The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5884 Harsh Light

Cutting off the arm of his opponent was the first real damage that Ves managed to inflict on the clone of the God King.

Ves, Blinky and Caramond had all pushed themselves to their limit and maybe even beyond in order to attain this remarkable result.

Of course, the explosion that ensued right afterwards had dealt a powerful blow to the trio.

None of them came out of this incident unscathed.

"<nullb>The detestable aliens never play fair. None of them have proven to be capable of taking their losses with grace."

Caramond suffered such a strong backlash that his ongoing transition had been set back due to all of the damage he endured. Though the exposure and restoration of his injuries would ultimately result in developing a stronger foundation, the problem was that it would take even longer before he attained the full power of a True God!

"Mrow…"

Blinky had been overworking himself during this entire 'duel'. As impressive as it was for him to channel the power of a True God-level entity, his actual cultivation was far weaker than the entity residing in the center of the Spark Reactor!

Working with fire energy was like handling lava barehanded. If not for the assistance provided by Caramond, the huge concentration of volatile energies would have caused Blinky to immolate himself.

As for Ves himself, the latest blow had dealt serious damage to his Spirituality. It had cracked, healed, cracked and healed so many times that he truly felt bone tired at this time.

It became harder for him to maintain his consciousness and keep up his awareness when all of the fire and lightning damage wore out his mind and dulled his edge.

The consequences were serious. As he dug himself out of a broken and shattered sensor array on the side of the hull, Ves realized that the explosion generated by cutting off the arm of the clone had pushed him to his breaking point.

He had already reached his limit just by maintaining his current empowered state. Already, Blinky was unable to channel as much fire energy as before, causing the heavily-

damaged fire energy raiment to collapse and dissipate into the environment.

It was as if Ves had exhausted the durability of his equipment. Armor plating crumbled apart. His wrist and shoulder-

mounted weapon systems melted from his body. The energy weapon hardpoints that comprised of his imitation ARCEUS System lost their shape and disappeared from view.

Ves felt a lot weaker than before despite the fact that the latest round of lightning baptism should have boosted his growth by a hefty margin.

In an ideal reality, Ves would have been able to digest the tribulation energies in an instant and leverage his newfound strength at peak efficiency.

However, he and his partners were all held back by their mortal weaknesses and limitations.

None of them possessed the capacity to recover from their injuries in an instant.

It did not matter that they had access to a seemingly endless supply of fire energy from the Spark Reactor. Having access to lots of energy did not mean that Ves and the rest were qualified to wield it in battle.

They had been trying to fight by swinging the equivalent of oversized clubs throughout this entire bout. That had netted them good results, but there was a limit to everything. Their arms ultimately grew too tired to swing their weapons any further.

Of course, that was not a reason for Ves, Blinky and Caramond to give up. There was too much at stake in this fight.

According to the rules that governed tribulation manifestations, their bodies may be formed out of energy, but they were supposed to mimic the physiques of their organic counterparts as much as possible.

This meant that the loss of a limb should form a crippling injury. Unless a member of the so-called krelion race was able to regenerate physical injuries in an instant, the clone of the Subjugation King should have lost a lot of combat effectiveness!

As Ves steadily maneuvered his giant and half-covered true body out of the wrecked section of the ship, he immediately tried to ascertain the state of his adversary.

The good news was that the arm of the clone remained absent.

The bad news was that the clone still exuded a lot of confidence and arrogance!

It was as if the loss of a vital limb hardly represented any loss in combat effectiveness!

If not for the fact that Ves could sense that the total energy level of his adversary had dropped after losing a limb, he might not be able to believe that he had actually weakened his opponent!

The Subjugation King's glowing three eyes bore down on Ves' ragged form and seemed to express a measure of disappointment.

"<nullb>#$&$&%@."

"<nullb>I HAVE ALREADY WARNED YOU THAT YOUR RELIANCE ON BORROWED ENERGY WILL BE YOUR DOOM. IT IS INTRIGUING TO SEE THAT YOUR PITIFUL RACE OF SOFT-SKINNED WEAKLINGS ARE ABLE TO FIGHT SO WELL, BUT YOU ARE AKIN TO CHILDREN PLAYING WITH FORCES THAT YOU DO NOT COMPREHEND. IF THIS IS THE EXTENT OF YOUR STRUGGLE, THEN I HAVE NO FURTHER INTEREST IN PROLONGING THIS FARCE. SUBMIT TO ME, OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES."

Ves grimaced. Those piercing green eyes seemed to see right through him and his partners. It was not as if they did a good job at hiding their actual states. None of them had developed any techniques that could hide their actual states from the piercing gaze of a superior cultivator.

"We… can still fight. We humans may be inferior to you in many ways, but we are not lacking in courage and conviction! I will fight to the death to give my creations a chance to live!"

At this time, Ves had no energy to spare for wordplay. He could only voice the feelings that he held dear and express his true thoughts.

He had already endured so much suffering to come this far. There was no way he wanted to falter when there was finally a real chance of attaining victory and securing the continued survival of one of his grandest and most ambitious creations to date!

The specter of the Elemental Lord constantly loomed in his mind.

Like a soldier suffering from a case of PTSDS, Ves frequently received flashes in his mind of the moment where the Elemental Lord completely crumbled into ash after it had failed to pass the test that determined the five-element mech's right to exist.

The fear of causing a repeat of that traumatic occurrence and his sense of obligation as a mech designer continued to keep Ves going, if only barely.

"<nullb>The human race… shall never kneel before the alien." Caramond conveyed his indomitable stance. "<nullb>Since the Age of Conquest, our civilization has never surrendered its sovereignty to inhuman tyrants. Every human has the obligation to fight to the death to resist alien encroachment!"

"Mrow!" Blinky concurred despite the fact that he was a cat rather than a human.

The Subjugation King did not look too upset that his adversaries refused to surrender despite their awful state.

"<nullb>#$&@."

"<nullb>YOU DO NOT COMPREHEND THE GAP IN STRENGTH BETWEEN US. IT IS TIME TO TEACH YOU HOW OUTMATCHED YOU ARE. UNDER THE ILLUMINATION OF THE GREAT LIGHTHOUSE, I SHALL NO LONGER HOLD BACK AND UTILIZE MY TRUE STRENGTH TO TEACH YOU WHY I AM A KING OF THE GODS."

The tarnished lightning coursing through the clone's body diminished to an extent.

Instead, his body began to glow increasingly brighter!

Ves had the illusion that he was looking at a deity of the luminar race.

The slightly chromatic brightness emanating from the clone of the God King had turned into a miniature star, one that radiated so much light and power that Ves actually winced as he found it difficult to look directly at his opponent!

The power level of the clone had not changed, but by switching to the light attribute, the clone suddenly radiated a lot more threat than before!

From what Ves managed to gather from the alien tyrant's previous speech, he learned that the krelion race and civilization likely developed a powerful obsession towards light.

This was not a surprise as Messier 87 was one of the brightest and most luminous galaxies on this side of the cosmos. It also harbored many exceptionally bright and powerful light sources, one of which was the gigantic plumes of plasma that continually got ejected from the supermassive black hole in the center!

Whatever the case, it became clear that the Subjugation King had been playing around when he previously wielded the power of lightning.

The alien's mastery over light energy was so much stronger that it felt as if he could melt and irradiate the entire hull of the Dominion of Man if he amplified his radiance any further!

Already, Ves could see that the nearest sections of the broken and torn hull sections of the dreadnought were beginning to weaken and collapse under the tyrannical light.

There was nothing warm, gentle or pure about the light released by the clone of the Subjugation King.

This was the cruel and merciless light of the cosmos that disintegrated anything that failed to endure its brightness!

If the actual God King was here, then the Subjugation King would probably be able to destroy entire planets and star systems just by shining his all-powerful light at full power.

This was the true strength of a krelion God King!

"Ngh…"

Ves struggled to maintain his strength under all of this radiance. The light was so overbearing that simply getting illuminated by it was already beginning to destabilize his true body and fraying his already worn Spirituality even further!

Caramond was able to endure the radiance a bit better, but Blinky found himself unable to channel as much fire energy as before due to the increased pressure.

Their hopes started to dwindle as this continuous attack had already pushed them over the edge.

There was no way they could proceed forward and interrupt the clone's tyrannical attack method under these conditions.

Ves already started to see spots in his eyes due to all of the brightness around him. He struggled to figure out a way to overcome this latest challenge.

"Wait a second."

He had almost forgotten about them, but he still had a few cards left to play!

Ves did not even hesitate when he executed his latest plan.

He first folded his true body back into a different space. This shrunk his gigantic form and dramatically decreased how much of it got exposed to the God King's damaging light.

He then proceeded to summon the singed but functional Flower Parasol out of his System Space and immediately utilized its flower-embroidered canopy to shield him from the light.

"Ahhh!"

It turned out that the Flower Parasol fared exceptionally well under the current circumstances!

It sort of made sense as a parasol was not only designed to block the rain, but also the harsh light of a hot day.

The parasol actually acted like a flower that was eagerly soaking the light generated by a local star. Its capacity to absorb light was quite high. Ves did not have to worry about the artifact drying out in the immediate future.

The reprieve was incredibly helpful, but Ves was not done with his plan of action.

He retrieved another object out of his System Space. The Qi Restoration Potion did not feel particularly strong, but it generated an undeniable sense of attraction now that Ves had been driven to a state of exhaustion.

There was no reason to hesitate. Ves fumbled around before emptying the entire contents through his gullet in a single motion!

He did not have to wait too long to feel the effects of this mysterious potion. A new wellspring of energy began to form in his stomach. It churned and sent out waves of refreshment that quickly encompassed his Spirituality!

His eyes widened as he started to feel his exhaustion receding!

"It's working!"