Chapter 7376: Cat and Tongue The tension between the two sides had grown sharp enough to cut through steel. The opposing ace pilot’s Saint Kingdom grew increasingly more energetic and lethal. The guitar notes sounded increasingly more frazzled. This did not bode well for the Voice of Liberty’s attitude. Ves’ mood sank. He failed to defuse the situation. The more he spoke, the more he antagonized the saint with a chip on his shoulder. The Voice of Liberty grew less and less restrained. His ace mech adopted a more prepared posture. Its specially designed fingers already looked like they were about to strum his unholy combination between a guitar and a double-sided axe. Saint Rosa Orfan got ready for action as well. Her Saint Kingdom gained a darker undertone. Ves keenly caught this shift. He grew concerned about the Larkinson ace pilot. Though she kept her demonic side firmly suppressed, her control might slip at any second. She was already thinking about whether it was necessary to borrow the dark power of the Prophet’s Bane in order to gain an edge in the coming clash. It took a lot of courage for her to make the conscious decision to play with fire once again. She had almost gotten burned last time, but before she came under attack from her own D-mech, the machine managed to perform well above normal parameters. The fact that Saint Orfan thought it was necessary to resort to this dangerous measure right away already indicated how poorly the ensuing battle might unfold! Ves still believed that there was a chance to defuse this incredibly tense situation. He had an obligation to prevent a tragedy from occurring. Unfortunately, Ves found it difficult to come up with an argument that would land better than his last ones. If he was still in control over his true body, then he would have gulped by this time. "Do you have any bright ideas?" He whispered to his other self. The Dark Apostle responded with a despairing chuckle. "It is truly wonderful to see you getting stumped by a saint with an attitude. What is the matter? Cat got your tongue? Whatever you are thinking about, stop it. You cannot stop the inevitable. The enemy ace pilot did not come here to get persuaded. He came here for a fight, possibly the last one of his life. From the moment he appeared, he had already cast aside his status, his relationships and more. Only his mission remains. He will do whatever he can to preserve what he thinks is more important than his own life. We should get ready to take action and coordinate with our combined forces." Well, that was helpful. Not. The deployed mechs and warships had already begun to spread out. Every soldier was familiar with the playbook on confronting powerful champions. Concentrating forces was the worst possible approach to fighting a powerful ace mech. Just the risk of getting enveloped in the enemy’s Saint Kingdom was unacceptable! In order to make it more cumbersome for the enemy ace pilot to eliminate the supporting units, it was best to split the latter up and spread them around as far as possible. Of course, the dispersal came at a cost. It became harder for them to coordinate their actions and cover each other. The growing distances also reduced the accuracy of their guns. It was already difficult enough to land a hit on a fast-moving ace mech. Trying to accomplish this when the target in question was far away became exponentially harder! However, they had no choice. The combat assets could only play a useful role so long as they remained intact. They could not afford to get eliminated all at once or in quick succession, so dispersing their coordinates was the only effective solution. As the various mechs and warships all transmitted their readiness to open fire on a powerful machine that should have been fighting by their side, Ves knew that time had pretty much run out at this point. "I have one more question." Ves asked the crusading ace pilot . "Do you believe in your cause to the point where you are willing to have human blood on your hands?" This was both a request and trap all at once. If Saint Conrad Morgenstern admitted that he was willing to kill the people in his way, then he would lose a lot of his moral high ground. It was one thing to disobey orders. It was another thing to slaughter honorable and upright human soldiers! The sounds from the Sound of Revolution briefly grew discordant. The ace mech’s turbulent Saint Kingdom betrayed its pilot’s discomfort at this line of questioning. The Voice of Liberty quickly regained his composure. "I... do not take up arms just to murder the regular men and women who have dedicated themselves to honorable martial pursuits. They are not my enemy. That does not mean I will refrain from taking action against the machines they have weaponized against myself. The battlefield is never safe. I cannot issue any guarantees, but I can promise you that I will do my best to disable the obstacles in my path without shedding any blood." That was good enough. Ves could not expect for more. Before he could say anything else, the Sound of Revolution finally began to take serious action. "ENOUGH! Let me test your resolve! Listen to my song of liberation! Unshackle yourselves from your mental boundaries and lose your fear of your superiors! Think for yourself, and decide whether it is right for you to contribute to the development of a new and heinous branch of technology!" The opposing ace mech began to play his gigantic weapon-guitar for real this time. Ves and the others could not properly describe the tunes that the Sound of Revolution was passing on with the help of its special long-ranged energy field. There was a big difference between the music that the Voice of Liberty generated on a passive basis, and the music that he generated by playing his instrument! The notes did not become louder, but they gained a transcendent character that caused them to influence the minds of every listener in a more effective manner! Thousands of people grew frantic and neurotic. Their hearts pumped faster while their imagination became filled with fears and paranoia. It was as if the music was literally driving up their fears and anxiety! The effect of the Sound of Revolution’s impromptu concert was far greater than the glows that Ves had dabbled in the past! "Rainbows! Rainbows! Rainbows!" "There are too many colors! I am growing sick!" "Block the stimulation! Remind yourself that none of this is real!" The more the Sound of Revolution played his tune, the stronger and more persistent his music became! Nothing worked to block the sounds. Plugging their ears was absolutely useless as the opposing ace mech somehow transmitted its music directly into their minds and spirits! As the seconds passed, more and more people stationed inside the cockpit of a mech or the bridge of a medium-sized warship started to act out in various different ways. Some started to scream and hold their heads in pain! Others lost their perspective on reality and started to jump around like rabbits. The most dangerous cases were the ones that had gone crazy and started to mash the buttons of their instruments or control panels in a random fashion! It was a good thing that every ship was on full alert. As soon as any crew member showed any indication of committing potential harm to oneself or others, the internal monitoring system immediately flagged the anomalous behavior and activated precise restraint measures! While it was easy to knock them out, the problem was that more and more people started to reach their limits and behave completely irrationally! Ves witnessed all of this happening from his position in space. Though he was not able to observe what was happening inside every vessel, his senses were still sharp enough to notice the spread of anarchy. An urgent transmission reached the Dark Apostle. "The escort fleet will not be able to provide adequate support as long as the Voice of Liberty keeps up its mass interference effort!" Jovy urgently stated. "We are working on numerous countermeasures, but it will take time that we do not have. Please command Saint Orfan to entangle the enemy ace mech. As long as your Riot Mark III can pressure the Sound of Revolution into a direct fight, then that would be best." The plan was clear. The Riot needed to press the enemy machine so hard that the latter would have no opportunity to strum his giant guitar! "Saint Orfan." "I understand. I will do my best, but I urgently need support." The Larkinson ace pilot mustered up her courage and commanded her bonded ace mech to charge forward! Now that Saint Orfan had made the first aggressive move, she became a lot more focused than before. She had briefly skimmed through the report that detailed the enemy ace mech’s design and potential weaknesses. Though the reality might differ from the months-old documents, Saint Orfan still believed he could get the enemy ace pilot to shut up by striking the right places. As her Riot Mark III rapidly closed the distance, her Saint Kingdom started to get enveloped in destructive energies. She was preparing to channel all of the destruction energy that she could spare into one of the frontal weak points! Just as the blazing Riot was on the verge of thrusting its tier 3 Destroyer spear into a specific point on the waist of the opposing machine, the Sound of Revolution abruptly produced a sharp tone from his guitar! This surprising move not only boosted the enemy ace mech to the side, but also released an invisible shockwave that passed through Saint Orfan’s domain field and sapped a substantial amount of momentum from her Riot! All of this caused a brief delay that the Voice of Liberty took advantage of by moving his machine out of the way. By the time the Riot Mark III was supposed to collide against its target, its Destroyer spear hit nothing but vacuum as the Sound of Revolution had already jerked over a hundred meters away! "Damn." Saint Orfan cursed, but her machine already began to turn around to make a second attempt! The Riot Mark III charged towards the Sound of Revolution yet again, but before they made contact with each other, the latter managed to move out of the way yet again! This wasn’t working! The enemy senior ace mech might be a little outdated, but it was obviously built to very high standards! Combined with its much more potent true resonance, it clearly held the advantage in mobility. This was an extremely disadvantageous situation for Saint Orfan! A small but absolute disadvantage in mobility meant that the more powerful ace mech essentially held all of the initiative. Without a strong helper, there was little that the Riot Mark III could do to hinder the Sound of Revolution or force it into a close confrontation! Multiple times, the Riot Mark III tried to close the distance, only to fail as the Sound of Revolution deftly evaded the incoming attacks. All the while, the Voice of Liberty never ceased his musical performance. His ace mech did not move or evade in random directions. With every second that passed, his ace mech always moved a little closer to some of the elements of the escort fleet. As the Voice of Liberty’s willpower somehow managed to touch the spiritualities of his enemies, the various vessels began to experience numerous problems. They responded slower to commands. Their gun batteries fired slower and their hit rates sunk even lower. This was psychological warfare on an extraordinary level! As long as the Voice of Liberty was able to keep this up, he probably wouldn’t need more than 15 minutes to neutralize the bulk of the escort fleet!