All of the theories that Ves came up with could not achieve the same impact as seeing the results in reality. For a long time, the astounding effects of the Amaranto's final attack still lingered in his mind. For a transphasic laser beam to be able to penetrate so many asteroids at once was an outcome that could truly change the entire game. This was in line with his prediction, but the test result was so visually shocking to Ves that he reacted as if he was completely overtaken by surprise. The truth was that he doubted his own calculations. Surely the extrapolated data couldn't be that ridiculously high, right? Perhaps the Phase King might exhibit more and more difficulty in applying his abilities to a weapon that was much larger and more massive than a handheld luminar crystal pistol. The reality was that the vastly increased scale of the Instrument of Doom didn't seem to matter all that much. The Phase King still had plenty of strength and control left to affect a weapon of this magnitude! "Is this truly real?" Gloriana asked as if she too found it difficult to accept the result in reality. "You're not dreaming, honey." The active intervention of the Phase King took a luminar crystal cannon that was already oriented towards extreme firepower and gave it wings. As Ves and his wife studied the sensor data on the asteroids affected by the Amaranto's latest attack, they found that the results largely matched their expectations. Much of the power of the laser beam passed right through the rock substances in the way. This was the power of phasewater being manipulated by an ancient and extremely proficient fish-whale king! While the Phase King's powerful efforts allowed the transphasic resonance-empowered laser beam to strike the sixteenth asteroid in a row, the actual damage inflicted on all of the space rocks was not as great anymore. Of course, this was just relatively speaking. Assuming that the damage of the laser beam spread equally across all sixteen asteroids, which was not entirely the case in reality, then each rock absorbed damage equal to a strike with a damage index of just 125 points. That was not only worse than the base damage output of the Instrument of Doom, but the energy was also dispersed along the entire trajectory of the laser beam when it was drilling through solid matter! The visual inspections confirmed the math. Instead of the big and clean holes they witnessed before, the latest attack instead produced messy, blackened portions of rock that had melted rather than vaporized. A stronger material such as second-class armor plating probably would have maintained at least some of its integrity. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚 "The power of the Phase King hasn't actually increased the absolute damage of the Instrument of Doom to a significant degree." Gloriana remarked. "There are situations where it is not that useful to employ transphasic attacks. If attacking the exterior of a target is just as useful as attacking the interior, then Venerable Stark will waste much less resources by employing more normal attacks." Ves nodded in agreement. "The Instrument of Doom was never designed to be employed against cannon fodder. It is a contingency weapon that should be reserved against enemy warships or other powerful threats. That is because this weapon is our only option to damage the deeper and more vital internal systems of those kinds of threats." This was the advantage that he was trying to create for his clan. The Instrument of Doom's greatest power was not its damage index of over 2000 or something, but it was instead its ability to spear through 15 useless asteroids before passing on at least some of its damage to the sixteenth asteroid that could stand for a more vital component! For example, it was extremely hard for a single ranged mech to take down a fleet carrier like the Wild Torch. The massive kilometers-long vessel was designed in a way that her exterior was made up of thick and fairly sturdy hull plating. An incoming laser beam could damage this massive, dense and heavy exterior layer all day and still not come close enough to crippling the ship, let alone reduce her performance in any way! The laser beam could only truly begin to degrade the Wild Torch's performance if it was able to go through the dense and thick outer layer, either by relying on brute force or by taking advantage of the power of phasewater. Once a laser beam got through, it would probably end up in an outer compartment where relatively ordinary work was being done. In the case of the Wild Torch, this most certainly corresponded to her carrier-related duties. The laser beam would probably strike a few mechs, repair machines or even valuable workshop machines before running out of steam. Though the damage inflicted by such an attack most definitely harmed the Larkinsons, the integrity of the Wild Torch was still mostly intact aside from gaining a deep hole! A powerful ranged mech could still attack the Wild Torch a hundred times like this and still be rendered helpless as the fleet carrier merrily flew away, though looking a lot more like swiss cheese of course. There were at least several ways to put down a capital ship for good. One was to shoot it so many times that her entire structure started to fall apart. This was highly inefficient but it was usually the only solution available to mechs when fighting against enemies that were much larger and more massive than themselves. Another way was to employ a weapon that was so overwhelmingly powerful that it could efficiently cripple or blow up a vessel like the Wild Torch. This was a solution that was usually reserved for warships because only they possessed the caliber of weapons that could unleash so much raw power. An ace mech like the Mars also possessed the equivalent firepower of a warship, so it was within the realm of possibility for Patriarch Reginald Cross to cripple the entire expeditionary fleet if he went rogue one day! The third way was to employ a bit more finesse and take advantage of a ridiculous blessed transphasic weapon like the Instrument of Doom. Given the result that it had just produced, Ves quickly tried to estimate whether the Amaranto armed with this weapon was capable of crippling the Wild Torch with a single blow. He called up the simplified design of the capital ship and turned the projected ship around a few times until he found a good angle. "If the Amaranto can aim its Instrument of Doom at the Wild Torch from this angle, the subsequent laser beam will strike the external hull plating at a flat angle, allowing the energies to pass through while retaining as much of its damage potential as possible. It will probably punch through a couple of small outer compartments as well, but the bulkheads in the way are too thin to bleed away too much energy." "Once the laser beam reaches the interior, it will probably pass through a lot of empty space as the hangar bays inside are largely hollow and empty. There is a lot of vertical clearance in these halls as they sometimes need to accommodate mechs or other gear that are taller than average." "After passing through a lot of air, it will likely punch through more important compartments. These are the places where more important ship processes take place such as recycling air to keep it breathable for humans or coordinating field operations." "If the laser beam is able to make it this far, it will eventually hit the citadel of the Wild Torch. A citadel is basically a box within a combat vessel that acts as an inner layer of armor. The reason for its existence is because it is meant to protect the truly vital processes that are responsible for running the vessel. The citadel typically stops the vast majority of attacks that were able to penetrate the outer hull." There were many different naval design philosophies. Some starships did not feature any citadels. This was usually the case for cheaper and smaller civilian vessels. This also explained why they crumbled so easily when attacked by a single mech. Other starships only possessed a rather superficial citadel. The inner layer still provided a measure of protection, but it may be the case that the ship designers cheaped out on it in favor of strengthening the exterior as much as possible. Then there were starships where the designers did not cut any corners as was the case with a ship as good as the Wild Torch. In this case, penetrating the citadel was considerably more difficult than overcoming the exterior hull! It was as if the citadel inside represented the core of the capital ship while everything outside of it was just window dressing! Though this was an oversimplified description, it was enough to illustrate the immense challenges of inflicting real damage onto such a vessel. However, as long as a laser beam was able to pass through this difficult obstacle, it did not need much power to drastically reduce a capital ship's performance! Even a damage index of just 0.1 was enough to kill a lot of people and destroy a lot of valuable ship parts! For example, the laser beam could strike a power generator, causing the ship to have much less energy to spare! The laser beam could strike one of the FTL drives, which meant that the Wild Torch was one step closer to getting stranded in the star system. The laser beam could also knock out all sorts of other vital elements such as the CIC, the data vaults and other crucial systems. "The Instrument of Doom is a true ship killing weapon." Ves concluded. He never thought that any mech in the fleet other than the Mars was capable of knocking out starships with relative ease. Ves still recognized that the Amaranto still could not come close enough to match the firepower of the Mars. The latter possessed an even absurdly higher base power as the Cross Clan had put in a vastly greater amount of money and resources into its development. The amplification factor of an ace pilot was at least an order of magnitude greater than that of a high-tier expert pilot! Even so, the addition of the Phase King gave the Amaranto such an enormous boost that its attack broke past the boundaries of a high-tier expert mech! "If my evaluation is correct… the Amaranto has gained the equivalent firepower of a quasi-ace mech." Gloriana summed up the result. Ves peered at the numbers but also looked beyond the obvious. "That may be true, but… the Amaranto and its pilot doesn't have the fortitude and endurance of a quasi-ace mech." When he studied the feed that displayed the cockpit, he could clearly observe that Venerable Stark had become a lot more winded. It took a lot of willpower and concentration for her to cope with the descent of the Phase King's formidable might. Not only that, but the Instrument of Doom had just discharged a transphasic attack of much greater consequence! Even if the changes produced by the Phase King amounted to a much more efficient and sophisticated use of phasewater, the relatively primitive luminar crystal cannon was never designed to support so many complex and difficult operations of this nature! Gloriana quickly became concerned about the state of the weapon. "The Instrument of Doom can't fire too many shots like this on a continuous basis. Some of its parts are already showing signs of stress. I can easily foresee that they will wear out at an accelerated rate, which means that this weapon will require time in the workshop after a battle in order to restore it to peak condition." In other words, this powerful weapon was also finicky. Most products with high performance tended to require high maintenance, but the Instrument of Doom was especially affected by this relation! Ves brushed this inconvenience aside. "I would rather have a disabled weapon than end up incurring a more substantial loss. This weapon will help us save the lives of many clansmen and prevent the downfall of numerous expert mechs and starships. That is why I designed this experimental weapon in the first place. Its limitations are serious, but sometimes all you need to defeat a powerful opponent is to launch an overpowering attack at the right place at the right time." A new era had begun for the Larkinson Clan. Ves pitied his future enemies who thought that his clan could only count on battle formations and the Mars to overcome difficult challenges.