Of all of the expert mechs designed and built by the Larkinsons, the Everchanger was the most special one of all. At least that was what Ves thought.
The Everchanger was designed with several distinct themes in mind. Two of them were very relevant in this current battle.
The first major theme was adaptability. As a hero mech, the Everchanger was already flexible, but that was not enough for Ves. He wanted his work to be able to adapt in a different way that no other mech designer could accomplish.
Through his efforts, the Everchanger became capable of switching between design spirits.
While it was technically possible for Ves to do that for any of his living mechs, this was the first time he expressly developed a machine with this functionality in mind.
It required a substantially different approach to the Everchanger's spiritual design and Ves had to invent plenty of new solutions in order to make sure that the expert mech was able to channel each design spirit well enough.
All of the trouble was worth it, though. The Everchanger became a mech that was quintessentially a mirror of Joshua. It was 'nice' mech that possessed a lot of vitality and was open-minded to any design spirit no matter their character.
If Joshua wanted to, he could temporarily turn the Everchanger into an Ylvainan mech. He could also make it channel Bravo, Zeigra, Qilanxo and many other design spirits depending on the circumstances.
Right now, the Penitent Sisters needed to maximize the power of its battle formation, so Venerable Joshua performed a role that he had played several times in the past.
"It's time for me to become a Hexer once again." Joshua spoke. "Try and keep up, Everchanger."
I WAS BORN FOR THIS, JOSHUA.
Ves once told Joshua that the Everchanger was a third-order living mech.
Although the pilot didn't know why it was called this way, Joshua knew that his first true expert mech was vastly more alive and intelligent than the Quint and the Valkyrie Prime.
The previous two mechs he piloted were all great in their own ways, but he hadn't piloted the former for years while the latter had been cannibalized to fabricate the Everchanger.
Perhaps the Everchanger's Unending alloy still remembered what it used to be a part of, because the living expert mech synced up to the Superior Mother particularly well!
Joshua felt the distinctly strong presence of the Superior Mother descending on the Everchanger and suffusing it with her glow.
She even greeted him in a familiar way as if he was a good friend of her family.
"Please work with me to slay this astral beast. If we can't finish off this giant monster… then Larkinsons will begin to die again."
So far, the battle hadn't produced any casualties, but that was because the Titania apparently lacked direct attack methods.
However, once its living flesh torpedoes managed to get close to any ship, they would certainly be able to wreak a lot of havoc!
Though it certainly cost a lot of energy and resources for the Titania to generate and launch its flesh torpedoes, it hadn't stopped at all despite being impaled by a giant energy sword just a moment earlier.
Instead, the astral beast behaved as if it recognized the need for haste. As more parts of it became awake, the Titania accelerated its production of flesh torpedoes!
Aware of the importance of his mission, Venerable Joshua tried to channel and embrace the Superior Mother as best as possible!
"Penitent Sisters!" Transmitted to the hundreds of Valkyrie Redeemers that were flying behind the green-coated mech.
The expert mech looked especially grand, but not because of its white and gold accents.
The real reason why it looked so good at the head of the Penitent Sister mechs was because it was the only machine that wore a long red cape!
This giant piece of sturdy fabric was merely a decorative element that Ves had prepared for the Everchanger as an extra touch. The emblem of the Larkinson Clan emblazoned in the middle of the cape made its allegiance unmistakable!
Though the cape did not add any hard performance boosts to the expert mech, it complimented another theme.
Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger were both meant to serve as heroes.
They were the symbols of the Larkinson Clan and could inspire the Larkinsons in a way that allowed them to keep their morale high even during this challenging situation.
While Joshua was not able to inspire confidence by leading the troops like Commander Casella Ingvar, he was able to lead the Larkinsons from the front instead of the rear!
With the Everchanger acting as the tip of the spear, the glorious caped expert mech glowed brighter as Joshua became more immersed in his current role!
"The Superior Mother is with us, Sisters! Our purpose is clear and our enemy is straight ahead. Let us call down the Supreme so that she can smite this giant beast in person! For the Clan!"
"FOR THE CLAN!"
The Penitent Sister mech pilots found that they were able to sync up to each other and the Superior Mother a lot better than before.
This was not because Venerable Joshua was more experienced with leading the Penitent Sister battle network or because he was piloting a better mech.
The true reasons were related to the different mindsets of the mech pilots.
The Penitent Sisters trusted and accepted Joshua a lot more than before. He had proven his capabilities before and did not inspire any doubt from the women who ordinarily preferred to be led by one of their own.
Yet this was not enough for the battle formation of the Penitent Sisters to become more powerful than that of the Glory Seekers!
The biggest influence was one of the main resonating abilities of the Everchanger.
When Ves initially decided to adopt a resonating exotic known as Iridescent Mercury as one of the two key resonating materials of the Everchanger, he didn't really have a clear idea on its value.
After all, unlike other resonating materials, it did not provide a direct boost in combat capabilities to the expert mech.
That did not mean it was useless!
The effect of Iridescent Mercury was to enable to Joshua to amplify the Everchanger's glow by a drastic extent.
He had activated this new resonating ability at this moment, which not only caused his expert mech to glow brightly, but also envelop the Penitent Sister mechs around it with a much stronger, purer and livelier version of their own glows!
"This is amazing!"
This was why the Glory Seekers went first. Their formation moved ahead of the other one even as the Superior Mother's energy manifestation began to prepare for a strike. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
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