Chapter 5643 Another Virtue 5643 Another Virtue The Zeal in its current state was not a particularly crucial or important mech. Ves could have decided to update the Zeal to Mark III specifications with only minor cosmetic changes in order to distinguish the living mech from his standard counterparts. However, it was not in his nature to slack off and take it easy. The moment a work assignment turned into a routine was the moment that Ves would begin to lose his touch as a mech designer! Every serious attempt at fabricating or upgrading a mech compelled him to do better. There were many ways in which he could improve his work and increase the quality of the final result. This time, Ves decided to take advantage of this occasion to conduct a radical experiment and see whether he could gain proof of one of his recent theories! When Ves came up with the unusual idea of letting his consciousness take a backseat and allowing Ylvaine to 'direct' his body to produce art, he did not think about the outcome of this crazy move. He did not dare to set any hopes or expectations on how the exterior of the Zeal might look after he had ended the cooperative art session. Ves wanted the output to fully reflect Ylvaine's vision instead of his own. The only influence he wanted to exert over the end results was to make it look professional and aesthetically pleasing enough to pass muster. After all, there was a huge difference between seeing a potential future timeline and conveying it to people in the present! The very act of divining the future might not even be a visual process to begin with. A lot of stuff went lost in translation, so no prophecy could possibly describe a possible future event with total accuracy. Ves did not mind that, and neither did Ylvaine. When both of them had joined forces to perform a single united purpose, they did not attempt to recreate any photorealistic images. Not only was the chance of including inaccuracies in the painted images a lot greater, but it would also take an excessive amount of time to add so much detail. Ves and Ylvaine instead began to generate more abstract and symbolic works of art across the surface of the Zeal. The Transcendent Punisher Mark III design was huge. Its surface area was enormous, even if much of it was broken up into a lot of different angles. However, that did not stop the two extraordinary individuals from making good use of their complicated canvas. At certain times, Ves slowed down and made a lot of precise strokes with a thinner brush in order to add detail when necessary, but also sped up and made a lot of faster strokes whenever it was expedient. As their cooperative progressed, Gloriana had been reduced to a bystander. She watched with an increasing degree of confusion as all kinds of strange images and indecipherable ideograms started to cover the previously clean surface of the mech. Much to her relief, the increasingly more dense and all-encompassing artwork did not cause the Zeal to look too messy and cluttered. Though the abundance of artwork across the surface of its mech frame definitely caused the machine to lose its freshness, the Ylvainan mech gained more and more majesty in the process. With each completed illustration, the Zeal took another step away from his origin as a standard Transcendent Punisher Mark III and fleshed out his own unique identity. There was no going back from this! Out of all of the Transcendent Punishers to exist to this date, only the Zeal had been blessed with the art and vision of both the Great Prophet and the Bright Martyr! The living mech became ecstatic at what was happening. The machine possessed enough intelligence and awareness to know that Ylvaine and his progenitor had teamed up to turn his very surface into a metal tapestry of all sorts of mysterious prophecies. The incredibly faithful mech did not even want to enter into battle anymore after this! The Zeal simply could not bear the thought of aliens desecrating the sacred images through their foul attacks. The Zeal needed to take the place of the older mech that bore the same name! More people deserved to see and interpret the sacred prophecies that Ylvaine had generously made available to the people living in the present! As Ves and Ylvaine finally started to wind down as they had managed to cover much of the surface of the Zeal with their exceptional artwork, their fused state slowly started to wind down. Ylvaine had expended a considerable amount of energy to cast his vision further and wider this time. The design spirit did not set any limits or parameters to where his future sight might take him, allowing him to grasp a lot of glimpses of important turning points in a timeline that had not yet come to pass. This caused the subjects and the meaning of his prophecies to become incredibly diverse! The subject matter, the approximate time period and the overall message were all different. As Ves gradually regained his awareness, he did not stop to admire 'his' artistry but immediately moved to put the final touch on his latest upgrade project. He shrank his body down to its normal human proportions and quickly donned his usual outfit again. He then proceeded to enter the cockpit and retrieve a gem that he had already picked out beforehand. It had been difficult for him to narrow down his choice. There were several gems produced by Lucky that seemed apt for the Zeal. For example, the Doom of Remis seemed like a good option to Ves. Its description explicitly mentioned a 'failed prophet', which immediately caused Ves to associate this older gem with Ylvaine. However, its effect was only effective at close range, which meant that it was only suitable for melee mechs. Ves finally settled on a heavenly gem that he had recently obtained. [Final Sacrifice] The sacrificial intent of a true ideologue is contained within this gem. When fully charged, it allows a mech to generate a large weapon construct that can fire a single full-powered energy attack that can bypass all energy barriers and disintegrate all matter. Ves almost did not choose it because Sacrifice was a distinctly different Ylvainan virtue from Zeal. However, the effect and theme fit the living mech far too well for Ves to dismiss this powerful heavenly gem as a choice! There was no rule that stated that Ylvainains were only allowed to exemplify a single virtue. It should be natural for the more devoted and earnest among them to exhibit all 6 virtues. This prompted Ves to go through with his decision without engaging in too many doubts and second thoughts. He carefully brought out a black gem that sparked with random flashes of light. Ves greatly suspected that this heavenly gem encapsulated some of the remnant power and energy of the Dustweaver's sacrificial attack. The power of this gem had to be exceptional, but that made it even more important to put it in the right mech. Ves initially planned to reserve it for a melee mech or a more versatile machine that did not wield any heavy ranged weapons. After all, the Final Sacrifice purportedly enabled a mech to gain a single-use molecular disintegrator for free! However, his plans could not keep up with the changes. When faced with a powerful heavy artillery mech that could mount the enormous Devora Cannon and could borrow the power of Emma, he just had to pair the living mech up with the Final Sacrifice! As Ves allowed the Zeal to absorb the exceptionally powerful gem, he already began to feel the immediate changes induced by the machine. All the prophetic artwork applied to the exterior of the Zeal had caused the living mech to become more sacred and holy in ways that Ves could not describe. The blessed artworks that mysteriously generated a subtle form of resonance with the universe, causing them to draw in E energies that reminded Ves of divination and other related concepts. The point was that the appearance and the feel of the Zeal had definitely caused the living machine to gain an undeniably sacred and even holy demeanor! Yet from the moment that Ves inserted his heavenly gem, the Zeal's aura quickly started to change in ways that caused it to gain a more ominous accent. The previously positive and upright demeanor of the Zeal steadily began to shift into a more negative and gloomy impression. Though the exceptional heavy artillery mech still retained his sacred character, the machine no longer felt as inspiring as before. Instead, the Zeal had turned into an existence that was made to warn others of the grim tidings ahead. Ves grew relieved when he confirmed that the drastic change in demeanor did not upset the Zeal or change his nature in an unacceptable manner. He actually appreciated the shift. It not only added a lot of flavor to his work, but also complemented the living mech's role as an overpowering offensive mech even more! The Zeal actually began to show a slightly greater resemblance towards the legendary Ragnarok! Just like the famous god mech, the Zeal was able to mount a super-heavy cannon that could fire a hugely destructive projectile blessed with the power of destruction. While the damage potential of these two artillery-oriented mechs diverged enormously from each other, the Zeal still had a lot of room for growth! It was not impossible for the Zeal to grow step-by-step until he became a god mech that was just as powerful as the current iteration of the Ragnarok! Ves even had a hunch that he would definitely be responsible for turning the Zeal into an impressive god mech, but he did not dare to entertain this notion for too long. Arrogance was the step towards disappointing his expectations for the future! He needed to retain his sense of awe and humility in order to earnestly work towards a better future. As Ves floated outside of the cockpit of his latest completed work, the Zeal had already begun a process that Ylvaine had already prophesied in advance. "We have made another masterwork mech." Gloriana said in a distracted tone. Strangely enough, neither Ves nor his wife showed that much interest towards the masterwork transformation that mysteriously elevated the quality of the Zeal well beyond the threshold! Even if Ves did not add the Final Sacrifice to the Zeal, the heavy artillery mech still would have become a masterwork! What he did was just a cherry on top. The heavenly gem added a powerful accent to the Ylvainan mech and caused him to develop an even more unique identity than before. As the enormous heavy artillery mech rose to a new level of craftsmanship, Ves became slightly concerned whether his odd actions and the heavenly gem might cause the Zeal to attract another spontaneous lightning storm. Fortunately, the radical upgrade attempt did not cross any significant taboos this time. The weather outside of Diandi Base remained completely clear and normal. Once the lengthy masterwork transformation had finally run its course, the Zeal had finally completed his extensive rebirth. [I… AM… THE LIGHT OF FAITH… AND THE MESSENGER OF DOOM.] An inner fire seemed to burn inside the spiritual foundation of the Zeal. The living mech experienced a profound moment that caused him to grow a lot more powerful all of a sudden! That definitely attracted Ves' attention. He originally thought that all of the work done to the Zeal would cause him to incur damage to his spiritual foundation, but instead the opposite took place! The most concrete manifestation of this improved strength was that the third order living mech suddenly gained a whole bunch of Ascension Runes! The powerful boost was incredibly significant, because Ves had never witnessed a moment where an existing mech could obtain so many Ascension Runes in the workshop as opposed to the battlefield!