6884 Too Sharp After the First Sword Mark III appeared in front of the members of the Premier Branch for the first time, the machine soon disappeared from their views as she entered one of the underground hangar bays. Interest in the new ace mech remained high. The First Sword Mark III completely overshadowed the Minerva Mark II. It couldn't be helped. Both were exquisite first-class ace mechs, but one of them was clearly on a higher level in terms of material composition and performance. While the Minerva Mark II clearly held an advantage in synergy with other armed forces and could easily wipe out large swathes of enemy cannon fodder, the First Sword Mark III was undeniably unparalleled in single combat power! The Decapitator alone was responsible for elevating the ace swordsman mech's lethality to the stars, but even without this exceptional weapon, the living machine still had access to 33 hull-grade superdimensional sword fey! The First Sword would never run out of blades to cut her opponents into pieces! Ketis had taken a considerable risk when she chose to branch out the First Sword into a drone mech, but Ves knew without a shadow of a doubt that the conversion had been successful. The way the sword fey responded to Saint Dise and how closely the First Sword was tied to her numerous subordinate spirits was frankly beautiful. The process of partially splitting them off and breathing life into them was painful and tedious. Ketis was unable to perform this process herself. It had been necessary for Ves to briefly descend into the Everchanger and perform this delicate and dangerous process repeatedly. It was one of the most challenging processes that Ves pulled off. It was easy to create a 'companion spirit' for the First Sword, but to do so 33 times in a row was an unprecedented feat! The living mech had been strengthened far beyond most third order living mechs, but even she was not able to bear the burden of having her soul split so many times! Even if the subordinate spirits only comprised a fraction of her formidable spiritual foundation, the damage inflicted by this painful process was extensive. If the First Sword was not a living mech that had repeatedly been baptized by the willpower and breakthrough energies of an ace pilot, its personality and sense of self would have shattered due to the repeated splitting! The living mech still bore the invisible scars of the procedure. The only consolation was that the willpower baptism that she received from getting piloted by her battle partner significantly accelerated her recovery. She would eventually become whole again, though it may take a few months or even years. As far as Ves and most people were concerned, it was all worth it. The sacrifice was great, but the outcome was magnificent. From the initial introduction of the First Sword Mark III, nobody could keep their eyes off the new and splendid sword fey. They all looked like mech swords that just happened to possess the ability to move by themselves. Each of them were not only governed by advanced flight and control systems, but the subordinate spirits that inhabited handmade spurs each granted them the spark of life. It was not obvious to most people, but those who piloting living mechs could see it clear as day. Every sword fey possessed its own mind and personality. Each of them were like young children that were curious about their newfound lives. The First Sword was not strict on them outside of a combat environment. She gave her 'children' a small amount of leeway to move as they wanted. Of course, she was not stupid enough to extend the leash too much. Newborn spirits or not, the sword fey were still deadly superdimensional weapons that could easily cut through walls and human bodies alike! Soon after the arrival of Saint Dise and the First Sword Mark III, Ves and the others immediately wanted to test their performance. This was a big deal. Everyone wanted to know the power of the new ace mech that was designed in a very different way from the Minerva Mark II. In order to prevent any unfortunate accidents from occurring, the testing session directly took place in space. The Bluejay Fleet and elements of the Premier Fleet both moved to the same section of the asteroid belt as before. The Devosans had made sure to drive away any human presence from the entire space area that did not belong. They also dispatched a small contingent of forces which also happened to include the Wind of Destruction and his powerful Black Lord. The First Sword Mark III had already gone through a series of tests shortly after her upgrade, so Ves and Gloriana did not bother to repeat the basic movement tests. They instead started off with the most direct attack power tests. "Let us start with examining the offensive power of your sword fey." Gloriana transmitted to the cockpit of the ace mech. "We shall try to test the cutting power of one of your regular fey onto different defenses without the amplification of your true resonance. Once we have established a baseline, we will bring your Saint Kingdom into the mix." In order to test the performance of a sword fey without the amplification of true resonance, the First Sword had to withdraw the subordinate spirit from the spur before sending it well outside of the Saint Kingdom. This caused the sword fey to turn back into its most original form, which was just an empty husk. This was its most vulnerable state. Enemies could potentially steal or even damage the superdimensional blade given that it was primarily made out of hull-grade superdimensional matter. In order to account for potential losses, Ketis already promised to forge additional sword fey. The use of mid-grade superdimensional matter was a deliberate design choice and caused the physical forms of the sword fey to become disposable. Saint Dise did not have to be too cautious about their use because she would soon have plenty of replacement units within reach. "Please commence the first cutting test." Ketis instructed. They did not bother to test the sharpness of the sword fey onto light and thin materials. The Larkinsons instead decided to put up a target bot that was primarily shaped as a block of archemetal. Gloriana had especially fabricated this target bot out of the spare materials used to make the Minerva! Although they were originally reserved for future repairs, Gloriana couldn't help herself. She was ready to sacrifice the precious high-grade exotics and hypers if that was what it took to find out how well a superdimensional weapon could damage the Minerva Mark II. "Please commence." The sword fey gently swung its blade through the archemetal target dummy. The good news was that the blade did not cut through the archemetal like a hot knife through butter. The bad news was that it only took a moderate amount of force and effort to slice the dummy in half. "..." "That is pretty good performance for a weapon made out of mid-grade superdimensional alloy." Ves commented. "Don't forget that Ketis specializes in enhancing the sharpness of the weapons she makes. Her specialization synergizes extremely well with a material that is naturally conducive to penetrating solid matter." They continued to test the sword fey's performance against different targets. Solid plating, modular plating and so on all got cut in half under various different circumstances. The performance of the 'disposable' sword fey was insane. Its superdimensional characteristics were so formidable that its performance already exceeded the previous iteration of the Decapitator! That was a masterwork mech sword that Ketis had carefully developed years ago for peak performance! Now, just one of the 34 blades in the First Sword's possession could easily surpass it in terms of sharpness and lethality! 23:24 None of the armor could stand a chance against the superdimensional blade. They all got cut in half with disturbing ease. The amplification from the true resonance of a junior ace pilot was already enough to cut through the hardest alloys that the Larkinson Clan had in possession! "Casella, we need your help. Please empower the target dummies with your true resonance." "I will try my best." The performance of the resonance-empowered sword fey finally went back to more reasonable levels when attempting to cut apart Enfeoffed battle bots. The Viscount-level fake mechs were all made out of materials that wouldn't look out of place in a first-class multipurpose mech, yet the sword fey still managed to cut it from top to bottom after applying a moderate amount of force. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞 This was a predicted outcome. In a contest between Casella and Dise, the latter would always lose. The former's inability to concentrate her true resonance was a big weakness when fighting against strong enemies such as other ace mechs. If the performance of a mere 'expendable' superdimensional sword fey was already so exaggerated, then the cutting power of the Decapitator was in an entirely different league. Made out of alloys that included a high proportion of weapon-grade superdimensional matter, the Decapitator was able to cut through all forms of energy shields and matter alike. Not even capital ship-grade azure energy shields could resist the Decapitator for long. No matter whether they came in single layers or multiple layers, the mech greatsword cut through all of them as if they were made out of foam. Adding true resonance of the mix became overkill. Even meters thick transphasic hyper alloy plating became as loose as air in front of the unnaturally sharp superdimensional edge! What was even more exaggerated was that the Decapitator incorporated a literal cutting-edge ace mech-grade resonating material that could amplify its lethality even further! "Megablade." The ace pilot's unnaturally empowered voice announced over the communication channel. "Clear the way and do not approach." When the First Sword Mark III lifted up her greatsword, the entire surface of the Decapitator began to glow in metallic silver. This glowing shape soon began to grow and expand until it reached a length that was easily at least an order of magnitude longer and thicker than the original blade! When Saint Dise tried to increase the size of this 'Megablade', she clearly struggled to do so. It appeared her resonance strength could only increase the reach of her Decapitator by so much. "Cut." The First Sword chopped down the enormous Megablade onto not one, but two asteroids that happened to be floating in close proximity to each other. The Megablade cut cleanly through their structure. Even if the asteroids were much softer than any form of structural armor plating, seeing these two large objects getting cut apart as if they had been separated from each other on a molecular level was unnatural. "..." "...Only gods can replicate this feat." Gloriana uttered with amazement in her eyes. The Minerva Mark II was capable of performing plenty of game changing miracles, but the First Sword Mark III's simple but incredibly domineering demonstration of lethality was on a different league! The mech greatsword began to glow in silver again, but instead of spreading out to form the largest possible energy blade, the resonance-empowered energies instead tried to concentrate inside the physical blade itself. Due to the superdimensional properties of this weapon, it was able to hold energy far in excess of any non-superdimensional weapon of the same proportions! Saint Dise concentrated so much willpower and true resonance into enhancing the strength and sharpness of her Decapitator that it looked as if it gained the power to decapitate True Gods! The insanity of what was taking place in the field became so much that the Decapitator even began to cause unintentional harm on a conceptual level! "Ahh! My eyes!" "Don't look at it directly!" "Abort the test! Initiate emergency shutdown on all sensor systems! Whatever you do, don't look at the First Sword Mark III!" Thank you for reading my work. If you wish to support The Mech Touch, please vote with your golden tickets! Purchase Privilege for The Mech Touch! Read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers while enjoying a 99% discount on unlocking new chapters! Join The Mech Touch's unofficial Discord server: https://discord.gg/APB5KCU