The Mech Touch

Chapter 7211: The Giant in Charge

The Dark Apostle felt like a winner.

He won the leadership challenge and successfully took over the Phase Lord Department.

Granted, his victory was not as absolute as he liked. His weaker self collaborated with the collies who expected to spread their tentacles into his organization.

He knew better than to resist. Red humanity remained dominant, so the Dark Apostle had little choice but to play by the rules. He had learned his lesson several times already. Rather than put up a futile resistance, he was more interested in building up his power base and making sure that the Ascended Giants became strong enough to last in this brutal dwarf galaxy.

After the greeting ceremony came to an end, the Dark Apostle dismissed the crowd and organized a meeting with a number of familiar faces.

The Dark Apostle, the Grapple King, the Fiery Axe and the Divine Harpoon all entered the large and fairly secure mech-scaled meeting room in their current sizes.

The thought of scaling down their true bodies so that they became as small as humans did not even register in their minds. They were giants. It was essential to display their superior physical stature.

This made it relatively awkward when a number of humans attended the meeting as well.

The familiar team consisting of Formation Master Andrea Vox, Chief of Staff Eliza Mo Ragadan and Secret Keeper Zariel-775 all served vital purposes that made it unwise to exclude them from this gathering.

The current composition of this conference pretty much reflected the actual state of the Phase Lord Department that the Dark Apostle took over. It was dominated by giants, but could not function properly without the diligent work of tiny mortals.

The seating arrangements were unconventional to say the least. The conference room designed especially to accommodate these kinds of meetings relied on smart metal to dynamically generate and break down furniture that was appropriate for every occasion.

For example, a large amount of smart metal rose up from the floor and created a giant and rather domineering throne. It was the tallest and the most imposing seat of all, leaving no doubts about who was in charge.

The seats for the three interim strategoi were less impressive and more functional in appearance. Their thrones denoted their transcendent status, but their plain gunmetal gray exterior and lack of decorative elements conveyed the message that they had yet to earn a greater status.

As for the humans, each of them had no choice but to sit down in the most basic of square, angular metal chairs, ones that looked like they had been fabricated en masse using cheap recycled metals.

None of the seats offered much in the way of comfort. This was a deliberate choice on the Dark Apostle’s part. He had no interest in spending multiple hours on tedious discussions. He was a giant who preferred action over talking.

"Alright." The Dark Apostle began. "The real meeting starts now. What needs to be discussed?"

A short silence ensued before Eliza Mo Ragadan thoughtfully took charge of the agenda.

"A number of important decisions need to be made. Several are more time-sensitive than others. The first item on the agenda should be to clarify your thoughts regarding who should lead the three phalanxes of the Ascended Giants. The formal selection process should be much more elaborate in order to determine a candidate leader’s fit your agenda, but we cannot afford to leave the phalanxes rudderless for more than a day. The giants may decide to hold a brutal internal competition that can lead to mass injuries or even death. For now, it is sufficient to leave interim leaders in place. Are you content with current interim appointments?"

It looked rather weird for the giants to listen to a normal-sized human, but none of them complained about how improper it may be to let humans participate at all in this capacity.

The more radical giant supremacists among them were not present in this meeting.

The humans in the meeting also understood their positioning and did not try to convey any dominance despite their own belief in human supremacy.

The Dark Apostle had thought about this matter. He knew that there were advantages and disadvantages to shuffling the deck, especially when a new leader took over from the old one.

The Fiery Axe and the Divine Harpoon could be regarded as vestiges of the past. They had served as the trusted minions and confidantes of the Oscillating Fist. That meant that there was a possibility that they would still make decisions that aligned with the ideology of their deceased leader.

However, the Dark Apostle did not think this was the case. Giants were different from humans.

Sure, strong-willed fighters and leaders all possessed their own ideas, but the Ascended Giants respected their hierarchy. The three strategoi should all know who to defer to. If they disagreed with his leadership, then they should mount an open challenge rather than scheme in the shadows.

The Dark Apostle looked at all three strategoi in the eyes.

He had already exchanged blows with the two of them. This granted him an implicit understanding of who they were and what they fought for. He trusted this more than anything else.

He knew the least about the Grapple King, but he looked alright to his eyes. He had already heard a few good stories about him. There was no need to replace him unless he crossed the line.

"They can stay for now." The Dark Apostle calmly stated. "There is no need to waste time on a selection process. Let us do this the giant way. For now, let us announce that the three strategoi are appointed on a trial basis. Their performance will be monitored. If they prove competent enough to keep their phalanxes in line, then they can stay as far as I am considered. However, as long as they remain on trial, any subordinate from their phalanx has the right to challenge them. The winner will retain or ascend to leadership.

To their credit, none of the strategoi put on trial looked concerned. They already accumulated a decent amount of prestige and none of them were weak.

"How long should this trial period last?" Eliza asked.

The Dark Apostle briefly paused in thought. "Not too long. Once the trial period is over, the other Ascended Giants will still have a right to issue a challenge to their leaders, but there will be more restrictions. We need to find a balance between upward mobility and stability. Maybe we can open our leaders up for a challenge once per standard year. Please draft a formal plan around this principle."

"Are you sure, sir?" The chief of staff skeptically asked. "If you implement this policy, then you should be aware that the giants will expect you to make yourself open to challenges as well. You must lead by example. If you do not permit the giants to challenge you, then you will undermine this entire initiative."

"I have no intention of evading my responsibilities. If I am too weak to defeat one of my Ascended Giants, then I do not deserve to be the polemarchos any longer. I will not defy the principles of our race and insist on remaining in charge. I just hope that I can take advantage of the same opportunity to win back my crown a year later."

The giants in the conference room all nodded with approval, but the humans looked a lot more disturbed.

Secret Keeper Zariel-775 couldn’t help but speak. "The Red Collective has... concerns about passing over leadership to another Ascended Giant before the initial 20-year period has passed. You will be in violation of multiple contract terms if you transfer leadership to a candidate that we have not vetted."

The Dark Apostle smirked. "Then I will just have to make sure that I will never lose. Relax, human. I do not intend to slack off in my training. Now that I am the boss, I should be able to gain access to much more powerful phasewater organs and tech. The other giants will not be able to keep up with my development. If they are still able to defeat me despite my superior gear and organs, then I deserve to resign."

This was not a matter that he or the other giants intended to budge on. The humans helplessly looked at each other before accepting this arrangement.

There were certain red lines that the Red Collective would never allow the Ascended Giants to cross.

However, the hard approach would only trigger a backlash among the prideful giants.

This meant that so long as they did not exceed this threshold, red humanity was willing to... tolerate the excesses of this new and stupid race.

The four giants in the conference room were all smart enough to understand this unspoken implication. They may test the boundaries at times, but they would not cross them unless there was a greater purpose behind their actions.

"Enough about leadership. What do we have to address next?"

Eliza frowned but did what she was told. "You will need to set a new organization charter or reform the existing one. It is essentially a document that spells out the goals, principles, stances and guidelines of your department. At this moment, none of your subordinates — no matter whether they are human or giant — understand your full intentions. They must constantly guess whether a decision falls in line with your goals, political ideology and more. By establishing a formal organization charter, you can clear up much of this ambiguity and allow them to make decisions that fall in line with your goals without needing to micromanage them. This is currently not possible due to the fact that your subordinates only have access to the old organization charter."

"Show me. Let’s see what my predecessor expected of his men."

His chief of staff projected the full document in the center. The Dark Apostle skimmed through it, having little patience to study every sentence in full.

Fortunately, the Ascended Giant inherited a part of his original’s capacity to learn and process new information, so he was not too slow.

"...I see. This charter definitely needs to change."

"Please outline your vision for the Phase Lord Department." Eliza requested. "There is no need for you to write out the entire charter by yourself. You can give us your main points and we can flesh it out in a full document that complies with all of the relevant standards and regulations."

The Dark Apostle smiled. He knew what the humans were up to. They would comply on the surface, but secretly nudge words and stretch the terms to favor their race ever so slightly more.

While he was willing to trust that the collies would not go too far with this, he still did not feel reassured.

"Divine Harpoon."

"I am at your service, polemarchos. What do you require?"

"I will outline my vision shortly, but I do not want humans to flesh out the charter by themselves. I believe that they can benefit from having... giant representation in their team. You will be in charge of this. You can keep an eye on the humans by yourself or delegate this responsibility to your Faceless Giants. Just make sure the final draft is not one-sided."

"As you wish, sir." The Divine Harpoon nodded in acceptance and approval. "You have made a prudent decision. We have numerous of Ascended Giants in our ranks that have received extensive education in human contract law and organizational governance. We will not let the humans subvert your vision with their tricky wordplay."

The Dark Apostle snorted. "It doesn’t matter too much anyway. Words cannot bind our people. Only power can. As much as we do not like it, humans have the capital to be strong. I am not crazy enough to fight against them when we are much smaller and weaker than them. You can consider this to be our guiding principle for the foreseeable future. Forbearance is more important than pride."