Chapter 7331: The Ixith Goliath The dark brown monstrosity that emerged from the ruined Incubator possessed an unmistakable insectile form. The Goliath Hive did not attempt to breed a megavoribug that imitated any known human or native alien form. The massive creature exemplified the aesthetics of the voribug race. The monstrous creature possessed many limbs, though not all of them were identical to each other. The frontal limbs were clearly optimized for slashing while the remaining limbs were more suited for locomotion as well as grappling. Amidst all of the sharp and angular shells, the creature also boasted a number of short protrusions that vaguely looked like cannons. These organic cannons looked a little haphazard. It would be difficult to point them all in a single direction. Nonetheless, their positioning allowed the new Goliath to launch attacks in every direction if it wished. The final notable trait of the new Goliath was its massive set of mandibles. Due to the immense size of the new megavoribug, the mandibles alone were large enough to crush mechs as well as Ascended Giants! Shortly after its appearance, many soldiers managed to wake themselves up from their moment of paralysis. Though the newly emerged Goliath radiated an aura of menace that threatened to freeze their minds and chill their hearts, their discipline and courage resisted this effect. "Open fire!" A large quantity of cannons quickly became active. Thousands of projectiles and energy beams of varying sizes and power levels crossed the void of space and struck the Level 8 Goliath. Strangely enough, the new megavoribug did not evade the incoming barrage when it clearly had the power to do so. Its pitiless eyes continued to stare up at the human combatants as they desperately tried to nip this threat in the bud. When the initial attacks faded, the Rubarthans carefully studied the Goliath. "No visible damage!" "What?! How?! According to our surface scans, the Goliath’s exoskeleton is made out of an organic blend of high-grade materials. Their projected defensive value should not exceed that of the hull of a CFA battleship!" A traditional CFA battleship was one of the toughest vessels of the Milky Way. While the exotics used in their construction was not the best, their quantity was impressively high. Every layer of hull plating was meters thick in order to ensure they could resist the destructive power of many weapons of mass destruction at least once. The massive Level 8 Goliath might look completely different from a CFA battleship, but its enormous insectile form should be based on similar principles. Even if the materials and the construction method were different, the laws of physics should apply equally to both instances! There was only one possible explanation why the Goliath was able to resist so many attacks at once. "This Level 8 Goliath is much more special than it looks." Ves analyzed. "Compared to its predecessors, this big fellow is actively able to control extraordinary power. I just don’t know what kind. Is it able to manipulate E energy directly like a qi cultivator, or has it grown phasewater organs that enables it to project a bug version of a spatial barrier?" There was too much distance for Blinky to discern important details. It did not help that the Goliath itself produced a lot of messy activity. It radiated a lot of heat and other signals that acted as a natural interference field. "What happened to the captured expert pilots?" The Dark Apostle wondered. "Even if this Goliath devoured them all, all of that potent willpower has to go somewhere, right?" "What are you implying, buddy?" "The HUD of the raiment that you have built for me has detected multiple different sources of resonance. It actually got confused for a moment before it figured out how to separate the different readings. According to the data, the Goliath managed to empower its exoskeleton with something that resembles true resonance... multiple forms of true resonance." Blinky widened his feline eyes! His black-tipped tail straightened in surprise! "What?! That’s impossible! None of this makes sense!" The cat waved his incorporeal paw, causing the small projected interface to display the data readings from the resonance meters built into the raiment. Of course, compared to a brute like the Dark Apostle, a mech designer like Ves was able to glean many more insights from the same set of data. Yet just because it offered a possible explanation did not mean that he could accept it! Much of the conclusions did not make sense from his perspective! "This is... this is crazy! I can’t understand it! Perhaps... perhaps the resonance meters are not up to the job! They are all designed and calibrated to measure the resonance strength of expert mechs and ace mechs. They were never made to make sense of whatever this new Goliath is doing. It isn’t even a mech, and its resonance profiles do not match any known form of resonance." Ves had worked with multiple different forms of resonance over his career. He was most familiar with true resonance, but he possessed an adequate familiarity with false resonance, forced resonance as well as the now-outdated prime resonance. Each of those forms of resonance possessed their own distinctive traits and patterns. The resonance generated by the newborn Goliath possessed a few similarities, but ultimately exhibited so many deviations that it made up its own form. This was unprecedented. Ves already struggled to accept that a Goliath, a non-mech entity, was somehow able to resonate with itself. He had no idea what was going on with this alien form of resonance! A sudden fright coursed through his borrowed spiritual form! Had the mutated voribugs managed to accomplish a feat that had eluded the native aliens? Try as they might, the native aliens never managed to harness the power or mechs or willpower cultivation in the past few years. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖 In contrast, the mutated voribugs had only just appeared on the galactic scene, and already they had managed to steal the power that made human mechs special across two galaxies! Even if the unknown Level 8 Goliath was technically not a mech, the fact that it was able to generate its own version of resonance represented a direct challenge to the monopoly of the human mech community! It was far too much to hope that the Goliath was a one-of-kind miracle creation that could never be replicated. The mutated voribugs did not play that game. Their bug variations had always been based on evolving templates that could be reproduced over and over so long as the right resources were in place. This meant that this resonance-wielding Goliath would be the first of many confounding enemies that would use their stolen power against its originators! "This can’t be right!" "The voribugs have stolen what is ours!" "I refuse to believe that the willpower of these filthy bugs is stronger than mine!" Mech pilots and other humans had long taken for granted that the road to godhood was their exclusive domain. The thought that other species could imitate this power and leverage it for themselves was so outrageous that nobody dared to entertain it in the past. Some people still clung to the hope that they had been too hasty in drawing their conclusions. Perhaps their instruments got the details wrong. Perhaps the analysts interpreted the data incorrectly. Yet what happened in reality could not be denied. The fact of the matter was that the Level 8 Goliath perfectly resisted damage that should have scratched or broken its outer shell given its apparent material composition. Since the resonance meters definitely measured activity that they were sensitive towards, it was very hard to attribute this result to other sources of protection. "I hate to say it, but we should not allow our pride to blind us from the truth. Unless there is data that proves otherwise, I think we should accept the initial explanation no matter how counterintuitive it sounds. The mutated voribugs... have replicated the power of resonance." Other mech designers and scientists repeatedly scoured over the data readings. They even began to cross-reference the data from other sources. No matter whether it was mechs, warships or one of the many orbital facilities that still remained in operation, their resonance meters all produced data that was nearly identical to each other! This meant that the conclusions drawn from them could not deviate too much from each other! The truth began to sink into the minds of the soldiers who had fought against the mutated voribugs. The news did not remain contained for long. As the explosive revelations began to spread across the Philaster Crestia System and beyond, all of red humanity grew alarmed! Many more people began to pay attention to the decisive battle in this star system! As people struggled to come to grips with what they learned, Ves received a bunch of new messages and communication requests. Jovy spoke to both Ves and the Dark Apostle at the same time. "The Red Association has just conferred with the Rubarthan Pact. We have exchanged a large amount of data with each other and managed to ascertain vital clues. We have initially designated this new variation as the Ixith strain of Goliaths. We cannot state with certainty whether lower-level versions can emerge, but the evidence so far suggests that this is unlikely to happen." "You sound pretty sure about that." Ves responded. "That is because our most powerful scanners have detected enough clues to develop a possible theory on how the Ixith Goliath is able to generate a new form of resonance." Jovy responded. "We have detected an extremely large Mentalist Crystal in the ’central brain’ that is strategically located in the center of its body. It is true that our scanners have difficulty penetrating the center of the Goliath’s extremely dense and multi-layered body, but a Mentalist Crystal is such a remarkable piece of organic crystal that it stands out among other materials. If you know what to look out for, it is possible to distinguish it from a crowd of other matter." Ves had not installed a specialized Mentalist Crystal detector in his Superdimensional Giant Regalia, so he could not confirm this news. However, he did not think that the mechers and the Rubarthans made a mistake. The presence of a large Mentalist Crystal offered a possible explanation why the so-called Ixith Goliath was able to harness the power of resonance! "Are you saying that the Ixith Goliath is able to generate resonance with the help of this Mentalist Crystal?" Blinky began to frown. "That may be the case, but I doubt it is the only factor. It would be too easy for others to do the same just by owning a crystal of their own. There has to be more to this story." "True. We... have formed a number of explanations, most of which have to do with how the Ixith Goliath has assimilated the captured expert pilots. None of the data readings that we have gathered can support any further conclusions. This is why we urgently need to conduct a detailed examination of the Ixith Goliath. Both the Red Association and the Rubarthan Pact desired its capture. We would like to issue a request for you and your men to do your utmost to subdue the new Goliath and bring it back as intact as possible." The Dark Apostle sputtered at this insane demand. "Impossible! That Goliath is many times larger and heavier than all of our giants put together! Forget about capturing it alive and whole. I don’t think we will be able to retrieve anything but broken pieces by the time we are done, and that is assuming that we have managed to gain the upper hand!" "I agree." Ves backed up his other self. "Don’t try to convince us with another deal. No amount of concessions can persuade us to undertake an impossible mission. If you want to capture this guy in the most intact state possible, then you should send out your own goons. Otherwise, let us fight without trying to abide by excessive demands. We shoul focus on defeating it first before thinking about other objectives!"