The Undying Mecha Emperor

"I want in on the battle competitions. All four of them!" I announced my new plan to Princess Louisa.

"That's not a problem. You can join my Silver Legion and represent it in the Singles, Battalions and Regiment battles. The division battles are slightly tricky, as the Royal Legions are technically part of the Central Division. But if the Royal Legions participate in it, then the tournament becomes a farce. We would win for sure." Princess Louisa said thoughtfully.

"Loan me to the weakest division. I will lead them to victory." I said confidently.

"I guess that might work. Don't worry about it. I will handle the technical issues. If you're participating in the Royal Talent Championships, then I suggest you prepare yourself right now. The event starts in two days. It will begin with the highly contested mecha design.

However, don't let the name of the competition fool you though. It will include not only the creative and powerful design of mechas, but also groundbreaking and marvelous designs of weapons, armor and other technology.

It's the full package." Princess Louisa warned me.

"Two days? Perfect. Just enough time to kick back and enjoy myself as a Royal VIP guest first. Don't forget to give me a complete rulebook before the event. I don't want to be disqualified due to some obscure sneaky rule." I said to her. "Plus I want to see what the rewards are! I want details, details!"

I did not tell her that I would be invincible in two days. After I had activated both my new bloodlines, my red mecha core had increased its devour speed once more. And the ten days which it needed to cleanly digest Control had reduced once more to two days. 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝒆𝘸𝚎𝙗𝒏oν𝙚𝘭.𝐜𝒐m

Perfect timing for the Championship.

"Rulebook?" Princess Louisa chuckled. "You guys still use books back in China?"

But before I could reply, a sudden blare of warning sounded throughout the cockpit.

"We're under attack?!" Princess Louisa shouted in disbelief and shock.

She slammed on the loudspeakers and unleashed a torrent of words which basically meant:

"THIS IS PRINCESS LOUISA! STAND DOWN OR YOUR WHOLE FAMILY WILL BE MASSACRED UPON MY RETURN!"

With a whole lot of other bloody and violent adjectives, of course. But it didn't seem to work. The blare of warnings kept ringing.

"Bastards. They must be from the other faction! They are taking advantage of the fact that we are in a suspicious unknown mecha to try and destroy us even when I have clearly identified myself." Princess Louisa cursed loudly.

"Well. It's not like you're a weak, featherless sitting duck. You have weapons. Shoot back." I said with a yawn.

But Princess Louisa was typing some stuff into the control panel and getting the mecha sensors to show her some sort of energy signature data even as she deftly controlled the mecha into a series of evasive maneuvers.

"She's probably trying to find out who we're up against." I thought to myself as I checked out the progress of my red mecha core.

I prodded it slightly.

"Give me something. I might need it." I muttered.

However, to my extreme, extreme shock, the red mecha core… actually responded!

"You little human bastard. Disturb me one more time and I will go on strike! I just need thirty more hours of uninterrupted silence. Thirty! Is it that too much to ask for?" A grumpy middle aged woman's voice rang out in my mind.

My jaw dropped.

The middle aged woman / mecha core seemed to sense my shock.

"What are you so shocked about? Obviously I am a life form. How the hell do you think a dead energy core can have such powerful effects as dissolve and devour? What a dumbass." She said, still in her grumbly voice.

I gulped heavily as I struggled to come to terms with the fact that a living thing of sorts had just spent the past few weeks within my body.

"You're waking me up just to deal with these tiny flies? Damn it. What sort of weakling are you? Deal with them the conventional way! I will be completely out of reach for the next thirty hours! No! Make it sixty. I need some down time after working so hard, damn you. Bye!"

Whoosh.

A wall of sorts appeared between my mind and the red mecha core.

It felt like I just got my own bedroom door slammed shut in front of my face.

My mouth twitched.

I'll be damned if I took that rude outburst like a good little boy and waited patiently for sixty god damned hours.

With a single thought, I sent a powerful and distinctly un-gentle mental prod upon that strange wall to test its strength.

Crack!!!

It broke without much of a resistance, and the red mecha core's presence flooded my mind once more.

"Hey! You human punk! What did I-"

Like the stately but inexorable march of an Emperor led army of millions, I let my mental presence take form and imposed my will upon her.

However, I held myself back from fully encroaching the entirety of my mindspace with my presence, and allowed her to retain control of a sizeable chunk of space for her own private use.

My wordless message was clear.

I am in charge. You obey me. And as long as that basis of our relationship is respected, you will have the dignity of your privacy, and along with it, my respect and my consideration of your needs.

You might think that its rather inconceivable that such a lengthy message could be derived from my simple and wordless act, but you would be amazed just what two people sharing a mindspace very closely could understand based on simple and wordless actions.

"Ah f*ck. I thought I got myself an immature weakling." The middle aged woman / red mecha core sighed mournfully. "Fine. I will do as you say. But-"

"No buts. You either carry yourself as a partner worthy of my respect and gain my trust, or you can act like a miserly, lazy worker and be treated as one." I said quietly but firmly.

"Ahh. Double f***. You're good. You're very good. Fine. FINE! We'll do it your way." She sighed deeply once more, but with less faux mourning and more resigned acceptance.

"Good. My name is Justin Whitefrost. What's yours?" I said with a satisfied smile.

"My name is… Arabella Scarlett." She said softly.

"Arabella. It's a beautiful name." I said sincerely.

She remained silent at my words, but I could sense the beginnings of warmth start to emanate from her.

Whoosh.

At that moment, Arabella's human form appeared in my mind. She was exactly as she sounded, a beautiful, red haired middle aged woman with a pair of perfectly formed size D breasts barely cupped in a red formal dress.

"You… You're a human being?" I gasped as my mind reeled at the presence of such a hot middle aged lady.

I was ten years old. Ten! But her appearance then probably accelerated my mental and physical maturity by a full five years.

"I was." Arabella said quietly.

But we weren't in a coffee shop where we were able to talk and get to know each other freely. Before we could go on to smoothen our relationship's rocky start, Princess Louisa's analysis was finally complete.

"Our attackers are equipped with border mechas modified with the Black Dragon Army's unique power source which provides an unnaturally huge amount of power for a short period of time. That bastard must have issued standing orders to destroy me as soon as I appear." Princess Louisa hissed in anger.

"Where is your Silver Legion? If the Black Dragon Army was standing by to kill you, couldn't your Silver Legion stand by to rescue you as well?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow. "Plus, how many mechas are attacking us and how strong are they? If there are no golden mechas, then let's just kill them all ourselves."

"I don't know where the Silver Legion is. But as you say, they're definitely standing by. They should be here soon. In the meantime, there are only a hundred blues, two whites, and no golden mechas. But the Black Dragon Army are all elites. The whites are definitely much more skilled than me." Princess Louisa said.

"Hmmm. Let me think." I replied and immediately continued to communicate with Arabella.

"Arabella." I began.

"I know, I know. Don't worry, against such weaklings, I don't even need three seconds. I can just dissolve the-"

"No, we are not dissolving them. That would reveal your existence. I want to keep you as my secret for as long as possible. Let's just enhance this mecha and increase its power so that destroying those flies would be like a cat killing a bunch of rats. Not too easy, but also a foregone conclusion." I said.

"Well, okay. If you say so. Do you want to do it yourself or do you want me to do it for you?" Arabella asked.

"We need to discuss and explore the dynamics of our relationship later." I frowned as I realized that having another thinking living being in my mind was rather complicated. Especially one such as Arabella. "But for now, go on ahead and do it for me."

I stretched my hand out and pretended to work on the control panel.

"Yes boss. Here we go, what was it they call it? White mecha grade? Pfft. A weak ass mecha coming right up." Arabella scoffed lightly and unleashed a wave of red energy which immediately brought the alien mecha's power level up to hit that of a peak white mecha's.

"I've unlocked this mecha's full potential. Go crazy." I told Princess Louisa.

But she was staring at me with a shocked look on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. "We have a lot of mechas to kill, hello?"