4913 The Weight of Responsibility
Venerable Irene Mox could not tell whether the Bontues had lost all of the mechs sent to sweep the ruined city or whether her enemies had pulled back the rest.
The expert pilot had become isolated again. Only her expert mech kept her company, but it was a pity that the machine was not alive.
Its mechanical operating system provided no warmth and companionship to the woman. Without the stimuli of her familiar comrades, Irene's thoughts took a darker turn again.
Ves mentally frowned when the expert pilot mechanically tried to search for any surviving Quillim soldiers even when it had become clear that none of them should have been able to survive the calamitous crash!
Even if Ves had lost contact with his own cranial implant due to his special state, he was still able to perform enough calculations by himself to estimate that the mechs and support personnel that took shelter in the captured underground base were almost certainly gone!
They would have been able to survive if the former Bontue stronghold was fully intact.
However, when the defenders initially decided to give up on holding the city, they had sabotaged many of the installations before they pulled out. Though the base still remained intact enough to use as a temporary staging point, Ves guessed that the Bontues had actually turned it into a trap!
"This is a premeditated counterattack!"
If this was the case, then Venerable Mox needed to get out of this city and rendezvous with any Quillim units that managed to survive this wave of attacks!
It was unfortunate that the dazed and traumatized expert pilot did not do anything of the sort.
Instead, she spent half an hour of her time in vain trying to contact her familiar compatriots. Her expert mech utilized its four legs to dig through the rubble as if that would help it pick up any signals transmitted from the collapsed tunnels.
"Ugh. Can't you do anything useful?!"
Ves became frustrated by her increasingly more senseless actions. Ever since her expert mech eliminated the Bontue mechs that had apparently been waiting in the outskirts of the city all of this time, Irene did not spare any thought about the danger she was in and what she needed to do next.
Korinna V had clearly turned into a deathly trap!
The Bontues would most certainly try to eliminate all of the invaders that had become stranded on the planet.
Whether they would seek to capture or kill Venerable Irene Mox outright, Ves didn't know.
He didn't recall reading anything like this in Divine Irene Mox's biography! Perhaps the popular book deliberately skipped over this event because it was not acceptable to read about humans deliberately crashing starships onto their own planets!
The lack of awareness of what took place in this period of Irene's life caused Ves to grow increasingly more concerned.
What if… an accident might happen that would lead to the death of the expert pilot?
Although the Iron Hedgehog remained in decent fighting condition, there was no way for it to repel every attack.
Even if it was able to stand its ground for a time, the expert heavy artillery mech would most certainly turn useless once it ran out of ammunition!
The most prudent choice that Irene could make at this junction was to surrender to the Bontues, but as Ves continued to eavesdrop on her thoughts, Venerable Mox had developed such a vehemence towards her enemies that she resolved to die before contemplating surrender!
This was not just an idle thought to her. Venerable Mox actually went as far as making a solemn promise to herself!
"I shall never give the Bontues the satisfaction of turning me into their prize. I shall blow up my expert mech and end my life before I ever allow my enemies to use me as a bargaining chip!"
Her words rang true. She was being utterly serious about never giving in to the enemy.
Ves observed with amazement as the woman's force of will surged with strength yet again. It had undergone a small evolution that had made it more condensed.
Venerable Irene Mox had grown substantially compared to a few days ago, but that did not change the fact that she was still a single mid-tier expert pilot who only had a damaged expert heavy artillery mech at her disposal!
There was no way she could fight against all of the Bontues left on the planet. The most logical step that the enemy would make after pulling off their shocking stratagem was to muster all of the local garrison troops and launch a comprehensive counteroffensive!
Even if the defenders didn't have the strength to defeat the surviving Quillim invaders, they could still keep their opponents in place long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
Once the Bontue reinforcement fleet arrived in orbit and formed a blockade, there was no way that Venerable Mox could get away at this point!
"Get out of this city, goddamnit!"
Irene did not do anything productive after she made an incredibly foolhardy decision to embrace death rather than allow herself to be captured.
When ten more minutes passed without any obvious changes, Ves grew incredibly alarmed.
Making a stand in this ruined city was the last thing that Irene should do! If she did not seek a way out soon, her awfully slow expert mech wouldn't be able to avoid the next wave of Bontue mechs that were most certainly on their way to this ruined city!
This realization put Ves in an awful bind.
If the stupid expert pilot could not wake herself up from her self-destructive thoughts, then human history might irrevocably change.
No. That wasn't right. Divine Irene Mox had definitely survived this disastrous campaign.
Had a transport arrived from afar to pick up one of the Quillim Mech Army's most important assets?
Ves didn't know. He couldn't afford to bet on the possibility that the Quillims were free enough to retrieve Venerable Irene Mox.
What if the Quillims had suffered so much damage that they couldn't take care of anything else?
He knew from reading Venerable Mox's thoughts that the Quillims had established their headquarters in Dershin, a medium-sized city that the landing forces had taken over first.
The Quillim troops that had landed in Dershin had put a lot of effort into fortifying it with defenses and stocking it up with an abundant amount of supplies.
There was no other suitable location on this planet where the Quillims could regroup and find a way out for themselves!
Why wasn't Irene thinking about heading to Dershin?
She didn't even think about the possibility that the Quillims might retrieve her and her expert mech!
After all, the city had suffered so much damage that it didn't seem that any of the Quillim mech forces had managed to survive this disastrous event.
In a situation where every single vehicle had become incomparably precious, it was not worthwhile for the Quillims to explore every city, especially when the Bontues could shoot them all down!
Ves struggled to make up his mind whether he should intervene and do his best to save her life.
If Venerable Irene Mox was just a random expert pilot who never really accomplished anything important enough in her life, then Ves had no compulsions about leaving her to die.
These Mastery experiences were primarily for his benefit. It was easy for him to sympathize with his hosts, but that did not mean he had to lift a finger in order to save their lives. He had become especially wary of accidentally changing the course of history by making careless moves.
However, Irene Mox was not a forgettable individual from the past.
She was the mech pilot who would steadily climb her way up the ranks until she finally became the Destroyer of Worlds that countless humans revered!
Her future was so bright and brilliant that every human had an obligation to do whatever they could to protect them against the threats that they could not defend against for whatever reason!
Ves never imagined that he would be put into this difficult and unenviable situation.
He began to wonder whether Venerable Irene Mox managed to survive this campaign and went on to ascend to godhood expressly because he actively chose to intervene in her life.
This was the problem with time travel. All of the information he possessed so far indicated that 'he' had already chosen to intervene in this situation!
A part of himself felt resentful at this notion. He impulsively wanted to resist this outcome and see what would happen, but his more responsible side felt it was too disastrous to rely on the Quillims or Irene herself to save her life!
Ves knew that exposing himself to a future god pilot would produce a lot of uncertainty to his life, but… when he thought about his responsibility to humanity, he felt that he was being overly selfish for refusing to do what was necessary to preserve the life of Irene Mox.
He had always clung to the identity of a human. It was an important source of strength and sanity to him. No matter how much his body deviated from the baseline human norm, he could always take comfort in his place among his fellow humans.
However, now that he was in a position to save or ruin the life and future of a woman that was bound to become a god pilot, Ves found that his identity as a human had become a shackle that compelled him to make sacrifices for the greater good of the human race!
He did not like this at all. He sought every possible excuse to shirk his duty and let Irene Mox fend for herself.
Nonetheless, his attempts at denial did not prevent him from analyzing Irene's awful circumstances and form a lot of pessimistic conclusions.
He felt that this situation had not only turned into an important junction of Irene Mox's life, but also had massive implications for his own future!
Did he have a responsibility to safeguard humanity's future?
He wanted to say no, but that was the typical answer of a weak or selfish individual. Ves did not deny that he was both weak and selfish, but that was mostly due to necessity. He wouldn't have been able to make it this far in his life if he was as foolish as his more idealistic family members.
What Ves was concerned about was his future.
Once he amassed more power and gained the strength to influence human civilization, would he assume responsibility over it? Would he follow the footsteps of many Star Designers and rise above every mundane concern so that he could fight for humanity as a whole?
A part of himself became attracted to this noble mission. He felt that there was nothing better a mech designer could do than to protect and change humanity for the better. It would be the ultimate form of fulfillment to a creator and service provider!
He mentally took a deep breath. He already formed an answer in his heart.
Just as Venerable Irene Mox changed a fundamental part of herself when put in a desperate situation, the mental shift that Ves had made had caused his Spirituality to sublimate in a subtle manner.
He felt as if he had become more mature and responsible than before.
Now that he had made up his mind, he decided to pull the trigger.
Ves concentrated and tried to shake off the out-of-phase effect that was obscuring his presence from his host.
Thinking that Irene might lash out against him if he revealed himself and spoke directly in the sanctity of her mind, he decided to change his plan and leverage his companion spirit.
Venerable Irene Mox snapped out of her malaise as soon as her cockpit began to light up for no reason!
Her thoughts completely froze as a shimmering form began to emerge in midair.
Seconds passed as a transparent purple cat eventually emerged a short distance away from her seated body!
The ghostly cat raised his palm in greeting.
"Mrow."
"What."
