novel bin Chapter 7524 Death Seeker
Chapter 7524 Death Seeker
The enemy death energy formation was in the midst of collapsing. Though the unstable activity stirred up the surrounding space, the weakening of the dark miasma immediately shifted the balance of power in the favor of the human intruders.
Countless deathborn let out silent screams of pain and fear as the expanding energy fields repelled them in a violent fashion!
Many sensor systems that had previously been rendered completely ineffective suddenly regained the capability to peer a short distance into the dark miasma.
Though it was difficult to make truly high-quality observations at longer ranges, they could at least capture faint emissions that could betray the presence of formidable opponents.
Right now, that was exactly what Saint Commander Casella Ingvar attempted to find.
She did not believe that the deathborn went out of their way to deploy this mysterious spell array just to inconvenience the combined fleet.
The Minerva Mark II patched into the data feeds of the Tortuous Scream and many other ships with more powerful sensor arrays.
They needed to discover these hidden threats quickly in order to seize the initiative and launch a preemptive blow!
It did not matter whether the hidden enemy powerhouses decided to retreat after witnessing the collapse of their death energy formation.
If they did not decide to attack today, then they would definitely do so once the combined fleet arrived in orbit of Hypeh-Tekas II!
That would undoubtedly lead to a harder and more painful struggle.
Instead of letting this mysterious powerhouse escape, the Saint Commander intended to strangle this hidden threat right when it had just lost much of its concealment!
Unfortunately, the flux caused by all of the recent changes made it difficult to notice anything that stood out from the background.
The noise generated by the disturbed miasma was still too great. Even the most clever smart AIs struggled to identify genuine signs of enemies from ordinary chaotic emissions.
Ves silently noted this shortcoming. It appeared that the Larkinson Clan needed to invest in a proper survey vessel equipped with a bevy of high-powered sensor arrays.
Despite this hindrance, the Saint Commander did not give up on the search. She began to issue orders that caused dozens of naval squadrons and mech squads to shift their positions and prepare to move further away from the center.
If the enemy grew determined to remain out of sight, then the red humans would just take the initiative to flush out this hidden snake!
Yet before Casella could instruct these units to expand the combined fleet's security perimeter outward, the Amaranto Mark III began to glow bright enough to outshine all other sources of illumination again!
What was Saint Stark doing?!"
"Davia." Casella transmitted directly to the pilot of the active ace marksman mech. "Has your intuition managed to lock onto the hidden alien champion?"
"NO. I HAVE NOT."
"Then why is your battle partner charging up the Instrument of Vengeance? Your actions are interfering with our search activities. The increasingly stronger light released by the Amaranto is blinding some of our most sensitive sensor systems. Even if this is not the case, the increasingly more powerful emissions produced by your ace mech are compromising the fidelity of our sensor data. You are hindering our attempts to find and lock onto our desired target. If you still haven't managed to lock onto an important hostile entity, then cut it out, Davia."
The Saint Commander sounded impatient and upset. She had every right to be as the Amaranto turned from a valued asset into an unwanted eyesore at this time!
"I REFUSE."
"Pardon?!"
Casella could not imagine that a normally steady individual such as Davia Stark would actually defy her order so brazenly!
The ace pilot directly disregarded the authority of her ace commander!
"YOU ARE NOT MY SUPERIOR. YOU ARE MY ALLY. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. I HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO SUBORDINATE MYSELF TO YOUR WILL. I ONLY FOLLOWED YOUR ORDERS IN THE PAST OUT OF COURTESY."
The relationship between Saint Davia Stark and the Larkinson Clan remained complex to this day.
More than a few people quietly blamed Ves for failing to convert this powerful and talented marksman mech pilot into a full-fledged member of their clan.
Saint Stark did not go that far, but she certainly did not feel pleased for having to deal with the consequences of this failure!
"Then what are you trying to accomplish with this loud display? The longer you are distracting us all with your radiance, the greater the chance our enemies will be able to slip away from our grasp."
"THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM DOING, CASELLA. THERE IS NO NEED FOR YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE TO TAKE ACTION. MY BATTLE PARTNER AND I CAN TAKE CARE OF THIS OURSELVES. NOW STAY QUIET AND LET US WORK."
Though Davia Stark sounded rude and insolent, Casella knew the older woman well enough that she rarely if ever overestimated her abilities.
If she claimed that she could seek out the hidden enemy by herself, then she deserved a chance to prove her strength.
Ace pilots lived for moments like these.
In order to attain godhood, they needed to prove themselves and others worthy that they deserved to wield this power.
They could never do so by playing it safe. Taking risks was natural. What separated a good ace pilot from a bad one was their ability to achieve a balance between boldness and overconfidence.
It was far too easy for many saints to sway a little too far into one end of the spectrum.
Saint Stark definitely assumed a great risk by making a boast that many people found impossible to fulfill.
Casella frowned inside the cockpit of her own machine.
What exactly gave Davia Stark the confidence that she could resolve this difficult situation by herself?
It did not take too long before the answer became evident.
The Amaranto Mark III did not mindlessly accumulate energy, but instead began to shape all of the power at her disposal in a specific and systematic manner.
Different energies blended with each other or collided together. The light output of the ace marksman mech became more complex as many different patterns emerged.
Ves and other sensitive individuals perceived far more than others.
What looked like a strange lightshow to ordinary people instead appeared to be a complex weaving of exotic energies!
True resonance fortified the spiritual foundation of the living ace mech in a way that caused the latter to stimulate parts of herself that previously remained passive.
This produced many reactions. The flow of E energies gained more structure and consistently. It was as if an invisible hand forcefully imposed a surprisingly elegant sense of order amidst the chaos.
The Amaranto Mark III became particularly active due to these changes. The glowing crystalline mech seemed to gain more definition in front of everyone's eyes.
Ves himself widened his eyes as he could actually perceive that the Amaranto's physical frame was undergoing mutations that seemed vaguely familiar!
The living machine was actually expanding in size!
The change was not too extreme, but not subtle either. Certain layers grew thicker, while other parts gained additional curves or lines.
It was as if the Amaranto Mark III was undergoing a mysterious sublimation.
The reason why this process seemed somewhat familiar to Ves was because it reminded him of the Demoncasting process.
The difference was that the Amaranto Mark III did not undergo physical mutation because of the inducement of an external source.
Ves possessed enough discernment to recognize that the source of this sudden evolution process was the Amaranto Mark III herself!
Yes, the masterwork ace mech supplied much of the power and direction of this unexpected transformation!
Once he managed to ascertain this truth, it did not take long for him to peer deeper and deduce the ultimate cause of this event.
"Ascension Runes."
He had not forgotten about their existence and how enthusiastic he used to be about their addition to his products.
However, once it lost its novelty and became a standard addition to all of his products, he no longer paid any special attention to it anymore.
It couldn't be helped. Living mechs accumulated Ascension Runes way too slowly to generate powerful effects right away.
While the presence of a dozen Ascension Runes already strengthened a mech in small but noticeable ways, the differences in performance failed to reach a truly qualitative threshold.
Only nerds and nitpickers truly valued these relatively minor differences!
Ves himself knew that he would likely have to wait for many years before the significance of Ascension Runes truly became obvious.
It appeared his judgment had been faulty.
The original Amaranto was one of his oldest personalised works, and among the first that initially benefited from his 'invention' of Ascension Runes.
This meritorious living machine had participated in many battles and traveled from one galaxy to another.
The Amaranto had also undergone two profound revisions. Each major refit drastically upgraded her tech and features, yet Ves had taken painstaking care to preserve her original spiritual foundation, thereby allowing her to make the most out of her prior growth and accumulation.
The Amaranto spent years fighting and living alongside Davia Stark, who had managed to grow from a shattered expert pilot to a powerful junior ace pilot in just a couple of decades!
Saint Stark and her battle partner also killed a lot of enemies together. They had taken the lives of powerful human mech pilots as well as dozens of formidable alien champions.
Throughout all of these adventures, the Amaranto continuously grew alongside her human battle partner.
She was not the same mech as she was just a year ago!
The growth state of a high-ranking mech pilot could easily be quantified by using the lavere scale.
What about the corresponding mech?
For a living mech of Ves' design, one simple and convenient way was to count the amount of Ascension Runes that they had slowly formed through a process that Ves did not understand!
Six.
Twelve.
Thirty-two.
Sixty-four.
One Ascension Rune after another lit up in both his spiritual perception as well as his eyes!
Each of these runes had found their place on the mech frame of the Amaranto Mark III.
They shone in varying colors and tints, as if each individual Ascension Rune corresponded to a specific expression of different elements.
However, Ves was still able to discern three distinctive groups of runes.
The initial set of 16 Ascension Runes radiated bright white light. Their purity was unmatched, and their brightness was a notch above the rest.
"The Path of the Illuminator." Ves identified under his breath.
The Amaranto Mark III developed each of these Ascension Runes due to the contamination of her design spirit.
The next set of Ascension Runes was twice as long. 32 Ascension Runes shone in a red and more predatory light. Their light was more complex and varied, which reflected their human origin.
"The Path of the Marksman."
These Ascension Runes clearly formed due to the strong influence of Saint Davia Stark. Compared to a design spirit, it was natural that the pilot, especially one that wielded extraordinary willpower, would leave a stronger mark on her own machine!
The final set of Ascension Runes glowed distinctly dimmer than the rest. Their dark and murky radiation felt outright filthy compared to the purity of the initial set of runes! Each of the 16 dim Ascension Runes seemed to share little relation with the rest. In fact, they seemed to have more in common with the dark miasma churning in the distance!
"The Path of the Executioner."
Ves instinctively felt that this name was appropriate for this recently developed Ascension Path.
It seemed to be completely unrelated to the Amaranto Mark III and Saint Davia Stark, but that was actually not the case.
This was because Ves remembered the shape and identity of Davia Stark's companion spirit!
Through the existence of Vail, Saint Stark gained an unnatural affinity and sensitivity towards death.
She could even borrow her spiritual crow's power to hasten the demise of heavily injured opponents!
What mattered was that when Ves last conducted a routine inspection on the Amaranto Mark III, her latest Ascension Path had not developed to this extent.
He narrowed his eyes and briefly shifted his gaze to the dark miasma and the ominous beings lurking within.
"Stark must have taken advantage of this special environment to speed up her understanding of the opposite of light."
The third and final set of Ascension Runes acted as the final piece of the puzzle.
Now that the Amaranto Mark III accumulated 64 Ascension Runes in a very specific and deliberately symmetrical configuration, the ace marksman mech triggered a spontaneous transformation that somehow brought all of their power together!
Ves could track through the changes in E energy fluctuations that the Ascension Runes no longer exerted their influence in isolation, but actually began to merge their effects, thereby producing entirely new outcomes that reached a new height in power!
The profound changes actually resembled the output of qi formations that he had witnessed just recently!
The initial forms and shapes may be drastically different, but the processes and outcomes did not deviate too far from each other!
They were essentially different starting points that all borrowed from a common set of principles!
Ves already realized a greater truth from this insight, but he did not have time to ponder upon it in further detail.
This was because the shining rune-covered Amaranto had already leveraged the power of her Ascension Runes in her next action!
The Instrument of Vengeance glowed brightly with alternating colors before discharging all of the accumulated energies!
"COME FORTH, MY DEATH SEEKER!"
Yet instead of launching a straight and blindingly bright energy beam that instantly plowed forward at a significant fraction of the speed of light, the luminar crystal rifle instead spat out… a giant crow of light!
"What?!"
It was as if the Amaranto had changed her vocation from a marksman mech into a summoner mage!
This sight completely defied reality to a much greater extent than leaving behind a persistent energy beam!
Everyone became gobsmacked after they witnessed the birth of this strange apparition!
As soon as it appeared, the giant crow of light did not remain static.
It spread its wings and flew forward as if it was flying through air!
While doing so, it immediately showcased another capability that completely distinguished it from the normal output of the instrument of Vengeance.
The giant light construct could shift its flight trajectory as easily as any bird!
It did not fly in a straight line, but instead took turns and followed a more meandering route!
The flexibility showcased by this energy attack that the Amaranto Mark III forcefully manifested into a giant crow was unmatched!
Ves never expected for his living mech to be capable of doing this. He thought that ace mechs could only create such energy manifestations with the help of rare and powerful resonating exotics such as URI-2461-V6!
"How…"
Saint Stark and her battle partner broke his expectations of what was possible. The pair directly proved that a string of Ascension Runes could give birth to a powerful new ability, one that could theoretically match the power of resonating abilities!
The implications of this observation was staggering!
Though not many people formed this particular connection, Ves couldn't help but think how much discovery elevated the value of his living mechs and especially his older ones far above their lifeless counterparts!
Ves grew a lot more invested in Davia Stark's initiative.
It remained to be seen whether this giant crow of light possessed actual substance.