The Mech Touch

Chapter 7539 Principles of a Divine Kingdom

Everyone genuinely became impressed by Alexa's proposal.

It had clearly been well-thought out. It took advantage of known deathborn vulnerabilities and promised to kill them off entirely, thereby potentially winning half the battle already!

Yet no matter how perfect her proposal may appear, it still possessed its own share of shortcomings.

Gloriana recognized this first. "Wait. Alexa, have you thought about what would happen if the deathborn do not exhibit the desired behavior? These beings may be feral and in poor control of themselves, but that completely changes when they are subjected to the command of a higher-ranking deathborn. Depending on the commanders and leaders present at our next destination, there may be enough leaders present to prevent millions if not billions of deathborn from breaking ranks."

That possibility instantly pulled everyone down from the clouds.

This was a real risk that they could not dismiss so easily!

For her part, Alexa did indeed take this matter into consideration.

"We know too little about our enemies. Whether the deathborn have an abundance of disciplined commanders is not certain. If they do indeed have more than expected, then I still expect my proposal to create a positive difference. At the very least, we are able to cut off the reinforcements of the main enemy force. All other deathborn that cannot be brought under their command will undergo a cannibalistic frenzy, thereby taking them off the board. Even the ones that remain under the thrall of their officers may become less obedient and harder to control as their instincts constantly push against their control."

That did sound reasonable, but nothing was certain due to lack of information.

"There is also another concern." Gloriana continued to maintain her skeptical attitude. "I find it difficult to imagine that the deathborn have never encountered such a situation in the past. Messier 87 is enormous and is bound to be filled with a diverse amount of races. At least some of them must have been clever and inventive enough to deploy similar plans. The fact that the deathborn are still thriving in spite of that suggests that they have long known about this measure and already devised a mature response towards it. What if the deathborn completely rejects the bait without needing to be restrained by their commanders?"

The mood among the four mech designers dropped. Nobody knew for certain whether the scenarios described by Gloriana were accurate, but the fact that the possibilities existed cast a lot of doubt on Alexa's proposal!

The young mech designer did not have a good answer for Gloriana. "I have considered these possibilities. Personally, I do not believe that the deathborn can reject their desires so easily, but there is not much we can do if the deathborn fail to ingest the red seeds at their own accord. I recognize that there is a chance that my plan turns out to be completely ineffective."

"..."

Ves let out a sigh. "Understood. Your proposal can be regarded as a high risk high reward venture. It has the potential to cripple much of the enemy's forces without needing to struggle a lot, but it also has a very real chance of falling flat. Let's consider the remaining proposals first before we evaluate this further."

A brief pause ensued before Gloriana decided to go next.

She took a step forward and projected a very familiar ace command mech.

"As far as I am concerned, the most important and critical asset that we have at our disposal is Saint Commander Casella Ingvar and her Minerva Mark II. In a direct confrontation against a mostly organized alien army that also enjoys a defensive army, individual heroics may not make as much of a difference as superior organization and widespread unit amplification. Different from Ketis' proposal, my own plan is centered around strengthening our greatest force multiplier. In other words, by upgrading a single ace command mech, we can effectively strengthen our entire combat fleet, making everyone stronger and more capable of resisting the deathborn."

The logic behind her argument sounded good, but she had yet to explain the specifics.

"In order to make this transformation possible, I have decided to make use of the benefits of this enlightenment fruit."

Gloriana waved her hand, activating a projection that displayed another enlightenment fruit.

[Principles of a Divine Kingdom]

Price: 400 Ascension Points

Imparts the contents and a competent level of understanding of a lost work that encapsulates the wisdom and experiences of multiple True Gods. Since all of the authors and contributors of this forbidden scripture practice different cultivation methods which they uncharacteristically chose to share with each other, they have been able to devise a deep and extensive collection of best practices on how to construct a strong, orderly and resilient Divine Kingdom.

The Principles of a Divine Kingdom is written with the intent of serving as a universal guide and blueprint on how to construct a domain field. At least some of its lessons can be applied to anything, including cultivators, artifacts, runes and more. In order to retain its universality, it adopts a high-level perspective and leaves the precise implementation to the readers, thereby making it unsuitable to learn by inexperienced and less knowledgeable practitioners.

When utilized to the fullest, the Principles of a Divine Kingdom can make the creation and development of any domain field more structural and ordered. It does not necessarily increase the raw power of a domain, but its knowledge can help to channel its power with greater purpose, thereby reducing unwanted or less desirable effects. The construction of a more orderly domain field also increases clarity, thereby accelerating growth and removing some potential bottlenecks. The knowledge can even be used to correct or repair existing domain fields, but to a limited extent.

Requirements: Concentration must be higher than 4.0. Spirituality must be higher than 10.0.

"Ah. This fruit." Ves said. "Its potential applicability is enormous, but its description is too vague. I have no doubt about its value. If it does what it claims to do, then it is definitely worth 400 Ascension Points. However, my interpretation of this fruit is that its benefits can only be manifested over a very long time. Are you sure it can help Casella in the short term? Don't forget that the decisive battle will start in a couple of days at most. It may even break out sooner due to unforeseen circumstances."

There was hardly time for enlightenment fruits like these to take effect in realspace.

If they had a month or a year's worth of buffer time, then Ves would look a lot more positively towards Gloriana's proposal.

Unfortunately, they were short on this particular luxury!

Gloriana did not look upset, though. She continued to maintain a confident expression.

"You misunderstand, Ves. I intend for you to redeem this enlightenment fruit, but not so that you can consume it on the spot. I have no doubt that you can benefit greatly from the massive infusion of knowledge on the nature and theory behind domain fields, but that will not give us the advantage we need to dominate the upcoming battlefield. I already have a better candidate in mind. It is the Saint Commander who possesses the largest, strongest and most versatile domain in the combined fleet."

"Casella…?"

"Precisely."

Ves… did not expect this choice, but it made a lot of sense now that he thought about it. Rather than letting a mech designer like Ves or Gloriana ingest this enlightenment fruit, it was better to feed it to the individual who could act on the valuable infusion of relevant knowledge a lot faster and better than others!

He was no stranger to handing over enlightenment fruits to his champions. He had done so a few times in the past, though admittedly they did not cost as much as 400 Ascension Points.

The high price tag for this handover deterred him a bit. He did not necessarily want to hand out such an expensive gift to others. He and the other users of the Mech Designer System had worked themselves ragged to accumulate so many Ascension Points. Was it truly necessary to hand over the fruit of their labor to an uninvolved third party?

Then again, Casella was anything but a stranger.

He had already formed a secret understanding with the ace commander. As long as he kept Imon Ingvar in his grasp, he would always be able to count on her loyalty… and obedience.

In this regard, it was more appropriate to regard Casella as a direct retainer of himself rather than an ordinary worker.

This distinction made it much more acceptable to invest in her development.

Gloriana was not wrong to state that Casella and her ace command mech was their most powerful asset and force multiplier.

"There is no need for us to resort to a decapitation strike or E-biological warfare if our overall strength is high enough." His wife continued to build a case for her proposal. "Casella and her Command Field have already proven to be useful enough since we have entered this star system. Strengthening it further by giving her the knowledge to improve and optimize her domain field by herself will benefit everyone aside from other ace pilots, who do not require her protection in the first place. As long as our mech pilots and spacers enjoy the comprehensive protection of a nascent god, they will have enough capital to defeat enemy gods!"

Although Gloriana could not help but insert her own biases and superstition into her proposal, its core arguments remained sound.

Ves actually found it difficult to maintain his fondness for the previous proposals at this time.

They all had their merits, but Gloriana's proposal possessed an attraction that was arguably even stronger.

The Principles of a Divine Kingdom most definitely possessed highly relevant and essential knowledge to every modern human cultivator in the Red Ocean!

Ves did not understand the story behind its creation nor why it had been deemed a forbidden work, but the fact that this lost tome experienced such an exciting journey only made it more tantalizing in his eyes!

He had a feeling that the extensive theories and explanations contained within the enlightenment fruit could potentially improve everyone's growth prospects!

From the traditional qi cultivators of the Red Collective to the high-ranking mech pilots who desperately needed more power, each of them could benefit enormously from learning just a few lessons on how to optimize their progression through the second major cultivation rank!

Aside from that, Ves could even foresee how he could incorporate some of the lessons that he had learned from this incredibly valuable text into his living mechs as well as his many other creations!

Sure, he might not be able to understand and master the knowledge quickly if Casella ended up eating the enlightenment fruit, but he was very willing to invest his time into learning it the old-fashioned way.

He believed that Gloriana and many others would make the same decision!

Ves had already decided at this time that even if he did not end up spending his AP on the Principles of a Divine Kingdom today, he would still try to save up and redeem it the next time it showed up again!

Of course, just because Gloriana painted a bright picture did not mean it was not without its own blemishes.

"Your proposal is good." Alexa stated. "There is one shortcoming that I feel the need to mention. The benefits are not concrete enough. The description does not give us much to work on. All of the advantages that we can visualize at the moment are based on hollow foundations. It is very much possible that we have overestimated Casella's ability to process the new knowledge and quickly devise improvements to the utilization of her Command Field."

Nobody disagreed with the former Terran scion.

Even Gloriana could not refute this argument. "It is… possible that it may take more time for Casella to realize the potential of what she has learned, but I do not think it will come to that. I have utmost confidence in the Saint Commander's competence and intelligence. I also have faith that the Principles of a Divine Kingdom contains enough suggestions that can be acted upon immediately rather than over a span of many years."