Chapter 6267 A Cleansing Light So far, none of the attacks launched by the expert mechs had stuck. The armored phase lord was not particularly agile or maneuverable in combat, but he was very well protected. His raiment granted him plenty of segmented azure energy shields, his spatial barrier remained fully intact and his physical armor had yet to sustain any damage. On the flipside, the son of the Tireless Engine was unable to land any effective blows on the expert mechs either. The phase lord's inherent physique and weapon choice made it very difficult for L'Koi to attack enemies harassing him from the sides or rear. Sure, he was able to generate spatial hazards that constantly weakened the resonance shields of the circling expert mechs, but that was the extent of his efforts. Occasionally, his armored legs attempted to kick out, but the expert pilots were way too sharp and alert for attacks like that to get struck. The only expert mech that was in serious danger was the Lionheart at the moment. General Ark voluntarily assumed the role of bait and made sure to make his expert mech glow brighter in order to attract more attention. The integrated luminar crystal cannons persistently launched light beams at the phase lord's energy defenses the expert command mech regularly dove forward in order to strike with its transphasic spear. It was difficult for Ark to keep his Lionheart in one piece. L'Koi grew increasingly angrier as his powerful transphasic axes continually failed to hit the Lionheart. The alien put so much power in each swing that Ark just knew that his Lionheart would lose its entire resonance shield if it got struck by a solid axe blow. Any subsequent hits were bound to deplete the azure energy shield and penetrate the transphasic armor system of the Lionheart! The majestic white lion reflected his principal's inherent majesty… as well as his pride. Not content with having a mere cat, Ark truly took pride in having his companion spirit take the form of a lion. Though Ark wanted to put all of his focus on evasion in order to minimize the probability of getting struck by his adversary's dangerous axes, he knew that he couldn't afford to play it safe. The expert mechs were racing against time. The longer this bout dragged on, the faster their defenses got depleted. L'Koi could easily outlast his opponents just by making sure they couldn't get away! Since that was the case, Ark grew more desperate to break the deadlock. Hence why he finally decided to let Noah out of his cage. The majestic white lion reflected his principal's inherent majesty… as well as his pride. Not content with having a mere cat, Ark truly took pride in having his companion spirit take the form of a lion. The Lionheart started to back off a bit. The expert mech still hovered close enough that it had to dodge repeated axe attacks, but it was able to earn enough of a reprieve to stow away its transphasic spear and retrieve another weapon. A bright white hyper plasma sword came online. It immediately lit up like a light bulb, which somehow caused the weapon to become more powerful due to the integration of light-attributed hyper materials. General Ark had used the Cleansing Light enough times to know that it was overkill against most opponents. The Lionheart struggled to power the Terran-developed plasma weapon, and could not keep it active and at full power for long. Yet so long as the Cleansing Light remained active, its damage potential was the highest out of all of the armaments of the Lionheart! This was the weapon that Ark wanted to gamble upon to win this bout and open up an escape route for his strike force. As Ark contemplated on what he intended to do, he already began to feel as if he was living up to the duties and responsibilities as a Saint. Perhaps it was an illusion, but he could already feel his bottleneck beginning to loosen! His intuition sent him a clear message that as long as he proved his valor before this powerful phase lord, he may be able to fulfill his dream today! With that thought in mind, Ark became more decisive as he was willing to gamble everything on his upcoming performance! The other expert pilots weren't stupid. They already had a pretty good idea of what Ark intended to do. It was a high-risk gambit as the consequences were dramatic if the mech commander failed to achieve any of his objectives. "I am about to go all out. I will pull out all of the stops." General Ark warned his fellow expert pilots. "I will not be able to keep this up for long, but I should be able to breach at least one layer of defense. Take advantage of my actions and try your best to wear this phase lord down. Once I have reached my limit, my willpower and the systems of my mechs will suffer from the overexertion. If a miracle hasn't occurred… I won't be of much use in the remainder of the battle." The other expert pilots weren't stupid. They already had a pretty good idea of what Ark intended to do. It was a high-risk gambit as the consequences were dramatic if the mech commander failed to achieve any of his objectives. If time wasn't so short, then the expert pilots would have tried to dissuade Ark from choosing this course of action. As it was, the situation had become so dire that none of them tried to propose an alternate plan! "Go for it, sir." "Success or failure, we need to try at least. We can't let this nunser phaselord grind us down. We need to take control of this battle!" "Noah!" "Rwoar!" The companion spirit entered the Cleansing Light and harmonized with it, thereby amplifying the strength of true resonance acting upon the high-tech weapon. The Cleansing Light not only glowed brighter due to this, but the plasma plume also started to ripple and fleetingly resemble the shape of a leaping lion at times! That was not all. General Ark intended to borrow help from another source! "Illustrious One! Hear my plea and lend me your light!" The design spirit of the Lionheart readily answered the call. The Illustrious One had already been paying close attention to this battle from the start of this operation. The silhouette of a glowing humanoid alien appeared above the Cleansing Light before inhabiting the weapon. While the design spirit had to share the same space with Noah, the Illustrious One was nonetheless able to empower the blessed weapon as it was originally designed for the purpose! The intensity of light output multiplied even further as a design spirit centered around light dramatically amplified many of its properties. The light became so blinding that all of the nearby mechs had to reduce the sensitivity of their optical sensors in order to maintain a clear view of the battlefield! "ANNOYING LIGHT, BUT FUTILE. I AM A GOD. I CAN STARE AT ANY STAR WITHOUT BLINDING MY EYES. OUR DIVINITY IS BEYOND YOUR CAPACITY TO UNDERSTAND." Most phase lords were indeed less susceptible to environmental hazards like excessively strong light sources.. Nonetheless, Ark never intended to rely on flashing a bright light to overpower L'Koi. Making his weapon shine brighter made his mech and the plasma sword a lot stronger. Indeed, the potent weapon already started to shake a bit as it was not able to maintain the same degree of stability as before. Though the weapon was unlikely to break due to its excellent construction and tolerance towards overloading, it undoubtedly needed a lot of maintenance if the weapon continued to operate far above safety parameters. Yet as powerful as the Cleansing Light had become, this was still not enough! Ark intended to fight against L'Koi with the strength of an ace mech as opposed to a really powerful expert mech. There needed to be a clear and potent division in power between the Lionheart's previous attacks and the upcoming strikes. General Ark still had another ace up his sleeve. This one was technological rather than mystical in nature. Instead of praying to another design spirit or whatever, Ark simply reached out with his arm and flipped a few switches. This simple action produced a terrifying consequence, as many of the safety limiters that were designed to keep the Cleansing Light stable were suddenly turned offline! "Activate Giantslayer Mode!" A huge amount of power began to channel through the Cleansing Light. If not for the fact that Ark was already a high-tier expert pilot, the plasma sword would have blown up by this time! As it was, General Ark gritted his teeth as he forcibly used his willpower to contain the Cleansing Light's violent power as much as possible. The reason why Ves, the original designer of this adapted Terran weapon, included this feature was because he designed for a scenario exactly like the current situation! Expert mechs didn't always get to choose what they fought against. If a phase whale ever showed up, then the designers of the Lionheart wanted to make sure that the powerful high-tier expert mech had a weapon that could take a real bite out of a phase lord! As the plasma blade of the Cleansing Light had grown at least ten times taller and wider, L'Koi grew incredibly alarmed at the sight. His phase lord senses easily perceived the enormous concentration of power locked inside this handheld weapon! If all of those potent energies discharged at once, then L'Koi did not feel confident in his ability to fend off the entire attack. The phase lord already started to back off and lift up his axes in a defensive posture, but the Lionheart quickly charged forward in order to bring down the bright white giant plasma blade! "Do it, Ark!" "We're with you, general!" "Take this phase lord down a notch!" The other expert mechs did not possess any attacks of comparable power, but they fully took advantage of the Lionheart's threatening action by going on the offensive. The Riot, the C-Man, the Blade Chaser and the Greenaxe all struck the phase lord's segmented azure energy shields at abandon, causing them to pop at an accelerated rate. Meanwhile, General Ark constantly struggled to maintain control over his vastly amplified weapon. The act of using such an exaggeratingly dangerous weapon to strike at a phase lord was so glorious and magnificent that he could feel his bottleneck loosen even further! So long as he managed to land a telling blow against L'Koi, General Ark practically became certain that he would trigger his second apotheosis! The strong desire to transcend to sainthood seemed to encourage the Lionheart and cause it to swing the giant plasma blade against the multi-layered defenses of the enemy phase lord! "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" "RWOOOOOAAAAAR!" A blinding flash ensued from the moment the plasma blade struck the segmented azure energy shields! The transphasic defenses seemed to evaporate upon contact! The power of the souped-up plasma sword proved to be far too much for the alien shield generators to handle. The blessed, empowered and overloaded plasma sword went on to burn against the spatial barrier! L'Koi became panicked as his poor spatial barrier sustained damage as if it had crashed right against a star! Though the spatial barrier lasted a lot longer due to its inherent strength, the Faceless Warrior was unable to sustain it for long. Even as the giant plasma blade started to fizzle out, the spatial barrier of the recently ascended phase lord gave in first! "We did it! The phase lord is vulnerable!" General Ark wanted to push the plasma sword right through the transphasic axes and cut straight through L'Koi's raiment, but before he could do so, the phase lord finally reacted in desperation. The nunser's arm blurred in motion! The phase lord tossed his precious weapons! Two axes abruptly collided against the Lionheart! One of them struck the Lionheart's resonance shield with so much force that the defensive layer burst entirely! The other axe proceeded to slam into the Lionheart's waist, impacting it so strongly that the axeblade cut into the armor and damaged much of the internal components underneath! Though the damage did not sound too critical, the greater problem was that the double impacts pushed the Lionheart back just enough for L'Koi to actually duck and evade the gigantic plasma! "You missed!" "You almost had him, Ark!" Though General Ark quickly asserted control over his machine and tried to swing his overloaded plasma sword at the phase lord yet again, the Cleansing Light could no longer handle the strain. The weapon malfunctioned and fizzled before Ark could get off another swing! "Nooo!"