The Amaranto Mark III and the Lamia Kailamassu warmed up. They flew in space and flared their Saint Kingdoms in an effort to get used to each other. Ace pilots usually did not like to fight too close to each other. Their Saint Kingdoms worked best if they could completely claim dominion over the space around their ace mechs. When two or more ace mechs fought in close proximity to each other, their Saint Kingdoms interfered with each other’s operations. One’s version of reality often collided with another’s version of reality. There were ways to mitigate this conflict. If the ace pilots became more familiar with each other, they were able to tolerate each other’s presence to a greater degree. They could also make agreements with each other to cede ground at certain times in order to allow the ace pilot who could make the greatest difference give full play to his abilities. However, all of this took a lot of time and effort. The ace pilots of the Golden Skull Alliance had to train and fight alongside each other for several months in order to reduce the interference to an acceptable level. Saint Stark did not have as much time to get accustomed to the Saint Kingdoms of the Stewards Siamesia. However, this was not as bad as it sounded, because it turned out that their Saint Kingdoms were abnormal. When the Amaranto Mark III came into close contact with the Lamia Kailamassu, the overlapping Saint Kingdoms of the latter did not repel the Saint Kingdom of the former! This was a remarkable result. Saint Stark immediately deduced that their lengthy talk yesterday had done much to close the distance between herself and the twins, but this was not enough to achieve such a harmonious result! The only other answer that made sense was that the Chevor siblings were inherently accommodating towards other friendly ace pilots. "Your Saint Kingdoms remind me of the Command Field of an ace commander." Stark said as she continued to grow more comfortable within the Saint Kingdoms of the Stewards Siamesia. "There is a quality about you that makes me feel as if you will never pose a threat against me. You also have no fear that I will ever turn my powerful gun against your ace mech." "If the only tool you have is a hammer, then you tend to see every problem as a nail." Alo Chevor spoke inside the dual cockpit of his unusually looking ace mech. "You have only ever fought alongside mechs built for violence and mech pilots who are trained to kill. Your cognition as an ace pilot subconsciously regards them as potential threats. The more powerful they are, the greater your vigilance. This is an instinct that is extremely difficult to counteract. Time and concerted effort may allow you to lower your guard, but it is an uphill struggle." Jeri added more clarification. "Ace commanders, at least the traditional ones, do not evoke your instinctive urge to defend yourself because they have sacrificed personal excellence in order to divide their power among their units. We do not trigger this instinct either because we are the equivalent of harmless rabbits according to your judgment and willpower. While we can still debilitate you or assist other units in taking you down, you fundamentally do not see us as threats to your life or cause." That… sounded extremely strange to Saint Stark. She could understand the surface explanation, but she felt that there were far too many flaws and loopholes. There was no way the Stewards Siamesia and the Lamia Kailamassu were harmless! Saint Aloretzi Chevor and Saint Jerivern Chevor were the most famous pair of peak ace pilots in the Red Ocean. They had survived many battles and ordeals and climbed their way up to the cusp of godhood. The Lamia Kailamassu was no harmless rabbit either. It was a large and fairly bulky ace mech that was designed to accommodate a lot of support modules. It may be ’harmless’ in that the powerful senior ace mech did not carry any lethal armaments. It did not even possess arms and legs as its distinctly non-humanoid form caused it to resemble a thick shuttle more than a real mech! Even though the Lamia did not look as if it could hurt a fly, it had plenty of high technologies that could make an enemy’s life miserable! This should have been more than enough reasons for Saint Stark to recognize the potential threat and hindrances it posed, but there was a strange aspect about the Saint Kingdoms of the twins that automatically caused Saint Stark to lower her vigilance. She shuddered in her piloting chair. She had a strong suspicion that the Stewards Siamesia somehow managed to ’hack’ her Saint Kingdom! "There is nothing to fear, Saint Stark." Jeri said as she could clearly sense Stark’s discomfort through the fluctuations of the latter’s Saint Kingdom. "If we harbor any form of ill intent towards you, your Saint Kingdom will not fail you. Trust in our instincts. They will never lead you astray. My brother and I are saviors, not killers. Salvation forms a large component of our domain. We provide save haven to anyone under our protection." "I see." That must be why Saint Stark felt so comfortable alongside the Lamia Kailamassu. The teal-and-violed striped mech came across as a friendly and reliable companion. As soon as the two ace mechs had reached their coordinates, Stark looked around. They had reached the rear side of a moon. The satellite blocked most of the line of sight to the larger planet and all of the assets in orbit. Any stray shots would collide onto the surface of the moon before threatening anything serious. Not that it mattered. Ace pilots possessed such good control over their machines that their attacks should never be able to inflict undesirable collateral damage. "Now that we have warmed up, what will we do next?" Stark asked. "First, we shall test the condition and resilience of your Saint Kingdom." Alo replied as he sounded slightly more eager than before. "What you will experience next will be alarming, but know that there is no actual threat. Please keep your trigger finger in check." Before Saint Stark could ask what this was all about, the soothing and comforting Saint Kingdoms of the Stewards Siamesia abruptly changed in character! "Ahh!" Saint Stark’s willpower flared and her Saint Kingdom became a lot more defensive as the Lamia suddenly turned into a source of great pain and unwillingnes! The fresh junior ace pilot’s vision doubled. Half of her awareness remained in the present, but the other half of her awareness had gone back to the past! 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞 She was back in the Komodo Star Sector. She was no longer a powerful ace pilot who managed to snipe a lesser phase lord to death by herself. She was reduced back to the time where she had inexplicably broken through as an expert pilot. Davia Stark thought that she had gained the power to stop or slow down the relentless advance of sandmen, but she was horribly wrong. Her mech was too weak. Her willpower was too feeble. The mech forces of the third-rate states broke like twigs when trying to stop the sandman fleets by force. The tide of sand led by the relentlessly inhuman sandman admirals scoured all of the planets in the way. Every populated planet that was filled with millions or billions of people turned into lifeless sandballs by the time the aliens from beyond the border of human space were done. The Sand War progressed too quickly. None of the third-rate states were prepared to resist the invaders or organize any mass evacuations. When the captains of many starships heard wind that their current destinations might be next, they closed the hatches and commanded their vessels to depart as quickly as possible. What pained Davia Stark so much at the time was that far too many of these starships fled a star system under threat with half-filled or almost empty holds or passenger cabins! Billions more lives could have been saved if the captains and crews of those starships made more earnest attempts to take away every life worth preserving such as the children and the adolescents. Instead, Stark had to witness the planets where the paltry evacuations failed the young and the innocents from death! Davia Stark may have been able to dismiss such a failure as an exception or mistake, but as she fought against the sandmen fleets in one star system after another, she repeatedly witnessed the same antics. Humanity let her down. Instead of coming together to stall the aliens and save more lives, these craven cowards never thought beyond themselves and chose to leave for safety, not caring that they could have evacuated so many more civilians! Saint Stark was no stranger to these tragedies. Not a week went by without thinking back on all of these miserable sights. She had witnessed the best and the worst of humanity during the Sand War. Unfortunately, she saw that there were far more of the latter than the former! This realization and others hurt her so much that it had shattered her belief in humanity and shattered her force of will! Though she eventually managed to recover with the help of Ves Larkinson, Davia Stark could never forget about the sights that drove her to despair. Eventually, her double vision started to abate. The ace pilot blinked as she recognized that she had fully returned to the present. She immediately grew alarmed at what just happened! "How long?" Stark was already able to acquire the answer by calling up the data from her ace mech. "You remained in a trance for a duration of 34.6 seconds." Saint Alo Chevor announced. "During this time, your ace pilot practically froze and coasted forward through inertia. This has made your Amaranto vulnerable. Enemies would find it much easier to launch an attack on your machine." Stark grew morose and angry at herself for failing to maintain her vigilance. Somehow, the Saint Kingdoms of the Twins Siamesia had effortlessly pulled her into a nightmare illusion and kept her distracted for over half a minute! This was unacceptable! Even if the twin saints were impressively strong for being able to dominate the mind and will of a fellow ace pilot to such an extent, this was no excuse for Saint Stark to drop the ball in the field! Discover exclusive content at Freewebnovel "What… what did you do?" She asked in a slightly hoarse tone. "How did your attack slip past my defenses?" "We did not attack you." Jeri Chevor said in a gentle tone. "Not truly. You may be a saint that many mech pilots must look up to, but in our vision you are a vulnerable puppy that is covered with scars. We tried to ’save’ you by treating your scars with a method that is admittedly rough and overbearing. Your sudden and unexpected confrontation with your past traumas has consumed you utterly. This did not take place under our direction. Instead, it is a consequence of your own weaknesses. The reason why it took over 34 seconds for you to pull yourself out of your distraction was because you lack enough control over yourself." That… made a disturbing amount of sense. Saint Stark did not like how the female twin twisted the mental attack so that it no longer became a hostile act anymore. It was definitely an attack, one that happened to be so effective that it could completely circumvent the famously strong mental defenses of a high-ranking mech pilot! However, so long as Alo and Jeri did not see it that way, it appeared that their brand of truth prevailed. This was the advantage of possessing much higher resonance strength. In a dispute between two Saint Kingdoms, the stronger one would always succeed in imposing its version of reality! The Stewards Siamesia had taught several memorable lessons to Saint Stark.