The Mech Touch

Chapter 6624 Weapons That Can Threaten Gods

Phasewater-charged weapons were not new.

The native aliens developed many different weapons that expended phasewater to temporarily increase a weapon's penetration power.

However, it was impossible for them to apply this tech on a large scale. Phasewater may be more abundant in alien space, but t was still a precious resource that had a lot of different uses!

In truth, there were more nefarious reasons why this known technology had not become as popular as it should.

Phasewater-charged weapons boasted enhanced lethality and could neutralize phasewater-based defenses a lot more effectively than usual.

This made them a lot more threatening when employed against phase lords and phase whales!

As the gods and rulers of the Red Ocean, these phase leaders would never allow their mortal subjects to build up a stockpile of weapons that could end their reign one day! Given that the phase whales had always been regarded as gods for millions of years in the dwarf galaxy, their policies to restrict the other alien races from investing in the development of phasewater-charged weapons and building enormous stockpiles of them had apparently been successful!

Plenty of human analysts and researchers speculated that the true reason why the phase whale race taught the other major races how to turn themselves into phase lords was to prevent them from developing phasewater-charged weapons!

By giving the ruling class of the nunser race, the puelmer race, the jureg race and so on the ability to drastically expand their lifespans and gain nearly unmatched personal power, their interests suddenly became a lot more aligned with the phase whale race! If this was true, then this was a particularly clever and subversive way of preventing a catastrophic rebellion by preemptively absorbing the leaders of every significant race! Ever since this status quo came into being, the native gods that reigned over much of alien society in the Red Ocean maintained a careful watch of technological development in their respective regions.

The local gods made sure to suppress any attempt to invest in the R&D and production of powerful phasewater-charged weapons because such arms not only threatened the phase whale race, but also their own oversized true bodies!

So far, phasewater-charged weapons had yet to be used in a significant capacity by both

sides.

The native alien forces primarily consisted of cannon fodder fleets. They were thrown onto red humanity's frontlines with the expectation that they would die in exchange for

weakening the human defenders.

It did not make sense to equip them with phasewater-charged weapons. Not only would human high-ranking mechs focus on eliminating them first, but the native aliens could achieve the same results by relying on quantity over quality as long as they showed a little more patience.

The red humans did not employ phasewater-charged weapons on a wide scale either. Their supply of it was much less, so they had to make the most out of the limited quantities they had available by putting them to use in more sustainable tech. Only certain battleships and ace mechs had the privilege of making use of phasewater-charged weapons, but even then their use was heavily restricted.

Red humanity had already begun to produce more of them in haste in case they were confronted by a sudden phase of phase lords and phase whales.

Since the native gods had become such an overwhelming concern to red humanity, Ves and Ketis found it prudent to ensure that their clan could deal against this threat as well. "We can't issue phasewater-charged weapons to all of our champions." Ves told Ketis. "They can burn through hundreds of grams or even more than a kilogram's worth of phasewater with every encounter. Their usage may be justified if they managed to kill a phase lord and earn a huge share of all of the phasewater and phasewater organs that can be salvaged from the enormous corpse, but I don't think that will happen often enough. If we have to resupply all of the phasewater expended by more than a dozen expert mechs and ace mechs, we will quickly drain our reserves and enter into a deficit!" His words conveyed an underlying message that Ketis keenly understood. "Venerable Joshua shall become a worthy bearer of the only phasewater-charged weapon of our clan." She promised to him. "The Everchanger is the most suitable machine to wield such an expensive sword. The Dark Zephyr Mark III does not need it because he can leap past every energy barrier. The Bastion does not need it because she is not mobile enough to make good use of the blade. The only other mechs that may be able to make good use of it are the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark II."

A stronger case could be made for those two machines. They were already high-tier expert mechs piloted by trueblood Larkinsons that were only one step away from breaking through.

General Ark Larkinson may have fallen behind compared to Saint Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson, but he was still a very skilled mech pilot and mech commander. Giving him a phasewater-charged weapon was like adding wings to a tiger.

As for his grandfather, Venerable Benjamin Larkinson had mostly recovered from his decades of indolence and lack of training. His physical state was still frail compared to other expert pilots, so he probably needed a little more help in order to surpass the critical threshold and advance to the next rank.

If Benjamin managed to become an ace pilot, his Saint Kingdom would be able to fortify and rejuvenate his body even further, thereby prolonging his lifespan and counteracting the physical effects of aging and other ailments!

However, Ves did not think that either of them needed a phasewater-charged weapon. Their mechs were much more modern and powerful, so they were already capable of putting up a good fight without a stronger sword.

The Everchanger on the other hand needed this boon the most. It was much older than the other two expert mechs. It was designed before phasewater technology became more widely available, so it was very much lacking in its ability to counteract transphasic defenses.

Arming it with this special D-sword would therefore make the greatest difference on the battlefield!

Ves inclined his head towards Ketis. "Make sure that Joshua does not squander this gift. Let's begin to design the weapon."

Now that they had made the critical design choices, they had a clear idea on the weapon they wished to design.

Given that the D-sword would primarily be used to fight against massive phase lords, it had to be long, broad and relatively thick along the center.

It needed to be able to cut through as much of the true body of a phase lord as possible! However, as a hero mech, the Everchanger should ideally wield its sword in a single

hand.

This limited the mass and dimensions of the weapon. They couldn't make a weapon as long and heavy as a greatsword because that would make it too easy for the enemy to

knock it out of the Everchanger's grip!

While the Everchanger could theoretically wield a greatsword with two arms, this was not ideal as one of the arms was optimized to wield a rifle with a single hand. The limb was not designed to swing large and heavy objects with great force!

"Joshua doesn't like to fight with greatswords anyway." Ketis mentioned. "He thinks they are too clumsy in unskilled hands. It is too easy to punish a wielder if he or she makes a

mistakes.

"So what type of sword do you recommend for this project?"

"Either a longsword or a thick and heavy scimitar. The former is more familiar to Joshua, but personally I recommend a scimitar. The best way to deal damage against a phase lord is by cutting, not stabbing. Wielding a curved blade will make it easier. Straight-edged swords are actually more effective when used against other mechs due to the need to pierce deep through multiple armor layers and inflict crippling damage onto the internals."

"I see. Will Joshua be able to learn how to wield this weapon?"

"Sure. I will teach him in person, and I will also make sure to embed sword style lessons into the weapon itself. Hopefully, the Demoncasting process will not compromise them too much. In fact, I am rather curious how the Bitter Swordsman might corrupt myNôv(el)B\\jnn

work,"

"Alright. The Bitter Scimitar Project it is, then. Let us make sure that we design it so that it matches all of the related parties as best as possible."

Their design work began in earnest. Ves and Ketis both worked on different aspects of

the weapon.

Ketis was in charge of the project due to her greater expertise on bladed weapons. She primarily concerned herself with the metallurgy, the shape and the mass distribution of

the scimitar.

Ves meanwhile worked on the more technological aspects of the future D-weapon. He relied on his broader and more extensive knowledge base to handle the phasewater technology, the hyper technology and most of the E-technology aspects of the Biter

Scimitar Project.

That meant that he also took responsibility for implementing the components that made it possible to augment the cutting edge by burning phasewater.

His unfamiliarity with the specialized tech slowed him down a bit, but not too much. He

was more than capable of familiarizing with it quickly due to the fact that he was a phase lord as well as a Senior Mech Designer.

While he only replicated the current tech and did not do anything to innovate on the current solution, that was already enough as far as he was concerned.

He wanted to make sure that the implementation phasewater-charged technology was as solid and reliable as possible. It needed to serve as a strong base for subsequent

demonization.

Once the Bitter Swordsman got Demoncasted into the Bitter Scimitar Project, he would most definitely mutate and empower this tech far beyond its initial specifications! The two mech designers became increasingly more excited in the project as they progressed their work.

The more details got added into the design, the more their imagination conjured up images of how it would look and perform after it got Demoncasted.

The growing anticipation raised their motivation and caused them to make brisk

progress.

It only took a few days to complete the design for the entire weapon. The scimitar had

grown fairly thick and long, but the Everchanger should still be able to wield it

adequately enough.

The Bitter Scimitar could be used in two different ways.

When remained in an unpowered state, its cutting edge should not be that much

different from any other transphasic sword, barring any effects brought by

Demoncasting.

Yet when the weapon finally began to burn phasewater, its edge would begin to acquire

properties that reminded Ves of superdimensional properties, but only for a short

amount of time!

"According to my calculations, if the Bitter Scimitar burns through 100 grams of

phasewater, its penetration power will increase by 500 to 700 percent over a span of 16-25 seconds." Ves said. "I can't be more precise than that as there are many variables that can influence the effectiveness of phasewater-charged technology. Mind you, the numbers that I have mentioned only apply to its un-demonized state. Once it is turned into a D-arm, I expect the figures to undergo drastic changes."

Ketis nodded in understanding. "16 to 25 seconds is awfully short. It is not enough to kill or cripple a phase lord, but it should be enough to overload the enemy's energy defenses. If 100 grams of phasewater is not enough, then the scimitar should burn 200

grams. If 200 grams is not enough, then 400 grams!" Talk like that often led to sky-high consumption and sudden bankruptcies! However, the effect should be worth it so long as the Everchanger could ensure a kill

when employing the Bitter Scimitar,

Taking out an enemy phase lord not only yielded massive spoils, but also eased the

pressure on the border regions, thereby making it a little more likely for red humanity to

withstand the onslaught!

"The Everchanger will become true hero mech after obtaining this D-arm." Ves grinned

in expectation.