The Mech Touch

Ves entertained many ideas on how to utilize the Inexorable One's design fragment. The avian dark god lent itself well for mobility-oriented purposes, though the big bird was a bit more versatile than that. This actually gave him a bit of a headache.

"If I use up the fragment to create a straightforward spiritual product that centers around speed, then I would probably waste the Inexorable One's crowd control capabilities."

The opposite was the case if he intended to leverage the Inexordable One's ability to call tornados and other weird stuff. Though Ves was enormously attracted to the dark god's mastery in manipulating the environment, it was rather hard for him to fit this aspect in a design spirit that was meant to empower light mechs.

Ves wanted to process the Inexorable One into a form that preserved both its strengths, but that directly risked the return of the dark god. If he ended up creating a spiritual product that shared a high degree of resemblance to the avian entity, wouldn't he end up building a ladder that would allow the dead entity to climb back to life?

He figured that was the principal reason why the Unending One managed to attempt a takeover even if Ves employed numerous precautions. He had become so certain that he had sanitized the Unending One's spiritual fragment.

The spiritual attributes related to the tentacled whale's devouring and digestion capabilities served as the great being's core functions. The Unending One was literally based around these two core functions.

In this context, removing all of the other excess spiritual attributes was not that big of a deal. The bulk of the meat was still there even after Ves trimmed all of the excess fat and blubber from the spiritual fragment.

Once he began to use it up to create Blinky, the Unending One found a sufficient entry point to get back to life! When Ves ignorantly fed spiritual energy to his newborn spiritual product, he inadvertently spoon fed one of his old enemies the exact resource he needed to begin his takeover attempt!

In his upcoming attempt, he had to prevent or at least be ready to respond if it happened yet again. The stakes were less dire since his new creation wasn't literally connected this mind, but the consequences were still dire if the Inexorable One succeeded in taking over the newborn spirit.

"I can't do much to prevent it from happening again." He frowned.

He could probably reduce the chance of a disaster by removing even more portions of the Inexorable One, but that would also leave him with less raw materials. He had to strike a balance where he removed enough attributes to deny the dark god an easy return but also ensure he had enough elements left to turn his latest spiritual product into a powerful and remarkable addition to his collection.

He smirked. "Compared to last time, I have gained a powerful advantage. Blinky! It's time for you to shine."

Mrow!

A purple spiritual cat emerged out of his head and preened in midair. His condition was good at the moment. His purple fur looked healthy and lush, the motes of light streaking across his form were lighting him up like a festive decoration and his glowing eyes as well as his embedded Worclaw crystal were glowing with power.

Ves took hold of Blinky and started to tweak the cat's furry ears.

Mrow~

"Hehe. That's enough pampering. I need you to do your job now. Just follow my instructions and make sure not to miss anything dangerous. Are you ready?"

Mrow!

Under his instruction, Blinky dove into the P-stone containing the Inexorable One's remains and went to work.

The difference that Blinky could make became very clear. Ves was a human who did not possess a lot of finesse in manipulating spiritual energy. His attempts to shape his products were best described as crude, primitive and laughably simple.

This was why Ves thought of letting Blinky do the heavy lifting this time. While he never designed Blinky to take over these duties, the companion spirit possessed an even higher talent than him in manipulating spiritual energy.

As a creature that lived and breathed spiritual energy, Blinky did not disappoint. He licked the Inexorable One's spiritual fragment and studied it in order to figure it out. After the cat gained the fragment's measure, he began to manipulate it in earnest.

Ves watched on in fascination as Blinky smoothly separated the more undesirable attributes from the more desirable ones. While Ves was able to do this as well, his method was a lot rougher and less effective.

Once Blinky partitioned an undesirable portion, he took a careful bite out of the spiritual fragment and swallowed his mouthful whole without any concern.

Ves didn't feel any worry either. Back during the Battle against the Abyss, the Unending One cannibalized his fellow dark gods without any issue. Blinky was more than capable of devouring this weak remnant.

A flow of purified and converted spiritual energy already emerged out of the spiritual cat. The meal hardly sated his hunger.

Mrow.

Blinky continued to work over the Inexorable One's fragment. After his first attempt, he already knew what to do. The cat continually removed every spiritual attribute that was not related to what Ves had in mind for his subsequent work. His exceptionally sensitive perception towards energy allowed him to distinguish even smaller elements that Ves would have missed.

Though Ves observed Blinky's work carefully in the initial minutes, he gradually relaxed and leaned back in his chair.

"Ah, this is the life." He smiled.

Perhaps he should create another companion spirit so that he could delegate even more work. He was already thinking about creating a cat that excelled in mech design.

Of course, he instantly discarded this idea. The entire notion was ridiculous! Not only did Ves lack the mental capacity to accommodate another companion spirit, the mere thought of allowing a cat of all creatures to design a mech was blasphemous!

"Besides, delegating the core abilities which I rely on to earn a living and excel in my profession is a very bad idea."

Ves identified himself as a mech designer, so he should make sure he performed his core duties himself. This was the only way for him to improve.

Mrow!

Blinky emerged out of the P-stone a moment later. The cat looked quite content.

"You're done already?"

Mrow.

"Are you sure."

Mrow mrow.

"Oh. Good job, I guess."

Ves held the P-stone and studied it carefully. The purified fragment was remarkably clean and pure to his senses. The degree of purity that Blinky managed to achieve was absolutely remarkable!

He no longer wanted to delay. Since everything was proceeding well, he immediately moved on to creating his next design spirit.

Ves had already prepared the ingredients beforehand and brought them out one by one.

The purified fragment of the Inexorable One was the main ingredient. Everything else played an assisting role.

The first auxiliary ingredient was a tiny spiritual fragment from the Golden Cat. The ancestral spirit did not like being harvested for ingredients so often, but Ves had little choice.

Only the Golden Cat could ensure that the resulting spirit would remain loyal and committed to the Larkinson Clan. Ves could not afford to leave anything to chance.

The second minor ingredient was Qilanxo. Though Ves had also frequently asked her to donate her fragments, this time he truly needed to make use of her sophisticated spiritual manipulation capabilities. The former lizard was the closest comparable entity that could complement this aspect.

"The dark gods are an even better choice, but…"

Ves instinctively wanted to avoid mingling the dark gods together in any way. It was already bad enough to deal with one of them. If all three teamed up, not even he would be able to prevent the return of his old enemies!

The third minor ingredient was the most controversial. It was vastly different from the rest because it did not come from a regular spiritual entity.

Instead, it originated from the strong mind and will of an expert pilot.

Ves looked around to see if there weren't any angry expert pilots lurking nearby. He carefully proceeded to draw out a P-stone that radiated a desire to live free.

Mrow.

Blinky's expression turned nasty. Swiping this fragment from Tusa's mind while the expert pilot was asleep was not pleasant.

The cat only took out a small portion, not enough to affect Tusa's strength in a significant manner but still enough to leave him with an awful headache for a couple of weeks.

"I hope Tusa doesn't find out who's responsible." He muttered.

For now, the doctors aboard the Dragon's Den weren't able to figure out why Tusa had gone down with an ache in his head. Ves had no intentions of revealing the truth to everyone, though he did quietly inform Ranya of the truth in order to prevent any overreactions.

Though Ves had undoubtedly harmed Tusa with this act, he excused himself because it was for a good cause.

"You'll thank me when I am done!"

After all, this upcoming creation was primarily aimed at light mechs and light mech pilots. It was high time for him to create a design spirit that specifically complemented fast, swift and elusive mechs.

"Now, for the last extra kick."

He also readied one vial of high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum. While he wasn't willing to expend too much universal life energy for this creation attempt, a modest amount should be enough to increase the potential and accelerate the growth of his spiritual product.

After triple checking all of his ingredients, he deemed that everything was in order.

"Let's begin."

He did not break the spiritual fragments by himself. Instead, Blinky stepped up once again and shattered every spiritual fragment into extremely fine shards by shredding them with his claws.

Mrow! Mrow! Mrow!

The shards that Blinky created were more even and much finer than what Ves was able to produce. There were surprisingly more of them than he was accustomed to, but they were also a lot more regular and easy to puzzle together.

Together with Blinky, he rapidly merged the pieces into a single whole. He made sure the shape of the developing entity conformed to the shape of a bird.

As the spiritual shards continued to dwindle, the bird-shaped spiritual entity gradually took form. Guided by his will, the spiritual attributes of the ingredients combined into a fluid, slippery and speedy bird.

As the spiritual product neared completion, the bird's shape was still in flux.

This was a deliberate design choice on Ves' part. He wanted to create an elusive, mysterious bird. Evasion and obfuscation was just as important as speed. The latter was far from his only priority.

His progress was much faster than usual with Blinky's assistance. The completion of the spiritual product proceeded in a very anticlimactic fashion.

The resulting newborn spirit did not release a powerful pulse, but that simply meant that the elusive bird possessed a much better grasp of her own strength.

Chirrup!

The small spiritual bird finally uttered her first cry! The bird rapidly flapped her tiny wings but soon settled down to gaze at her creator.

Her appearance was astounding. While she still maintained the basic shape of an avian creature, the surface constantly changed. In one moment, she possessed black feathers. In another moment, her feathers became blue. The size and overall contours of her body also shifted from time to time.

Chirrup?

Ves smiled. "Your name shall be Trisk, the Uncatchable Bird!"

Chirrup!

The tiny bird lifted her wings and chirruped in celebration!

After Trisk became content with her new existence, Ves proceeded to feed her with a portion of poten universal life energy. The newborn spiritual product grew rapidly and gained a respectable amount of strength right from the beginning.

With the birth of Trisk, the second design spirit of the Disruptor Project was ready!