The Mech Touch

Ves wanted to become a design spirit.

He had been thinking about it for years, actually. From the time when design spirits like the Solemn Guardian and the Superior Mother began to show that they were not only able to affect reality through sheer power, but also displayed a capability to perform unique and useful spiritual abilities, Ves hungered to obtain the same advantages.

"Of course, it's not that simple to live as a spiritual life form."

The more he saw the galaxy, the more he came in touch with incorporeal life. If he set aside his artificially created spiritual products for a moment, each of them were remarkable existences who all managed to detach themselves from their mortal coils while still clinging on to their lives.

"What all of them have in common is their strong spirituality." Ves surmised. "A weak person's spirituality will eventually dissipate from the material realm and end up elsewhere. The only way to prevent this transit from happening is to become strong enough to resist this natural force!"

He theorized that this was the key factor that allowed previously living and mortal entities to retain their existences in the material realm after their greatest anchor, their physical bodies, had expired.

However, Ves also guessed that it cost quite a lot of effort to hang onto the material realm.

"It's like trying to stay alive while being dumped onto an ice planet without clothes or heating." He muttered. "If you don't do anything to warm yourself up, you'll die from hypothermia!"

There were several ways to stay warm.

A shivering individual could find a rare zone where it was warmer and contained a natural source of heat. The Nyxian Gap was a good example of that. The barrier between the imaginary and material realms were thinner there, allowing his mother to expend less effort to maintain her existence in reality.

"The flaw of this method is quite obvious. Anyone who becomes dependent on a fixed source of warmth won't be able to leave without freezing to death!"

A person could generate heat by devouring food. This was not a solution for everyone, but Ves knew of at least three entities that could sustain themselves in this fashion. His mother, the Unending One and Blinky could all grow and sustain themselves by devouring the spiritual energy of other entities without worrying about the heterogeneity of spiritual attributes.

"In an ecosystem, predators can only exist when there is a sufficient amount of prey within reach. If there isn't enough food around, the predators will begin to starve and die in droves!"

Someone who was freezing to death could also rely on another way to warm their bodies. He or she could stay warm by sharing the body warmth of other creatures. Although it sounded like an absurd solution in this analogy, this was the principal way in which the dark gods such as the Blinding One or design spirits like the Illustrious One maintained their power and existence.

Anyone who learned about this method might mistake those spiritual entities as gods, but Ves didn't see it that way.

To him, this interaction could easily be explained without resorting to superstition and religious claptrap.

"It's just a normal process of deriving spiritual feedback from a lot of living people who are aligned to the spiritual entity in question. A single human might not be able to provide a lot of spiritual tribute, but when there are millions of them, the influx becomes quite formidable!"

Each method of 'staying warm' had its strengths and shortcomings, but Ves looked down on the last one the most. It was the simplest and most flawed method for a spiritual entity to stay alive.

For example, the Superior Mother had quickly catapulted to become the strongest design spirit in Ves' collection due to the worship of trillions of fanatical Hexers, but what would happen if those same people began to die in droves?

What would happen if the Friday Coalition won the Komodo War and forced the defeated Hexers to abandon their beliefs in the Superior Mother?

The once-mighty ancestral spirit would turn from a wealthy baroness into a begging granny on the streets!

"Well, it shouldn't be that bad for the Superior Mother." Ves estimated. "Even if the Hexadric Hegemony collapses, she can still rely on the diaspora to get her spiritual feedback."

The Penitent Sisters, the Glory Seekers, and many other Hexer groups had left the Hegemony as of late. This provided the Superior Mother a strong form of insurance.

Even if this didn't work out, Ves was not going to stand by and let Cynthia's incarnation wither to death!

"Still, the fact I need to worry about this problem at all is highly concerning."

Apparently, the Superior Mother did inherit Cynthia's ability to devour spiritual energy. The two existed as separate entities who possessed different personalities, domains and abilities.

Cynthia Larkinson possessed a primal, predatory life domain.

The Superior Mother embodied and personified the six phases of existences.

"Yet it's exactly because they're different that they complement each other so well!"

After her supposed death, Cynthia apparently lived on as a spiritual ghost who had a lot of difficulty sustaining her continued existence due to lack of suitable prey. It was only by feeding on her own child that she managed to regain enough strength.

This was why it was a brilliant idea to link Cynthia together with the Superior Mother! Even if this inseparable bond came about due to an accident on his part, Ves was still glad he managed to create a powerful incarnation for his mother.

The Superior Mother's ability to derive spiritual feedback from normal humans granted Cynthia an alternate way to sustain her spiritual existence without needing to rely on Ves or other rare spiritual entities.

Likewise, Cynthia was also capable of ensuring that her incarnation would never starve to death as long as she had enough surplus spiritual energy.

"It's unlikely that the Superior Mother will lose all of her influence, so my mother is the one that truly benefits from this relationship." Ves muttered.

Even so, this relationship was quite flawed in his eyes as there were scenarios where Cynthia might get burdened by the need to keep two spiritual existences alive!

If Ves wanted to accomplish something similar, then he would be a fool to retain this flaw!

Since he was planning to make a spiritual incarnation of himself, he tried his best to put his designer mentality to work.

Only a weak and unambitious creator would think about imitating natural phenomena and existing products.

A true designer always sought to surpass the competition!

"If the Superior Mother is version 1.0, then my own spiritual incarnation should become the equivalent of version 2.0!"

Ves did not want to joke around with his life and future prospects. There were many ways his experimentation could go wrong, but he was confident he could succeed in this ambitious endeavor!

By gaining the power of an improved design spirit without giving up his personality and identity as a human, Ves would be able to augment his mech design career by leveraging the advantages of spiritual incarnation that was centered around craftsmanship!

Ves insisted on setting a couple of terms when he came up with this bold plan.

"First, my identity as Ves Larkinson the human mech designer must always maintain primacy. I am Ves, not Vulcan."

He did not want to make the mistake of creating a replacement for himself. What if Vulcan slipped out of control and decided to devour his own human maker? Ves would only have himself to blame if he screwed up so badly!

Fortunately, he already had experience in this matter. Blinky was a successful implementation of a semi-independent spirit that was derived from Ves but always remained subordinate. With all of the precautions he set, there was no way that the spiritual cat would ever be able to take over!

"Second, Vulcan must be able to feed itself and sustain its existence through multiple means. It must never become vulnerable or beholden to a single source of feeding."

The Superior Mother was always tied to Hexers or those who adhered to her values, and that was a major restriction.

Ves sought to address its flaws when he designed his own incarnation.

Though Vulcan was supposed to be the God of Dwarves, Mechs and Craftsmanship, it did not have to be the patron saint of all three domains at once.

Ves didn't care about the dwarves, but they could form a convenient source of spiritual feedback if Vulcan failed to gain traction among humans. After all, the success of the Vulcan Faith and the explosive rise of the Vulcan Empire proved the allure of a false god that Ves had casually invented!

"Dwarves are too gullible compared to normal humans." He smirked.

There were so many different religions in human space that competition was harsh. The pushback received by religious movements such as hexism or the Ylvainan Faith taught Ves that reckless expansion of belief systems would inevitably provoke a war!

He would be a fool to create a new religion in order to compete for the 'belief' of other humans!

"Instead of diving in that muddy ocean, I'll just find a neglected lake instead."

No ruling power in the galaxy cared about the dwarves. Neither the Big Two, the first-rate superstates or anyone else who held sway had ever shown genuine concern about heavy gravity variant humans.

This made it a lot less riskier for Vulcan to claim their spiritual feedback!

"In fact, the Vulcan Empire is already a successful test case!" Ves realized. "Since the dwarves were allowed to worship Vulcan without any response from other churches, the danger is obviously a lot less serious!"

Though the population of dwarves in human space was miniscule compared to normal humans, they still amounted to a huge amount in absolute terms!

With this huge population base as a strong and stable source of spiritual feedback, the Vulcan that Ves intended to create was unlikely to starve to death!

"Of course, Vulcan's main source of spiritual feedback will always come from acting as a design spirit for my mechs."

This was a proven method of gathering spiritual feedback without entering the muddy waters of religion. As long as Ves designed a few mechs with Vulcan involved in some way, he would be able to provide him with many channels of sustenance that had nothing to do with dwarves.

This was his diversification strategy. By relying on multiple sources of spiritual energy, his incarnation would never be rendered helpless!

"Even if dwarves ever become extinct and if mechs are no longer in use, Vulcan can still keep himself alive by directly devouring other sources of spiritual energy!"

This was one of the few rare cases where Ves was willing to use a fragment of the Unending One as an ingredient.

The only other time he did that was when he created Blinky.

"Both of them are extensions of myself, so I will always be able to control what they do with the power to devour and digest heterogeneous spiritual energy."

He never thought about granting external spiritual entities this capability. It was too powerful and removed a limitation, making it more likely that his design spirits might go rogue one day!

The scariest scenario that he could think of was if a design spirit began to prey on other design spirits! That would be incredibly bad for Ves and it was something that he would never allow!

"The best way to remove a temptation is to deny the possibility of it happening in the first place." Ves muttered. "None of my design spirits have the power of the Unending One, and as far as I'm concerned it should stay this way."

They were all herbivores, essentially. There was plenty of fodder for them to eat and enjoy.

The spiritual incarnation that Ves had in mind was different. It was not a carnivore like Cynthia.

"Instead, Vulcan will become an omnivore, an adaptable design spirit that will never grow hungry!"

This was the basis of Vulcan's power! It not only ensured he would remain adaptable under vastly different circumstances, but also gave him the potential to surpass every other design spirit including the Superior Mother!

Ves grinned as he imagined how Vulcan would thrive in the future!

"I'm sorry, mom, but my incarnation will become better than yours! With Vulcan's help I'll eventually be able to surpass you in power!"

She would no longer be able to treat him like a kid once that happened! It would become his turn to dominate his mother!