The Mech Touch

5889 Ves the Defender

Ves had become so fired up when he had managed to sink his giant axe made out of fire energy and his own blood that he scarcely remembered what would happen when he finally felled his hateful foe.

The explosion of tribulation energies that happened right afterwards was so powerful that it temporarily caused Ves and Blinky to lose their consciousness!

He had learned afterwards that the eruption of destruction and creation energies had been so large that it had managed to engulf the entire hull of the Dominion of Man!

The effects were significant. As the last and strongest wave of the 5th round, the explosion not only destroyed a lot of heavily damaged portions of the Dominion of Man, but also strengthened and rebuilt many sections of her hull!

While the gaping hole in the side of the dreadnought hadn't shrunk all that much, the powerful dreadnought clearly became more solid and threatening than before, and that was without factoring in the awakened Spark Reactor!

Furia had already retracted her powerful energies from Ves' true body. She had granted him the honor of landing the killing blow on the clone of the Subjugation King.

Since Ves along with the rest of the Dominion of Man had abided by the unwritten rules of the ritualistic combat setting to the end, the reward provided by the lightning tribulation was several times greater than what the 9th wave ordinarily should have produced!

The Dread Marines could all feel their Dread Armors and their connections to the Dominion of Man strengthening in ways that they could not explain.

Each of them felt as if they were no longer relegated to observers whenever they had to confront a near-god-like entity in the future.

Ves had gained so much more, which was part of the reason why he and his companion spirit got knocked out for a time.

His phasewater concentration spontaneously increased to 3.5 percent.

Veronica, his living Divine Artifact, actually experienced a lot more growth due to her odd relationship with her principal. Her phasewater concentration had risen to 14.1 percent, which already turned her into a qualified combatant back in the old galaxy!

Blinky also harvested a lot of gains. All of the injuries inflicted onto the Blinkyverse had been restored to a much better state than before. What was most interesting was that it had already advanced to the third stage, meaning that a complete solar system made out of E energy had already been formed!

Blinky even managed to gain a modest head start into the fourth stage. Dozens of prototypical star systems had already formed around the primordial one. That said, it would take billions and billions of stars in the imaginary universe to form a complete galaxy.

This was destined to be a lengthy ordeal. The good news was that once Blinky managed to form a complete galaxy in his imaginary universe, he would no longer have to depend on third parties such as Furia to fight powerful opponents!

The difference between the third stage and the fourth stage of the Imaginary Universe Method was massive.

Once Blinky made good progress in the fourth stage, he would be able to support Ves in combat by generating weaker versions of E energy raiments.

However, neither Ves nor Blinky remained in a state to fight any further.

As both of them recovered from the previous blast and managed to regain their awareness, they noticed that the 6th round of the lightning tribulation was already on the verge of starting.

The surging storm clouds hovering over the partially restored dreadnought was concentrating more tribulation power than before.

What was odd was that the gigantic face of the Subjugation King had lost a bit of definition last Ves looked upwards.

The defeat of his clone had dealt a significant blow to the alien God King. There had to be a price for everything. It was only right that the Subjugation King's control over the tribulation storm had weakened.

Ves wished that defeating the clone would have gotten rid of the arrogant alien tyrant entirely, but that was wishful thinking.

A strong sense of weariness and exhaustion settled over him and his companion spirit. His last actions along with the massive cycle of destruction and creation that followed an instant later had taken a huge toll on his body, mind and Spirituality.

He instinctively felt that had reached a point of exhaustion that no potion or elixir could restore.

He had gone above and beyond in this encounter. He had transformed in more ways than one. He directly defied a God King and managed to end up victorious.

Ves had done far more than any mech designer or creator had done to defend his own work. He had put his life and his future on the line.

While the lightning tribulation was still far from over, the massive amount of growth that Ves had bestowed on the Dominion of Man had made her stronger than ever before!

Ves had done his part. He had wrung himself dry and needed a well-deserved rest before he could fight yet again.

He did not feel any remorse over the fact that his direct participation in this struggle had come to an end.

There was no need for him to stand up for the Dominion of Man any further. Both Furia and Caramond had come into their power at this time. He could feel the twin True Gods stretching their power and influence across the entire hull. Fire energy reinforced the hull to an unprecedented degree, so much so that pure fire energy even substituted for a number of broken and missing ship modules!

This was just the start of what the living dreadnought was capable of now she had awakened her Spark Reactor.

The Dominion of Man was no longer just a massive construction of metal anymore. She had transcended the definition of a warship and evolved into an entirely new type of living megaconstruct.

Though her tribulation was far from done, any additional lightning waves no longer generated as much fear as before.

Tribulation events had two different meanings to different groups.

The weak regarded them as punishments.

The strong regarded them as rewards.

While Ves was not arrogant enough to think that the Dominion of Man had the capital to survive all of the subsequent rounds, his confidence level had skyrocketed to an enormous degree!

With two True Gods on her side, it was hard for Ves to believe that the damaged but unbroken dreadnought would fail to overcome all of the subsequent challenges!

The entire space surrounding the Dominion of Man began to light up. Ves noticed to his alarm that the dreadnought began to get enveloped by a bubble of tribulation lightning!

Dozens of small lightning bolts had already zapped his overstrained body. Ves quickly shrunk his body to human-size and rapidly waved his arms for help!

The Rubicon Spatial Transfer System quickly teleported him away from open space and deposited him right back inside the Brain Trust.

"It's good to be back!"

Ves took a few breaths before he rose to his feet. He noticed that his nanosuit remained somewhat intact. It had even received several rounds of strengthening due to frequent exposure to tribulation lightning.

Perhaps he could take advantage of that and turn this suit into a special piece of equipment.

That was a thought for later. For now, he accepted the offer of donning a spare hazard suit and slowly made his way over to Sigrund.

"You can close your mouth now, Captain Reze."

The RF officer and friend looked like his hybrid AI core had crashed continuously ever since he witnessed Ves' many shenanigans.

There was no way a logical mind could begin to comprehend all of the craziness that Ves pulled off since he volunteered to fight on the behalf of the Dominion of Man!

"You… you… what… how…"

Ves wearily raised his arm. "I can't explain what I have done. Much of it is either classified or pertains to secrets that I am not willing to divulge. All you have to know is that the Spark Reactor has received a massive upgrade. I am sure that you and everyone else on this ship has noticed the difference."

The stunned captain nodded. "The electric energy and E energy generated by the Spark Reactor has become so much greater that many of our systems cannot handle the newly generated excess. Our engineering crews are working hard to repair damaged parts and increase the tolerance of many systems in order to take advantage of the new conditions. Even so, we have discovered countless instances where the properties of countless components are continuously improving without any active input."

"That is the defining characteristic of a living ship." Ves smirked. "Don't expect anything to remain the same anymore. Constancy is a thing of the past."

As the two chatted for a time, they made sure to keep an eye on the live feed that displayed an exterior view of the Dominion of Man.

The 6th round of the lightning tribulation was already underway. Given that the damaged but defiant warship became engulfed in lightning and subsequently a corrosive mist, it became clear that the dreadnought needed to withstand a variety of hazardous environments.

Much to everyone's relief, the Dominion of Man endured these tests like a champ. The damage inflicted by the environment was omnidirectional, but that also meant that it was lacking in concentration.

The immensely strong defenses and structure of the dreadnought easily allowed her to overcome the hostility of the changing environment.

The only parts of the ship that came under threat were the sections of her exterior that had suffered a lot of damage.

While the dreadnought had rolled her hull so that her most undamaged side faced the tribulation storm, that did not help much to shield her undamaged portion against ubiquitous hazards.

However, Caramond and Furia worked together to shield these areas from any direct exposure to danger.

The two had taken a page out of Ves' book and formed condensed fire energy hull plating to close all of the gaps and cover every potential weak point.

No other warship of the Red Fleet could replicate this feat. They would have suffered escalating damage as every environmental hazard broke down more defenses and created additional vulnerabilities.

Yet because Caramond and Furia had taken steps to prevent this process from starting, the Dominion of Man actually began to restore with every passing hazard!

More and more damage was restored. More and more lightning baptisms strengthened the hull through mysterious means.

Seeing how well the dreadnought was faring in this particular round, Ves truly began to relax as his suspicions had come true.

"I still cannot believe how easily the ship is breezing through these tribulation challenges." Sigrund uttered. "Since the Dominion of Man is able to endure so much greater punishment after you have worked your magic on her, is it possible for you to do the same to the other dreadnoughts? They all have their own Spark Reactors. You can repeat the same steps it took to 'awaken' them according to your terminology."

Ves had been wondering about that as well.

He shook his head. "Keep dreaming. This is a unique circumstance that can only happen once. The Dominion of Man is utterly unique. No other ship like her will exist. I am sure that there are other ways to upgrade the remaining 7 dreadnoughts, but that is up to others. I am merely here to complete a job."

Both of them continued to observe the dreadnought relying on her impressive defenses as well as the protection offered by Furia to block and withstand a shower of fast-moving meteorites.

Despite the fact that these meteorites struck the hull with the force of battleship cannon salvos, the dreadnought was far too tough and resilient to succumb to the continuous physical impacts!

The fact that the tribulation waves inflicted no effective harm on the dreadnought despite their overall potency did wonders to morale.

The continuous string of successes boosted the confidence of fleeters and made everyone believe in their vessel even more!

"We can defeat anything with our transformed warship! I think… we can even defeat the weaker god mechs!"

"Whoa there! Let's not get ahead of ourselves!"

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