The Mech Touch

While fish-whale and expert mech exchanged blows with each other, the leaders of the respective groups hardly paid attention to the thrilling duel taking place outside.

Both Ves and the Cerebral King had become completely engrossed in their own world. Compared to the emotional narrative that the murals told in their primitive glory, how could a mere chest-thumping competition hold their interest?

Just to be sure, Ves briefly asked whether the fish-whales had a habit of dueling to the death.

They did not, fortunately. While the Swarmer fish-whales had few constraints about attacking and devouring the bodies of their fellow kind, the Evolver fish-whales had progressed beyond this stage.

The two continents under the control of the Evolution Kingdom might hold a lot of research value, but they were not particularly rich in resources.

Whether it was phasewater, energy or other nutrients required to grow fish-whales, the Evolution Kingdom was not as rich as the other three surviving fish-whale kingdoms.

This was why the Evolution Kingdom pursued a strategy of quality over quantity, seeking to grow and maximize the strength of each individual fish-whale!

While the Cerebral King did not explain all of this to Ves, the analysts who poured over the footage of Venerable Tusa's scouting run were able to deduce this much after analyzing the resource endowments of every landmass.

With this in mind, Ves had long bet that the Cerebral King was an all-out researcher who was extremely interested in learning new curiosities.

So far, that prediction appeared to be accurate.

Of course, that wasn't enough for them to treat each other as friends and happily exchange knowledge as if they belonged to the same kind.

If either of them possessed the strength to crush the other, Ves had no doubt that either of them would resort to force in order to extract information more directly!

Ves decided against doing this from the beginning while the king fish had made its own judgment of the situation.

Both of them weren't that familiar with each other, but they were both capable of estimating each other's strength.

Ves knew that the Evolver fish-whales were incredibly powerful individual combatants and that many of them could match the power of an expert mech.

The Cerebral King might not have encountered mechs before today, but the rather compact frames were made of dense metals and possessed a lot of energy for their dimensions. They were absolutely not simple and wouldn't succumb as easily as the Swarmer fish-whales.

With that basic estimation of each other's strength, neither of them were able to put themselves above the other. Instead of letting that be a source of competition, they treated each other as equals and engaged in a fair exchange of information.

Both of them prized knowledge over many other concerns.

Ves eagerly wanted to learn about the history of Purgatory and the development of the fish-whale race.

The Cerebral King eagerly wanted to hear what lay beyond the pocket space.

Neither of them paid a direct cost to revealing different pieces of information. On the premise that neither of them sought to deceive or cheat each other, they both became increasingly more comfortable with sharing what they knew about matters of interest to the other party.

There was also a second reason why the two leaders got along with each other.

There was not much reason for competition between them. Ves was not a fish-whale and did not belong in Purgatory. He did not come here to conquer the entire pocket space. With an MTA research team and other assets on the way, this amazing phase whale enclave would fall into the hands of the mechers sooner or later.

Since this was the case, Ves purposely put down his airs and constructed an image of a harmless nerd who also happened to lead his own organization.

Ves couldn't lie too much about the strength of his Larkinson Clan. The duel taking place above along with the strong intelligence of the Cerebral King meant that any blatant lie would soon be exposed.

It was just as well. Ves was a mech designer by profession and it was against his nature to undersell the strength of mechs.

COMPREHENSION. 'MECHS' ARE CONSTRUCTS DESIGNED TO GIVE WEAK HUMANS THE POWER OF STRONG WHALES.

"Power comparable to whales." Ves corrected the big fish. "Mechs actually pursue a different kind of strength from you fish-whales or phase whales. Your tech base is centered entirely around powerful biological organs. Our mechs derive their strength from a combination of physical machinery and human power."

EXPLAIN HUMAN POWER.

"Ah, not so fast. It's your turn to tell me more about your history and the history of your race. Earlier, you explained the traitor that has caused this phase whale enclave to fall into disrepair. What of the other kin in your batch? Are they still alive today?"

The Cerebral King turned a bit morose at the mention of its so-called kin. Once, the fish-whales of the first successful batch had all been as thick as thieves. They grew up alongside each other and reached maturity at roughly the same time.

As experimental subjects, each of them possessed different advantages. The Fusion King excelled at absorbing and manipulating energy and had grown increasingly more proficient at it over the years.

The ruler of the Hot Kingdom fully deserved this name!

This was because when the Cerebral King described the first traitor among the group, it also described how much destruction it could unleash in a fight.

FUSION KING DEPRIVING US FROM ENERGY. FOUGHT WAR IN THE PAST. ALL BROUGHT ARMIES.

"How… did this fight proceed?" Ves tentatively asked even though he could already predict the answer.

DESTRUCTION. OVERWHELMING DESTRUCTION. FUSION KING HARNESSES POWER OF STARS. TOO MUCH ENERGY. IRRESISTIBLE.

Ves looked shocked. Perhaps it was wrong for him to dismiss the Fusion King so quickly. This energy-rich phase whale might be the strongest individual fish-whale in this pocket space!

"If the Fusion King is so strong… why hasn't he killed you all yet? Why does it only control three continents?"

The massive eyes of the Cerebral King revealed a surprising amount of emotions. Even though a huge amount of years had passed, the old fish-whale was much more emotionally attached to the memories of its childhood.

Those formative years not only shaped its initial personality, but also guided its subsequent actions.

The attack on the Hot Kingdom was the most costly attempt to pursue the grudges of the past!

FUSION KING STRONG IN TERRITORY. CAN DIRECTLY BATHE IN ENERGY STREAM. CANNOT LAST AS LONG WHEN FIGHTING AWAY FROM TERRITORY.

"I see."

The Fusion King's actions made more sense, then. It did not just capture the energy-rich continents because it wanted to control Purgatory's power source. It also sought to enhance its battle power and maximize its self-defense ability.

"What is the Fusion King's weakness in battle? Do you happen to know its weakness?"

CANNOT TELL. UNKNOWN. TOO MUCH TIME PASSED.

"Then how did you target this fish-whale in the past?"

POWERFUL ATTACKS. IMMUNE TO HEAT. WEAKER DEFENSE. MUST GO CLOSE.

Ves had already gathered that the Hot Kingdom was susceptible to attacks up close, and it was nice to hear a source confirming this suspicion.

The fish-whales of the Hot Kingdom were akin to rifleman mechs while the Fusion King was probably as powerful as a jumbo-sized version of Amaranto.

The lethality of both the regular members of the Hot Kingdom and their sovereign was undoubtedly high, especially at a distance!

After Ves asked a few more questions about the Heater fish-whales, he urged the king fish to move on to describing another surviving fish-whale of the same batch as the two kings mentioned up to this point.

The Cerebral King directed its attention towards the depiction of another juvenile fish-whale in cultivation.

The odd thing was that this fish-whale happened to emerge outside of its cultivation tank!

"This is…"

GODBLOOD BLESSED.

"What?! What do you mean by the blood of a god?! Are you referring to… phasewater?"

PHASEWATER. UNFAMILIAR.

"Oh, come on! You shouldn't be unfamiliar with phasewater. One of your subordinates outside is rich wiith this substance and your body holds a fair amount of phasewater as well!"

The clever king fish's eyes did not show any recognition. However, it was smart enough to figure out that they were mixing up the meanings.

PHASEWATER. GODBLOOD. SAME.

Ves frowned in puzzlement. "The blood of phase whales is red and mixed with many different particles. Phasewater is much purer. They are not the same."

PHASEWATER IS BLOOD OF GOD. IS SACRED.

Seeing that the Cerebral King insisted on this message, Ves couldn't do anything but accept this nonsense.

Although many people who first learned about phase whales thought that their veins should be running with phasewater, but the race shouldn't even be alive if that was the case!

The phase whales might as well inject their veins with pure poison to their species!

Still, Ves didn't think he could convince the Cerebral King otherwise. It was so fixated on this silly idea that it was pretty much religious doctrine as far as the king fish was concerned!

"How strong is this 'Phase King'?"

GODBLOOD KING. NOT PHASE KING. STRONG BUT UNWORTHY. DEFILES BLOOD OF GOD. HAS TOO MUCH BLOOD AND SQUANDERS IT ALL. UNWORTHY.

"How does it fight?"

POWER OF GOD ACTIVATED BY BLOOD OF GOD. MORE BLOOD PRODUCES MORE POWER OF GOD. GODBLOOD KING HAS TORN APART TOO MANY KIN.

Although Ves didn't get any precise numbers out of the Cerebral King, it was clear that the 'Godblood King' was just as powerful as the Fusion King if not more!

Although the Cerebral King looked down on the Godblood King's apparently wasteful utilization of phasewater, just having more of it than any other fish-whale was bound to amplify its abilities!

Even a crude use of phasewater could produce immense destruction as long as there was enough of it! The Godblood King must be able to fight like a natural disaster from the description of the Cerebral King!

"What is its weakness?"

GODBLOOD TOO STRONG EVEN FOR GODBLOOD KING. UNWORTHY. CANNOT FIGHT LONG. MUST RELY ON LESSER KIN TO FIGHT LONGER. KILL LESSER KIN FIRST.

Ves paid a lot more attention when the Cerebral King did not hesitate to share its own thoughts about how to defeat the Godblood King and another traitor that it despised.

"How is your relationship with the Godblood King?"

This was an important question to Ves. If both of them happened to have any friendship between them, then that would not be good for an outside visitor such as himself.

However, he didn't need to be afraid of this possibility.

The Cerebral King radiated anger as it thought back on the Godblood King. There had to be a good reason why the former called the latter unworthy!

GODBLOOD KING IS SECOND THIEF. TAKEN TOO MANY GODBLOOD WELLS. NOT ENOUGH LEFT ELSEWHERE.

Good! Ves smiled wider. His plans had a much higher chance of achieving success if the Cerebral King hated the Godblood King's guts!

He did not forget that one of his primary goals was to launch a raid on the Phase Kingdom so that he and his mech forces could plunder an insane amount of phasewater!

Seeing how freely the Cerebral King shared information about its former comrades turned enemies, the beast likely had no qualms about selling out its former kin!

In fact, with its formidable intelligence and wisdom, how could it not miss the underlying implications of Ves' questions.

The Cerebral King grew a little closer to Ves as a result. The two were hardly friends, but they were more than willing to trade favors with each other.

Perhaps this was the most effective way to establish a relationship with newly-discovered alien species!

"Are there any other surviving kings?" Ves asked as he shifted his attention to the small fish-whales in the other cultivation tanks.

The emotions of the Cerebral King roiled as its eyes stopped at a fish-whale stuck on the edge of the mural.

KING OF HIVE. HAS HIVE. HAS ATTACKED. TOO MANY WITHOUT END.

The Cerebral King's casual answer was extremely important to Ves!