Chapter 7231: The Completion of the First D-Mech

After the pair of mech designers beheld their first D-mech, they waited in silence for a time.

Gloriana looked as if she was struggling to decide whether to cut all of her ties to the corrupted masterwork expert mech. She seriously thought about withdrawing from all future obligations to the machine, which mainly entailed conducting repairs and upgrading the D-mech in the future.

The original Riot Mark III presented by the mech design was still an acceptable product despite its many eccentricities.

The new Riot Mark III that had undergone Demoncasting turned into a completely different beast that she could not recognize anymore.

She refused to admit that this monstrosity could ever serve as the perfect vessel for its intended pilot.

Gloriana strongly believed that there should have been a better way to meet the needs of Venerable Rosa Orfan.

If she was a better mech designer, then she should have been able to design an excellent high-tier expert mech that could give Venerable Orfan the confidence she needed to stimulate her breakthrough.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t. Gloriana recognized that she had yet to reach this level. She could only work together with her husband and rely on his Class IX design philosophy to make up for her shortcomings.

This would not last forever. Once she became strong enough to design powerful enough mechs by herself, she would no longer have to tolerate her husband’s antics without having the ability to object.

She looked forward to realizing this future.

As for now, the only thing she could do was hold in her disapproval and make the best out of a bad situation.

"Strange."

"What is it, Gloriana?"

"The physical mutations of the Riot Mark III are much less severe than your previously made D-arms. Not only that, but it is also manifesting in a drastically different manner. There are no weird spikes. It actually still looks close enough to the original design. If not for the constant subtle distortion effect, I wouldn’t have been able to recognize it as a D-mech in the first place. Why do you think this is the case?"

"Hmm." Ves had already been thinking about this mystery. "I have several possible explanations. For one, unlike the Attack and Defense Enhancement Demoncasting Molds, the Prophecy Imbuement Demoncasting Mold works very differently. The former two take any form of useful energy and sloppily channels that into broad enhancements. The latter is more selective and precise. The prophecy-oriented mold cuts out a lot more pollution, which means that there is much less spare energy left to produce questionable and unproductive mutations."

That sounded like a decent explanation, but Gloriana was not entirely convinced.

"Another possible explanation is that the use of a much more powerful Middle Demon may have increased the efficiency of the Demoncasting process. It could also be that the Prophet’s Bane simply hates the Riot Mark III to the point it does not even desire to corrupt the mech in its entirety. It may also be that the fight between the Prophet’s Bane and the original living mech has prevented the former from wasting its energy on useless mutations. A final explanation may be that as the Prophet’s Bane won the contest of dominion and devoured the essence of the living mech, it has achieved a relatively perfect fit with the mech frame, thereby making further mutations redundant. Who knows what the real answer may be. Multiple reasons may be valid."

Ves truly did not know the answers. There were too many possibilities for him to consider. Lack of data and proof prevented him from figuring out the truth.

It didn’t matter. Ves was not obsessed over controlling the physical mutations triggered by Demoncasting.

The main lesson he derived from this attempt was that Demoncasting did not always result in an object growing sharp and mean-looking spikes.

Their physical transformations could be a lot subtler and low-key. The latest outcome was pretty much close to the ideal that Ves tried to attain when it came to Demoncasting. He wanted the physical transformations to be as minimal and restrained as possible.

Doing this would not only make it harder for enemies to recognize the tell-tale characteristic of D-mechs and D-arms, but also prevent enemies from purposefully hunting them down.

"I need to experiment more with the Prophecy Imbuement Demoncasting Mold." Ves said with growing determination. "I think that my theory that examined the broad applicability of the more general mold and the tighter focus of more specialized mold is true. I had my doubts about whether I came close to the truth, but no more. This outcome already explains much. It at least gives me hope that not all of my D-mechs and D-arms have to come in the form of evil-looking products that are covered with self-harming spikes."

That was a big relief. Ves did not want his work to become defined by this provocative visual style.

He quite liked the demonic manifestation on the Riot Mark III. It could still pass off as a normal mech. At most, people who observed the machine directly would feel as if the machine was under the influence of a powerful jamming or interference field.

The enemies who fought against the Riot Mark III in person would eventually discover that the strange distortions were not just cosmetic.

Gloriana glanced at her husband.

"Are you waiting for something to happen?"

"Hm?"

"You look as if you are hesitating on whether to approach the completed mech."

Ves responded with a sardonic smile. "To be honest, you are right. I was waiting to see if a lightning storm would form above our heads. It wouldn’t be the first time the heavenly authorities responded this way whenever I created a work that is... boundary breaking. I still do not understand the conditions which can trigger this response. Does my work have to exceed a power threshold or violate fundamental taboos? I have no idea. I was 60 percent certain that all of the stuff I have done to the Riot Mark III merits a lightning tribulation, but... nothing."

"Perhaps it is because the effects of Demoncasting are not significant enough... yet." Gloriana theorized. "The heavens will not be able to ignore your works once you are able to produce better results. Another theory is that this Demoncasting Forge is somehow able to drastically reduce the occurrence of lightning tribulations. I can imagine that this may have been built into the facility in order to prevent the demonic artifacts from encountering their nemesis in the form of tribulation lightning."

The latter theory sounded more plausible than the former, but they had no proof that either of them were true.

"Well, if it hasn’t happened now, it probably won’t happen at all for this iteration." Ves said as he relaxed his tense muscles.

"You sound disappointed."

"I suppose I am. Although lightning tribulations are troublesome, I am still incredibly confident in our work. You know how much damage it can withstand with the help of its full superdimensional archemetal energized armor system. The insanely powerful defenses should be more than enough to compensate for a demonic artifact’s inherent vulnerability against tribulation lightning. So long as the Riot Mark III passes this test, it will automatically grow stronger and more exceptional, just as is the case for the Dominion of Man."

Perhaps the heavens understood his underlying motivations, because they had withheld their tribulation lightning this time.

What a bummer.

Ves and Gloriana cautiously approached and began to inspect the Riot Mark III. They still kept the finished D-mech restrained, not trusting it to remain dormant after the Prophet’s Bane had settled into its new home.

Up close, the sense of disturbance grew a lot stronger. It was as if Ves and Gloriana had approached a part of space that suffered from crazy glitches.

Their vision grew confused. Their sense of gravity and balance became disturbed. The mech sometimes appeared close and the next time further away.

Both of them shuddered.

"I hope this is the last time you create a mech that just feels wrong up close." Gloriana grumbled. "The Riot Mark III has become unnatural. I have a growing impression that it does not deserve to exist at all. I never get this feeling with other mechs, even ones that I would rather wish they had never been designed. I truly feel that the Riot Mark III has broken one too many boundaries."

The Riot mark IIII most certainly broke limits, some less acceptable than others.

Its existence would most certainly cause the parts of the Red Association to complain. This would especially be the case if Venerable Orfan’s life came under serious threat.

The more her life became impacted by bonding to an actively hostile and dangerous machine, the greater the backlash from the mech community.

The Riot Mark III openly defied the principles that had ensured that mech pilots could unquestionably trust the products developed by mech designers across multiple centuries.

Yet now that Ves had brought this unprecedented D-mech to life, he may have started a trend that would not lead to any condemnation by mech pilots across the Red Ocean.

Instead, they may actually adopt mentalities similar to Venerable Orfan and believe that his so-called ’adversarial mechs’ may actually be the best way to promote their breakthroughs!

Ves did not dare to go too far and make such a bold claim. He most definitely believed that more mech pilots could benefit from piloting such a machine, but he was not about to design a mass market version and endanger millions of customers who had overestimated their capabilities.

Besides, he doubted that he could mass produce such mechs in the first place considering they needed to be Demoncasted with at least Minor Demons.

While it was technically possible to mass-produce D-mechs, the supply of Minor Demons was not free.

Helena needed to work hard to gather a huge amount of souls and convert them into Minor Demons.

Ves did not have the heart to ask his eldest sister to labor so much on his behalf. It would be better if he came up with an apparatus that could automate this process, but that was a whole other thing.

"So what do you think, Ves. Will the Riot Mark III successfully stimulate Rosa Orfan’s breakthrough? Will she be able to tame this machine? Or will this be the first D-mech that has also claimed its intended user"

"I literally cannot predict that, honey." He replied in an exasperated tone. "There are too many unknown variables in play. It is up to Venerable Orfan to confront these risks and prove she can vanquish them. If she can break through and become powerful enough to tame the Riot, I am confident that she can become a more powerful presence on the battlefield than Saint Dise. She might not have access to a superdimensional weapon as of yet, but I expect that she can attain such great synergy with the tier 3 Destroyer spear that her lethality will not be much worse."

The First Sword Mark III served as the benchmark for all junior ace mechs with full superdimensional conversion as far as Ves was concerned.

All of the superdimensional ace mechs that he designed after Ketis released her latest pride and joy had to perform better than the now-iconic ace swordsman mech, or else Ves had wasted much of his time.

He knew it would be another challenge for the Venerable Orfan and the Riot Mark III to beat their old rivals, but Ves had given them conditions necessary to make this happen.

It would be disappointing if they ultimately failed to live up to the amazing potential of their combination.

Gloriana held a complex expression as she gazed at the completed mech.

"I hope that you can get what you want from this D-mech. It is the first of its kind, so it would be a shame if it ended up tarnishing your career. The RA will crucify you if the worst comes to pass."

"I think I will be able to manage, Gloriana. The RA is not as closed-minded as the MTA. The Evolution Witch understands my intentions. So long as she is backing me up, I will be fine."

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