Not everyone achieved results as great as Taon Melin!
Most Hunters of Ylvaine required dozens of chances before they managed to score a hit on a drone carrying a sandman admiral!
This was still a great result! A typical Holy Soldier or other ranged mech might have to take down hundreds of not thousands of sandman drones in order to score a lucky hit against a hidden sandman admiral!
After an explosive week where the infamous sandman swarms were systematically dismantled, the Ylvainans became completely convinced that the prophet rewarded their faith!
Almost every Hunter of Ylvaine managed to take out a sandman admiral before their swarms were close to being consumed!
It was immediately obvious when they achieved a fruitful result. The mechs only had to fire a certain amount of times before a portion of the sandman swarm abruptly fell apart and lost coordination!
Without a higher intelligence doing all of the thinking, the disconnected sandman drones were extremely lethargic as they floated around without aim!
The defense forces didn't even bother attacking these sitting ducks. This was because the drones no longer released any attacks! The defenders could easily mop them up after taking care of the remaining threats!
While the Ylvaine Protectorate was still in the same situation as before, the constant miracles produced by the Eye of Ylvaine practically transformed the state overnight!
This was because the Protectorate did everything to publicize this turning point! The news uplifted every Ylvainan, causing them to become more hopeful and optimistic about the survival of their state!
The wondrous performance of the Deliverer even caused the civilians to strengthen their faiths! Church attendance soared as many Ylvainans became inspired by the incredible results achieved by the Deliverer!
This news did not immediately attract the attention of the Bright Republic and other foreign states.
None of them took their claims seriously. How could a mech that ostensibly channeled the will of a deceased prophet be able to defeat the indomitable sandmen?
Ever since the Sand War took off, a lot of mech designers offered various fantasy solutions that supposedly promised to end the crisis.
Nothing worked! No matter what kind of belief supported their claims, the mechs never delivered upon their promises!
Therefore, hardly any foreigner believed in the claim that the Deliverer was able to succeed where every other mech had failed!
Even the fact that the designer of the fantastic Desolate Soldier was responsible did not change their preconceptions.
It was very common for mech designers to fail after achieving success! Ves hadn't been designing mechs long enough to inspire too much confidence. This was especially so when the claims of the Deliverer were too ludicrous!
How could a mech that did not incorporate any sophisticated sensor systems be able to identify a sandman drone hiding within a vast and confusing swarm?
No amount of conventional science could explain how the Deliverer would be able to succeed where thousands of mech models had failed!
"Are we supposed to rely on a god to achieve victory against the sandmen?!"
"I would rather die than convert to a different faith!"
"Gods are outdated! How can humans keep falling for superstition?"
The Bright Republic, which possessed a better understanding of the Ylvaine Protectorate than most, suspected other motives behind the promotion of the Deliverers!
"Is this some kind of ploy to boost the reputation of that kidnapped mech designer?"
"Ves Larkinson is a Brighter! How can he possibly design a religious mech?"
"Haven't you heard about the Transcendent Messenger and Holy Soldier? Ves already managed to seduce the Ylvainans! Doing it a third time shouldn't be any problem!"
"That's different! From what I've heard, those two mech models are mainly valuable because they are very effective in hypnotizing gullible believers. The Deliverer is different because the Ylvainans are claiming that it can impact a battle more directly than affecting their moods!"
While the Bright Republic was aware of the peculiarities of the Transcendent Messengers and Holy Soldiers, its agents never experienced anything special about the mechs.
Just like the Desolate Soldier, the value of these mechs lay in their ability to increase the morale of the mech pilots and inspire confidence in the bystanders affected by their glows.
It was a little far-fetched to state that these glows were capable of doing what their best sensors failed to accomplish!
"How come these Deliverers keep assassinating the sandman admirals?"
"Maybe the Ylvainans have implemented some secret new sensor technology! It must be something built into their ships instead of their mechs!"
As the Deliverers continued to produce excellent results, foreign agents kept investigating the forces involved in the battles.
No other mech or ship stood out! None of them released any powerful emissions that denoted some active scanning system at work!
"Can it be.. That their claims are true? Are the Deliverers truly guided by their prophet?"
"Don't speak any nonsense! Ylvaine died hundreds of years ago! His entire dynasty perished as well!"
Before accepting the claims of the Ylvainans, the agents and investigators dispatched by foreign states tried to exhaust every other possible explanation!
They refused to accept that the Ylvainan Faith had an actual basis in reality!
Yet no matter how much the Brighters, Vesians, Reinaldans and such tried to pierce the truth, all of their conclusions came down to the Deliverer mechs themselves!
Each Ylvainan defense force that fielded a Deliverer mech almost always achieved better results.
Without the sandman swarms tearing apart the cannon fodder, the starfighter pilots became immensely grateful to the Eye of Ylvaine!
The introduction of the Deliverers paired with the elite Hunters of Ylvaine drastically affected their chances of survival! Casualties dropped by as much as seventy percent!
Such an achievement was too great to be dismissed! The Bright Republic and other skeptical states had no choice but to take the claims of the Ylvainans more seriously after a couple of weeks!
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