The Honey War continued at a fast pace for a month, with the Legion and their allies advancing into the Bee Starfield like an unstoppable avalanche, crushing billions of bee nests at the front, while in their wake, building the regular Legion infrastructure, mainly starforts and wormholes for supply and transport.
The next tier of structures like ring worlds and trade stations would have to wait, being far too vulnerable to counterstrikes while the Legion was occupied with holding the line.
Even so, Pef and the General had begun to worry, due to the lack of higher tier bees in the enemy ranks.
The bee starfield was spread over thousands of multiverses, if more sparse and lacking in resources than a regular Province.
The enemy was presumed to have at least a thousand Tier 9 Queen Bees, but they never appeared on the battlefield, except the few that Pef located in the initial push.
'I think they are gathering their forces for a big counter.' Pef mused inward as he kept watch over the Legion's Regiments, getting spread out over vaster and vaster distances.
Luckily enough, the constant waves of lower tier bees had allowed the Legion to upgrade their own ranks massively, such that the regular Soldiers averaged now in Tier 3 and 4, and the elites in Tier 7 and 8. Devouring the enemy essence was the staple of Legion cultivation, while the Ten Elements method had boosted the growth to higher levels.
Furthermore, the Ants had a natural inclination towards Shadow Dao, and the addition of Light and Dark elements to the Legion method had increased their mastery to advanced levels. All sorts of umbrakinesis skills and spells manifested among the elite ants, from shadow walking and teleport, to shadow cloak and constructs and even clones.
'I don't think the bees have ever encountered such a foe like the Legion. Regular Sects like these Sword guys would have been overwhelmed long ago.' the glove answered after a moment, pointing at the tired ranks of their allies.
Unlike the Legion, the Sword disciples were running on fumes now, and only a few gifted ones managed to advance through adversity.
'I say we bait them. Plus the disciples could use some rest.' Pef decided after thinking for a moment.
He sent a message to the General to halt the advance, while he moved next to the Sword Ancestor.
"We will stop and recover here. Gift these to your disciples as we prepare for the next stage." Pef said in a compassionate voice, while passing over a storage ring filled with Divine Wine and Golden Realm burgers.
Master Jin took the ring and checked the contents with a frown. Sold at the new restaurant prices, the billion Golden burgers and the wine would reach a trillion high-grade crystals at the minimum. It was way too much for a simple gift.
"You expect a big battle soon." the old man deduced almost instantly.
"That too. But your forces are also weak and depleted right now. The Divine Wine should help them attain some Dao insights while they meditate. The Legion will prepare the rest." Pef answered with a shrug, nodding towards the side where battlestations and starforts were getting deployed from storage, while the Shin Fleet also emerged with millions of war ships from Lady Yue's inner worlds.
Devils and ghouls also prepared their own fortifications, with familiar looking hexasuits powering up to create a defense perimeter. Lord Yamon had not been idle even while Ascending to Tier 7, preparing and upgrading his Devil troops with new and stronger battle suits, as well as numerous killing formations and star-grade battleships.
The General herself disliked the mechanical armors of the Devils, preferring to upgrade the Soldiers themselves, instead of relying on outside aid that might fail during combat, leaving the pilot exposed. Even so, the hexasuits offered an order of magnitude increase in durability, mobility and firepower, especially important when dealing with massed enemies of weaker tier.
"Do you think you can make such suits for my disciples? Perhaps focused on melee combat?" Master Jin asked with a appreciating glance towards the mecha suits.
Pef smiled at the challenge, as Gundam-type suits with Void Swords and Shields would change the aspect of the battlefield completely.
"It will take a few years for such a project to reach a stable product. Might as well make a few prototypes while we wait." he decided on a whim.
One for Zen and one for little Deng, who was now a teenager and a core disciple in the Sword Soul Sect.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Calling Lady Lin and Drake into his Blue Realm laboratory, they began working in a time field to create the first Gundam suits, even using the Tier 9 Bee wings as a base for the suits weapon systems. The T9 wings were extremely durable, such that even the Taotie refused to eat them, or perhaps the monster simply foresaw the possibility in such artifacts.
It was hard to say what the Taotie could do, since his Devouring Skill worked on a higher level, even absorbing the knowledge of his prey. And considering the beast had devoured countless cultivators and mortals over eons...
Expanding on the Devil hexasuits and various Legion Artifacts like the Power Word Guns and the Legion Knives, Pef and Lin created the on-board suit spirit, while Drake mostly focused on achieving full mobility for the suit, including flight, Blink and shape changes.
After the mecha suit took shape, Pef began laying protective arrays and configuring the Void Sword as to both extract ambient qi and also use high-grade crystals as a power source. Just as he finished the first suit and prepared to call Zen for testing, the Mirror Goddess appeared in his lab, her eyes glued on the suit with obvious yearning.
"You want one?" Pef asked to make sure.
"Yes, please." Gena Feng said in a soft voice, almost begging.
Pef glanced up, expecting a Tribulation bolt to fall and confer the suit a proper Divine Artifact rank, but nothing happened.
Then again, as an untested prototype, the suit was possibly flawed in a million ways. Might as well use the Mirror of Samsara to reveal the flaws, without risking the life or sanity of the next pilots.
"I want full testing, every environment and any type of enemy. Soul and mind attacks, Domains and Laws, and whatever else." Pef offered with a pleasant tone, while gesturing towards the first suit.
Gena nodded once, then vanished in a mirror glint, taking the suit with her.
"Devious and smart, hubby. I wouldn't climb in that suit, personally." Lady Lin observed with a knowing smirk.
"Combat damage might crush the pilot, if caught during transformation." Drake added with a shrug.
Pef scratched his cheek and nodded. "The Mirror Goddess is the perfect test pilot anyway. There isn't anything in the Middle Heavens able to kill her, except the Taotie. Plus she didn't ask for the suit on a whim. She must have seen something."
--------
Lin measured her husband with wise eyes. Gone were the days when Pef would rush head first into peril, to get dragged out half-dead or even really dead. The ploy with his restaurant had worked amazingly well, allowing them to establish themselves as a power in the Middle Heavens without needing to forcefully displace someone else, not until he had gained sufficient strength to oust even Bronze Realm Beasts from their starfields, or even kill several Tier 10 Nobles attempting to interfere with his restaurant.
She started to work on the next Gundam suit, now a bit easier after completing the first suit. Drake also managed to fix the hip rotation flaw, that would endanger the pilot if struck at the wrong moment.
-------
It took another year of extended time until the suit was ready for testing, when Gena returned with a mind crystal in hand, and a fairly damaged suit in tow.
"Here, a billion timelines of testing. And first thing, lower the hip joint...it folds mid-combat." Gena demanded with a tired voice.
Drake scratched the back of his head in shame, then took the old suit and began to repair the damage in a serious manner.
Meanwhile, Pef had his orange glove parse the contents of the mind crystal for combat reports, while also learning of millions of various Mirror realms and unknown environments and monsters stashed away by the Mirror. The wealth of knowledge trickled into Pef's mind and with each new datapoint he began to gain more and more insights, until he gained another Star.
Doubling his personal power in this Tier was nothing to scoff about, and even the Formation Dao climbed another percent by learning how each defense array performed in every scenario or environment.
Once the download was complete, Pef began to adapt his protective arrays on the second suit once more, until the Heavens themselves acknowledged the creation of a truly complete Artifact. Two blue lightning bolts fell on the Gundam suit, leaving a glowing name on the side of the cockpit. 'Veritas Legion, Gundam Two'.
Without prompt, the suit rose to its feet and looked around, then nodded towards Pef. "Gundam Two, ready for battle. Where is my pilot?"