6909 Strange Urge What a brilliant gift! Though Ves was unclear how useful a single Radiant particle may be, anything that had been imbued by the willpower of a god pilot should not be too weak or useless! Ves instantly figured out the cleverness behind this choice. The Devos Ancient Clan clearly wanted to show off its wealth and power. It could not give the Larkinson Clan a low-value trinket. That would not only disrespect the Larkinsons, but also paint the Terrans as misers who suffered so greatly from the ongoing war that they could no longer bestow any generous gifts. Therefore, the gift had to be an item of real substance. It most definitely needed to be universally recognized as valuable. The problem was that most choices of gifts were of great value to the Terrans themselves. There were likely those who thought about gifting the Larkinson Clan with a World Tree Seed or a capital ship. Unfortunately, both were strategic assets that the Terrans urgently needed for their own war efforts. Giving one of them away as a gift would do more harm than good. A will-infused Radiant particle therefore served as a much more clever gift. On the one hand, it was a rare high-end material that possessed a lot of remarkable and mysterious properties. Even though the container only contained a single particle, the fact that the Light of Sol saw fit to impart a fraction of his divine will into it immediately raised its value by at least a million times! Whole Destroyer weapons were not worth as much as this single Radiant particle! 12:18 Ves had never even heard of Radiant particles before. He did not even know that the god pilot who made them could also extend a measure of his incredible power to one of the particles. The Devos Ancient Clan not only gifted him with what could only be a microscopic super-class material, but also granted him the knowledge and awareness that this wonder existed in the first place! The Terrans had unveiled a small part of the curtain. Ves grew a lot less upset about the heavy revelation from Master Laila Rebecca Devos and became fascinated by the rare and precious particle presented by the hosts of the banquet. Even though it was abundantly obvious to him that the Devosans sought to smooth over any hard feelings by bribing him with a literal shiny, they understood him too well! Their plan worked! As a mech designer, how could he remain unmoved when he stood to receive a magnanimous gift that could give a rare and powerful boost to one of his mechs? Ves felt a little frustrated by how well the container isolated the fluctuations of the Radiant particle. He could not sense anything but the barest hint of light in its purest form. Despite the miniscule amount of matter contained within the cylinder, Ves had the inexplicable sense that if he let it out and placed it on his hand, it might actually be able to destroy his true body! Whether this was a real possibility or a silly illusion, Ves was not sure. He needed to get his hands on it and head straight back to his lab in order to research the hell out of the mysterious particle! Only by understanding its properties would he be able to formulate plans on how to convert it into a useful application! As the transparent window of the container continued to shine the particle's remarkably bright radiance among the gathered people, the Devosan leader briefly shared a bit more information on the remarkable particle. "Unlike our rivals, we are graced by only a single god pilot. We are fortunate that the Light of Sol happens to be one of our more qualified god pilots to respond to the crises that the Terran Alliance is struggling with. Not only is he able to move from star system to star system faster than any other god pilot, he is also able to generate Radiant particles that can be used to upgrade the performance of our senior ace mechs." That actually sounded like a great way to leverage the power of a god pilot. One of the biggest constraints to god pilots was that they could only directly project their power in a single star system. This was why certain god pilot tried to expand their capabilities and use their God Kingdoms as a means of producing rare and precious resources. Certain god pilots were much more compatible with this approach than others. For example, no one expected the Fist of Defiance to produce anything particularly rare and precious. He was a meathead that happened to be stubborn enough to defy death when traversing the road to no return. His relatively direct and uncompromising personality reflected his strong focus and dedication towards fisticuffs. He cared little for anything else and did not have the patience and the affinities to produce special particles or super-class materials. The Evolution Witch was the opposite in this regard. Her direct combat capabilities was not as domineering as that of the Fist of Defiance, but she made up for it in many other ways. Due to the characteristics of her God Kingdom, the Evolution Witch was in a much better position to will all kinds of organic materials into existence. This turned her into one of the most important sources of high-quality biomatter. The Light of Sol probably sat somewhere in between. He was clearly a more combat-focused god pilot, but his strong affinity with the light element enabled him to generate the so-called Radiant particles in his God Kingdom. Now, one of them had entered his possession. After the Devosan leader completed his brief introduction, the container floated towards the Larkinson delegation until it finally stopped in front of Ves. He stood up and bowed his head in gratitude. "I thank the Devos Ancient Clan and the Light of Sol for bestowing me this divinely touched gift. I am not familiar with the details concerning Radiant particles, but I am eager to study this sample and incorporate it into one of my mechs. I will definitely do this precious material justice." Numerous Terrans smiled. "That is good to hear, Professor Larkinson. We will transfer additional documentation to you so that you understand how the Radiant particle can be applied to different parts and systems. Since you are already familiar with Destroyer technology, you should be able to find many parallels between Destroyer particles and Radiant particles. They may not behave the same, but they are of the same root, so some properties are universal to their kind." The remainder of the banquet went by without any other notable events. No Terran casually spoke of the secession plan. Many of them were so engrossed in their own power plays and political maneuvering that they were not worth his time to engage. His wife did not hold the same opinion. She avidly spoke with the female Terrans of high bearing about inconsequential topics. Master Laila Rebecca Devos had not shown up again. She had already completed her mission and had no compelling reason to stick around. Ves actually felt restless the longer the evening dragged on. He frequently looked down on the precious cylindrical container that he had placed on his lap. 12:21 Although he had closed the transparent window in order to avoid flashing the Hymn of the Trees with a bright light show, he still felt tempted to tear the container apart and hold the Radiant particle in his hands. He did not know why he possessed this urge. Given his recently obtained affinity for the darkness element, he should have felt repulsed towards the strong source of light. Perhaps a part of him harbored a strong desire to taint and corrupt the Radiant particle. The moment he entertained this guess, the more he wanted to transform the mysterious particle from a pure and radiant resource into a tainted and desecrated material! Ves inwardly shook his head. These were irrational thoughts! He did not understand where those urges came from, but now that his logic reasserted itself, he firmly locked away those crazy and extreme plans. It was best to focus his thinking on healthier subjects. As the banquet finally came to an end, Ves impatiently waited until he and his group boarded the armored shuttle and made the journey back to Diandi Base. Ves still held the protective cylinder. "Can I see? Can I see?" Andraste eagerly asked. "No. It is not safe, pumpkin. Destroyer particles are highly threatening, and I am sure that Radiant particles may possess similar dangers and risks. It is better to keep this gift in containment until we have thoroughly understood the potential hazards with working on such an amazing material." "It contains the will of the Light of Sol, right?!" "Probably." Ves replied. "I cannot verify this claim at the moment as the container is so good at isolation. Now that a god pilot has become involved, it is better to maintain our caution and ignore anything of concern." 12:37 "Probably." Ves replied. "I cannot verify this claim at the moment as the container is so good at isolation. Now that a god pilot has become involved, it is better to maintain our caution and ignore anything of concern." All three kids looked completely obsessed with the container. God pilots possessed an amazing reputation in human space. Since Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine all attended school on New Constantinople VIII, they definitely absorbed a bit of hero worship towards the Light of Sol. Every other kid at their age range possessed a universal admiration towards the only Terran god pilot in the dwarf galaxy. Ves still harbored the necessary respect towards the most powerful mech pilots that he knew of, but he had long gotten rid of his hero worship of these entities. He was much more interested in what the Radiant particle could do for him when he attempted to integrate it with a mech. He had no interest in chatting with the Light of Sol with the particle as a medium. It was not always a good idea for people to meet their heroes… or gods. Ves hated the thought of getting coerced by the god pilots into doing their bidding. They had the power to get away with it, and that made him angry like nothing else. Until he gained enough power to hold his ground against these lawless brutes, it was best if he avoided contact with them as much as possible. Hopefully the Light of Sol would be far too busy with defending the Terran Alliance's borders to pay attention to what Ves wanted to do with the Radiant particle. His wife couldn't hold herself back any longer. After she spent a bit of time to settle the children, she finally voiced her thoughts. "Have you thought about how we should use the Radiant particle?" "I have. There are three high-ranking mechs that I think are suitable for integrating this Radiant particle. The most obvious choice is the Amaranto Mark III. We can attempt to integrate it into the Instrument of Vengeance or use it to remake the Instrument of Doom. The firepower of this luminar crystal weapon will be like nothing else we have witnessed from our own creations." Gloriana tentatively nodded. "That is my first choice as well, although you can argue that the Amaranto Mark III already possesses ample enough firepower." "This is why my second choice is the Dark Zephyr Mark III. Even if the attributes do not quite match with each other, I think that Tusa will welcome any chance to make his ace mech move faster." His wife frowned. "The idea is… feasible, but the success rate should not be too high. Attributes matter greatly in this new era. Unless you can devise a form of duality where light and shadow are interconnected with each other, Saint Tusa will likely fight against his own machine." "My third is the Lionheart. This is another machine that depends on light as a source of power. The compatibility between this Radiant particle and the Lionheart may be high. We can make the Lionheart faster, or integrate it in a melee weapon to add powerful striking capabilities to the future ace mech." "The Lionheart is a valid choice." Thank you for reading my work. If you wish to support The Mech Touch, please vote with your golden tickets! Purchase Privilege for The Mech Touch! 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