Joshua felt a little bad about it, but he controlled the Everchanger to back off from the Eight Lord of Takansha. The withdrawal did not change the situation all that much. The Greenaxe and the Bloodripper were already doing a good job at keeping the sole remaining orven phase lord in a defensive posture. Though there was no true safety on the battlefield, the focus of the engagement had definitely shifted towards the space around the greater phase lords. They were leading the armada forward and had already begun to demolish the most outlying orbital defenses. The Everchanger hardly attracted any attention under the circumstances. It was as if the expert hero mech had become inconsequential, which happened to be true in this case. Joshua was tired of being weak. He did not want to spend the next years of fighting as an expert pilot that was only able to tickle the lesser phase lords at best. Wielding the Bitter Scimitar was supposed to mitigate one of the Everchanger’s shortcomings. However, the D-arm was so hostile towards its own wielder that it had become only moderately more lethal than the Heartsword. Ketis was right. If Joshua wanted to enact real change, then he needed to make a few hard choices. Though he prized his ability to pilot any mech he would like, for the sake of becoming an ace pilot, he was not opposed to forming a Blood Pact with the Everchanger. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦 He just expected that he wouldn’t have to make this decision so soon. He expected to have a deep discussion with the Larkinson Patriarch about whether to install a new and customized variation of the Carmine System that was designed just for himself. Joshua would have loved to form a Blood Pact with the Everchanger with the help of a well-engineered and more advanced version of the Carmine System. This was why he felt so hesitant about the current proposal. Trying to form a hastily modified version of a Blood Pact with the Everchanger sounded like a desecration to him. It was as inappropriate as trying to hold a wedding in a sewage plant. It was hardly the solemn and sacred ceremony that he envisioned in his dreams. "IT IS OKAY, JOSHUA." His battle partner vocalized. "EVERYONE LOVES A GOOD CEREMONY, BUT INCREASING YOUR STRENGTH NOW IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVERYTHING ELSE. THIS DWARF GALAXY DOES NOT CARE FOR CEREMONY OR FEELINGS. IT CARES ABOUT RESULTS. I WOULD BE GLAD TO FORM A PACT WITH YOU, JOSHUA. IN FACT, MY PROGENITOR IS CORRECT. WE DO NOT NEED TO EXCHANGE BLOOD IN ORDER TO FORM A PERMANENT BOND. THE TWO OF US ARE ALREADY TIED TO EACH OTHER. WE ONLY HAVE TO REINFORCE AND UPGRADE OUR EXISTING CONNECTION SO THAT IT RESEMBLES A REAL BLOOD PACT." Despite the unusual method used to form a Blood Pact with the Everchanger, Joshua was not too worried about botching this process. So long as both sides wanted to form a permanent bond with each other, they would find a way to make it work. They knew each other too well, and both of them had grown considerably stronger over the years. The real challenge lay in forming an earnest bond with the Bitter Scimitar. There was no way in hell that Joshua could form a true bond of friendship with the D-arm. It would be impossible for the hostile weapon to agree to form a Life Sword Pact with Joshua given their complete lack of mutual respect and understanding. This was why Joshua decided to issue an ultimatum to the rebellious scimitar. He took a deep breath before he decided to communicate with the D-arm. "Enough is enough. I am tired of your stupid games and your continued defiance against any form of cooperation. Let’s have a showdown between you and I. Shortly after I am finished, I will attempt to form a Life Sword Pact with you. This means that our souls will become connected to each other. This is supposed to tie each other together and help each other grow stronger and such, but I think that you will not be satisfied with that, am I right?" The Bitter Scimitar shook in the Everchanger’s sword hand. "Yeah." Joshua grinned. "Since you don’t agree to do that, then let us do this instead. Let’s make a bet. If you allow me to form a Life Sword Pact with you, we can have a fair contest about who gets to possess and control my body. From what I have gathered, you used to be a mech pilot yourself, right? I am not too clear about where you come from, but you clearly know a thing or two about mech piloting. Well, here’s my body. It is ripe for the taking, but only if a channel exists between you and I. No pact, no bet." The scimitar shook again. "I am not cheating you. The Life Sword Pact will only involve the two of us. I won’t draw upon the power of my living mech or any of my design spirit friends. You won’t be convinced that I am stronger and more deserving than you if I rely on outside help. I am truly, sincerely and honestly putting my body and life on the line just to be able to wield you properly in battle. All I am asking from you is this. If I win the struggle for control, you will put away your hostility towards me and the Everchanger. I expect you to obey my orders. Do not misbehave. These terms will be embedded in the pact, so don’t think about pretending to agree." "..." "Fine. I will change this term so that you are only expected to cooperate with me to the best of your ability. Any further objections?" "..." "That is a huge demand! It is not acceptable for me to permit you to challenge me again! If I win this bet, then you need to abide by the outcome. Those are the rules." "...!" Joshua sighed. He did not have the time or patience to haggle with his D-arm. "Fine. If you are so stubborn about it, then I will agree to give you the right to challenge me for control over my body when you have become stronger and feel confident enough that you can win. However, I don’t want you to take advantage of me when I am weak, so you can only make another bet when I am able to compete in my best condition in a reasonable time frame. If you win, you get to live again using my body as your new shell. If you lose, then I not only expect you to cooperate as before, but I also get to claim a part of your strength." "!!!" "What, are you the only one who is allowed to take something from others? A bet is a bet. If you want to take over my body, then I will only give you this chance if you are willing to put yourself on the line. This time, I am only asking for you to drop your hostility towards me and cooperate as best as possible with me and my Everchanger. Next time, you will sacrifice a portion of your strength to me. This will make you weaker and less able to mount another challenge so soon. I don’t want to worry about getting challenged by you every week or so. There has to be a price for every bet you want to make. Do you understand?" The Bitter Scimitar stilled. "Good. I am glad that you are sensible enough to accept my proposal." Joshua knew he was taking an awfully huge risk, but this was the time where he needed to stop doubting himself and believe in his own strength. He understood that the Bitter Scimitar had a fair chance of success. It might not possess abnormally strong willpower like himself, but it was considerably more powerful than him in different ways. Part of why the Bitter Scimitar was so disobedient towards him was because he lacked the strength to make it fall in line. Find exclusive content at freewebnovel Trying to compete with it directly under the circumstances was hardly the wisest decision that he could make, but his wife believed he would come out on top. That was enough for Joshua. He was willing to trust Ketis’ judgement and chose to believe in himself. Joshua proceeded to conduct the ritual. It did not involve anything too complicated. He was already strong enough and could readily use his companion spirit Willy to perform the necessary steps more directly. In other words, the Carmine System was not strictly necessary for an expert pilot at his level. It did not take long for Joshua to strengthen and evolve the existing spiritual bond between himself and the Everchanger. It helped a lot that the Everchanger not only understood what he was doing, but actively helped on his side. Life energy surged from both Joshua and the Everchanger. Just as expected, it acted as a more direct and higher-quality medium than organic blood and readily bound the two together. As the pact was struck, Joshua knew without a shadow of a doubt that he had become a Carmine mech pilot. From today onwards, he forever gave up his ability to pilot other mechs. In exchange, his understanding and his control over the Everchanger improved in a qualitative manner. He could already feel far more in tune with the expert hero mech than before. He could feel the age of his components, the vitality accumulating within his hyper materials and the multitude of connections with nearly every known design spirit. The lines between Joshua and the Everchanger had blurred. It felt as if the two hadn’t established anything particularly new. They merely recognized a bond that already existed and brought it to the foreground. While Joshua wanted to explore this wonderful new ’Blood Pact’ further, the Bitter Scimitar was growing impatient. The expert pilot quickly began to reach out to the D-arm for the purpose of forming a Life Sword Pact. Suffice to say, it was much more difficult to make this happen as no meaningful bond existed between the two. Joshua had to force himself to reach out to the Bitter Scimitar. Meanwhile, the weapon was not really helping. It took a bit longer than Joshua liked to finally form the beginnings of a Life Sword Pact. Fortunately, the Bitter Scimitar did not resist its formation. Its artifact spirit was incredibly eager to start the bet and win the struggle for control! There was nothing the Bitter Swordsman wanted more than to gain a second chance at life as a human mech pilot! Joshua could practically feel the greed and hostility radiating from the Bitter Scimitar. When the Life Sword Pact finally reached a state of maturity, the Bitter Swordsman immediately pounced! A huge surge of dark and malevolent energies exploded from the D-arm and rapidly climbed their way up along the sword arm before spreading across the torso! Though the Everchanger quickly resisted and tried to preserve his integrity over the remainder of his mech frame, it was clear that he was not fully capable of pushing the invasion back! Meanwhile, Joshua began to scream in pain as his head suddenly turned into a violent battlefield! A specter of the Bitter Swordsman had passed through the newly formed Life Sword Pact and directly invaded Joshua’s head for the purpose of taking it over! Joshua could not permit that from happening and immediately leveraged his willpower to resist the invasion. "Ah!" An explosion of dark and malevolent energies erupted from his helmeted head as he suffered a disadvantage during the initial collision. It was just as he feared. While his willpower caused him to hold the advantage in terms of quality, the Bitter Swordsman was considerably more powerful in quantitative terms. The latter possessed a lot of energy! "That is not all." Joshua gasped. The spiritual invader managed to concentrate his power and inflict effective damage to Joshua’s willpower immediately after arrival. This told Joshua that he was dealing with a highly skilled and experienced fighter!