The Mech Touch

Chapter 7538 Last Defiance Manual

The proposal centered around the Soulcutter Thesis sounded very compelling.

Ves had little doubt that it was the simplest and most direct plan that the four would come up with today.

Being simple and direct were not necessary problems, but Ketis' proposal contained a number of very glaring vulnerabilities.

That made them hesitant to embrace it out of the blue. They still needed to weigh the other proposals before they could form a consensus.

"So who wants to go next?" Ves asked.

"I am ready to present my plan." Alexa Streon said as she stepped up and began to project a very familiar mech design.

The projection displayed a rather generic Woodsap mech.

The biomech did not show anything special at first, but when Alexa gestured with her hand, it suddenly gained a few additional branches.

These branches all happened to grow a couple of large and succulent fruits.

Ves and the other two mech designers grew befuddled.

Why did Alexa propose to turn a Woodsap mech into a literal fruit-bearing tree?"

"What… are we looking at, exactly?" Ves tentatively asked.

The youngest mech designer smiled back at him. "I can understand your confusion. To be honest, I only recently drafted this proposal right after we completed the edible mech design. I became inspired by the idea of designing a mech that is designed from the ground up to be eaten by humans. What if we weaponized this property? Food can serve as a weapon as well as sustenance. It all depends on its composition. I took inspiration from nature and devised a plan to develop a biomech or rather its edible components that especially attracts the deathborn. Hence the fruit. The goal is to lure these beings into eating the fruits, thereby absorbing the seeds hidden within."

Ves started to look thoughtful. He already had an idea where this plan was going.

"Go on, Alexa."

The projection began to display a very crude simulation of a deathborn approaching the odd Woodsap mech before taking a bite out of the fruit.

While the fruit was definitely a tangible object, it happened to possess a higher concentration of life energy.

This ensured that the deathborn would not be able to resist the temptation to take a bite!

The act of doing so would essentially seal its fate.

This was because absorbing the life energy from the fruit also meant absorbing whatever else that Alexa had hidden inside the same fruit!

The projection visualized this dangerous seed as a small red star. It did not glow brightly at first, but once it entered the 'body' of a deathborn, it began to take root and germinate.

Somehow, the red seed transformed into a parasite that absorbed the energy that made up the deathborn!

Not only did it concentrate much of the life energy that the deathborn had originally absorbed, it also began to expand on it through a mysterious method!

By the time the dim red star turned into a small glowing sun, the deathborn had been practically drained dry.

This was not the end of the story.

Other nearby deathborn became attracted by the concentration of life energy and could not resist the urge to prey on their weakened kin!

They overcame their instinct to avoid attacking their own species and ruthlessly bit into the infected deathborn from all sides!

At the end of this little frenzy, 6 more deathborn managed to have their fill!

Yet even as they began to digest the life energies that they had just absorbed, they did not realize that their previous meal also caused them to swallow a portion of that red sun.

Even though they had only swallowed a fraction of this parasitical construct, that was enough for it to take root and begin the same process all over again!

As the projection continued to run the simulation, the sequence quickly unfolded into a chain reaction.

It began with a single deathborn.

Half a minute later, the infection spread to 6 deathborn.

Then 36.

Then 216.

Then 1.296.

Then 7.776.

Then 46.656.

Then 279.936.

Then 1.679.616.

Then 10.077.696.

Then 60.466.176.

Then 362.797.056.

And so on!

This was the power of exponential expansion!

As long as the 'red seeds' could be recycled an infinite amount of times without suffering a net loss in energy levels after each cycle, this entire parasitical sequence could theoretically go on forever until every single deathborn had fallen victim to this affliction!

"This… this is a virus! A spiritual equivalent of a virus! You are planning to unleash an artificial pandemic among the deathborn!" Gloriana gasped in realization! "This is a potentially brilliant plan! The initial resource investment should be low. The most important factor is developing the initial red seeds. Once they are in place, we only need to bait the deathborn into ingesting them before letting our creation do all of the work."

The potential yield of Alexa's proposal was potentially huge relative to its input!

As long as the plan unfolded according to the most ideal scenario, they could wipe out virtually all of the deathborn in the Hypeh-Tekas System!

However, in order for this dream scenario to work, they had to design a spiritual construct that could convert the deathborn's essence into life energy.

That did not sound easy!

Though Ves possessed an extensive understanding of the life element and a shallower grasp of the death element, his comprehension had yet to reach the point where he could freely transform one into the other.

That required a much higher level of comprehension. Perhaps he might be able to barely touch upon this level if he was able to study the Ouroboros for a few months, but that was unrealistic.

"How will you make it possible?" Ves directly asked. "As far as I know, the Tree of Possibilities does not offer any fruits that can directly convert death energy into life energy. Without this crucial component, your plan won't even be able to get off the ground."

The young Journeyman kept smiling. "I am aware of that. This is admittedly the weakest link in my proposal. After extensive searching, I believe I have found the fruit that likely contains the knowledge we need to realize my plan."

A new projection appeared that displayed the description of a red and shiny pepper-like fruit.

[Last Defiance Manual]

Price: 350 Ascension Points.

Imparts the methods, underlying theories as well as the starter seed to skillfully perform the Last Defiance Technique.

The Last Defiance Technique was invented by an ancient battle maniac who became famed for repeatedly defying death. His signature ability enabled him to quickly recover from grievous injuries and gain enough strength to launch desperate counterattacks.

The most rudimentary version of the Last Defiance Technique causes the practitioner to overdraw all of his essence and energy, thereby ruining his cultivation foundation in exchange for a short-lasting outburst of power. Survival is extremely unlikely in this instance.

A more prepared and skilled practitioner can form a 'defiance seed' and feed it with potent energy in advance. The existence of this seed not only makes it faster and easier to execute the Last Defiance Technique, but also reduces its mortality rate. Depending on many factors, it is possible to reduce the consequences of performing this technique to suffering only minimal damage to one's foundation.

The Last Defiance Technique is an extreme combat method that generates serious side effects upon activation. It takes a heavy toll on a practitioner's mind and physique. The stronger the body, the lower the damage to one's health, thereby enabling faster recovery. The stronger the mind, the greater the ability to remain sober-minded and in control of oneself, thereby preventing oneself from becoming mad to the point of forgetting to stop the technique in time.

Requirements: Strength must be higher than 6.0. Endurance must be higher than 15.0. Concentration must be higher than 2.5. Spirituality must be higher than 5.0.

"This is… an extreme choice." Gloriana slowly said as she finally recalled that she had once glimpsed this eye-catching fruit. "That must be why I dismissed it early on. I never imagined that you would find a means to exploit it in such a creative manner. Bravo, Alexa. Your proposal has a good chance of succeeding if we cleverly leverage the knowledge contained within this red fruit."

She genuinely sounded impressed!

Alexa Streon had outdone herself in this regard. Her proposal not only promised to eliminate all of the deathborn in an entire occupied star system with relatively limited effort, but it would do so with the help of an enlightenment fruit that contained a technique that was originally created to help its practitioners!

Ves and Ketis looked impressed as well. It might not match their own ideas on how to solve the current crisis, but it was definitely neat and elegant!

"I haven't taken much interest in this enlightenment fruit for the same reason as my wife, but now that I look at it further, I think that I have overlooked how much value we can derive from its knowledge." He said as he began to look thoughtful. "One of the shortcomings of my Woodsap mechs is that their offensive power is relatively mediocre. That makes sense as I primarily designed them to endure heavy punishment and outlast the opposition. However, there are many cases where staying on the defensive is not a solution. Perhaps the mech unit is short on time, or perhaps they need to breach an enemy stronghold. In both cases, my Woodsap mechs have no good way to proceed, because they are both slow and weak in offense. However, as long as they can quickly convert their large reserves of life energy into more volatile forms of power…"

This would trigger a complete transformation in the role and positioning of his Woodsap mechs!

In exchange for voiding their ability to engage in long, drawn-out attrition battles, his supercharged Woodsap mechs temporarily gained so much strength that they could quickly smash apart opposition that was at least twice or thrice as strong!

Sure, performing the Last Defiance Technique would definitely drain much of the life energies and the 'essence' of his precious Woodsap mechs, but Ves did not take these drawbacks so seriously.

He had deliberately designed the biomechs of the Arboreal Project to endure the most grievous injuries, yet quickly restore themselves back to optimal condition so long as they gained external replenishment.

He and his Terran collaborators had both utilized their best methods and design applications to make the Woodsap mechs as recoverable as possible.

In more concrete terms, this meant that no matter how much damage their biophysical construction and their spiritual foundations incurred, their natural strengths and inclinations ensured that both could make perfect recoveries under adequate conditions!

This happened to make his Woodsap mechs particularly ideal 'practioners' for the so-called Last Defiance Technique!

Ves began to grin wider at the thought of adding this explosive function to his latest work.

Those 350 Ascension Points would pay off in a much bigger way than he had initially thought when he first read the description of this enlightenment fruit!

The fact that he could visualize such a powerful application meant that the Last Defiance Technique was arguably even more useful after they solved the immediate crisis!

He also did not overlook the fact that once Ves ingested this hot and spicy pepper fruit, he would gain an immediate mastery over this technique, allowing the Dark Apostle to utilize it himself during critical moments on the battlefield!

In fact, rather than using it himself, he felt it would be much more welcome among the other Ascended Giants!

Their huge and ridiculously strong true bodies granted them much stronger physical foundations than virtually all other typical qi cultivators and body cultivators.

Their incredibly deep reserves of flesh granted them a luxurious buffer, allowing them to overdraw their strength for a long time without suffering much if any permanent ailments!

The only point of concern was their relatively weak minds and spirits. If they could not maintain a grip on their mentalities, the rush of power might easily cause them to go berserk, thereby causing them to wring themselves dry, much like the deathborn in Alexa's proposal!

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