Published at 16th of October 2026 8:10 am

Chapter 7600: Ves the Incorrigible

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A travesty like this should never happen.

Ves watched the archival footage with dismay. The Tortuous Scream directed her formidable collection of primary gun batteries to fire upon 20 biomechs that should have remained on humanity’s side.

Yet due to their wild and uncontrolled mutation, they had not only become completely unresponsive to orders, but also turned their aggression against their own side!

The crew of the Tortuous Scream had no choice but to comply with the Saint Commander’s latest instruction and target the out-of-control Poison Willows with deadly finality.

At least the battleship-grade guns managed to keep it clean.

Their firepower was on another level. All of the attacks launched by the mechs in the field looked like nothing in comparison.

Even the proud ace mechs of the Larkinson Clan struggled to match the raw power output of even a single massive naval gun!

Although none of the attack salvos launched by the Tortuous Scream received anything but the faintest resonance empowerment from the Minerva Mark II, they never needed to rely on such fancy tricks in order to inflict a great amount of damage.

The Poison Willows targeted by the converted alien battleship likewise lacked the reality-defying protection of a resonance shield or a Shield Kingdom.

They completely derived their durability from their special material composition and their impossibly quick regeneration!

Small-scale attacks from other mechs and strike crafts may as well be pinpricks to these endlessly regenerating abominations.

Even if they got struck in the center of their chests by a particularly dense concentration of attacks, the supposed loss of their cockpits of power reactors failed to quell their regenerating properties!

They had become so monstrous that they no longer played by the rules of ordinary biomechs!

Yet no matter how much power these outraged organic machines managed to derive from the poisonous environment, even they could not overcome the firepower of a genuine battleship.

Although the Poison Willows did their best to evade the incoming attack salvos, their awkward and inhuman controllers proved inadequate for the task.

Not that human pilots could fare much better in the same situation. There was only so much they could do to prevent their biomech frames from getting hit by the formidable barrages.

Plasma bolts, energy beams and kinetic projectiles that were powerful enough to demolish entire unshielded city districts struck the enlarged biomechs with merciless intention.

Many Poison Willows shattered or disappeared outright!

Their fabled regeneration failed to gain any chance to undo any damage when the entire organic mech frames pretty much got destroyed in totality!

In the rare instance where a Poison Willows received heavy damage yet managed to cling to a semblance of life, they rarely managed to celebrate their survival before a second salvo of battleship-grade attacks finished the job!

In the end, the depressing sequence ended relatively quickly.

The Tortuous Scream’s primary gun batteries were much slower to reload than other armaments, but at least she had enough of them. Her large hull had been practically built to accommodate these large and costly guns. She had merely fulfilled her purpose in this incident.

Nonetheless, her crew and many other people still felt despondent about turning their guns against their own side.

Even if it was clear to Ves and anyone knowledgeable enough that the original test pilots of the Poison Willows had already ’died’ from the moment they went out of control, it still did not make this situation any easier.

"This failure will leave a black mark on their record." Gloriana calmly explained to her silent husband. "The good news is that this did not happen in the presence of third parties. None of our friends and allies who have fought alongside us have any reason to publicize this incident and turn it into a scandal. You have earned at least that much trust and goodwill."

"Ah."

Ves hadn’t thought that far yet. He agreed with her analysis. There wasn’t much of a reason for his allies and collaborators to make use of this failure to launch an attack on him. They needed him and inventions far too much to risk a break in relations.

"That does not mean they are willing to forget about what happened." Gloriana continued. "I have no doubt that each and every ally has quietly preserved their data logs and put them into confidential dossiers. They will probably choose to do nothing for the moment, but if a moment ever arises where they need to attack your credibility, you can bet that they will unveil your stain to the masses."

In other words, Ves did not have to pay a price for this dismal outcome at this time, but it may eventually come back to haunt him in the future.

He shrugged in response. "Acceptable. We cannot suffer any stumbles in the short term. As long as we can maintain our momentum long enough, we will continue to grow to the point where I can better withstand the backlash."

His wife did not expect him to respond so mildly to such a looming threat.

"Have you learned nothing from your mistakes?"

"I wouldn’t say that, honey. I have indeed learned from my mistakes, but only in this specific instance. That does not mean I will rein in my risk tolerance and hold back when conducting other experiments in the future. You have ultimately underestimated the strength of my drive and the depth of my ambition. I may have played with fire and got burned this time, but that has not deterred me from starting other fires whenever the need arises. As a mech designer, I recognize that innovation is always accompanied by risk. The greater the breakthrough, the greater the associated dangers."

He sounded incorrigible.

Gloriana decided to drop the subject. She saw no point in arguing her point any further. Ves had completely dug in his heel on this fundamental matter.

If she wanted to prevent Ves from making other stupid blunders in the future, she would have to supervise his experimental projects and serve as an additional sounding board.

As long as he came to her for feedback, she could inject him with a strong dose of common sense. That would not cause him to drop his wild ideas entirely, but she would become satisfied if her caution helped to uncover possible flaws and plug in a few more gaps.

Their private discussion continued.

They went over the performance and conditions of all of the Larkinson ace mechs that participated in the battle.

Every ace mech needed a bit of work.

The First Sword Mark III largely remained pristine, but her collection of sword fey had clearly seen better days. Some of them had endured so many attacks that they had become utterly deformed. A few of them had also incurred enough damage to their internals that they no longer functioned properly anymore!

"Repairing the broken sword fey is not a high priority for the time being." Gloriana said. "We have brought enough spares to keep the First Sword Mark III topped up. The problem will become more serious if she uses up her current batch of sword feys in subsequent engagements. Strong enemies with offensive superdimensional strike capabilities can wear out the sword feys relatively easily despite their resonance empowerment."

That was because resonance empowerment ultimately played a much more diminished role in superdimensional warfare.

The Red Cabal did not bestow the name of Saint Piercers to their superdimensional lances without reason. Their special armaments had proven remarkably effective at negating the effects of true resonance time and time again!

What truly threatened the lifespan of the sword feys were the fact that they were made out of relatively inferior medium-grade superdimensional alloys.

They could still last for a decent amount of time when contending against other superdimensional weapons of the same grade, but the aliens did not play by the same rules.

Their artificially manufactured alien-grade superdimensional matter roughly occupied a position that was half a grade higher!

Even if the Saint Piercers and other equivalent native alien weapons could not match the superiority of true high-grade superdimensional weapons, they still possessed a qualitative edge when employed against the sword fey!

As Ves watched the footage of the First Sword Mark III in action, he noticed that the sword formation struggled to block the ultra-long-ranged attacks from the superdimensional siege cannon of the enemy space fortress.

Saint Dise did her best to extend the longevity of her sword fey.

She employed clever and intricate formations that layered the blades together so that they could support each other.

Whenever a blade got deformed, the ace pilot flipped the weapon around so that the structure would roughly straighten out when receiving a heavy blow from the other end.

The ace pilot also channeled her metal affinity a lot harder than in the past in order to reinforce the strength of her remote armaments as much as possible.

Ves became particularly impressed by this last one. Saint Dise had consistently worked on strengthening her comprehension and mastery over the metal element. She had made steady progress over the last month, but nothing more.

This time, the urgency of the situation had clearly pushed her over the limit. Her sword fey shone much brighter and received considerably more reinforcement than normal.

Unfortunately, Saint Dise’s growth was not enough to restore the broken sword fey.

Once the weapons got completely bent out of shape, there was nothing she could do to make them usable again.

Perhaps she may be able to mimic the restoration capabilities of his Woodsap mechs in the future, but he doubted it. The metal element did not possess a strong tendency in restoration. It was much more inclined to lean on its rigidity to prevent damage in the first place!

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