Strategy: Get in the robot!
Being a Praehihr like Hunger offers some advantage in piloting the mech, one that a mortal like Letrizia doesn't get.
Letrizia Artriez - Proxy Implement. Letrizia Artriez now counts as a Praehihr for purposes of operating Verschlengorge, the Devouring Implement. Upgrades Sharpbright to True Sharpbright, massively increasing its power and utility in every scenario.
His existing Rank (and almost certainly his stats as well) synergize for a further advantage. Again, Letrizia has human stats and a pretty low rank, so this is a huge advantage.
You can do this geas quest without ever gaining substantial mech piloting skill, but mech piloting has fairly decent synergy with Accretion and is a good lever for multiplying your power.
While Hunger lacks Letrizia's experience with piloting his rank and stats are so absurdly high that I think he can pick it up pretty quick. He also knows exactly what good piloting looks like. Letrizia has spent her entire life training to pilot, and she practices fighting Hunger, so he's seen what to do. He may also have trained in piloting Versch during a time skip or learned more during casual conversation with Letrizia.
Of course, true mastery requires something more than just practice time.
Learn to Pilot alone is still pretty basic, you can of course raise the piloting skill in actual combat as well once you know the basics. Communing with the mech could also be important to the process if you seek true mastery.
Normally when we think of communion we think of quiet evenings in peaceful, low-light settings. But Versch is a being of combat and war. I think a communion held just before, or during, a giant life or death battle is the best sort of communion possible for a being like Versch.
Having Hunger pilot Versch while Letrizia just hangs around and waits to see if she lives or dies is a bummer since it makes her even more useless to the plot than usual but whatever, we gotta win here.
Strategy: Walls, Armaments, and the Secrets of the Foremost
It's quite clear that there are secrets to the Armaments that we remain unaware of.
the Arcanist might have some insight into the nature of Armaments in general
The same blue that manifested about his blade was reflected in Verschlengorge's internal runes. Its eyes had shifted that color when it had addressed Hunger as Praehihr. In some way these were connected, Verschlengorge's Curse of Decimation and the fact that it was designed with a bonded Cursebearer in mind, the blue of his Blade and its eyes, some connection, even if faint to the point of disappearing, between the Foremost and the Accursed...
"What are you hiding?" He asked finally, turning upwards to look at the toothily-grinning giant. "What's the meaning of that liminal blue? If this is a power associated with Cursebearers, why did the Forebear have it? Or did my imitation of the Forebear's technique only incidentally unlock something within me that all Cursebearers can access?"
So learning more about Armaments in general opens many possibilities here. Maybe Armaments are weak to the Praxis, maybe Armaments piloted by mere mortals and not by a Praehihr have some weakness we can exploit (remember the time Augustine trivially kidnapped Versch?), maybe mitigating their curses weakens them.
Another possibility is to use another Foremost creation we have available, the Walls of Myth. Both Walls and Armaments were built by the Foremost using the same design, blue praxis runes drawn in golden Findross. And remember, an Armament with a Cursebearer can do things that would be impossible for anyone else.
"Ereadhihr, the Elder Implement. They weren't just a weapon to the Foremost. The Foremost could harness them for countless tasks, bend realms both physical and Astral to their whims, apply the Interdict of Cognition that immunizes us from rampant intelligences, and so much more!"
It's possible that the walls have some secret, unknown power that we can waken using Versch. Obviously the Foremost were aware of the Armaments, and the Walls of Myth are naturally sturdy enough to resist an Armament for some time, so it's possible they installed some further anti-armament power that we can activate.
As for getting these secrets there's really only a couple possibilities; the Arcanist, the oracle spirit we summoned last time, and convincing Versch to get talkative. The Arcanist is an absurdly huge risk, the Oracle Spirit takes time to summon, and Versch may not know or talk, but I'm sure between the three of them we can get something.
