Everyone within the area of effect felt increasingly more excited and energetic. A few people who couldn't control themselves even started to bang their heads as if they were attending a concert!
Whatever the case, the music not only affected others, but also the musician himself!
The pain still existed, but the Voice of Liberty was able to power his way through and push past the increasingly more stiff resistance!
His Saint Kingdom steadily shrunk and compressed until it had almost reached the physical size of his machine!
Of course, the final steps were the most difficult one. Saint Morgenstern had already attained an incredible compression rate.
In many cases, god mech prototypes tended to be a little larger than their predecessors precisely to make this step a little easier!
While not every god pilot candidate opted for this choice, it had certainly provided crucial assistance in at least some cases.
The Voice of Liberty did not even get to make this choice. The Sound of Revolution was perfectly sized for an ace pilot, but that might not be the case for a god pilot.
Whether it is because of stubbornness or extreme confidence in oneself, Saint Morgenstern chose to push past the final barrier of resistance by tearing a piece of himself!
"MY WILL IS INDOMITABLE! MY CAUSEES ARE JUST! I AM THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE! SO LONG AS HUMANS CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE, I SHALL ALWAYS BE THEIR SWORD AND SHIELD!"
This was both a promise and a statement of fact!
Ves didn't exactly know why, but after the Voice of Liberty shouted those words, he successfully compressed his Saint Kingdom to the right proportions!
Completing this crucial step had profound implications!
For one, now that the Saint Kingdom had shrunk to match the physical proportions of the mech, the boundaries between the two had become a lot more nebulous.
It became difficult if not outright impossible to distinguish between the two. The mech was the Saint Kingdom, and the Saint Kingdom was the mech.
Though Ves had read plenty of theories about it, witnessing it happen in front of him still confounded him! What he just witnessed should have been impossible. There was absolutely no way that two entirely different phenomena would get mixed with each other to such an extreme.
The most immediate consequence of achieving domain field union was that the Sound of Revolution had firmly broken the limitation of a material object.
Due to the merger, the ace mech could not only reshape itself to a much more versatile degree, but also turn fully immaterial whenever it wanted!
Of course, the Voice of Liberty did not rashly attempt to make this happen.
The mech may have become capable of turning into a pure energy object, but that did not apply to the pilot.
This was why the Voice of Liberty needed to complete the third phase of the Mech Body Merger Process, which was corporeal union!
Ves happened to possess a bit more understanding and expertise in this specific type of fusion.
The tainted breakthrough of Saint Rosa Orfan had accidentally caused her to fuse her body with her own machine.
Though the accident permanently impaired the ace pilot's quality of life, Ves had a reasonable suspicion that it may actually help her complete the third phase if she ever gained the opportunity to make her own breakthrough attempt.
Saint Conrad Morgenstern did not undergo such extremes.
He started out like most pilots. He still possessed a functioning human body.
Trying to merge his corporeal form with his mech was therefore a much more difficult endeavor, especially when the saint had already exerted himself quite heavily in the preceding phases.
Yet now that he had come this far, the Voice of Liberty did not intend to fail so soon!
He mustered his increasingly more ragged willpower and forcibly pushed himself into action!
"MY WILL SHALL BECOME ETERNAL! THE SHACKLES OF MY BODY SHALL NO LONGER HOLD ME BACK! SO LONG AS A SINGLE VOICE CRIES OUT FOR JUSTICE, I MUST NEVER FADE, FOR MY MISSION HAS NOT COME TO AN END!"
The Voice of Liberty focused on his cause and used that to motivate him to push past the pain generated by his body!
Though Ves was not able to get a clear view inside the cockpit of the powerful mech, he could guess that the saint was steadily trying to merge his frail human form with his mech.
Although his machine had already become an energy-based existence in all the ways that counted, he still needed to induce the same sort of transformation on his own body!
Ves was not clear of the details. He did not know whether there was only a single correct route or whether multiple viable strategies existed.
Yet what he was able to sense from the incredibly bright and powerful amalgamation was a crescendo that steadily rose in power.
Even now, the Sound of Revolution still played its guitar, even though its Saint Kingdom had already retracted.
The reason why Ves and the others were still able to hear the instrument being played was because the secondary energy field had not faded away.
Ves guessed that it was generated with the help of a key resonating exotic, which made it an intrinsic feature of the ace mech.
In fact, the recent changes and transformations had strengthened this energy field, enabling it to reach further and manipulate the emotions of listeners more effectively!
As always, the Voice of Liberty drew strength from his own music.
Despite forcing an irreversible transformation on his body, the daring ace pilot managed to retain enough focus, will and lucidity to slowly advance the merger between flesh and machine!
"Is he actually going to do it?" Ves asked as if he could not believe what was happening in front of his senses.
"Never celebrate prematurely, Ves." His wife transmitted back. "Even if he manages to complete the corporeal union phase, there is still the last and most difficult phase of all. That is where most ace pilots falter despite their preparations."