The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7213

Chapter 7213: The Ultimate Provocation

With the help of Ves, the Dark Apostle managed to formulate a dignified means for his people to work on behalf of red humanity.

Both of them knew that the Ascended Giants could not exist without the support of the humans that spawned them. The dream of attaining immediate independence and carving out their own territory in the new frontier was an unrealistic fantasy.

If they truly declared their independence from red humanity, then they would not only lose its protection, but also turn themselves into the most vulnerable prey in the Red Ocean!

The only way to survive at that point was to give up a portion of their independence and pledge their service to a strong civilization.

The only other choice that the giants could make besides red humanity was the Red Cabal.

It did not take much thinking for Ves and the Dark Apostle to conclude that the Evolution Witch would drop everything and hunt down as many treacherous giants as possible.

Their continued existence in the service of the native aliens represented an insult so severe that the strongest backer of the Red Collective had no choice but to make an example out of the traitors!

This strategic direction obviously led to certain death.

Therefore, it became important to formulate a different strategic direction that would keep the giants aligned with red humanity.

From the initial reactions of the humans and the giants in the conference room, the Dark Apostle grew reassured.

The giants could understand his decisions and why it became important for the Ascended Giants to take up a mercenary attitude towards their relationship with red humanity.

The humans on the other hand knew that this was the best that they could get. It may be weird for the Red Collective to treat one of its most powerful departments as if it was an external contractor, but at least the two would be able to preserve a semblance of a relationship with each other.

While the Dark Apostle made a good start by presenting his three guiding principles, his initial framework still had room for improvement. The fact that he was being frank about it made it easier to suggest changes and additions.

This was a remarkable departure from when the Oscillating Fist was in charge. He hoarded power so much that the giants became paralyzed when their polemarchos remained absent for a duration of several months.

The Fiery Axe possessed the least amount of inhibitions when it came to testing her new leader’s tolerance.

Now that the Ascended Giants had entered a period of transition, this was an excellent opportunity to squeeze in her own suggestions!

It would be much harder to get her way when the Phase Lord Department had settled into its new direction.

"Your guiding principles are largely functional." She told her current polemarchos. "That is understandable. You needed to cover the basics. I just think that we can do better by adding a more aspirational goal on top of that. The Ascended Giants need to do more than secure their short-term survival in a dwarf galaxy dominated by several powerful races and civilizations. You need to set a higher-level ideal that we must strive towards. This will be the motivation that will drive our fellow giants to behave in a more acceptable manner."

The Dark Apostle furrowed his brows. "I... do not understand what you are saying. Can you give me an example?"

"It is not that complicated, sir." Eliza Mo Ragadan spoke up. "Take the Terrans. They all take pride in their old heritage and have always tried to restore the original Terran Empire as that used to be the time when they were at the top. Even if this goal was no longer realistic anymore, the Terrans never cared for it. They never fractured any further and always remained united by this shared goal."

"I am beginning to see what you mean..."

"The Rubarthans on the other hand derive their pride from their Star Emperors and their meritocracy." The chief of staff continued. "These are the twin pillars that props up the Rubarthan identity. It would be much harder for the Rubarthans to defend their distinct culture and identity if they lack these institutional totems as it were. Every group needs to look up to something. This can be anything so long as it generates enough pride. Think of gods, national pride, racial pride, government model and even hatred against others."

For whatever reason, the Dark Apostle latched on the word ’totem’.

He imagined every civilization as a tribe of cavemen that gathered in the center of their tent camp, only to fall on their knees to offer their worship to a carved wooden totem.

What the Fiery Axe suggested and Eliza elaborated upon was nothing more than a more sophisticated way to carve totems for the ’tribe’.

Now that the Dark Apostle understood the Fiery Axe’s suggestion, he indeed recognized that his initial framework placed too much emphasis on stabilizing the present and not enough on striving towards a better future.

The giants needed a source of hope and motivation in order to bring the best out of them. It didn’t need to be anything modest or realistic. They could go big in this aspect.

So what could serve as a powerful and compelling enough totem for the Ascended Giants?

Attaining godhood was an obvious answer, but the second principle already dealt with it. Besides, the Dark Apostle felt that putting way too much emphasis on divinity was counterproductive.

The more the giants obsessed over it, the greater the probability that they would fight back against his moderate regime!

"If I may, I can offer you a suggestion." Formation Master Andrea Vos spoke up. "If you are brave enough to take up this challenge, then I suggest you strive to compete against alien phase leaders. The native aliens have produced phase lords much longer than us. This should ordinarily put your giants beneath your alien counterparts, because the latter had much more time to understand their strengths and produce larger and more powerful native gods. As upstarts, it is not impossible to surpass them in a short amount of time. As long as you work hard enough and embrace the changes that the alien phase lords have eschewed, you can potentially become the dominant variant of phase leaders in the Red Ocean."

"Thoughts?"

The Divine Harpoon spoke first. "It will be easier for red humans to trust our race if we openly seek to replace the competition as opposed to joining it. Accepting this proposal will burn any bridge we have with the Red Cabal, but it will also produce clarity for our fellow giants. Once we adopt this ideal, we will close any chance for the giants to defect to our enemies."

"What do you two think?"

"I like it." The Fiery Axe grew eager. "We will make powerful enemies if we embrace this goal, but it will light a fire in our hearts and drive us to excel. If we do not have the courage to challenge the original phase lords, then we do not deserve our pride! In fact, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to surpassing alien phase lords. We should strive to surpass the originals, the phase whales who always consider themselves to be the truest descendants of the Elder Gods!"

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify