Published at 8th of March 2026 8:01 am

Chapter 7411 Recycling Conflict Energies

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Though the Riot Mark III's mutations and resistance to physical modifications frustrated Gloriana, Ves did not entirely see this as a purely detrimental situation.

From the perspective of his design philosophy, the Riot Mark III had evolved. It had moved along an unknown track. Whether the ultimate destination was good or bad remained to be seen, but at least the living mech moved forward.

Ves interpreted that as progress.

Who was he to judge whether the Riot Mark III's autonomous evolution was beneficial or detrimental?

He did not blindly assume that the current changes were all bad. He personally believed that the physical changes reflected its spiritual evolution.

What truly mattered was the struggle for dominance between its two dominant controllers.

Saint Orfan endured a lot of mental pressure during the last battle. She partially lost control and gave in to the darkness of her own demon.

During the period where her extraordinary willpower not only became exhausted, but also incurred damage, her own D-mech managed to deepen its grip on her soul a little further.

This was the main reason why the ace pilot was forced into dormancy after the battle. She needed to plug the holes in her defenses as quickly as possible while also attempting to regain as much lost ground as possible.

"How do you think she is faring?" Gloriana asked her husband, knowing that his perception on these matters exceeded that of everyone.

Ves furrowed his brows. "It's… complicated. She has suffered a setback on the surface, but… this is also a valuable learning experience. I can feel her indignation and determination. She is angry at her own failings, but instead letting them drag her down, she is more motivated to conquer them than ever. Her unconscious resistance against her adversarial mech is changing due to the influence of her willpower."

The Riot Mark III had always been engulfed by an invisible storm. It originated from the irreconcilable conflict between a saint and a Middle Demon. Any change within the system could produce significant changes in the expression of that storm.

"Will she be alright?"

"I cannot say." Ves shrugged. "So far, it seems that she will recover in time to participate in the upcoming campaign, but that assumes that the current pattern holds. If there is one thing about the Riot Mark III that we should know, it is that this mech is never designed to be predictable. It is an incarnation of chaos fashioned by our hands and minds. We know better than most that this work has a much greater chance of catching us off-guard than all of our other works combined."

He kind of understood why his wife treated the Riot Mark III as a pseudo-biomech. The D-mech was more alive than other machines. Its highly malleable and mutable physical form introduced a lot of complications that were characteristically associated with biomechs.

Even then, biomechs did not exhibit as much chaos and instability as the Riot!

"So what do you suggest we do, Ves? I believe in Rosa's resilience, but she is clearly not in a good state at the moment, and will remain so for a time. Do you think we should give her more time to recover or subject her to additional stimulation?"

Ves thought about it for a moment. "If you want my honest opinion… I do not think that the Riot Mark III is meant to remain dormant and static all of the time. Even if Saint Orfan and her D-mech's conditions are less than ideal, the solution is not to put them away. In fact, I think the opposite is better. I believe it may be better to throw them onto the battlefield at the first possible opportunity. Our work is meant to thrive in chaos, and Saint Orfan won't be able to beat the Prophet's Bane by staying on the defensive all of the time. Only by exposing her to constant pressure and stimulation will she be able to accelerate her growth rate and prevent her demon from surpassing her in overall strength. Do not forget that she is living on a timer."

Unlike many other mech pilots, Rosa Orfan did not have a choice anymore. She could not turn away from her own D-mech due to establishing a corrupted version of a Blood Pact.

Ves had already taken to labeling it as a D-Pact.

The difference between the two was obvious.

The Blood Pact established a symbiotic relationship between man and machine.

To put it differently, if one side prospered, the other side benefited as well. The two had every reason to cooperate with each other. There was little to no basis for conflict between the two. Harming one meant harming oneself.

The D-Pact on the other hand forced two less-than-amiable partners together in a competitive relationship.

The man might be willing to cooperate, but the demonic machine could never let go of its hostility against the other!

As long as neither side could agree with each other, they were locked in an all-or-nothing struggle where the victor claimed everything while the inferior party lost everything! Too much was at stake for either side to give up or make compromises. The unflinching and unshakeable hostility from the D-mech ensured that the bonded pilot could never relax.

In this special case, harming the other directly benefited oneself! As long as this dynamic remained, peace could never exist between the mech pilot and the D-mech.

Though Ves already figured this out in theory before he upgraded the Riot to its current incarnation, it had always sounded abstract in his mind.

It was only when he stood before the Riot Mark III and observed the dire implications and consequences in person that he realized the full magnitude behind his terrible invention.

He could never take this matter as lightly as before. Seeing Saint Orfan suffer to this extent with a D-mech that he had formed only recently caused Ves to have a lot more misgivings about Demoncasting.

Just because Rosa Orfan herself agreed to bind her soul to an adversarial mech did not necessarily make this right.

Ves knew quite well that he had never given her a truly honest explanation due to his vested interest in creating his first true D-mech.

He also felt a little guilty for preying on the known vulnerabilities of his target audience. He had known that Rosa Orfan had long been frustrated by her lack of progress and took advantage of her desperation.

Though he ultimately managed to give her what she wanted, the price she paid was much heavier than it should.

In fact, she was paying for her devil's bargain to this very day!

"Wait a second."

Gloriana was quite sensitive towards her husband. She quickly recognized the look on his face.

"Have you come up with another brilliant and insane idea again, Ves?" She asked suspiciously.

Ves raised a finger. "Give me a moment. I need to put my thoughts in order."

The more he looked at the Riot Mark III, the more he felt he was viewing a dynamic system rather than a static system.

By dynamic, he meant an object that always remained in motion.

This might sound strange as Saint Orfan was currently asleep while the ace mech remained frozen in motion, but all of that stood in stark contrast to the neverending war between the two entities.

Since this conflict generated so much friction, was there a way to repurpose, recycle or divert all of this energy?

The extraordinary willpower of an ace pilot, even a junior one, was quite formidable.

Something similar applied to the demonic power of a Middle Demon.

Ves found it quite wasteful for the two of them to constantly collide their energies against each other for no other purpose than to engage in a long-term turf war.

While this conflict was important enough to mean the difference between liberation and annihilation, there was no way for them to resolve this war in the short term.

Since that was the case, why not take advantage of this constant tension and divert all of the spare energies into a different application?

The question now was what this supposed application should look like?

A number of ideas came to mind.

Should he develop a modification that diverted the conflicting energies into the D-mech's signature Chaos Armor?

That sounded like a disaster in the making. The Chaos Armor jointly developed by Jovy Armalon was one of the principal sources of chaos and instability in the mech.

Nurturing it and amplifying its power way beyond its current level could result in catastrophic consequences!

In fact, Saint Orfan was already struggling to keep her own machine in good shape and under as it is. This was not the right time to permanently increase her burden.

What about the Chaos Trigger?

That was an even worse idea. Pulling the Chaos Trigger may have granted Saint Orfan a huge boost in power, but that came paired with an equivalent drop in control.

Considering the fact that she was still suffering from the negative consequences of activating the Riot's Ultimate Module, Ves did not believe it was a good idea to make this double-edged sword even sharper.

Other ideas came to mind, but Ves quickly dismissed them. This was because strengthening any aspect of the Riot Mark III directly or indirectly empowered its demonic spirit, which would ultimately make it far too difficult for Saint Orfan to remain in control!

Since Ves could not choose to strengthen any single aspect of the Riot Mark III, what else could he choose to divert all of that conflicting energies?

A promising suggestion came to mind.

The tier 3 Destroyer spear.

Ves did not bother to look around for the powerful's weapon container.

Out of safety reasons, they always placed the high-tier Destroyer weapon as far away from the Riot Mark III as possible during periods of calm.

Nonetheless, the physical absence of this Terran weapon did not diminish its importance in his eyes.

Ves thought about what would happen if he created a working mechanism whereby the mutual struggle between Saint Orfan and the Riot Mark III constantly fed the weapon with energy.

How would the Destroyer weapon react? Would it try to annihilate the foreign energies, or was there a way to persuade the spear to absorb them instead?

How would the tier 3 Destroyer spear grow as a result of absorbing the mixed energies? What were the consequences of absorbing the willpower of an ace pilot and the demonic energy of a Middle Demon at the same time?

Ves could not readily answer all of these questions, but that was fine!

What was important was that Ves had come up with a completely new direction of research!

His eyes lit up even as the others grew perplexed at his latest burst of inspiration.

Ves did not care for their opinions. His mind had already been set on his latest experimental side project.

Though it would take time to develop a proper solution, it shouldn't take too much time for him to conduct a few rudimentary tests.

He needed to understand the interactions between Saint Orfan, the Riot Mark III and the tier 3 Destroyer spear much better.

By selectively exposing the latter with the energies of the former, he would be able to find out whether his latest idea had any merit.

If he could verify his hypothesis, he could work towards developing a proof of concept that could possibly enable the tier 3 Destroyer spear to grow alongside its users!

However, Ves had to proceed cautiously because Destroyer weapons were much more dangerous than regular weapons.

It ultimately came down to how the Destroyer particles would react to eternal stimuli and whether Ves could regulate their behavior in any meaningful fashion.

It was nearly impossible to tame Destroyer particles, especially in higher concentrations!

Ves feared that the solution he had in mind would only work for lower-tier Destroyer weapons.

Though a tier 3 Destroyer spear did not rank at the top of what this weapon type could reach, it was already an extraordinary creation on its own.

It would be arrogant to assume that he would be able to tame its infamous aggression with a couple of easy fixes.

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