The Mech Touch

Chapter 6622 The Bitter Swordsman

Ves inwardly sighed with relief when Ketis agreed to cooperate on a Demoncasting project.

This time he became determined to do a serious job. He did not want to end up with a product that failed to become a powerful enough weapon and instead became more valued for its beautifying effect.

"I think the first decision we need to make is select which demon we intend to use." He said. "We only have two of them, so we can only create D-arms that fit their strengths and inclinations. We have already seen what happened if there are mismatches between the demon, the Demoncasting Mold and the object, so it would be stupid if we repeated the same mistakes."

Ketis took a look at the two restrained Demon Mixers. Both of them ended up producing two very different demons.

"There is only really one choice unless you manage to trigger the breakthrough of the Bringer of Carnage. We should settle on trying to give the only Middle Demon so far a chance to start a new life as a D-arms. Since he used to be an expert candidate that specialized in piloting duel-wielding swordsman mechs, we should design a sword around him. Maybe we can even design two swords, though I am not sure how it will work if they are split. Will both of them retain their connection to the demon?"

"I don't know, but let's not risk it. I don't want to break this fellow by trying to split him into two objects. Let's stick to a simple job and create a single D-sword. By the way, we need to come up with a name for this demon. You are the swordmaster. Do you have any suggestions?"

The female mech designer examined Demon Mixer 5 and tried her best to get a feel for the Middle Demon's personality and convictions.

She was not as good at this as Ves, but as a swordmaster, she could still glean aspects of the expert candidate's swordsmanship beneath all of the hatred and regrets.

Compared to the Bringer of Carnage, the former expert candidate died with a lot of regrets. He perished when he was young and just starting to become a champion.

He never managed to undergo apotheosis and become a hero of his people.

He never had the fortune of having an expert mech designed just for himself.

He never had the opportunity to take his personalized machine and earn glory on the battlefield.

The expert candidate fought so hard to rise above his peers, only for him to get ambushed and torn to shreds by a ruthless enemy expert mech that did not care about fairness!

Was it the fault of the deceased for leaving himself open to get picked off by a far

superior mech and mech pilot?

The dead expert candidate did not think this was the case!

He only thought that he had died too soon because his incompetent superiors put him in the wrong place at the wrong time!

He also blamed his own bad luck because he failed to break through when he was at his most desperate!

If he was fighting on a good day, then he may actually have broken through and relied on forced resonance to retreat from his encounter with the enemy powerhouse with his life intact!

There were so many different ways this encounter could have produced a better outcome, but ultimately the expert candidate had been set up to fail.

Ketis frowned when she was able to glean all of these recriminations from the Middle Demon.

They were mostly excuses that squarely sought to shift the blame to others. The expert candidate never really reflected on his own mistakes.

The process of demonization had apparently magnified all of his grievances and negative tendencies.

They had become so overwhelmingly strong that they drowned out his honor, his dignity and his duty.

He had become a demon that possessed many of the worst traits of a soldier.

"What a contemptible demon." Ketis couldn't help but sneer. "Let us call him the Bitter Swordsman."

"Very well.

This was not the most evocative name, but it succinctly described the Middle Demon's overall demeanor and personality.

Now that they chose a demon to develop a D-arms around, the two mech designers proceeded to come up with numerous different ideas.

"Saint Dise doesn't need another sword." Ketis insisted. "She already has a good enough one in the form of the Decapitator. Perhaps we can make a demonized sword fey for the First Sword Mark III Project instead. We can have 31 normal fey, and one that is empowered by the Bitter Demon. This will make it more challenging for Dise to control the D-arms, but the additional power will be worth it I think."

"It won't work." Ves shook his head. "The working principles of living fey are similar to Ultimate Modules in that they are both based on the 'companion spirits' of the original mech. What this means is that any fey must contain a subordinate spirit that is split away from the main living mech. If we create a D-arms that is meant to act as a fey, then it will actually turn into an unrelated spur. There will be a lack of coordination between the D-arms and the proper sword fey."

It may still be worthwhile to pursue this idea in the hopes of creating a powerful secondary weapon, but neither Ves nor Ketis believed it was necessary. "Forget about it, then." Ketis said. "The First Sword Mark III Project is already perfect enough as it is. Changing her configuration to accommodate D-arms will only introduce more risks and uncertainties. We should give Saint Dise time to make use of her new ace mech and corresponding arsenal. If she thinks that there are any shortcomings in her weapons loadout, I can make additional weapons later, though they may not necessarily be D-arms. Saint Dise has never been a mech pilot who relies on others to win her

fights."

They began to turn their attention elsewhere.

The D-arms based around the Bitter Demon had to be designed for a specific target in order for them to find a direction to work towards.

Perhaps they could forgo this step and craft a generic D-arms, but that made it a challenge to pair it up with a fitting mech and mech pilot.

It was much better to design the weapon around a specific pilot from the onset.

After considering a number of different candidates, the two eventually narrowed down their selection to three possible recipients.

Ves listed out the most choices. "The Dark Zephyr, the Bastion or the Everchanger are all decent choices. They make use of bladed weapons and they can use an upgrade on this front. Which one do we remove from consideration first?"

"The Dark Zephyr." Ketis said. "For now, Tusa is doing great with the tier 3 Destroyer spear. Also, I doubt that a D-arms possessed by a rather weak Middle Demon can provide much of an upgrade to an ace pilot. Perhaps the Bitter Demon may be able to grow quickly once he is given time to grow, Tusa can't wait that long. It is much better to give these D-arms to a high-tier expert pilot. The resistance generated by the Bitter Demon may even cause the pilot to develop his willpower and become more assertive." "You know what? Why don't we develop a D-sword for Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger?" Ves suggested. "When you initially analyzed Joshua's shortcomings as an expert pilot, you said that all of his scores were low. A good D-sword may be able to help him grow in all three areas. His Heaven score can be pulled up by encouraging Joshua to comprehend the concept of symbiosis by establishing cooperation with a hostile and unwilling demon. His Earth score can be raised by equipping his Everchanger with a materially and qualitatively superior weapon than the Heartsword. His Man score can be bolstered by making him hold his ground against the Bitter Demon. This will be a D-arms that can give Joshua the challenge that he needs to overcome the weaknesses and insecurities that hold him back all of this time."

Ves spontaneously managed to come up with a proposal that sounded logical and

appropriate.

He cleverly applied Ketis' new paradigm in his analysis, making it difficult for the swordmaster to refute his claims.

He even managed to make it sound as if Demoncasting was far more beneficial in solving Venerable Joshua's problem than other solutions!

In fact, the proper way to increase Venerable Joshua's breakthrough chances was to update his outdated expert mech, but that would take way too long. Compared to waiting for approximately two years for Ves and Gloriana to complete the Everchanger Mark III Project, it was much faster and more convenient to invest a few days in designing and forging a mech sword that could turn into a powerful D-arms! Ketis definitely had a vested interest in seeing her husband succeed. She felt rather disappointed with him as of late.

If he was able to grow from the experience of handling a powerful but unruly D-arms and successfully attain his sainthood, then he would definitely regain his pride and self-respect as a champion!

Since they were designing a new weapon for her husband's expert mech, Ketis immediately grew a lot more invested in this project!

"We need to make use of the best first-class materials that we can get our hands upon.

The D-arms need to be tough and powerful enough to accompany Joshua for many years." She decided. "We can't obtain enough high-quality materials from the Divine Bazaar without wiping out our Ascension Points, so we need to exit the System Space and obtain resources through our own means."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Ves nodded. "I agree. There is always a stock of first-class materials in Diandi Base. There are plenty of leftover spare materials that we prepared for the fabrication of the Dark Zephyr Mark III, the Amaranto Mark III and so on. I can also spend MTA credits and MTA merits to purchase additional hypers and exotics."

"When I exit the System Space, I will browse the War Exchange and encourage Joshua to

spend some of his war merits to obtain a batch of strategic materials that are difficult to obtain through other channels." Ketis suggested.

A good sword began with choosing the right materials. The better the selection, the

easier it was to create stronger and more helpful arms.

It was still possible to make do with cheaper and more standard materials. The Demoncasting process naturally transformed and strengthened the physical properties of the resulting D-arms.

However, starting out with more premium materials meant that the subsequent amplification would elevate the D-arms to a much higher level than the old Heartsword!

Both Ves and Ketis referenced a few databases and made a few initial selections on

which hypers and exotics they intended to utilize.

Ves possessed greater expertise in hyper materials and selected a handful that had a

strong affinity towards the life E energy attribute.

Ketis knew what kind of exotics could be used to forge a sharp and sturdy mech sword

of the style she had in mind. She immediately set her sights on a few expensive transphasic alloys.

"Now, we need to combine these materials in a sword design that draws out their

strengths and matches Joshua's future swordsmanship."

"Future swordsmanship?"

"I had 9 months to think about how to devise a sword style rooted in the School of

Reformed Swordsmanship." Ketis said. "My husband is much more receptive to improving his ability to fight with a sword than before. Getting humiliated by the Teenage Swordswoman back then has given him a harsh dose of reality. He will learn how to hold his ground against such an adversary next time."

The native aliens were ready to ramp up their offensive at any time. Ketis urgently

wanted Joshua to become stronger so that he could stand a better chance of surviving the storm that was about to sweep across human-occupied space.

A good sword had the potential to raise all of Joshua's scores and bring him closer to surpassing the crucial threshold!