The Mech Touch

Chapter 7557 Department Dependencies

The Dark Apostle had waited far too long for a chance to let loose.

The grin behind his half-folded helmet could not be contained.

He patiently waited for the elaborate suiting process to complete. The Superdimensional Giant Regalia personally designed and built by Ves covered every part of his body while only impacting his range of motion to a moderate degree.

Though the joints and other areas that required flexibility still constituted weak points, the overlapping layers of high-grade superdimensional armor plating were still virtually impossible to penetrate by conventional attacks.

Even though the Dark Apostle was arguably wearing the toughest and most resilient phase lord raiment in the Red Ocean, he still felt a bit disappointed by its lack of functionality.

Aside from incorporating mundane electronic features such as sensors, auxiliary processors, temperature regulating systems and so on, its value still relied mostly on its material properties.

It was little more than slabs of superdimensional armor hammered into the shape of a giant humanoid.

Compared to all of the amazing mechs and weapons Ves had developed over the years, the Superdimensional Giant Regalia still lacked the spark and brilliance of a truly iconic creation.

Even though only months had passed since Ves had initially created the protective armor for himself and his alter ego, the Dark Apostle did not want to wait for years for a major upgrade like Venerable Joshua or Saint General Ark.

Perhaps Ves could come up with excuses to push back the requests of numerous high-ranking mech pilots, but the Dark Apostle was different.

Even if the personality born from a powerful true body lacked the in-depth understanding of science and technology, he could still access the original's memories.

The Dark Apostle knew quite well how much Ves had improved in the past period.

Furthermore, the Ascended Giant also knew that Ves could still shuffle around his schedule and squeeze more time for his personal projects if necessary.

To the Dark Apostle, nothing was more important than improving their own gear.

In a dwarf galaxy that became increasingly more filled with new and dangerous enemies, the importance of having good protection could never be overstated!

"When will you build me a real raiment, Ves?" The giant impatiently asked. "This suit may be adequate if we are fighting against alien phase lords, but they are no longer the only enemies that we have to be worried about. The mutated voribugs are already bad enough, but at least they don't know any magic. These deathborn are the opposite. The toughest material defenses might not mean anything to their mysterious mind spells."

Blinky, who was currently possessed by Ves' primary consciousness, flew closer and tapped his paw against the surface of the much larger shoulder plate.

"It's not that simple. The best way to qualitatively transform this raiment is to reshape it into a high-level artifact. I can do that somewhat easily enough on a small scale, but we are talking about an extremely tough suit of armor for a 3x scaled phase lord. The technical difficulties are high, but manageable. What is truly challenging is the stuff that cannot be calculated and cannot easily be compensated with high-quality materials. I am still lacking in inspiration at the moment. A good artifact is unique. It is the opposite of a commodity. In order to elevate my raiment into a genuine artifact that is worthy of name and status, I still have to wait for a good opportunity."

The Dark Apostle's expression deflated a little. "Ugh, whatever. Just make sure you get something done within a year. Our lives are at stake. With all of the new bag of tricks our enemies are bringing out, we need to stay on top of the game if we want to survive the Red War."

Ves shared his alter ego's urgency, but there was truly very little he could do. Perhaps the fastest and most convenient way to upgrade his raiment was to seek external assistance, but he deemed that both unnecessary and an unacceptable danger.

He had always insisted on creating his gear and weapons whenever possible. Of course, he was one of the few who had the luxury to pursue this policy. Other people such as mech pilots had no choice but to continue to rely on other producers to meet their needs.

If Ves was like one of them, then he doubted that he would ever think about the hidden dangers of relying on other people's work.

But because he was a producer himself, he constantly thought about substituting other people's work with his own. This tendency had only grown stronger as he became more and more competent at his job.

This was also why he sometimes felt ambivalent about this matter. The greater his capabilities, the more time he needed to invest in affairs that he previously left to others.

It was not always a good idea for him to assume every burden for himself. No one could complete so much work. There was always more to be done.

As Ves continued to mull over his time commitments for the upcoming year, the Dark Apostle strode through the enormous main hallways of the Armitage.

The first and only 'giant carrier' built especially for the Phase Lord Department of the Red Collective was still brand-new. Her bulkheads lacked the warmth and marks of age, but her interior still conveyed a clean and ultra-modern atmosphere for the most part.

The only exceptions were the places where the Ascended Giants spent most of their time.

Though they used to be humans, their metamorphosis into phase lords and the transcendent growth of their true bodies had warped their personalities a lot more severely than their leader.

Even though their inexplicable antagonism towards their former race had mellowed out lately, they still remained alienated from humans.

One of the reasons why that was the case was that they insisted on keeping their true bodies out as much as possible.

It was only due to practicality reasons and so on that they were willing to shrink to somewhat more manageable sizes.

However, any request to fold their true bodies to the maximum possible extent would definitely be met with an angry punch!

At this moment, two squads of Ascended Giants had already gathered in the giant assembly hall.

This was a large space that the giants and their auxiliaries had already decorated in order to 'feel more at home'.

Large banners hung from the ceiling and the sides. Each of them had been fashioned into tribal artworks that symbolized one of the giants or celebrated a common virtue or belief among the giants.

Ves and the Dark Apostle even spotted a few purple or red banners that clearly referred to them. These banners vaguely celebrated their strength, wealth and memorable duels.

That was not the extent the giants had decorated the assembly hall. They had also taken the skulls, bones and entire pieces of debris from the battlefield before hanging them on the bulkheads or placing them on top of their own separate altars!

How savage.

Though Ves mildly disapproved of this primitive behavior, the Dark Apostle became filled with pride at this display!

To the giant, there was nothing to be ashamed about at all of this pageantry.

Besides, plenty of members of the human race also maintained the habit of collecting and showing off their war trophies. The giants simply did not bother to feel ashamed for engaging in crude or gauche behavior.

"Polemarchos!" The leading giant noticed her leader's arrival and raised her iconic axe in salute!

"POLEMARCHOS!" The remaining thirty giants echoed with great enthusiasm!

The Dark Apostle looked satisfied with the greeting. The giants may have spent weeks cooped up inside this giant carrier, but they had yet to lose faith in his leadership.

Ves and the other leaders had not treated them fairly enough. Other units had already enjoyed a taste of combat since the start of the Nemesis Campaign, but the poor giants had yet to receive the same chance due to various reasons.

"Giants." The Dark Apostle calmly and confidently addressed his subordinates. "I know what you are feeling. Time and time again, you have been brought to the battlefield, only to be forced to witness the humans rely on their puny mechs and their clumsy warships to beat their enemies. That isn't working for them anymore. The Red Cabal and the newly arrived deathborn have teamed up this time. Now, their precious 'Saint Commander' has come to beg for us to show our strength. We are wanted this time, because you know what? They cannot win without relying on our enormous muscles and blades! If we want to prove that we are indispensable in battle, then let us show these humans what they have missed out on all this time! For the Ascended Giants!"

"FOR THE ASCENDED GIANTS!"

With 31 Ascended Giants standing at the ready, the entire assembly radiated a sense of pride and menace all at once.

All of them were equipped with mid-grade superdimensional raiments and armaments at 2.5x scale.

This made them considerably larger than the members of the Faceless Giant Phalanx, whose scale was still limited to 1.5x with the exception of their strategos.

None of the Faceless Giants were stationed aboard the Armitage this time, which meant their group did not have to worry about getting dragged down by their lesser warriors.

Size made a huge difference when it came to phase lords. Even if their true bodies were larger, the need to shrink them down by folding lots of organic matter into different dimensions inevitably constrained their ability to bring all of that hidden strength to bear.

If the Dark Apostle had his wish, he would have preferred for all of the giants in front of him to reach a scale of 3.0x, which happened to match his current size.

Unfortunately, the supply of superdimensional matter remained limited. Even the mid-grade stuff had endless demand.

Unless the giants were willing to make do with vastly inferior materials, it was better to stick to their current scale and tough it out if they ever clashed against larger and more imposing adversaries.

Once the Dark Apostle was done with his pre-battle speech, he continued to stand and wait for deployment while chatting with the Fiery Axe.

"Are you happy with your weapon?" The polemarchos asked as he glanced down at the flaming axe.

Fasia Meledor briefly grimaced. "It is a fine superdimensional weapon, make no mistake. It is just… a very close copy of my original weapon that I used to love in my former life. Its sharpness is unreal, and its mass and density are considerably different. The tech that goes into producing the flames is also different. The details do not match anymore."

"Do you want us to reforge your axe?" The Dark Apostle offered on behalf of Ves, much to the latter's chagrin.

"That is not necessary, sir." The female Ascended Giant responded. "You need to be fair. I have not yet earned the privilege of commissioning a personal weapon from you. There are other weaponsmiths in the Red Collective who can take care of needs for the time being. Their craft is not as special as yours, but that does not mean their work is poor. I can make do with their services."

Though both Ves and the Dark Apostle did not entirely approve of this decision, they both had to admit that this was probably the most practical course of action.

Ves could not take care of the needs of every Ascended Giants. Perhaps he was willing to allocate a few weeks to grant a magnificent weapon to an important and trustworthy leader, but he could not do so too often.

The Phase Lord Department truly needed to continue their reliance on the other departments of the RC.

It was not efficient or feasible to try to take care of matters like these in-house. Ves knew the Collective well enough that its specialized departments would always excel at their respective tasks. They complete their work better, faster and cheaper.

This way, the departments also had an incentive to cooperate with each other, thereby preventing the formation of silos that could one day go rogue like what had almost happened to the Phase Lord Department!

If Ves wanted to wash away this mark of shame and rebuild trust between his department and the rest of the RC, then he had to play within the current system and continue to rely on the services of other departments.