The Mech Touch

Jovy had clearly lost a bit of his self-control after Ves and Blinky concluded the operation.

This was not a surprise. Jovy not only gained a new companion spirit that provided a second perspective, but also experienced a considerable boost to his spiritual strength due to absorbing several foreign spiritual ingredients!

Ves could already feel that the ace pilot hidden in the background had grown more concerned at Jovy's irrational behavior.

The domain field that engulfed the operating theater had grown a little stronger as the ace pilot openly probed Jovy's new state.

That quickly snapped the MTA Journeyman out of his euphoric state.

A bit of color showed on his cheeks as Jovy realized how much he embarrassed himself in a procedure that was bound to be studied by many different experts and officials!

Ves didn't care about Jovy's overreaction to obtaining a new companion spirit. Anyone who gained an upgrade to his spirit would feel just as happy if not more.

Right now, Ves needed to make sure that the birth of the Eye of Providence did not impose any serious negative effects on Jovy.

It would be bad if he and Blinky had overlooked a detail that could pose a serious threat to the recipient's health and sanity!

Ves briefly turned and glanced at the projected health readings. Though he possessed little understanding on what the numbers and graphs actually meant, much of them were portrayed in a healthy shade of green, which meant that Jovy's physiological state was still in good shape.

Only a few sensor readings that corresponded to stress, brain activity and mental strain had dipped into yellow territory. This was of little concern to Ves as this was already an expected outcome.

"How are you feeling right now, Jovy?" Ves asked. "Don't think too much. Just tell me what is on your mind."

"There is an ache in my head that isn't going away. It's as if you have drilled a hole in my brain. Is this normal?"

Ves nodded. "It is not too unusual. It will go away after a good night's rest. Maybe you will need to sleep for multiple days to remedy the aching and sense of exhaustion in your mind. What about your companion spirit? Can you feel the new you? Can you touch its mind and assume direct control over it? If there is any instance where your new companion spirit is resisting influence, you should say so immediately."

Jovy furrowed his brows as he exerted his concentration on doing what Ves had just said.

Manipulating a companion spirit was like moving around a new limb that a crazy scientist had just grafted onto a person's body. It took a bit of time to get used to the new possibilities, but there was nothing complicated about them. The recipient just had to get accustomed to utilizing the mind to interact with the new addition to his mind.

A mech designer as smart as Jovy quickly got the hang of the basic operations that he could perform with a companion spirit.

Over the course of fifteen minutes, he tested and displayed basic proficiency in many of the same operations that Ves could perform on Blinky.

From communicating with his companion spirit to directing it to move as far as the Eye of Providence could reach, Jovy became fascinated by each and every new possibility.

The real highlight of this show was when Jovy essentially took over his companion spirit and viewed reality from the perspective of a spiritual entity that had the potential to see the threads of future!

Ves intuitively sensed that his Spirituality was being observed by an existence other than the ace pilot guarding in the dark!

"You can see?"

"I do." Jovy whispered as all three of his eyes stared at Ves in wonder. "I never knew… how much I was missing out. I never realized I was missing out on another layer of reality until now. I can see much more than before. Everything makes more sense now that my Eye of Providence has finally taken shape."

"What do I look like to you, Jovy? Give me a description."

"I can see… the energies in your head. They're strong. I can see your own companion spirit as well. Both of you are filled with life that makes me feel close and comfortable. The Eye of Providence instinctively knows that you are its creator. I… can also see something else that doesn't look as if it belongs in your mind. Is that… from another mech designer?"

Jovy must have been referring to Gloriana's dormant spiritual fragment. Ves casually waved the issue away.

"What you can see, I can see as well." Ves remarked. "What you have described so far is the perception that entities like your companion spirit inherently possess. After all, your Eye of Providence is made up of psionic power, so how can it be blind to this form of energy? However, your companion spirit should also come with its own abilities. I'm not certain whether your intangible pet can activate any of its inherent abilities at this time."

Jovy frowned. "You designed my companion. Don't you know what your own work can do, Ves?"

"It's complicated. Your companion spirit is not a static machine that is made with precision and performs exactly according to design. It is a living entity that has already grown and evolved beyond its initial parameters from the moment it sparked to life. Right now, the deviations to my original design shouldn't be too great, but even I will not know how it works and what it can do after it grows up in the future."

"Interesting."

Under Ves' direction, Jovy attempted to explore and access any unique abilities the Eye of Providence might possess at this time.

This did not go smoothly. Ves became more convinced that the Eye of Providence was too weak and immature to support an ability as powerful as gleaning the events of the future!

"I think… I can vaguely recognize what you have described." Jovy spoke as his brows furrowed deeper.

He experimented a bit more and eventually came up with the idea of placing the Eye of Providence on his forehead.

As soon as he did so, all three of his eyes seemed to go into sync. After achieving a mysterious state of resonance and harmonization, he directed it towards the first clear subject that he could view from his position on the operation table, which happened to be the person responsible for providing with this new power!

Ves looked fascinated at how the Eye of Providence was able to merge and go into sync with Jovy so easily after it settled onto the mech designer's forehead.

He suddenly became a bit shocked when he sensed increasing activity from the companion spirit. It was becoming more and more active as the Eye of Providence as well as Jovy himself attempted to Ves' future.

This quickly went wrong as Jovy suddenly screamed in pain!

"Ahhh! It hurts!"

Despite his light sedation, Jovy couldn't help but scream and hold his head in pain!

His new companion spirit also exhibited signs of distress as it forcibly dislodged itself from Jovy's forehead and bounced around like a ball that had gone out of control!

The hidden ace pilot's domain field became a lot more active all of a sudden. Ves felt an invisible force of will imposing its strength on his mind, forcing him to take a few steps backwards!

The surrounding medical specialists all became more concerned and tried their best to relieve whatever suffering Jovy was going through. They studied the worsening life sign readings and injected the subject's body with additional sedatives and substances that were designed to counteract mental pain.

Whether the responses worked or not, Jovy slowly calmed down after ten or so minutes.

"Ugh."

"Do you know what happened that caused you to suffer so much?" Ves asked.

"I do." Jovy said as he had regained enough control to sit up from the operating table. He rubbed his head as if it was still ringing. "I don't know what came over me exactly, but when I achieved that wonderful state, I had the illusion that I could derive and read anyone's fate. When I set my sights on you…"

"You attempted to perform a task that you were not strong enough to fulfill."

Jovy depreciatingly smiled. "Right. That is as good a description as any. It is only now that I found out that there is a cost to obtain this information. As soon as my Eye of Providence started to work on you, it was as if I was a third-class mech attempting to defeat a first-class mech. Your destiny or whatever you want to call it is too great! You have affected a huge amount of people with your work and you will continue to affect even more individuals in the future. The amount of probabilities that encompasses is such an enormous number that I have a hunch that not even all of the supercomputers in the Red Ocean can fully perform all of the calculations to read your future. At the very least, my Eye of Providence is far too young and weak to get close to accomplishing this feat."

Ves thought as much. This was similar to what Ylvaine conveyed to him whenever he requested the design spirit to give him a future prediction.

It cost energy to read the future!

James Ylvaine had sacrificed his life to give Ves and the Larkinsons the answers they needed.

If Jovy attempted to perform the same feat, then he and his Eye of Providence would fare no better!

"The power that I have granted you has a huge amount of potential, but that also means that you need to pay much more attention to wielding it." Ves warned his friend. "Don't expect to achieve instant results with your companion spirit. It needs to undergo a lot of growth and exercise in order to read the futures of greater and more significant subjects. For now, I suggest you start with exploring what you can do on relatively small and simple objects. Do you understand what I am suggesting?"

Jovy slowly nodded. "I do. Start with studying smaller objects and slowly work my way up. Do you have an idea on how long it takes before I can make meaningful use of this ability for my work?"

"It might take several years for your Eye of Providence to become potent enough to read the destinies of ordinary people." Ves guessed.

"That… is a considerably longer period than I expected."

"The wait is worth it, Jovy. I could have given you another companion spirit that you could immediately make use of, but that means that you have missed out on a capability that is not only more powerful, but also a lot more relevant to your design philosophy. Do you regret your decision to go for the Eye of Providence instead of the alternatives that I have presented?"

Jovy did not take long to voice his answer.

"No. The Eye of Providence is worth it even if I have to wait for a decade or even a century for it to be useful. Compared to my peers and the other mech designers in the MTA, no one possesses an advantage as unique and special as a companion spirit. Besides, I do not need to utilize its most costly ability at first in order to make good use of it. I can already observe so many new aspects of reality that I can already think of potential new applications of my design philosophy!"

In the end, all was well. Jovy underwent a thorough health inspection and showed that he was healthy and sober enough to prove that his life was not at risk.

The MTA did not assume that everything was alright, though. The medical specialists all wanted to keep Jovy under long-term observation in order to confirm that not a single part of him was out of place!

"You heard the doctors. I will be out of touch for several weeks or several months." Jovy helplessly said as Ves was ready to be transported back to his flagship. "You probably won't be able to contact me for some time. The Simile Halifax will continue to stay in your fleet for a time, so don't worry about it. I will contact you again when the researchers who have shown an interest in studying my new condition are satisfied with what they have learned."

Ves nodded in understanding. "Good luck, then. Just remember not to stare into the fates of any big guys. Start with ordinary space peasants. Their lives are so inconsequential that it takes much fewer calculations to read their futures."

"Oh, I know."

Before Ves was ready to go, he suddenly grew curious and asked another question.

"In your abortive attempt to read my future, did you manage to catch any clues?"

Jovy slowly frowned. "I think I managed to obtain… fragments, but it is like receiving a few seconds of corrupted footage. What little I have obtained doesn't make much sense to me. If I have to describe my impression from what I have obtained, then…"

"Then?"

"Life and death are deeply intertwined in your future. You cause so much of both that it is as if they are stalking you with each step of the way."

"...That's all?"