When the Big Two completed their centuries-long preparation and openly invaded the Red Ocean with great momentum, the human warfleets largely encountered little resistance at first. Part of that had to do with the starting point of their invasion. The Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance hadn't built the crucial gateway between the galaxies in the middle of the star system, but instead opted to place it in the periphery. The concentration of resources was much lower here, which meant that the major alien races of the Red Ocean did not have a high presence in this neighborhood. The warships they utilized in the surrounding regions were second-line assets at best and were far from matching the highest standards of their respective civilizations. It took a lot of time before the aliens recognized the full threat of these extragalactic invaders, but what could they do? Many of their most powerful warfleets were stationed much further inside the Red Ocean. The various alien races needed a lot of time to mobilize their best assets to the expanding frontlines! Therefore, the MTA and CFA warfleets largely encountered little threat when they pummeled the local resistance. It wasn't until they started to encounter strange anomalies that they began to experience more serious setbacks. The phase whales were the most troublesome opponents to fight against. Their sizable bodies along with their excellent mastery of phasewater granted them much greater power and versatility than other combatants. The depth of their spatial abilities allowed them to come up with the right answers to many problems on the battlefield. Though humanity already knew what to expect from the phase whales more or less, the fact that special individuals from other alien races were able to imitate the horrible strength and powers of phase whales to a degree was an unpleasant surprise! Previously, the people assigned to study alien society never really took the native 'gods' that seriously. They learned that these powerful superwarriors were obsessed with injecting phasewater into their bodies in an attempt to imitate the most powerful phase whales, but they didn't understand how that allowed these delusional individuals to gain an unreasonable amount of power. These native 'gods' sounded similar to high-ranking mech pilots who didn't need to borrow the power of mechs at first, but they rarely fought in any battles, which meant that information about their combat prowess was scarce and tainted with superstitious beliefs. The so-called gods among the nunsers, orvens and other prominent intelligent alien races all assumed important leadership positions in their respective societies. They occupied key positions such as heads of states, high council members, military generals, chief scientists and so on. They rarely condescended to serve as mere soldiers or champions who could be ordered around at will. It was because of the difference in how humanity and the native aliens treated their most combat capable champions that led to a bias against the beings who paraded themselves around as if they were actual deities! Too many humans assumed that they were merely alien leaders who made use of special augmentations to puff themselves up. It made for a convenient excuse to build a cult around themselves, which was a cheap and easy way to entrench their popular support and secure their power base. A lot of mechers and fleeters became surprised once these supposed statesmen, members of parliament and chief scientists began to show up on the battlefield so that they could brawl against human mechs and warships with their own bodies! Of course, the soldiers and officers of the Big Two were only briefly caught off-guard. Many of these gods fought by relying on whatever phasewater augmentations they incorporated in their bodies. The cultural beliefs and customs surrounding their existence made it unacceptable for them to employ excessive technological gear such as mechs. After all, if these all-powerful gods needed to rely on mechs or even stronger technological weapons to defeat their opponents, how could they be any better from the mortals they professed to rule over? The awe and dignity of gods had to be maintained at all cost! Practically every indigenous alien civilization of the Red Ocean had come to a consensus on this issue! As such, these phasewater addicts got so full of themselves that they overestimated their importance in battle against the humans. While many of these alien gods were able to exhibit absolute superiority in any infantry-level fight, they were mostly unable to maintain the upper hand when fighting against decent human mechs and warships. Humanity had developed a lot more solutions against small but powerful combat units. No matter whether it was first-class multipurpose mechs or a delusional alien 'god' who learned a few phasewater tricks, they were all the same to humanity! It wasn't until the Big Two started to slaughter many of these arrogant alien gods in droves that the indigenous alien civilizations truly understood that they were facing collective extinction! Most alien gods didn't actually amount to much. The proportion of native powerhouses that could give human ace mechs and warships a run for their money were rare, mostly due to the escalating difficulty of integrating phasewater into their bodies. The Trampler of Stars could be classified as a middle-tier native god. He was clearly stronger and more prestigious than the younger and more inexperienced members of his exclusive group. He wouldn't have gained such a domineering title and assumed leadership over prototype warships that incorporated a blend of powerful human and alien tech. However, he still fell short of the real powerhouses who often grasped the real reigns of power of their respective civilizations! The owner of the Fractured House of the Collapsing Star began to gain a new respect for human ace mechs after testing out the power of the machine in front of his body. The previous two collisions had given the nunser warlord a much better The ace mechs fielded by the Mech Trade Association were so astonishingly strong that not even the Trampler of Stars dared to challenge them in single combat. The ace mechs fielded by second-class human pioneers were much worse in this regard, but that didn't mean they were trivial to defeat. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" The Trampler of Stars transmitted his inquiry to the opposing machine. Though the alien had asked this question in his native language, he had opted to allow his translation suite to convert his words into human speech this time. The powerful human warrior who was piloting the ace mech deserved much more respect in his opinion. The Trampler of Stars could already feel that the enemy ace pilot was incomparably strong compared to that sniveling human brat that he interrogated some time earlier. It was unfortunate for the alien warlord that Saint Neville Magrin was not interested in a chat. The man was still bereft with grief and rage, and he was quite aware that his temporary explosion of power was already starting to fade. He needed to finish off the damaged battleship and complete his revenge against the aliens before he was unable to sustain the state of Unity of Man and Machine any longer! "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" He roared as his ace mech began to attack the battleship yet again! The shoulder-mounted gauss cannons fired a salvo of transphasic resonance-empowered gauss rounds that inflicted a thunderous hammer blow against the heavily damaged bow sections of the alien battleship! Thousands of tons worth of hull structure shattered and broke apart from the enormous kinetic impacts produced by the seemingly casual attacks. That wasn't all. Before the Trampler of Stars could charge forward and bounce the Unrelenting further away from the damaged battleship, the ace mech quickly lifted up its wrists and engulfed an enormous area in front of it with twin sprays of hot flames! The flamethrowers not only caused the Trampler of Stars to disappear from sight, but also melted and engulfed all of the damaged but reasonably intact hull sections of the front half of the battleship! However, before Saint Neville could bring his ace mech back into the hole so that the mech could burn the battleship from the inside, powerful phasewater fluctuations began to ripple in front before an enormous shockwave blasted the Unrelenting backwards! "Ahh!" It was as if the fabric of space had wobbled and rippled in a way that whipped the ace mech backwards! Not only did the powerful spatial shockwaves repel the ace mech, they also shattered the cohesion of the resonance-enhanced flames, causing them to be unable to burn the battleship any further. The Trampler of Stars came into view again. His heavy armor barely looked scorched at all. Stronger and more obvious spatial barriers surrounded his body, granting him greater protection against external attacks. The alien warlord was angry now! He no longer attempted to communicate with Saint Neville any further but instead started his follow-up move! The alien 'god' floating in front of his homeship reared up his body before crashing his forehoofs onto an invisible surface in empty space! The incomprehensible crash produced a massive spatial shockwave that radiated forward and struck the Unrelenting! Saint Neville immediately felt uncomfortable as his ace mech struggled to resist this spatial attack. The Unrelenting's humanoid-shaped Saint Kingdom managed to bleed away most of the damaging effects, but it had lost a lot more cohesion as a consequence. Seeing that it became a lot more difficult for Saint Neville to keep his 'father' by his side, he grew more urgent than ever! "Fine, then! If you want to get physical, then so will I!" Neville roared! The Unrelenting fired another salvo of powerful gauss rounds at the battleship. Though the Trampler of Stars disrupted the trajectory of the projectiles by rippling the surrounding space, the attacks still managed to inflict glancing blows on the partially crippled battleship. The more damage the Fractured House of the Collapsing Star sustained, the longer it took to make her travel worthy again! The Trampler of Stars shot forward while rearing up his body in an attempt to crash his powerful hoofs against the frame of the ace mech. The Unrelenting did not try to evade the incoming attack but instead tried to meet it by lifting up its warhammer in preparation for a thunderous blow. Just as the hoofs of the alien warlord soared down with the force of a crashing warship, the Unrelenting quickly lifted up its round shield at an angle while trying to bring its hammer down onto the head of the alien god! A huge explosion of power erupted from their positions as their attacks released a lot of different energies! Two smaller shapes bounced away from each other as if they were marbles. The Unrelenting sustained no obvious damage, but its Saint Kingdom had obviously become a lot more frazzled. The Trampler of Stars also didn't seem to suffer any obvious damage as he had been able to rely on his powerful spatial shields to mitigate or deflect much of the damage of the hammer blow. The two opponents only paused for a brief amount of time before they charged at each other once again! This time, the Unrelenting attempted to soften up its alien opponent by firing its gauss cannons at its target. The Trampler of Stars performed a strange spatial technique that bent the space in front of him, causing the projectiles to curve away from his small form. At least, that was supposed to happen. What actually happened was that the reality-defying properties of true resonance allowed the gauss rounds to resist the spatial warping effect just enough to strike the alien god's spatial shields! 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎 The hammer strike that followed after that struck the alien warlord considerably harder than before! Still, the Trampler of Stars also managed to bounce the Unrelenting backs by lowering its head and colliding it against the ace mech's chest area like a battering ram! The defenses of both combatants sustained a lot of damage, but neither of them were willing to back down. Whoever managed to exhaust the defenses of the other first would gain a massive advantage in this duel.