The newly built Fey Project was holding up a lot better now that it had come online.
With Major Jankowski in charge, the mech no longer stupidly stood around.
It not only adopted a stabler posture, but also deployed all four its living fey!
Sadly, not all of them could offer a lot of assistance. The water fey was the only one that was equipped with a defensive module.
That did not mean that the other three fey were useless, though. Their innate affinities to the different elements allowed them to exert a measure of control over fire, wood and earth energy.
Both Jankowski and the living mech were still in the process of exploring what they could do with the tools they had at their disposal.
Wrangling the energies was not that simple. They not only interacted in many different ways with each other, but also became dispersed to an extent whenever another golden lightning bolt struck from above!
The five elements mech was the first of its kind as far as Ves knew. No mech pilot had any sort of practice with a machine that possessed similar capabilities.
This caused Jankowski and the new living mech to go through a lot of trial and error.
Many of their attempts to strengthen the Fey Project's ability to resist the lightning tribulation failed to produce any favorable results. They had to try out a different method in order to shape the elemental energies in a way that could help them at this time.
Ves paid constant attention to the state of his creation. His mind was swirling with ideas, and he occasionally made suggestions based on his own understanding of hyper technology and E-technology.
CRACK!
At the same time, Ves cheekily took advantage of his mech's lightning tribulation to siphon a part of that ultimate power for his own use!
Though Ves clearly understood that he was subjecting himself to excessive risks, a part of him felt it was an enormous waste if he did not take advantage of this opportunity to further his comprehensive evolution!
A look of dissatisfaction appeared on his face as his body did not even manage to register the effect of the last lightning strike.
His Unending Regalia had channeled all of the current that flowed through the jury-rigged rods.
"This is not good enough. What am I afraid of? My armor is holding me back!"
Ves just realized that it was better to take advantage of this moment while the Fey Project was still in good shape and the power of the lightning tribulation hadn't ramped up too much.
Besides, Ves had made additional modifications to his scheme that enabled him to exercise limited control over how much lightning power would loop through the cockpit.
"Let's do this, then!"
Major Jankowski initially did not notice what was happening to the side, but when he briefly took a look, the mech pilot grew alarmed when he saw that Ves had actually stepped out of his combat armor!
Ves not only shed his armor, but also deactivated his energy shield generator along with other defensive gadgets.
In order to prevent his electronics from getting fried, he had removed most of them from his body and set them aside.
Only after that did he use his bare hands and feet to touch the four rods.
"Sir! What are you doing! You are putting your body in serious danger!"
"I know what I am doing, major! This isn't the first time that I have endured a lighting bath. I do not know if you have been informed about this, but I am actually a phase lord. My body can take way more punishment than you think!"
The critical moment quickly neared.
Due to how much additional risks Ves had incurred by removing his armor, he felt a lot of dread towards an unstoppable force that was about to unleash its might yet again.
CRACK!
The cockpit shook more violently and the rest of the mech frame rattled a lot more as the power of the last bolt had increased yet again!
"Ah!"
Ves felt electrocuted in a way that he had never experienced before!
He already suspected it before, but now that the golden current had briefly run through his body, he personally confirmed that this lightning tribulation came from a much different source!
It not only held not a single scrap of goodwill towards him, but probably operated by different rules as well.
This lightning tribulation was not a force that was willing to promote his goals so long as he passed its test.
This destructive force sought to strike down his five elements mech with extreme prejudice!
Even though it was forced by its very nature to channel the power of creation through its potent attacks, Ves intuitively guessed that the tribulation lightning did not intend for the mech to exist long enough to enjoy its benefits!
Even though he was not the target of this lightning tribulation, Ves was able to understand what his mech was going through a lot better after he experienced this force in person.
His body had definitely incurred a bit of damage, his resilience was so high that Ves had no cause for concern.
Instead, Ves focused more on what happened to his body tissue after it got fried by the golden current.
His flesh and bones began to undergo a slow and subtle transformation. The parts of his body that sustained more severe damage exhibited a greater rebound as the raw power of creation directly nourished his organic cells and made them stronger in ways that he could not explain.
What was important to Ves was that he could sense that the phasewater in his blood had actually begun to increase!
Though the changes were extremely minor at this time, Ves deduced that subjecting himself to continuous lightning tribulations may be the most effective way for him to advance his body cultivation!
"That is not all." Ves grinned.
He was more than just a phase lord. His powerful spirituality that had already been tempered by a past lightning tribulation started to show more signs of strengthening.
Of course, his spirituality also sustained a nasty shock that caused him to feel pained down to his very soul, but once the power of creation started to do its work, Ves experienced a brief moment of ecstasy as he could feel that his glow had grown a little more powerful!
"Mrow mrow!"
Even his companion spirit benefited from this potent force!
Blinky even attempted to devour a tiny proportion of the golden current and dump it into his internal universe, but he failed in this attempt.
The power of lightning was too fleeting to get caught by Blinky's devouring ability!
Oh well.
"This is not enough. I need more stimulation to speed up the evolution of my body."
Ves used the interval between lightning bolts to alter the settings of his improvised arrangement.
When the next tribulation lightning struck, the cockpit lit up a lot brighter as a much stronger current ran through his body!
CRACK!
"AAHHH! THAT HURTS!"
His body was actually steaming as a substantial part of his palm looked like they had suffered nasty burns!
Ves blinked his eyes as he tried to regain his wits.
"Perhaps I went a little too far in the other direction. That was a bit too much."
"Meow!"
Lucky grew concerned at what Ves was doing to himself.
"I am fine! I will isolate the force a bit more so that I won't receive such a strong shock this time. By the way, you should come and have a taste of this lightning as well."
"Meow meow meow!"
"That's not true. It will be fine! Just try it out. You will become a lot stronger if you are willing to take the risk. At worst, you will just release whatever you are digesting at this moment."
"Meeeoooow!"
CRACK!
"AHHH! That's it! That's the right amount of power! Come on, Lucky! If you miss out on this, who knows how long it will take for you to grow any stronger?"
It took a bit more cajoling, but Ves eventually persuaded Lucky to share the burden.
The gem cat reluctantly landed on Ves' shoulder and waited for the next strike to come.
Blinky was also trying to absorb more current.
CRACK!
"AAAAHl"
"MEEEEOOOWl"
"MROW!"
"Damnit, why has its power jumped by such a large extent?!"
Both mech designer and gem cat looked a little crispier now that they had received a stronger than average shock.
Major Jankowski had tried his best to resist the power of the lightning tribulation, but the antics of Ves added another burden to his mind!
Though Ves wanted to embrace the forces of destruction and creation that were working in tandem to promote his evolution, he did not forget about his primary responsibility.
He studied the projected control panel and figured out the current state of the Fey Project.
He also reached out with his spiritual senses to get a more intuitive sense of the flow of elemental energies that was constantly taking place in and around the mech frame.
Ves quickly concluded that Major Jankowski had followed his initial idea and sought to rely on a combination between metal and earth energies to reinforce the main body of the Fey Project.
Earth nourished metal, which caused the mech frame to get reinforced to an even greater extent!
In addition to that, earth energy had an excellent grounding effect on lightning, making it so that the tribulation lightning did not penetrate too much into the internals.
It was not completely effective, though. The lighting strikes possessed extraordinary properties that somehow caused every other attribute to suffer damage.
This was the power of supreme destruction!
While the Fey Project still sustained at least a bit of damage with every strike due to this reason, the strange reinforcement effect happened to be powerful enough to keep the armor of the mech in good shape for the time being.
The fact that his new mech was already able to do this was remarkable!
His five elements mech was finally beginning to make use of its potential, though there was still a lot more that could still be done.
CRACK!
"AHH!"
"MEEOOWl"
"MROW!"
Lucky started to question whether it was a good idea for him to participate in Ves' latest bout of insanity.
This was pure torture!
The gem cat could not even tell whether his archemetal construction was improving in any way.
While Ves recovered from the latest strike, he received an urgent transmission from Jovy.
"We have consulted the opinion of several experts." Jovy quickly spoke. "Your new mech has been struck a dozen times so far, but that is just the beginning. They have estimated that this lightning tribulation will likely persist for at least 81 strikes. What is more pertinent is that the power and the form of the lightning strikes will become substantially more threatening after every 9 discharges. Some of our authoritative experts have even mentioned the possibility that even greater abnormalities may occur as this event proceeds further. The power of the final 9 strikes will be at least two orders of magnitude stronger than the first attack."
"What?!"
The first lightning strike was not that impressive, but an attack that was 100 times stronger was a different matter!
There was no way the Fey Project would be able to resist such an attack with its base functions alone, especially when it had already sustained heavy damage from all of the previous strikes!
Ves grew more and more discouraged at this situation. Though he did not want to give up, he knew that his five elements mech had to master its capabilities a lot faster in order to make it past the end!
CRACK!
"AAAAHHHH!"
"MEEEOW!"
"MROOOW!"
"What are you doing, Ves?! Is it worth it for you to subject yourself to a part of the raw power of this lightning tribulation?"
"I know what I am doing, Jovy! Before you ask, I did not go crazy. What I am currently doing is completely logical!"
n 1,
"By the way, I want to ask you a question seeing that you are in contact with the experts of the Association. What is the origin of this lightning tribulation? Does it come from the Red Ocean, or..."
Jovy's expression became grim as he supplied the answer.
"The E energy radiation that has engulfed the Red Ocean originates from Messier 87. The lightning tribulation that has manifested above your base is an extension of that very same supermassive galaxy."
Jovy validated Ves' guess.
"Congratulations, Ves. You have become one of the few red humans to make direct contact with a powerful alien force that originates from Messier 87."
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