The Mech Touch

The Larkinsons had made use of the power of their battle formations several times. They had grown familiar with many of their properties and had developed several tricks to harness their power to a greater degree.

One of the discoveries they made was that prime resonance and possibly true resonance were capable of augmenting these massive attacks.

Whatever energy the battle networks evoked evidently had some relations to resonance. This was a valuable discovery because it taught the Larkinsons how to utilize their battle formations more effectively.

Venerable Joshua's domain was based around life. His obsession around living mechs not only caused him to synergize well with them, but also granted him unfathomable powers that were hardly witnessed elsewhere in human space.

His ability to attach a portion of his force of will to the discharge of a successful battle formation attack was an extremely mysterious ability.

Plenty of scientists had attempted to explain what was going on. They quickly gave up like many other people who attempted to research expert pilot manifestations. While it was possible to make some descriptions based on observations, it was impossible to come up with a sound theory that could be applied in a wider context.

All they knew was that once Joshua attached his will to an energy attack like this, he gained the ability to control it in a limited fashion.

Compared to before, he had obviously grown stronger and more proficient in controlling his abilities.

Inside the cockpit of the Valkyrie Prime, Venerable Joshua was doing his best to pilot his mech while at the same time exerting his will over the energy attack he realised.

It was difficult!

The strain was enormous, both because the battle formation attack was way too powerful and because it was traveling increasingly far away.

However, these were not fundamental problems to him. He did not control the energy wave attack directly. Instead, he was able to make 'suggestions' to it as if it had come alive and gained sentience.

The green corona around the grey energy attack pulsed brighter each time Joshua attempted to channel his will from afar.

"Turn around… turn around… go to the left… hold straight!"

Though it sounded like a ridiculous method to control an energy attack, for some reason he was truly able to 'convince' the death phase attack to curve around!

Joshua decided to command it to turn to the left. It took quite a lot of effort for the attack to turn around. It visibly grew smaller as it seemed to have lost a lot of energy. However, it was worth it as the massive wave began to harvest the lives of hundreds more dwarven mech pilots who were completely caught off-guard. How could they have ever expected an energy attack to loop around?!

"Damnit, it's turning into us! Get away!"

The expeditionary forces became panicked when they saw the distant energy attack approaching their way.

Fortunately, Joshua had been paying close attention. Through his efforts, he asked the living energy attack to continue looping around until it swept across the battle lines of the Molten Hammer along its length!

"STOP FOR ME!" A distraught and tear-striken Venerable Orthox boomed as he summoned more strength and will than ever before to pump more power in his defensive resonance ability!

The massive resonance barrier that exuded from the Gatecrasher's shield began to expand across a wider area. This caused it to block a larger proportion of the deathly energy attack and save many Molten Hammer mech pilots from losing their mental activity.

The resonance barrier had grown ragged by the time the death wave passed through in a much-diminished state!

Though Venerable Orthox had definitely made a difference again, he did not feel happy at all. The sensors of his mech were able to detect thousands of silent dwarven mechs around his position.

The suffering soon ended, much to the relief of the dwarves. Shortly after losing a lot of cohesion due to the interference of the Gatecrasher, the living energy attack finally expended the last of its energy.

The immediate crisis had passed, but the nightmare had only just begun.

"Vulcan's breath…"

"How… could the human gods be so powerful?"

Not a single person who participated or observed this battle could retain their composure after this grand display of power.

In the design lab of the Spirit of Bentheim, both Gloriana and Juliet had interrupted their duties and lowered to their knees in order to pray to the Superior Mother.

"Mother…"

They were grateful that the Supreme had answered their calling and lent her power to the Larkinson Clan!

The same phenomena happened on many ships crewed by the Penitent Sisters. The piety of the devoted worshippers of the Superior Mother had once again intensified now that they had witnessed and benefited from another concrete manifestation of her power!

"We are the chosen of the Superior Mother… never forget that. Our Supreme has led the way. Let us finish the job we started!"

When Commander Melkor had witnessed the results of this massive attack once again, he couldn't help but twitch.

He would be lying if he said he wasn't jealous. Out of all of the mech legions, the Penitent Sisters appeared to have the strongest backing. Their 'guardian spirit' was a lot stronger and more militant than the Golden Cat.

Though Melkor also wanted his Avatars to channel the Superior Mother's might and unleash devastating attacks that was able to kill mech pilots directly while bypassing many barriers, he didn't want everyone to convert to hexism!

He slumped and released a sigh. "Forget about it. Let the ex-Hexers have their fun. We'll just stick to our own repertoire."

Elsewhere, Jessica Quentin had become shocked to the point where she almost forgot to pilot her mech.

The amazement in her was palpable. Though she had already heard stories about this mystical wide area energy attack discharge, she half-thought that all of the stories and footage were fabrications meant to dress up the Larkinson Clan.

It turned out that there was real substance behind all of the fantastical boasts!

"This is way beyond the power of an expert mech!" Jessica alarmly cried!

Her Ferocious Piranha had not been close to the energy attack as it passed, but even from a distance she was able to feel the overwhelming sense of terror that she had only experienced once in her career as an MTA pilot!

"This.. is a power that is similar to that of a powerful ace mech! How can a bunch of regular mechs led by a custom mech unleash so much power? Venerable Joshua isn't even piloting a real expert mech!"

It didn't make sense to her and the other MTA mech pilots! Their vision was higher and they also used to be able to kill a lot of Molten Hammer mechs with ease. Yet that was when they were piloting their powerful first-class multipurpose mechs. The difference in cost and tech was so wide that it was always a given that the MTA's best machines could crush anything designed and made by space peasants.

What happened just a moment ago subverted all of her cognition. They knew that the galaxy was vast and many ingenious mech designers had invented reality-defying methods to allow mechs to defeat the enemy in creative ways.

"This… is different."

The power displayed by the Valkyrie Redeemer mechs went far beyond a simple combination attack! The properties of the energy attack were so unreal that it went far beyond a new application of technology.

"This.. is human power!"

Another MTA member shared the same thought. Jovy Armalon had long forgotten to chew on the snack he popped in his mouth.

As a Journeyman who possessed another unorthodox design philosophy, Jovy was perhaps the closest comparable mech designer to Ves. This also caused him to become certain that this manifestation was not what an average mech designed by a Journeyman should be capable of! The power level was way too high!

"Where does all of the energy come from?" Jovy's frown deepened as he began to ask a ton of difficult questions. "How can a second-class mech based on second-class technological principles unleash so much power without any powerful weapon systems? How can the Larkinsons possibly produce such an unusual energy attack that just passes directly through every mech and only causes people in the way to become braindead?"

The questions in his head swelled so much that he had become utterly incapable of snapping out of his fugue!

Back at Halcyon Citadel all the way in the Komodo Sector, even the two Masters had fallen silent.

With their access, they had already witnessed and analyzed a lot of data about this powerful energy manifestation beforehand. They expected the Larkinsons to employ the same powerful solution that they had shown during the Battle of Reckoning.

Neither Master Olson nor Master Willix were in a hurry to analyze the data gathered by the stealth corvette. If previous data failed to yield any meaningful results, then there was little hope that they would be able to obtain enough clues to crack the secret behind this revolutionary new method.

"Pity…" Willix looked regretful.

"Beyond material." Olson grimly nodded.

"Too specific."

"Ves."

"Untransferable."

"Master."

"Master."

"Odds of survival: 13.67 percent. Odds of success: 1.35 percent."

"Flawed model."

"Proof."

"Irrational."

"Incorporated in model."

"Low accuracy."

"Irrelevant."

"Doubt."

"Time."

"Time."

The Masters shared no further words with each other. They continued to observe the live footage and data readouts with great expectation.

Compared to the rather tempered reactions of the Masters, the Vulcanites were incredibly shocked.

In the command center of the Great Ram, many of the dwarven officers, operators and analysts looked as if their blood had drained from their faces.

"No wonder the human gods are so strong…"

"We… we picked the wrong humans to fight!"

"Vulcan… Vulcan won't let the tall folk get away with this! He is still with us! He has to be! Right?!"

"..."

The outbursts in the command center were highly unprofessional, but right now not a single dwarf cared about that. They were all trying to process what had happened and how much damage their forces had suffered from this singular powerful move.

"Casualties?" General Kebrinore asked as his beard shook with a mix of fear, recrimination, regret and anger.

No one spoke up. Everyone was still locked in their own roiling thoughts and emotions.

"GIVE ME A NUMBER!" The general boomed, his deep and thundering voice shaking many dwarves awake.

"We are still investigating and confirming the list of casualties, general."

Kebrinore scowled. "Just tell me how many of our mechs are reading zero mental activity in their cockpits!"

"Over three-thousand sir! This figure is still rising as we confirm the data transmitted by our dormant mechs."

That meant that three-thousand nearly-intact Molten Hammer mechs had turned into extremely expensive tombs for their pilots.

In one moment, the Molten Hammers were riding high. In the next moment, the pilots had all been thrown into the abyss.

There was no glorious battle.

There was no escapable transition.

There was no damage to the mechs.

Their mech pilots… had just turned into living corpses.

Just as the dwarves reluctantly thought that the worst had passed, something else was happening on one of the flanks!

"How.. how could this have happened!?" Kebrinore's heart skipped a beat.

Thousands of Hivar Roarer mechs looked as if they had just flown through a forest of blades. Many lightly-armored bestial mechs showed various degrees of damage across their exterior. Some even lost limbs or all of their functionality due to what they had gone through!

It turned out that while the Penitent Sister battle formation attracted all of the attention, the much smaller formation of elite Swordmaidens had unleashed their own battle formation attack!

From the initial results, the attempt by the Swordmaidens to break open the Hivar Roarers had succeeded. The bestial mech division at the right flank had lost all of its momentum and its threatening Crumbleshells had become a lot more vulnerable to attack!