The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

The key to winning the final challenge was to help Furia come to grips with her inherited power.

The Dominion of Man by herself was not yet able to cope with a mythical god beast like the phoenix.

Her vaunted weapon systems that could easily demolish any alien battleship she came across were ultimately outclassed in this fight.

The phoenix utilized its blazing speed and agility to frustrate the tracking of many slow-moving primary gun turrets, and relied on its True God-level fire shield to block the errant shots that managed to land true.

To their credit, the crew of the dreadnought did not settle for the status quo and tried their best to improve the results.

They tweaked and modified their targeting and tracking parameters so that the weapons of the dreadnought could better cope with a circling opponent.

They analyzed the phoenix's behavioral patterns. With the huge amount of help provided by the Brain Trust, the science officers managed to construct a detailed mathematical model that significantly increased the hit rates of every weapon system.

The ship's materializers worked overtime to fabricate spare parts as well as missiles in order to sustain the vessel for a longer time. Crew members worked above and beyond to repair broken systems and improvise expedient solutions in order to save time.

Yet despite all of their efforts, the Dominion of Man was dying. Too many surface modules had melted from the heat. If not for the fact that the dreadnought's gun turrets were designed and built to resist a lot of damage, many more of them would have crumbled already.

For the time being, the dreadnought used up virtually all of her reserves of coolants and other heat-mitigating solutions to preserve the operation of her most powerful cannons, but time was increasingly running out. If the ship did not start with repelling the phoenix's overwhelming domain, her ability to strike back at the powerful god beast would soon be crippled.

This was unacceptable!

This was why everyone was banking on Furia. The transformed Fire Elemental was the only asset of the Dominion of Man who possessed the raw power to contend against the phoenix.

What frustrated Ves was that his plan had already gone off-track.

Instead of helping Furia master the personal rune that was left behind by the creator of the Fire Scroll, First Flame instead rambled about all kinds of topics related to the mythical creator.

"FIRE IS ONE OF THE MOST VOLATILE ELEMENTS IN EXISTENCE. THOSE WHO STUDIED IT AND MASTERED IT UNDERSTAND THAT THEY MUST CONSTANTLY ALIGN WITH ITS TEMPERAMENTAL NATURE IN ORDER TO MAKE FURTHER PROGRESS. YET THAT IS EXACTLY WHERE THE DANGER LIES. TOO MANY FIRES WILL ONLY RESULT IN UNBRIDLED DESTRUCTION. THOSE LOST IN THE FLAMES LOSE ALL SENSE OF RESPECT FOR LIFE. THEY ONLY CONSIDER OTHERS AS TINDER THAT SHOULD BE LIT AFLAME IN ORDER TO FEED THEIR OWN FIRE. THE CREATOR OF THE FIRE SCROLL IS THE ARCHETYPICAL EXAMPLE OF A CULTIVATOR WHO BECAME A SLAVE OF HIS OWN DESIRES."

The tales that described the cruelty, the selfishness and the madness of the creator of the Fire Scroll had an outsized impact on Furia.

A part of her despaired that she was 'descended' from such a deplorable god.

Another part of her rebelled against the path of her predecessor!

It was the latter part that started to become a more prominent part of her being!

While Furia began to find her purpose and strengthened her ego, her domain not only started to grow stronger, but also started to gain a different accent!

This was an interesting development to Ves. He never thought that it would be that easy for True Gods to change their domains.

Then again, nothing about Furia was conventional. She was a newborn occupying the form of another True God. She was no different from a squatter who just happened to break into an expensive mansion and had little idea how to manage it properly.

The solution that Ves originally proposed was for Furia to learn how the previous owner arranged and utilized the mansion. The goal was for her to emulate the creator of the Fire Scroll as much as possible with the idea that it would be a lot faster and easier for her to recall the mythical figure's command over fire.

What happened instead was that the First Flame encouraged Furia to redecorate and repurpose the mansion. Its foundation and structure were immutable and could not be changed, but the newborn incarnation could still change the furniture and find new ways to use existing facilities.

Perhaps that was why Furia's domain started to undergo modest changes. It still retained much of the same feel, but the change in accent caused it to become a little narrower in scope. "AS A BEING OF FIRE, YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE AWARE OF THE IMPULSES GENERATED BY YOUR OWN NATURE. THE HOTTER YOU BURN, THE GREATER THE RISK OF LOSING CONTROL. YET MANY STILL DO SO BECAUSE THE FANNING THE FLAMES IS TOO MUCH FOR THEM TO RESIST. WILL YOU DO THE SAME, FURIA? WILL YOUR DESIRE TO OVERPOWER THE PHOENIX TORMENTING YOUR SHIP DRIVE YOU TO THROW ALL CAUTION TO THE WIND AND PURSUE POWER AT ANY COST?"

The way the First Flame framed his argument sounded incredibly manipulative to Ves. It was very clear now that the old god pilot wanted to steer Furia's development in a direction of his own choosing.

Ves should have known that the crotchety old god pilot pursued his own agenda.

Though the First Flame's advice was still helpful enough, Furia would clearly begin to diverge from the creator of the Fire Scroll if she continued to go down this direction.

Ves had no idea whether that was even possible. It would be as if a companion spirit took over its principal and started to live a completely different life!

Would this cause Furia's domain to bend and stretch to the point where it started to change on a more permanent basis?

Or would Furia push too far and break herself into pieces due to diverging too much from her original personality?

All of this touched upon matters that were far beyond his understanding! Ves was not yet qualified to mess around with True Gods, and his understanding of domains was still too superficial.

Ves was losing control over the situation. The outside consultant had taken over the initiative and continued his ploy to single-handedly indoctrinate Furia.

The fact that the First Flame's plan seemed to be working was the main reason why Ves and Dread Captain Argile did not insist on closing the communication channel.

Even so, Ves did not feel comfortable with every proposal from the First Flame.

"YOU ARE CHANGING FOR THE BETTER, FURIA. EMBRACE YOUR FIRE, BUT NOT TOO MUCH. ONE OF THE STRENGTHS OF HUMANS IS THAT THEY UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF MODERATION. AS LONG AS YOU DO YOUR BEST TO CONTROL YOUR OWN FLAMES AND RESIST THE URGE TO KEEP FANNING THEM, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE A BETTER GOD THAN THE CREATOR OF THE FIRE SCROLL. DO YOU HAVE THE STRENGTH TO USE YOUR FIRE WITH RESTRAIN? DO YOU HAVE THE CONVICTION TO EMPLOY YOUR FIRE TO THE BENEFIT OF RED HUMANITY RATHER THAN YOURSELF? MAKE YOUR DECISION, FURIA."

Something about the First Flame's words stirred Furia's burning heart. The transformed Fire Elemental began to produce more heat, but did her best to restrain her output lest she damage the ship.

"I… HAVE MADE MY DECISION. EARLIER, I EMBRACED MY NEW CALLING BY DOING THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT MY ORIGINAL HAS DONE SO LONG AGO. NOW, I HAVE DECIDED TO FORGO THE OBSESSIVE PURSUIT OF PERSONAL POWER AND DO MY BEST TO ARM RED HUMANITY WITH THE FIRE THEY NEED TO ENACT RETRIBUTION UPON THEIR ALIEN FOES!"

Her domain strengthened by another notch! Her improvement was so significant this time that the phoenix was no longer able to press its hostile domain deeper into the Dominion of Man!

The god beast clearly did not take a liking to that and intensified its attempt to engulf the entire dreadnought into its sea of flames!

Supported by Caramond and the hopes of all of the crew, Furia shouldered the growing pressure with increasing fervor. The transformed Fire Elemental no longer saw herself as a shadow of her mythical origin.

She had begun to define her own identity, one that began to make her resonate with the faith of the human race on an independent basis!

Ves widened his eyes when he saw how easily Furia became a deity cultivator.

It appeared that there was a reason why True Gods were called this way.

They all possessed an inherent ability to tap into faith energy. There was no need for them to practice a specific cultivation method. Intent and conviction were enough for them to leverage the power of faith!

Unlike Caramond who tapped into the power of human supremacy, Furia resonated with humanity's anger towards the aliens.

There were many human soldiers who had taken up arms against the aliens. They fought against the encroaching enemy raiding fleets on a regular basis and lost many comrades in the process.

For each soldier lost and for each colony that got razed, the surviving humans became increasingly angrier towards the aliens.

Many soldiers had become a vessel of their own fury and indignation towards the aliens that sought to make red humanity extinct.

Each of them may have vastly different reasons to feel so angry towards their foes, but their hatred towards the invading aliens united them together!

Now, Furia had begun to tap into those powerful flames. The injection of so much faith energy not only bolstered her connection to red humanity, but also began to alter her even further!

Her domain reflected all of these changes. The faith of many strong and courageous soldiers fueled her fire to the point where Furia struggled to contain her growing fury towards the aliens!

Many fleeters who continued to crew their stations located around the Spark Reactor began to feel uncomfortably hot!

Despite the efforts of their suits to keep their bodies at a tolerable temperature, the rising power and heat emanating from Furia's changing domain was beginning to make their lives a lot more difficult!

Furia clearly sensed how her rising power was starting to make it unbearable for people to remain in proximity to her, so she tried her best to clamp down on her rising heat.

What was the point of becoming more powerful when she ended up burning more humans in the process?

"MY FIRE… SHALL NEVER POSE A THREAT TO LOYAL HUMANS!"

After she made this powerful declaration, her domain shifted even further! It gained another accent that significantly altered its expression!

Many people relaxed. The engineers assigned to monitor and maintain the Spark Reactor experienced the greatest relief. Their bodies had been drenched in sweat despite the fact that they wore the most heat-resistant suits.

As the accents affecting Furia's domain continued to strengthen their influence, the transformed Fire Elemental became increasingly more in sync with the Dominion of Man.

The Bloodfire Pact grew stronger.

The fire energies generated by Furia propagated faster through the hull.

The various systems and modules of the Dominion of Man were able to leverage a greater concentration of Furia's fire energy without exceeding their safety limitations!

In the end, Furia had chosen to place her confidence in the Dominion of Man as opposed to herself.

Ves did not know whether she had made the right decision, but now that it had come to this point, he had no choice but to respect her decision.

"Captain! Furia has chosen to give us the power to resist the phoenix. She won't be able to play a leading role in resisting this god beast. It will be up to your ship to do the heavy lifting. Are you ready to initiate a counter-attack against this obnoxious firebird?"

Dread Captain Argile smiled beneath his helmet.

"We have been waiting for this. If we are to pass this final test, we shall do so as a team!"