The Mech Touch

5854 A Hidden Pact

When the Red Fleet initiated a widespread publicity campaign that was solely meant to put Supreme Marshal Caramond Perle to the forefront of everyone's consciousness, many people took notice.

The fleeters had always been driven by calculation and rationality. Their principles were abundantly clear and their oldest traditions went back millenia.

While the Red Fleet most definitely kept a lot of secrets, they usually managed them pretty well.

Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson's leaks had been the only time in recent memory that the fleeters acted against their own rules and regulations.

The current incident might not share any resemblance to the abrupt push to bring Supreme Marshal Caramond Perle to the forefront of public attention, but plenty of people figured out that there may be a common element that was responsible for provoking both incidents.

Deep inside a hidden biotech research facility where an entire research division conducted exhaustive studies on phase whale and phase lord tissue samples, an eminently powerful figure sat in the middle of an enormous hall.

The woman was instantly recognizable. Her tall form, her purple robe and above all else her overpowering God Kingdom identified her as one of the 8 iconic god pilots of red humanity!

The Evolution Witch had been assigned to guard and patrol the border regions around the Vivan Upper Zone this time.

The native aliens had relented in their latest pushes at the upper zones at this time. That did not mean that the Red Cabal had run out of steam.

No. It was the opposite in fact. The intelligence services of the Red Association had picked up many indications that the aliens had decided to stop sending warfleets into human space in bite-sized portions.

The Red Two's premier warfleets along with the active protection of god pilots such as the Evolution Witch ensured that none of these intrusions managed to get much done.

It would have been tolerable if the alien warfleets managed to inflict irreplaceable losses to their opponents before they inevitably got wiped out, but the results were too meager to sustain this effort.

The aliens were not stupid. They were not eager to throw themselves to their deaths.

It became increasingly evident that the Red Cabal had collected enough intelligence about their extragalactic foes to recalibrate their strategy.

Since there were so many moving parts involved, it took a lot of time for the natives of the Red Ocean to execute a strategic shift.

The Evolution Witch smelled a major offensive on the horizon. She knew that this lull would only be temporary. Once the aliens got ready to attack with much greater fervor than before, they would inevitably come up with a trump card or two that were designed to contain god pilots such as herself!

This made it more important than ever for the few god pilots who found themselves stuck in the Red Ocean to do whatever it took to increase their strength and capabilities.

The issue was that god pilots no longer had a solid direction to follow.

Every mech pilot up to the rank of god pilot merely had to fight, train and master their own selves. The Kingdom of Mechs or the Red Kingdom took care of everything else.

Unfortunately, the Progenitors of Mechs never got around to developing a blueprint on how god pilots should progress past their current rank.

This caused a lot of problems for the most powerful and exalted warriors of the modern age.

When the Evolution Witch managed to break through to god pilot at a fairly young age, she became filled with an overpowering sense of optimism.

That quickly disappeared once she started to communicate with the other god pilots of humanity.

Out of a hundred or so god pilots, none of them had a definitive clue about how they should progress towards the next rank!

They all knew there was another threshold in the distance. Yet none of them had managed to construct a standard cultivation method that would enable all of them to reach the hypothetical rank of god king pilot.

That was why everyone decided to diverge and pursue their own individual paths.

As True Gods, they had already turned into unique existences. They might share a lot in common, but their God Kingdoms had diverged so much from each other that a one-size-fits-all approach may no longer be adequate to promote their strength any further.

This was why different god pilots tended to do whatever they thought was necessary to advance their strength.

Whenever the Huntsman was stationed in the border regions, he rarely spent time on defending human star systems. He instead made the risky decision to go behind enemy lines and hunt down notable commanders and phase leaders.

His hunts regularly terrified alien leaders and caused significant delays in enemy operations.

Yet he also generated a lot of concern within the Red Association due to flying solo all of the time.

Though the Huntsman made sure to make his hunts as unpredictable as possible, it was still possible for the aliens to prepare an ambush for his possible intrusion.

Yet these hunts were always worth it for the god pilot. Each time he came back with a brand-new trophy, he came across as a little more threatening than before.

The Evolution Witch occasionally envied the Huntsman for developing such a straightforward path towards ascension. It made sense for him to derive strength from his hunts as it fully aligned with his God Kingdom.

The female god pilot was not as lucky, however. She had only broken through relatively recently.

The Huntsman was a century older than her. His knowledge, his techniques, his accumulation and his understanding of his domain and God Kingdom were so much better that he always gained the upper hand during their spars.

In fact, even if their overall combat power were even, the Huntsman would still win the overwhelming majority of friendly bouts!

The Huntsman countered her. The Evolution Witch's greatest advantage was her ability to absorb and mimic the strengths of every extraordinary creature she came into contact with. She was able to assimilate, optimize, evolve and even merge the best biological characteristics of the most powerful organisms of the Milky Way and the Red Ocean!

Her versatility was nearly unmatched. The most recent major operation had been incredibly rewarding to her as she managed to absorb an entire ancient phase whale!

Though it took a lot more time and effort to fully assimilate and master the extraordinary abilities of the once-powerful Singularity Lord, she could already pass herself off as a fairly powerful phase whale at this time!

Yet for all of these advantages, the Huntsman still regarded her as prey.

Her continuous defeats against him rankled her pride and affronted her sensibilities as a god pilot.

She did not necessarily mind the fact that she was losing. What truly upset her was the fact that she never managed to improve her performance after all of this time!

The gap between them was growing. No matter how many mutated beasts and calamity beasts her Geneforger absorbed, she only became more versatile as opposed to getting stronger.

A part of her recognized that she needed to absorb more foes on the same level as the Singularity Lord in order to make meaningful progress.

However, the ancient phase whales had all made themselves scarce. Not only were they hiding on the other side of the dwarf galaxy, they also hid their precise whereabouts by holing up in their pocket spaces.

Besides, Lucie Miyazaki had a strong feeling that assimilating another ancient phase whale would merely turn herself into an even bigger piece of prey in front of the infuriating god pilot.

A normal mech pilot would have recognized and accepted the fact that the Huntsman was her natural counter.

A god pilot would never give up. It was against their nature to do so. The Evolution Witch swore to herself that she would do whatever it took to defeat the Huntsman in single combat one day.

Of course, that was not the only reason for her to pursue greater strength. She also took it upon herself to defend red humanity, defeat the Red Cabal and fend off other threats.

The real reason why she was so fixated on defeating the Huntsman was because this rivalry exposed the limitations of her old approach.

If she wanted to overcome her own weaknesses and defeat her implacable peer, she needed to pursue a different evolution strategy.

This was why another True God was sitting in a lotus position in front of her mortal form.

It took a lot of effort to control her God Kingdom and prevent it from repelling the powerful guest. The Evolution Witch exerted just enough of her divine willpower to exert a light degree of pressure towards her fellowTrue God.

The manifestation of the Superior Mother continued to raise her arm and project her energies towards the Evolution Witch. While it was not her forte, the incarnation of Cynthia Larkinson did her best to project piercing energies that were reminiscent of the Huntsman's sharp domain.

It was clear that one of them had it much easier than the other.

It was so easy for Lucie to strengthen her God Kingdom and block the flow of E energy. She could even take it a step further and repel the Superior Mother's fragile domain.

However, that was counterproductive to her goals.

If the Evolution Witch wanted to become strong enough to defeat the likes of the Huntsman, she wouldn't be able to do it alone.

She needed help.

It was difficult for a god pilot to admit this fact, but Lucie was not as stubborn and arrogant as the likes of the First Flame.

She was younger and less experienced than any other god pilot. Everyone else was doing their best to grow stronger in their own ways, so it was extremely unlikely for the Evolution Witch to catch up to any of them if she relied on her own efforts.

This was why she actively sought out the help of one of the most dangerous cultivators of the Age of Conquest.

Though their initial introduction had been tense, the Evolution Witch and the woman formerly known as Cultmaster Original Sin both figured out fairly quickly that they had a lot of grounds for cooperation.

Neither of the two had any desire to revisit the sins of the pasts. The future weighed much heavier on them, so they quickly managed to form a pact that would compel them to assist each other's cultivation as best as possible.

Aside from exchanging knowledge and secrets that were helpful to their counterparts, they also started to experiment with conditioning each other.

For example, the Evolution Witch partially exerted her God Kingdom on the Superior Mother in order for the latter to increase her ability to cope with other god pilots.

The Superior Mother utilized her versatile mastery of the elements to acclimate the Evolution Witch to specific attacks.

The results were relatively meager so far, but both were hopeful that they could strengthen each other in more meaningful ways.

Both abruptly paused the current session.

The manifestation of the Superior Mother cut off the flow of energy and lowered her arm.

The matronly figure frowned.

"Have you noticed?"

"I have." Lucie faintly nodded. "The researchers in the base are discussing the latest actions of the fleeters. Let me guess. Your son is involved."

The Superior Mother snorted and crossed her arms. "That brat of mine is incapable of sitting still. This is just the start. By the time the day has come to an end, he will become the talk of red humanity. Again."

The Evolution Witch did not know if she would be able to tolerate such a naughty offspring. She felt fortunate that she had dedicated herself so much to her life and career that she never got around to having kids.

"Do you require my assistance to contain the… fallout?" The god pilot offered.

"It shouldn't be necessary. Ves has plenty of contacts to lean on. Besides, you are located too many star systems away from him to render aid in time."

"That may not always be the case, my friend."

"Let us not get ahead of ourselves, Lucie. First we need to master an aspect of each other's powers."

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