While Ves was experiencing a crisis sparked by the possibility that his wife might overtake him, the duel between the two ace mechs had become more cruel and intense than before!
The principal reason why the two ace mechs attacked each other with greater force and urgency was because of the profound transformations initiated by Patriarch Reginald.
The more time went by, the more Reginald became more familiar with what he could do with his bonded ace mech.
His control over the Mars improved because his instinctual and unconscious understanding of every single part or system continued to grow.
Of course, his new and unprecedentedly deep bond with the Mars did not grant him the theoretical understanding of how his mech actually worked from a technical perspective.
Even if he became as smart as knowledgeable as Master Benedict Cortez, Reginald still wouldn’t be able to explain everything anymore.
This was because the current version of the Mars had evolved far beyond its technical design due to its latest transformations!
Just like how ace pilots transcended beyond their mortal roots as their willpower grew stronger and more transcendent, a similar phenomenon had taken place with the Mars now that Reginald had turned it into another part of himself.
The most immediate consequence of all of these profound changes was that the Mars began to overpower the Neo Amadeus!
Each time the latter tried to overcome the defenses of the Mars, its anti-resonance sword inevitably got blocked by a transphasic axe.
This was a surprising result because the skills of the two ace pilots were substantially different.
Saint Jeremiah Gauge was a pure swordsman who trained and polished his swordsmanship over many decades!
Patriarch Reginald was a typical hybrid mech pilot that did not specialize in single weapon systems but preferred to dabble in a variety of them at the expense of depth.
Compared to actual ace pilots that specialized in melee combat, Reginald’s skills with his axe fell far behind!
As a weapon that was built for hacking through powerful armor plating, the transphasic axe was not as fast and nimble as the opposing sword.
The main reason why the Mars was able to block and parry the incoming sword strikes was because the base performance of the ace mech had improved by a noticeable margin!
So what if Patriarch Reginald wasn’t as skilled as Saint Jeremiah? As long as the Mars was able to move faster and exert greater force with its limbs, Reginald did not need to employ any fancy techniques to neutralize his opponent’s attacks!
Once the Neo Amadeus was unable to inflict damage with its powerful but singular sword attack attacks, the Mars had free reign to pound the Fridayman ace mechs with its ranged armaments!
The upgraded and strengthened ranged weapon modules consistently attacked the shoulders of the Neo Amadeus.
Though the volume of fire of the Mars had dropped due to battle damage it had sustained, the surviving weapon systems all struck with greater power, which more than compensated for the missing guns!
The transphasic armor system of the Neo Amadeus endured a lot of abuse and already became compromised at the shoulder areas.
When the Mars blocked the latest incoming sword strike, its ARCEUS System shot out several powerful resonance-empowered beams that forced the Neo Amadeus to hastily turn around in order to avoid punching through its most damaged armor plating!
Reginald already anticipated that his opponent would make this move. From the moment the Neo Amadeus turned sideways, the Mars fired two powerful kinetic attacks at the ace swordsman mech’s transphasic flight system!
A powerful backup shield generator came online but quickly became overwhelmed as the slugs fired by the shoulder-mounted gauss cannon and the shotgun struck with incredible power!
As long as the Mars was able to fire at the opposing ace mech’s flight system a few more times, there was a great chance of compromising the ability of the Neo Amadeus to move around!
Saint Jeremiah felt much more threatened by the Mars than before. His powerful and highly refined swordsmanship had become impotent in the face of the continuous improvements of his opponent!
The man truly didn’t know how Patriarch Reginald and his admittedly impressive ace mech gained so many massive power-ups, but it was clear that he needed to make a drastic change in order put up a good fight!
Jeremiah became more determined. He no longer attempted to outfight the Mars by relying on exquisite skill as well as the mobilization of his Saint Kingdom.
Instead, his Neo Amadeus maintained its distance for a bit of time so that he could resonate with his anti-resonance sword in a deeper and more profound way than before.
The sword, which rejected all forms of resonance aside from that generated by Saint Jeremiah, began to shake and vibrate as if a terrible amount of power was building up inside the weapon.
Certain people such as Reginald, Ves and Ketis faintly sensed signs of life from the anti-resonance sword!
Though Ves no longer tracked the ace mech duel as closely as before, he quickly directed much of his attention back to this fight when he sensed that the anti-resonance sword actually possessed a faint human consciousness!
“What the hell?! How can the Neo Amadeus wield a living sword?!”
As he studied the weapon intensely, he soon figured out that the weapon was not ‘alive’ in the same way as his products were alive.
Instead, it felt as if the sword had been bonded to the mind of a powerful human through a technological process.
Ves thought up several ways the Fridaymen could accomplish such a feat.
“Did the developers of the Neo Amadeus implant a human brain inside the body of the anti-resonance sword?”
Though this sounded like a ridiculous notion, it was the only explanation that made sense to Ves!
“Why would they implement such a crazy solution?”
Ves thought about the parallels between the anti-resonance sword and his work and quickly came up with a frightening possibility.
“Are the Gaugers trying to imitate my work?”
He already had a strong hunch that this was the case!
The Fridaymen had fought against so many living mechs during and after the Komodo War that they definitely recognized the value of living mechs!
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the Fridayman made serious efforts to imitate or reverse engineer living mechs.
As Ves began to pick up more nuances about the sword, he soon picked up a few more clues that led him to make two more conclusions.
First, the human brain that the Fridaymen integrated with the anti-resonance sword resembled that of an expert pilot. Ves suspected that the researchers of the Gauge Dynasty had taken the brain of a dying but willing Fridayman expert pilot and integrated it into the mech sword.
This explained why this ‘living sword’ harmonized so well with Saint Jeremiah!
Second, the chief developer responsible for creating this macabre living weapon was probably Master Toqueman Huron.
“Is he angry at me for stealing his ideas?” Ves wondered.
Whatever the case, it appeared that Master Huron had found a new way to utilize his expertise and design philosophy!
Whatever he did with the anti-resonance sword allowed Saint Jeremiah to resonate with it so much that it looked as if the weapon was being fully unlocked!
“Avoid that sword!”
Patriarch Reginald didn’t need any reminders. He instinctively sensed a great threat from the weapon and did not hesitate to shift his targeting from the shoulders of the Neo Amadeus to the sword that it held in its hands!
Unfortunately, the materials the anti-resonance sword were made of were extremely hard and powerful. Even if the concentrated energy and physical attacks were beginning to chip away at the blade, these measures could not prevent Saint Jeremiah from completing his move!
“BEHOLD THE POWER BORN OF SACRIFICE!”
Before the Mars could fire another salvo, the Neo Amadeus actually tossed its anti-resonance sword!
The weapon soared forward like a doomsday missile that promised total destruction. It radiated so much power that its properties appeared to be little different from a weapon of mass destruction!
The Mars only had enough time to lift its transphasic axe and block the tip of the incoming sword before it could get any closer!
From the moment the anti-resonance sword got blocked, it erupted and let loose a blindingly powerful white blast that completely overtook the Mars and its humanoid-shaped domain field!
In fact, the latter had suffered the most from this costly attack!
Somehow, Saint Jeremiah not only supercharged his anti-resonance sword, but also triggered it to blow and release all of its power at once!
The Mars suffered greatly as it rapidly backed off from the energies and forces unleashed by the remarkable explosion.
The overpowering attack put the Mars in a much more awful shape than before.
Its domain field had suffered so much trauma that its integrity had been compromised.
If the domain field previously resembled a healthy and powerful state, now it looked like a state that had just been ravaged by war!
The condition of the Mars was a little better, but not that much.
Many portions of its red patterned surface armor looked damaged and deformed as the incredible force of the explosion had exceeded the limitations of the damaged Abasis Armor!
The nature of the anti-resonance sword’s explosion also meant that any attempts of Patriarch Reginald to reinforce the armor of the Mars with his willpower was futile.
The main reasons why the Abasis Armor did not buckle too much was because of its transphasic reinforcement and its inherently tough material composition.
What was actually devastating to the Mars was that its handheld equipment had suffered the brunt of the damage from the sacrificial explosion!
“My axe! My shotgun!”
Patriarch Reginald ached when he inspected the condition of those two weapons.
Only half of the expensive transphasic axe blade was left intact. This was already an admirable state considering that it had been closest to the exploding sword.
The transphasic shotgun had already received a few hits before, but the force of the latest explosion had not only deformed a portion of its exterior, but also damaged numerous internal components.
The Mars couldn’t fire its shotgun anymore!
The sacrificial attack of the Neo Amadeus might have caused the ace mech to lose one of its most powerful weapons, but Saint Jeremiah was more than happy with his gains.
The loss of the anti-resonance sword was not that great of a price now that the Saint Kingdom of the Mars was no longer as strong as before.
The Neo Amadeus quickly pulled out its transphasic sword. Saint Jeremiah was intent on breaking the transphasic reinforcement of the ailing Abasis armor entirely, and this particular sword was the most suited to complete this job!
The ace swordsman mech wasn’t the only machine that switched to another weapon.
The Mars tossed its damaged axe and shotgun in the direction of the mechs of the Cross Clan. Reginald trusted his men to retrieve the discarded gear.
The ace hybrid mech then pulled out a long and fairly thick blade from its back.
Patriarch Reginald was ready to finish the job with the Whale-Cutting Saber.
Ketis originally designed the heavy saber to cut through the flesh and bones of phase whales and other massive opponents.
It should be more than enough to slice through the armor of the Neo Amadeus, especially after it too benefited from Reginald’s willpower baptism!
Strangely enough, the Whale-Cutting Saber didn’t undergo as many changes as the rest of the ace mech.
Reginald initially wanted to imprint the weapon with his force of will to the greatest extent possible, but he quickly changed his mind.
The power that Ketis had especially imparted to the saber upon its creation was not weak. It was important for the saber to retain as much sharpness as before.
Though Reginald’s affinity with the Whale-Cutting Saber was not as great as with his transphasic axe, this was hardly a problem in his opinion!
Reginald became more eager to test whether his new weapon was sharper than that of his opponent.
“If I can’t cut you with my axe, I will cut you with my saber!”
The two ace mechs soon attacked each other with their new bladed weapons!
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