This was the final attack run of the First Sword.
The expert mech was still able to keep fighting, but the same could not be said for the newest ace pilot of the Larkinson Clan.
Dise was already beginning to flag at this point. If she was not able to complete this attack, then her forced resonance state would quickly disappear!
As such, she invested all of her remaining power and concentration in a sword technique that she should by all rights not be able to execute so soon after her breakthrough!
The Muscular Swordsman was not content to act as her target dummy.
The energy manifestation responded to the First Sword's predictable attack run by raising his massive Collapsing Peak blade above his head.
The simulated swordsman then proceeded to swing down his massive weapon with such thunderous force and momentum that it seemed that it could shatter an entire mountain range!
The space around the massive rock-covered blade already started to ripple in the passing of this enormous weapon, thereby causing the surroundings to become destabilized!
It was as if the collapse of this mountain precipitated an apocalyptic end to the universe! This was the illusion and sentiment conveyed by the Muscular Swordsman's artistic conception! Even if it was an immense exaggeration of what he was able to accomplish in reality, the artistic conception still boosted the power of his attack while generating other effects that inflicted widespread area damage!
This was the ancient sword cultivator's ultimate sword attack, one that was designed to not only crush through the hardest of defenses through overwhelming brute force, but also pulverize anything that was caught in the surrounding area, thereby solving the problem of highly mobile threats as well as large quantities of swarm-like enemies.
It was an attack that was incredibly powerful and difficult to control, yet the Muscular Swordsman possessed such an excellent grasp on the earth element that he was able to execute this technique with an amazing degree of control!
His attack even went as far as to conjure up a visual manifestation of his artistic conception!
The illusion that Saint Dise perceived a moment earlier actually became a more visible and tangible manifestation!
This was already a sign that the Muscular Swordsman was partially able to wield the power of a god by reproducing a scene that did not originally exist in reality!
All of these factors powered up his ultimate attack even further. Even a tough and resilient ace mech such as the Amphis Extremis would not be able to escape unscathed when struck by such a heavy blow!
Yet the First Sword continued to advance without fear, because Saint Dise invested all of her newfound confidence in the power of metal into this final piercing attack!
Just as the tip of the Decapitator was about to collide against the cataclysmic earth sword swinging down from above, Saint Dise concentrated almost all of her frustrations, all of her hopes, all of her love and all of her willpower into the mech sword that resonated with her heart like nothing else! She began to execute a deceptively simple but incredibly promising new extraordinary sword technique that fully brought out the strength of the metal element!
The new ace pilot thought about nothing else but to shatter every obstacle in her way!
"ONE SWORD BREAKS TEN-THOUSAND LAWS!"
A shining line of silver sheared through space.
In one moment, a cataclysmic collapse of earth had threatened to crash through an entire section of space.
In the next moment, all of the momentum gathered by the Muscular Swordsman dissipated in every direction.
The threat disappeared and the destructive forces melted away as if they had lost all of their backbone.
Every observer became gobsmacked. Even Ketis could not fully register the move that the First Sword performed at the end.
All she could see was the First Sword on the other side of her adversary. The expert mech continued to coast along while slowly releasing the power that had forcefully elevated her performance to the level of an ace mech.
The Muscular Swordsman had been defeated.
The empowered Decapitator had shattered the rocks that made up the Collapsing Peak sword, pierced through the rock armor conjured by the Son of the Earth and directly blasted part of the reinforced energy manifestation that should have been a match against an ace mech!
Ketis had high hopes for Saint Dise after her breakthrough, but she did not dare to imagine that she became strong enough to eliminate this opponent right away!
Would the First Sword be able to annihilate the Muscular Swordsman so quickly if he wielded the real Heavensword as opposed to an inferior copy made out of heavenly energy?
Nobody could say for sure. Such speculation was pointless because only the actual outcome mattered.
Venerable Dise was no more.
Saint Disc had risen.
She, along with her companion spirit. Respa, had taken another major step towards godhood, and became powerful enough to represent the Larkinson Clan on the galactic scene!
A small part of Ketis felt jealous that her fellow Swordmaiden got to break through first, but the mech designer quickly squashed this impulse and genuinely welcomed this outcome.
Ketis would have preferred to praise Dise for her massive success and gush all over her newfound power and abilities, but this was not the time to celebrate the emergence of another Larkinson ace
pilot..
The Heavensword still remained a problem.
Saint Dise had unambiguously passed the test and went above and beyond to prove she had the strength to protect Ketis' rights and wellbeing.
However, now that she had overloaded herself in a massive way, she had lost much of her power and concentration. The First Sword no longer exhibited any kind of resonance at all, and had reached her more vulnerable state in many months.
Ace pilot or not, Dise needed to return to the fleet and head over to an infirmary to check whether she had not suffered any physical or mental sequelae after breaking through.
This effectively meant that she was no longer able to remain on the battlefield and resist the
Heavensword if she insisted on converting Ketis into the next Heavensword Saint! Therefore, this positive outcome did not bring as many advantages to Ketis as she wished.
She could have dearly benefited from the protection of another ace pilot, but oh well.
Fortunately, there was at least one other dependable champions by her side.
While the First Sword had successfully vanquished the Muscular Swordsman by utterly shattering all of his earth-based techniques, the Amphis Extremis had managed to gain the upper hand against the Elegant Swordsman in a different way.
Unlike Dise, Linda Cross had broken through a bit earlier and had a bit more accumulation as an ace
pilot.
The Amphis Extremis was also a genuine ace mech that did not rely on temporary enhancements to punch above its weight.
The only issue that Saint Linda struggled with for a time was the fact that her Wrecker Skull was not particularly effective against the Elegant Swordsman.
If the Muscular Swordsman embodied the raw strength of the earth element, then the Elegant Swordsman reproduced the smooth and flowing nature of the water element.