Published at 11th of January 2026 8:25 am

Chapter 7366 Stolen Resonance Constraints

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While Ves did not feel too accomplished about being the first to develop a working stolen willpower generator, that was not the case with other people.

Ves and the Larkinsons had proven their ability to innovate once again!

They manage to be the first to artificially replicate the stolen resonance phenomenon, thereby providing definitive proof that red humanity could harness its power under its own terms!

Winning the race not only burnished the reputations of the Larkinsons even further, but also granted concrete benefits to their clan.

From gaining access to high-end research results to obtaining the rights to purchase high-end goods, their latest success cemented their place in high society a little further.

However, Ves did not pay much attention to these gains. He had lost his fascination for stolen resonance technology, especially now that he had already overcome the most difficult hurdle.

There were still a lot of challenges that he could overcome, but they involved deep secrets and mechanics that fell increasingly more outside of his core specializations.

Ves knew that this was not the time for him to indulge in side activities. Stolen resonance technology promised to grant immense boons to constructs other than mechs. Due to its many limitations, there was very little prospect of applying it to mechs.

Currently, the only way to integrate a stolen willpower generator to a mech-sized entity was to make use of a very rare Mentalist Crystal.

The supply of this incredibly versatile hyper material was incredibly limited. There was no way of boosting it in the short term. This meant that their very limited quantities needed to be prioritized for more strategic and cost-effective uses.

In practice, that meant installing stolen resonance generators into the largest constructs possible, such as artifact warships and Masterwork installations.

Red humanity was not extravagant enough to install the most compact version of a stolen resonance generator into a mech.

If the mech pilot was powerful enough, then he most certainly managed to break through on his own merits.

A hero that gained the capacity to generate true resonance had no reason to covet stolen resonance.

As for pilots that lacked this capacity, their value on the battlefield would still remain low even if they managed to harness the power of stolen resonance.

The power of a high-ranking mech pilot was not solely determined by resonance. Their skills, judgment and intuition had all reached extraordinary heights. They were transcendence who had broken through the human limit. True resonance merely completed the package.

Therefore, in terms of cost-effectiveness, the subject needed to possess incredibly powerful qualities from the start in order to make it worthwhile to give it access to stolen resonance.

That obviously included large constructs.

It could also apply to Ascended Giants.

"We need this power." The Divine Harpoon stated to his superior. "The Ixith Goliath butchered two of our Ur-Titans because of the absolute disparity generated by stolen resonance. Their mid-grade superdimensional equipment offered very little protection against a large monstrosity that borrowed the power of a human expert pilot. Such enemies will continue to emerge among the mutated voribugs. The native aliens will not take long before following suit. Their habit of copying human technology practically ensures it. In fact, their ability to harvest Mentalist Crystals is much stronger, meaning that they are much better placed to bestow stolen willpower generators to their own phase leaders!"

"We need this power." The Divine Harpoon stated to his superior. "The Ixith Goliath butchered two of our Ur-Titans because of the absolute disparity generated by stolen resonance. Their mid-grade superdimensional equipment offered very little protection against a large monstrosity that borrowed the power of a human expert pilot. Such enemies will continue to emerge among the mutated voribugs. The native aliens will not take long before following suit. Their habit of copying human technology practically ensures it. In fact, their ability to harvest Mentalist Crystals is much stronger, meaning that they are much better placed to bestow stolen willpower generators to their own phase leaders!"

As cynical as it sounded, the leader of the Faceless Giants probably guessed correctly.

Now that the Larkinsons had successfully replicated the stolen resonance phenomenon, they proved that it could be reproduced under controlled conditions so long as they understood the core principles.

It may be a lot more difficult to develop a stolen resonance generator without direct access to the Ixith Goliath, but it was impossible so long as the research team in question obtained the most crucial batch of knowledge.

Even if the major organizations managed to make a lot of strides in purging treacherous cosmopolitans from their ranks, traitors and informers always existed.

Ves had no doubt that there were many of them who possessed enough ingenuity to circumvent the monitoring of kinship networks.

His access to the inner workings of the Red Collective already exposed him to groups of people that had quickly managed to master a large amount of extraordinary capabilities in a short amount of time.

The Cosmopolitan Movement had always been excellent in terms of infiltration. Ves had no doubt that they possessed enough clever minds to still retain essential contacts among the upper echelon of red humanity.

This meant that all of the confidential information about stolen resonance technology may have already been leaked to the Red Cabal at this point in time!

In that sense, the appearance of the Ixith Goliath was equivalent to opening Pandora's box.

It was already a foregone conclusion that other civilizations would gain the power of stolen resonance.

Perhaps the only consolation was that the native aliens could not build stolen resonance generators willy-nilly.

Theoretically, their supply of Mentalist Crystals was much greater, especially now that they had a compelling reason to harvest this strategic resource.

The problem was that the native aliens did not possess their own native willpower cultivators as far as everyone knew.

They absolutely did not have the ability to nurture their own high-ranking mech pilots.

They also did not have any traditions equivalent to traditional or reformed swordsmanship.

The only practical way for them to obtain the most essential 'ingredient' necessary to instill a stolen resonance generator with willpower was to capture an expert pilot on the battlefield!

This would not be easy, especially once expert pilots caught on to their precarious situation.

Ves felt a bit sorry for these expert pilots. They already subjected themselves to plenty of danger by fighting against formidable alien opponents without adequate support. Now they had to be on guard against deliberate capture operations due to the value ascribed to their extraordinary willpower!

Even humans suffered a headache on the question where they were supposed to obtain their own willpower sources.

These factors and more made it very difficult for the Ascended Giants to fulfill their latest wish.

"According to my other self's understanding, there is no feasible way for us to acquire the compact version of stolen resonance generators from the Red Collective." The Dark Apostle stated to his most trusted giant subordinate. "I want to obtain this power as much as you, but compared to giving them to us, they would rather install it on warships and other big machines."

The other Ascended Giant frowned. "Those warships and so on are huge. They should have plenty of space to spare for the bigger version of stolen resonance generators. You told me that the bigger ones do not require the use of Mentalist Crystals."

"That is right, but there are more differences between the two versions. The bigger device is inferior because the so-called central willpower chamber is a very poor and incomplete copy of a Mentalist Crystal. The former can only replicate a couple of traits of the latter, and very badly at that. Even if the Red Fleet can produce the bigger versions in large numbers, their performance will always remain a shadow of the 'real thing'."

Technically speaking, red humanity had yet to develop the small version of a stolen resonance generator.

Ves and the others did not have a spare Mentalist Crystal on hand.

Yet Ves felt confident enough about his theories that he already became convinced that a stolen resonance generator built around a Mentalist Crystal would perform at a much higher level!

This was obviously bad news for the Phase Lord Department.

It was filled with lesser phase lords who could make good use of stolen resonance.

Yet because there were warships and other constructs that could arguably offer better value on the battlefield, the Dark Apostle could already guess that they would gobble up the vast majority of available Mentalist Crystals!

He sighed.

It couldn't be helped.

The Ascended Giants had failed to prove their value during the Battle of Philaster Crestia.

Though they had suffered serious losses and setbacks due to unforeseen setbacks, that was no excuse for failure.

The Riot Mark III encountered the same set of difficult circumstances, but it had performed above and beyond anyone's expectations.

The latest battle essentially reinforced the strategic value of ace mechs and diminished people's expectations towards the Ascended Giants.

It didn't help that the Phase Lord Department still suffered from a trust deficit. Even with all of the recent reforms, it had not yet shed the taint of betrayal.

The Divine Harpoon realized this as well. His expression grew even more severe.

"So we will not be able to join the sequence of groups that can partake in this new technology."

"Not entirely." The Divine Harpoon said. "We may have a chance… but only as long as we do it ourselves. The Larkinson Clan has earned the right to keep up with the overall development of stolen resonance technology. That means that it can always build stolen resonance generators that are relatively up to date. So long as we gather a willpower source and a Mentalist Crystal, we can solve our own problems."

That was a potential way out, but it could never solve the needs of hundreds of Ascended Giants.

"Is there a more practical solution, sir?"

The Dark Apostle sighed. "Yes. Time. As long as we wait long enough for our true bodies to grow to the size of a battleship, even the bigger version of a stolen willpower generator will look comparatively small to us. We can readily integrate it into our raiments."

There was a huge flaw with this setup.

"That may be true, but if we want to retain the protection of superdimensional armor, our demand for superdimensional matter will skyrocket. Unless the supply of the latter has exploded, it is impossible to wield the power of both stolen resonance technology and superdimensional technology at the same time."

Both of them winced.

These were the latest and most cutting-edge high technologies developed by red humanity. Either of them could be described as gamechangers.

The most ideal situation was for the Ascended Giants to possess the power of both, yet that was clearly impossible.

The Ascended Giants faced many technical and material limitations.

Under the current circumstances, the Dark Apostle could only ensure that he could meet the needs of himself and possibly one or two strategoi under his command.

While that would ensure that the leaders of the Phase Lord Department retained the power to contend with powerful alien champions, it left out the vast majority of Ascended Giants, even the more outstanding ones.

The Dark Apostle felt bad about this. He wanted to change it, but there was nothing he could do. Brute force could not solve the fundamental problems that hindered mass adoption.

Only a creator and innovator like Ves could find a way out for his subordinates.

"Let us not think about it for the time being." The Divine Harpoon had already adjusted his mentality. "Soldiers like us are expected to complete our missions with the weapons in our hands rather than the weapons that only exist in our imagination. We have fought without the power of resonance in the past, and we shall do so going forward. We have our strengths. Alien phase lords have fought and contended against human ace mechs in the past, so there is no reason for us to do so as well."

"Hm, you're right. Let's talk about something else. I am tired of this subject."

"Then let us talk about our upcoming reorganization and combat deployments. We have suffered too much of a reputation loss due to the outcome of the previous battle. In hindsight, it was premature for us to tackle brand-new enemies when we have yet to fully master our own skills and doctrines. I advise you to turn away from the mutated voribugs for the time being and focus on winning battles against the native aliens. We need a whetstone to sharpen ourselves, and there is no better choice than our alien mirrors."

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