Published at 25th of August 2024 8:40 am

Chapter 6161 Seeds of the Tree

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As the Elegant Rage became bathed by a glow that was completely opposite to her rage-filled mental state, the faint presence of Lufa's glow deep inside her wooden body began to trigger familiar memories and associations.

The mech gradually remembered that she was originally a mech that not only derived strength from rage and passion, but also kept herself alive by emphasizing control and rationality!

By maintaining enough discipline would she be able to channel her fury as effectively as possible!

As a mech that once started off as a copy of the Lucid Rage model, losing control like this was one of the biggest taboos of her kind!

It was only now that the Elegant Rage managed to regain her connection with Lufa that she remembered her original self!

"I… AM NOT… THE EMPEROR TREE!"

An explosion of power erupted from the ebony tree as its trunk spontaneously burst apart and shed a lot of lightning-scarred wood!

The sight of a juggernaut-sized tree exploding and raining lots of broken wood across the terrain was shocking!

"Has the mech fallen?!"

"What happened to the pilot?"

"Wait! There is still a mech!"

After the Elegant Rage purged all of the excess wood, a familiar sight emerged from the base of the trunk.

The familiar thorn-covered form of the Woodsap mech reappeared in all of her glory.

Although her half-metal, half-ebony wood mech frame still bore the taint of defying the heavens, the lightning tribulation did not set out to destroy her anymore.

Might was right. The Elegant Rage had successfully passed nine different tests in a row. Since that was the case, the tribulation had an obligation to reward the surviving machine for proving herself to be strong enough to withstand so much punishment.

The tribulation lighting arcing across her mixed form not only strengthened and perfected her hybrid mech frame, but also cleansed some of the taint and more adverse mutations.

Now that the Elegant Rage had regained her lucidity with the help of Lufa, the Woodsap mech no longer blindly pursued power, but instead yearned to strengthen her stability.

She never wanted to lose control like that ever again!

"RAGE IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD… ONLY BY GRASPING IT FIRMLY WILL I PREVENT MYSELF FROM GETTING HARMED BY THIS WEAPON. I MUST NEVER LET LANIE DOWN AGAIN."

The more Elegant Rage blamed herself, the more she became determined to strengthen her control!

Now that she had set her priorities straight, whatever was left of the lightning baptism went on to fulfill her strongest desire at this time. Her spiritual foundation not only became a little bit stronger, but also became a lot more resistant against external influences.

It was a pity that the tribulation baptism of a single-round multi-modal lightning tribulation was not that strong.

A lot of the improvements had been tied into the massive ebony tree form that previously served as the Woodsap mech's extended body.

By purging herself of all of that tainted and oppressive wood, the Elegant Rage may have liberated her mind from the pernicious influence of the Emperor Tree, but she also gave up on much of the benefits of the final wave of lightning baptism!

It didn't matter. Neither the Elegant Rage nor Ves cared about all of the tribulation energies that had gone to waste.

Ves felt glad that his first Woodsap mech returned to her original form and regained her sanity. So long as she was able to do this once, she could do it again. The Elegant Rage should definitely be much better prepared to pull herself back from her most primal state.

It was a pity that Major Jankowski did not receive that much benefit from the lightning baptism. His role had been minimized in the last and most profitable wave. The giant ebony tree also intercepted and absorbed a lot of tribulation energies, so the expert candidate only managed to receive minimal benefits through the Man-Machine Connection.

Now that the Elegant Rage was no longer at risk of turning herself into the reincarnation of the Emperor Tree, Lufa took the initiative to break his connection with Blinky.

The companion spirit quickly morphed back to his original fluffy cat shape. He looked a bit winded due to enduring the pressure of channeling a design spirit, but the Star Cat otherwise remained in good shape.

"Mrow…"

The storm clouds above the surface of New Constantinople VIII slowly faded away. The energy levels dropped as the entire region returned to calm once again.

The sight of the aftermath looked dramatic.

The surrounding terrain was utterly devoid of any life. The remains of many plants and trees littered the landscape. Everything that used to be vibrant green had turned into muddy brown.

The site that used to be a lush and carefully planted forest not only looked dead, but felt this way as well.

A pervasive aura of death had spread throughout the entire location. Other forests affected by the Elegant Rage's hunger for wood energy became filled with death as well.

Only the lingering marks of tribulation lightning across the terrain and pieces of wood caused the air to feel a little more charged.

Ves did not care about the damage to the terrain. Now that the crisis had passed, he regained the mentality of a mech designer and quickly returned to his projected data screens.

He rapidly studied the graphs and data readings in an effort to understand the myriad of changes to the Woodsap mech.

"Mrow mrow."

Blinky meanwhile began to study the Elegant Rage's sublimated spiritual foundation with rapt attention.

The lightning tribulation had sublimated the Woodsap mech in many different ways. Her growth was considerable. She became a considerably stronger and more stable mech out of this harrowing experience.

One of the best ways to quantify the growth of the Elegant Rage was to take a look at her Ascension Runes.

"Mrow?!"

"20 Ascension Runes?!"

That was more than any other living mech aside from the Dark Zephyr Mark III!

The only complication was that the Ascension Runes had been split into four different Ascension Paths.

Three of them were already familiar to Ves, but he felt conflicted about the latest one that the Elegant Rage 'spontaneously' acquired.

"The Path of the Berserker, the Path of the Tranquil Sage, the Path of Thorns and… the Path of the Emperor Tree."

There was no other way to describe the Elegant Rage's newly acquired Ascension Path. The handful of runes that corresponded to this path possessed a strong association with the wood element, but also contained a sense of primal majesty that reminded Ves of the former calamity plant.

"Is the Emperor Tree truly dead?"

The gigantic tree that once occupied a major Solus Gas deposit on Reticula Corein V had perished.

This was an absolute fact.

Task Force Solus had thoroughly studied the calamity plant's old haunt in order to confirm that the powerful tree did not secretly manage to live on through another growth.

Yet death did not appear to be absolute when it came to the Emperor Tree.

So much Emperor Wood had survived the passing of the calamity plant. The Larkinsons had already begun to use this wondrous material for other purposes, and that was where the Emperor Tree may be hoping to make a comeback.

If Ves and Lufa had not intervened to save the Elegant Rage from her maddened state and finalized her evolution into an ebony tree, would she still be known by her original identity, or the Emperor Tree?

Ves had a feeling that the latter possibility was likelier!

"This damned tree just won't stay down!"

The Emperor Tree was too greedy for life!

It was not enough for it to pass on an obvious legacy like the Ebony Everchanger.

For the Emperor Tree to bury seeds of himself in every piece of ebony wood and possible other varieties of Emperor Wood meant that it was impossible to guarantee that this former enemy would truly stay down!

The only way to rule out any chance of a comeback was to destroy every single specimen of Emperor Wood, but that was far too wasteful.

"At least the Emperor Tree shouldn't be able to do much damage if he does manage to come back somehow."

Task Force Solus may have great reasons to fear the return of the Emperor Tree on Reticula Corein V, but the Larkinson Clan had multiple ways to deal with a hostile calamity plant.

The Terrans had even less to fear as one of their powerful first-class multipurpose mechs should be able to kill or heavily damage the Emperor Tree!

Since there was no particular reason to fear the return of this old foe unless it had taken over the Elegant Rage somehow, Ves no longer bothered to concern himself over this matter and returned to studying the changes to his creation.

"The Woodsap System has become more perfect."

The Elegant Rage never employed it once, but she still cared enough about it for the lightning tribulation to optimize it. This was good news as that would likely reduce the probability of accidents occuring once she was finally able to reunite with Venerable Lanie.

Ves even took note of all of the small changes and tweaks. They would definitely come handy when it was time for him to design other Woodsap mechs.

"Ves! Ves!" The communication channel crackled back online. "What is your condition? Are you in good health? What is the state of the mech?!"

"I'm fine, Gloriana. Nothing serious happened inside the cockpit. Both me and Major Jankowski are unharmed. A storm of this magnitude has no chance of threatening me. The Elegant Rage appears to be in a better condition than before. You can take a look at her yourself once we return."

"That is good to hear. We no longer have access to the data feed from the Elegant Rage. The transmissions ceased from the moment she transformed into a large tree."

"Oh. Let me fix that."

"No. You better not do so. The scrutiny on the Elegant Rage has exploded among the highest circles of the mech community. Do you know how much attention you have attracted after the Elegant Rage began to behave unlike any mech they have seen before? Not even the Survivalists and the Transhumanists can hold back all of the interest expressed by the Terrans, Rubarthans and so on! The Elegant Rage needs to be brought back and put out of sight as soon as possible."

"Understood. I will see if my mech is in a good enough condition to return to Diandi Base. Can't the Bluejay Fleet teleport us back directly?"

"The mechers do not want to risk it. The Elegant Rage is still radiating strange energies that may lead to complications. They will need time to recalibrate their teleportation systems and to see whether the anomalous activity of your mech has subsided."

"Very well."

Both Major Jankowski and the Elegant Rage had entered into an introspective mood. They both went through life-changing experiences that profoundly changed their mentalities.

As much as he wanted to leave them alone, they really needed to move. Ves lightly nudged the expert candidate's shoulder.

"Hey, this is not the time to decompress. Please try and see if we can make our way back to Diandi Base."

"Ah. My apologies, professor. The flight system of the Elegant Rage has returned to good condition. Our energy reserves are low, but it should be enough to bring us back as long as my mech controls her speed. This will be a lengthy trip. We have traversed far away from your home."

As the Elegant Rage ascended from the ground and steadily flew back to the home base of the Premier Branch, Ves stared at the ruined landscape down below.

As the Elegant Rage ascended from the ground and steadily flew back to the home base of the Premier Branch, Ves stared at the ruined landscape down below.

Although the Woodsap mech had only killed a lot of plants and animals, the Elegant Rage still carried the guilt of harming the ecosystem of the planet solely for the purpose of plundering wood energy.

Ves regretted that the Elegant Rage had taken a deeper turn towards darkness, but at least her return to lucidity reduced the impact of this adverse change.

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