It did not take long for the test results to co back.
Across several different battlefields, a handful of units received secretive 'upgrades' to their Blessed Squires.
Nothing much had changed aside from so sort of software date and the addition of a new dial in their cockpits.
The male Hexer ch pilots who had the privilege of piloting these blessed chs received so very basic instructions on how to use the latest addition to their chs.
"The Miracle Couple has co up with sothing that will help us thwart the Glow Crushers. Pay attention to this dial and the corresponding neural command. By default, the glow of your ch is unrestrained. If any of the counters to your ch cos close, you need to retract it as close to your ch as possible. To do that, just turn this dial anti-clockwise or issue a more precise command to your ch through your neural interface."
"Uhm, what is the purpose of doing so, ma'am?" The boy clad in a tight piloting suit asked the tall female engineer.
"Simply put, a Glow Crusher breaks the glow of your ch by throwing motion energy at it. What you need to do is to retract this glow so that the Glow Crusher misses its attack. As long as its motion energy doesn't co close to your retracted glow, it will not do anything aside from making the air feel heavy for a ti."
With this small addition, the upgraded Blessed Squires completely gained the upper hand again!
With the ability to control the range of the glows, the rate of glows getting crushed dropped by 80 percent after a few days!
The Hexers had long sought a solution to the counters deployed by the Friday Coalition. Being able to retract the glows when they were vulnerable was an incredibly helpful ability.
Even if the glow no longer blessed the surrounding chs, it at least remained intact. Once the Glow Crusher chs completed their charge and released all of their motion energy, the threat against their glows should have passed.
Nothing stopped the Blessed Squires from restoring their glows to their original splendor!
The incredible utility of this little function was so great that demand for it skyrocketed. Other Hex Army units heard about the upgrade as well and began to ask for it as well!
Gloriana quickly called Ves once again in order to discuss this abrupt developnt.
"I don't know how you managed to implent it, but your fix worked!" She grinned. "According to the feedback from the ch pilots, the new retraction function you've added to the Blessed Squire is a great blessing. In fact, you should have implented a long ti ago. Why did it take so long for you to add it in? Were you saving it up or sothing?"
Ves sent her a reproachful glare. "I only ca up with it recently. You should know that we never really had to worry about the range of the glows of our chs. Only the Doom Guard posed a serious concern, but even then that wasn't enough for to intervene."
It was different now that the Friday Coalition had deliberately taken advantage of this vulnerability. For many reasons, Ves needed his Hexers chs to succeed. He needed to crush anything that threatened their superiority in battle!
The two quickly discussed the performance of the new retraction function. After studying the data and verifying that it hadn't glitched or anything, they decided to recomnd that the Hex Army to to embrace the upgrade.
"I'll take care of it." Gloriana promised. "High command will be inordinately pleased with our quick response. The value of the Glow Crushers will certainly drop after the Blessed Squires have incorporated this upgrade."
In truth, the physical and software changes were mostly smoke and mirrors. Due to so obscure spiritual rules that Ves didn't fully understand, every copy of the Blessed Squire was connected to the design.
While the forr was still able to grow and develop a unique character, its fundantal identity was still tied to its origin. This ant that any change to the design inevitably affected the existing copies.
In truth, Ves frequently scratched his head over this relationship. A ch design was imaginary while a physical ch was material. For the forr to affect the latter in this fashion sounded like magic or very profound taphysics.
Whatever. There was no reason to look at a gift horse in the mouth. This profound interaction allowed him to push any spiritual changes to all of his chs without needing to go through their current owners.
The only reason why he bothered to add a dial was to fool the Hexers into thinking that they needed to apply the upgrade to the ch first before they gained access to the retraction function.
Ves would definitely attract way too much scrutiny if the ch community found out that he could alter existing chs without accessing them! The security implications were considerable. No one wanted soone to have constant access to the core functions of an actual ch.
Once the pair completed their discussion about the upgrade, Gloriana was already looking to the future.
"This is only the beginning, Ves." She warned. "While I expect that this retraction function will shift the advantage back to our Blessed Squires, our opponents will likely find another loophole. Master Olson and Master Katzenberg succeeded first, but I have no doubt that other Masters are readying other chs that can interfere with the glows of our chs. It will only be a matter of ti before a competitor develops a solution that can cripple a glow from a distance."
That was one of his greatest fears as well. While the retraction function enabled his chs to concentrate their glow, thereby thickening it and increasing their resistance, it ca with a very significant downside.
A Blessed Squire that continually retracted its glow was a ch that did not perform its main role!
What Ves truly wanted was to implent a solution that allowed his chs to strengthen their existing glows.
He might have to alter his design spirits in order to achieve this goal. The glows of his chs did not originate from the chs or ch designs themselves. The spiritual entities that presided over them were the actual source of glows.
He could not ss with them lightly. Each of them were living, powerful entities whose existences directly depended on their spiritual composition. Any change, no matter how modest, directly altered their behavior in so fashion!
"Look, Gloriana, before Master Olson and Master Katzenberg introduced the Glow Crusher, I didn't even know that our chs were vulnerable to their unique mode of attack. Now that we know, we can account for them. The sa will happen again if they co up with another trick."
She sighed. "I know. I can already tell that you look forward to sparring against our opponents. It's just that I'm worried about the brave won and boys who are depending on our work. The Hex Army has already suffered nurous setbacks due to the vulnerability exposed by the Fridayn. Next ti, how many more Hexers will die because we failed to account for the thods of our enemies?"
"What do you want us to do? I have worked to develop my design philosophy up until this point, but I can only do so much on my own. I don't want the Fridayn to regain the upper hand either, but it's difficult for to anticipate how they will attack my work."
He knew that Gloriana felt very frustrated by her inability to help. She had waited for Ves to co up with a solution for a month, but because he was preoccupied with defeating pirates, he never implented this little fix until now! This delay signified that she had a long way to go before she was able to design the perfect vessel.
Before Gloriana ended the call, she brought up one more important matter.
"Are you truly sure you want to upgrade our existing ch models with the sa function?"
"We might as well. Let's start by implenting it onto our existing chs. I'll go over our current designs and revise them a bit. Once I'm done, just let the ch technicians modify the machines we have."
"What about the chs we sold?"
"I'm not sure. I think it's best if we just make the retraction function standard. Do you agree?"
"Our custors have consistently demanded more control over the glows of their chs. We should do it, Ves. Adding it to all of our chs will bring them a little closer to perfection. I expect the value of our chs to grow as a result."
After agreeing on this point, Gloriana addressed one final issue.
"It's been more than a week since the Doom Guard irrevocably changed. While we have managed to stem the outrage due to our quick action, it's still a problematic ch. Do you want to keep it that way or try and change it back?"
Ves furrowed his brows. "I don't know. The ch has already changed. Doing it again will lead to greater disruption."
"There are many owners who want to regain the old Doom Guards. They're much more effective in buying ti and keeping the enemy at a distance. Overall, the battle performance of the Doom Guard has worsened after it gained its new alternating glow."
Ves already predicted this outco. Sales of the Doom Guard still declined. No matter whether their owners obtained compensation, the new Doom Guard clearly perford worse in battle. Their owners had to adopt more strenuous asures in order to take advantage of its new effect.
"I think it's best to leave it alone. Ideally, I'd like to restore the old Doom Guard, but the current incarnation is pretty interesting as well. Both are useful under the right circumstances. Ideally, I'd like to retain both of them. While there is a bit of overlap between the two versions, as long as we keep working on them, they'll eventually beco two very different ch designs."
"That's.. acceptable. It's not the solution I would have settled for, but it will please the fans of both versions."
What Ves didn't ntion to Gloriana was that Ves didn't have any suitable ingredients that could take the place that Nyxie once occupied.
Wait. Didn't his mother…
He recalled sothing very important. He hastily ended the call, much to Gloriana's chagrin, and raced to the vault.
After going through a security check, he stepped into the heavily-fortified chamber.
Ves began to pull out every P-stone. Just as he expected, three of them were significantly different than before!
"I was right!"
A grin plastered on his face as he realized what his mother had left him. Even though she called them trash, Ves did not care about her opinions.
What mattered was that he obtained three additional spiritual fragnts!
Ves carefully probed the spiritual fragnts and gained a sense of their principal attributes.
The most powerful fragnt contained so very potent devouring attributes.
"The Unending One."
A weaker fragnt exhibited so flighty attributes.
"The Inexorable One."
Another weak fragnt seed to be filled with light.
"The Blinding One!"
Ves didn't know how his mother managed to preserve these fragnts, but they were extrely helpful to his current circumstances!
Of course, in their current forms, the remnants of the dark gods were polluted with a lot of undesirable attributes. Ves had no use for their evil and alien natures and wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible.
In fact, Ves believed it was best to use them as ingredients in the creation of fresh new design spirits. He did not want to make the sa mistake he made with Ylvaine's spiritual fragnt and revive soone from the dead!
"The Unending One and the Inexorable One should definitely remain buried. The Blinding One on the other hand…"
Ves grew a little intrigued about the last dark god. Even though the Blinding One was just as evil and hostile as the previous two entities, he was different.
The Blinding One was a humanoid alien, and a mber of the luminar race to boot.
Ves always wanted to figure out the mysteries of the luminar race. What if he could tap into the Blinding One's knowledge and figure out the principles behind his race's wondrous crystal and light-based technology?
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