As soon as Venerable Jannzi Larkinson pressed the button, the Dullahan Project started to wake to life. Numerous electronic systems booted up. They activated slower than usual because they needed to perform extensive internal diagnostics to confirm that they were performing normally. At the same time, several needles and tubes extended from the piloting chair and abruptly poked into Jannzi's body! In order to make sure that she did not make any dangerous movements, the chair also clamped down on her body so that it remained firmly in place while the crucial blood channels connected to her bloodstream! What happened was not completely outside of her expectations, but the actual experience was much worse than its description! In order to ensure that she did not botch this crucial process, Jannzi bit her lip and tried her best to suppress any strong reactions. She clearly understood that she needed to maintain as much control throughout this process as possible. As soon as the needles poked into place, they first injected different chemicals into her body. This was not the artificially cultivated blood that played an essential role to the working mechanisms of the Carmine System. It was highly irresponsible for Jannzi to absorb a lot of foreign blood while losing much of her own. Her physical body needed to be put into the right condition first before it was ready to endure more extreme circumstances. Jannzi felt warm as her body heated up a bit. Her veins became warmer and her heart started to pump more actively than before. Her piloting suit efficiently absorbed all of the sweat produced by her more active body. While all of this took place, the expert mech continued to execute its first startup process. More and more advanced mech systems came online. The powerful reactor integrated in the Dullahan Project started to kick into a higher gear so that it could fulfill the increasing demand for energy. The expert space knight was beginning to exude more heat! Soon enough, the neural interface started to establish a connection between Jannzi's mind and the control systems of the Dullahan Project. This was a crucial step! In the case of a normal mech, this process allowed the pilot to extend his awareness beyond his physical body and gain access to the functions of a mechanical machine that was countless times more powerful! Venerable Jannzi experienced the rush of connecting to a powerful new expert mech for the first time, but the experience was not as good as the time when she first interfaced with the Shield of Samar. However, the formation of the man-machine connection was just one of several steps needed to fully activate the Dullahan Project. Outside of the cockpit, Ves floated in front of the torso of the massive machine. He did not hesitate to stray closer in order to better feel the changes that took place inside. Of course, he also kept watch over the telemetry transmitted by the Dullahan Project. His cranial implant received a direct feed that allowed him to keep track of the precise fluctuations of the booting expert mech. A sense of power began to surge from the Dullahan Project. The customized neural interface especially designed by the Larkinson Clan's recently hired neural interface specialist was doing its job. The Dullahan Project faintly began to glow as the man-machine connection enabled Jannzi to resonate with her new machine. The magnitude of the resonance was not high. Part of this was because Jannzi did not want to produce a strong and dangerous reaction, but another part of it was because she had yet to recognize the new machine as her battle partner! Ves did not look concerned. He monitored the situation closely and recognized that it was almost time to perform the most crucial steps. After Jannzi received enough adjustments, half of the channels connected to her body started to pump foreign blood into her bloodstream! At the same time, the other half of the channels began to siphon her native blood away from her body! These processes took place simultaneously. Not only that, the blood did not flow continuously through the transparent channel, but instead pulsed in or out in the cadence of a heartbeat. No, not a single heartbeat. There were two heartbeats. The small and tiny human heart inside Jannzi's body did not have the strength to circulate the enormous quantity of blood flowing through the organic veins of the Carmine System. In order to make sure that its blood circulated effectively throughout its massive biological components, Ves embedded it with an artificial heart. This heart, which was largely based on Jannzi's DNA, began to beat in perfect synchronicity with the expert pilot's own key organ. It was as if the Carmine System's gigantic heart machine was not a foreign component at all, but one that was always meant to circulate blood in Jannzi's physical body! The neural interface which previously granted Jannzi awareness of the expert mech's mechanical systems now began to connect her to a part of the machine that she had never experienced before! The sensation of connecting to an organic system was like nothing else she had ever experienced before. Yet as the Carmine System opened itself up to her influence without any rejection or complications, Jannzi instinctively felt as if she was always meant to assume control over its organic parts. The connection and intimacy she felt towards the Carmine System exceeded that of anything that she had ever experienced in the past! Not even the Shield of Samar in her former peak condition could match the strong sense of unity produced by the Carmine System! This weird and novel addition to the Dullahan Project made her feel as if she and it were one and the same! If not for the fact that the rest of the Dullahan Project was fully mechanical and operated under an entirely different and inhuman set of standards, Jannzi might have been able to embody the entire machine as if it was her own body in truth! Although the process of connecting her body to the Carmine System turned out to be much less scary and much more pleasant than she anticipated, Venerable Jannzi did not gain the result she wanted. She did not set out to turn the Dullahan Project into a perfect vessel that she could fully embody. She wanted to reconnect with her long-lost battle partner. As impatient as she may be, she understood that she needed to wait a bit longer. The more Jannzi extended her awareness to the new and powerful expert space knight, the more she sensed the void inside the machine. It was not a physical void. The mech frame was completely filled with matter when examined on a physical level. No, this was a different kind of void. The more Jannzi interfaced with the Dullahan Project, the more it became obvious that there was a metaphysical void! She found it extremely strange that this void had been deliberately left unfilled. All of the living mechs designed by Ves were completely opposite. Each of his works contained the fullness of life. This was especially the case for his most recent mechs! Outside of the mech, Ves could sense Jannzi's confusion. He already intended to do something about the void that prevented the Dullahan Project from reaching its most complete form. He just had to make sure that the expert mech performed well enough and that Venerable Jannzi's body had yet to experience any negative side effects from connecting to the Carmine System. Seeing that all of the parameters looked fine, Ves confirmed that the mech and mech pilot were ready to endure the next shock. Ves reached into his pocket and withdrew a large gem that Lucky produced in the past. He had made up a plan on how he intended to use it as soon as it fell into his hands. [Shield of Sacrifice] The dying wish of a powerful soul is contained within this gem. Increases the damage resistance of a mech up to 100 percent in proportion to the damage it has incurred. The incredibly potent boost provided by the gem was not as important as the source of its power. Through studying the Mars as it turned from a traditional living mech into an empty vessel attuned to Patriarch Reginald Cross, Ves already made a lot of strides into figuring out how these gems produced their reality-defying effects. Ves had come to accept that the System's silly descriptions of Lucky's gems were not as nonsensical as he once thought. There was real substance to all of the references of greater existences. He carefully examined the Shield of Sacrifice gem. It had always remained fairly calm and inert while it was in his possession, but now that had come in close proximity of Jannzi's second expert mech, it began to shine with the power of desire! "Get ready. It's time for you to enter your final destination." Ves slowly extended his hand and pressed the gem onto the chest plate of the Dullahan Project. A small port opened up to suck the gem inside the frame. Away from his sight, the gem continued to travel a prearranged route before it finally neared the gigantic organic heart of the Carmine System. Fleshy tentacles extended from the bioengineered organ. They embraced the gem with loving care and pulled it in so that the solid object could sink deep inside the enormous heart! BADUMP. Once the organ made a powerful beat, an invisible shockwave spread from the Dullahan Project! Ves quickly drew back as he sensed a surging will and spirituality from the depths of the expert mech! BADUMP. Another powerful beat spread from the expert mech, causing it to become more alive than it had ever been before! As the blood pumped by the hearts of the mech and mech pilot continued to circulate throughout their bodies, two different life forms started to connect and familiarize with each other. Tears spilled from Venerable Jannzi's eyes as she began to experience a surge of strong emotions. After so much waiting, she finally sensed the traces of her familiar battle partner. "Sammie…" The gem that Ves added to the machine did not make the Shield of Samar come to life again. Too much had been lost to make that happen. What actually happened was that the gem filled up the invisible void and prompted the expert mech to form a new and independent personality that was descended from Sammie's dying wish! BADUMP. BADUMP. BADUMP. As the hearts beat faster and faster, more and more blood circulated throughout their bodies! This had a profound effect on the woman and her new machine. Even though the newly born consciousness of the Dullahan Project was only less than a minute old, it already formed a bond with Venerable Jannzi that was far more intimate than anything the Larkinson Clan had ever witnessed! BADUMP. BADUMP. BADUMP. BADUMP. BADUMP. Both sides of the relationship experienced such a rush of emotions that their hearts began to beat much faster than was healthy! It couldn't be helped! The very first Blood Pact formed between a human mech pilot and a living mech was such a powerful rush that they lost their self-control! However, before Venerable Jannzi could go too far, the design spirit that had remained silent throughout all of this time immediately took action. A moderating influence entered the fray. Qilanxo's powerful influence descended upon the expert mech. She exerted enough power to lower the frequency of their heartbeats. Ves quietly sighed in relief as he witnessed what had happened. "Thanks, Qilanxo." With the help of the design spirit, Venerable Jannzi and her expert mech continued to merge together until they had fully established their permanent Blood Pact! A brief lull occurred before the two hearts produced a simultaneous reaction. BADUMP! An explosion of power and true resonance erupted from the Dullahan Project! Gloriana and several other people yelled in surprise as the might released by the expert mech surpassed almost anything they had experienced before! Outside of ace mechs, the Dullahan Project exuded the most power by far! A powerful corona marked by the blue of Jannzi's resonance mixed with another corona that glowed red with blood!