Published at 27th of April 2026 6:53 am

Chapter 7471 The Monster of the Arche

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When the Apocalypse Wardens entered an ornate hall, they froze as they beheld the sight.

The same applied to the leaders observing by remote.

Though the signal interference inside the large hall was much higher than any other location on the archecruiser, the repeated planting of ECM-resistant short-ranged communication relays helped to keep the active data feeds intact.

What arriving soldiers noticed at first was where all of the arche soldiers and crew members had gone.

They had converged straight into this chamber and formed a massive circle around a central location.

Each arche soldier had lowered themselves on all fours while keeping their alien heads bowed.

The Apocalypse Wardens initially stood poised to defend themselves against an attack against the entire collective, but subsequent observations quickly showed that these aliens shouldn't be of concern.

"They're… dead. They're all dead."

"Look at all of the blood that spilled on the deck. Instead of organizing themselves to mount a final defense, they… gave up and killed themselves."

That sounded incredibly strange and illogical. Even if these arche thought that they had dishonored themselves or their gods, they should not recklessly throw their lives away. As soldiers, they should have been prepared to fight to the bitter end even if victory no longer became attainable.

While most of the arche had been killed through straightforward cuts to their throats, the story was different for the aliens positioned closer to the center of the chamber.

The inner circle arche had been killed through much crueler means.

A powerful implement of sorts had ripped the archeshells straight out of their backs!

It did not matter whether these arche officers wore alien versions of high-quality combat armor. Whatever struck them easily breached the protective archemetal layers in order to deshell the aliens with intent and precision.

It did not take much guessing what the arche had done after collecting dozens of high-quality archeshells.

That was because a single large object stood at the center of the chamber.

Surrounded by ornate but alien pedestals and cauldrons still half-filled with alien blood was a shiny, crystalline, colorful and luminescent reproduction of an arche.

It was an artificial arche that when standing upright had almost been scaled up to match the height of a typical mech.

"What the…"

"Is that… a mech?"

A profound sense of shock and horror overtook the soldiers and the remote observers.

Of all of the crazy things the arche had cooked up inside their precious archecruiser, they never imagined that these turtle-like aliens would attempt to copy a human mech!

"It is not a mech." Saint Commander Casella Ingvar very decisively issued her preliminary verdict. "It is an imitation of a mech. There is a difference. There are numerous characteristics about this crystal monstrosity that may seem familiar to you, but make no mistake. It is not a mech as you and I know it. That is not a reason to let your guard down. Its combat power is unknown, but I do not think it is low."

Although the Apocalypse Wardens trained intensely to face all kinds of threats, they always struggled to perform well in scenarios that included hostile mechs.

If this alien imitation was anything like a real mech, then the Apocalypse Wardens could not avoid casualties!

The reaction from the mech designers who patched into the live feeds sounded even more hysterical!

"WHAAAAT?!" Gloriana screeched over the channel! "HOW-HOW-HOW DARE THEY?! WHO STOLE MY WORK? THIS… THIS ARCHESHELL MONSTROSITY IS NOT A COMPLETELY ALIEN WORK! LOOK AT THE JOINTS. LOOK AT THE PROCESSED ARCHEMETAL COMPONENTS. THESE ARE CLEARLY DERIVED FROM MY ARCHEMECH DESIGNS! IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THESE ALIENS TO IMITATE MY WORK BY STUDYING RECORDINGS OF OUR ARCHEMECHS. THE ARCHE MUST HAVE RECEIVED HELP FROM HUMAN TRAITORS. EVEN MORE ALARMING, THEY MAY HAVE RECEIVED FROM A HUMAN EXPERT ON ARCHETECH!"

These were shocking accusations!

Though not all of them may be true, the fact that Gloriana clearly recognized bits and pieces of her own work in this alien imitation mech most definitely turned this into a massive security issue!

The cosmopolitans were definitely involved somehow. Only they could have provided essential expertise and stolen human technology to the arche so that the latter could create this monstrous machine.

Ves' voice sounded calmer but no less furious over the communication channel.

"This mech… feels extremely strange. It is… not entirely alive, but not entirely dead either. It feels like the archecruiser, but in a much more concentrated package. Aside from that, have you noticed that the arche spilled so much blood and collected it all? I can sense that part of it is circulating inside this amalgamation of archeshells right this moment. I fear that even if it does not meet the definition of a mech, it may share enough resemblances to my Carmine mechs to function in a similar fashion."

It was not enough for the arche to steal from Gloriana's work.

At least the native aliens may be able to justify their actions by accusing her of stealing from their race in the first place.

Yet what the arche had done by incorporating elements of Ves' groundbreaking work represented an even more egregious violation of human sovereignty!

No human could accept such a crime!

Though the Cosmopolitan Movement had transferred so much human technology to the native alien races already, most people had already become numb to this reality.

It was almost impossible to prevent this from happening. The most they could hope for was that humans outpaced this ongoing theft by innovating at a faster rate.

Yet out of all of the undeserved technologies that the native aliens managed to incorporate with the help of human traitors, mechs had always remained as an inviolable domain.

The native aliens must never be given the chance to replicate human mechs in any way.

Though not everyone understood the full reasons why the native aliens still failed to produce their own versions of mechs, they all felt assured that the human race still managed to maintain their current monopoly.

The alien creation standing before the Apocalypse Wardens might not have broken it, but it came closer to any other known attempt!

This was why this entire situation took on a whole new level of importance!

More and more people patched into the live feeds. Since the Apocalypse Wardens belonged to the Red Collective, far more parties had the right to access them than the Larkinsons or collies alone.

As word began to spread, various leaders and industry professionals among the mechers, fleeters, Terrans and so on frantically tried to study the archeshell mech from the limited data available.

Unfortunately, they could not observe too many details. The sensor systems mounted on the suits of combat armor tried their best to collect as much data as possible, but they were not designed to work like lab or workshop-grade scanners.

The archeshells that made up much of the structure of the alien 'mech' also hindered any attempts to discern what lay beneath the surface.

Many of the shells had been ripped off the backs of affluent and successful arche officers. Their archeshells had been carefully nurtured by ingesting synergistic combinations of high-quality exotic materials and also hyper materials as of late.

That meant that the archeshells not only possessed a range of powerful functions, but also possessed the capacity to channel lots of energy!

Right now, whatever power source the arche had crammed inside made sure the construct was not short on power!

After a short delay, the archeshell machine or the alien inside of it finally began to speak.

"#$&#$&#@."

Fortunately, red humanity had managed to develop a translation of the arche language a long time ago, so everyone could interpret the alien leader's words.

"HUMANS. INTERLOPERS. YOU DO NOT BELONG IN THIS SACRED HALL. OUR GOD IS NOT READY. WE ARE SHAMED THAT YOU HAVE WITNESSED OUR INCOMPLETE GOD. WE HAD NO CHOICE. WE SACRIFICED OUR BLOOD AND SHELL TO BRING IT CLOSER TO COMPLETION, ONLY TO PROVE OUR INCOMPETENCE. WE FAILED. A NEW GOD OF THE ARCHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BORN IN TOTAL SECRECY, YET BECAUSE OF YOUR INTRUSION, MY REBIRTH WAS PREMATURE."

Multiple people had difficulty parsing the full meaning of his words. Even if the translation sounded accurate enough, it most definitely did not explain a lot of alien subtext and nuances.

Fortunately, Gloriana possessed a greater understanding of arche language and culture.

"We are presumably being addressed by the captain of the archecruiser. He is talking about attaining godhood through this unconventional method. One of the facts about the arche race that you should know is that many of them do not exhibit strong worship towards phase whales and phase lords. That is because it is much more difficult for them to produce phase lords themselves. They need to invest at least an order of magnitude more phasewater and high-quality exotics than other races due to the excessive requirements of scaling up their archeshells. This makes me think that we are witnessing an attempt for the arche to attain godhood as they know it through alternative means. They have blended their traditional alien methods with human archemech design."

"Are you saying that this thing is not only an imitation of a mech, but also an imitation of a phase lord?!"

"I… cannot discount this possibility. It is highly unlikely to match the power of a genuine lesser phase lord, but… it may be able to replicate the abilities of one at a smaller scale."

!!!

That certainly explained a part of the anomalous readings. The archeshell contraption generated fluctuating levels of spatial interference which could not be explained by the presence of phasewater alone!

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