The Mech Touch

Fabricating the Adonis Colossus was different in many ways.

It was the first new generation mech that Ves and Gloriana designed. It would also be the first new generation mech that they planned to craft by hand.

The Adonis Colossus carried a special meaning to Gloriana. It was the first true custom mech that she designed from the ground up with Ves. This should have been a joyful occasion.

Instead, part of her mood was ruined by the lingering mental exhaustion that affected her brilliance to this day.

It would take at least two more weeks for her to return to her peak condition.

Ordinarily, she would rather delay the fabrication of the Adonis Colossus in order to make sure she produced the best mech.

Ves insisted on hurrying up, though.

On one hand, he always disliked the mech he designed. While he was still trying to be professional enough to do the best he could, the current state of the war didnʼt allow for any further delay.

In his heart, Ves did not believe that the Adonis Colossus would be able to shift the war as much as his Deliverer.

He just wanted to get this project out of the way so he could put his full attention on his true passion.

As soon as Gloriana emerged from her prayer, they immediately began to fabricate the parts.

They didnʼt have any second to waste. According to previous instances, Gloriana would only be able to maintain her boosted state for up to three hours.

This was the time where she could offer Ves the most assistance. After that, she required at least half a day of rest before she was ready to pray to her little altar once again.

As for why she refused to meditate right away, she simply shook her head and told him that it wasnʼt the right time.

Ves was pretty sure that Gloriana could constantly refresh her state of mind by meditating more often.

However, she insisted on sticking to the rules of hexism, and Ves had no way of convincing her to change her mind.

This was a matter of faith to Gloriana. Ves feared that forcing her to pray more often would make her unable to enter her special state of mind.

Therefore, they worked with a bit more haste than ideal.

Different from last time, Ves had already gotten used to Glorianaʼs high-quality 3D printer and other fabrication equipment. He had learned his lesson from last time and thoroughly practiced with them until he understood most of their core functions by heart.

He could leave the more complicated and obscure functions to Gloriana.

Ves took care of the bulk processes, as it was no problem for someone of his skill to produce large batches of bigger components.

Meanwhile, Gloriana focused on fabricating the parts that required a lot of finesse to create. It was easy to fail in recreating these critical components and subcomponents. Even Ves feared that he might botch some parts.

His girlfriend was a lot stronger in this aspect. Not only was she intimately familiar with the second-class production equipment she brought to the workshop, she also excelled in minimizing flaws.

Her only shortcoming was that her concentration and endurance was not as impressive. She lacked the extreme physical augmentations of Ves, and her deficit in spiritual energy exacerbated this weakness.

”Sorry, Ves.” She slumped her shoulders in exhaustion. ”This is all I can do for now.”

”Itʼs okay. We expected this, remember? Just sit back for now and supervise my work. Iʼm still capable of doing the heavy lifting.”

While he missed her direct involvement, he had already accounted for her absence.

They had already formed the right plan to divide their workload. They even made the commitment to skip sleep until they completed the mech in the fastest time frame possible.

Ves had no problems staying awake for an entire week.

The same could not be said for Gloriana. She only managed to insist after taking special stimulants that kept her awake for some time.

Though she made a considerable sacrifice, the price was worth it. By staying completely awake, they managed to finish fabricating all of the parts in just over thirty hours!

While this was a bit longer than expected, neither of them could help it as the Adonis Colossus was just too big and complex. Both of these qualifiers already increased the burden of reproducing a physical copy. To put them together made it a lot more difficult to produce the mech in a timely fashion!

Of course, part of the reason why it took so much time was because Gloriana was being even crankier than usual when it came to the quality of the parts.

”You idiot!” She yelled at him and pointed at a structural component despite her low period. ”Look at how far youʼve missed the mark! A deviation of 0.025 millimeters will surely weaken the structural integrity of the left arm of our mech! Go back to the 3D printer and make another copy!”

A lack of creativity and imagination hadnʼt affected her judgement of existing elements. So long as she didnʼt need to come up with something new or apply a lot of expertise, she was still able to act like a Journeyman!

After being pecked over and over again by his picky girlfriend, Ves finally managed to

”Are you happy now, Gloriana?”

”Theyʼre.. passable.” She reluctantly replied. ”Letʼs just move on to the next step.”

They began to move to the assembly system and put the mech together starting from its internal frame.

Just as before, Ves performed most of the work while Gloriana supervised from behind.

Ves felt as if this division of work was just like how a pair of Hexers approached their jobs. The male Hexer performed all of the mule work while the female Hexer imperiously gave out instructions from above.

They couldnʼt help it, though. Gloriana was only able to work intensively for three hours at a time before needing to wait for an opportunity to meditate.

During the times when she was most active, she took up the most difficult tasks herself.

It was not as if Ves could perform those tasks just as well. They just wanted to maximize their strengths and minimize any potential waste. Letting Gloriana use her limited time and energy on simple jobs would not make much of a difference to the end product.

While they worked, their cooperation became a bit more harmonious. Vincent Ricklin and his crew observed the pair working together with quiet fascination while their recorder bots broadcasted the entire session without stop.

A mech pilot like Vincent was completely oblivious to the technical intricacies of making a mech. He could only judge the work by what he could observe, and so far he was very pleased with what he saw. The mech that was promised to him started to become more and more real!

At this point, neither Ves nor Gloriana paid Vincent and the public broadcast any attention. They didnʼt know how many people were observing their work, and they didnʼt care. They were too consumed in putting the Adonis Colossus together!

Unfortunately, Ves and Gloriana mostly performed their work with high concentration and dedication.

While that was enough to ensure a good outcome, it was difficult to go any further.

Both of them knew that they lacked the inspiration and serendipity to enter into an exceptional state.

As the Adonis Colossus started to take shape, they could already judge that it wasnʼt possible for it to become a masterwork mech.

Gloriana looked disappointed. ”Itʼs a pity.”

”We have many more attempts.” He patted her back. ”Donʼt get too hung up over a single miss. We still have a lot to go before we are worthy to create a masterwork mech.”

”I just feel so regretful that we have to hurry up. I really had a lot of hopes for this mech.”

Ves didnʼt agree, but he didnʼt voice his doubts at the moment.

They resumed the assembly work.

One unexpected difficulty was the need to apply their signature looks to the mech without the observers getting the wiser. Obviously, affixing a hexagon onto the most masculine part of the mech was a very controversial move!

”We can just apply it on the inside of the codpiece first.” Gloriana suggested.

”Good idea.”

It wasnʼt possible to hide what they were doing when they were working on the frame of the mech. However, it was easy enough to assemble the codpiece components while making sure to keep the inside parts hidden from view.

Once they applied the codpiece with its hidden additions onto the frame, they successfully managed to overcome this hurdle.

As the mech neared completion, its glow became more and more evident. The X-Factor of a mech corresponded closely to how well it conformed to the design.

It was possible to modify and alter a finished mech over time while allowing its individual glow to adapt to the changes. Every form of life experienced some changes in its growth.

However, the starting point still had to conform to the original design. This meant that while the glow wasnʼt very evident when the mech was still made up of an internal frame, once it began to incorporate more parts, the glow started to become more evident.

Ves and Gloriana were very close to the Adonis Colossus, so they experienced the strength of its glow first.

”Itʼs still pure.” Ves smiled.

This was a deliberate choice on his part. For mass market mechs, it wasnʼt appropriate to expose a newborn spiritual product to thousands of mech pilots.

It was different for custom mechs. Ves wanted to experiment with pairing newborn spiritual products with a single mech pilot.

As long as the two developed a bond, the spiritual product would grow up by taking the mech pilot as its parent. The bond between the two would doublessly become a lot more intimate than usual!

In fact, Ves could have checked up on Lady Miralix Laterna and her Kinslayer in order to see how Vescas, its design spirit, had progressed.

However, due to the turbulence in the star sector, news of her was very hard to get, especially after she joined the military of the Sentinel Kingdom.

Switching his observation to Vincent and the Adonis Colossus was a lot more convenient. Since Vincent made a lot of media appearances, Ves would be able to observe how his mech fared. The increased proximity also facilitated frequent exchanges.

The masculinity radiated by Bravo impressed Ves quite a bit. It was a bit more coherent and stable than the glow of his soldier mechs at the start. Glorianaʼs intervention gave the design spirit a much stronger starting foundation.

With fewer flaws and imperfections, Bravoʼs glow immediately impressed the people observing the fabrication attempt.

Vincent, the bodyguards, the Tovar mech designers and even the observers watching the live feed of the fabrication process became impressed by what they felt!

Even if none of their sensors detected any radiation affecting their physiology, their emotions nonetheless became affected!

Of course, the live feed could only convey so much majesty. The one who really felt the impact was Vincent!

The moment Bravoʼs glow reached a certain level of strength, it already started to reach out towards Vincent.

Their mutual attributes attracted them together like nothing else!

”This mech.. is made for me!” He uttered breathlessly.

Before Vincent even stepped into the cockpit, the mech and design spirit already started feeling each other out. While this was just a surface interaction, the impact on Vincent and Bravo was already profound!

Vincent had never faced a mech as masculine as the Adonis Colossus. Even if other mech designers managed to make a more manly mech in appearance, only the mech in front of him was qualified to become his steed!

”I will be invincible once I pilot this mech!”

This was what his hindbrain told him! Whether it was correct or not remained to be seen.