaborators possessed any understanding of biotechnology and biomech design, so they understandably exhibited a lot of disgust and skepticism towards the giant web of bloody red flesh.

Just the thought of merging it to what should otherwise become a clean and fully metallic mech offended their sensibilities!

Ves did not care about their reactions. His passion and enthusiasm surged as soon as the assembly phase went underway.

While the other mech designers were concerned with putting together the normal parts, Ves bided his time while he assembled the Rainbow Shield.

Compared to the original design, the Superpublished version of this defensive tool was noticeably more robust and less prone to malfunction. The design of the Unending alloy 'medallions' that made up its spiritual batteries had become a lot more capable of enduring violent kinetic impacts.

Ves already believed that Jannzi would be able to produce a lot of miracles by leveraging the expanded prime resonance possibilities of this tailor-made defensive equipment.

Despite its impressive potential, the Rainbow Shield was not that sophisticated from a technical perspective. Ves was able to assemble it with ease. It did not take much time before he ended up with a relatively large tower shield that featured a highly chromatic and reflective surface.

"That's done."

By this time, Gloriana and Master Benedict had made good progress in assembling the inner frame of the machine.

This was a suitable time to start with integrating the Dullahan Project's organic components.

Ves had never done this before in reality, but when he started to extract the large fleshy parts from their nutrient tanks and placed them into the incomplete frame of the expert mech, he did not show any sign of uncertainty or unfamiliarity.

Combined with the flood of biotechnological knowledge that was spilling over the active design network, Gloriana and the others quickly learned that Ves had not lied when he claimed he had gotten started in biomech design!

They all felt his passion, his understanding and above all else his strong belief in the power of blood!

Previously, none of the other mech designers could bring themselves to agree that adding blood to a mechanical mech increased its performance.

Now, they weren't so sure anymore. Ves appeared so certain about the validity of his weird and creepy theoretical framework that it seemed as if he might be able to cultivate a vampire from scratch!

Ves spent most of his time on making sure that the Carmine System was properly applied to the Dullahan Project as it became more and more complete. No matter how confident he was, this was no time for him to be careless.

One of the more troublesome aspects about cyborg mech was that it was easy to botch the interface between organic and metallic parts. Ves had to be exceedingly careful and precise to form all of the connections correctly from the start.

The Dullahan Project could handle it if those contact points incurred damage later on, but it was of great importance for it to be as whole as possible from the beginning. This would turn into its default state and make it a little easier for maintenance crews to perform repairs in the future.

Piece by piece, the Dullahan Project became more complete.

As it did, it became more alive, but not in a traditional sense.

While the influence of Qilanxo over the expert mech became more and more obvious, neither Jannzi nor anyone else felt as if the living mech possessed a mind of its own!

In this regard, the Dullahan Project actually resembled the second skin template of Gloriana a lot more!

Everyone knew why the Dullahan Project started off as a hollow machine in this regard.

As Sara Voiken and the others carefully assembled the final pieces of heavy armor plating into place, the assembly process finally neared completion!

The mech designers only needed to make one major step.

"The Dullahan shall bear its curse no more." Ves declared. "The knight shall become whole once more as long as it regains its head."

Clamped above the headless frame of the Dullahan Project was the refurbished and modernized head of the old Shield of Samar!

Though its interior and exterior had undergone huge transformations that completely brought it up to standard, it still looked like the head of the original living expert mech that existed once before!

Ves had worked hard to preserve the look and overall impression of the original expert mech. Now, he was ready to use this echo of the past to initiate a long-awaited rebirth process!

He glanced towards Venerable Jannzi, whose expression turned mixed as she beheld the special mech head.

"Do it." She uttered.

With her permission, Ves activated the command that slowly lowered head into the empty neck socket.

Fate seemed to converge inside the workshop as the successor to a once-great living mech was about to reach completion!