The Mech Touch

The giant hexagon spanned a large area. Small dividers split it up in six different zones akin to six pieces of a pie.

A tall but fairly narrow hexagon-shaped platform rested in the very center of the zones. Decorative iconography representing the six phases of existence faced every zone.

At the phase of life, a large number of men of varying ages stood at their assigned locations.

Though it was an immense challenge to stuff 66,666 men in a single zone, as long as they followed the instructions projected to them on an individual basis, no one experienced any problems.

Just to be sure there wouldn't be any interruptions, everyone had already been ushered into bathrooms a few hours before.

No one was allowed to interrupt the ritual because they urgently needed to do their business!

The majority of men consisted of locals. With all of the wealth and clout that Ves wielded these days, it was a simple matter of gaining House Evenson's permission to recruit a lot of random people.

It was even simpler to hire these men to stand around in the middle of nowhere. Each participant received 1,000 sentinel crowns for a single afternoon of their time!

That was easily twice or thrice the monthly wage of an average laborer!

A lot of men who encountered this offer instantly accepted it without a pause. This was easy money to them, especially when there weren't any skill, age or experience requirements!

Even though none of the men knew what Ves and the Larkinson Clan had in store, it shouldn't be too bad in their opinion.

Though a lot of them tried to guess why this powerful foreigner needed them all, they didn't linger on it for too long. After all, who could guess the mind of a famously eccentric mech designer?

With the local authorities cooperating fully with the Larkinson Clan, almost every man became reassured that this wasn't some sort of scheme to enslave them or anything.

It wasn't until they were actually brought to the giant hexagon that they understood what they signed up for! Some of the men even started to have second thoughts when they looked at the large, mech-sized statue of a woman.

Something about this statue made them shudder!

"I don't know about this, man. What's with all of this Hexer stuff?"

"Who cares. Just enjoy your 1000 sents!"

Though almost every man in the zone consisted of locals, there were a few exceptions.

For one reason or another, Ves had given a direct order to Vincent Ricklin to take part. In fact, Vincent had been assigned the front-most spot!

"Haha, whatever is going on, I'm already in first place!" He boasted while he looked up at the tall, lifelike statue. "Damn, what a babe. If I didn't already have Raella, I would put the moves on this chick."

While Vincent entertained himself with the nearby eye candy, at the zone representing the phase of death, a quiet solitude had spread.

The men standing at the edge of this zone weren't as boisterous as the others. Each of them couldn't help to recognize the iconic shape of a coffin.

Each of them were wooden and tightly sealed. Light decorative carvings added a bit of sophistication to their exterior while the banners draped on them each displayed a short record of the deceased.

Each of the dead had died within a span of a week. Ves opted to reserve the coffins of the recent dead because he didn't think it was worth the outrage if he dug up a lot of buried graves.

It was easy enough to bribe the families of the deceased to lend him the coffins. As far as they were concerned, Ves was paying for the funerals!

At the phase of godhood, only 6 mysterious containers rested on the ground.

Each of them contained a P-stone filled with the essence of a design spirit.

Ves chose the design spirits with care. He selected Bravo for his boyishness, Zeigra for his honorable death, the Golden Cat for her spiritual network, Nyxie for his damned existence, the Crystal Leader for his forgotten existence and finally Qilanxo for her motherly strength.

The selection itself vaguely corresponded to the six phases of existence, which Ves believed would be a nice touch.

Next to this almost empty zone was the zone that represented the most controversial phase of existence.

666 angry or sullen-faced Penitent Sisters stood at their assigned spots. None of them dared to disobey orders and take any further steps.

Just to be sure, a couple of mechs along with a lot of guards on foot kept an eye on this unstable element. As soon as the Hexers stirred any trouble, security wouldn't hesitate to pacify them! It wasn't difficult at all to keep 666 unarmed women in check.

"This is blasphemy of the highest order!" Commodore Abigail Evern hissed. "If the Evern Matriarchal Dynasty hears about this, Mr. Larkinson's life is forfeit! My former relatives will never let a boy desecrate our beliefs with this farcical display!"

Even though the Penitent Sisters used to be cultists, they still respected many parts of hexism orthodoxy. What they witnessed right now seemed like a parody! A heretical parody!

Juliet Stameros spat on the ground. "I warned you all that the boy was in trouble. He's the most dangerous mech designer I've ever met. He's unlike any of the other male mech designers from the Hegemony. I don't know what that Wodin leech is thinking for letting her boy go unleashed for so long."

"We should do something, Val. Why did you tell us to play nice?"

Commander Valerie Chancy sighed and shook her head. "While I understand your concerns, you are picking the wrong hill to die for. Even if this entire arrangement seems proper, what can he do? Mr. Larkinson is just an ignorant boy, and it's very clear he hasn't consulted his girlfriend or any other Hexer. With his superficial understanding of hexism, he dares to invoke the Superior Mother? Hah, he should keep dreaming!"

The other two Penitent Sister leaders subsided a little. Their commander had a point. The sheer ignorance on display meant that whatever Ves Larkinson was up to, there was no chance in hell he would be able to invoke anything meaningful!

"Don't forget that this is all part of a test for us." The Penitent Sister Commander reminded everyone. She pointed at her cheek, which had been tattooed with a prominent ♂ symbol. "The other Hexers wish to humiliate us and bring us down with these petty insults. Lashing out will accomplish nothing except for leading us to deaths, thereby cutting off our legacy! This is exactly what our enemies want. Don't let them win. Instead, treat our punishment as a gauntlet. If we wish to be reborn stronger than before, we must prove ourselves worthy and maintain our forbearance as best as possible!"

The Penitent Sisters weren't afraid of death. What they truly feared was to die a meaningless death! If they disappeared from existence, who would remember them? Who would inherit their legacy? Who would remind the Hexers of the true threat of boys?

In their eyes, it would only be a matter of time before the boys who ruled the galaxy to squash the upstart Hexadric Hegemony!

For now, the Hegemony was too small and remote to attract the attention of the cabal of boys who secretly plotted to keep women down, but that wouldn't last! With the inevitable victory the Hegemony would achieve over the Coalition, the Hexers would soon come to dominate the entire Komodo Star Sector.

At that time, many Penitent Sisters believed that the reckoning would come!

In order to save the Hexers from their own doom, the Penitent Sisters had to overcome this humiliating punishment duty, regain their honor and convince the Hegemony of the fatal threat of boys!

While the zone representing the phase of damnation calmed down, the zone next to it never fluctuated from the beginning.

Ves didn't really understand the phase of dust. Why was it different from the phase of death? Weren't they the same thing?

Even skimming through dense, illogical hexism scripture didn't tell him much. He only learned that the two phases differed on whether people remembered the dead or not. When no one remembered your existence, you were no different than dust!

At least that was what Ves assumed. It didn't matter if he misinterpreted it. He just decided to interpret this phase a bit more literally and procured a modest batch of dead sandman corpses.

They used to live before they were killed trying to invade human space. Practically no one was able to distinguish the identities of low-caste sandmen. This was pretty much analogous to what the phase of dust stood for in his opinion!

After the phase of dust came the ultimate phase of existence.

For the phase of woman, Ves truly struggled to choose who to represent this zone.

The ideal candidates would be Hexer women. The Glory Battalion boasted plenty of female mech pilots and support personnel. All of them would be a good fit for this phase of existence.

Ves didn't have the guts to invite them to take part in this ceremony.

Gloriana's reaction already proved how much backlash he would incur if he tried to gain the cooperation of Hexers!

None of them would be pleased to take part in a mockery of their culture or beliefs!

For this reason, Ves had to draw upon another group of strong and confident that weren't Hexers!

Ves considered bringing in his own clansmen, but none of them were suitable. The Brighters in the clan were all ardent secularists while the Ylvainans thought that hexism was misguided.

In the end, he made an offer to the Swordmaidens and they accepted.

While the former pirates probably didn't fit the mold of a classic superior Hexer, Ves didn't care about these details. He personally admired the Swordmaidens and if any group of women deserved the highest honor, it would be Commander Dise and her fearless sisterhood!

It also helped that the Swordmaidens were highly practical and not very fussy. They had gone through weirder ordeals and they weren't entirely unfamiliar with dealing with cults.

As all of the elements fell into place, nothing happened. According to the schedule, the ceremony should have started five minutes ago, but so far the Larkinsons on guard just told everyone that an unavoidable delay had occurred.

"Please be patient, everyone! The ceremony will start soon!"

The reason for this delay was because Ves was still stuck backstage.

He truly wanted to step forward and begin the ceremony he plotted for a long time. However, his girlfriend still had a problem with this entire arrangement!

"—aside from all of the travesties you mentioned before, the distribution isn't even right! How stupid are you to employ just 6 proto-gods for the phase of godhood and 66 Swordmaidens for the phase of woman? It should have been the other way around! Women are superior to gods unless those gods are female as well. If I was in your shoes, I would have utilized 66 male proto-gods to represent the phase of godhood and just 6 proper, upstanding Hexer women to represent the ultimate phase of existence! Even a six-year old Hexer would be able to come up with this! You're so ignorant that I can't believe you thought this was a good idea."

Ves palmed his face. "This isn't important, Gloriana. Who cares about these trivial details? It's the thought that counts! All of this is just for symbolism. Remember the time when I created the Golden Cat? Back then, I learned how beneficial it was to hold a grand occasion. With all of the people and props I put in place, I think I have a good chance of breathing life into my most powerful design spirit to date!"

"I don't disagree with that, Ves, but the problem is that you are committing outright blasphemy. That is something that I can't accept!"

Gloriana still refused to take part in this charade!