The Mech Touch

Within one of the observation rooms of the Spirit of Bentheim, the mech designers and staffers monitoring the last test became shocked at what was taking place!

The Minerva had already produced a lot of astonishing feats during its debut deployment. Everyone thought that would be the extent of all of the excitement.

The expert command mech had already displayed its main capabilities which were much different and more sensational than anyone expected out of the latest Larkinson expert mech.

It would be downright absurd for anything else to happen on this day. The Larkinsons and its allies had already witnessed enough remarkable feats to talk about for weeks.

Who could have imagined that letting Commander Casella Ingvar perform her Single Empowerment resonance ability on her brother Imon Ingvar would produce such an exaggerated reaction?

"This is impossible!"

"My sensors are going crazy! The processors are producing errors. They can't make heads or tails of what is taking place!"

"The resonance meters are going wild! The Blade Chaser is emitting confusing signals and our software cannot interpret the results!"

Gloriana quickly flicked her projected interface until they displayed the sensor logs of the resonance meters.

"The errors are a result of trying to measure the resonance strength of a mech that is not only being empowered by an expert command mech, but is also breaking through at the same time. If you want to make sense of what is happening, then split up these readings into two. You will find that one of them corresponds of Commander Casella's true resonance while the other is generated by Imon Ingvar's breakthrough!"

When Gloriana personally tweaked the settings so that the different signals weren't jumbled together anymore, the data finally reflected the actual situation.

The readings were unambiguously clear. The Blade Chaser gained another infusion of power, and this time it was much more powerful and violent than that of the Minerva's Single Empowerment ability!

"Imon Ingvar is undergoing apotheosis!"

A lot of mech pilots who figured out what was taking place grew incredibly envious at the lucky bastards. Many of them had no realistic hope of breaking through in their lives. Others might have the potential to become a demigod but needed to push themselves through constant battles in order to prove themselves worthy!

In contrast, Imon's sudden chance was an extremely lucky occurrence!

Not only did he manage to find a chance during a last-minute test of all situations, but also did not have to worry about getting strangled by an enemy force in order to prevent him from becoming another asset of the Larkinson Clan.

Only Venerable Jannzi Larkinson and Commander Casella Ingvar had the fortune of breaking through under safe circumstances, and now another clansman was about to join this envious club!

Imon did not realize what was happening to him. He was so consumed by his overwhelming desire to protect his sister from future foes that he immediately embraced the rush of power pouring out of his being.

All he had in mind was to prove his worth, embrace his new strength and attain more power in order to protect his sister!

"I will not let you down, Casella!"

"I have tried so hard to find my own goal, only to realize that my strength has always been derived from you. It was foolish for me to try and become more independent from you. I will stay by your side so that we can grow strong together!"

"Since you cannot defend yourself against every enemy, let me stand in front of your foes!"

"If my power or yours is not enough to defeat a threat, then let us both combine our strengths!"

"Your power is mine, and my power is yours!"

No one had witnessed a breakthrough quite like this, but the phenomenon taking place was undeniable!

Not only was Imon Ingvar undergoing the changes that were traditionally associated with apotheosis, the Blade Chaser also gained a massive boost of strength that temporarily put it at the same level as an expert mech.

No! There was more than that! Commander Casella's willpower that had been running through the frame of the custom swordsman mech had doubled and tripled in magnitude!

Casella herself reacted with both shock and happiness as she witnessed what her brother was going through.

She was happy that Imon had finally succeeded in catching up to the same level as her. She had always noticed the frustration and envy from her brother. If this unequal state continued, she could not guarantee whether their relationship would remain as close and harmonious as before.

Now that Imon had finally become a demigod, those concerns had gone away! As a proper expert pilot, her brother finally had the capital to remain confident in her presence.

The reason why she was shocked was not because her brother broke through while she was empowering him with one of the Minerva's abilities.

She was taken off-guard by how her active bond with her brother was affecting them both!

The first effect was that Commander Casella suddenly experienced a rush of strength that undoubtedly came from her brother!

A part of the energies unleashed by Venerable Imon's breakthrough had flooded in her direction!

For some reason, Casella was easily able to absorb her brother's energy despite the different properties.

This was the odd part about this. She did not sense any form of rejection. In fact, Imon's violent and powerful energies turned tame when they reached her mind. They smoothly integrated with her own willpower, which not only wiped away her exhaustion, but also caused her to become more aligned with her brother!ᰍaꪧda ᱅o᱇ꫀl

"What is happening?"

Casella couldn't explain it, but she intuitively sensed that this was a positive turn of events!

This was why she did not retract her resonating ability. Whatever reactions that Imon's advancement had evoked at the moment were creating an even deeper bond with her and her brother!

Their absolute trust, affection and willingness to protect each other became empowered by Imon's overwhelming desire to serve as Casella's champion.

The temporary bond created by the Minerva's Single Resonance ability became the unwitting vessel of this transformation!

All kinds of miraculous and wondrous changes occurred, one of which was the formation of a permanent spiritual bond between the two expert pilots!

The effects of this bond and more were in stark display at the moment as the brightly glowing Blade Chaser exuded vastly more power, and not just because of the forced resonance that was coursing through its frame.

The Minerva visibly weakened in power. Its dark gold corona grew dimmer and dimmer until it looked like a sickly expert mech that had fallen on hard times.

In contrast, the custom swordsman mech that was hacking at the Everchanger even now became increasingly more splendid and radiant after obtaining a much greater proportion of Casella's reinvigorated willpower!

Any signs of incompatibility that existed before were wiped away as Imon's apotheosis had forcibly caused the two Ingvar siblings to become almost perfectly aligned!

At this moment, Casella willingly answered the call of her brother and passed on her extraordinary power to him without reserve.

The results were becoming increasingly more clear. The Blade Chaser no longer exhibited the strength of a mech that was affected by forced resonance.

With two different powerful sources of resonance affecting the same mech, the swordsman mech that had only recently fallen into the hands of Imon Ingvar turned into a monster that was actually giving the Everchanger a run for its money!

"What is this?! Even I wasn't this strong when I broke through!" Venerable Joshua exclaimed as he had to fend off the repeated strikes from his 'sparring partner'.

Their skills were still too far apart from each other. Venerable Joshua had already become an expert pilot for a couple of years and also spent enough time to thoroughly familiarize the Everchanger's nuances.

Though he was not a full-time swordsman mech pilot, his wife constantly exhorted him to practice his swordsmanship and thoroughly master all of the basic drills.

All of this helped with turning him into the second-most powerful swordsman among the expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan.

Although Venerable Dise could easily abuse him in a swordfight, no other expert pilot should come close to challenging him in a contest of blades.

Yet that was exactly what Imon was doing!

As the forced resonance from Imon's breakthrough and the escalating power donated by Commander Casella blended together, the Blade Chaser turned into a vessel that effectively channeled the power of two expert pilots at once!

This was a miraculous result considering that willpower was highly exclusive and usually rejected other influences.

Only an insanely high degree of compatibility could make two expert pilots get along with each other to such an amazing extent!

A phenomenon like this would have never occurred if Imon did not desire with all his heart to offer himself up to her sister and serve as her eternal guard, protector and champion!

As the expert pilot as well as the expert mech became irrevocably changed, the Blade Dancer pressed the Everchanger with greater force, speed and ferocity until it overpowered the expert hero mech!

No matter what kind of technique Joshua employed, the Blade Chaser was considerably faster and more powerful at the moment!

Relying on these temporary advantages, Imon Ingvar roared as the sword of his custom mech finally evaded the guard of the Everchanger before slicing its surface with a radiantly glowing blade!

"The Everchanger got hit on its arm!"

The powerful blow was not enough to cut through the Everchanger's arm structure, but it had left a deep cut behind that showed that the attack had firmly penetrated through a solid layer of Unending alloy.

This was an exceptional material with the defensive properties that usually corresponded with first-class materials!

For a second-class mech to be able to inflict this much damage was impressive, even if the dual forms of resonance were responsible for making it happen.

"Hahaha! I did it! I've become strong enough! Did you see my performance, sister?!"

As soon as Imon succeeded in this attack, much of the power that had elevated him and his custom mech quickly resided as if it had completed its mission.

The forced resonance that had pushed the Blade Dancer far beyond its limits had disappeared, drastically causing it to deflate in power.

Commander Casella also took the initiative to stop her Single Empowerment ability.

"Ack!"

Imon did not react well to the sudden changes. The truth was that he had been overdrafting his strength by a lot in order to pass his own test.

He quickly fell unconscious as his recently-evolved willpower was in an exhausted state!

His custom mech did not look much better either. The mech had performed amazingly fast and powerful moves but all of those high-intensity movements took a toll on the physical structure.

Many fractures and overloaded components marred its frame, causing it to look as if it had fled a warzone.

The Larkinsons did not think that there was anything wrong with this. No matter what, once Venerable Imon Ingvar recovered from his ordeal, their clan would finally have another expert pilot at its disposal.

The entire clan celebrated this unexpected event without any reserve!

"Hail Venerable Imon Ingvar!"

"Our clan is blessed with expert pilots!"

As everyone cheered for the appearance of another powerful hero in the Larkinson Clan, Ves was not as jubilant.

His mood sank when he realized he needed to invest his time into designing yet another expensive and cumbersome expert mech.

The logistics surrounding the development of such a high-end machine always troubled Ves. What was worse was that the expeditionary fleet was heading away from Davute, so it was unlikely that they could find compatible resonating materials.

Resonating materials were the foundation of a unique and individualized expert mech. Without knowing what Imon Ingvar was good at and what resonating materials could amplify his natural talents, there was no proper way to get started with designing a new expert mech!

Ves frowned. "The only solution is to wait until we have returned to a major trading system. Only a large settlement where lots of trade is taking place will have the warehouses and marketplaces that can expose Imon to a lot of different resonating materials."