Chapter 3560 - Born For This Of all of the expert mechs designed and built by the Larkinsons, the Everchanger was the most special one of all. At least that was what Ves thought. The Everchanger was designed with several distinct themes in mind. Two of them were very relevant in this current battle. The first major theme was adaptability. As a hero mech, the Everchanger was already flexible, but that was not enough for Ves. He wanted his work to be able to adapt in a different way that no other mech designer could accomplish. Through his efforts, the Everchanger became capable of switching between design spirits. While it was technically possible for Ves to do that for any of his living mechs, this was the first time he expressly developed a machine with this functionality in mind. It required a substantially different approach to the Everchanger's spiritual design and Ves had to invent plenty of new solutions in order to make sure that the expert mech was able to channel each design spirit well enough. All of the trouble was worth it, though. The Everchanger became a mech that was quintessentially a mirror of Joshua. It was 'nice' mech that possessed a lot of vitality and was open-minded to any design spirit no matter their character. If Joshua wanted to, he could temporarily turn the Everchanger into an Ylvainan mech. He could also make it channel Bravo, Zeigra, Qilanxo and many other design spirits depending on the circumstances. Right now, the Penitent Sisters needed to maximize the power of its battle formation, so Venerable Joshua performed a role that he had played several times in the past. "It's time for me to become a Hexer once again." Joshua spoke. "Try and keep up, Everchanger." I WAS BORN FOR THIS, JOSHUA. Ves once told Joshua that the Everchanger was a third-order living mech. Although the pilot didn't know why it was called this way, Joshua knew that his first true expert mech was vastly more alive and intelligent than the Quint and the Valkyrie Prime. The previous two mechs he piloted were all great in their own ways, but he hadn't piloted the former for years while the latter had been cannibalized to fabricate the Everchanger. Perhaps the Everchanger's Unending alloy still remembered what it used to be a part of, because the living expert mech synced up to the Superior Mother particularly well! Joshua felt the distinctly strong presence of the Superior Mother descending on the Everchanger and suffusing it with her glow. She even greeted him in a familiar way as if he was a good friend of her family. "Please work with me to slay this astral beast. If we can't finish off this giant monster… then Larkinsons will begin to die again." So far, the battle hadn't produced any casualties, but that was because the Titania apparently lacked direct attack methods. However, once its living flesh torpedoes managed to get close to any ship, they would certainly be able to wreak a lot of havoc! Though it certainly cost a lot of energy and resources for the Titania to generate and launch its flesh torpedoes, it hadn't stopped at all despite being impaled by a giant energy sword just a moment earlier. Instead, the astral beast behaved as if it recognized the need for haste. As more parts of it became awake, the Titania accelerated its production of flesh torpedoes! Aware of the importance of his mission, Venerable Joshua tried to channel and embrace the Superior Mother as best as possible! "Penitent Sisters!" Transmitted to the hundreds of Valkyrie Redeemers that were flying behind the green-coated mech. The expert mech looked especially grand, but not because of its white and gold accents. The real reason why it looked so good at the head of the Penitent Sister mechs was because it was the only machine that wore a long red cape! This giant piece of sturdy fabric was merely a decorative element that Ves had prepared for the Everchanger as an extra touch. The emblem of the Larkinson Clan emblazoned in the middle of the cape made its allegiance unmistakable! Though the cape did not add any hard performance boosts to the expert mech, it complimented another theme. Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger were both meant to serve as heroes. They were the symbols of the Larkinson Clan and could inspire the Larkinsons in a way that allowed them to keep their morale high even during this challenging situation. While Joshua was not able to inspire confidence by leading the troops like Commander Casella Ingvar, he was able to lead the Larkinsons from the front instead of the rear! With the Everchanger acting as the tip of the spear, the glorious caped expert mech glowed brighter as Joshua became more immersed in his current role! "The Superior Mother is with us, Sisters! Our purpose is clear and our enemy is straight ahead. Let us call down the Supreme so that she can smite this giant beast in person! For the Clan!" "FOR THE CLAN!" The Penitent Sister mech pilots found that they were able to sync up to each other and the Superior Mother a lot better than before. This was not because Venerable Joshua was more experienced with leading the Penitent Sister battle network or because he was piloting a better mech. The true reasons were related to the different mindsets of the mech pilots. The Penitent Sisters trusted and accepted Joshua a lot more than before. He had proven his capabilities before and did not inspire any doubt from the women who ordinarily preferred to be led by one of their own. Yet this was not enough for the battle formation of the Penitent Sisters to become more powerful than that of the Glory Seekers! The biggest influence was one of the main resonating abilities of the Everchanger. When Ves initially decided to adopt a resonating exotic known as Iridescent Mercury as one of the two key resonating materials of the Everchanger, he didn't really have a clear idea on its value. After all, unlike other resonating materials, it did not provide a direct boost in combat capabilities to the expert mech. That did not mean it was useless! The effect of Iridescent Mercury was to enable to Joshua to amplify the Everchanger's glow by a drastic extent. He had activated this new resonating ability at this moment, which not only caused his expert mech to glow brightly, but also envelop the Penitent Sister mechs around it with a much stronger, purer and livelier version of their own glows! "This is amazing!" "The Everchanger is such a good mech for us to follow!" No other living mech designed by Ves was able to exude a glow as strong and far-reaching as the Everchanger in this state! Two similar-looking energy manifestations of the Superior Mother appeared above the battle formations of the two different Hexer-related units. Since they were flying side by side to each other, it became easy to make direct comparisons between each other! "The Glory Seekers are faring worse." "That's surprising. Isn't Venerable Brutus a genuine Hexer? How come he is doing worse than Venerable Joshua?" "Cut Gloriana's brother some slack. This is his first time doing anything like this. Besides, the Glory Seekers aren't as familiar with our methods as our own Larkinsons." Whatever the case, it was undeniable that the battle formation generated by the Glory Seekers was not as good in many aspects. This was why the Glory Seekers went first. Their formation moved ahead of the other one even as the Superior Mother's energy manifestation began to prepare for a strike. The formation they adopted was new. Instead of flying in a fixed shape, the Glory Seeker mechs all flew around in flat but random patterns. Due to the Superior Mother's influence, the Glory Seeker mech pilots always knew where to move. Even the Star Dancer Mark II joined in. The graceful expert mech flew as if it was dancing its last waltz in space. The chaotic movements of the mechs of the Glory Seekers resembled that of an insect swarm or a dust cloud. Despite their lively movements, the mechs actually exuded a distinct lack of vitality, which caused them to present a stark contrast to the mechs of the Penitent Sisters. The Valkyrie mechs began to slow down their random movements as they came into range of their target. In the meantime, the Superior Mother's energy manifestation generated by the Glory Seekers began to break down into dust particles. Fueled by the efforts of the Glory Seeker mech pilots, this large dust cloud propelled forward until it struck the side of the Titania. The half-awake creature's massive body convulsed as the area that had been struck by the energy dust cloud visibly weakened! The upper layers even began to transform from living flesh into ordinary dust! Even though the intangible dust cloud did not penetrate any deeper than that, its effects did not end there. The flesh that hadn't been turned into dust but nevertheless became scarred by this frightening metaphysical attack began to inhibit the functioning of the Titania! A significant portion of the dust cloud had flowed into the penetrating wound generated by the Eye of Ylvaine and the Swordmaidens a short time ago. This dust not only widened the narrow channel that led deep into the Titania's inner portions, but also damaged and strained some of the astral beast's internal organs! Though no one knew for sure how this dust formation attack affected the Titania, it looked as if the astral beast had suffered such a severe shock to its own systems that it was unable to spit out as many flesh torpedoes or regulate its enormous body as well as before. This was particularly relevant to the Larkinsons because the Titania had been trying to rearrange its own body to resist subsequent attacks to its deepest parts. It was at this time that the Penitent Sister battle formation made its move. Its larger, brighter and more vivid energy manifestation seemingly came alive as Venerable Joshua amplified it by lending his true resonance to the battle formation! The Superior Mother seemingly looked at the astral beast as if its fate had already been sealed. Weakened and made vulnerable by her earlier attack, now she was prepared to launch the attack that many Larkinsons had been waiting for as soon as the Penitent Sisters first began their approach! The Penitent Sister mechs all adopted a large and wide V-shaped formation with the Everchanger occupying the middle. Joshua finally saw that the time was right. "Unleash death!" The Penitent Sister battle formation unleashed the power of its death formation once again! The dark, greyish V-shaped energy attack surrounded by a green corona launched forward and struck at the weakened flesh of the Titania. Much of the creature's biological tissue remained unaffected as the energy wave phased through the giant creature's body without encountering any obstacles. In fact, it actually seemed as if the astral beast had not incurred any damage at all! The Titania did not convulse nor made any other apparent reactions. However, the energy wave did not exit from the other side. It did not suddenly disappear, but was actually circling around and trying to pass through as much of the Titania as possible! This proceeded for a short time as Venerable Joshua and the Penitent Sisters struggled to maintain the battle formation at its greatest intensity as long as possible! Finally, the Titania exhibited a reaction! The gigantic astral beast shook its massive body even as it grew less active! According to the sensors that kept track of the energy activity inside the astral beast's body, many hotspots rapidly began to cool down as they no longer burned any flesh to sustain the creature's activities! "Is it… dead?" "No." Ves shook his head as he carefully scrutinized the projection of the Titania. "The astral beast is still alive. I can feel it. The difference… is that it is mentally and physically injured. It is more vulnerable than ever before!" He had guessed that the Penitent Sister's infamous death formation attack might not yield the best outcome. However, a part of him expected this result. Even though this space creature was probably stupid, the Titania's enormous body anchored and solidified its mind in a way that would make it difficult to assail! Perhaps the Penitent Sisters would have been better off by utilizing the woman formation attack formation, but there was no guarantee it would kill the beast either. At least now the Titania was crippled and impaired to an extent that left it completely open to follow-up attacks! "Get in there and attack before the astral beast recovers! You have a straight channel to its internal body. Make use of it to land the killing blow!" "Roger that, sir!" This time, a number of Larkinson and Crosser melee mechs advanced forward! The Riot, the First Sword, the Bolvos Rage and the Amphis all passed through the wide-open channel that led into the belly of the beast!