Chapter 3903 Hasty Getaway
As soon as the Everchanger succeeded in cutting off and bringing out the brain of the Phase King, the expert mech quickly retreated from the unstable region of space.
By this time, the spatial fluctuations had already started to weaken as the spatial hole grew smaller. The fabric of space innately sought to correct irregularities, so it did not surprise Ves to see that this hole was slowly shrinking.
It made him feel even better about his decision to stay away from whatever crazy scheme the Cerebral King was trying to pull off in the Royal Tomb.
"Get out of here, Joshua! Try your best to preserve the Phase King's brain while you're at it. Don't squish it so hard. Let's not damage it more than necessary!"
This was easy to say but hard to execute. How could a mech possibly limit the damage done to an amputated brain that was exposed to a turbulent spatial environment?!
However, Venerable Joshua wasn't an average mech pilot and the Everchanger wasn't that normal either.
Compared to other combinations, the two possessed a number of advantages, one of which was their high affinity towards life!
Venerable Joshua didn't even need Ves' instructions to experiment with its powers and channel a resonating energy onto the giant king fish brain to help with keeping it alive.
Together with the fact that fish-whale organs were much tougher and more resilient than human organs, the brain somehow managed to continue to retain its vitality by the time the expert mech reached the supply train.
Ves had already transmitted instructions beforehand, so a crew had already made the appropriate preparations.
The Everchanger carefully placed the amputated brain inside a hastily-sanitized container that soon closed up in order to do its utmost to preserve the biological matter.
Though the device was hardly up to the task of keeping an organ as complex as preserving a giant alien brain, Ves at least hoped that it would buy enough time for the package to be delivered to the Dragon's Den.
The Larkinson Biotech Institute should be able to do the rest!
"Evacuate now! Let's return straight back to the Gate Continent! We need to pull out as much of our assets as we can from this side of the spatial gate in case the Cerebral King is about to destroy everything!"
Although Ves had no idea whether the Cerebral King had any designs on Purgatory, he did not deem it wise to stick around any further!
His extensive experiences in living through various disasters had long suppressed his curiosity and desire to get to the bottom of whatever grand schemes the masterminds sought to realize.
Exploring new sights and coming across amazing new phenomena sounded like great ways to get inspired, but the premise of this was that he had to be able to survive the events in question.
Right now, his instincts were screaming danger!
The surviving elements of the task force eagerly retreated from the battlefield and made its way straight back to the Gate Continent.
They did not even bother to divert too much in order to keep their distance from the various asteroids occupied by the Swarmer fish-whales. That would take up too much time and Ves didn't think they had much left!
One of the difficulties they experienced during this tense journey was the need to drag along the various mechs whose mech pilots had recently broken through.
After the likes of Jessica Quentin, Vincent Ricklin, Isobel Kotin, Olivia Remis and Eona Ballentine broke through, much of the energy that they had accumulated burst out at once.
While this allowed them to temporarily wield the awesome power of forced resonance, the consequence was that the pilots became utterly drained to the point of becoming incomparably weak!
None of the lucky bastards were able to retain their consciousness after they had their moments of glory.
In a few cases, the mech pilots even overburdened their poor mechs to the point where they had practically collapsed!
These were actually easy to handle. Their bodies could easily be retrieved from their cockpits and be put inside shuttles where they received the care they needed.
As for those that were still stuck inside mechs that were somewhat intact, the mech forces needed to handle them a bit more delicately.
It was an enormous waste to leave the mechs behind, especially when they were alive.
The Quint, the B-Man, the Valkyrie Brunhilds and so on had all received an enormous amount of spiritual feedback from the overflowing energies released by their pilots as they underwent apotheosis!
Even the mechs that hosted the mech pilots turned expert candidates also siphoned a lot of benefits!
Each of these machines had either evolved into third order living mechs in a single step or came a lot closer to reaching this major threshold.
Given that the core of Ves' design philosophy was related to the growth of any living mech, the opportunity to instantly double or triple the number of third-order living mechs within the expeditionary fleet was too tempting to resist!
Besides, Ves didn't think the Everchanger and the other living mechs of his clan would be happy with him if he ordered the task force to abandon all of those precious mechs.
At least the Everchanger didn't nag him about retrieving the remains of the more ordinary living mechs. That would simply be too much!
"C'mon! We're almost back home again!"
In the end, Task Force Fisherman managed to make the journey back to Fort Fishblood without bumping into any Swarmer hordes or spatial anomalies.
In order to give the base occupants as much time to evacuate as possible, Commander Casella had already sent out the Dark Zephyr in advance to convey the news of the battle and what happened next.
Ves received a lot of angry and confused messages from various people as the Everchanger managed to gain a remote connection to Fort Fishblood's internal network.
Fortunately, the people stationed in Fort Fishblood weren't stupid. They had always assumed that they might have to pack up and leave as soon as possible in case an emergency happened.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Mech Touch