Two distorted mechs faced each other.
Though both of their forced resonance states had diminished by a large extent, the two machines still looked vigorous enough to support at least one more exchange of blows!
Their clash was inevitable. The original causes that had led them to stand opposite to each other no longer mattered anymore.
Both recently ascended demigods had their own reasons to turn hostile against each other!
At the very least, if they wanted to live, they instinctively felt they needed to see this battle through the end!
It was strange for them to become utterly fixated on each other as the Emperor Tree was not a negligible threat.
Even if it had redirected much of its attention and resources towards capturing or destroying the First Sword and the Everchanger, the calamity plant still directed a bit of effort towards crushing the other two mechs!
However, its ability to distort the perceptions of the two mech pilots no longer worked now that their willpower had undergone a qualitative evolution.
The surviving wooden mechs that kept their distance and launched hardened seeds at the two mechs accomplished nothing as the temporary resonance shields resisted all of the sporadic damage.
The root spikes that Taon and his living mech previously feared not too long ago literally did nothing to shake the mutated Zeal.
In their worlds, Lanie and Taon only registered each other as their ultimate foes.
The two expert pilots appeared like polar opposites in many ways.
Lanie burned hot with rage. Her willpower flared with unrelenting fury towards the perpetrator that had almost caused her to lose her life!
In fact, the resonance-empowered Devora Cannon strike that almost managed to overpower the Elegant Rage's defenses had caused the latter's spikes to grow even sharper and deadlier!
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Her extraordinary rage literally remolded the Elegant Rage into a mech of thorns. The fused metals and wood clad the broken and spontaneously repaired with armor that seemed to be expressly designed to hurt anyone who dared to lay a hand on Lanie again!
In fact, the resonance-empowered Devora Cannon strike that almost managed to overpower the Elegant Rage's defenses had caused the latter's spikes to grow even sharper and deadlier!
The Elegant Rage's thorns looked as if they could pierce the Zeal full of devastating holes just by rolling around!
"Ma-aow!"
Kelly had become irrevocably changed by her principal's desperate breakthrough.
Her appearance changed from a normal Burmese cat coloring to a dark green form that resembled the color of the Emperor Tree's leaves.
The reason for this visual mutation was quite obvious. The spiritual cat had become filled with life that originally belonged to others. By stealing a minute proportion of Joshua and the Emperor Tree's energies, Kelly had embarked on a path of predation where the most effective way to promote her strength was to leech it away from others!
The cat had currently forced her way into one of the thorns that covered the Elegant Rage, giving it a hungry green glow. The companion spirit looked forward to draining all of the life out of Taon and Sirca's miserable forms!
In contrast to his adversary's unbridled rage, Taon had descended into an exceptionally negative mood at the moment.
An extraordinarily powerful air of gloom surrounded his mutated heavy artillery mech. The root spikes and everything else surrounding the Zeal seemed to age and crumble into ruin one way or another.
Even the dirt where the Zeal was resting upon was drying out and growing feebler than before!
The only substance that remained untouched by the Zeal's aura of ruin was the particles of Solus Gas that engulfed the surroundings.
The Zeal actually seemed comfortable in the midst of all of this exotic gas. It had even absorbed portions of Solus Gas as the mech frame mutated into a rusted form.
The malaise produced by Taon's willpower rejected everything else aside from his own companion spirit.
"Hoot hoot."
The evolved owl looked a lot different than before. The owl grew more mysterious and less defined. It was as if any attempts to observe it through multiple different senses would only result in a dark fog that vaguely resembled the previous form of Sirca!
Not only did Sirca become more difficult to perceive, but when he blended into the Zeal, the mech became a bit more difficult to probe and track!
The companion spirit's influence caused the Zeal to exude a profound rejection towards reality. It was as if the heavy artillery mech rejected any form of attention or friendship from others and wanted to disappear from their sights.
Of course, that did not affect Lanie's tracking. She was too close and her hatred towards Taon was too strong for her to lose such a large and obvious target!
There was one more obvious discrepancy that set the two crazed expert pilots apart from each other.
Lanie stuck by the Elegant Rage. She never lost her trust and camaraderie towards her battle partner. Kelly even put a lot of effort into piecing the mech back together.
For her part, the living mech unconditionally supported her battle partner. The Elegant Rage had suffered not one, but two catastrophic blows, each of which possessed the power to shatter her frame and cause her pilot to lose her life.
Threatening her own existence was one thing. Threatening to take away Lanie's life was another thing!
There was no way the Elegant Rage could tolerate Taon's outrageous attempts of murdering her battle partner!
Together, the mech and pilot became of one mind.
Only by joining forces would they be able to exact retribution!
"Taon must die!"
"TAON MUST PERISH!"
In contrast to Lanie, Taon had evidently decided to go alone.
Only Sirca remained by his side, but that was because his companion spirit was just another part of himself.
Different from before, the Zeal had lost signs of independent life. While it was still technically a living mech, it had lost the most essential spark of life that defined its former existence.
The passing of the Zeal was an unmitigated tragedy!
The third order living mech had lost its personality and turned into a spiritual shell that Taon and Sirca claimed as their own.
Even though the expert pilot and his mutated companion spirit were able to fill the void adequately enough, they were ultimately very different from the existence that had previously been born upon the creation of the masterwork mech!
Though the death of the Zeal's independent personality undoubtedly represented a massive loss to the Larkinson Clan, Taon remained completely unmoved by this development.