The Mech Touch

Ves still couldn't get his head around the idea that he was talking to a living fossil!

Although he already had an inkling that the Cerebral King had experienced a lot of events and grown old, it was still a stretch to believe in the claim that it had actually lived in a time where its phase whale creator had brought its own race to life!

This was amazing!

The Cerebral King was not just a relic from the past, but a creature that had witnessed the slow but drastic transformation of Purgatory.

From a prosperous enclave to a fallen and degenerated home to mutated fish-whales, the king fish was a living history book of the evolution of the pocket space!

In fact, having first-hand experience of the creator back when this ancient phase whale lived and conducted his studies in Purgatory was even more valuable!

Everything here was set up by this mysterious ancient figure. As outsiders, Ves and his fellow humans knew precious little about Purgatory, the Royal Tomb and the Garimel System.

Therefore, it was crucial for the expeditionary forces to obtain solid information about this Flesh Conqueror as the king fish called their supposed god.

Ves struggled to suppress his frown or displeasure.

He had bad experiences with religion. He looked down on any ignorant individual that believed that gods existed and that they should mindlessly worship their deities.

However, as Ves continued to study the Cerebral King, it didn't appear that the word god meant the same in human society.

Though the Cerebral King clearly looked up to the phase whale that it referred to as the Flesh Conqueror, Ves detected an ambitious and hungry streak from the ancient fish-whale.

Why this was so, he didn't know. He needed to gather more information before he could make a guess.

"Can… you explain why Oooruganioaus created you and other fish-whales? What did your god do in this space?"

OOORUGANIOAS IS CREATOR OF EVERYTHING.

"You already told me that, but why did he create everything?"

OOORUGANIOAS IS GOD.

"What does that mean?!"

The Cerebral King had become a lot less understandable to Ves ever since the massive fish-whale brought up its supposed god.

It was as if the king fish expected that mentioning god was enough to answer most questions!

Ves had to put increasingly more effort into suppressing his frustration at the Cerebral King's block-headed responses. It wasn't the fish-whale's fault for possessing so many stupid ideas about the phase whale that set everything up. The fish-whale race had never gone through enlightenment during all of its years.

In that regard, the fish-whale development potential was too low! The ability to learn, pass on knowledge and work towards improvement were some of the essential requirements to form a civilization.

Believing in a god and assuming that its existence would solve most problems was a major shortcoming!

If the king-fish was the sort of idiotic fanatic who prayed to its god all the time, then having a conversation with it wouldn't be fruitful.

However, the Cerebral King soon turned a bit more normal once it got over its compulsion to praise and worship its god.

Its massive eyes gazed over at the Everchanger. The king fish appeared to be weighing the outsiders.

It eventually made a decision.

COME.

Much to Ves' surprise, the Cerebral King turned around its massive body and headed over the the cluster of abandoned structures.

"Follow the king fish, Joshua." Ves quickly instructed. "Make sure you match its pace and avoid any abrupt movements. We don't want to spook any of the fish-whales.

"Roger that."

The Everchanger flew forward and steadily followed the king fish as the ancient alien creature headed towards one of the massive structures that looked like it had seen better times.

The partially-ruined structure matched the phase whale aesthetic. The organic composition along with the sheer scale of the building was impressive and exotic in an alien way. No human would have thought to build a structure in such a way.

The interior was dark as whatever light sources once lit up this structure had long faded away.

What was peculiar about the kilometers-long hall was that it was large enough to accommodate the Cerebral King but clearly couldn't fit the exaggeratingly large phase whales like the one whose skeleton now graced the Royal Tomb.

"What is this place?" Ves asked as he observed the interior of this fallen structure.

It was impossible to determine what this hall originally held. There were many signs that it had changed over the years. From crushed and ruined materials to old bloodstains, the fish-whales had definitely brawled here, and not just once!

There was a great sense of history in this unmaintained and unrepaired hall. The vacuum environment might have helped with preventing it from decaying entirely, but there were many other signs of disrepair.

The fish-whale radiated a light glow that illuminated the surroundings to an extent. 

"Murals!"

Ves and the other members of Task Force Fisherman who had access to the transmitted footage looked astonished as they observed what the fish-whales had painted on one of the walls!

The rather crude and symbolic images made them feel as if they had all turned back in time.

The fish-whales evidently weren't good at art because their wall paintings were all simple and stylized.

They were also massive. The size of the structure was great so there was lots of room for a fish-whale to paint a story in the form of images.

"What is this?" Ves asked the king fish.

The creature displayed heavy emotions when it gazed at the murals. It held a strong sentimental relationship with the artwork that went beyond respecting the work of its predecessors.

"Wait a minute! Did you… paint these murals yourself?"

The massive creature made an affirmative gesture.

MUST NOT FORGET.

Ves looked at the artwork in a new light. For some reason, the fish-whale started from the right and worked leftwards. This was an odd order for humans but completely normal to the Cerebral King.

After observing it with the sensors of the Everchanger, he could pick up enough details to know that the earliest murals were a lot rougher, basic and cruder than the later ones.

It was actually quite helpful and exciting to be able to study the growth of the king fish's artistic ability.

Although the Cerebral King's artwork was still nowhere comparable to that of a professional human artist, Ves could see that the intelligent fish-whale was earnest about its work.

The king fish floated over to the earliest mural. Due to the rather basic and crude artwork, Ves wasn't able to figure out what it was trying to convey at first.

SANCTUARY.

"A sanctuary of what?"

SANCTUARY OF GOD. SANCTUARY OF OOORUGANIOAS.

"Is this the home of the one you call the Flesh Conqueror."

SANCTUARY. KNOW NO MORE. ALL I KNOW IS GOD CREATED ME HERE.

Ves still couldn't figure out this meaning from the mural. It did not depict anything that was related to Purgatory. The art was so crude and abstract that only its creator knew what it was trying to convey!

The king fish moved to a second mural which was a little better in quality. The image tried to convey a massive, odd-looking lab that had to be the site where the Flesh Conqueror conducted its experiments!

A small and gray fish-whale appeared to be swimming around in an enclosed tank that was large enough to fit dozens of fish-whales.

If Ves was interpreting the scale of the objects in the mural correctly, then the mighty warship-sized Cerebral King used to be as small as a grunt fish!

He couldn't imagine how much the king fish had been through to reach its size and strength level.

While the mural regretfully did not depict the Flesh Conqueror in any way or form, what Ves did manage to spot was the presence of other fish-whales in the laboratory!

Numerous other captive fish-whales were swimming around in other water-filled cages.

Ves counted up to eight additional fish, and the view provided by the mural was woefully unable to show too many details due to the shortcomings of the artist.

However, seeing those other fish being held captive in these large aquariums made him a lot more interested in the identities of those early fish-whales.

"Who are they?" Ves mentally gestured towards the fish-whales stuck in cultivation tanks or whatever.

A sense of nostalgia and loss overcame the king fish. It was clear that the story of the second mural played an important role in its 'childhood'!

THEY ARE CHILDREN OF GOD. WE ARE ALL CHILDREN OF GOD. EACH MADE WITH FLESH OF GOD.

That did not require much thinking to interpret. Although the Cerebral King had dressed it up, the massive creature and those other fishes from the same batch were nothing but test subjects to the Flesh Conqueror!

Ves did not take the initiative to share this opinion. It was likely that correcting any of the stories that the Cerebral King held dear would invite an enormous backlash!

The king fish pointed at one of the fishes stuck in a cultivation tank.

TOUGH FLESH. INHERITED THE BODY OF GOD. NEARLY UNKILLABLE. DIED FIRST.

"What? How can this tough fish-whale die when it is supposed to be the toughest?"

The Cerebral King deflated by a small margin.

TOO STRONG. TOO CONFIDENT. CHALLENGED OTHER BUT LOST. STRENGTH CONSUMED DUE TO MANY ENEMIES.

That sounded familiar! That had to be the Swarmers!

"Are you referring to the fish-whales that have the most numbers?"

YES. HATEFUL. ENEMY. 

The increasingly angry king fish glanced at one of the other cultivation tanks but did not get there yet. It still wanted to introduce the other notable fishes that used to be valuable test subjects to the Flesh Creator.

Fortunately, the creature did not lose all of its self-control and resumed explaining the other notable fish-whales.

FUSION. ENERGY WIELDER. POWERFUL. HOT.

This also sounded familiar! The fish-whales from the last two continents explored by Venerable Tusa were all capable of harming mechs from a distance.

Ves carefully spoke his next words. "Does this mean that this enemy is still alive?"

YES. HATEFUL. TRAITOR. ATTACKED EACH OTHER. TRAITOR.

"I see."

POWERFUL. STILL ALIVE. HARVEST ENERGY.

The Cerebral King shifted its massive body so that it could gaze upwards. The message slowly dawned upon Ves.

"You mean… this 'brother' of yours is still alive?!"

IS POWERFUL. IS LEADER. IS… KING.

"You mean this 'Fusion King' that controls the two energy-rich continents is the same one in this mural?!"

TRAITOR TO KIN. TRAITOR TO GOD. DEFILES TERRITORY OF GOD. BLOCKS ENERGY. FALLEN TERRITORY.

The information content of this speech was immense! The Cerebral King's hatred against the Fusion King was so big that it did not think about revealing his grievances, thereby giving the human visitors a much clearer image of what had happened in the past!

It appeared that the phase whale that created Purgatory had experimented upon creating new life forms and eventually succeeded with a batch of 9 test subjects.

At some point, Oooruganioaus disappeared or died, causing Purgatory to become an unattended garden.

Perhaps nothing much happened in the initial years, but over time the fish-whales living in the environment started to forget about the rules imposed by their creator.

In this context, the Fusion King was just the first to make a move!

After capturing the crucial energy-gathering continents where much of the filtered starlight of the blue supergiant landed upon, the ambitious fish-whale not only captured one of the strategic resources of the phase whale enclave, but also took advantage of its position to cut off the flow of energy towards the rest of Purgatory's various systems and facilities!

This was how much of the structures and other functions in this pocket space had collapsed.

If each of them were still intact and supplied with energy, Ves seriously doubted that his mech troops would have been able to enter this space so easily!

If this story was true, then Ves actually owed the Fusion King a lot for making Purgatory vulnerable to the point where outsiders could roam around without bumping into barriers.

He still had one important question, though.

"What is the Fusion King trying to accomplish by cutting off the energy flow to the rest of this pocket space?"