The Mech Touch

5859 Marked

"The storm has weakened!"

"Its diameter has shrunk by 17 percent!"

"Maybe… it takes an enormous amount of energy for the giant alien face to communicate with us. As long as it keeps talking, it will keep draining the energy level of the storm."

"Do you think that the clearly egotistical alien will keep talking until the storm gets exhausted?"

"That is unlikely, but it would be nice if that was the case."

The fleeters did not realize what just happened.

They failed to pick up the fact that the God King that went by the moniker of Subjugation King targeted Ves directly.

The exertion must have cost the powerful alien a lot. The fact that he was able to subvert control over the tribulation storm to such a ridiculous extent that he was able to convert a large portion of its power into a 'soul mark' of some kind was mind blowing and not in a good way!

As Blinky continued to look at Ves' Spirituality, the presence of the mark stood out as obvious as a fly in the ointment.

It was like an ugly and foreign parasite that somehow burrowed into Ves.

He wanted to get rid of it. He wanted to get rid of it right away. The soul mark or whatever did not belong to him. It was an extension of the power of the Subjugation King, one that might possess far more functions than act like a spiritual tracker for the God King!

What if the soul mark continued to contaminate his Spirituality and corrupted his personality?

What if the soul mark drained his life essence and reduced his lifespan?

What if

Though Ves did not sense much of an active threat from this blackened mark, it conveyed a strong sense of implacability. It came across as a chain that the Subjugation King had latched onto his ankle.

When Blinky cautiously approached the soul mark and tried to break it down, the soul mark released a small explosion!

"MROW!"

The mark was too powerful!

Its energy quantity was not high, but its quality exceeded everything that Ves had ever come into contact with. Ves already surmised that not even god pilots could erase this mark.

They were too weak!

This was bad news. Ves already regretted his decision to enact his most ambitious plan to create a new ancestral spirit and tie it to a living Carmine warship.

He especially regretted the decision to involve the Spark Reactor!

Ves did not exactly know which action created an opening for the Subjugation King to hijack the tribulation storm, but it became clear that he had taken a step too far this time!

As much as Ves wanted to blame himself for tempting fate in such an arrogant fashion, there was no point in blaming himself.

He had to accept the fact that an alien GOD KING of all entities developed a personal interest in him and would be coming to him as soon as he crossed across the intergalactic void.

That 50 year or so deadline loomed a lot more ominously over his head than before.

There was no way he could escape the grasp of this super-

powerful alien by hiding in the Red Ocean!

He would have to check up on his mother to be sure, but Ves already assumed it was a lost cause that he could ever get rid of it without the Subjugation King's permission.

There were only three acceptable ways for him to handle this massive new problem.

First, he could negotiate with the Subjugation King and come to an agreement that would convince the God King to remove his mark.

Second, he could engineer the Subjugation King's defeat by helping the Destroyer of Worlds and the other god pilots grow powerful enough to overpower him directly on the battlefield.

Third, he could look into ways to escape the reach of the Subjugation King. Whatever means he utilized to travel from Messier 87 to the Red Ocean, it was doubtful that his travel method was able to exceed the speed of utilizing a greater beyonder gate or other phasewater-based solution.

Of the three options that Ves was able to come up with, the first one sounded like a complete fantasy. There was no way that a God King that came to power by subjugating his enemies all of the time would be reasonable enough to negotiate with an inferior party!

The second option was his most preferred option. It was mildly more realistic than the previous one, but it was still nearly impossible to pull off. The gap between the ranks of god pilot and god king pilot was so immense that it would probably take the Destroyer of Worlds hundreds of more years to reach the fourth major cultivation rank.

The third option was the most viable one of them all. Ves hated the thought of running away, but he had done it before. It was the most logical decision to make. The only complication was how the hell he would be able to flee the Red Ocean. The greater beyonder gate in the Red Ocean was currently being transformed into an entirely different device. Perhaps the only other means of escape was to board the 'Whale Ark' revealed in one of the Zeal's prophetic visions.

Ves calmed down a bit when he determined that hope was not lost. He still had a shot of keeping himself out of the grasp of an incredibly powerful and malicious God King.

His best bet was to invest in both the second and third option.

He would continue to do his work and do his best to empower both new and existing god pilots.

Perhaps they did not have to reach the fourth major cultivation rank in order to defeat a single God King. As long as there were enough god pilots, they could use their numbers advantage to mob the powerful Krelion entity.

The cost would be horrendous. There was no way to determine the gap between the Subjugation King and everyone else, but it was probably large enough that not even the likes of the First Flame would be able to last more than a dozen seconds in a serious fight.

Though Ves refused to give up his hope, it was not wise for him to bet everything on the protection of others.

This was why he needed to make sure he prepared an escape route for himself!

As soon as it became clear that nothing in red humanity's arsenal could withstand the power of the Subjugation King, Ves needed to be gone from this dwarf galaxy!

Whether he would be able to return to the Milky Way or slink away to another galaxy was not important. Ves just needed to physically distance himself from the God King who marked his soul if he wanted to retain any hope of securing his freedom!

"<nullb>#$#&@."

"<nullb>YOUR INITIAL PUNISHMENT BEGINS NOW."

"What is this alien saying?!"

"The energy readings of the storm are beginning to spike. There is a high chance that an attack is imminent!"

Ves did not need to spend much effort interpreting the alien speech to know that the Subjugation King still retained a measure of control over the tribulation storm!

A powerful green lightning bolt descended from the molded clouds and struck the azure energy shield of the Dominion of Man!

After that… nothing.

The Dominion of Man was equipped with some of the most powerful transphasic hyper energy shields developed by the Red Ocean.

Her azure energy shields were meant to withstand focused attacks from entire alien warfleets.

In fact, they were also designed to resist attacks from both god mechs and ancient phase whales!

Compared to the incredible threat posed by these top-level adversaries, the opening strike from a tribulation storm did not really present a serious enough threat.

"Our azure energy shield has held!"

It was rather funny to see that the Dominion of Man had managed to withstand the first strike without seeming to endure any strain.

The tribulation storm struck again, yet nothing obvious changed.

Multiple strikes rained down on the dreadnought. Each of them grew progressively stronger, yet still failed to overcome the combined effects that made azure energy shields so strong!

Ves was able to sense that the power of these lightning strikes were way higher than the ones that struck his Elemental Lord.

It seemed that the power of these tribulations scaled according to the power of the subject.

Whether the subject of the storm was Caramond, the Super Brain, the living spark or the Dominion of Man as a whole, it became clear that the tribulation storm had not reached an overpowering state right away.

Of course, Ves did not assume that the Dominion of Man would be able to keep this up forever.

Depending on how many strikes were left, sooner or later the storm would breach the dreadnought's defenses.

"The Dominion of Man's defenses are holding!"

"Her primary azure energy shields are constantly being reinforced."

"Her hull is beginning to rotate to give the most strained azure energy shield generators a reprieve."

The dreadnought did not stupidly stay in place but began to spin her hull and alter her orientation.

Since the lightning strikes only came from one direction, it was rather easy for the Dominion of Man to space out the incoming damage and prevent any of the strikes from concentrating their combined power.

While everything seemed fine so far, the tribulation storm still conveyed plenty of oppression, which meant that it still held back a lot of power.

Throughout this initial sequence, the so-called Subjugation King did not speak or make any obvious moves.

His three sickly green glowing eyes continued to look down at the Dominion of Man as if he was evaluating the humans who crewed the unusually resilient vessel.

"Damn, I almost forgot!"

One of the reasons why he chose to remain on this ship was because he wanted to promote his cultivation by bathing himself in tribulation lightning again.

This was only possible if the power of the lightning strikes actually managed to get past the initial layers of defense. The attacks at least needed to touch the hull in order to give Ves a chance.

For now, it looked like Ves needed to wait a long time before he could enjoy a lighting baptism.

Two rounds of 9 lightning strikes went by without issue.

By this time, the Dominion of Man's azure energy shields showed a few signs of destabilization, but her systems were so powerful that they were already recharging at a fairly rapid rate.

The Spark Reactor provided a huge amount of help!

Not only was it pumping out a lot of energy, it also generated a lot of E energy, though mostly of the fire element.

Normally, this fire energy did not play well with azure energy shields, but the dreadnought was somehow able to convert it into lots of water energy.

This was incredibly interesting and would have captivated Ves if not for the present circumstances!

For the time being, Ves grew a little more reassured that the Dominion of Man's ample energy defenses would keep the vessel safe for a while longer.

It was then that the Subjugation King spoke again.

"<nullb>@%$#$#."

"<nullb>AMUSING, BUT IRRITATING. LET ME GIVE YOU A TRUE TEST."

Uh oh. Ves did not like the sound of that.

When the tribulation storm was about to start the third round of lightning strikes, the gigantic face made up of storm clouds abruptly opened his sharp-toothed mouth and began to exhale lightning monsters of all things!

These sickly green lighting monsters traveled a lot slower than simple lightning strikes, but acted in a much more coordinated fashion.

They adopted arrow-shaped formations before driving themselves straight towards a single point!

Thousands of lightning monsters crashed onto the same segmented energy shield.

No matter how much the dreadnought attempted to spin this side away, the intelligent monsters kept circling around so that they could take advantage of this weakness.

The Subjugation King's intervention just made this lightning tribulation a lot more challenging!

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