The Mech Touch

Chapter 6119  A Supportive Mech

As the Promethea grew hotter both inside and out, the living mech made a critical decision.

She disobeyed her orders.

She disregarded her own principle that she should do whatever it took to protect her battle partner.

She allowed Venerable Isobel Kotin to proceed with her madness even though it looked as if she was about to kill herself!

A normal AI or machine intelligence would have never thought of defying explicit orders as well as long-standing customs and policies.

Mechs were always subordinate to their mech pilots and anyone else in a position of authority over them. The mech industry always treated mechs as tools that had to obey their instructions without fault.

It was unthinkable to many people that mechs could wilfully disobey their instructions and instead make their own decisions, especially when they were in defiance of their human masters!

Mechs that defied this convention were usually regarded as deviant machines that threatened their thriving ecosystem!

Yet in this rare case, the Promethea made use of the power of free will to do the opposite of what the Everchanger and the First Sword had already done.

While the other two expert mechs faithfully monitored their battle partners and acted as failsafes at the critical time, the Promethea rebelled against the logic and caution expressed by the other Larkinsons and chose to go her own way!

As far as the expert rifleman mech was concerned, her pilot deserved a chance to let go and unleash her true might no matter the cost!

The Promethea did not think she had gone crazy. Neither did she believe she was affected by the Emperor Treeʼs nefarious manipulations.

The third order living mech had calmly evaluated every argument and came to a logical conclusion as fast as her processors could calculate.

The third order expert mech did not want her expert pilot to remain weak or possess lingering regrets about her power.

As the mech that had accompanied Isobel throughout her career as an expert pilot, the Promethea had grown up sharing many of the same joys and pains as Isobel.

The expert mech had grown into a machine mirror of Isobel. This was not a strange phenomena as the same could be said for many other third order living mechs, especially those piloted by single individuals for their entire existence.

Of course, third order living mechs did not interact with their mech pilots alone. They also interacted with other Larkinsons and other living machines. This allowed them to expand their horizons and develop their personalities beyond the confines of their pilots.

This resulted in the best of both worlds. The third order living mechs understood their mech pilots better than practically anyone else, but also possessed a more independent and divergent perspective due to their extensive socialization.

The Promethea was currently in a position where she earnestly understood and supported Venerable Isobelʼs ambitions, but also did not want to see her die.

The expert mech most definitely knew what sort of awful arguments and reasons that Isobel came up with in order to justify her crazy decisions.

Yet were they truly crazy?

The Larkinson Clan had a tradition of subverting common sense. The Promethea learned that following the rules did not always yield the best results.

From the expert mechʼs perspective, Venerable Isobel may have crossed a few lines that may be unacceptable to others, but the fact that her willpower became extremely active to the point of loosening her bottleneck indicated that her assumptions were not baseless!

Exposing herself to her own flames may be the crucial push she needed to break through at this junction!

This was a very precious opportunity for Venerable Isobel at this junction. Her foundation was not the best, and her Promethea was severely underpowered and out of date by the contemporary standards of the Larkinson Clan.

If Venerable Isobel wanted to gain a decent chance of triggering her second apotheosis, then conventional wisdom stated that she must temper herself for at least a few more years while waiting for her expert mech to receive her long-awaited upgrade.

Yet how long would that take?

The Promethea was very clear that she would not get her turn until the Amaranto, the Riot, the First Sword, the Bastion, Everchanger and the Minerva all received their turns first!

Given that Ves Larkinson and Gloriana Wodin-Larkinson were only able to tackle a limited quantity of high-end mech projects at a time, it would take at least 3 years before the Promethea received her turn.

This was too long!

The early years of the Age of Dawn were extremely crucial. A lot of galaxy-changing events took place immediately after the Great severing, and the Promethea did not think that the pace would slow down in the immediate future.

If the Promethea not only wanted to survive but thrive during the coming period of turmoil, she needed to excel at burning down lots and lots of powerful alien assets.

Only by making her flames as strong and effective as possible would the living mech be able to fulfill the purpose of her existence in the best possible fashion!

As a living mech, the Promethea differed from many other products in that she was able to develop her own wants and needs.

Right now, her desires were still closely aligned with the desires of her expert pilot. The two did not possess any fundamental disagreements.

The Promethea even felt it was okay for Isobel to take a risk.

The expert mech knew her current considerations were wrong. They did not align with the will of Swordmaster Ketis or the Larkinson Clan as a whole.

The Larkinsons wanted more ace pilots, but not by subjecting all of their high-tier expert pilots to insanely dangerous stunts.

The clan could afford to wait and see whether their ace pilot candidates would break through under more organic circumstances.

If prospects such as Venerable Isobel ultimately failed to overcome their bottlenecks and remain stuck as expert pilots for the rest of their lives, then that was not a big loss for the Larkinson Clan.

After all, it already had plenty of high-ranking mech pilots. If only 20 percent of expert pilots broke through, then that was already an incredibly high yield for any organization, which also included the Larkinson Clan!

It was too extravagant to assume that every expert pilot had a guaranteed chance of breaking through to the rank of ace pilot. Even if the changing circumstances lowered the threshold of doing so, the fundamental requirements of a Saint were still not easy to satisfy.

The Promethea feared that Venerable Isobel might not ever come as close to prying loose her bottleneck as today.

The active man-machine connection allowed the living mech to know without a shadow of a doubt that her young battle partner truly found an effective way to breakthrough a lot sooner than she should.

However, there was still a bit of resistance left. There was no way for Isobel to complete her evolution if she kept her flames away from herself.

She needed to let go of all of her restraint and inhibitions even when her very body was at risk of getting carbonized.

This was what tipped the Promethea over. The living mech couldnʼt stand the idea of pulling back her cherished battle partner when she was literally on the verge of breaking through.

The consequences of getting engulfed by flames powerful enough to burn exotic alloys were incredibly severe, but the Promethea had faith in her own expert pilot.

Since the King Killer Flames originated from Venerable Isobel herself, she should posses the ability to resist her own attacks!

However, it was unlikely that Isobel the expert pilot had the willpower necessary to defy the reality where she died of getting burned.

Only Isobel the ace pilot had the power to resist the current flames.

It was exactly because of this life-and-death test that the expert pilot became so stimulated. Any form of restraint at this point completely defeated the purpose of this breakthrough attempt.

In the end, the Promethea chose to believe in her expert pilot. Venerable Isobel Kotin might not be the most high-profile champion of the Larkinson Clan, but she had managed to climb her way up from humble beginnings.

No demigod was able to become an ace pilot candidate by being mediocre.

Sure, the general purpose cultivation elixirs enabled Venerable Isobel to skip a lot of accumulation and hardship, but not everyone was able to grow strong by relying on strange medicines alone.

Venerable Isobelʼs willpower burned with greater fire than ever before.

As the King Killer Flames finally climbed up her own piloting chair, the Promethea continued to hold back and do nothing to stop the deadly fire from coming into contact with her own expert pilot!

For a brief moment, Isobelʼs personal shield generator forcefully resisted the flames.

Yet the fire was not deterred. It engulfed the rest of the piloting chair and literally ensconced the expert pilot in a bubble of terrifying flames!

Smoke already filled the cockpit to the point where visibility had dropped to zero. A huge amount of toxic fumes got released in the cramped environment while the air circulation system desperately worked to siphon the dangerous substances away.

As powerful as the personal shield generator may be, the King Killer Flames were stronger, especially when they were empowered by Isobel and the Prometheaʼs true resonance!

The capacity of the personal shield generator was ultimately limited. The device sputtered and collapsed after a short delay, causing the surrounding flames to quickly engulf the figure sitting on the burning and warping chair!

”Ahhhh!”

The high-quality piloting suit resisted the flames for another moment, but its defensive properties were far inferior to proper hazard suits and combat armor.

The King Killer Flames melted or vaporized the piloting suit in less than a second before burning Isobelʼs flesh entirely!

Skin blackened in an instant. Flesh began to carbonize and shrink as they lost all moisture.

Isobel became blinded as her own flames devoured her own eyes like voracious rats!

She stopped screaming as the flames ruined her voice chords as well!

Her hair burned in their entirety before the flames literally cooked the brains that were only temporary spared from the King Killer Flames.

Her lungs, which already became filled with toxic smoke, were starting to burn up as well!

For all intents and purposes, Venerable Isobel already lost too many biological functions that were necessary to sustain her life!

The Promethea watched this all happened with an increasing sense of distress and alarm.

There was truly no way out for Venerable Isobel anymore!

It was too late for the expert mech to change her mind and douse the flames. For better or worse, the Promethea had to see her decision through and hope that her faith in her own battle partner was not misplaced.

Just as the burnt and almost ruined husk of Venerable Isobelʼs body ceased to writhe in absolute agony, the purple flames somehow ceased to make any further progress.

The exterior of Isobelʼs body had undoubtedly become ruined. Many of her remaining intact internal organs had also suffered massive damage due to excessive heat exposure.

Yet somehow, the deterioration of Isobelʼs corporeal form also came paired with the strengthening of her willpower and spirit.

Even as the life-tearing pain of getting burned threatened to overwhelm the expert pilotʼs will and composure, Isobel ruthlessly clamped down on the impulse to surrender to her pain!

She continued to focus on resisting her flames with all of her effort!

Though her efforts alone were not enough to enable her to resist the power of her own fire, the truth was that she was not alone.

Not only was she able to lean onto the battle partner that she was still interfaced with, she also drew strength from her companion spirit, who happened to be completely immune to the King Killer Flames!

”Yaaa! Yaaa!”

The purple flaming cat continued to occupy Isobelʼs head and did her best to protect her principalʼs brain with great effort.

It was due to the immense efforts of Kiroshi that Isobel ultimately managed to last long enough to gain the strength needed to resist her own fire.

Even though her eyeballs had already burned up, two bright points of light started to shine in her empty eye socks.

Her willpower exploded at that point, causing the King Killer Flames to burn hotter and more violently than before!

Yet despite this turn of events, the flames became even less capable of burning Isobelʼs remaining body.

The crazy woman… actually succeeded in mastering her own flames!

At this time, Isobel Kotin had unquestionably surpassed her own limit!

Though her voice chords had already disappeared, the explosion of resonance from the Promethea granted the half-dead pilot the ability to speak by directly shaking the air of her smoke-filled cockpit as well as the surroundings of her expert mech.

”LET THE WILDFIRE SPREAD.”

An explosion of purple flames erupted from the exterior of the Promethea immediately after the pilot made her declaration!

A globe of lethal flames that burned hotter than any flames that had ever graced on this untamed planet appeared in the skies like a second sun!

A purple sun was born on this day!