Chapter 7343: Disappointing Results The battle no longer generated any suspense. Though the Ixith Goliath pulled off a few weird moves, it had ultimately given up once the Riot Mark III showed no signs of relenting or taking risks. Saint Orfan performed unusually steady during this remaining period. In contrast to her contentious performance during the earlier phases of the battle, she displayed rock-solid discipline and control. Her mood and emotions did not impact her decision-making in the slightest, and her quirky D-mech exhibited far fewer glitches and abnormalities than usual. Everyone appreciated her stability. There was no need for her to exert any additional effort to defeat her opponent. By the time a Rubarthan fleet came close, the Ixith Goliath had already been mutilated many times over. So much alien blood had spilled into space that it could drown an entire city. The tier 3 Destroyer spear firmly proved its worth during this engagement. It formed a near-perfect match with Saint Orfan and the Riot Mark III. The only problem was that the ace pilot had only just begun to master the powerful and temperamental weapon. She was unable to harness its power like a seasoned Terran peer. Whenever Saint Orfan attempted to draw more power from the weapon, she couldn’t channel it precisely enough. This meant that a bit of destructive energies had infiltrated the deepest and most central area of the Ixith Goliath’s reduced body. Many vital nerves and organs had become wounded as a result, some of which were more critical than others. It couldn’t be helped. The Ixith Goliath remained defiant throughout the end. Only by disrupting the interface that allowed the Mentalist Crystal to exert unified control over the segmented organic components could the monster be deprived of control. This was essential as the Ixith Goliath showed signs of wanting to end its life at the final minutes of its struggle. There was no way the humans wanted their precious research subject to terminate itself! As such, the warships assigned to put the crippled Goliath into stasis hurried up and arrived half a minute faster than usual just so that they could complete their mission ahead of time. Fortunately for everyone involved, no further complications occurred. The Riot Mark III tenderized the final Goliath so heavily that it could only barely generate a bit of stolen resonance, which Saint Orfan easily suppressed to the point where it became a non-factor. There were other ways to resist a stasis field, but the crippled monster had no chance to employ any of them before it became frozen in time. Once the warships conveyed their successful result and reported that their systems remained stable, everyone let out a sigh in relief. The First Battle of Philaster Crestia formally ended at this point. That did not mean that every voribug had been erased from the battlefield. Millions of bugs had managed to sneak into orbital platforms and starships and continued to wreak havoc inside. A fair number of them also managed to bypass the orbital defense network and sneak onto the surface of Philaster Crestia III! With so many voribugs assaulting the planet at once, leaks could not be prevented. Even if the defenders blocked every direct assault, the nefarious space insects often tried to infect clueless mechs and shuttles with microscopic subspecies that occasionally managed to escape detection due to heavy damage or interference. Once these microscopic voribugs remained undisturbed for a few hours, they could ultimately complete dozens of reproduction cycles where their offspring progressively grew larger and more threatening! Such patterns took place in a thousand different locations at once. This prevented the soldiers from standing down completely. Instead of enjoying a well-deserved rest, they had to rotate into shifts in order to search and root out every lingering voribug infestation that had managed to escape the initial sweeps. The Bluejay Fleet was better off than most other vessels. The visiting ships did not go all-out and fought with restraint, so they endured far fewer direct and indirect attacks than the Rubarthan hulls. The mood among the mechers of the Bluejay Fleet was noticeably more jubilant. They not only helped to defend the Philaster Crestia System, but also contributed to the historic capture of the first Ixith Goliath to appear. Another source of celebration was the successful breakthrough of Major Simon Jankowski. The expert candidate successfully became an expert pilot with the help of multiple artificial factors. Although this was merely a single case, it still provided a small but crucial amount of support to the theory that it was possible to artificially boost the rate of breakthroughs by employing the right methods. No single solution provided a strong enough increase in breakthrough probability, but as long as mech pilots made use of multiple of them at the same time, the results would definitely astonish the mech community! Normally, Ves would have paid a lot more attention to this paradigm shift, but other priorities demanded his attention even more. He had little choice but to temporarily set this matter aside in order to meet his more urgent obligations. Ves did not return to the Tarrasque. Instead, he and the Dark Apostle accompanied the remaining Ascended Giants back to their own mothership. Once they entered the Armitage, a large number of bots and human servants descended upon them to remove their raiments and deal with any issues such as injuries. The good news was that the surviving giants remained in good physical condition. So long as their superdimensional raiments did not suffer any breaches, their true bodies remained healthy for the most part. The bad news was that 2 Ur-Titans completely failed to return alive. Before Saint Orfan woke up and decisively dealt with the Ixith Goliath, the Ascended Giants tried and failed to do the same. The disparity in power and the obvious failures that occurred during their confrontation against a single Level 8 Goliath had thoroughly burst their bubbles. The giants completely broke away from their illusions at this time. Sure, there were special reasons why the Riot Mark III just happened to be able to dominate the Ixith Goliath by itself, but that did not excuse the fact that over two-dozen giants performed so poorly in comparison! Once the giants shed their raiments and put away their weapons, they looked at each other as if they had lost direction. The Divine Harpoon slowly approached his superior. "The men need guidance, but their moods are highly delicate at the moment. It is best if you give them a few words. Keep it short. They need to come to their own conclusions. Just give them a direction and they will do the rest." The polemarchos of the Ascended Giants nodded in understanding. He gently requested the attention of his subordinates. Their expressions revealed a mix of emotions. The more disciplined among them managed to maintain impassive faces, but others betrayed varying degrees of guilt, grief and doubt. The two Ur-Titans that perished today happened to be the close brothers to the rest of the phalanx. They all knew each other and formed bonds of camaraderie with each other. That made the losses a little more difficult to bear. The good news was that none of them looked as if they blamed the Dark Apostle’s leadership for the unfortunate deaths. He wanted this to remain this way. "Today... we have experienced the cruelty of the Red Ocean first-hand. The confidence instilled in us has led us to believe that we are the chosen sons of this dwarf galaxy, but the reality is that we have yet to realize our potential. Do not lose your faith in yourself. We still tower over almost all of the organisms in the new frontier, but that alone is not enough to excel in warfare. I hope that each of you can reflect on our mistakes and learn from them. I can promise you that we will not fight against the mutated voribugs again before we are much better prepared. Dismissed." The giants all took in his words before quietly shuffling back to their assigned abodes. Many of them had grown weary and could use a rest. None of them were in a mood to argue or dispute the decisions made today. Perhaps that might change in the future, but for now, the giants were too damn tired to challenge his leadership. The Dark Apostle turned to the strategos of the Faceless Giant Phalanx. "Please handle the remaining chores for me, will you? Coordinate with the human officers of the Phase Lord Department. I am sure they have prepared a whole laundry list of requests." Though the old and dependable senior officer did not look forward to handling so much administrative work, he knew that it was necessary for at least one commanding giant to take charge at this time. "You can rest assured, sir." With that, the Dark Apostle finally shrank his true body and relinquished control over to Ves. Ves had a lot of work in store. There was no point in letting his phase lord self remain active now that his strength was no longer needed anymore. Ves exchanged a few words with the Divine Harpoon before quickly departing from the massive chamber. He boarded a shuttle that quickly ferried him over the Tarrasque. There, he moved straight towards his private workshop. He quietly sighed in relief when he observed the condition of the Riot Mark III. The D-mech had calmly returned to the flagship of the Bluejay Fleet. After entering the hangar bay, Gloriana immediately ordered the machine to be transferred over to this workshop in order to examine its condition and secure it more thoroughly. Ves had been afraid that Saint Orfan would spiral out of control or suffer from the sequelae of pushing back her inner demon. Fortunately, she and her ace mech continued to remain calm. The Riot Mark III even relinquished its precious tier 3 Destroyer spear. The powerful and extraordinarily destructive weapon had been placed back into its special container. For safety reasons, Gloriana had already ordered the closed container to be transferred to a distant compartment of the heavy cruiser. "How is she doing?" Ves quietly asked. "She appears to be stable, but... I cannot say for certain." Gloriana responded even as she studied the projected data readings. "I have already questioned her for a couple of minutes. She sounds rational. She is clearly controlling her emotions." "That sounds... good. Why do I get the impression that you are worried?" "She is overdoing it, Ves. I am not as perceptive as you on matters such as these, but I know Saint Orfan well enough that she is never the sort of warrior that shows restraint. I fear that she may be overcompensating, leading her to assume a demeanor that is contrary to her actual self." Ves did not look too surprised by this. Not too long ago, Saint Orfan had inadvertently fed her demonic side so much that it threatened to usurp her consciousness and wipe out her original identity completely. After such a harrowing experience, Saint Orfan went from underestimating the Prophet’s Bane to becoming terrified that she may one day slip up and fail to regain control in time! While Ves could understand why Saint Orfan decided to become a lot more cautious than before, Gloriana also had a point. Ace pilots needed to remain true to themselves if they wanted to progress at a fast rate. They also needed to maintain a lot of courage over a long period of time. The timidity shown by Saint Orfan might keep her safe for the time being, but did not favor her growth. Ves believed that Saint Orfan should be aware of these considerations, yet the fact that she favored caution over boldness at this junction was not a good sign. He sighed. "Do you think that I should have a talk with our resident ace pilot?" His wife frowned. "I am not sure. It may be better to give her more time. Do not worry. I will continue to accompany her and monitor her condition. I will inform you as soon as soon as anything significant occurs."