The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7599

Chapter 7599: Grotesque

From the moment he started to play around with a method as dangerous as the Last Defiance Manual, Ves had become a lot more acquainted with the ways a person could become addicted to power.

Even so, he had failed to foresee this outcome.

The extreme contrast between a state of near-death to a state of overflowing strength and vitality had caused practically all of the Poison Willows to lose control!

Not a single living mech or Terran test pilot managed to resist the temptation of taking their rejuvenation a step further.

Ves quietly watched the archival footage. He observed with great attention how each and every Poison Willow first regained their vitality, then began to grow and mutate as if they had removed all of their limiters.

The initial runaway process appeared nearly identical. Whatever differences the Poison Willows may have, they all ventured down the exact same path at the same pace.

This indicated to Ves that this was not a personal failing. If only a couple of weak or mentally impaired pilots lost control, then the overall product should still be sound.

That was not the case this time.

All 20 variants suffered the exact same mishap. This was very strong proof that the problem was structural in nature.

The design was at fault. Ves had failed to foresee this problem and implement enough effective measures that could stop this disaster from taking place.

"In hindsight, maybe it was a good idea that I was only able to convert 20 of my Woodsap mechs into Poison Willows." Ves slowly remarked. "If our enemies had been willing to give us more time, then there would have been a dozen more organic bombs on the battlefield. The fact that only these biomechs actually lost control should have made the problem a bit more manageable."

Gloriana shook her head in disapproval. "You love to push the boundaries of what is possible. Whenever you are confronted by the unknown or the dangerous, you often fail to take them seriously. There is a part of you that possesses so much curiosity that you cannot help yourself. You always have to cross the line and find out what you can do. The only reason why you haven’t received any strong admonishments this time is because the initial plan worked. The Poison Willows did their job and made an enormous contribution to our eventual victory. It is just unfortunate that it also came with an unnecessary sacrifice. Those Terran pilots didn’t have to die for reasons that were completely beyond their control."

She made a valid point. As much as Ves did not want to acknowledge it, his decision and judgment had failed him this time. The blood of those 20 living mechs and Terran mech pilots was on his hands.

"You know what makes this situation even worse in my eyes?" Gloriana continued to press her opinion. "Nothing will change. You are not the type to learn from your mistakes, especially ones of this nature. You will continue to go on taking risks as before. You have been rewarded for your bold risk-taking often enough that it has already become seared into your soul. Even if you stumble and fall every now and then, you can still convince yourself that you are doing the right thing by arguing that your success rate is high enough to justify all of your failings. Have I guessed your thoughts correctly?"

"Uhhh... pretty much." Ves lamely replied.

She knew him too well. She even managed to predict his internal justification!

His wife simply snorted in response. "Typical. Since you are unwilling to restrain yourself, you need others to tell you that you are going too far. I have been derelict in exercising this duty in the past, but this will change starting from today. I admit that your wiley Devil Tongue has managed to mesmerize me into participating in your dangerous schemes, but no more. I have woken up and seen the truth. I will no longer accept any reckless suggestion about how good it is for us to drag ourselves into the depths of the Red War. It is completely inappropriate for you to force your wife and children to participate in an action as dangerous as roaming behind enemy lines!"

Her arguments cast his previous decisions in a bad light. Though Ves still believed in his own vision of the future, he did not feel as eager to defend his standpoint as in the past.

His wife had every right to complain about the potentially disastrous consequences that might have occurred if they had a little less strength and luck during the last engagement.

Once Gloriana had her fill on this issue, she slowly calmed down and directed her attention back to the problematic biomechs.

"Although your Poison Willows all mutated out of control, it is quite interesting to see their monstrous forms. They reveal new facets about the tech and materials that make up your Woodsap mechs."

She manipulated the interface to display all 20 mutated Poison Willows after they had completed their initial growth surge.

Though the rogue biomechs never truly stopped growing since they went out of control, their shapes did not undergo any drastic changes after their initial surge died down.

Pretty much all of them had multiplied in size. The smallest ones had become at least as tall as an Ascended Giant!

Most of the Poison Willows retained their humanoid form, but only loosely. The wild growth progressed so chaotically that they had lost all sense of symmetry and proportion.

For example, one Poison Willow possessed a pair of mismatched legs. One of them grew abnormally long and thick, causing it to resemble an extension of the torso!

The other leg meanwhile failed to grow at the same rate. It even began to mutate into a branch that possessed no other useful function aside from growing a few dozen leaves.

The upper body looked like a mess as well. The torso grew larger but also thinned out at the upper end. The head looked comically undersized. One arm morphed into an absurdly long wooden tentacle while the other arm mutated into a giant cannon!

Despite how grotesque this biomech had become, it was anything but harmless.

An entirely different personality had seemingly taken control over this rogue biomech. The overmutated Poison Willow lashed out at the nearby Woodsap mechs and managed to inflict considerable damage at first!

"The living mechs and their pilots are already dead." Caracalla Shuku transmitted over the command channel. "It does not matter whether they are actually dead or brainwashed to the point of treating us as their enemies. If they are still true to themselves, they would never want to use their weapons against their fellow soldiers. We must put this travesty to an end for their sake as well as ours."

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify