The Mech Touch

Chapter 5679 Absense of Control

5679 Absense of Control

As a god pilot, Irene possessed a much greater understanding and insight in the nature of power and energy.

The main reason why Yuri and his Ultimatum grew stronger at an uncontrollable rate was because of her. The power of a True God was too much for any mortal enemy.

Even if Emma had put a lot of effort into passing on as little as possible, the fact of the matter was that the seed of power from a True God was still far too great in terms of quality!

Emmaʼs life level was so much higher than that of a standard mech pilot that they shouldnʼt even be mentioned in the same sentence!

Imparting her power to a mortal mech pilot introduced the latter to a whole new level of power!

The resulting contact should have been enough to elevate Yuri to the rank of expert pilot!

That was Ireneʼs original intention.

Unfortunately, she failed to take other variables into account. The living mech and the E energy floating in the immediate environment not only got dragged into Yuriʼs life-changing ordeal, but also began to produce all kinds of uncontrolled changes to the runaway transformation process!

The fact that Yuri and his Ultimatum spontaneously completed the first, second and third phase of the legendary Mech Body Merger Process was a miracle!

Unfortunately for everyone involved, not every miracle produced a happy ending.

As a successful god pilot, Irene had personal experience in completing the Mech Body Merger Process.

Though her journey was different from every other god pilot due to the addition of her companion spirit, she still comprehended the road of no return to a degree that could not be matched by those who could merely theorize about this process.

This was why she immediately determined that the life of the mech pilot was in great danger at the moment!

The Mech Body Merger Process was no joke. It killed at least 99 percent of the peak ace pilots that had attempted to bridge the gap. Anyone who completed all four steps without dying along the way was an exception rather than the rule.

It was already difficult for the very best ace pilots to survive this journey.

A mere mortal should have died before it ever came to this point!

Yet due to all kinds of coincidental factors, Yuri did not die, but instead continually grew in strength without any restraint or direction!

This was not supposed to happen!

Under ordinary circumstances, there were two powerful factors that controlled the evolution of mech pilots and prevented them from botching the process.

First, the Kingdom of Mechs, or the local equivalent known as the Red Kingdom, silently exerted its formidable power to regulate the transformation from mortal to demigod.

Second, the strong willpower of a worthy mech pilot helped to keep the energies in line and preserve the individualʼs original identity.

The greater the power, the greater the need for control!

Any powerful cultivator needed to develop a progressively stronger will in order to maintain control over an expanding pool of power.

This became especially essential for high-ranking mech pilots due to the basis of their power!

Without will, there was no control!

Right now, Yuri and his Ultimatum had a lot of power, but lacked the willpower to control it all! They absorbed way too much energy but had yet to put any time and effort into bringing it to heel.

This allowed the mixed energies to freely exert their influence over the subjects, which clearly produced disastrous consequences.

The physical mutation of the Ultimatum was a clear indication that the random and scattered impulses contained within the E energies were exerting their influence over the living mech!

In one instance, the Ultimatum spontaneously spawned several human eyeballs across its enormous hexapod frame.

In the next moment, one of the heavy artillery cannons of the Ultimatum transformed into a warped and non-functional version of a warship laser cannon battery!

Such transformations started out small, but increased in magnitude as Yuri and the Ultimatum continued to absorb more E energies!

The more powerful they became, the more the heavy artillery mech became unrecognizable from its original design!

The mutating mech spawned additional alien legs, only for them to wither and die a few seconds later.

The Ultimatumʼs Onyx Cannon began to transform from metal into a bone-like substance that began to spawn all kinds of sharp and random spikes that served no clear purpose!

Explosive shells began to melt and mutate into entirely different objects. Some turned into organs whose functions were a mystery. Others turned into munitions that had become vastly more powerful and destructive than before!

It was incredibly fortunate that none of these explosive shells had exploded this far, but nobody could guarantee that the mech would stay in one piece at the end!

In fact, the Ultimatum or rather the fused amalgamation of a mech pilot and a living mech was finally shown signs of completing its wild transformation.

Everything had a limit. The mutated Ultimatum had reached the current limit of its heightened ceiling. It was not possible for it to expand its power any further unless it had stabilized its current condition.

Not that this was a priority at the moment.

Irene was not worried about Yuriʼs future.

She was still wondering whether he was still alive and cognizant after what had happened!

It was not just Irene that was concerned at what had happened.

Commander Pellicky had been forced to pay attention to her subordinate once again when his Ultimatum not only sucked in a lot of E energy, but also transformed into a half-organic abomination that only shared a vague resemblance to the original heavy artillery mech!

Gone were the clean lines. Gone were the functional lines. The overall shape of the heavy artillery mech had become a lot messier than before!

It had become considerably thicker and heavier than before. It looked a lot more bloated than before due to the random addition of mass at many different points along the frame.

Tumorous growths along with random bits of metal extended from the heavy artillery mech without any rhyme or reason.

The mech had lost a few legs, but gained others in return. It ended up with a total of five legs, each of which consisted of a different mix of bone, flesh and metal.

Their shapes varied widely from each other, but they still provided stable footing for the mech.

The armaments had all undergone a lot of changes as well.

The Onyx Cannon looked a lot more menacing than before. Its size and its caliber had clearly increased. Perhaps Yuri and the Ultimatumʼs subconscious desire to attain greater firepower helped to keep their main weapon in a relatively reasonable state.

Of course, it was still questionable whether it could actually launch any projections.

The four heavy artillery cannons mounted on the back of the beetle-shaped mech had gone through much more extensive changes!

One heavy artillery cannon transformed into a fleshy black tentacle that flopped and contorted as if there werenʼt bones giving it structure. The tip of the tentacle did not contain any opening that was large enough to release an explosive shell, but it still looked dangerous enough to suggest it was able to hurt enemies through different means.

The other cannon transformed into a miniature version of a triple-barreled laser cannon battery. It looked incredibly absurd. Not only was it a lot smaller than the real thing, but the reproduction was also sloppy to the point it looked like a parody rather than a real functional piece of equipment.

The third heavy artillery cannon had lost half of its length and became a lot thicker. It also transformed into a hardy form of gray stone. The weapon had turned into a stone mortar!

The final heavy artillery cannon transformed into a giant black hair follicle.

Yes, a hair follicle!

There was no sign that it retained any functionality that showed that it could still function as a weapon. It had simply turned into a giant hair that looked completely out of place compared to the rest of the mutated machine!

Then again, the Ultimatum had transformed in such a messy way that it was questionable whether mech could still fulfill any of its original functions!

There was only one visible sign that the Ultimatum had assimilated Yuri.

The head of the Ultimatum had vaguely started to resemble the mech pilotʼs screaming head!

Locked in silent agony, the metallic visage conveyed a depth of pain that reached down to the pilotʼs very soul!

”...Yuri? Give me your status! Are you still alive in there? Please confirm your status!”

The transformed monstrosity initially did not respond. It did not even show any sign of life aside from the strange organic bits that somehow turned into viable living growths.

The warped shapes and the inexplicable mutations had caused plenty of distress among the crew and officers who became aware of what had happened.

If this was a normal circumstance, Commander Pellicky would have issued the command to eject the bunker from the hull of the Hooligan Barke!

As it was, the battle against the alien raiding fleet in front and the Grimly Brothers in the rear were much more important!

By this time, the cosmopolitan agents had already turned around and began to assail the four remaining mercenary forces from the rear!

This made it even less likely for the Pellicky Praetorians and the three other mercenary outfits to make it out of this battle alive.

The Preaetorians had already lost over 30 percent of their mechs and half of their combat carriers!

Far too many mercenaries had died due to the fateful decision to take part in this doomed mission!

No matter how hard Andrea Pellicky tried to coordinate her troops, the disparity in numbers and the plunge in morale were too great for her to overcome.

Since this was the case, she might as well pay attention to Yuriʼs condition.

At this time, both dread and hope welled up in her heart.

She recognized that the Ultimatum had become a lot more powerful than before. She had no idea what prompted this unscientific transformation, nor understand how exactly it managed to gain so much mass.

On the other hand, Pellicky feared what sort of monstrosity had appeared inside one of the bunkers of her flagship.

Was there any part of Yuri left alive in this abominable machine? She wasnʼt even sure whether it could still be called a mech!

Seconds passed by while the unholy machine ʼstabilizedʼ its current condition. The energy vortex had become a lot weaker now that it had reached the ceiling of its current growth trajectory.

The mech had become packed with energy. It had acquired a glow of its own that not only erased much of the influence that originally belonged to Vulcan, but also radiated pure destruction that exerted a lot of pressure from the concerned crew members that stopped by in an attempt to check up on the machine.

”Yuri? Please respond! If you are still conscious, please give us a signal! If you do not respond within thirty seconds, we will forcibly eject you and your Ultimatum into space. It wonʼt take long before the native aliens or the human traitors take down our flagship.”

The mention of these enemies triggered a reaction from the partially organic machines. Its fleshy organs pulsed while its mechanical components started to grind against each other.

Suddenly, the ʼeyesʼ of the human-like head started to glow red while the spiked Onyx Cannon spontaneously began to adjust its aim.

The monster machine clearly began to charge its main weapon. At the same time, it began to pull in a lot of destruction E energy, far more than what a normal Ultimatum was able to attract!

”Did you break through somehow, Yuri?!”

Even though Commander Pellicky grew a lot more hopeful at this time, she knew that this could not explain the radical transformations.

The resonance meters displayed no activity at all. Yuri had not gained any measure of extraordinary willpower!

If this was the case, what exactly happened that caused the Ultimatum to be a lot more powerful?

Who, or what had exactly broken through?

As the mercenary commander struggled to find an answer, her mind completely froze when the mutated machine finally reached full charge.

The sensors that monitored the bunker temporarily became blinded as a gigantic force propelled an altered super-heavy gauss round with unsurpassed power!

The force of the weapons discharge was so powerful that it looked as if a beam of pure power had lanced across space!

An instant later, the flagship of the alien raiding fleet suffered such a heavy blow that her forward momentum briefly stuffered!

Multiple impacts occurred in quick succession as her transphasic energy shield and her exterior hull failed to withstand the power of this supercharged attack!

”What?! How could this happen?!”