The Mech Touch

Within the giant hexagon, thousands of people knelt down and worshipped the statue of the Superior Mother.

Its excellent construction and pleasing aesthetics evoked a lot of appreciation. The special effects that Ves had employed such as shining a spotlight onto it and releasing some mysterious mist added to the illusion that they had pulled into a magical moment.

After listening to Ves' speech, everyone aligned their thoughts towards mothers.

Mothers were the carrier of life.

Mothers were the greatest sources of love.

Every woman had the potential to become a Superior Mother.

No matter if it was the 66,666 men, the 666 Penitent Sisters, the 66 Swordmaidens or even the guards stationed just outside the hexagon, every single person was of one mind!

All of this unity produced an atmosphere that Ves found very conducive to his work. As his thoughts aligned with the masses, he felt as if he opened a mysterious part of mind that resonated the excitement in the air.

Yet even as he started to merge together the spiritual shards of his broken ingredients, the life-attributed spiritual energy acted on its accord!

Having lain dormant all this time, now that the scattered energy came into contact with the other shards, it began to do something that Ves did not anticipate.

The life-attributed energy began to nurture the broken shards!

Whether the shards originated from Cynthia Larkinson, Qilanxo, the Golden Cat, or the original Idol of the Superior Mother, they all fed on the sustenance freely given by the life-attributed energy!

Ves temporarily halted his work in order to observe this completely new interaction.

As someone who was very interested in life, he had never witnessed such a marvelous process! Even in a lesser form, the energy derived from the life-prolonging treatment serum possessed the remarkable ability to rejuvenate spiritual shards!

"Maybe this is not the limit!"

Ves suspected that this interaction also worked on spiritual fragments or even complete spiritual entities. There was no reason to suspect that it wouldn't. The gentle energy appeared to be exceptionally compatible with several different recipients!

Even his own spiritual energy had become livier. Ves felt as if it had grown several times stronger even though he had just made surface contact with the life-attributed energy!

This caused Ves to make a very profound conclusion.

The life-attributed spiritual energy derived from the serum was able to nurture anything spiritual!

While Ves still wasn't able to say for sure whether it was compatible with anything, so far he felt confident in making this assumption!

Not a single spiritual shard exhibited any sign of rejection. This was something unthinkable to Ves. In nearly every case, an encounter between different attributes and origins always led to incompatibility.

If one tried to force itself upon the other, it would always be regarded as a hostile invasion! No castle would open its gates to let in foreign invaders. That would only threaten its existence!

This was what made this interaction all the more exceptional. It didn't matter what kind of castle he focused upon. Each and every single one of them opened their gates wide to let in the life-attributed energy.

And each of those castles were rewarded for their hospitality. Once the life-attributed energy got inside, it began to sacrifice itself in order to upgrade and empower the friendly hosts!

"Is this one the essential secrets to life-prolonging treatments?"

Ves suspected that the spiritual energy component of the serum may have been added in order to revitalize an old person's spirituality.

However.. he wasn't confident about this guess. The quantity of energy he extracted from a sample of the serum was relatively modest. Though the quality and potency of the energy was still exceptional, it only originated from a tiny droplet!

The serum that he still carried in his hidden pocket began to take on an even greater weight. It already held a lot of value due to its known use. Now that Ves learned that it was actually a reservoir of nurturing energy, its value in his perspective had skyrocketed even further!

Unlike its conventional use of prolonging old people's lives, its new use of strengthening and revitalizing other spiritual entities was even more important!

In fact, to someone whose specialty revolved around life and the manipulation of spiritual energy, the serum had become something priceless!

Ves didn't have to wait until he became 300 years old to make full use of the serum. He could start incorporating in his works right away!

As Ves gradually started to merge the shards back together again, he noted that his efficiency had substantially improved. With the strengthening from the life-attributed energy, it became a lot easier to merge the shards.

It didn't take long before he thought that it was time to pull in his partner.

"Gloriana." He said as he briefly split up his concentration. "Help me perfect the newborn entity."

"Oh. Okay."

"Get ready. Open your mind. Don't resist."

"I know what to expect."

This wasn't their first rodeo. Gloriana relaxed and opened her mind as best as possible. Eventually, she opened herself just enough for Ves to reach into her mental space and steal a portion of her spiritual energy!

This caused her design seed to boil! Her mind automatically formed a spiritual projection on its own accord in an attempt to take back what it lost.

Ves merrily dragged the stolen spiritual energy into the pool of merging shards.

Just as in previous instances, once Gloriana's projection entered the pool, it no longer chased after the thief. With all of the glaring imperfections on display, it couldn't stand the sight!

The out-of-control projection approached the flawed mergers and began to smooth them out, causing the integration of different shards to become more seamless.

All of this proceeded according to expectation. The fact that every spiritual element received a substantial boost from the life-attributed spiritual energy did not alter this process. Even Gloriana's spiritual projection had become supercharged!

Ves wasn't sure what all of this empowerment led towards. Would the newborn spiritual product start off at a greater power level? Would it develop a more sophisticated personality? Perhaps it might even acquire a powerful ability!

Whatever the case, he looked forward to seeing how much this investment paid off. Had he used too much serum? What if he added even more life-attributed energy during a creation process?

However, just as Ves expected to complete the process without any issue, another unexpected complication arose.

Ves had already noticed that while every spiritual shards integrated the life-attributed energy, some of them absorbed it faster than others.

The differences weren't important. The weaker shards such as those that originated from the Golden Cat and the original Idol of the Superior Mother weren't as efficient as the stronger ones such as those originating from Qilanxo.

However, there was a very noticeable exception.

The small amount of spiritual shards that Ves had derived from his mother's statuette started off slowly. It absorbed the life-attributed energy at a very sedate pace, as if the weak and fragile shards couldn't go any faster without breaking.

Ves didn't concentrate too much on their behavior. This caused him to miss something very important.

As his mother's spiritual shards started to absorb more energy, they became more alive. They expanded in size and began to absorb the life-attributed energy even faster!

Once they had reached a certain size, the shards then began to move on their own accord!

Like gravity, the scattered shard spontaneously started to attract each other across small distances. Once a shard bumped into another one, they spontaneously merged, and in a perfect fashion as well!

The larger shards became even more powerful. They not only exerted a greater attraction on shards that came from the same source, but also became capable of absorbing life-attributed energy even faster.

It didn't take long before this process escalated to the point where Ves finally became aware of what was taking place.

By then, it was too late! Ves barely integrated some of his mother's shards into the growing amalgamation of spirituality before an entirely new spiritual fragment had formed!

"What the hell?"

The spiritual fragment was not only many times stronger than the original, but its growth proceeded without any signs of stopping!

It had quickly reached the point where the majority of remaining free-floating life-attributed spiritual energy got sucked up by his greedy mother!

"Goddammit! Even in the form of fragments, you just can't help yourself! Spit it out!" Ves mentally yelled at the fragment.

Just like his real mother, the fragment ignored his complaints and gleefully monopolized every remaining available energy!

The surprisingly rapid absorption almost caused Ves to break his concentration. He never expected that the addition of a tiny spiritual remnant from his mother would lead to such a drastic result.

At this moment, his mother's spiritual fragment absorbed so much life-attributed energy that it had grown as strong as the Golden Cat, if not more! As the fragment rapidly digested its gains, it began to reach a strength where Ves wasn't sure whether he could keep it in control!

"It's too strong!"

As his mother's lively spiritual fragment rejuvenated itself, it suddenly started to approach the spiritual amalgamation that was supposed to become his new spiritual product.

Ves had very high hopes for his latest creation. The Superior Mother was supposed to become the ultimate design spirit for his line of Hexer mech designs!

It was supposed to be the killer feature of his mechs that would enable the Hex Army to attain a decisive advantage on the battlefield!

Yet even as Ves and Gloriana was about to complete their latest act of creation, the self-revived spiritual fragment barged in and started to attack the incomplete design spirit!

Ves became shocked yet again! If he wasn't trying to maintain as much concentration as possible, he would have vomited at this sight.

"Mother! Go away! You're ruining everything!"

Like a voracious predator, his mother's spiritual fragment assaulted the unborn Superior Mother like a wolf jumping on a sheep.

While Ves believed the Superior Mother was strong enough to defend herself, at this time she was still 'under construction'!

Ves and Gloriana required at least several more minutes to complete the restoration process and allow the Superior Mother to come alive.

Until that happened, the Superior Mother was completely unable to defend itself!

As his mother's spiritual fragment cannibalized the spiritual body of the Superior Mother, its growth ballooned once again. Once the fragment grew stronger, it began to consume the Superior Mother at an even faster pace!

This was the most frightening sight that Ves had ever seen! Belatedly, Ves attempted to push his mother's spiritual fragment away, yet as soon as he did so, the voracious fragment ate his own spiritual energy!

"What the hell?! You're not even sparing your own son?!"

Ves had become so alarmed that he forcefully pulled back some of his concentration in order to physically push Gloriana away.

"Ah, what gives, Ves?!" She suddenly asked as she held her head in pain!

"A massive complication occurred. Stay away and close your mind as best as possible!"

As his girlfriend looked at Ves with confusion, he regained his concentration and tried to observe what was taking place.

His mother's spiritual fragment was making rapid progress, though Ves finally spotted some signs of indigestion.

It turned out that her fragment's absorption ability wasn't omnipotent after all. While his mother was able to absorb his own spiritual energy and life-attributed spiritual energy without any problem, it was a different matter when it came to other sources and attributes!

Ves clearly recognized that his mother's spiritual fragment was growing more polluted. It started to accommodate a large variety of spiritual attributes, many of which only partially aligned with his mother.

Nonetheless, the power the fragment exuded no longer limited it to just a fragment. It had become an entirely new spiritual energy that was growing more alive and more complex by the second.

A storm of energy started to crackle within the strange new entity. Ves began to feel a strong form of pressure that rapidly expanded to the environment!

The thousands of men and hundreds of women kneeling in the hexagon all began to experience a very powerful pressure that vaguely resembled a glow, but stronger!

The air grew heavy and some people started to show signs of short breath.

As Ves completely lost control over what was taking place, the skies itself began to roil! Storm clouds spontaneously formed over the giant hexagon. Soon enough, lightning and thunder started to form in the cloud.

Crack!

Suddenly, an immense lightning bolt struck the statue of the Superior Mother!

Owing to its high-quality materials, the statue incurred no damage at all. Nonetheless, Ves and Gloriana hovered so close to it that they yelled and rapidly distanced themselves!

While all of this took place, the entire crowd became awed at what was taking place. None of them questioned why lightning randomly formed and struck the statue. As far as the audience was concerned, this was all part of the show!