The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-6126

When Ketis and the physical projection of Ves received an opportunity to visit Isobel after she had been moved to a hastily prepared recovery chamber in a different section of the Dragon's Den, they visited straight away.

Vice Director Abselon did not exaggerate when she claimed that Isobel had lost a lot of strength.

Now that Isobel had literally been reduced to just a brain and a spine, her willpower had weakened to an extremely deplorable extent. It was as if she had suffered so much trauma that she had grown weaker than a low-tier expert pilot at this time!

Fortunately, this show of weakness was mainly due to the loss of her body and her other injuries. As long as she managed to regain her body and health, Isobel should be able to regain much of the strength of an ace pilot.

No matter what, Saint Isobel had already completed her second apotheosis. Her willpower went through a qualitative transformation that made it fundamentally different and stronger than that of an expert pilot.

Isobel also formed an actual domain. This was the core of her strength and was one of the reasons why she managed to preserve her brain and hang onto her life while enduring the threat of getting burned.

When mech pilots stepped onto the path of godhood, they gradually turned from pure matter-based life forms into partial or complete energy-based life forms.

Ves was not entirely sure about the details, but energy still became an increasingly more vital component of their existences.

Ace pilots had already reached the midway point of this transformative process. This meant that even if Isobel suffered even more severe brain damage, there was still a decent chance of making a full recovery because her willpower and her domain already carried much of her memories and other stuff that was typically stored inside her body cells!

Unfortunately, ace pilots had yet to reach the stage where they could abandon their frail human forms entirely. They were still mortal in many ways, so needed the support of a physical form in order to function properly.

Ves already started to consider a few ideas on how to do so. Some of them were more radical than others.

"Can you speed up her healing?" Ketis asked. "Joshua managed to do so by injecting life energy into her. You should be able to do so as well."

"Maybe." Ves did not rule out the possibility. "It is best to be careful, though. Ace pilots are normally highly exclusionary towards energies that belong to others. Joshua succeeded because he was still relatively healthy while Isobel was on the verge of death. As our patient here recovers, her willpower is bound to grow a lot stronger and more difficult to overcome. Intervening rashly will cause Isobel's willpower to panic and overreact."

Ketis frowned, but accepted the explanation. She was not unfamiliar with this dynamic considering that Sharpie also exhibited this property.

She gestured towards the very faint, small and weak companion spirit that was resting inside the brain.

"How about Kiroshi? If it is too dangerous to treat Isobel directly, then why not try to heal her companion spirit? As Kiroshi regains her strength, Isobel should recover as well as the two of them are linked."

"That is actually a good idea. It may actually work. We still need to come up with a proper plan, though. There are currently six known individuals that I can think of that can help Kiroshi and by extension Isobel recover faster. There is me, Venerable Joshua, Gaia, the Superior Mother, Miss Alexa Streon and General Axelar Streon. Each of us harnesses different aspects of life energy, so one or more of us should be able to help."

This was quite a wide variety of options!

This was good news for Isobel because if just one of the wielders of life energy was able to help, the Larkinsons would not have to wait too long before they could finally welcome their second ace pilot on the battlefield!

"Now that you have found a potential solution to recover her in a spiritual way, we need to figure out how we should recover her physical form." Ketis said as she stared at the brain floating in the tank of nutrient liquid. "We can't keep her like this, obviously."

"I agree. The question is what we should aim for when our clan develops a new body for her. Do you know Isobel well?"

"Not particularly. We have very different interests. We do not mix with each other during normal times. I think my husband Joshua knows her much better."

"That is good to hear. I will ask him about her inclinations and so on. Right now, I think it is not too presumptuous for me to make a guess. Given that Saint Isobel was the only person who decided to act in an extreme fashion in order to force her breakthrough, she is actually a lot more courageous and willing to take risks in order to succeed. In addition, she is highly motivated by power. Becoming strong is of utmost importance to her. If that is the case, then we should calibrate the development of her new body through that lens."

Ketis turned to Ves. "What do you have in mind? You sound as if you already have a plan."

"I do. The vice director mentioned multiple different options in developing a replacement body. One of the most important variables that we need to take into account is recovery speed. It is in the best interest of the clan if Isobel gets back into the fight as quickly as possible. The aliens are ready to launch their major offensive any day now, and we will definitely take part in the first deep strike expeditions when they become available. It makes a huge difference for us if Saint Isobel has recovered and received her new ace mech by that time."

That did not entirely sit well with Ketis.

"It is too fast. We cannot rush Isobel's recovery solely because we want to pursue short-term gains. If she suffers too many complications due to shoddy treatment, then her future may be cut off. That is a terrible outcome that will absolutely ruin her. If you ask me, it is better to wait longer in order to ensure that Isobel makes a proper recovery."

"I agree, Ketis. Those are my thoughts as well. My considerations may be different if she is the only ace pilot that we can count on, but now that we have Saint Tusa, we can afford to wait 4 or 5 years in order to get it right."

It was still a bit of a pity for Saint Isobel to be taken off the board for half a decade. Events moved quickly during this period. Having one less ace pilot at the Larkinson Clan's disposal would undoubtedly limit many of its options.

It couldn't be helped. Ves absolutely did not want to ruin Isobel's chances of becoming a god pilot one day.

He knew that one of the many reasons why so few ace pilots managed to advance to the rank of god pilot was because they encountered all kinds of accidents over their long careers. From defeats to heavy injuries, there were many ways for ace pilots to drop out of the race before they even came close to reaching the finishing line.

"I am in favor of taking it slow." Ves explained as he continued to study Isobel's current condition. "She will have to miss out on taking advantage of the initial period of accelerated growth. It is unlikely for her to be able to catch up to Saint Tusa, but this is an acceptable price to pay if it means that her future is still unlimited."

His former student was in complete agreement. "Okay, since we have decided to take it slow, what sort of body are you thinking about developing for her? I already have a strong hunch that you are not content with producing a nearly identical clone of her old body."

"You would be right. We may as well take advantage of Isobel's current state to develop a physical body that is much more high-performing than anything our clan has ever seen. I have a couple of goals that I want to meet for this project. First, seeing that it is likely that Isobel cannot fully control her power over flames, it is best if her replacement body is as fireproof as possible."

"That should be the number one priority."

"Second, we can try to turn Isobel into a formidable augmented supersoldier. Even if there is never an occasion for her to fight a battle while she is separated from her mech, it is still handy if she can take care of herself."

"I do not agree." Ketis shook her head this time. "Leave infantry combat to the professionals. We should develop an augmented body that is highly suited for mech pilots. It should be highly resistant towards kinetic damage and physical shock. It also should provide the strongest possible protection to the brain and spine. There are many more augmentations designed for mech pilots that we can include as well. Each of them can make the recovered Isobel much stronger than the old Isobel."

Ves frowned. "I am aware of these options, but it is not easy to stuff them all in a single human body. Not only will Isobel be flooded with choices that she may not actually need, but it will become a lot harder for her to acclimate to her souped-up body."

"She is an ace pilot, Ves. She will be able to shape her body according to her will, literally. Even if there are flaws and inefficiencies, willpower baptism can remedy many problems."

That may be true, but there were still other factors that concerned Ves.

"Let's talk about the Carmine System." Ves shifted the topic. "I have been thinking about developing elemental variants of the Carmine System for a while now. Saint Isobel is a perfect candidate to form a Bloodfire Pact with her future ace mech. Normally, I would feel hesitant about making a mech pilot form a pact that can only be formed by using fire energy as a substitute for blood. Any pilot who dares to form such a dangerous pact will probably get burned from the inside. As for Isobel…"

"Even if she is not immune to fire, she can tolerate the heat much better than others, especially when she recovers and gains a fireproof body." Ketis remarked.

Ves smiled as he came up with an interesting notion.

Why not let Saint Isobel supply the fire energy?

Normally, it was impossible to rely on a weak human to supply the considerable amount of fire energy required to form a Bloodfire Pact, but Isobel was different!

Her current state may be weak, but as long as she regains enough strength, she should be able to command more than enough power to form a Bloodfire Pact. Once the pact was made, it should be trivial for her to establish a stable circulation of fire energy between herself and her ace mech.

"We need to restore and upgrade the Promethea in order to supply Isobel with the ace mech she needs." Ves stated. "I haven't taken a close look at the condition of the mech yet. Is the living mech still alive?"

"According to the reports of Joshua and the mech technician, the Promethea is heavily damaged, but she is still alive. She has become much stronger due to benefiting from her battle partner's breakthrough energies. Her mech frame is in bad condition, but it should not be challenging to repair or replace all of her physical parts."

That was good news. The greatest challenge to preparing the Promethea was to convert her into a proper Bloodfire mech. Ves had never developed such an odd mech before. The Dominion of Man may have taught him a few lessons about the Bloodfire Pact, but he was not able to use the powerful Carmine dreadnought as a template.

Ves needed to conduct a lot of research and development in order to cobble together a working Bloodfire Carmine System for mechs!

"Ugh. How the hell am I supposed to fit this massive project into my schedule?"