The Mech Touch

If someone really gave the Cross Clan the body of a clone and passed it off as the real deal, then Ves had to admit that the people responsible pulled off a brilliant scam!

He was pretty certain that the entire body was cloned. Ves had a special intuition about that due to his sensitivity towards life and his long and extensive experience with performing research on human test subjects.

After witnessing so many heads and bodies explode due to messing with their spirits, Ves had learned many different ways of how spirituality interacted with human tissue.

He was pretty certain that the body encased in the crystal coffin was not the ace pilot's original body.

The only factor that he found strange was that he still felt the remnant of a strong will inside the body's brain cavity.

However, Ves believed this to be a trick. Anyone could easily cut a portion of the original Saint's brain and bury it inside the skull of an identical-looking clone.

As long as it was done correctly enough, even someone like the ace pilot's own son could be fooled!

After all, high-quality cloned bodies were truly indistinguishable from the originals. Only the most sophisticated scanners in the hands of the Big Two or first-rate states should be able to pick up anomalous signs.

Everyone else wouldn't be able to detect the difference. Ves was sure the doctors and biotech experts of the Cross Clan had combed over the body in order to prepare it for entombment, but obviously they hadn't found anything amiss.

Really, the only anomaly was that the sense of presence from the clone was rather lackluster.

There were many possible reasons why this was the cause. Perhaps the natural process of death and decay had degraded it. It was unrealistic to expect the remains of an ace pilot to be as strong as he was in his prime.

As Ves swept his senses through the body in the coffin more and more, he truly sensed that he was examining a clone.

The impression he got vaguely reminded him of the times he met with James Ylvaine. The annoying Living Prophet may have become very human before his life came to a premature end, but that did not change the fact that his birth was flawed and unnatural. The consequences of this affected his health, his spiritual development and more. Just because the design spirit version of him was able to offset some of these flaws didn't mean that he upgraded to a full human!

The supposed body of the ace pilot gave him a similar feeling. Ves knew he couldn't fully prove or explain this assertion, but he knew in his heart that he was standing in front of a charade!

Whoever was responsible for passing off the fake product for the authentic version knew what he was doing. This was a deliberate act of fraud and one that completely violated every sense of decency with regards to the treatment of ace pilots!

Where was his real corpse? Who was responsible for the swap?

Perhaps before visiting Prosperous Hill VI, Ves wouldn't be able to make any accurate guesses. However, now that he had gone through the Supreme Sage's pinnacle lab, he was burdened with lots of new information that put a dreadful context to this dreadful situation.

Ves had a very good idea who swapped the body. He was also able to come up with a powerful motive to tarnish the ace pilot's remains.

He directed a very subtle look towards his fellow patriarch.

The expert pilot looked like he had no clue that he was gazing at a falsehood. Patriarch Reginald acted as if Saint Hemmington was still alive!

Unlike a normal son, Reginald burned with ambition. Back when his father was alive, he wanted to catch up to the ace pilot! Now that Saint Hemmington was dead, Reginald hadn't actually changed his goal.

In fact, he became more determined to exceed his father's limitations in order to spite the enemies and traitors that plotted the ace pilot's demise!

Ves briefly thought about revealing the truth to Patriarch Reginald.

From an ethical standpoint, the son deserved to know the truth about the state of his father. If Ves was in Reginald's place, he would have welcomed the truth, however harsh it may have sounded.

From a crisis prevention standpoint, revealing the truth would either set off a furious denial or trigger one of the most explosive outbursts of the Cross Clan in its history!

It didn't take long for Ves to make a decision. There was no way that he was willing to reveal this bombshell! He was almost certainly within the blast radius, so why would he be stupid enough to trigger an explosion that brought no other benefits?!

While Ves sympathized with Patriarch Reginald and the Cross Clan, this conspiracy was deeply rooted and involved powers that were far above his own little head.

Small people like him had no ability to change the situation. All he would do was to poke his head out so that the powers that be could easily cut off his neck. There was no other positive benefit aside from soothing his guilty conscience.

In fact, Ves didn't think this was beneficial to him in any way. He bore so much blame and fault that he had learned how to cope under all of that weight. In fact, he pretty much denied or ignored all of the recriminations, so he didn't feel burdened in the slightest!

"Is he as impressive as you expected him to be?" Patriarch Reginald broke the silence.

"Oh, uhm, yes." Ves hastily replied. "I can certainly see how close Saint Hemmington has come to becoming a god in human form. It is truly awe-inspiring to know that this man is able to become a terror on the battlefield that could easily crush thousands of mechs and dozens of expert mechs at a time."

Ace pilots were no longer bound by the normal rules that governed reality.

Whereas expert pilots only reluctantly bent reality, ace pilots practically treated the laws of physics like toys!

Ves wished that he was looking at the true remains of Hemmington Cross. It was quite frustrating for him to examine a hollow, spiritless copy that looked the part but failed to replicate what he thought was crucial.

The relatively tiny remnant buried inside the man's head didn't cut it. It was clearly a butchered piece that had been taken out of a greater whole. It possessed the aura but not all of the facets of the man that had once transformed his will into something transcendent.

It was a huge letdown, in other words.

If he wasn't afraid of giving away his true thoughts, he would have sighed in disappointment. There was little point in studying the cloned body because there was truly nothing he could learn from it. He didn't dare touch the remnant will and spirit that was locked inside the small sample of genuine brain tissue because that would most certainly pull out the rug underneath Patriarch Reginald's feet!

"Is it customary to bury the bodies of ace pilots like this?" Ves curiously asked.

"Not at all." Patriarch Reginald shook his head. "The true way to honor an ace pilot is to induct him into a true catacomb. It is one of the greatest honors of every expert pilot and ace pilot to intern their bodies in the grand catacombs that the MTA erects in every central star system they control. Under ordinary circumstances, we should have brought my father's body back to the center of the Vicious Mountain Star Sector in order to rest my father's body in its rightful place."

"Oh? Are you fine with ending any easy opportunity to visit his body in person?"

"My father.. deserves his rest." Reginald said in a grave tone. "He has fought and struggled to survive for many decades. Ace pilot or not, he does not deserve to get exposed to strife now that he has passed on. It is only right to bury him in the most impressive place of honor. No one is able to beat the MTA when it comes to erecting the grandest burial places. I don't know about how they act in other star sectors, but in Vicious Mountain the mechers stationed there have always treated the remains of ace pilots with extreme respect. It is a life-changing experience for anyone to visit one of their grand and oversized catacombs."

Ves could easily imagine that. An organization as powerful as the Mech Trade Association was able to build gigantic, moon-sized satellites in order to house the honorable ace pilots that had once lived glorious lives!

The attraction was so strong that most people and organizations in human space dreamt of attaining eternal glory by being buried in those immense burial halls.

After all, the continuation of a state or political entity was much less certain than that of the MTA.

Who knew whether a tomb located on an average planet would remain standing if an enemy state had conquered the territory. Though it was expected for people to honor deceased expert pilots and ace pilots regardless of their affiliation, humans were flawed and many dishonorable incidents had already occurred in the past.

In fact, malice wasn't necessarily required to cause something awful to the resting places of high-ranking mech pilots.

Wars that spread across the surface of planets always came paired with an immense amount of collateral damage. Stray shells or crashing mechs could easily tear through any tomb!

Therefore, it was a lot more desirable for the bodies of high-ranking mech pilots to be buried in the MTA's catacombs. It didn't always happen, and some cultures and individuals might have reasons to keep these valuable remains to themselves, but the MTA did not lack for business when it came to this aspect.

Ves had a very strong hunch that this was a deliberate development on the MTA's part.

If… if.. the MTA ever needed to gain a stable and abundant supply of 'input material', then it was best for the suppliers of this rare material to give it to the MTA on their own accord!

It was such an elegant arrangement that Ves was convinced that it was a premeditated scheme!

Of course, the implications of this conclusion was quite controversial and something that he did not dare to voice out loud.

The two patriarchs eventually stepped away from Saint Hemmington's supposed remains. Ves saw no point in studying a fake any further and Patriarch Reginald wanted to give his father his due rest.

They slowly walked back the path they came from. Ves gazed at the other trophies and embellished depictions of Saint Hemmington's accomplishment with hidden pity.

Who knew where the real body of the ace pilot ended up and whether more had been done to the brain aside from taking out a small sample.

Patriarch Reginald would probably believe in the falsehood for the rest of his life. It was rather sad that a son was deceived in this way.

When the two patriarchs walked past the central display that showed off the giant mech finger, Ves attempted to harvest an intangible fragment from it. His earlier attempt may have failed, but he already had another solution in mind.

Blinky left his mind but remained in his original spiritual form. In order to avoid tipping off Reginald, the Star Cat waited for the humans to move away.

It wasn't until Ves had walked far enough for Blinky to approach the limit of how far he could be that the cat took action.

Mrow!

In one explosive motion, Blinky flew forward and approached the giant metal finger. It then proceeded to suck out a portion of the intangible energy.

Though his energy devouring ability allowed him to steal a small portion of potent energy, the cat received several powerful shocks in the process!

Mrow! Mrow! Mrow!

The most troublesome aspect about these instinctive attacks was that they were driven by a very strong and furious willpower component! This will was something completely indigestible to Blinky. It already hurt him quite a bit to hold a portion of siphoned energy in his stomach without attempting to digest it all. It was as if someone was trying to break out of his own intangible belly!

Fortunately, Blinky succeeded in his mission. As long the companion spirit was able to return to the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves had many ways to contain the stolen spiritual remains!