The Mech Touch

Destroyer technology was amazing. It was not without reason why the Terrans regarded it as one of their trump cards.

The Rubarthans had wasted far too many resources and manpower in their futile attempts to crack the source of pride of their archrivals.

The fact that none of these attempts had succeeded over the centuries was a testament to the excellence and the extraordinary nature of Destroyer weapons!

Naturally, General Axelar Streon had fallen in love with these extraordinary weapons. There was little reason for him to switch to other weapon types even if they possessed their own set of advantages.

The main reason why the Ouroboros had always been paired with a Destroyer sword as its melee armament was because it synergized well with its domain!

Destroyer technology was able to evoke the power of destruction in a much purer manner than other forms of weapon tech.

This allowed General Axelar Streon to resonate extremely well with Destroyer swords, enabling him to inflict significantly more damage with an attack than other mech pilots!

As such, the Ouroboros always wielded the same kind of sword over its long and eventful lifespan.

Although the design and technological features of the sword gradually became stronger and more sophisticated, the biggest difference over time was the changing concentration of Destroyer particles!

Tier 6 and 7 Destroyer weapons were usually considered the starting points for most first-class mechs. Their destructive potential was already good enough to cut through most armor systems of any standard mech at full power.

Tier 4 and 5 Destroyer weapons were a step up from the prior ones. Their concentration of Destroyer particles was significantly higher, making them much less suitable for industrial-scale production.

Another downside was that Destroyer particles needed to be fed with lots of energy in order to activate their destructive properties. It became a lot more difficult for mechs to satisfy the greater energy requirements of higher-tiered Destroyer weapons!

The upside to that was that they could cut through matter a lot more effectively, thereby making them the favorite melee weapons of Terran expert mechs!

The next tiers after this resulted in increasingly more powerful and extraordinary Destroyer weapons.

The concentration of Destroyer particles started to produce real qualitative differences at tier 3.

At this tier, any Destroyer weapon became an exquisite piece of craftsmanship, because anything less was not worthy to bear this much destructive power.

Ves had learned only recently that the offensive power of a tier 3 Destroyer weapon became a lot more effective against less conventional defenses.

One of the well-known strengths of Destroyer weapons was that they could cut through most material-based defenses with disturbing ease.

Unfortunately, their ability to overload energy shields had always been relatively average. This problem became more severe after the proliferation of transphasic shield technology.

Tier 3 and higher Destroyer weapons did not suffer from this inadequacy. A tier 3 Destroyer weapon had attained so many exceptional properties that it gained the ability to cut through non-material defenses and obstacles a lot more effectively!

Transphasic energy shields could no longer block as many attacks, and even weirder and more metaphysical phenomena could be cut in half by a single swing of a tier 3 Destroyer sword!

It was exactly because of this exaggerated level of power and versatility that these transcended creations could not be wielded by ordinary mechs and mech pilots.

The less impressive the wielder, the greater the risk that these powerful beasts in the form of melee weapons would grow out of control!

This was why tier 3 Destroyer weapons could only effectively be wielded by ace pilots and higher.

Even the best Terran expert pilots could not guarantee that the highly concentrated Destroyer particles could flare out of control and break their own mechs instead!

What the Ouroboros currently wielded was a step up from that. A senior ace pilot was much stronger than an ace pilot who had recently broken through.

General Axelar Streon's willpower had grown to such an extent that he was adequately able to maintain firm control over an even wilder and more potent version of these swords!

Tier 2 Destroyer weapons packed an even higher concentration of Destroyer particles. This not only enhanced all of the aforementioned advantages, but enabled it to cut through even more esoteric and weirder concepts according to the intention of its wielder.

Its most relevant strength was that it could cut through the Saint Kingdoms of opposing mechs with much greater ease!

When combined with the powerful Saint Kingdoms of its wielder, a tier 2 Destroyer weapon could remove several crucial advantages of an opposing ace mech at closer ranges.

This was why the Terrans favored melee combat to a significantly greater degree than other first-raters!

The mechers and the Rubarthans tended to rely a lot more heavily on the integrated weapon systems that allowed their first-class multipurpose mechs to spit out antimatter beams, plasma bolts and more exotic attacks.

As for tier 1 Destroyer weapons, not even General Axelar Streon dared to make use of such a rare and impossible weapon.

Just obtaining one was nigh impossible as the production requirements were extreme compared to the previous tier.

Just the fact that its creation demanded the active cooperation between a Star Designer and a god pilot was enough to limit their quantity!

This was because only a grand work could bear the extreme concentration of Destroyer particles needed to meet this unparalleled standard.

Anything less would get annihilated shortly after the weapon was made because it was unable to contain all of the destructive pressure!

It had always been the dream of many Terran ace pilots to receive the honor of wielding these unique and legendary weapons.

Unfortunately, no matter how much they pushed their resonance strength, once they hit their ceilings, they still felt short of being able to control a tier 1 Destroyer weapon!

This was why the Ouroboros was still equipped with a tier 2 Destroyer sword despite the fact that Axelar and the Streon Ancient Clan could afford a better product.

That did not mean the Apocalypse Sword was a disappointment. The strong willpower of a peak ace pilot who possessed a highly developed destruction domain had transformed it into a relic that did not disappoint its name!

This had great consequences to anyone who got too close to the Ouroboros while it had drawn its melee weapon.

Even though the Ouroboros kept its signature sword safely inside its sheath, Ves and the others could still feel a hint of the latent threat at this distance!

One of the greatest reasons why the Devosans feared the Ouroboros even when they found out that it lacked its pilot was the presence of this exceptional tier 2 Destroyer sword.

The powerful high-tech masterwork weapon might go out of control if the Ouroboros tampered with the sword by itself.

Only an ace pilot with exceptionally strong willpower was equipped to tame a weapon of this caliber!

Ves briefly looked at Master Laila Devos, who looked increasingly more upset at this situation.

Theoretically, it should not be too difficult for the ace mech of the Devos Ancient Clan to drag the Ouroboros away.

There was a small chance that the Ouroboros might overreact and pull the Apocalypse Sword out of its sheath, thereby causing it to go out of control.

The Devosans couldn't afford to take this risk!

This meant that the Devosans could not reassert their authority and repair the damage in the most direct and obvious fashion.

They had little choice but to fall back on less palatable methods to solve this unpleasant interruption.

"Since General Axelar is available now, can't he quietly teleport inside the cockpit of his own machine and retake control?" Ves transmitted to his teaching assistant.

The young lady minutely shook her head. "We have already thought about that, but the Ouroboros is built with strong anti-teleportation defenses in mind. There are no obvious loopholes that we can exploit no matter when it is activated."

That made a lot of sense. Ves did not question it further even though it made everyone's lives more difficult.

"So the only way to rein in the Ouroboros is to wait for your grandfather to teleport down to the surface of this planet and approach his mech the old-fashioned way?"

"We have formed the same conclusion, but it is not good for us if he does so." Alexa answered. "No matter how well we try to obfuscate his approach, people will still find out that the Ouroboros has gone out of control. This is unacceptable to our ancient clan. We are currently trying to brainstorm alternative solutions to lead the Ouroboros away without generating further incidents or misunderstandings."

This was a highly charged and delicate situation, but now that Ves learned what needed to be done in order to defuse it, he became a lot more relaxed.

"I have an idea." He smirked.

Instead of wasting precious time to explain his plan, he executed it right away.

Ves began to stride forward again, causing Lucky and his bodyguards to move forward as well.

The movement was conspicuous in an area where everyone else had stopped their movements for fear of triggering an explosion.

Many more eyes fell onto Ves as he steadily made his way to the Ouroboros.

The closer he got to one of his earlier works, the more he could feel his special bond with the old and highly developed living mech.

Ves also managed to make much more detailed observations of this machine. His expression quickly grew more complex as he began to gain a much deeper insight of the fundamental problems that held it back from undergoing the ultimate qualitative transformation.

His earlier guesses were mostly correct, but the problems were much more severe and difficult to solve than he expected!

All of those years when the Ouroboros grew up and evolved without the guidance and touch of its original designer had exacerbated its imbalances and deficiencies.

Poor mech.

As Ves started to puzzle out the steps he might have to take in order to restore his old vision, he took a turn and started to move to the side.

He still remembered the map of the campus of the Eden Institute. He knew that if he continued to move in this direction, he would approach the nearest entrance to an underground mech hangar.

The underground hall usually stored the first-class multipurpose mechs fabricated by mech design students in their final years. Ves figured that it should offer decent enough privacy for the Terrans to clean up their own mess.

Even though Ves had not spoken a single word to the Ouroboros, let alone restore the connection that they once shared with each other a century ago, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that the ace mech would follow.

"It's moving!"

Ves could feel from the pressure emanating from the masterwork ace mech that it had begun to follow him at a steady pace.

He tried his best not to smirk. He knew this would happen.

To him, the Ouroboros was an abnormal second order living mech.

Its sentience and intelligence was not too high, but it was strong in other areas due to the enormous accumulation of time and power.

Yet despite all of its formidable power, Ves found that its personality essentially resembled that of a tamed beast!

Every obedient beast recognized its owner, and Ves suspected that the reason why the Ouroboros spontaneously came down was because it recognized him as its original creator!

Ordinary mechs had no way of acting on their own like this, but the peak ace mech was an exception in this regard.

The best way to handle this rogue machine was to treat it in the same fashion as it behaved.

Ves happened to be fairly good at understanding and cooperating with non-human entities. He already knew that he did not have to communicate anything to the overly energetic beast in the form of a mech in order to lead it away.

This was how Ves easily led the eager living mech to a safer location, thereby doing much to deescalate the tense and stressful situation.