The Amaranto Mark III’s firing rate was still as slow as ever. Becoming an ace pilot hadn’t changed the awful long time it took to fully charge the Instrument of Vengeance. However, the power of every attack was so astonishing that it captivated everyone’s attention whether they wanted it or not. There was no choice as the damage output of the Amaranto Mark III was so exaggerated. With every bright white energy beam that lanced out of her Instrument of Vengeance, the formidable alien battleships that were supposed to be strong enough to withstand the attack of expert mechs for a while became gutted. Neither their azure energy shields nor their hull structures could offer enough resistance to block the incredibly penetrating attacks from the most powerful ranged mech associated with the Larkinson Clan! The Eight Lord of Takansha grew distressed as his weakened spatial barriers failed to resist the onslaught of the powerful energy beam. The partially expended energy beam continued to lance forward and cut straight through his raiment before finally drilled a hole into his lower body. The phase lord uttered a silent scream of pain that shook the surrounding space! Read new adventures at empire It was only due to the tiny delay generated by the continuous blockades that the orven lesser phase lord managed to move out the way just enough to avoid getting struck in the heart! As the battleship that the native god used as a makeshift shield began to falter as her hull became stressed by secondary explosions, the Eight Lord of Takansha still sought to secure his life. Since not even the largest alien hulls were able to block the Amaranto Mark III’s piercing strikes, the orven phase lord figured out a better solution. Space warped around him as he made his way to the Herald of the Void! The greater phase lord in turn did not want to witness the fall of another native god, even if he belonged to another race. The jureg greater phase lord uttered an alien command that saw the rest of his exalted peers converge upon each other! The phase lords did not hide their fear towards the distant ace mech and adjusted their formation so that they lined up with each other. The alien phase lords moved quickly despite their formidable bulk and mass. Since the position of the Amaranto Mark III remained static, the native aliens were able to trace the exact trajectory of the energy beams and adjust their formations accordingly. At this time, the Herald of the Void used his much larger true body to serve as a physical shield for the 3 surviving lesser phase lords. In the face of the extremely powerful and incredibly penetrating energy beams unleashed by the Amaranto Mark III in her forced resonance state, none of the lesser phase lords wanted to take their chances! What a huge loss of face! Back in their home territories, countless mortal alien individuals worshiped and looked up to Zren Divar, the Fatedriver and the Eight Lord of Takansha as gods. Each of them enjoyed many years of life and had grown accustomed to being a part of the ruling class of their own societies. How many years had it been since they were driven to such desperation that they had to take shelter behind the bulk of a greater phase lord? It was ridiculous for them to hide from the firepower of a single ace mech, but they had no other choice! 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦 In fact, the damage inflicted by the Amaranto Mark III was not necessarily higher than that of other ace mechs. What made the Amaranto Mark III so much more threatening than the other machines was that she was almost fully designed to maximize her firepower. The Amphis Extremis piloted by Saint Linda Cross was designed as an assault mech that possessed good defenses but also scored relatively well in offense and mobility. The Mars piloted by Patriarch Reginald Cross placed greater emphasis on offensive power, but still made a number of compromises in order to keep its defense and mobility good enough to facilitate aggressive actions. The Dark Zephyr placed the highest emphasis on mobility, and possessed relatively poor offensive power. If not for the fact that Saint Tusa temporarily borrowed the tier 3 Destroyer spear, the ace light skirmisher wouldn’t have posed much of a threat against alien phase lords. No matter what areas they excelled in, the vast majority of ace mechs were designed for dueling, brawling and intense dynamic maneuvers. This was a common design direction due to the fact that ace pilots had a long tradition of dueling against other ace pilots. They only saw themselves as their opponents. They could not stand the thought of losing against a peer because their machine was not able to keep up with the adversary. The Amaranto Mark III clearly deviated from this pattern because the original intent of this machine was to take enemies out at a distance. She was never meant to duel against a powerful opponent up close. The Larkinson Army always made sure to provide adequate cover and support for Venerable Davia Stark so that she would not have to do anything else but snipe her targets. The living mech started out as the realization of the extreme firepower concept, and her third iteration only made this defining characteristic more pronounced! Not only was her single-shot firepower incredibly damaging, her effective range was astounding as well! The alien phase gods had nothing in their arsenal that could retaliate effectively against the extremely distant marksman mech. The only vessels that could pinpoint the coordinates of the Amaranto Mark III and land effective retaliation hits onto the Amaranto Mark III were the high-tech puelmer heavy cruisers. Their formidable transphasic hyper laser cannon batteries all swiveled around so that they were aiming straight at the Spirit of Bentheim. While it was a lot more difficult for the heavy cruisers to land a hit on a moving capital ship, the Amaranto Mark III generated so much energetic activity that the puelmer targeting systems were able to calculate their firing solutions faster and with greater ease. It was not always good to be able to generate so much energy. The Amaranto Mark III’s energy emissions were so excessively high that they may as well be giant sign posts that told the native aliens where to aim! Dozens of warship-grade laser beams lanced across space and largely managed to hit the Spirit of Bentheim! Though many of the laser beams still missed due to minute errors and because of the factory ship’s unpredictable course changes, the majority of attacks still struck her azure energy shields! Fortunately, the attacks were spread out across the hull, so none of the shields broke. Most of the energy beams struck near or at the bow section of the Spirit of Bentheim, but this happened to be the most well-protected part of the factory ship. Although Saint Davia Stark did not excel in defense, her new Saint Kingdom was still able to weaken and dampen any attack that entered its effective range! The Amaranto Mark III would have been fine if the enemy energy attacks managed to bypass all of those layers of defense. The cat head prow of the Spirit of Bentheim provided excellent cover for mechs that sheltered inside the eye sockets. The threatening ace mech laid prone in order to minimize her silhouette towards the native alien forces as best as possible. Saint Davia Stark did not worry about the incoming attacks at all and continued to focus on what she did best, which was launching powerful precision shots at her opponents! Unfortunately for her, the Amaranto Mark III in her forced resonance state was unable to threaten the lives of any further lesser phase lords! The native alien gods had traded away their dignity for safety. They were far more willing to cower behind their stronger peers so long as this act protected them from the wrath of a newsly ascended ace pilot that already took away the life of an orven lesser phase lord! No matter how much Saint Stark wanted to make her bright light beam attacks punch through the defenses of the Herald of the Void, her ace mech had reached her limit. The only results produced by her eye-wateringly bright full-powered shots was to partially drain the greater phase lord’s spatial barrier. The Herald of the Void was not as easy to take down as the others! He had developed his body, his phasewater organs and his abilities much longer than the other phase lords. His much higher phasewater concentration amplified almost all of his capabilities. This was not an enemy that a junior ace pilot could challenge on an equal level. The only results gained by the Amaranto Mark III’s powerful attacks was to exercise the Herald of the Void’s phasewater organs and expose the strength of his spatial barrier. Saint Commander Casella Ingvar had enough of this display. "Stark! Don’t waste your firepower on the Herald of the Void. Even if you break past his spatial barrier, his exoskeleton shell can resist a lot of damage as well. You are better off investing your remaining energies into eliminating the most threatening alien warships. I have already designated the highest priority targets to you over the commandnet. Do your best to eliminate as many of them in the time that you have left. Every alien battleship that falls will save thousands of mech pilots and tens of thousands of other soldiers on this battlefield." Saint Davia Stark scowled, but she did not reject Casella Ingvar’s logic. The Herald of the Void had quickly taught her a lesson that just because her offensive power had grown by a lot that this was not enough to pierce through the defenses of a greater phase lord. Not yet. Not alone. As long as she consolidated her new state and learned how to channel her newfound powers more effectively, she might be able to threaten the jureg greater phase lord’s life, especially if he was already engaged in battle by another ace mech! The extreme range between the two sides worked against her this time. Being able to attack the native alien champions from such a distance spared her from any serious retaliation, but it also left the rest of the human defenders with no options to capitalize on the openings made by the Amaranto Mark III! Davia quickly adjusted her targeting. Though her pride and ego screamed at her to continue to hammer the phase lords, there were still plenty of other aliens that deserved to taste her vengeance. The superiority of an ace pilot over warships became a lot more evident for the following period as the Amaranto Mark III accurately struck the largest and most threatening alien warships. Each of every piercing bright light beam pierced through the azure energy shields of the alien vessels and punched straight through the exterior hull and citadel before destroying the most critical power generators and other vital systems! While most of the alien battleships that got speared by the Amaranto Mark III did not collapse or blow up right away, the damage they sustained was so severe that they had effectively become crippled before the proper battle even started! After landing a crippling blow on the seventh battleship, the Amaranto Mark III finally began to dim, causing the surrounding light levels to return to normal. The ace mech had withdrawn from her forced resonance state. Saint Davia Stark had completed her breakthrough and had drained herself for the second time. Her fatigue was very real. She could not stave off the wave of exhaustion that overtook her transformed body. The stresses she endured were too great. She felt as if her ballooning willpower had forcibly expanded her entire being, causing her to feel as if she had metaphysically grown larger. This forceful growth process had certainly produced massive results, but the downside was that Saint Davia Stark needed to retreat and enjoy a long rest before she could slowly regain her fighting condition! She felt unwilling to retreat from the battlefield so soon, but Stark possessed enough awareness that everyone had their limits. "I am done." She said in a softer and much more exhausted voice. "I am withdrawing now as I am struggling to maintain consciousness. Good luck, Larkinsons." "Thank you for your service, Saint Stark. We shall take it from here. You have given us an excellent opening play."