The Mech Touch

The Herald of the Void was unleashed!

The Amphis Extremis had fought valiantly for an ace offensive space knight, but its prowess was ultimately limited by the strength of its pilot.

Saint Linda Cross was not as strong as Patriarch Reginald Cross. She broke through much more recently and had yet to grow her resonance strength to a level where she could put up a better fight against a greater phase lord.

After losing half of her tower shield, the Amphis Extremis still did its best to stall the Herald of the Void. Saint Linda did not lose any of her courage, but she made a few clever adaptations to her approach that reduced the chance of getting caught again.

Unfortunately, her adaptations translated into a more cautious approach. By reducing the tempo and increasing the safety margin, the Amphis Extremis no longer pushed the greater phase lord as aggressively as before.

The mighty Wrecker Skull slammed against the Herald of the Void’s spatial barrier less frequently than before, and the Amphis Extremis no longer dared to execute the shield-bashing charge attacks that physically halted the momentum of the greater phase lord the most.

Everyone who observed the more restrained performance of the Amphis Extremis understood that Saint Linda Cross was not able to stop the greater phase lord by herself anymore.

The Volcanic Outburst Mode was just a temporary boost that could only be activated once per battle. The Amphis Extremis actually required deep maintenance in order to repair all of the components that had reached the end of their service life in a matter of minutes.

This was bad news to the human defenders.

As the Herald of the Void advanced towards the orbital defense ring, he was simultaneously shifting the entire frontline. The alien warships in his rear were confidently able to advance as well. The alien phasefighters pushed the opposing mechs back as they received more fire support from the advancing warships.

Even the orvens began to regain a bit of their morale. They still suffered from witnessing the fall of two of their gods, but seeing the more powerful gods from the other races doing well gave them enough reassurance for them to press the attack.

The battle of Viola Magnifica was beginning to close.

Saint Commander Casella Ingvar sighed as she passed on orders that would cause the Larkinson mechs to gradually pull back and prevent themselves from getting encircled and cut off by the advancing alien phasefighters.

The failure to hold back one of the greater phase lords was already an expected outcome. The Saint Commander shouldn’t be surprised that this scenario came to pass, but she still found it difficult to stomach this outcome.

How many times had she fought in a star system that eventually got overrun by a tide of alien forces?

Not too much, but each time it happened, Casella regarded it as a personal failure.

She felt unwilling to end this battle in a slow but unstoppable withdrawal.

Already, the orbital defense ring was beginning to buckle from the assault.

Mighty warship-grade gun batteries and hundreds of formidable transphasic torpedoes had already pummeled three orbital fortresses into scrap.

More guns as well as tens of thousands of transphasic missiles had destroyed dozens of smaller defensive platforms.

The Herald of the Void was not even necessary to dismantle the orbital defense ring. He would just speed up its destruction while preventing the human defenders from destroying any further alien warships.

This was a numbers game. This was what attrition warfare was about. Both sides sought to destroy as many assets belonging to the enemy as possible while doing their best to preserve their own troops.

From the perspective of the Larkinson Clan, it had already made a huge profit.

The successive breakthroughs of Saint Davia Stark and General Ark Larkinson added two more ace pilots to the lineup!

While Casella was aware that the identities and ultimate loyalties of both ace pilots were a bit problematic, for all intents and purposes the Larkinson Clan had indeed become a lot stronger at this time.

Yet when she saw brave Larkinson mech pilots fighting and dying so that other red humans may live, she felt rather sour about this unfolding situation.

Casella did not want to end this battle on this note.

The Saint Commander immediately began to hatch a new plan in her head. She thoroughly studied the battlefield and paid special attention to the current conditions of the champions on both sides. ＲâŊŎВƐṨ

The loss of two alien phase lords was undoubtedly painful, but it did not affect the combat strength of the remaining enemy champions too much.

The Herald of the Void and the Lower Herdmaster were already powerful enough to finish the fight in their own ways.

The remaining two lesser phase lords were only marginally useful as distractions.

The breakthroughs of Saint Stark and Saint General Ark may be good news for the Larkinson Clan going forward, but it also meant that they were no longer available to fight.

Casella had very few options at her disposal if she wanted to reverse the situation or at least slow down the advance of the alien aggressors.

On paper, there was no way that the champions that were left on the human side could stop the two greater phase lords from advancing all the way to the orbit of the fortress planet.

However, what if one more expert pilot broke through?

The first time a breakthrough occurred, an orven lesser phase lord died.

The second time a breakthrough occurred, another orven lesser phase lord died.

Casella directed her attention towards the Everchanger.

Could this pattern repeat for a third time?

She really wanted this to be true, but so far all she noticed was that the Everchanger struggled with his new weapon more than his actual opponent!

For whatever reason, the Everchanger was not able to leverage the power of the ’Bitter Scimitar’ to its full potential!

The Saint Commander frowned and decided to open a communication channel to a certain swordmaster.

"Ketis."

"What do you need, Casella?"

"Tell me what is happening with Joshua."

The woman on the other side let out an exasperated sigh. "The most succinct way to put it is that the Bitter Scimitar is an extremely powerful weapon, but also happens to come with the most awful attitude that I have ever seen from a sword artifact. I thought that pairing it up with Joshua should have been the correct decision since he is always able to befriend every living mech and design spirit he comes across. It turns out that I overestimated his capabilities. If I look at his performance so far, his relationship with the Bitter Scimitar is like fire and water. They do not want to mix."

That seemed pretty obvious on the surface. While the Bitter Scimitar still remained more powerful than the Heartsword, the D-arm also generated a lot of grief, so much so that the Everchanger actually had to pause his assault just to prevent the sword from escaping from his grasp!

"What if the Everchanger tosses the Bitter Scimitar to the First Sword?" Casella suggested. "Saint Dise is much more skilled with a blade, and her firm personality and stronger resonance strength should allow her to suppress this weapon with greater ease."

"Perhaps, but it is not a good fit." Ketis argued back. "Dise and the First Sword are intimately familiar with the Decapitator. Changing to a completely different weapon without any prior practice is a disaster in the making. It is exactly because Dise has fought so long with her expert mech and masterwork greatsword that she is able to stay alive while confronting the Lower Herdmaster. Introducing a new variable will destroy her rhythm and force her to develop new solutions on the spot."

"I see. If that is the case, then the Everchanger should hold onto the D-arm. Do you think it is possible for Venerable Joshua and his new scimitar to be able to get along during this fight?"

"...I don’t know, but if I have to make a bit, then I am inclined to say no. His current mental state… is not in the best shape. I believe that he has already given up on establishing a partnership with his weapon."

That meant that the chance that he would break through was too low at the moment.

"What if… we give him support?"

"Hm?"

Casella quickly explained her plan. "The Viola Magnifica System is lost, but I don’t feel we have done enough to bleed the aliens. Since the Herald of the Void cannot be stopped anymore, I intend to reassign all of my Knights to support the Everchanger. Their firepower will do wonders in wearing down the Eight Lord of Takansha’s spatial barriers."

"It won’t work." Ketis shook her head. "I have already taken the measure of that orven phase lord. He was clearly shaken by the quick death of Khaso Leiyen and is positively spooked after he witnessed the killing of Zren-Divar. Alien or not, I fear is a universal emotion, and I can practically smell it in abundance from him. If not for the fact that fleeing early will cause him to ruin his reputation and his race to be disgraced, he would have fled already."

Casella smirked. "He will not be able to run. We shall not permit him to leave. I have kept Avatar Commander Melkor in reserve up to this point. This is the right time to deploy his newfound capabilities. While we have never tested whether his spell array can entrap a lesser phase lord, this is as good a chance as any. I do not expect him to constrain the Eight Lord’s movements forever. He only needs to stall the orven phase lord long enough for the Everchanger to close in and inflict a great amount of damage."

This plan… might actually work!

"If that is the case, then Joshua and his new D-arm may be able to get along a bit better. His chances of breaking through will rise once he and his Everchanger are making tangible gains. Cutting into the body of a phase lord most definitely satisfies this condition."

"I am doing this in the hopes that Joshua can break through." The Saint Commander said. "I will provide him with all of the support he needs, but he must ultimately complete the most difficult steps himself. If he can become strong enough to kill or cripple the Eight Lord of Takansha, then the orven contingent of the enemy armada will completely collapse. Their morale will plunge to the bottom and they will have no faith left in this fight. Once that happens, they will no longer bother to think about cooperating with the other races and flee by themselves."

"That…"

"Don’t get your hopes up, Ketis. It won’t allow us to win this battle. What it will do is plunge the alien forces into disarray and make them a lot more vulnerable to our parting shots. We will be able to inflict greater losses while suffering less of our own. On top of that, our clan will earn much greater credit for eliminating three lesser phase lords at once."

"We will also attract the hatred of the orven race." The swordmaster warned.

"It is not as if the aliens hate us already. We have already killed plenty of orvens and so on. Now that Saint Stark and ’Saint General’ Ark have broken through, we are increasingly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Burnishing our credentials by claiming the heads of three lesser phase lords without extensive assistance from the Big Two should make other parties take us more seriously."

"I see. I will contact my husband and inform him of the new plan."

"See that you do, Ketis. Please help him find a way to tame his new weapon while you are at it. He clearly looks like he needs advice."

"Got it. I was already planning to do this myself."

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