The Mech Touch

Gloriana provided Ves with several suggestions on how to resolve Silent William's inability to advance to expert candidate.

Neither of the options she mentioned so far inspired confidence in Ves. Operating on someone's mind and spirit was an extremely sensitive act that had far-reaching effects on someone's psyche and personality.

He understood far too little about humans and the human mind to consider himself an expert in this field!

Due to his concerns and apprehensions, he found it difficult to come up with solutions on his own. This was why he welcomed the input of an outsider like Gloriana.

Her lack of understanding in the spiritual field aside, her ignorance granted her a fresh and untainted perspective towards the problem Ves was facing.

Sometimes, all it took to solve a complex problem was a simple but novel solution.

Her third suggestion exceeded anything Ves could conceive of on his own! It sounded so radical that his thoughts almost crashed!

"Say again?"

"You heard me." She said as she continued to ruffle Clixie's fur. "You need to solve the separation in William's mind so that both sides are able to blend and coexist as one. Well, doesn't this sound familiar to you? From what you've described to me, the divinity that people like you, me and William possess is identical to the proto-gods you've been working with all along! Aside from the fact that the latter isn't anchored by a corporeal vessel, it doesn't sound like they are fundamentally different from gods in the making such as you, me and every other exceptional mech pilot and mech designer!"

Ves simply couldn't connect the two. Not immediately. Spiritual products were entirely different from high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers!

Were they?

The moment Gloriana threw out this seemingly simple but incredibly radical equation, Ves couldn't help but linger over it. His values and principles as a decent human being recoiled at any suggestion that a human's spirituality could be treated in the same fashion as a spiritual product!

The former was a complete, sentient and living entity, while the other was a product designed and created to fulfill a specific purpose!

Yet.. were design spirits not complete, sentient and alive?

Were humans not 'created' to fulfill some purposes as well, such as procreation and the continuation of their species?

If Ves set aside the perspective of a common human being, then the two actually had a lot more common than he initially assumed.

It was difficult to put human spirituality in the same category as spiritual products. He had been raised as a proper Brighter, and inherited the principles that almost every school instilled in humans.

Human life was precious and deserved to be treated with dignity. It was forbidden to tamper with human minds! Artificially altering human beings in order to 'program' them into different persons was one of the biggest violations of human rights in human space!

This was a crime that would almost certainly provoke the Big Two into squashing him into paste!

Even though Ves learned later on that enforcement was less than rigorous, it was still difficult for Ves to do something that completely crossed the line!

Of course, what Ves had already done to Silent William broke several taboos. Yet he always had William's best interests at heart.

He hadn't tampered with William's mind. He 'cured' the mech pilot by performing a 'benign' spiritual procedure that got rid of one of his 'disorders'.

It worked, didn't it? William turned from an abject coward and a waste of space into a dashing, heroic mech pilot!

Yet what Gloriana suggested was something that went far beyond 'curing' William.

If Ves followed the same methodology he employed whenever he created a spiritual product, then he would have to kill William's spirit before using the remnants to create a new version of him! A different version!

The ethical problems resulting from such a crude and barbaric act were myriad and severe!

Would Ves be erasing the original William beyond the point of no return?

Would the 'spiritual product' that represented the new William bear any connection or resemblance to his old self?

What kind of bonds would the new William maintain with either Ves, Nyxie or some other entity?

How could Ves ensure that the new William still inherited the original William's memories, knowledge and piloting expertise?

Above all, would the new William still bear some resemblance to humanity?

This last question troubled him significantly. Ves inadvertently glanced towards the Larkinson Mandate, which Lucky was using as an impromptu nest.

The Golden Cat he recently brought to life turned into a wholesome feline despite being made from hundreds of different ingredients.

This gave Ves some hope that he could control or at least steer the spiritual restoration process to an extent. As long as he added in enough supplementary ingredients, perhaps he might be able to retain the human-ness of the resulting spiritual product!

Ves began to consider the matter more seriously once he gained some confidence in his ability to achieve the outcome he desired. All thoughts on taboos and ethics went out the window as he was becoming increasingly more consumed by the unlimited potential of this ability!

As long as he succeeded, he would be able to grasp a means of 'reprogramming' human beings! This went beyond the level of brainwashing and indoctrination used by various unsavory and illicit groups!

The only reason he held back from going wild with this idea was that it was largely untested. He didn't have a good grasp on the outcome because he never performed this method on a human before.

He needed to test his theories. He needed to refine this method through practice and repetition. He needed to develop a more solid theoretical framework to gain a better grip on the mechanics behind the process.

All in all, Ves was about to traverse head-first into uncharted territory, and that meant that he could encounter all kinds of dangers in the fog!

Instinctively, a part of him felt deeply repelled by what he was contemplating. The sheer inhumanity of it reminded Ves of the depravities the researchers of the Five Scrolls Compact were willing to commit!

Ves shook his head. He needed to center himself and reaffirm his principles.

The proper course of action was to reject Gloriana's radical but admittedly brilliant suggestion.

Yet.. the potential of it kept luring him back. Though he would never employ such a radical method on someone he cared about like the Larkinsons, it was a different case for a stranger like William Urbesh.

What did it matter if he 'killed' William and resurrected someone new and different in his place? Was it worth sticking to his principles if it was in his best interest to utilize this method to solve a problem that had been bothering for a while?

"I'm not killing him if I do this." He whispered to himself. "I'm reconstructing him. Obviously, my patient isn't of a right mind right now. My earlier treatment failed to restore him to a healthy state. Obviously a follow-up treatment is required."

Of course, Ves conveniently ignored the fact that he was responsible for putting William in such a divisive state in the first place. He also disregarded the implication that he planned to spiritually kill the original William and put a spiritual abomination in his place. He also passed over the fact that he would be violating the principles he was determined to uphold.

Ves had a lot of practice in ignoring his principles when his interests were on the line.

Perhaps he might have to pay a price for that later on, but Ves didn't care right now. The idea he formed was far too intriguing to ignore, and it seemed as if it was his best shot at advancing his relationship with the Rim Guardians!

As long as he completed their mission, Ves would not feel any remorse!

Though this operation sounded extremely risky, Ves was too impatient to bother with trying out this method on test subjects. He already had a decent amount of practice with creating spiritual products, and this shouldn't be any different! Gloriana was right that human spirituality was little different from the design spirits he worked on a daily basis. Qilanxo even used to be a real living exobeast before she transcended into a purely spiritual existence!

"Let's perform this experiment right away!" He grinned as he became more enthused by the possibilities. "I'll have to retrieve some objects and make some preparations."

He began to bring over a P-stone, F-stone and B-stone lockbox from the vault. He primarily wanted to have a charged P-stone by his side in order to compensate and supplement his spiritual energy expenditure.

As for the F-stone and B-stone lockbox, Ves just wanted to keep them close as a precaution.

If he somehow managed to birth an eldritch horror, he might have to borrow the F-stone's offensive amplification charge to slay the spiritual monster.

The B-stone lockbox could be put to use in a variety of ways, such as using it as an improvised helmet to defend himself against direct spiritual attacks.

Once he brought these objects to the lab chamber, he began to sit and create some empowered spiritual images.

Just like with his other spiritual products, these spiritual images basically functioned like blueprints. At least that was what he hoped.

It seemed to work out the last time. When Ves created the Golden Cat, the resulting spiritual product matched the image of a cat he formed.

Even though Ves hadn't created a perfect image that contained a complete library of cat-related properties, the Golden Cat still behaved perfectly like one!

This meant that Ves didn't need to be too specific or thorough in constructing an image of Silent William as an 'ideal' mech pilot.

Intent and purpose mattered more than precision when it came to spirituality!

That, and the ingredients mattered a lot as well, but Ves already had that covered. He did not intend to blend in anything aside from the split portions of spirituality in William's mind.

It wasn't as if he was tempted to steal an expert pilot's spiritual fragment and throw it into the mix, but Ves was afraid this would only result in a detrimental outcome.

Since he was doing something very new, it was best to keep it simple and keep out as many variables as possible.

While Ves worked to prepare his upcoming operation, Gloriana sat quietly while peppering him with questions whenever he took a small break.

"Are you confident you'll succeed?" She asked with curious eyes.

"I am." He answered. "Though I'm not certain what will happen, my intuition tells me that this is a sound idea. At the very least, the logic of it is solid. It's the details that concern me. The added variable of manipulating a human's spirituality to such a drastic degree will doubtlessly result in complications."

"The devil is in the detail." Gloriana remarked. "Sometimes, the smallest variables have a way to completely upend your expectations. Make sure you are ready to respond to any unexpected developments."

"I know."

"Do you need my help? Since you're performing another miracle, my assistance can improve the outcome."

Ves immediately shook his head. "No thanks. You still haven't recovered from your involvement in the creation of the Golden Cat. I don't want to prolong your weak state any further. I need you back to normal as fast as possible so you can fully participate in my Larkinson mech design project."

"So the life of a human being is less valuable than a mech design to you?"

"Yup." Ves answered without hesitation. "Especially when that 'human being' is just some random schmuck and the mech design in question plays an extremely vital role in the evolution of the Larkinson Clan! There is no question which one is more important!"

Gloriana looked amused. "If you say so. Aren't you afraid that William.. won't come out right after you are done with him? Without my ability to fix imperfections, you're going to produce a very flawed product."

"It doesn't matter. I'm not aiming to create a perfect living product. As long as the new William is human enough to pass for one and retains most of his skill and knowledge in piloting mechs, then I have no complaints!"

Whatever collateral damage or side effects Ves produced over the course of his operation was not his concern! So long as they didn't impact the new William's advancement to expert candidate, then the operation was a success in his book!