Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger observed the feats of other friendlies while they awaited their turn.
They became impressed by how extensively Venerable Isobel, her companion spirit and the Promethea managed to set an entire warship on fire.
As the expert rifleman mech was in the process of doing the same to another large but hapless alien warship, Joshua started to think about how he could make his own impact in battle.
"Everchanger?"
"WHAT IS IT, PARTNER?" The third order living mech responded.
"Do you think you are better or worse than the Promethea?"
"IT DEPENDS ON YOUR CRITERIA. I MAY BE OLDER THAN HER, BUT I AM A MASTERWORK THAT EXPERIENCED MORE GROWTH. I HAVE MORE ASCENSION RUNES THAN THE PROMETHEA AND POSSESS A MORE EXTENSIVE AND VARIED LOADOUT OF WEAPONS. I SHOULD EASILY BE ABLE TO BEAT HER IN A DUEL."
"Can you single-handedly destroy a battleship that is several kilometers long by yourself?"
"...THAT'S NOT A FAIR COMPARISON."
Joshua snorted. While the Everchanger was right about his own strengths, it didn't seem to matter that much under the current circumstances.
The Larkinsons were no longer primarily preoccupied with fighting against human mech forces anymore.
Their new opponents consisted of alien warships with vastly different properties and rules of engagement.
The fact that it was not convenient for the Everchanger to fly close to the enemy fleet at this time severely restricted his effective options.
While the Everchanger possessed an unparalleled degree of versatility due to his mech type and design, he was not as effective in ranged combat as more dedicated expert rifleman mechs.
The only reason why the Everchanger got to participate in this harassment operation at all was because he was the current wielder of the Gray Lotus.
Joshua had witnessed the Gray Lotus in use several times before. He roughly understood what it was capable of. He also received additional instructions from Ves on how he should make use of its properties during this fight.
If he wanted to, he could easily utilize the Gray Lotus to shoot at the large enemy warships. The death beams would pass through the transphasic energy shields and other obstacles without too much hindrance and go on to kill any alien in the way.
He did not think this was a good use of his time. The few deaths he could cause by firing an extremely narrow death beam at an enemy warship would not be able to create a great impact.
Compared to the flames spread by Venerable Isobel, Joshua's paltry death beams wouldn't really make a difference!
"IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A SERIOUS CONTRIBUTION TO THIS BATTLE, THEN YOU SHOULD TRY AND PICK OFF THE PUELMER ALIENS INSTEAD. THEIR LIVES ARE MUCH MORE INDIVIDUALLY IMPORTANT."
Joshua nodded. "That is true, but... it is a lot more difficult to land my shots on Stingray 1 and Stingray 2. Both ships are smaller and a lot more maneuverable in realspace regardless of the states of their warp drives. Their ships are also highly automated so there's much less of a chance of taking away their lives than normal."
A highly skilled and specialized marksman mech pilot such as Venerable Stark would probably be able to land consistent hits on Stingray 1, but Joshua possessed enough self-awareness to know that his marksmanship could not come close.
He needed to play to his advantages instead. The only question was how. He could make so many possible decisions that he still hadn't figured out what strategy to employ this time.
"YOU SHOULD TRY TO MAKE USE OF WILLY, JOSHUA. PART OF WHY THE PROMETHEA IS ABLE TO BURN THOSE SHIPS DOWN IN THEIR ENTIRETY IS BECAUSE OF KIROSHI."
The mention of Willy caused a green cat to emerge out of the head of Venerable Joshua.
Just like Joshua, the companion spirit exuded a strong and refreshing sense of life. Willy's soothing aura could make any random stranger feel more inclined to make friends with the gentle companion spirit!
While Joshua liked Willy a lot as the green cat was great with kids and beasts alike, his direct combat applications weren't all that great.
Unlike Kiroshi who harnessed the power of fire as if he was born from it, Willy was just a friendly green cat!
"Now what should I do with you?" Joshua questioned as he stared at his second self.
"Mraaw mraaw." Willy replied.
Fortunately for Joshua, the Everchanger came to the rescue by supplying a possible new idea.𝗇𝗈𝓋𝓔𝓵𝑈𝓈𝒃.𝓬𝒪𝓜
"WHY DON'T YOU TRY AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WILLIE'S FRIENDLINESS AND USE HIM TO CALL DOWN ANOTHER DESIGN SPIRIT?"
"Huh?"
"GLOWS AND WORKING TOGETHER WITH DESIGN SPIRITS IS OUR SPECIALTY, JOSHUA. IF WE WANT TO FIGHT AT OUR BEST, WE NEED TO MAKE AS MUCH USE OF THIS AS POSSIBLE. THE GRAY LOTUS CAN BECOME A LOT MORE POWERFUL WITH THE HELP OF HELENA."
Making my gun more powerful won't help if I can't land my shots."
"THAT IS WHY I AM SUGGESTING YOU TO MAKE USE OF WILLY. HAVE YOU EVER USED HIM TO CHANNEL A DESIGN SPIRIT? IT WOULD BE LIKE HAVING A SECOND VERSION OF ME AROUND. THINK ABOUT IT, PARTNER. IF THE BOTH OF US CAN FULLY CHANNEL THE POWERS OF TWO DESIGN SPIRITS AT THE SAME TIME, WE CAN PRODUCE MORE POWERFUL COMBINATIONS OF ABILITIES THAT WILL BE SURE TO MAKE AN IMPACT IN THIS BATTLE."
The expert pilot started to imagine what it would be like and became enamored by the idea!
"Maybe you're on to something, Everchanger! This is a much better way of using Willy than to use him as a simple antenna that can help me resonate a lot better with one of your parts."
Cooperation had always been their strength! The more friends they could ask for help, the better!
However, there were limits to how many pals they could invite at a time. It was possible for the Everchanger to activate multiple design spirits at the same time, but the connections became a lot shallower as a consequence.
What the Everchanger proposed was to switch his design spirit to Helena, while making Willy embody Ylvaine as best as possible to receive as much guidance from the prophetic spirit as possible!
Joshua tried this out right away.
While the Everchanger began to adopt a more gloomy and negative demeanor, Willy began to glow and change until his green fur slowly faded into a sacred shade of white!
"Mraaaaaaaaw!"
Willy did more than invoke the Great Prophet.
He turned himself into a vessel that completely enabled the design spirit to use the companion spirit as a miniature avatar!
Joshua no longer felt as if Willy's consciousness was quite there anymore. It had taken a backseat in order to make way for an aspect of Ylvaine's power!
Though this unexpected change caused Joshua to temporarily lose a lot of control over his own companion spirit, what he got in return more than made up for this inconvenience!
As the sacred white cat stared into Joshua's eyes, the avatar of Ylvaine conveyed a single meaning to the expert pilot.
"Mraaw."
"I... see. I will do my best." Joshua respectfully said.
The white cat swished his tail and flew out of the cockpit before diving into the Gray Lotus.
The relic weapon began to play host to the strong influence of two design spirits at this time!
With Joshua channeling the Great Prophet and the Everchanger channeling the Daughter of Death, several different types of energies started to swell around the machine!
From an outsider's perspective, the Everchanger began to exude an aura that could best be described as a holy coffin.
It seemed as if the mech was made to push powerful individuals into their graves!
Joshua struggled to maintain a focused and cohesive perspective throughout all of these strong influences. It became a lot more difficult for him to straighten his thoughts while being influenced by the strong presences of not just the Everchanger, but also two whole design spirits!
Slowly but surely, all of the parties involved in this endeavor began to align themselves to a single goal.
Once the parties performed their own responsibilities, the Everchanger finally started to lift up an arm and point the muzzle of the Gray Lotus in the direction of Stingray 1.
The mech pistol started to accumulate a lot of death energy. Under Helena's strong manipulation, the Black Demon Steel did its work as a sympathetic material and began to concentrate a lot of death energy, far more than it typically attracted when utilized by other mechs!
At the same time, Ylvaine's direct influence granted Joshua and the Everchanger a constant stream of instructions on how to adjust their aim to effectively harvest the lives of the puelmers stationed inside Stingray 1.
While the cooperative effort that took place inside the Everchanger already sounded complicated enough, the expert hero mech gained an extra dimension by putting its Ascension Runes into play!
One of the more remarkable traits about the Everchanger was that he had access to far more Ascension Paths than other third order living mechs.
After all, the Everchanger could switch to every possible design spirit that was available, which meant that the expert mech had access to all of their Ascension Paths!
Even when the Everchanger did not actively channel a specific design spirit, he still maintained a permanent connection to them through the Ascension Runes that he had already acquired. They served as small and specialized anchors that granted permanent boosts to the expert hero mech!
The Everchanger obtained 4 Ascension Runes from the Path of the Larkinson, which increased his cooperation with friendly Larkinsons as well as every friendly design spirit.
The mech also gained 2 Ascension Runes from the Path of the Illuminator, which slightly enhanced the performance of any energy weapon.
That still left the Everchanger with 5 spare opportunities to acquire Ascension Runes that he had yet to allocate. Joshua and his expert mech hadn't made a decision yet about where to spend their remaining resources.
It was at this time that Joshua began to come up with an unusual idea. He did not know why, but when he thought about all of the possible ways he could cooperate with Helena and other design spirits, he started to entertain a crazy idea that sounded as if it came straight out of the patriarch's mind!
"Everchanger, let's try this out." He suggested with a grin that bordered on unhinged.
"ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THIS? WE WILL WASTE A HEFTY AMOUNT OF ASCENSION RUNES IF THIS SCHEME DOESN'T WORK ACCORDING TO YOUR EXPECTATIONS."
"Nonsense!" Helena protested as her manifestation briefly appeared in the cockpit! "This is a fantastic idea! Give him what he asks for. Even if it doesn't work, I'm sure that you can make use of those Ascension Runes in another way."
After a bit of cajoling, the Everchanger began to progress in two new Ascension Paths at the same time.
The odd part about them was that they were originally designed for the Phobos!
Now, the Everchanger acquired three Ascension Runes from the Path of the Soul Reaper, which directly increased his compatibility and ability to channel Helena's lethal death energy.
The Everchanger also obtained two Ascension from the Path of the Ghost King, which enabled him to leverage a fraction of Titania's domain that facilitated increased control over subordinates.
This was not only useful for pulling off better battle formations, but also had another benefit that Joshua couldn't wait to test!
As the power of death and control began to reinforce the Everchanger in his special state, Venerable Joshua tried his utmost to respond to Ylvaine's guidance and adjust his aim.
The expert hero mech ultimately fired the Gray Lotus, causing this relatively small weapon to unleash an oversized resonance-empowered death beam that almost instantly struck the segmented transphasic energy shield of Stingray 1!
Different from before, a lot less of the beam got blocked by the successive layers of transphasic energy shields.
Instead, a large part of the energy beam had somehow been converted into pure death energy, which was naturally capable of bypassing all of these obstructions without suffering any significant losses.
"Nothing can stop the onset of death!"
The oversized death beam swept through all of the compartments in a single line through the hull, causing over 20 puelmer to collapse and roll no more!
Among these puelmers were several important engineers who just happened to make a lot of progress in repairing the sabotage previously inflicted by the Phobos!
As the aliens reacted with anger and distress at getting struck by another attack that somehow bypassed all of their defenses as if they were made of air, an even more distressing event began to occur.
The round bodies of the death puelmers started to stir again. The hands poking out of their bodies slowly pushed from the deck and caused the 'dead' bodies to roll.
While the other nearby puelmers grew confused at what had happened. According to the data transmitted by the suits worn by the deceased, the victims of the last attack should have lost their lives!
"Yyhhakaka!?"
"Kyuakaka!"
Just as the puelmer crew members thought that the attack hadn't been as effective as they thought, the supposedly revived puelmers started to go crazy!
They began to roll towards their living comrades and collided against them as if they had gone crazy!
Though the damage inflicted by the undead puelmers was not that big of a deal, their odd and unnatural behavior provoked a huge amount of anger and alarm among the surviving puelmers!
As Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger continued to exert more control over the alien bodies that were being propped up by the combined energies of life and death, their ability to cause mischief inside the hull of Stingray 1 steadily improved.
This produced even more chaos inside the enemy warship!
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