The Mech Touch

Both Ves and Dr. Swindell had to step far away in order to escape the calming influence of the four works of art they made.

When they finally did, the significance of what they created sunk in. Both of them looked astonished!

They were astonished because the realized versions of the statues exceeded the initial sketches!

Compared to the totems that Ves initially made by himself, the vitality and liveliness of the organic statues exceeded almost anything that he had seen!

The full wonder and splendor of the statues could never be fully described with words. To someone who was almost completely new to the concept of glows and living mechs, Dr. Swindell briefly thought he had created a set of masterpieces!

How else could he describe the four similar but individualized organic statues that seemed to be surrounded with divine halos? Even though he used to be a typical Lifer citizen who believed in the power of science rather than faith, the biomech technician momentarily became swept up by the illusion that he had just played god, or at least worked alongside someone who was capable of breathing miracles into life!

Though his rationality quickly reasserted himself, Dr. Swindell would never be able to forget this magical moment. He had a feeling that he would forever look back on this moment in his career as a turning point of his life, as a moment when he ceased to be a mere cosmetic surgeon for biomechs but instead evolved into something greater.

While the flesh shaper immersed himself with all kinds of grand delusions, Ves was almost just as enraptured, if for different reasons.

"I never expected the statues to come out like this." He whispered in a dumbfounded voice.

Most of his totems were rather ordinary works. While they were mysterious and provided a unique benefit to other people, Ves felt they were pale derivatives of his usual work.

As a mech designer, he derived a much greater sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from designing mechs.

His life centered around them. His entire career was based around developing better war machines.

Of course, every mech designer was also an engineer. He possessed enough expertise to design and craft simpler products such as statues and combat armor such as his Unending Regalia.

Each of these products possessed at least a shadow of the potential he inserted into mechs. Not much, but everything he made by hand with love and care received the gift of life, however small and faint it may be in his perception.

He considered this a side effect of his domain and specialty, much like how other mech designers such as Ketis were able to channel their domains in other ways that didn't have anything to do with mechs.

The loyalty medallions he made in large batches showcased the practical value of these non-mech products. Their effects on people caused him to call them totems, which was not a word he especially liked, but served as the most obvious label in which he and other people could understand what he made.

The totems he made until now were all inorganic in nature. From the modest totems of the Golden Cat he made to decorate the halls of the Spirit of Bentheim to the reconstructed statue of the Superior Mother, which was by far his greatest and most magnificent totem up to date, they were all 'alive' in a symbolic rather than literal fashion!

The four statues of Lufa sitting before Dr. Swindell and Ves broke that pattern.

At the start of applying the hastily-grown organic tissue prepared by the former Lifer biomech technician, Ves initially did not feel anything special about the process.

Sure, the processes performed by Dr. Swindell was novel and completely different from what he was used to. Assembling organic tissue was both gruesome and fascinating to someone who was accustomed to piecing together metal parts, but working with parts that were made out of living, squishy cells was an entirely different experience.

He did not particularly like it, though. His lack of understanding on how they were made, how they were put together and how every cell in every single piece of tissue worked frustrated any attempt to develop an affinity with them. He simply could not bond with strange flesh the way he did with metals he understood or knew how to use like Breyer alloy.

Fortunately, Ves did not work alone. With Dr. Swindell doing all of the technical heavy lifting, Ves was largely free to approach this project from an artistic and creative perspective.

As the director and decider of this endeavor, he determined how the statues should look in the end. He had already learned from his previous stints as project leader that this was a powerful position. The work being done conformed to his creative vision, so the end product primarily carried his touch rather than those who did all of the heavy labor such as Dr. Swindell.

It was rather ironic. Dr. Swindell led the crafting process, but Ves firmly maintained control over the creative direction.

This wasn't the case usually. He was a mech designer, but his emphasis on craftsmanship often caused him to be personally involved when fabricating his more important works.

The mech industry also prized mech designers who knew their way around a mech workshop or manufacturing complex. It wasn't strictly needed though, and plenty of colleagues achieved success without ever stepping foot in a production facility.

However, Ves was someone who always prized the ability to expand his understanding beyond just designing mechs. His work would never be as real to him if he forgot all of the steps to making them by hand.

Ves was missing this deep connection here. Compared to how he crafted the initial form of the statues, he experienced an obvious disconnect as he helped from the side.

He thought that this missing factor would diminish the quality of his new totems.

He was wrong.

All four of them blazed with life and attraction in a way that none of his totems could convey!

Only the lightning-struck statue of the Superior Mother surpassed the four statues of Lufa, but this was a completely unfair comparison.

Ves briefly recalled all of the steps he took to create the vessel that birthed the Superior Mother.

The statue was enormous and a match to any mech in height, though not quite in volume due to its slimmer proportions.

The Superior Mother's statue had also been imbued with several exceptional spiritual ingredients, most notable the overpowering life attributes of his life-prolonging treatment serum.

It also served as the focal point of a massive, self-invented ritual that involved tens of thousands of people and objects that was so drastic that it even distorted the climate of an entire planet!

There was no way that combining all of these exceptional factors together would produce an average product! After throwing his expertise and spiritual energy into the mix, the statue of the Superior Mother rightfully became his most powerful totem!

Ves even thought that he would never be able to produce anything that was comparable to it for a long time. One of his biggest limitations was that he no longer had access to a high-grade life-prolonging serum.

The results today caused him to question this assumption!

The conditions today were incomparably simple and crude compared to his grand endeavor in the past.

He did not put too much time in designing and revising Lufa's statues.

The base material was made out of cheap and readily-available construction materials. He did not choose to utilize something tougher and more precious materials such as Breyer alloy because he needed to reserve them for his mechs.

The artificial flesh and other organic tissue brought by Dr. Swindell was grown from low-quality organic stock. Yet these seemingly average, mass-produced organic materials reacted considerably differently when Ves began to infuse life into them as they were being molded into shape.

For some unfathomable reason, the artificial organic tissue applied to the base of the statues merged with the spiritual foundations exceptionally well.

Not only that, but their fit and contribution to the spiritual properties of his statues exceeded that of its inorganic base!

As the crafting process continued, Ves began to become more amazed at how the living tissue incorporated spirituality.

If he attempted to do the same procedures to a piece of Breyer alloy, then he always had to apply considerable force. It was as if he had to drill through a solid block of ice!

In contrast, once he began to work with active organic tissue, the resistance he experienced was so low that it was like walking through a fog bank. Other than knowing that something existed, the lack of pushback or obstacles made his work so disturbingly easy that it felt unnatural!

His doubts and hesitation slowly disappeared once he considered the implications of this amazing discovery.

"What can I do in these favorable conditions?"

Ideas started to swell in his mind. He observed all of the deviations from the norm and started to feel the urge to experiment with them. He just had to know how he could take advantage of generous conditions!

This was why he started to modify the design of the individual statues and instruct Dr. Swindell to divert from the original design.

Ves individualized all four statues so that they tested several different ideas!

Not only did these ideas differentiate the effects and appearances of Lufa's statues, but also infused them with separate but related identities.

Each life-like statue clearly depicted the angelic design spirit in all of his pale-skinned, golden-eyed, feather-winged glory. Their appearances were so realistic that it was difficult to mistake them as fakes!

In his enthusiasm and excitement, Ves unconsciously channeled the design spirit as he applied his new ideas. It didn't matter to him that Lufa constantly tried to dampen his heightened passion.

The discoveries he made and the possibilities he envisioned at that moment were so fascinating that Ves felt driven to perform his experiments!

Through this great moment, Ves felt as if he was not only shaping the organic statues, but also shaping the design spirit himself. Lufa literally altered in spiritual form as Ves expanded on his spiritual existence!

Ves became inspired by the Superior Mother's multiple aspects. Aside from her base existence, she also differentiated herself by embodying the six phases of existence of hexism.

Since a spiritual product like the Superior Mother could come in multiple different facets, why shouldn't other spiritual entities be able to present other sides of themselves?

This was the root of why he felt the need to differentiate the organic statues into four different aspects of the entity they were supposed to represent.

Ves turned to the statue on the far left.

"The Aspect of Tranquility."

This organic statue was Lufa in his purest form. It was one of the least pronounced aspects of the four, but it was still notable in its strong effect.

What the Aspect of Tranquility excelled at was imposing a total state of calm and peace to people within the range of its glow. Every positive or negative emotion was dampened to the greatest degree possible.

Anyone who opened up to this organic statue would lose all of their strong impulses and heated passion!

As befitting this effect, the Aspect of Tranquility depicted the white-robed Lufa with a single palm raised upwards. It was as if its gesture caused reality around it to stop, making people feel as if their persistent worries, burdens and pleasures no longer mattered.

Even the most rabid individuals would be able to find peace in the presence of this neutral and non-judgemental statue!

This was the original effect he was striving for, but due to the intermingling of living tissue, the Aspect of Tranquility was able to channel it to a much greater degree than it should!

While its effect wasn't enough to overpower the minds and spirits of extraordinary people such as expert pilots and maybe expert candidates, Ves was convinced it was able to sway practically any other human!

The utility this totem provided was so groundbreaking that not even his Sanctuary mechs were a match!

"This is impossible!"

The existence of this organic statue alone broke his assumption that his mechs were always stronger than his totems!