The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-6123

The Emperor Tree was dead.

At least, that was the presumption.

No Larkinson was willing to say for certain whether the tree was dead. Not when the bottom half of its massive trunk and its astronomically large root system still remained undamaged.

However, when Saint Isobel and the Promethea finally managed to burn the entirety of the tree heart that rested in the very center of the calamity plant, its remaining 'body' instantly lost activity.

Technically, the pieces of wood still remained 'alive', for a given definition of the word.

They just lost any visible sign of conscious direction. If the tree heart functioned as the Emperor Tree's brain, then the remainder of the massive tree had turned into the equivalent of the body of a brain dead patient.

The lack of direction from a central consciousness that was powerful enough to command such an enormous organism caused the enormous tree mass to become lost.

The branches, at least those that had not yet collapsed from the purple flames that were still devouring it, no longer tried to repel the human mechs.

The seed cannons had all fallen silent, no longer posing a threat to any mechs that they were able to target.

The roots had collapsed onto the ground like the tentacles of a dead octopus and showed no signs of any conscious life.

Perhaps it may still be able to function as a biologically viable plant life, but it would never be able to wield the power that the Emperor Tree had once demonstrated!

Although the Larkinsons still needed to conduct extensive checks in order to verify that the Emperor Tree truly lost the ability to make a comeback, either at this site or hundreds of kilometers away, the battle against the Emperor Tree had pretty much come to an end.

Yet even as the Larkinsons tentatively concluded that it was over for the Emperor Tree, Venerable Dise and Venerable Joshua expressed increasing concern about Isobel's state!

It was difficult to understand Isobel's present condition as the mech was thrashed from both inside and out. The forced resonance acting upon the machine had caused the mech frame to endure such excessive heat and other sources of pressure that many of its parts were no longer intact!

Entire components cracked into pieces while others had gotten burned.

If not for the fact that Saint Isobel's massively strengthened willpower granted her machine inherent resistance against the King Killer Flames, the expert mech shouldn't have been able to survive what had previously come to pass!

Still, a heavily damaged and crippled mech was a pretty decent outcome compared to the alternatives.

What truly mattered was whether the ace pilot inside the cockpit managed to survive the ordeal. Venerable Joshua had justifiable concerns about the current state of the new ace pilot.

As his Everchanger propped up the inert and damaged Promethea with difficulty, Joshua became increasingly more distressed when he began to sense the coming of death towards the weakening source of willpower inside the cockpit.

As an expert pilot that had recently tried to embrace death in all of its terrible finality, Joshua most definitely recognized its presence.

It did not take long for him to connect the dots!

"Isobel! If you don't respond right away, I will tear you from the cockpit and render any aid I can!"

Joshua did not even bother to pause before he decided to take action. Though he was unable to get a clear image of what went on inside the cockpit, what little he was able to determine already told him that time was of the essence.

In fact, as his Everchanger carefully utilized his sharp Heartsword to pry away the damaged chest plates and dig into the cockpit, Joshua sensed that Saint Isobel's once-powerful willpower had dipped far below the point when she was still an expert pilot!

This was so alarming that the Everchanger threw caution to the wind and began to create a rough and hasty incision that directly breached the front side of the cockpit!

"Isobel!"

A spotlight shone from the third eye of the Everchanger.

The light revealed a sight that almost stopped Joshua's heart.

Isobel's body… was utterly ruined.

Joshua became reminded by the sight of soldiers who got killed by getting burned.

It was obvious that a fire had erupted inside the cockpit. This fire completely engulfed the tiny space and burned out all of the consoles and even the chair that seated Isobel!

As for the pilot herself, not a single piece of her piloting suit was left intact. Even her helmet had Half-burned and half-melted onto her skull!

The flames that had devoured her body had practically carbonized all of her limbs. Isobel's forearms and forelegs had pretty much disappeared into ash, leaving only blackened stumps behind.

Large holes had formed in her torso. Not a single piece of skin was left intact. The cavity which held her organs largely resembled the interior of a house where a fire broke out. Many organs were simply gone. Only a few charred and blackened pieces were left that could be vaguely associated with specific organs.

As for Isobel's head… the material of her helmet obscured large parts of her head, but it had most definitely not managed to withstand the flames that devoured the rest of her body. Her teeth became visible because there were no lips left to hide them anymore. The eye sockets looked distressingly empty and entire pieces of blackened bone remained visible.

Anyone who witnessed this terrible sight would have no choice but to conclude that whoever this body belonged to had unquestionably died!

"ISOBEEELL!"

Yet just as Joshua began to sob, he suddenly heard a familiar feline cry.

"Ya…"

A much fainter and more diminished version of Isobel's companion spirit weakly emerged from Isobel's skull.

Compared to her previous state where she had become larger than a tiger and wielded the power of a halfgod, the current state of Kiroshi was extremely tragic!

However, Joshua did not feel saddened about Kiroshi's loss of strength at all. He keenly recognized that the companion spirit was still alive at this time!

"Kiroshi! You're alive! What… what about Isobel?!"

"Yaaaa…"

The companion spirit looked sad as she pressed her front paws on top of Isobel's terrible looking skull.

Though Isobel's body appeared completely dead, when the Everchanger conducted a deep scan of the supposed carcass, the sensor systems immediately noticed a very obvious discrepancy!

Isobel's brain, which was obscured by her skull, remained intact!

Its condition was incredibly good compared to the rest of her body!

This was clearly an unnatural condition as the brain should never have been able to resist the flames that consumed Isobel's body under normal circumstances.

Joshua instantly concluded that Isobel had put great care and effort into preserving the only organ that truly mattered!

What also granted him a bit of hope was that portions of her spine also remained in bad but relatively intact condition. This was important as both the brain and the spine of a human formed the central nervous system.

Joshua knew that so long as the central nervous system of a human remained relatively intact, it was still possible to salvage that person's life!

Now that he was paying closer attention, Joshua could actually feel a semblance of Isobel's willpower inside the brain.

The extraordinary willpower of an ace pilot, even a new one, was far more powerful and resilient than anything an ordinary mortal could produce.

Even when the body of a Saint was almost ruined, as long as Isobel's willpower remained intact, there was still a chance to salvage her life!

Unfortunately, that chance was dwindling by the second because the brain and spine were not able to sustain their health under these terrible circumstances!

Without the oxygen absorbed by the lungs and the heart that pumped blood into the brains and spine, there was no way to keep the valuable brain tissue oxygenated and in working condition.

"KETIS!" The distressed expert pilot immediately called over the command channel. "SEND OVER A MEDICAL SHUTTLE RIGHT AWAY! ISOBEL NEEDS URGENT CARE!"

A few shuttles responsible for retrieving ejected mech pilots from the battlefield had already started to race towards the fallen Emperor Tree, but it would take precious time for them to arrive besides the crippled Promethea.

By then, it would be too late! The Everchanger made a suggestion.

"DID YOU FORGET WHAT WE WERE GOOD AT? IF THE MEDICS CANNOT ARRIVE IN TIME, WE MUST STEP UP AND DO WHAT WE CAN."

"But… we never did anything like this before. I don't have the singlest clue on how to keep Isobel's brain alive!"

"LET YOUR WILLPOWER DO THE WORK. YOUR ONLY JOB IS TO MUSTER UP THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE DESIRE TO SAVE ISOBEL'S LIFE. THIS IS THE SECOND ACE PILOT OF THE LARKINSON CLAN. WE LITERALLY CANNOT AFFORD TO FAIL."

Venerable Joshua grew serious. His living mech was right! Even if he had doubts whether he could save Isobel's life when her body had fallen in such a terrible state, he owed it to her and the clan to save her life!

"Help me, battle partner!"

The expert pilot and expert mech became of one mind as they carefully leveraged their true resonance to infuse vitality into Isobel's corpse.

The burnt corpse remained unresponsible. Death had already claimed it with so much totality that there was no chance of reviving them anymore!

However, Joshua gradually regained a bit of hope when he noticed that a fraction of the life energy channeled into Isobel's body got absorbed by her remaining intact organic cells!

The brain was still failing, but the deterioration rate had slowed!

Joshua immediately strengthened his efforts. He strained his mind to his limits and desperately wished to undo whatever damage the brain had suffered and restore it back to a healthy condition!

The body of an ace pilot might not appear much stronger than that of a mortal, but it was actually far more scrappy and resilient due to all of the willpower baptism that it had received in the past.

As the center of Isobel's willpower and consciousness, her brain was actually far more resilient than the human norm. Otherwise, it would have never been able to maintain its activity under these terrible conditions.

"Yaaaaa! Yaaaaa!"

Kiroshi actually started to express more excitement!

This showed that Joshua's efforts were working!

The problem was that there were still signs that Kiroshi was losing strength.

As much as Joshua wanted to do more, the problem was that Isobel's willpower still resisted the treatment.

No matter what, the willpower of an ace pilot was inviolable. The current treatment was incredibly inefficient because Isobel's brain actively resisted the intrusion of Joshua's willpower and life energy!

There was nothing more that Joshua could do. The only way to overcome the resistance of Isobel's willpower was to wait for her to die out entirely.

By then it was too late!

While the closest medical shuttle still needed a bit of time to arrive at the site, Joshua began to give in to despair as Isobel and Kiroshi began to grow incredibly feeble!

They were like flickering candles that could go out after getting hit by a single breeze!

As darkness encroached the burnt and ruined cockpit of the Promethea, Joshua suddenly thought of another measure.

"Willy!"

"Mraaw!"

A green companion spirit jumped out of the Everchanger and approached Isobel's corpse!

"Ya…"

"Mraaw mraaw…"

Joshua's companion spirit did not have a solid plan when he entered the Promethea's cockpit, but the green spiritual cat spontaneously knew what to do now that he had settled over Isobel's body.

Willy began to glow in a faint green light. More life energy and vitality radiated from his energy manifestation than ever!

Soon enough, the companion spirit opened his mouth and spat out a small but highly concentrated ball of life energy towards Isobel's brain!

"Yaaaaa!"

The forceful infusion of Willy's life energy completely overcame the defenses of Isobel's willpower and injected a lot more vitality into her brain!

Though the incredibly crude and rough treatment did not magically heal the brain, it restored its condition just enough to make it last a little longer!

Willy had paid a lot to conduct this emergency treatment. The companion spirit shrunk by half and looked visibly deflated.

It was clear that Joshua's companion spirit had drained himself in order to provide emergency treatment!

"I can only do this once."

Joshua worried whether this was enough. He was already starting to think about sacrificing his own life energy when a very welcome presence finally reached the coordinates of the Everchanger and the Promethea!

The medical shuttle had arrived!