Chapter 7230: Gloriana’s Shame

“This… is awful.” Gloriana said as she grew more and more queasy. “When I designed the Riot Mark III, I never meant for this to happen. Living mechs are not supposed to be punished for the mistakes of their pilots. It is not the Riot’s fault that Venerable Orfan has failed to break through up until this point. If she wants to become an ace pilot so badly, then she should first look into herself before obsessing over her mech.”

Ves let out a sigh. “I get where you are coming from, honey, but I do not think this is a bad development. No matter who wins or loses, the fact that two spirits had to compete against each other in a ritualistic death match will only further imbue our work with chaos and conflict. I can tell that the living mech likes it. A long time ago, I let the mech frame absorb an Unstable Chaos Essence gem. This is the starting point of the Riot Mark III degeneration. Everything that has happened since that point has ultimately led to this situation.”

His wife frowned for a moment. “Are you saying that the Riot was destined to ‘fall’ like an angel being cast down from heaven into hell?”

“Not so dramatic, but yes. That is roughly what I am saying. The Riot Mark II was a fine mech, but he was only chaotic in a half-hearted fashion. I was limited by the available methods and materials that I had access to at the time. Enough years have passed for me to make up for these shortcomings. The Mark III upgrade is finally able to bring my true vision to life. The current iteration of the Riot is finally on the cusp where he can finally embrace his true nature.”

“Or lose everything.”

“Yes.”

The silent but intense struggle for dominance continued. The intruder may be a complete stranger in the Riot Mark III, but he was a Middle Demon who had fought and devoured dozens of his peers through successive gu cultivation rituals.

There was no way the Prophet’s Bane would give up after suffering a single setback!

The Riot Mark III suddenly changed. The mech frame did not develop any weird spikes or exaggerated angles, but Ves could nonetheless sense that one of the machine’s shoulder plates had become subtly wrong.

When he focused his gaze at it, he had the illusion that it was a millimeter short in one moment, and several millimeters too long in the next moment.

The mass, the dimensions, the angles and even the way the light reflected from its surface constantly shifted in a manner that was unnoticeable to most people.

To Ves, it felt as if he was looking at an optical illusion, but he knew that this was not exactly false.

He had a strong feeling that what he was seeing was a manifestation of probability manipulation that directly altered reality!

The phenomenon initially confined itself to the shoulder plate, but it was steadily spreading outwards like a virus.

The chest plating, arm plating and other parts gradually began to exhibit the same phenomenon. The effects remained subtle, but even laymen would instinctively be able sense that something about the Riot Mark III was wrong.

Even his wife could not ignore this subtle but disturbing sight. “Is this… contamination?”

Ves nodded. “I guess so. Not every form of demonic contamination produces wicked spikes and so on. The choice of Demoncasting Molds is a big factor. This one does not seek to empower anything directly related to combat or physical attributes. The mold that I have chosen is solely designed to strengthen a mech’s relation to prophecy. The mold works very differently from the other ones I have used so far. While it is a pity to filter out the properties of the demon that is good at direct offense and such, I kind of like this subtle directional improvement more. It is very focused and it is doing a good job of amplifying the properties that will make the Riot Mark III unique.”

He cared a lot about creating unique mechs. It was hard to create any machine that stood out and became iconic throughout the generations.

There were just too many mech designers out there. Their combined output was massive even if Ves limited his consideration to the mech industry of the Red Ocean. All of the normal ideas had already been tried out, so if he wanted to create a truly unique and unforgettable mech, it could only be done by resorting to radical deviations.

The corruption continued to spread.

The Prophet’s Bane was no idiot. It had fought against so many powerful peers that the living mech did not discourage it in the slightest.

Despite its feral irrational state, the molded demon did not crash directly into its adversary.

Instead, the Prophet’s Bane instinctively understood that it was better to dig in and capture ground step-by-step.

It focused all of its energy into conquering the shoulder plating first. The concentration of power was enough to overcome the living mech’s resistance.

From there, the Prophet’s Bane was able to rely on its initial foothold to expand its territory.

This strategy of gradual assimilation prevented the living mech from making full use of its home ground.

The more territory got eroded, the less powerful the living mech became.

In the end, the outcome of this competition was already set since the moment the defender lost his first piece of territory.

The Prophet’s Bane was inexhaustible. It had put in a huge amount of effort to conquer the first few territories, but after its opponent gradually started to weaken, its advantage continued to snowball.

When more and more of the mech frame began to show the same signs of subtle incongruity, both Ves and Gloriana knew that the takeover was almost over.

Venerable Orfan’s battle partner had put up a valiant fight, but it was ultimately unable to defend itself against a powerful demonic invader that had been strengthened numerous times.

If the Riot Mark III was already an ace mech that had undergone substantial amounts of willpower baptism, then the outcome might have been completely different.

Alas, the Riot Mark III was only the companion of a high-ranking mech pilot of the first major cultivation rank.

In the face of Middle Demon that corresponded to the second major cultivation rank, it was unable to make use of his home ground advantages to prove he was worthy enough to remain alive.

The Riot Mark III began to settle down as the Prophet’s Bane claimed the spoils of his righteous victory.

It began to absorb and assimilate as many pieces of the original living mech as possible.

However, this did not entirely go smoothly. The defeated spirit possessed a notable affinity for chaos.

When the Prophet’s Bane inherited this trait among others, the victor experienced a growing degree of discomfort as numerous opposing attributes began to war against each other!

The Prophet’s Bane had become an existence of opposing attributes and concepts. It was unable to reconcile the new with the old and began to suffer for this reason!

As the Prophet’s Bane suffered the punishment for its gluttonous appetite, Ves and Gloriana continued to monitor the condition of the Riot mark III.

“A living mech got murdered today.” Gloriana flatly said. “The Riot accompanied Venerable Rosa Orfan for multiple years. He had grown alongside his battle partner through multiple important battles. They were both comrades in arms. Even if we did not have a good use for him anymore, he at least deserved a peaceful retirement. Instead, you threw him to a big bad wolf. Are you happy with this, Ves?”

He smiled. “I am. I think you are deliberately overlooking the fact that the Riot consented to this treatment. Like pilot, like mech. The living mech wants to become stronger in order to serve his battle partner better. He has already accepted that if he is not up to par, then he would accept an outcome where his competitor took over the mech frame and became Venerable Orfan’s new battle partner. No matter how this competition would end, the pilot would always gain the better partner. All I can say is that the Riot is truly dedicated to his partner to be willing to disregard his own life and continued existence.”

“…I really cannot understand how you can talk yourself into such a twisted outcome. This is still wrong. You should not have to sacrifice any life, no matter whether it is a human or a living mech, to develop superior mechs. Even if all of these evil methods are effective, we cannot become overreliant on them to the point where we have forgotten how to design mechs that are strong without making use of blood sacrifices or soul devouring.”

His wife made a good point. Ves was making use of ‘unconventional solutions’ to develop mechs that were substantially stronger and more effective than what he could normally produce.

Results were important, but mech designers generally valued the processes more.

After the Prophet’s Bane had become the undeniable victor and spiritual counterpart of the Riot Mark III, the D-mech had reached its final form.

The machine seemed to transform in a subtle but different way than before.

Both Ves and Gloriana immediately recognized it as a masterwork transformation.

The problem was that this was happening on a demonic mech. The subtle distortion effect generated by the Prophet’s Bane blended with the effects of the masterwork transformation, causing many changes that should have improved the overall quality of the expert mech to appear slightly skewed.

It was like looking at a funhouse version of a masterwork transformation. The distortions caused perfections to look flawed, and imperfections to look even more ridiculous.

Ves all found it to be an incredibly novel sight, but his wife had a completely different reaction!

“I think I am going to be sick…”

Gloriana was abhorred by what was happening! The masterwork transformation applied to a mech that embodied the concepts of chaos and misdirection generated the most unusual sight that she had ever seen.

The Riot Mark III was supposed to be the 12th masterwork mech that she had brought into life, but she feared that after witnessing this horrendous sight, she would never be able to bring herself to claim credit for this work!

At this point, she did not even desire the masterwork certificate for this abominable machine. To call it a masterwork was a mockery as the machine’s strengthened chaotic nature tried its best to turn itself back into a flawed state.

Once the masterwork transformation finally came to an end, both of them knew that the Riot Mark III had finally reached its final form.

“It is… amazing.” Ves sighed with genuine appreciation. “I know you don’t share my opinion, but this is a significant advancement of my design philosophy. I have experimented with the concept of designing an adversarial living mech in the past, but those were weak and half-hearted attempts. The Riot Mark III is the first instance where I think I can truly make this concept show its value and succeed. Venerable Orfan will not have a pleasant time when piloting this machine, but so long as her willpower is strong enough, she will gain far more advantages than disadvantages from piloting her reinvented steed.”

The Riot Mark III was the most radical upgrade yet applied to any high-ranking living mech of the Larkinson Clan.

The latest transformations of other fine machines such as the Dark Zephyr Mark III, the Amaranto Mark III, the Minerva Mark II and even the First Sword Mark III could not compare to the gulf between the Riot Mark II and the Mark III.

This had wide implications for other upgrade candidates.

“I hope you are not thinking about turning all of our future high-ranking mechs into D-mechs.” Gloriana said with a slightly pleading tone.

Ves briefly reined in his ecstasy and enthusiasm. “Don’t worry. I haven’t lost my sanity. The product has to fit the user. I know that most mech pilots are not asking for an adversarial living mech. I will strictly reserve this design application for those who lack confidence in themselves and do not have the patience to build up their strength over a longer period of time.”

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