The Mech Touch

What was it like for an expert pilot to undergo a second true apotheosis?

Few humans were able to answer this question.

Unlike expert pilots who could emerge from any significant gathering of mech pilots, ace pilots were much scarcer.

States with populations of trillions of people might have no more than just a handful of ace pilots in their service!

This was how scarce they tended to be! The circumstances that could foster an ace pilot were so harsh that it was practically unheard of for third-rate states to be able to produce one in their midst.

While no one had ever fully figured out all of the variables that needed to be favorable in order to produce an ace pilot, the mech community did manage to formulate a few widely-recognized rules.

First, in order for an expert pilot to advance to ace pilot, they needed to be close to the threshold. Only high-tier expert pilots as defined by their peak resonance strengths had a chance, however faint, of bridging the enormous gap.

Second, expert pilots needed to be physically fit and healthy. Body augmentations could either help or hinder them depending on their nature. What was important was that the expert pilot felt good under his or her own skin. Any sense of discordancy or alienation could ruin the pilot's chances of advancing any further.

Third, an expert pilot needed to be tested and experienced in battle. Practice and training could only do so much. True soldiers and warriors needed to be tempered in actual battle.

While there were pilots who were able to undergo their first apotheosis by luck and happenstance without ever entering an actual battlefield, no such exceptions existed for ace pilots.

Fourth, a good expert mech was indispensable. The expert mech did not necessarily have to be as insanely powerful and extravagant as the Mars, but it at least needed to possess enough power and capacity to channel the strength of a high-tier expert pilot with plenty of room to spare.

There were conflicting theories about whether it was important if the expert mech needed to exceed an objective standard of performance or whether the expert pilot merely had to think that way. The former assumption was objective while the latter was more subjective.

Whatever the case, either demand stopped most third-rate states from facilitating the growth of their high-tier expert pilots because their ability to afford the best materials and the most expensive components were much more limited.

However, there was one notable wildcard, which was the existence of masterwork expert mechs.

No matter the quality of these machines, as long as their performance was at least decent, expert pilots were as much as a thousand times more likely to advance to the rank of ace pilot if they were lucky enough that their customized machines reached this level of quality!

They were also exceedingly rare as the vast majority of Masters were unable to consistently pump them out. That was also what made the Mars such a great accomplishment in the mech industry and why Professor Benedict deserved a lot of recognition for his feat!

Most people considered the aforementioned demands to be the most basic and essential conditions to make a second major breakthrough possible.

States and organizations that could not fulfill all of these four essential demands had no business thinking about producing ace pilots in their midst. They probably still had trouble generating enough expert pilots most likely!

Even if these groups were able to satisfy all of those conditions, developing ace pilots was anything but assured.

This was because every expert pilot needed to go on a long and extensive mental evolution. Studies on this subject failed to present a systematic method to develop this aspect, which meant that many expert pilots had to rely on themselves to grope their way forward.

What certain insiders did know was that expert pilots needed to develop a more powerful motivation to pursue greater strength.

In order to push themselves past the bottleneck that blocked their way forward, they needed to build up a powerful impetus that could forcefully breach their mental barrier and allow their willpower to undergo a comprehensive transformation.

Just as ordinary mech pilots needed to find a cause or conviction to fight for, expert pilots needed to go a step further. They often had to fulfill a more concrete mission or meet a specific requirement in order to achieve their major breakthrough.

Whether it was a coincidence or not, Patriarch Reginald not only met all of the other requirements, but also satisfied the requirements that he needed to conquer in order to prove himself worthy to reach the next stage of his extraordinary profession!

The result was a phenomenon that was almost unique and that few people had the privilege to witness in person!

Every member of the Cross Clan as well as the Larkinson Clan and the Glory Seekers in the current fleet watched on with awe and joy as the most powerful among them had attained a legendary status!

"The Cross Clan has arisen anew!"

"Reginald is just like his father!"

"A Saint! We are led by a Saint again!"

The status of ace pilot was supreme in nearly every corner of human space, but the Crossers possessed a particularly special regard for these extraordinary mech pilots.

As former Garleners who still retained large parts of the culture of their former state, the Crossers not only saw high-ranking mech pilots as champions, but also warlords who possessed the absolute right to lead them on and off the battlefield.

As Ves briefly took his gaze away from the control panel to observe the reaction of the various Crosser staffers who manned the other workstations, he could hardly find any difference between their worshipful gazes and the intense fanaticism displayed by the most extreme Hexer and Ylvainan believers.

While the Crossers were largely secular in their outlook towards life, the way they venerated their patriarch to an even greater degree than before made it seem as if they were worshiping a living god!

"Maybe that isn't too far from the truth." Ves quipped to himself.

The power that Patriarch Reginald Cross unleashed upon the moment of his second apotheosis was absolutely awe-inspiring!

Anything in the vicinity would have been blasted to pieces if Reginald did not make any attempts to control his outburst!

The power of this outburst was comparable to that of a serious attack from a genuine ace mech like the Olympus Mons, if not more!

What was even more impressive was that Patriarch Reginald, or Saint Reginald depending on which title he found more important, did not lose control over his power again!

Unlike expert pilots who were often a bit too weak and unfamiliar to be able to control their new and overflowing power, ace pilots were much more mature and proficient in controlling their own strength.

Their willpower was also insanely strong and Patriarch Reginald was no exception in this regard.

In fact, as his sizable and energetic Saint Kingdom slowly took shape around the Mars, it looked as if he was particularly insistent on maintaining control over his own mech and power expression!

All of the power exuded from the Mars was far from what is customary of an expert mech!

The high-tier expert mech that Ves had witnessed such as Venerable Damira Planat's Erin Tear or Venerable Orthox de Massie's Gatecrasher were both powerful in their own sense, but the Mars vastly exceeded these machines in terms of might!

And this was before the Mars even properly exercised its capabilities in combat!

As Ves glanced towards his control panel and other projected displays, he quickly realized that not every piece of data was reliable anymore.

The Mars was undergoing so many extraordinary processes that it had trouble measuring and recording accurate data!

There was at least one meter that happened to be working in good condition, though.

Professor Benedict had put a lot of effort into installing a stronger and more high-end resonance meter into the Mars in order to account for exactly this kind of situation!

"If this meter is truly accurate, then… Reginald resonance strength has skyrocketed to 134 laveres!"

Sure, this might not sound impressive if this measurement was compared to the resonance strengths of the top ace pilots of humanity that capped at 1545 laveres.

However, compared to Patriarch Reginald's previous record of 60 laveres, this was a drastic jump in strength!

The lavere scale was not linear. A jump of 74 laveres represented an exponential or qualitative leap in effective power and combat ability!

From what Ves had learned from other sources, the increase in power that Reginald experienced was rather exaggerated.

"Most high-tier expert pilots continue to develop their strength in various ways even if they are hindered by their bottlenecks." Professor Benedict explained as he continued to examine the various data feeds and the central projection that showed off the ongoing spectacle centered around the Mars. "When they finally overcome their bottlenecks by making up for their greatest weaknesses, they will quickly make up for lost time and catch up to the state they should have reached if they weren't blocked by their mental shortcomings."

Patriarch Reginald was almost just as talented as his late father. He developed quickly as an expert pilot and only slowed down when he approached the limits of this rank.

Now that he got over this mountain that was previously insurmountable to him, there were no more obstacles that could prevent him from developing his resonance strength for a long time!

"Reginald shouldn't have to worry about any bottlenecks until he pushes onto the barrier that separates him from advancing to the rank of god pilot."

"That is true, but there is a major difference in strength between strong and weak Saints." Professor Benedict cautioned. "Reginald has only become junior ace pilot just now. He still has many years to go before his resonance strength exceeds 800 laveres. At that point, he will be considered a senior ace pilot and someone who can truly guard an entire state."

There were no true qualitative differences between junior ace pilots and senior ace pilots. The mech community decided to create an artificial divide between them in order to better differentiate the strength of younger and less experienced Saints to their older and more developed counterparts.

In general, a junior ace pilot stood no chance of defeating a senior ace pilot, but this was only a guideline, not a hard rule.

What this meant was that the Cross Clan was still a distance away from attaining greater impunity.

It would take quite a few decades if not a century for Saint Reginald Cross to truly be the bulwark of his clan!

"Saint Hemmington Cross never managed to become a senior ace pilot…" Ves recalled.

The late clan leader's presence was still enormous in the Cross Clan, but Reginald had a good chance of surpassing his father this time!

"The Mars is moving!"

Ves stopped thinking about the future and turned his attention back to the present.

Now that Patriarch Reginald had regained control over himself, he was still filled with energy and was eager to vent it all out in a massive, extended spurt!

"Engage the target dummies!" Professor Reginald ordered!

The Cross Clan had already deployed several swarms of drones and battle bots into space.

Now, these automatons simultaneously woke up from standby and began to engage the Mars without displaying any fear or hesitation towards the prospect of fighting against an ace pilot!

Many of the bots happened to be armed with ranged weapons. Upon receiving a specific order, they began to fire their laser or kinetic guns with deadly force.

Unmanned combat machines or not, when several thousand of them fired their weapons at once, not even an expert mech would feel comfortable in the face of so much absolute firepower!

However, as the formidable amount of automated machines unleashed their lethal volleys, none of their shots ever came close to harming the Mars.

Even before the energy beams and kinetic rounds struck the Abasis Armor, they stopped hundreds of meters away from the expert mech.

Patriarch Reginald's new Saint Kingdom had effortlessly blocked them from advancing any further!

Though Ves already knew what to expect from it, seeing it in action was still a wondrous moment.

"This… is the power produced by the fusion of technology and willpower."