The Mech Touch

5885 The Origin of the Spark

The goods supplied by the System had always been high in quality.

The Qi Restoration Potion proved to be worth as much as it was sold in the Grand Bazaar.

In fact, Ves could even argue that they were underpriced relative to the value they could provide when they were used at the best possible moments!

Just one of them was already enough to restore about 80 percent of his Spirituality!

Not only did he get refreshed, but many of his injuries also healed at an accelerated pace!

What was even better was that Blinky also benefited from the effects of the potion. After all, the companion spirit still existed as a semi-autonomous extension of Ves.

If he knew that the Qi Restoration Potion had been so powerful, he would have bought them years ago! He regretted once again that had been ignoring the potential benefits of consumables sold in the Infinite Bazaar for so long.

Ves already planned to buy a few more of these handy potions if he managed to get through this tribulation event. They were just too powerful and useful for him to ignore their existence any further!

It would have been even better if he was able to get a hold of the production method. He could either brew the potions himself, or hand the information over to the T Institute in order to research how to mass produce them in-house.

However, Ves could think about that later. He still had to beat the opponent in front before he could have the luxury to think about the future.

Though the Flower Parasol kept him shaded from the harsh light radiated by the clone of the Subjugation King, he knew that it would not be able to keep this up forever. The artifact was too 'young' and underdeveloped to withstand so much energy.

Ves thought about entering into the fray again, but he had a strong feeling that he would just get smacked away again!

The Subjugation King truly wasn't playing around anymore. The hull sections closest to his powerful clone had already started to disintegrate. The tyrannical light encountered a bit of resistance when it struck transphasic alloys, but still managed to eat away at the hull of the dreadnought at a slightly slower rate than normal.

Ves could not imagine what it would be like if he tried to approach the giant light source!

The inverse-square law applied in this situation as well. The lower the distance, the greater the pressure he needed to bear. He was pretty sure that not even the Flower Parasol would be able to last under all of that concentration light!

"This is not a fight that can be won through brawling. We need to overpower our adversary in a better way."

How?

Ranged attacks were unlikely to accomplish anything. The Dreadfire Legion had continued to provide fire support at a distance, yet their barrange of energy beams, high-yield missiles and kinetic projectiles weakened as soon as they became exposed to a high enough concentration of light.

By the time the attacks struck the Subjugation King, they had weakened to such an extent that they failed to inflict any meaningful harm to the entity.

Ves doubted that the results would be better if Caramond went back to empowering his Dreadfire Legion. Relying on quantity had already proven to be ineffective against an extremely powerful cultivator.

The only way he could pass the final test of the Subjugation King was to concentrate a lot more power than he had managed to harness just before.

So long as Blinky was able to summon a full fire energy raiment that covered up his entire true body, the protection might be able to shield Ves and his partners from the harsh light.

What then?

Ves doubted that the clone of the Subjugation King would simply float around and allow himself to get hit.

"It's not enough."

The Qi Restoration Potion may have refreshed him, but it did not dramatically raise his capabilities. The strength gap between himself and the clone of the God King had grown even wider now that the latter employed one of his best elements.

Ves needed to break the game once again. There was no way he could win this bout by relying on his previous methods.

"Energy. It all comes down to energy."

The clone of the Subjugation King not only had a lot more energy at his disposal, but also utilized it in a proficient manner.

Ves and his partners fared worse in both areas. They were all working on borrowed energy to begin with. The only effective way they could achieve better results was to leverage more energy.

He grimaced. Blinky had been doing a great job at channeling lots of fire energy generated by the Spark Reactor, but his companion spirit was still far from reaching the level of a True God.

The Star Cat had grown considerably throughout this exhausting fight, but he still had a lot more to go before he could ever become an equal to the clone.

What else could they accomplish?

Ves was very cognizant that the merciless light was continuing to break the hull of the Dominion of Man with each second that passed. He needed to take action soon, or else the dreadnought would snap in half because the God King managed to disintegrate kilometers worth of hull structure!

He only had one promising solution in mind.

To be honest, he had tried to ignore it as much as possible. The implications were far too great and he was afraid that his idea would cause the downfall of the Dominion of Man.

Unfortunately, Ves was out of any other ideas, so he could only proceed with what he had on his mind.

He backed away and approached one of the intact maintenance hatches that was built into the side of the enormous hull.

The recessed placement of the hatch allowed it to escape much of the devastation that had been wrought on this side of the dreadnought. Ves used his fingers to access the control panel, and felt relieved that it was still operational.

Ves did not bother to input a request to open the hatch or anything. Instead, he used the projected interface to type up a quick plan and hoped that the Brain Trust would be smart enough to inform Dread Captain Volkert Argile.

Only a few seconds passed before Ves felt the Rubicon Spatial Transfer System attempt to lock onto his body.

The powerful system clearly struggled to do so under the heavy interfere generated by the clone of the God King, but Ves had backed off far away enough to successfully cross the Rubicon.

Ves blinked as he found himself standing directly before the command seat of the captain of the Dominion of Man.

A lot of changes had taken place since he last visited this impressive area. One of the most notable changes was how the vast majority of officers and specialists had formed Blood Pacts with the dreadnought.

Volkert Argile was the most defining example of a fleeter who had traded his oaths to the Red Fleet for eternal servitude to the living warship!

Out of all of the soldiers equipped with Dread Armor that Ves had seen today, no one else aside from the Dread Captain radiated so many illusionary flames!

This was not the only notable sight in this chamber.

Far behind the dread captain, the tall and imposing artwork that bore the same name of the dreadnought shone with the light of humanity.

Though the recent transformation had added an even stronger charm to this evocative masterwork, the mood among the crew was a lot more pessimistic.

Few people had any hope left that they would survive this wave. Many of them were already thinking about activating all of the gun turrets if they had a clear shot of the arrogant clone of the God King.

Some of the officers even believed it was better to skip this step and go straight to employing the weapons of mass destruction that a flagship of the Red Fleet definitely held in reserve!

God King or not, there was no way that the clone would be able to remain so composed after the Dominion of Man forcibly teleported a dozen antimatter bombs into his alien face!

While doing so would violate the unwritten rules of the ongoing ritual, the crew of the damaged dreadnought no longer thought about earning a huge payoff anymore. The survival of their proud flagship trumped every other priority!

Not even the orders issued by high command could sway them from their determination to save their vessel!

This was probably why Dread Captain Argile made the risky move to directly teleport Ves to the command center. The fleeter was reluctant to activate his 'final resort'.

"Explain your plan as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence." Dread Captain Argile spoke with fire in his breath.

"I need access to the interior of the Spark Reactor." Ves straightforwardly explained. "I'm not sure how much you know about it, but we are not even close to tapping the full potential of the actual power source of the Dominion of Man. We have merely been taking advantage of the passive radiation of this dormant source. Let me attempt to wake it up or bestow an actual consciousness to it. Once it has gained enough awareness to understand that his ship is in danger, we can point it in the direction of the lightning manifestation."

Though the proposal sounded good, the dread captain immediately shook his head.

"No. Your logic is sound, but it is based on limited information. I am aware of what you are referring to, but you do not understand the danger of what you speak. That 'power source' is far more dangerous than you think! There are good reasons why we have kept it dormant and locked inside an overengineered Spark Reactor!"

Ves wanted to smack his palm on his face. "This is no time for secrets, captain! Have you looked what I have done for everyone?! After all I have done to damage our current adversary, I think I deserve to know what is making you all so spooked about that powerful entity that is powering your ship! Why are you trying to maintain secrecy anyway when you have already broken some of your oaths? This is bigger than the Red Fleet!"

The dread captain clearly did not wish to divulge sensitive information to a person who was technically an outsider, but pragmatism ultimately gained the upper hand.

The man let out a sigh. "Very well. I am not privy to the full context, and there is not enough time to explain what little I am aware of. I have only become aware of these secrets relatively recently. Since you are already familiar with the existence of the Five Scrolls Compact, I can tell you that the subject locked inside the Spark Reactor is a powerful derivative of the Fire Scroll."

"The same Sacred Scroll that ended up in the hands of the Big Two, am I correct?"

Volkert Argile nodded. "That is so. I cannot tell you how the experts of the Common Fleet Alliance managed to do it, but they have manipulated the Fire Scroll into producing a number of powerful beings that we have taken to calling Fire Elementals. This label in itself is rather misleading. According to our research, their natures are far more troubling than they appear. We are not entirely certain about this, but our experts have managed to uncover that they are diminished clones or 'offspring' from an extremely powerful cultivator that existed in antiquity. Can you guess the identity of this master of the fire element?"

The answer was not immediately obvious, but Ves already knew enough about the Sacred Scrolls to come up with an answer.

"Are you saying that… the Fire Elemental is a clone of the original creator of the Fire Scroll!"

"Exactly! Do you understand now how dangerous it is to 'wake it up', as you have suggested?!"

Though Ves was shocked by this revelation, he was not as stunned as he should have been.

Perhaps there was a part of him that had already guessed at the truth.

"We don't have any other choice, captain. Whatever threat this Fire Elemental poses, I doubt it would truly try to wipe out red humanity. Anything is better than kneeling to the Subjugation King at this point! Besides, I don't think the Fire Elemental will go out of control. I think I have a way of limiting its autonomy."

"How?"

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