Chapter 6661 High Burdens With Venerable Davia Stark's permission, Joshua and Ketis got to take a closer look at the Amaranto Mark III. The machine was currently the latest completed high-ranking mech designed by the impressive Miracle Couple. The combination between Ves' creative genius and Gloriana's meticulous technical mastery resulted in a work that nearly perfectly combined their respective strengths. However, it was undeniable that Gloriana claimed a significantly greater share of ownership of the high-tier 'expert' mech than before. "This material is all kinds of weird." Ketis observed with a notable degree of perplexity. "I can tell that it is blended with Solus Gas, as it is partially resisting my examinations. I can also tell that it is almost entirely made up of hyper materials, with only a small proportion of exotic materials mixed in to make it tougher and stabler. The internal structure should be especially more fragile than what the designers could have developed if they used more conventional first-class materials." "What does that all mean?" Joshua asked. "Let me put it like this. Every conventional mech is designed like a hardboiled egg. It has a hard shell and a fairly soft interior. One of the excellent advantages of archetech is that it introduces a technological paradigm where the differences between the two becomes less. The architecture is so different that it is possible to homogenize the exterior defenses and the internal defenses to a much greater degree than was possible in the past." "Oh, so that is the reason why the Dark Zephyr Mark III is a lot tougher and more able to take risks than before." "That is right, Joshua. The arche race has strange notions about what technology should look like. There are definitely advantages to their approach, but it is hard for engineers of other races to understand the convoluted and sometimes counterintuitive mindset needed to work with archetech. The normal choice to make with this tech is to apply the same scheme onto the Amaranto Mark III. It would allow this 'expert' mech to maintain a light and fast mech frame while also enhancing her defensive buffer by a large extent. The defensive upgrade would have been a game changer compared to the Mark Il iteration. Instead of doing that, Ves and Gloriana instead opted to use Solarium as a form of external plating and Divurnas alloy as the main material for the internal structure." "And that matters because...?" "It's like turning back to the clock!" Ketis explained with an exasperated voice. "Gloriana purposefully used archetech in a different way than the alien race intended. She used the alien architecture as a means to apply hyper materials throughout the entire mech frame at a much greater proportion than she would normally be able to get away with! Do you know how amazing it is for her to successfully pull this off from an engineering standpoint? All of the activity generated by Divurnas alloy will produce a huge amount of emissions, mostly in the form of light, but also in the form of heat and other forms of radiation. That would have wreaked havoc in a conventional mech frame, but one of the advantages of archetech is that its internal mechanisms are so much more well-shielded against interference that the Amaranto Mark III should still be able to operate close to her peak condition even when she is glowing like a lightbulb!" Joshua could only scratch his head in response. He wasn't stupid. He roughly understood the gist of his explanation. He just didn't know what the big deal was all about. His wife evidently saw that in him, so she stopped trying to make him understand. "Forget it. You will only begin to appreciate how much of an offensive upgrade this is for the Amaranto Mark III when you finally see her in action. Davia is right. She doesn't need the Instrument of Doom in order to inflict damage at a level that surpasses that of a typical high-tier expert mech. The Instrument of Vengeance that is designed to effectively tap into the excess power produced by the mech frame effectively turns this oversized luminar crystal rifle into an incredibly powerful cannon. The vision behind it is amazing, and Ves and Gloriana do deserve lots of credit for being able to realize such a demanding technical concept." As the only mech designer among the three, only Ketis possessed the eyesight to better appreciate the profound technical accomplishment of the Amaranto Mark III. Her offensive prowess had been raised to an extreme, all without making too many compromises in terms of defense, mobility and other factors. This meant that while the Amaranto Mark III excelled at long-range target elimination, she could also put up a mean fight if confronted up close. The only problem was that the Instrument of Vengeance was not the best weapon to wield in close-quarters combat. "It has a plasma blade bayonet." Venerable Davia Stark mentioned. "It is not as if my battle partner is completely defenseless at close range. However, I probably won't be able to rely on it to fend off the Dark Zephyr Mark III and so on. Ves and Gloriana have made it abundantly clear to me that resorting to the bayonet is purely a last resort. The Amaranto should rely on other melee mechs to defend herself against enemies up close." "The Bastion was the perfect complement for this role. Ketis mentioned. "The expert heavy space knight can directly shield your Amaranto against ranged attacks, thereby allowing her to stay put for longer periods of time. The Bastion is also great at fending off most close-ranged attackers as long as they are not too powerful or numerous. If a martial-oriented phase lord ever gets close, the Bastion will be in much greater danger than your Amaranto due to the differences in mobility." That was one of the disadvantages of piloting a heavy mech with a strong defensive focus. It didn't help that the Bastion was falling increasingly behind the times. It was not as old as the First Sword Mark II, the Riot Mark II the Everchanger Mark II, but she was very clearly not designed to confront the enemy types deployed by the native aliens. Venerable Jannzi was one of the high-tier expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan that was most at risk of dying in the upcoming operation. Her awfully slow Bastion was not as capable of retreating as the other high-ranking mechs of the Larkinson Clan. She might actually have to eject her cockpit if she wanted to escape the clutches of a phase lord that was hell-bent on killing her and her machine. Whether she was willing to do so was another question. Jannzi and the Bastion formed the very first Blood Pact of its kind. It was pretty much the role model for all subsequent Blood Pacts. The bond between pilot and mech was so much more intimate than the ones formed between complete strangers. Would Jannzi ever permit herself to leave the Bastion to her lot if the machine was on the verge of getting torn to pieces? Joshua could not imagine it, and was the same for the others. This was why giving her enough cover to retreat was one of their secondary objectives for the upcoming fight. The Viola Magnifica System was not a location worth dying for. It was important to make the aliens bleed for every fortification they destroyed, but the troops had to keep the big picture into account. They needed to survive so that they could fight the aliens again in another day. Venerable Stark and Venerable Joshua began to speak about potential forms of cooperation between the two. The massive upgrades to the expert marksman mech had huge implications on the battlefield. "If my new Amaranto performs as well as I hoped, we will attract an enormous amount of attention from the enemy phase lords. They will seek to prioritize our destruction once they realize how much danger they are in if they leave me unopposed." Davia Stark said. "I have already spoken with Saint Linda Cross about how to handle this scenario. She promised me that she can only hold back one enemy phase lord at most, and not for long if she is confronting a greater phase lord." "It is good news that we still have Casella with us due to the fact that her future ace mech upgrade is already in the works." Ketis mentioned. "She can relieve your burden as well by providing massed fire support with the help of her Command Field. She can't actually halt any phase lords in their tracks, though. She is much more suited to counter the massed warships. She doesn't have any assets that are strong enough to duel against phase lords up close." Saint Commander Casella was an excellent asset for the upcoming battle. As one of the few ace pilots who remained behind in the Viola Magnifica System, she could empower lots of ranged living mechs and amplify their firepower to the point where she could effectively wear down the spatial barriers of phase lords over a distance. However, it was not viable to rely on melee mechs to physically fight these phase lords to a standstill. The gap in absolute power was simply too great even with the benefit of Enfeoffing mechs so that they performed similar to low-tier expert mechs. In a way, both the Amaranto and the Minerva Mark I suffered from the same problem. They were backline combat assets that preferred to focus more on damage output than impeding the advances of incredibly powerful opponents. Ketis began to frown. "Both of you are in an awkward situation now that I think about it. Casella is an ace pilot that is limited by her expert mech. She cannot fully utilize her full power due to the technical constraints of her own machine. As for you, Davia, you are still a high-tier expert pilot that is currently paired with what could credibly be called an ace mech. The fact that Gloriana installed ace mech-grade resonating exotics into the mech frame in advance is a risky decision. The Amaranto will hold you back if you fail to break through and continue to remain stuck as a high-tier expert pilot. However, so long as you are able to attain your sainthood during the upcoming battle, you will be in a much better condition than our Saint Commander. Your Amaranto Mark III already fits you perfectly at your new rank, so you can unleash your full potential and inflict much more damage onto the enemies in the field without worrying about damaging your machine." Her message was clear. Many of the problems that hung over their heads would become a lot easier to deal with as long as Davia Stark broke through! "Ketis may be able to help." Joshua spoke up. "You must have heard the stories already. She has published a new theory that has taken the swordsmanship community by storm. She has also given me and many other expert pilots advice on what they need to focus on in order to break through." The swordsmaster in question smiled in response. "I can consult you if you are open to my advice. As one warrior to another, I think that you are already on the right track, especially now that you are piloting an upgraded machine. However, if you don't want to end up like General Ark Larkinson and Venerable Benjamin Larkinson and fail to break through in the past few months despite receiving new machines of their own, you need to reflect deeper on the power that you wish to rely upon." "I think I will take you up on your offer. I am not arrogant enough to assume that I have all of the answers. The other expert pilots have already given you praise on how extensively you have broadened their perspectives." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎 Though Ketis' Heaven Earth Man Trifecta sounded simple, the value in this new theoretical model lay in its ability to contextualize the power system of high-ranking mech pilots. In other words, her new theories gave them a logical explanation on how to systematically increase their breakthrough chances!