The Mech Touch

Chapter 7227: Prophet’s Bane

Ves and Gloriana gathered at the Workshop of Creation.

They had already imported the Riot Mark III and brought the newly upgraded expert mech over at the Demoncasting Forge.

The Riot Mark III already looked as if he fit into this location. The evil and demonic atmosphere of the forge complemented the machine’s chaotic demeanor.

This was the site where the Riot Mark III would transform into a D-mech.

Nobody knew exactly what this meant. Not even Ves who pushed for this in the first place had any way to accurately predict the outcome of this final step.

He could only extrapolate the possible outcomes based on the data and observations gathered from D-arms that he already produced.

Weapons such as the Bitter Scimitar, the Murder Knife as well as the temporary D-arms that the Dark Apostle expended during the leadership challenge provided a lot of helpful clues.

However, Demoncasting a mech-scale weapon was different from doing the same to a complete living mech.

Not even the extensive course in demonology that he acquired from a recent enlightenment fruit had all of the answers.

Demonic Possession Spearmanship mainly taught him how to wield the power of demons in combat.

It did not go into too much detail on how to impart the power of demons into objects.

This meant that Ves could only make vague and unreliable predictions about the outcome.

Though Ves still harbored doubts about his current course, they hadn’t grown severe enough to persuade him to stop his current trajectory.

One way or another, he needed to see this experiment through. He was willing to sacrifice the Riot Mark III and possibly Venerable Rosa Orfan in order to gamble for the ultimate outcome.

Whether the mech would ascend to a higher level or degenerate into a machine of ill repute hinged on the results of the Demoncasting process.

“Here we are, Ves.” Gloriana solemnly said. “I have done my best to set up the Riot Mark III for this transformation. What happens from here on out is your responsibility. If your actions lead to the complete ruination of an expert mech that I have painstakingly tried to improve over the course of several months…”

She would definitely become pissed. No mech designer wanted to let so much time and effort go to waste, least of all Gloriana who considered each of her personal works to be her legacy and the living proof of her design philosophy!

Ves tried to reassure her. “I am ready for this. Compared to my first attempts at Demoncasting, my understanding of the rules and underlying theories has advanced considerably. I was already able to apply much of my gains to the weapons used in the most recent leadership challenge. Those D-arms were quite powerful despite being infused by Minor Demons.”

“This is different, Ves. A Middle Demon is not comparable to a Minor Demon in strength. You also fed your so-called Prophet’s Bane with additional Middle Demons to make it even stronger! The outcome of this attempt will be completely different from the last ones. There is not much equivalency between the two. We need to be ready to respond to the worst possible outcomes.”

“Don’t worry. I think this Demoncasting Forge has excellent protective measures against hostile machines. This place is quite comprehensive. I do not believe that it has neglected the need for safety.”

“You do not know that.” Gthatloriana accused. “We do not know how this facility works. We do not know the meaning of these runes. I will not make the assumption that the Mech Designer System will save us from our own mistakes. If your D-mechs loses control and begins to rampage without restraint, then I better hope you have the means to put down your mistake.”

Ves briefly grimaced. “I do not like to think about it, but I haven’t neglected these issues. I have prepared enough measures. Enough waiting. I am eager to complete the final step. Let’s retrieve the Middle Demon in question.”

They entered a cave that contained the mysterious Demon Prison. This was an upgradeable facility that was safely able to store any demon, even the more powerful ones such as its sole occupant.

The Demon Prison did a good job of restraining and isolating the captive demons, thereby preventing them from spreading their malevolent forces outwards.

The biggest downside was that it only offered 5 cells, which was way too few as far as Ves was concerned. He needed dozens of them to conduct repeat experiments and discover the connection between different demons and their effects on a Demoncasted object.

Unfortunately, he had no time to waste on such experiments. The current project came first.

The Demon Prison also possessed secure channels that led to the Demon Summoning Circle and the Demoncasting Forge. This allowed for the transfer of captive demons without giving them any opportunity to escape and destroy everything in their reach.

“Prophet’s Bane.” Ves whispered the name that he bestowed on this demon.

There was nothing much to say about his appearance. When he carefully broke upon the Doom of Remis gem, he became swept by the strong aura of malaise and disaster around the ancient remnant entity.

Ves immediately began to get assaulted by illusions of vague disasters in the past, from seeing Yernstall getting devoured by the mutated voribugs to the Red Cabal activating a galactic doomsday weapon that tore the Red Ocean in half!

All of these glimpses lasted too short for him to gather too many details, and their accuracy was low.

Who knew how many lies and falsehoods the Middle Demon had sneaked into these visions.

Though weak and in a highly starved state, Ves had stuffed the Middle Demon into the Demon Prison as soon as possible.

The only times he took out the Middle Demon from his cell was when he stuffed him into an improved and much more durable Demon Mixer.

The Prophet’s Bane shared the same space with other Middle Demons, each of which had been produced from scores of Minor Demons and who knew how many regular souls.

By improving the design of the Demon Mixer and constantly tinkering with the ratios, Ves gradually managed to figure out how to produce a relatively weak Middle Demon with less ‘ingredients’.

There should still be a lot of room for improvement. His recently gained understanding in demonology gave him a lot more theory and clues on how to further refine the design of his demonic gu containers.

The next iterations of his Demon Mixers should be a lot more efficient!

In any case, Ves had carefully tried to feed and strengthen the Prophet’s Bane through several rounds of gu cultivation in order to make it stronger.

This had been a risky venture. He risked the loss of this unique demon who possessed a rare aura of doom and misfortune if it ended up losing the brutal competition for survival.

After all, the other Middle Demons were all ruthless figures who had won their own battle royales. They had devoured all of their competitors and successfully advanced to their current ranks, if only barely.

Ves specifically selected them out of others due to possessing traits that may be complementary to the Prophet’s Bane.

His goal was to strengthen the Bane’s core attributes by feeding it with Middle Demons that showed signs of developing special powers related to luck, doom, destruction, misdirection and etc.

It had to be Middle Demons.

Feeding the Prophet’s Bane with Minor Demons was useless as the gap in strength was too big.

Compared to directly feeding the Middle Demons to the Prophet’s Bane, Ves preferred to make it stronger through gu cultivation because the ritualistic process was not only a lot more effective, but would also make the survival more ruthless and battle-hardened.

Unfortunately, Ves could not guarantee whether his chosen pick would win in a free-for-all where it would be surrounded by proven killers.

This was why he rigged the game beforehand.

He made use of Blinky to artificially weaken the Middle Demons that he designated as sacrifices.

After all, there were no rules that stated that gu cultivation had to be completely fair. What went on inside the Demon Mixer after he closed the lid was none of his business, but anything that happened before the start of the sacred feeding frenzy was still under his control!

While it was theoretically possible for one of the weakened underdogs to defy the odds and come out on top, this should be a low-probability event.

Ves thanked his luck when the Demon Mixer did not produce a surprise.

He did not know whether it had snacked on the weakened Middle Demons like a tyrant or fought an arduous struggle of survival after becoming their collective enemy.

All that mattered was that the Prophet’s Bane had become a much stronger and more tempered Middle Demon than before.

It had lost much of its lethargy and displayed a great amount of energy and hostility, which was exactly what Ves wanted to see.

In his opinion, the stronger and more active the Middle Demon, the more dramatic the final result.

Ves did not hesitate to put the Prophet’s Bane into several more rounds of gu cultivation.

He did not have that many suitable Middle Demons to spare, so the Prophet’s Bane was not able to devour too many of its evil brethren.

However, the biggest difference this time was that Ves did not deliberately sabotage the competition. The Prophet’s Bane had to fight them at their full strength, which posed a considerably greater challenge, but also rewarded him a lot more with every fallen enemy.

The end result was the most powerful Middle Demon that Ves had produced to date.

While there was still a long way to go before the Prophet’s Bane could reach the threshold to Greater Demon, it was definitely a lot more powerful and vicious than the Bitter Swordsman!

Gloriana grew more and more unsettled by its appearance.

“I thought these demons are a dark mirror to the spirits that you make. Why does it lack a solid shape?”

“Because the Prophet’s Bane is chaotic by nature.” Ves responded. “Whatever he or she used to be in life, all that is left of the ancient failed prophet is this cloud. I think that parts of its ‘body’ keeps fluctuating from black to gray and all of the tints in between is because of the mutability of future timelines and the inability to make completely accurate predictions. I won’t bore you with my full theories and speculations about it, but you can trust that my targeted measures have strengthened its special attributes.”

“Which you doubtlessly calibrated for an iteration of the Mark III that is distinctly weaker than what we managed to produce this time.” Gloriana pointedly said. “Are you sure you want to proceed with your original plan despite all of the mutations that have occurred? I have told you this before, and I will say it again. I fear for Venerable Orfan’s life and safety. I feel you are in a similar position to General Ark Larkinson when he led a small elite strike force against the Emperor Tree back on Reticula Corein V. You know how that mission ended. Venerable Imon Ingvar lost his life, and the Saint Commander lost her brother.”

Making this comparison was a low blow. Ves knew that she was doing this for his own sake. He could not afford the stigma of becoming a mech designer who killed a mech pilot due to reckless experimentation related to mechs.

Gloriana also wanted to protect Venerable Orfan from losing her life due to overestimating her ability to control the D-mech that Ves was about to make.

A mech designer had an obligation to protect mech pilots from their own mistakes and misjudgements if need be. After all, the former possessed a much more comprehensive understanding of the risk and dangers of different mechs.

Ves found it rather tricky to respond to her arguments this time because she directly appealed to his professionalism.

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