Chapter 7379: Pulling the Triggers Giving up was not Saint Orfan’s style. Ves may be more hesitant about this decision, but he ultimately chose to set aside his doubts and place his unconditional trust into the female ace pilot. Although Saint Rosa Orfan possessed questionable judgment even in the best of times, this was ultimately a part of her personal struggle. The conflict between Saint Orfan and the Middle Demon that originally inhabited just the Riot Mark III had been ongoing ever since they first bonded with each other. The tainted Blood Pact forged between the two ensured that neither of them could rest unless they resolved their struggle. The Prophet’s Bane was strong and unquestionably hostile. The same strengths that turned the Riot Mark III into a powerful D-mech also threatened to subsume Saint Orfan’s willpower and assimilate her soul! Therefore, Ves would prefer not to witness a direct collision between the two forcibly merged partners. He did not think that Saint Orfan was truly ready for this confrontation. Yet it was not his place to tell an ace pilot how to overcome her own challenges. The path to becoming a god pilot was exceedingly difficult. Only the very best of ace pilots could ever hope to pass the ultimate test. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖 In preparation for this great leap, ace pilots often subjected themselves to many difficulties in the hopes of gaining more practice and cultivating an aura of invincibility. True courage could only emerge from actual struggle! Without suffering enough hardships, it was very difficult for high-ranking mech pilots to persist in their long and arduous journey to godhood. Ves understood Saint Orfan’s rationale, but understanding did not necessarily equate to agreement. The risks were not in proportion to the rewards from his perspective. However, he was a mech designer. His expertise lay in mechs. He may claim to understand the people who used them, but he could never fully put himself in the shoes of his clients. Mech designers existed to serve mech pilots. In this context, it meant giving Saint Orfan the benefit of the doubt. Unless her judgment had clearly become impaired, she alone retained the right to choose how far she was willing to push herself in order to fulfill her goals. Ves still felt uncomfortable about putting all of his trust in a clearly unstable ace pilot, but he also had faith in her ability to succeed strangely enough. He could not properly explain why he felt this way. This was dangerous because feelings alone could not determine success or failure. He decided to make a leap of faith anyway. In any case, high-ranking mech pilots never played by the rules. "Get ready." Ves said as he briefly concentrated in order to descend on his nearest masterwork mech. Blinky’s form winked out as he got used as a medium to conduct the remote avatar channeling technique! As soon as a portion of Ves’ consciousness landed inside the Riot Mark III, he immediately experienced a great deal of pressure and hostility from his own creation! It was one thing to extend his consciousness into a friendly and benign masterwork mech, it was another thing to do it onto a powerful D-mech! Fortunately, Saint Orfan still maintained a decent amount of control over her machine. Her extraordinary willpower immediately pushed the Middle Demon’s hostile influence away. That felt better. While Ves was able to endure the current circumstances, he felt anything but comfortable at the moment. The conversion of the Riot Mark III into a D-mech profoundly corrupted its spiritual foundation. Almost every aspect had become tainted by a demonic touch. This included the extraordinary seed that he had subconsciously placed into the Riot Mark III upon upgrading the mech into a masterwork! Ves only theorized about the consequences, but now that he came into direct spiritual contact with his latest work, he found out that he severely underestimated the consequences! Strange laughter and a surging feeling of malice welled in his heart. The only person that knew him best happened to be himself! The consequence of all of this was that Ves became tormented by indescribable interactions. The Riot Mark III did not feel like a welcome home to him. Instead, he felt as if he had plunged himself in a pit filled with thousands of alien worms! Even if these worms possessed very little lethality, the feeling of having them crawl all over his body was highly disconcerting! Ves wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. He could not last for long in here without losing his sanity or getting corrupted by his own work. Unlike Saint Orfan, Ves did not possess any extraordinary willpower that he could use to fend off this hostile influence! He did not dare to delay any further. Blinky’s intangible form quickly moved to various internal sections of the Riot Mark III and made very precise and specific modifications to the internal structure. Each of these actions disabled another physical lock that prevented the Chaos Trigger from activating. Ves had to expend a lot of effort on this process. He had to expedite it as much as possible, which was difficult when the Riot Mark III was not only mutating in bizarre ways, but actively tried to corrupt him or eject him from his own work! There were numerous times where the normal steps no longer applied because the internal structure of the Riot Mark III had become warped due to odd mutations. Its nature as an archemech made it even more difficult for Ves to puzzle out improvised solutions. He had to rely on multiple disciplines to perform many different calculations in his mind. If he botched his solution, he risked more than a delay. He might cause the mutating Riot Mark III to malfunction or behave in an unpredictable manner! Fortunately, his familiarity with the Riot Mark III remained high enough that he was able to successfully disable the hardware locks without causing anything to explode. "Done! The hardware parts will no longer pose a hindrance." "Can I finally pull the trigger?" "Yes, but I will have to pull a second trigger at the same time." Blinky’s purple feline form reappeared inside the cockpit of the Riot Mark III. It had changed considerably due to the accidents that occurred during Rosa Orfan’s botched breakthrough. While nobody knew for certain whether the ace pilot’s remaining human body held any importance, the Larkinsons had converted the cockpit seat into a heavily shielded and padded preservation capsule. Many high-tech integrated modules tried their best to preserve the life and vitality of the human body parts that hadn’t been assimilated by the structure of the mech. As Blinky flew towards the side, he activated a few secret switches. A hidden control panel soon emerged that was specifically designed to be manipulated by his feline paws. The Star Cat awkwardly inputted multiple codes before grasping the solid handle. He got ready to pull the trigger. Saint Orfan meanwhile prepared to pull the trigger on a different device. While she could no longer reach out with her human arm, the cockpit sat at the heart of her Saint Kingdom. She only had to divert a small proportion of her willpower to exert a precise amount of force. "I am starting the countdown. This is your last chance. Are you sure you want to proceed?" "Start the countdown already." Her answer was clear. "Three, two, one, pull!" Both of them pulled the trigger at the same time! As soon as they completed this synchronized action, a moment of silence ensued. Then, the Riot Mark III’s Saint Kingdom became more volatile. "You need to leave." Saint Orfan warned Ves as her willpower suddenly experienced a lot more strain than usual. "I will need to devote all of my attention to myself." Ves knew the dangers as well as her. "Understood. Good luck, Rosa. Stay strong and stay true to your heart. Do not lose yourself in the power that is about to explode from your machine." He did not dare to stay any longer. Ves quickly ended his remote channeling technique, causing Blinky to disappear from the Riot Mark III and return to the Dark Apostle’s side. As soon as the Star Cat reappeared in his original position, Ves immediately directed his attention towards the distant ace mech. The Riot Mark III had been falling behind in the past minute. The Sound of Revolution had advanced a significant distance due to experiencing less hindrances. The only reason why the enemy ace mech had not advanced even further was because the warships of the major powers had finally launched their missile salvos! Dozens and hundreds of them launched in total synchronization. They fanned out before angling to strike at the ace mech from many different directions at the same time! As soon as these missiles launched into space, the Voice of Liberty finally experienced a more serious threat from the rest of the escort fleet. The senior ace mech responded in two different ways. First, hidden gun ports opened up across the mech frame. The Sound of Revolution’s characteristic Guitar-Battle-Axe served as its iconic weapon, but that did not mean that it became harmless once it had lost this armament. The RA ace mech integrated multiple highly compact and sophisticated energy weapons, each of which was capable of wiping out cannon fodder and intercepting a large variety of enemy ordnance. The Sound of Revolution currently utilized its energy weapon hardpoints to launch rapid volleys of low-powered energy beams and plasma bolts. Each of these attacks precisely struck an incoming missile and put it out of commission! With the amplification of true resonance, the integrated guns only had to attack at their lightest settings to completely eliminate the missiles, many of which had been designed to shrug off weak point defense fire! While the ace mech single-handedly intercepted dozens of missiles, it was not enough. The escort fleet was too big and many of its vessels contained multiple missile launcher platforms! As such, the Sound of Revolution had to rely on an additional measure to prevent itself from getting blasted by repeated explosions. Although the missiles lacked resonance amplification, their warheads were highly potent and were easily capable of inflicting significant localized damage! Just the act of sapping their strength and potency with the ace mech’s Saint Kingdom demanded a significant expenditure of energy. This was why Voice of Liberty decided to change his song and strum his mech-grade guitar weapon in a different manner. The Sound of Revolution soon began to project invisible but very much dangerous energy waves in multiple directions. Each time they passed through a cluster of incoming missiles, the ordnance in flight wobbled and malfunctioned to various degrees! Some even exploded outright! Many more missiles proceeded to stumble and fail to complete their short journeys. In the end, only less than a dozen missiles had crossed the entire distance and exploded close to their target! The Sound of Revolution’s Saint Kingdom had already assumed a more defensive posture. It had been responsible for weakening the missiles that slipped through to the highest possible degree. Even then, the powerful explosions strained the enemy ace mech’s exterior plating! Subsequent missile salvos quickly emptied the inventory of high-yield missiles among the various warships, but their officers could not care less. This was exactly the time where they needed to expend their most potent and flexible ordnance! As long as they could overcome this ambush, the remaining route leading to the Yernstall Central Star Node should be devoid of any further threats. Therefore, many crew members yearned to defeat the enemy ace pilot! "Too many missiles are being intercepted! The few that managed to get through have failed to crack the Sound of Revolution’s outer-most armor layer. We need to concentrate on our attacks!" Though the escort fleet was sluggish to respond to changes, the crews of the various starships and warships were both professionals and elite material. They studied the results, calculated a lot of numbers and revised their firing solutions just so they could slow down the Sound of Revolution even further!