The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5648 The First Glimpse

Everyone who was familiar with the Destroyer of Worlds knew about her penchant of blowing up planets.

This was the feat that she was famous for. Though she utilized this capacity only sparingly as resource-bearing planets were too valuable to blow up casually.

Nonetheless, the Rubarthans demonstrated little restraint as they eagerly utilized the planet-busting capacity of the Destroyer of Worlds in all kinds of propaganda!

Every admirer of the god pilots knew what it looked like when one of the overpowering shells punched through the surface of a terrestrial planet and buried itself deep into the core.

Once the supremely empowered shell had taken root in the center of the planet, the resulting blast was so cataclysmically powerful that entire continents and planetary layers sundered apart as the pieces launched out into different directions!

The global ruptures and the release of so much magma caused the dying planets to look like a cracked eggshell for a brief moment of time before they no longer resembled any cohesive planetary masses anymore!

That was what made the current image so striking. It purportedly showed the instant destruction of the ancestral home planet of the human race. The significance of such a supreme act of interstellar vandalism couldn't be overstated.

This was nothing less than a desecration of the human race's most precious heritage!

It was a crime that was worse than killing one's own mother.

While the vast majority of humans alive today had never set foot on Old Earth, let alone come anywhere close to the Sol System, the home planet was still seen as the ultimate mother of their entire race!

This made this depiction a lot more unbearable to its current viewers. Ves and the others would not feel so emotional about this prophetic vision if the central subject was any other planet.

Ves would not shed too many tears if Davute VII, Bortele III or New Constantinople VIII ended up dying after getting struck by the enormous might of the Ragnarok.

Yet because the planet just happened to be a planet that occupied a central place in human culture and civilization, he could not dismiss this prophetic vision as easily as he would have liked!

"The Destroyer of Worlds surely has a good reason to destroy Old Earth… correct?" Gloriana doubtfully asked.

"Destroying Old Earth should be the absolute last resort for any genuine human." Jovy said in a firm tone. "Even if hundreds or thousands of years have passed since the start of the Age of Dawn, red humanity should not have diverged to the point where we have developed strong contempt towards the planet that has spawned and nurtured our race. Be careful. Do not let this provocative vision steer your thinking in the wrong direction."

Seeing Old Earth get blown up like this caused Ves to develop stronger concern towards the secret cooperation between his mother and Divine Irine Mox.

In his first real talk with the Destroyer of Worlds, he learned that she and many others had become desperate for power.

Just as how the First Flame sought to speed up his cultivation no matter the cost to himself, the Destroyer of Worlds also became desperate enough to contemplate extreme measures to reach the fourth major cultivation rank as soon as possible.

There were good reasons why many cultivation methods emphasized stability and steady progress.

Trying to take shortcuts that weakened one's foundations and introduced more and more flaws may ultimately produce a backlash that would have devastating consequences for the cultivator!

The Suppression of the Dark Phoenix showed a possible scenario where the First Flame had pushed himself too far beyond his limits.

Was this a cause where the Destroyer of Worlds suffered a backlash in her demonic cultivation and went rogue?

This was a possibility that Ves could not dismiss!

"The planet may appear to be Old Earth… but may not be the planet we are all thinking about." Jovy said. "There are dozens of highly accurate replicates of our ancestral home planet in the Greater Terran United Confederation alone. No one has yet to create a replica of our home planet in the Red Ocean as far as I am aware of, but that may change in the future."

He was right. There was nothing about this image that could definitely prove that the destroyed planet was humanity's home planet in the Milky Way.

What if the planet in this prophetic vision was actually the replica of Old Earth that General Axelar Streon and Gaia sought to create to further their own ambitions?

Though it was still bad for the Destroyer of Worlds to destroy all of their hard work for inexplicable reasons, Divine Irene Mox at least did not have to bear the ultimate crime of breaking humanity's true home planet.

There was not enough detail or other distinctive features that could enable viewers to pin down the exact version of Earth that had attracted the ire of the Destroyer of Worlds.

"The title of this piece isn't particularly helpful either. It is merely called Forced Destruction."

That did not really add much context to the image.

There was no reason for Ves to linger any longer in front of this piece. He felt distinctly uncomfortable by the subject matter and wanted to get away from this sight sooner rather than later.

They moved to the eight major artwork that happened to depict a frozen scene in the middle of a desperate battle.

Everyone's expression grew grim and tense as they saw a single god mech trying to fight its way out while being surrounded by over a dozen ancient phase whales!

The angle and timing of this shot was almost perfect.

It showed the ferocity of the enormous ancient phase whales surrounding the beleaguered god mech.

It showed the fury and overwhelming power channeled into the gigantic energy manifestation generated by the Fist of Defiance!

It also showed the energy manifestation as well as the underlying god mech suffering heavy blows by alien attacks that were both transphasic and hyper in nature!

"It is not a secret that the Fist of Defiance becomes stronger whenever he faces greater resistance." Gloriana said. "However, it would be absurd for His Divinity to grow more powerful without any restraining factors. There has to be a limit to his ability to amplify his combat power. He would have long been sent out to the depths of the Red Ocean so that he could single-handedly defeat the leaders of the Red Cabal."

Ves nodded in agreement. "I think you're right. I think… the Fist of Defiance might not be able to outfight his way out of this scenario. This peace is called the Final Act of Defiance. This is a last stand. I don't know how strong the Invictus can be when it no longer holds back, but the god mech is not fighting against the phase whales of the past anymore. These future alien powerhouses clearly demonstrate spatial abilities that are further empowered by hyper technology."

This was grim but not particularly surprising news. E energy radiation affected everyone in the Red Ocean. There was no way the phase whales and the other indigenous aliens would be unable to figure out a way to make use of E energy in their own way.

No matter how far behind the native aliens may be in this particular field, the treacherous actions of the cosmopolitans would ensure that the Red Cabal would benefit from a lot of human wisdom in its attempts to leverage E energy.

Therefore, it was very realistic to imagine that a pod of hyper phase whales might succeed in defeating the Fist of Defiance, especially if he was by himself!

Ves grew a bit concerned about this prophetic vision. It showed that the god pilots were not invincible and could still be torn down by overwhelming numbers.

Once the Fist of Defiance fell in battle, red humanity would instantly lose one of its longtime stalwarts and protectors!

The ripple effects would be enormous. Not only would red humanity's defensive line expose a huge gap that could not easily be compensated for, but the loss of morale among the humans would be even more devastating!

Naturally, there was no need for Ves to ask whether the mechers grew concerned about this scene.

The Fist of Defiance was one of the staunchest and most important guardians of the Red Association!

His fall would hurt the mechers the most as the sheer difficulty of trying to defeat a god pilot who grew stronger when the odds were stacked against him was a nightmare.

The value of the Final Act of Defiance was not quite clear. Since this battle depicted a fight between more than a dozen moon or planet-sized combatants, the detail level was too low to show any distinctive clues that could narrow down the time range of this possible event.

Ves simply shrugged as he gave up on trying to derive more clues out of this image. He was sure that the astute and clever mecher analysts could do a much better job in this regard.

"There are several more prophetic visions to go until we have seen them all." Gloriana mentioned. "Let us go through them quickly. I do not know whether I can handle this much longer. The future of our civilization is in peril. Too much can go wrong. If even a couple of these events come true, then that already spells disaster for all of us. Knowing that all of this might actually happen is different form of torture."

Ves wordlessly nodded. They were all being cursed by knowledge once again.

"Now this is different."

What they saw was a magnificent army of powerful alien beings that appeared to be insectile in nature.

These insects were clearly sapient, as they positioned themselves in neat rows and formations that spoke of deliberate and conscious direction.

The insects showed many individual variations. Their exoskeletons were especially diverse as different exotics and methods of integration caused them to look like characters in a popular virtual reality game that had all dressed themselves up with wildly different cosmetic items.

Regardless of their individual expression, there was still a clear order to the formation of this alien army. Their overall sizes and positioning indicated that there was a clear division based on age, caste, subspecies or more.

The most central figure looked the most impressive. A bright light exuded from the leading insect organism. The apparent leader figure conveyed so much power and authority that the painting succeeded in conveying a minute portion of her immense powerful but undeniably alien aura!

"This… this is similar to glow!" Gloriana gasped!

"There is no insectile alien species that remotely resembles these aliens in the Red Ocean." Jovy said. "The strong and proficient control over E energy demonstrated by the larger and more imposing alien organisms implies that they are native to a different galaxy entirely."

That caused both Ves and Gloriana to widen their eyes!

"You mean… these may actually be enemies originating from Messier 87?!" Gloriana almost shrieked.

"Yes. Congratulations. This should be the first time that you have come across a possible depiction of the natives of the regional supermassive galaxy. What is this artwork called, Ves?"

"Insects of Light." Ves replied. "I have nothing more to say, other than that I think this race is extremely strong."

"There is no clear sign of conventional technology in this image."

"I know, Gloriana. If they are truly natives of an extremely high-energy environment, then they may not have any need for technology like ours. They can already do a lot on their own just by leveraging the huge concentration of E energy in the environment!"

Jovy started to look more critically at the image.

"As much as the extragalactic aliens seem interesting, I am more interested in the context of this scenario. In my eyes, the powerful insectile aliens may have formed an impressive greeting party in order to receive a visitor that demands their respects. Do you see the shadowy figure on the other side of the alien procession? That is clearly a humanoid figure, but the scale of this image is so grand that there are too few details that can allow us to determine his or her identity. All we can see is that the non-insectile visitor is garbed in black."

That certainly did not evoke any positive associations.