The Mech Touch

"Uhm, pardon me for saying this, but testing the transcendence glow is not a simple matter." Ves tentatively said.

"Oh? What appears to be the problem?"

"It has… risks. Fatal risks. I mentioned it before, but I think I should emphasize it once again. People's hearts are the most core part of their existence. It is fine to affect them in a faint and shallow manner, but the transcendence glow goes beyond that. If it keeps affecting someone for an extended period of time, then that person would be subjected to so much excessive stimulation that… the mismatch between body and spirit will grow too much."

Master Dervidian became interested by this warning. "What result does this mismatch produce?"

"If people cannot break through their current limitations and reach a stronger phase of existence, then… something has to give. In every case that I know, that means that the body will fail first. The person affected by the transcendence glow will die because their bodies cannot handle the pressure building up inside their cores."

"That… does not sound logical." Dervidian frowned. "The two elements may be related to each other, but according to you they do not directly interact with each other. If this supposed psionic essence is being stimulated beyond its normal capacity, then it should be the first to fail. How can a person's corporeal body fail first? Is there a process where the build-up of psionic power produces a real and tangible force in someone's body?"

Ves looked shocked! Sure enough, a Master Mech Designer was extremely sharp and clever. Dervidian instantly picked out the logical fallacies and holes in the explanation.

These questions did not sound unfamiliar to Ves. He once asked many of the same questions himself after conducting his streaks of fatal experiments. What happened didn't entirely make sense to him either, and after exploding the heads of hundreds of test subjects, he came no closer to a logical explanation than before.

"I… cannot really say how and why this happens. As I have prefaced before, my theoretical framework is spotty, incomplete, flawed and most certainly distorted by my limited perspective and bias. Although it makes sense to me, I am not arrogant to assume that my theoretical models are an accurate-enough reflection to reality. All I know is that people's bodies and more specifically their heads spontaneously explode after being subjected to the full transcendence glow for an extended amount of time. The exact period varies a bit, but it usually only takes one-and-a-half minutes to create a mess."

"And how do you know that, Mr. Larkinson? Have you subjected mech pilots to this transcendence glow before? Of course you did. Who wouldn't want to trial an epoch-changing innovation that could change the lives of many mech pilots? What results have you achieved thus far in your well-constructed and clinically sound experimental studies?"

"Uhh… before the battle that took place in Purgatory, I had not subjected a lot of human mech pilots to the transcendence glow." Ves slowly answered. "I do admit that accidents occurred when I tried to help mech pilots attain their wish and advance to the next rank, but I quickly suspended my attempts after learning the fatal cost of mistakes."

Everything Ves said was true. A lot of his test subjects consisted of opportunistic captives, not all of whom were mech pilots. Naturally, he had no reason to specifically mention to Master Dervidian that he also subjected a lot of non-mech pilots to the transcendence glow just to see what would happen.

Besides, a large proportion of his test subjects happened to be dwarves rather than humans. Although heavy gravity variant humans were officially classified as humans, their abject treatment in society along with the Iron Emperor's strong beliefs that dwarves were no longer a part of humankind meant that even Ves was convinced that dwarves had effectively become an offshoot!

"Due to a severe lack of testing and trials, I don't have a lot of data to describe exactly what is going on." Ves quickly continued to shift the topic away from where those test subjects came from in the first place. "Over time, I came up with several ideas to conduct safer studies by diluting the transcendence glow or only exposing mech pilots to it for short periods of time. I don't expect these experiments to produce instant results, hence why I wish to set up the T Institute."

"Ah, yes. I have already read the proposal concerning this ambitious new institute of yours. We will discuss that later." Master Dervidian smiled. "Your alternative ideas sound interesting. Lessening the exposure of the transcendence glow in order to avoid a potential overload situation is an approach worth exploring. However, in the previous battle that you have mentioned, it does not appear that you instructed your Everchanger to hold back on projecting this glow. In fact, your expert mech even took the initiative to amplify it so that it reached further and with greater strength than normal. Why did you go to such extremes and subjected so many of your precious clansmen to a potentially fatal influence?"

Ves winced. "The situation was getting pretty dire. If you have observed the progress of the battle against the Phaser fish-whales, then you should know that our opponents were putting up a tough fight. Since our mechs kept falling over time, I became increasingly more desperate to introduce a change. I eventually came up with using the transcendence glow because I had an epiphany."

"An epiphany?"

"According to my theoretical framework, mech pilots break through when they undergo a lot of mental tempering. From my experiences, mech pilots tend to experience this most profoundly during life-threatening battles. I hadn't realized the relationships between the variables before, but when I was experiencing a battle much closer than before due to my decision to lead my task force from the cockpit of an expert mech, I personally felt the changes and observed similar traces in other mech pilots. That was when I realized that I had been using the transcendence glow in the wrong way all along."

Master Dervidian looked thoughtful as he parsed these words. He did not need Ves to say anything else to figure out the crucial point.

"I understand now. There is a major difference between subjecting this transcendence glow of yours to mech pilots at rest as opposed to mech pilots in the middle of battle. Many of the research conducted by different groups within our Association also focused on manipulating mech pilots as they fought in realistic battles. They made the same assumption as you that the amount of work needed to induce a critical change will be considerably less if the circumstances are already favorable."

Ves nodded and sighed. "This theory indeed makes a lot of sense, but I never thought about it before because I was too focused on inducing breakthroughs in safe and controlled conditions. It would be best if mech pilots can turn into expert pilots by entering a lab chamber for a few minutes. In hindsight, this was an incredibly naive notion. Expert pilots are excellent warriors and soldiers who are defined by their strong willpower and conviction. Humans can't produce this kind of an extreme temperament if they are not subjected to the rigors of battle."

"And that is when you theorized that the transcendence glow will succeed at that time?"

"Correct. In fact, I was already taking failure into account at the time. I made sure to instruct Venerable Joshua to move the Everchanger across the battlefield and only expose mech pilots to its glow for a maximum of 60 seconds or so. This is well below the margin where the risk of fatalities sharply rises. It turns out that the battle has already stimulated many mech pilots to the point where they needed a single push to get over the threshold. After this event, I have made the tentative conclusion that this is the correct usage of the transcendence glow. It cannot make expert pilots out of the blue, but it can provide critical assistance to those that have already moved close to their own breakthroughs but failed to get past their bottlenecks."

Master Dervidian fell silent for a time. Ves had been honest in his words and did not hold back into providing the mecher with his own understanding of the situation.

The information content of his explanation was high and revealed a lot of interesting theories, assumptions and directions for future research.

This was an incredibly valuable revelation to people such as the Transhumanists who have a vested interest in developing methods to increase the rate of breakthroughs!

Even if Master Dervidian did absolutely nothing with the transcendence glow developed by Ves, the brilliant mech designer and researcher could take what he learned and achieve similar results through his own methods!

This was the value of Ves' information!

However, Ves was still confident the MTA needed his cooperation in the long run. There were still far too many problems with other methods because they simply could not influence a mech pilot's spirituality as well as his own design solutions!

This was the confidence borne out of his own success. While Ves tried his best not to underestimate the rich and extensive means of one of the Big Two, he figured that the MTA was not good in this aspect.

Otherwise, the Transhumanist Faction wouldn't be treating him so generously at this moment!

"I have a question for you, Mr. Larkinson." Master Dervidian suddenly said. "You have stated multiple times that the transcendence glow is a grave threat that can directly kill mech pilots and presumably other humans if they are subjected to it for roughly 90 seconds or longer if they fail to break through."

"That is what I am saying, yes."

"Is there a possibility that this glow can be weaponized? What if your Everchanger projects this glow not as a tool to facilitate the breakthroughs of friendly mech pilots, but instead tries to eliminate enemy mech pilots directly? What is the viability of this combat method in your opinion?"

Ves froze. This was yet another possible scenario that he had yet to explore, but he realized that it was not that easy to dismiss!

He instantly recognized that this line of questioning led to dangerous territory.

How would the MTA react if Ves released a new 'weapon system' that could kill almost every normal mech pilot within 90 seconds irregardless of their mechs, their defensive systems and their own training?

The entire mech industry would get upended in an instant!

Short of destroying the vessels that project these lethal glows, there weren't many other measures to prevent them from affecting mech pilots in a highly adverse fashion!

Ves realized that if the transcendence glow could truly be utilized this way, the MTA would no longer wish to embrace it any longer.

This was because its threat to the mech community was too great!

What if the CFA got its hands on the method of reproducing and propagating this double-edged sword?

The fleeters would surely take advantage of it to restrain every mech!

In fact, if anyone unscrupulous enough wanted to take it any further, the transcendence glow could even be utilized as a weapon of mass destruction!

Entire populations of both humans and aliens could die off en masse by exposing them to the same glow for more than 90 seconds!

Aside from a few exceptions that were strong and fortuitous enough to break through under pressure, the vast majority of individuals would die off as their heads exploded by the trillions!

The atmosphere in the isolated compartment grew colder and darker after Master Dervidian raised this highly dangerous possibility.

Ves had to think carefully in order to avoid implicating himself.

If the Aspect of Transcendence was not an angel that led people into heaven but instead tossed them into hell, then its creator would definitely bear the fault of bringing such a damaging existence into life!