The Mech Touch



Ves grinned as he witnessed the successful formation of a Blood Pact.

This was far from a simple bond.

The blood circulating through the bodies of Jannzi and the Carmine System could not exert their full functionality until the Blood Pact formally took shape.

Now that the living mech and mech pilot connected each other on a level that surpassed anything produced by a neural interface, the Dullahan Project truly began to activate its full potential!

As the expert mech continued to produce a strong outwards reaction, both Jannzi and her newly born battle partner continued to experience a massive amount of changes!

"Ahhh!"

Despite Qilanxo's best efforts to moderate the bond between the mech and mech pilot, the Blood Pact turned out to be far too strong!

Its strength and cohesion had quickly become so astounding that the bond between Jannzi and the Dullahan Project became indescribable.

The Blood Pact produced many effects!

One of them was to blur the lines between the two to an unprecedented degree.

Jannzi had never come in touch with a mech to this degree in her life. The neural interface and the Carmine System connected her mind, body and will to her new battle partner without as many barriers in the way as before.

This enabled her to form a much deeper sense of substitution with her expert mech despite piloting it for the first time.

Not only did she suspect that she could pilot the Dullahan Project as if the new machine was truly her body, she could also borrow the living mech's awareness and strengths in a more effortless manner!

Resonating with the Dullahan Project became a lot easier than before. The shared blood circulating throughout their bodies closed the distance to such a substantial degree that Jannzi's effective resonance strength multiplied to an unheard of degree!

Back in the shielded control room, all of the mech designers barely managed to recover from the shock of witnessing the expert mech establish its much-promised Blood Pact.

Gloriana had a powerful hunch and quickly directed her eyes towards the resonance meter!

"What?! That is impossible!"

"What is wrong, Gloriana?"

"Look at the resonance meter! If the sensors are not malfunctioning, then Venerable Jannzi's resonance strength has currently reached 33.25 laveres!

33.25 laveres!

That represented an enormous leap in power compared to Jannzi's last record when she piloted the Shield of Samar!

Compared to her previous stable levels that hovered somewhere around the early 20s, it was as if Jannzi had obtained a decade's worth of gains in advance!

The dramatic jump in resonance strength effectively meant that Venerable Jannzi was able to exert true resonance with her expert mech that was several times stronger than before!

The significance of this dramatic change was too great. What Gloriana and the others keenly realized that this was just the initial reaction.

What would happen once Venerable Jannzi fully familiarized herself with her new expert mech and began to work together over a span of several years?

It was conceivable that the Blood Pact would stimulate her so much that her growth rate would definitely skyrocket!

If other pilots at this level needed 20 years in order to become a high-tier expert pilot, then Venerable Jannzi might only have to spend 10 years to reach the same height!

This was an enormous advantage, and this was only just the beginning!

It did not take a lot of imagination to guess that the Blood Pact could produce massive benefits once Venerable Jannzi was ready to undergo her second apotheosis.

If advancing to the rank of ace pilot was an insurmountable challenge to the vast majority of expert pilots, then Jannzi may be able to overcome this hurdle as easily as entering another room.

This was because she no longer strictly needed to rely on her own efforts.

Now that she was able to enter into a deeper fusion with the Dullahan Project, her powerful new living mech was able to provide much more substantial help than before!

Gloriana did not dare to imagine how much the Blood Pact could make a difference in Venerable Jannzi's future turning point, but Ves was not as shy!

His grin grew wide as his initial inspection of the Blood Pact gave him an impression of its possibilities!

"This is it! This is what I have sought to establish. The fruit was right! The power of blood did not disappoint me! A new generation of mechs shall arise with the help of this crucial invention!"

Even if the initial results were not representative to his subsequent applications of the Carmine System, Ves had no doubt that the completed Dullahan Project accurately embodied his future direction as a mech designer!

With the success of this experimental design project, Ves gained full confidence in his ability to explore all of the new possibilities introduced by the Carmine System.

Even if ordinary mechs could only gain a fraction of the might produced by the Dullahan Project in its current form, it was already worthwhile to spread blood mechs to the masses!

Ves did not doubt that many eager and ambitious mech pilots would take the plunge and form life-long Blood Pacts with the living mechs of their choosing!

"The price is a bit heavy, though."

Power never came for free. Ves always had this truth in mind when he designed the Dullahan Project, and now he was able to witness through his own senses how extensively the Blood Pact bonded the two partners together in life and perhaps in death.

From a spiritual perspective, Venerable Jannzi had formed a strong and permanent bond with the Dullahan project. It became most active when they shared their blood with each other, but even without this excellent medium, they would still remain tied together no matter the distance!

Cutting this bond would definitely produce deep and mostly permanent trauma to the both of them.

If Jannzi was barely able to recover after the Shield of Samar's effective destruction, then she would never be able to pilot any mech again after the fall of her latest machine!

Ofcourse, as long as enough pieces of the Dullahan Project were left intact, then it was not impossible to salvage the damaged bond and pull Jannzi out of the danger zone.

Ves could consider these added complications in the future. Right now, he needed to witness all of the other changes produced by the formation of the Blood Pact.

As Venerable Jannzi gradually managed to wrangle the much more powerful true resonance produced between herself and her new battle partner, the expert mech no longer became as unbearable as before.

It formed a stable resonance shield that exuded a combination of different powers and influences.

From Qilanxo to the recently formed Blood Pact, the completed expert mech conveyed a much greater presence than any Larkinson expert mech made by the Design Department in the past.

Neither the Amaranto, the Everchanger nor the Minerva could come close in this regard!

The Dullahan Project truly demonstrated with its own strength and appearance that the Larkinson Clan had made huge advances in its design capabilities.

How much this enormous increase in strength could be attributed to the existence of the Carmine System and the Blood Pact was not entirely certain.

There were many other variables in play that undoubtedly helped to empower the Dullahan Project even further.

Nonetheless, Ves had a strong suspicion that once he fabricated the completed version of the Ghost Project, it wouldn't produce nearly as strong of a reaction as now!

A part of Ves even regretted the fact that the Ghost Project did not come with the Carmine System.

There was no way the Geist System could produce comparable effects. It was made for a completely different purpose and could never fuse the Ghost Project with Venerable Zimro Belson to this extent.

"Oh well." He sighed in regret.

Ves already made peace with the fact that forming a Blood Pact was not an acceptable choice to the majority of mech pilots.

Unless Venerable Zimro strongly wished to bind himself to a single living mech for the rest of his life, Ves had no intentions of encouraging him to take the plunge.

Now that the Dullahan Project had reached its final form and entered into a stable but still remarkably powerful state, the dramatic event had come to an end.

While Ves had become so incredibly curious about what the new expert space knight was capable of, he knew better than to start trials right away.

"Jannzi? Can you hear me? Good job. Your expert mech has come to life with your help. If it is possible, please begin the process of disengaging the Carmine System before shutting down the systems of the Dullahan Project. Make sure not to deviate from this order. I cannot guarantee your safety if you lose connection to your expert mech while the Carmine System is still active at the time."

Ves had programmed an extensive set of safety rules in order to prevent this from happening, but a strong enough mech pilot might be able to override them. It would be best if Jannzi built up the right habits from the start in order to minimize the occurrence of accidents.

As Jannzi slowly did as instructed, the Dullahan Project did not exhibit any unexpected behavior.

Despite just coming to life, the living mech obediently cooperated and allowed Venerable Jannzi to steadily remove herself.

This was quite an ordeal as it took time and a number of special procedures to stop the Carmine System from binding the two parties on a physical level.

"Hss."

Jannzi winced as she felt the needles pull out of her flesh. Her piloting suit instantly covered her skin and applied all kinds of treatments in order to heal any wounds.

She felt much more diminished now that the Blood Pact had gone dormant.

Even as the neural interface steadily shut down the man-machine connection, Jannzi could still feel that she had not truly lost her connection to the Dullahan Project.

Once formed, the Blood Pact tied the two together in a covenant that exceeded physical boundaries!

Many thoughts welled in her mind as she could still feel her partner's blood running through her own veins.

At the same time, she could faintly sense that a portion of her lifeblood quietly circulated through the organic systems of the Dullahan Project.

Jannzi could scarcely believe that all of this was possible merely through the exchange of blood.

Once she exited the cockpit and lowered herself to the floor of the workshop, Ves quickly greeted her first.

"How is it, Jannzi? Are you satisfied?"

The female expert pilot smiled. "I… am. It was not what I expected, but… this is even better, short of bringing my old Shield of Samar back to life."

"The Dullahan Project…"

"Is not Sammie, but close enough for me to accept the changes." Jannzi said. "It may sound strange to you, but my expert mech feels like what would happen if Sammie and I had a child."

She was right. That did sound strange.

"If that is the case, then maybe you should choose a new name for your machine." Ves suggested.

"I am still thinking about it. Please give me time to find a fitting name." She said before she turned around to gaze up at the dormant expert mech once more. "I suppose Gloriana will be disappointed today. It's not a masterwork."

Ves did not look bothered by this outcome. "It is what it is. Gloriana's contribution will ensure that your new battle partner will eventually transform into a more impressive form by itself. All of the changes that took place at the end have produced a profound effect on the physical and metaphysical state of the Dullahan Project. It is most definitely not as smooth as I would have liked, but I can see that it will only take a few years for it to become a masterwork mech."

"I will look forward to that day."

"Before you go and take a well-deserved rest, is there anything you want to share that cannot wait?"

Venerable Jannzi hesitated for a second before her expression turned grave. "I am not sure about this, but I think it would be better if I share one of my suspicions to you sooner rather than later."

"Oh? This sounds rather serious."

"We should head somewhere more private. I do not think it is wise to spread what I am about to say to the other mech designers. It mostly has to do with your work."

Given how serious Jannzi treated this matter, Ves not only brought her to an isolation chamber that was especially designed to hinder eavesdropping, but also activated his full jamming suite.

"Alright. You should be able to say what you want without concern of any leaks." Ves confidently said. "Does your message have anything to do with the safety of the Carmine System? Is the Blood Pact exerting much more of a negative impact on your life than expected?"

"It is not that." The female expert pilot shook his head. "I will just share my suspicion with you directly."

Jannzi stepped forward and slowly leaned in until she was able to whisper her words into one of his ears.

"After the Blood Pact took shape, my connection and control over my new expert mech became so strong that I started to form a radical idea. I felt that if I disengaged the neural interface, I wouldn't lose control over the Dullahan Project. I strongly suspected that I could still pilot it to a degree by relying solely on the Blood Pact and the Carmine System that made it possible."

Ves abruptly widened his eyes! He couldn't believe what he just heard! Out of all of the possible benefits that his latest invention was able to realize, he never expected that the Carmine System could act as a substitute to the neural interface!

Jannzi wasn't finished yet. "That isn't all. While it is not relevant to me, I suspect that the Carmine System can play an even larger role for other people. You see, if a neural interface isn't necessary anymore, is it still important for humans to possess the right genetic aptitude in order to become an effective pilot?"

While there was no guarantee that the Carmine System could establish a means of controlling a mech that could come close to the effectiveness of the neural interface, that did not change the notion that Ves' invention could change the entire landscape of the mech community!

"..."

The implications of what he heard were so enormous that an invisible explosion set off inside Ves' mind!

Jannzi stepped back in surprise as she felt an abrupt change from the mech designer in front of her! "What's wrong, Ves?!"