The Mech Touch

When Ves woke up after a surprisingly restless night of sleep, he expected to spend most of his time on preparing for his next round of negotiations with the Aduc Family.

Nothing else was more important than establishing a favorable agreement with the treehugging terraformers.

His three opening demands not only reflected his desire to pull the Aducs into his orbit, but also exposed his greed for the Aduc Family's secret method!

The value of obtaining the knowledge or means to enable people to activate their spiritual potential and acquire specific domains was great!

Many of the ambitious plans that Ves wanted to implement in the future would go a lot easier if there were a lot more spiritually active Larkinsons at his disposal.

Of course, he didn't necessarily have much use for people who had developed strong affinities in life and earth.

He would already be happy if more of his mech pilots and other professionals possessed spiritual potential than before.

He would be even happier if he could help his future students and spiritual researchers develop their own life domains!

As long as their spiritual attributes leaned towards life, they had the potential to become just as useful to him as Venerable Joshua!

He imagined a future where he successfully raised thousands of mech designers, mech pilots and spiritual researchers who were aspected towards life. Ves was certain that the collective might and capabilities of such a powerful group would be enough to start an entirely new age in human history!

Of course, all of this depended on whether Ves could successfully obtain the Aduc Family's secret method and harness it for his own purposes.

"I hope I didn't scare the Aducs too much yesterday." Ves muttered as he prepared for another meeting with his advisors.

He drove a hard bargain last time, but he did so with the confidence that the Aducs would not easily choose to reject his offer.

He offered a great service in exchange for a couple of sacrifices! The chance to not only heal the Old Lady but also evolve her into a higher state was a dream come true to the Aduc Family!

From what Ves had gathered during his visit to the Green Dream, the Aducs pretty much treated the ancient oak tree from Old Earth as if she was a primeval god.

Sure, the Aducs may claim to be secularists who believed in the power of science, but their behavior regarding the Old Lady was so irrational that they would not look out of place in a church!

Ves had met many different securalists and believers in his life. He could tell the difference between those who had faith in the power of humanity and those who looked up to higher powers.

From the set of criteria that Ves applied to people, the members of the Aduc Family definitely fell under the latter category! They had even explicitly voiced their assumption that they would no longer be as effective in terraforming planets if they lost their direct connection to their only heirloom of Old Earth!

"What they actually worship is Old Earth rather than the Old Lady." Ves observed.

This was an important distinction. Ves was confident that he could use this detail to his advantage during his next talks with Matriarch Erexi Aduc.

He was determined to obtain the secret means of the Aduc Family one way or another!

Nothing else the Aducs could offer to him was as valuable as this sole prize! Ves was even willing to give up a controlling majority of his T institute if that was what it took to gain their life-changing method!

While Ves leisurely read through another intelligence report on the Aduc Family, a metal weight plopped onto his head.

"Meow…" Lucky lazily yawned as he treated Ves' hair as his nest once again.

"I agree. It's nice to be able to work without things exploding in my face and people dying all around me. Ever since I started my damn career, I've careened from one life-threatening crisis to another. It would be nice to take a break from all of that chaos. I look forward to enjoying a long period of peace and tranquility."

He had enough of encountering surprises for the time being. While surprises could be good as well, he already harvested enough valuable treasure and resources for the time being. It made more sense to digest all of his current gains than to go off on another great adventure.

Ves would certainly miss the feeling of dancing on the edge of a knife in the coming five-year expansion period. He knew that if he did not take the initiative to leave the Davute System and explore the deeper parts of the frontier again, it would be unlikely for him to experience a great moment of uncertainty to the point where he questioned his decisions.

Ever since he returned to safe harbor, he felt as if he had jumped from a raging ocean to a tranquil pond. He had the illusion that he possessed a greater grasp of the future. Since every actor and every event in the more civilized parts of the Red Ocean were more transparent, it became easier for him to read their future trajectories!

"Is this what it feels like to be Prophet Ylvaine?"

As Ves continued to entertain his delusions, he suddenly jerked as he felt something prodding his side!

"What the hell?! Lucky, didn't I tell you to avoid disturbing while I am engaging in important and productive work?!"

"Meow?!"

"You just poked me, you naughty cat!"

"Meow meow meow!" The gem cat aggrievedly defended himself.

"Oh, you just rested on my head all this time?"

"Meeeeow!"

Ves frowned. "If that's the case, then what happened? Did I imagine it, or did something really hit my side earlier?"

He looked around only to see nothing at all. His honor guards hadn't caught sight of anything suspicious either, though Nitaa was beginning to show concern at his searching behavior.

He called up the security feed of his office and studied the recent footage.

The sensors in the current compartment did not detect anything unusual. Ves for that matter did not pick up anything except for the painful poke at the time.

He scratched his head and eventually decided to get back to his work. He was getting nothing done by wasting time on this fruitless search.

Of course, he also prepared a precaution in case he suffered another 'attack'. He picked up Lucky's body and turned it around so that his pet was able to look backwards.

"Pay more attention this time, Lucky. If you see or hear anything suspicious, then make sure you warn me, okay?"

"Meow."

As Ves went back to studying the information on the Aduc Family, no one noticed as an invisible spiritual apparition emerged behind his back.

At first glance, the young woman that showed up looked like one of those fear-inducing creepy girls that haunted the audiences of cheap horror dramas.

Her shoulder-length gray hair along with her pale gray-white skin caused her to appear as a translucent corpse. If not for her glowing yellow pupils and her impish grin, she would have definitely given people definite proof that the dead were able to rise again!

As it was, this playful-looking 'ghost' possessed a demeanor that was completely opposite to that of a horror drama monster.

What was strange was that she appeared in a manner that did not alarm anyone or anything. The sensors and security systems in the office compartment still thought that there was nothing in the place of the ghost.

The guards that were watching the surroundings with constant vigilance did not detect any intruders either.

What was even more ridiculous was that Ves remained ignorant to the entity that had shown up from behind!

Though it was true that he directed most of his concentration to his current work, he always regarded his spiritual perception highly, especially after he created Blinky!

Perhaps Ves would have been able to detect the ghost hovering just behind his chair if he let out Blinky, but his companion spirit was currently dozing off in his mind as usual.

The female ghost did not appear completely undetected, though.

Lucky, who was still perched on top of Ves' head, was somehow able to perceive her weak form despite the fact that the apparition hardly possessed any energy

As the cat was about to call out a warning, the ghostly woman grinned wider while pressing a finger to her lips.

The gem cat subsided and idly flicked his tail as if nothing was happening.

Once the ghost became satisfied she had gained the cat's cooperation, she hovered closer while extending both of her translucent hands to Ves' sides.

"Hihihi!"

Her hands pressed into Ves hard enough to tickle him for half a second!

"What?!"

Ves actually jumped from his seat this time! He swiftly turned around, only to see nothing had crept up behind his chair. This was strange because he definitely felt that someone had appeared behind his back earlier!

"Lucky, did you see anything this time?!"

"Meow."

"I don't believe you! I am really sure that someone showed up this time."

"Meow meow!"

"I'm not imagining it! You're lying again!"

"Meow meow meow!"

He kept arguing with his cat until the hatch to his office slid open without warning.

"Ves!" Gloriana called as she ran inside. "Why didn't you tell me about Helena?!"

"Huh? Who's Helena…?"

"Your sister, of course!"

"What?! I don't have a sister!"

"You do! Word has already spread throughout our clan! Everyone knows you have a little sister!"

Ves became completely bewildered as he tried to process his wife's insane statement.

This day was turning weirder and weirder. He felt as if his reality kept spinning out of control. Couldn't he enjoy a normal day in his life for once?!

"Slow down, Gloriana. Explain it to me clearly. Why do you think I have a sister called Helena?"

His wife looked at him as if he was being silly. "Don't you know?"

"Of course I don't know! I would know if I had a sister in my family! I am pretty sure that my mother only had me when she was married to my father! I am absolutely certain that I did not grow up with a younger sister back when I grew up in Cloudy Curtain!"

Gloriana frowned in puzzlement. "I think you need to see something, Ves. Come with me to the hangar bay. Juliet is already there. A lot of people have already noticed the changes!"

He followed her to the hangar bay of the Spirit of Bentheim after receiving her urging.

When he reached the place, he noticed that several different Valkyrie mechs had converged at this time.

The coatings and markings of the different mechs showed that they hailed from the Penitent Sisters as well as the Glory Seekers.

Ves was familiar with every variant fielded by the Golden Skull Alliance. As one of his most successful commission works, still remembered every important detail about his Valkyrie line.

Right now, the Valkyrie mechs in his memories did not match the ones that had been parked inside the hangar bay.

As he slowly stepped closer, it became more obvious that a lot of changes had happened overnight without his notice.

"The Valkyrie mechs… aren't supposed to be like this. They're considerably stronger than before!"

While Ves was happy that one of his iconic mechs received a power up that likely increased its battle effectiveness, he was not as happy about the fact it happened outside of his control!

As Ves finally came close enough to examine his mechs in details, he soon figured out the truth behind the changes.

"What the…?"

He detected to his horror that the design spirit of his Valkyrie line had changed!

The familiar presence of the Superior Mother in her death phase had disappeared. Her grace, her ill will towards her enemies and her maternal protectiveness had faded.

In her place was a different spirit, one that tasted far more youthful, vivacious and vindictive than her predecessor!

Not only that, the replacement spirit exuded a lot more concentrated death energy than Ves had ever felt in anything else!

The most frightening part about all of this was that Ves completely did not recognize this brand-new entity!

"Are you… supposed to be my sister?"

Ves felt as if nothing in the cosmos made sense anymore!