The Mech Touch

The interaction between the Doom Guard and the Prideful Soldier was incredibly interesting.

The Doom Guard hosted both Zeigra and Nyxie at equal strength.

The Prideful Soldier primarily held the Solemn Guardian, but was also supplemented by a spiritual mote taken from Zeigra!

Therefore, the two radically-different mechs actually shared something in common!

The presence of the Prideful Soldier excited the Doom Guard's glow by strengthening the strength exerted by Zeigra!

It was as if he suddenly got 5 percent stronger or so. While that didn't sound like much, the perfect balance of the Doom Guard suddenly experienced a disruption!

Zeigra gained the upper hand and pressed Nyxie back. When the latter gave ground, his strong and pervasive ability to inspire terror directly dropped.

In exchange, the Doom Guard in question became a bit more aligned with Zeigra. This meant that the mech resembled more of a predator instead of an eldritch horror.

It was too bad that Zeigra and Nyxie weren't even in strength at their full forms. The former was just the remnant spirituality of an experimental exobeast. How could he ever match the strength of an ancient alien tyrant?

The end result was that the Prideful Soldier not only skewed the glow of the Doom Guard, but also weakened it in absolute terms!

While the weakening effect wasn't all that strong, it still mattered to an extent as the deterrence factor of the Doom Guard decreased. Giving more power to Zeigra was a net loss.

What Ves found remarkable was that the effect of putting two Prideful Soldiers in the range of the Doom Guard weakened the latter even further.

"How many Prideful Soldiers will it take to drop the Doom Guard's glow to its lowest point?" Gloriana wondered.

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "The Prideful Soldiers can't negate the Doom Guard's glow entirely. At most, their presence will simply turn the Doom Guard mech into a machine that is exclusively dominated by Zeigra."

In other words, it would effectively possess the same glow as Devil Tiger. It could also be considered the original incarnation of the Doom Guard before Ves deemed it too weak.

"Let's proceed with the next test."

They subjected the Doom Guard to a variety of Ylvainan mechs. The Holy Soldier, Deliverer and Transcendent Messenger all hosted Ylvaine's influence at varying degrees.

The Holy Soldier was by far the weakest since the mech mostly leaned on the Solemn Guardian. Its performance against the Doom Guard didn't fundamentally differ from that of the Desolate Soldier.

It was when Ves put forth the Deliverer and Transcendent Messenger that the results became rather interesting.

Just like the crowd of Ylvainans who prayed in front of an active Dom Guard, the mechs that contained a strong presence of the Great Prophet appeared to be resistant against the striker mech's terror!

Every Ylvainan mech exhibited hardly any hindrance even as they marched right up to a fearsome Doom Guard!

The only difference Ves noted was the telemetry transmitted by the cockpits. The weaker mech pilots exhibited significantly more stress, which meant that they had to put a lot more effort into keeping their cool!

The worst performer was Joshua in the Deliverer mech. While he had gained its design spirit's acceptance, they weren't exactly best buddies. Joshua had to focus on too many priorities while piloting this mech. Faith didn't come easy to the former Brighter.

In contrast, the performance of Taon Melin-Larkinson and James Ylvaine-Larkinson exemplified their ardent faith!

When Ves observed the feeds of the two Ylvainans in their cockpits, he noted that they derived their strength from different sources.

The expression on Taon's face suggested that he was relying on his zeal to power himself through! No monster in the dark could ever affect his conviction!

James on the other hand maintained an easy smile and a confident expression. His fit with his stolen Transcendent Messenger was incredibly high! He was the mech and the mech was him. It didn't seem as if James resisted the Doom Guard's glow at all. Instead, he was letting his own mech resist the external influence!

When Gloriana asked how James managed to perform so well, the Living Prophet spun his usual line of nonsense.

"Faith can be a shield. Your beliefs have power. As long as you realize that you are not alone, you will never have to endure any burdens by yourself! Think about it, Miss Wodin."

Ves immediately switched off the communication channel. "Ignore everything he said."

"I don't know, Ves. His advice sounds rather interesting…"

"He's merely spouting superstition!"

They soon moved on. Once the Ylvainan mechs withdrew, Ves tested two more mechs. He first brought forth a Bright Warrior.

The one that approached was in its swordsman mech configuration, but Ves didn't expect any meaningful differences. The glows of every configuration were identical.

From a technical standpoint, the Bright Warrior could easily crush the Doom Guard.

Glow or not, the performance disparity was too great! The Bright Warrior's exterior comprised almost entirely of Breyer alloy. This incredibly tough and resilient material could cook in the Doom Guard's flames for an eternity before showing any signs of damage!

Just because Cassandra's escape pod melted inside the chamber of the forging machine aboard the Scarlet Rose didn't mean the Bright Warrior was weak against thermal damage.

The mech was clad with a much thicker layer of Breyer alloy, and its armor system also incorporated several other means of mitigating heat!

Aside from that, flamethrower weapons weren't comparable at all compared to industrial machines. The only common aspect they shared was that they both applied heat to metal. Every other variable was different!

Therefore, as long as the mech pilot of the Bright Warrior wasn't a total coward, the bridge mech could easily crush the third-class striker mech!

Yet when it came to their glows, the roles were reversed!

The performance of the Bright Warrior's glow disappointed Ves. The Golden Cat's influence tried to resist the influence of Zeigra and Nyxie as best as possible, but the little cat simply couldn't contend against the two mature existences, especially in combination!

"Goldie needs time to ramp up." Ves shook his head. "Her strength is highly correlated to the state of the Larkinson Clan. Right now, we are just tens of thousands of clansmen. That is already rather big, but that isn't nearly enough to elevate her to the height of someone as formidable as Nyxie!"

It might take a decade or a century, but Ves was sure that the Golden Cat would be able to reach an astounding height some day!

That day was not today, though, and the Bright Warrior simply looked a bit sorry as it came closer to the Doom Guard.

"At the very least, the mech pilot of the Bright Warrior is faring such as well as the mech pilot of the Desolate Soldier." Ves concluded. "It's better than nothing."

Gloriana nodded. "We should just deploy the Bright Warriors in their rifleman mech configuration and blast the Doom Guard from a distance."

"That will take some time. The Illuminating Warrior features the weakest offense of the four configurations."

"Then a single Shining Warrior will do. When the lancer mech configuration charges a Doom Guard, the mech pilot of the former won't even have the time to experience the glow of the latter! By the time his mind has caught up, the striker mech should have already been pierced!"

"That's a viable point." Ves lit up a bit. "I think you don't even need to rely on a Bright Warrior. Any lancer mech model will do!"

The Doom Guard simply didn't possess the mobility to dodge an incoming charge from a decent lancer mech.

A lancer mech was a natural counter to a striker mech. Even knight mechs fared better because they could at least blunt some of the charging power by lifting their shields!

It was a bit fortunate that the pirates hadn't tried out this tactic yet. Lancer mechs tended to start at a relatively high price due to the need to make them sturdy enough to withstand the forces generated upon impact.

In addition, lancer mech pilots were considerably more difficult to find and raise. They needed to possess unmatched courage as well as excellent skill. It was too easy for them to kill themselves by botching their charges!

"We've seen enough. Start the final test."

An Aurora Titan stepped forth. This mech was rare even in the ranks of the Larkinson Clan. They were simply too limited in their application due to their abysmally low mobility.

In private, Ves also considered the mech to be rather outdated. It was a third-class space knight that forcefully tried to make use of a second-class gimmick. The polarizing module that took up so much space in the Aurora Titan could have easily come in a miniaturized form in a proper second-class defensive mech!

At least the Aurora Titan was fairly affordable as a result, but that was only relatively speaking.

Ves hadn't called up the Shield of Samar yet. He wanted to see how a regular copy fared against a Doom Guard.

He began to sense a lot of spiritual activity as the two diametrically-opposite mechs entered each other's influence.

The Aurora Titan began to come alive, and put more energy in its protective glow!

The mech pilot of the space pilot showed no strain! Even when the distance between the two mechs shrunk until they were practically touching each other, the Aurora Titan and its mech pilot exhibited no discomfort at all! They were just like the Transcendent Messenger and James!

"This is promising!" Gloriana lit up as she observed the stress levels of the mech pilot. There was hardly any bump at all! "Unlike the Transcendent Messenger model which is only a private commission, the Aurora Titan is a commercial design! This is something that our customers can readily use to repel the glow of the Doom Guard!"

Both of them immediately saw the benefits. The LMC would easily be able to increase its earnings by boosting the sales of a seemingly-forgotten but incredibly profitable high-margin mech model!

Ves began to develop a suspicion. "Let me try something out."

He ordered the Blackbeaks, Crystal Lords, Desolate Soldiers and Bright Warriors to approach the Aurora Titan.

When the miscellaneous mech stood behind the space knight, Ves widened his eyes.

"The Aurora Titan is protecting the other mechs with its glow! It's strong enough to cover all of them in an umbrella!"

Qilanxo's strength bloomed in splendor in this test! Her spirit was roused and she keenly felt the threat from the Doom Guard. Nyxie especially caused her hackles to rise!

With her formidable strength as a centuries-old indigenous god when she was alive, Qilanxo's protective powers readily extended into the spiritual dimension!

"This is amazing!" Gloriana gushed. "If we let the public know, they'll surely take a second look at this mech!"

"My Aurora Titan design never achieved widespread popularity." Ves recalled the numbers. "It only sold in the low 10,000's if I recall, and that was mostly because my customers bought my other products and came to like my brand. It's not even on sale anymore in many states!"

Gloriana smiled. "It should be different now. The Aurora Titan looks as if you practically made it to resist the likes of the Doom Guard!"

To be honest, Ve felt rather bittersweet. It was rather disappointing for him to discover that a single mech negated the strongest selling point of the Doom Guard.

On the other hand, he recognized the benefit to this situation.

Apparently, it took an LMC mech to counter an LMC mech!

It was as if Ves was arming both sides of conflict. Regardless of which side won or lost, the LMC always profited in the end! The sales of one LMC mech encouraged the sales of another LMC mech!

"It's not so simple." Gloriana sadly remarked. "Both designs are low-mobility. The Aurora Titan isn't suited to attack, and neither is the Doom Guard. It will take ages for an attacking force to drag their Aurora Titans to the enemy battle line!"

Ves chuckled. "That's not as much of a problem as you think. Mech designers and mech technicians can be rather inventive if they need to be. We'll probably start hearing reports of Aurora Titans strapped to oversized boosters or being towed by a squad of mechs!"

Just because a mech's default configuration was rather slow didn't mean it had to stay that way! One of the biggest strengths of mechs was by how easily they could be modified!