The Mech Touch

"Really, Ves. You just got a new sister and you haven't prepared any presents for me! If I didn't remind you of my birthday, you wouldn't have entertained the thought of giving me a gift at all! I thought we were family!"

"We are! Just give me a moment, okay?! I just learned about your existence half an hour ago. How could I have prepared any gifts?"

"Just make it right, then."

Ves thought about what he could possibly prepare as a gift for her sister. Normal ones didn't work as she was primarily an intangible life form. Even if she was capable of interacting with the material realm due to her advantages at birth, she would benefit the most from obtaining a spiritual gift.

As he started to brainstorm for ideas, Helena went back to exploring his office like a curious kitten.

Though she looked and talked like a teenager with a literal god complex, her true age was much shorter!

When Ves studied her behavior, he had the sense that Cynthia and the Superior Mother tried to kill two birds with a single stone.

On one hand, they wanted to create a new spiritual entity that was strong enough to harness potent death energy in battle against powerful enemies such as dark gods.

On the other hand, they wanted to birth a new daughter that possessed an immature temperament. This was the only way they could enjoy the genuine motherhood experience!

These were rather contradictory goals. Ves wouldn't have attempted to pursue both goals if he was in their place. It was greedy decisions like theirs that produced weird outcomes like Helena!

In contrast, design spirits such as the Solemn Guardian, the Golden Cat, Lufa and the Illustrious One were much easier for him to manage.

They clearly knew their purpose and didn't need any emotional management. Ves could just plug them in a compatible mech design and let them grow without needing to exercise any supervision.

None of his design spirits had made frivolous demands to him. They weren't as immature as Helena and did not need to celebrate their 'birthdays'. They already received more than enough benefits by partnering with Ves and serving as the design spirits of his mechs. Each of them were the equivalent of hard-working adults who always showed up at the office every day on time.

As for Helena, she already came across as a cheeky high schooler who could barely sit still in class!

He noticed that his new sister had returned to his display case in order to pick up one of his more remarkable creations.

The masterwork mech figurine of the Valkyrie Redeemer fit in her hand as if they belonged to each other!

Now that Ves looked a bit closer, he discovered that the reason why Helena was able to manifest in his office without looking like was exerting herself was because of this old creation!

"That…"

"This is truly a fantastic toy. As expected of my talented brother!" Helena grinned as she caressed the figurine. "You should keep it in your office. Better yet, you should bring it along with you. I will always be able to reach out to you as long as you don't get too far away from any of the mechs and 'totems' that carry my presence."

"...I'll just keep it in my office, thanks."

"Awww, you poor little brother. Do you think you can get away from me so easily? We're family, you know. I can always reach you no matter where you go. It's just easier for me to appear like this if there are objects like this mech figurine nearby."

"Great."

Ves had been looking forward to enjoying a quiet period of designing his next mechs and supervising the growth of his clan.

He did not look forward to doing so while at the same time managing a hyperactive new sister who was simultaneously a self-proclaimed death goddess!

"Can I ask you a question, Helena?"

"Always, Ves. You're my big bro, hehe."

He gestured towards her translucent form. "When you're like this, are you mostly present in the Red Ocean at the moment or are you still anchored in the Milky Way?"

"What a weird question. Don't you know the answer, already? You're a god maker, Ves. You should already know how we work."

"I'm a human. I've created several spirits but that doesn't mean I know everything about how they work or how they go about their day. I just want to get a clear answer from you. Does the concept of distance and location even apply to entities such as yourself?"

The gray girl sighed and put the precious masterwork mech figurine back on the display case.

"It's complicated. Gods around my level and the level of our mothers look as if they can be in many places at once. In truth, we exist in a different place and plane of existence. The reason why I can appear here and elsewhere is because we can pay attention to what goes on around areas that carry our mark and choose to project a part of ourselves in the vicinity. Before you ask, our marks can be carried by both devout worshipers as well as objects made in our name such as idols. Your Valkyrie mechs and your totems happen to be much more convenient for us. You are a literal godsend for growing gods and goddesses such as myself!"​

Ves smiled. Compared to spreading faith through the usual schtick of hoodwinking people into attending church, it was much easier to spread one's name and harvest spiritual feedback by distributing a lot of mechs tied to specific design spirits!

Despite the ongoing collapse of the Hexadric Hegemony, many millions of surviving Hexer mech pilots still made use of the Valkyrie mech line! Each of them also happened to be fervent believers in the Superior Mother and would undoubtedly welcome the news of the birth of a new Hexer goddess!

Seeing that Helena already satisfied all of her most basic and essential needs for survival, Ves found it difficult to come up with a good gift for his new sister.

He did not want to be perfunctory and give her a throwaway gift. Now that he had accepted her as his actual sister in truth, he was serious about treating her as close family. This was the kind of deep trust that he was only willing to extend to his closest kin such as his wife and his daughter.

"Hey, earlier you told me you're involved in a war of sorts, right?"

"Yup! I've only been introduced to it a short time ago, but I'm already having a blast, literally! It's not every day I get to smack around a couple of false gods. It's a pity that the nature of my powers make it difficult to preserve any divine essence. I would have passed on the remains of the Massive One to you if that was the case. Our mothers have told me that you can make good use of god corpses."

"They're right."

"I will try my best to exert more control over my powers so that something stays behind when I kill the next dark god."

Ves grew more interested in the war that had engulfed several of his family members.

"Can you tell me more about the fighting that goes on in the Nyxian Gap?"

"Sure! I may be new to it all, but I've already inherited a lot from our mothers."

This whole business of mechs and warships fighting under the auspices of superpowered beings sounded like a completely new mode of warfare.

It also sounded like a nightmare to mech designers such as Ves! If most mechs weren't even qualified to act as cannon fodder in confrontations involving these supposed gods, then why bother to invest in them? A weapon that was ineffective against the dominant type of enemies would eventually be replaced by more effective alternatives!

"The Nyxian War will likely drag on for many years." Helena explained as she floated over to Lucky and coaxed the cat into accepting her embrace. "The Abyssal Empire is too difficult to eradicate. Enemy reinforcements are constantly arriving from different parts of human space while their headquarters is hidden deep within the most inaccessible region of the Nyxian Gap. So long as the Abyssals and their dark gods retain their anchor in the region, they can keep assailing us even if their dark gods are no longer brave enough to fight as boldly as before."

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "Interesting. What would you say your side lacks the most?"

"Our Oblivion Empire is lacking in a lot of different things. There is a lack of population, infrastructure, cities, luxury goods, imports and so on. Our subjects shouldn't have any trouble surviving, but life is still hard for them in many ways. It's fine, though. We are holding out against the Abyssals and that is what matters to us. Our parents truly need the shelter and protection offered by the Nyxian Gap."

He was aware of that as well, but there was little he could do to help. Fortunately, it sounded as if his parents were already managing well enough on their own. His mother had become a veritable empress while his father had actually surpassed his brother Ark Larkinson in becoming an ace pilot first!

If not for all of the other astonishing developments, Ves would absolutely celebrate his father's fantastic achievement! He was the Larkinson to undergo his second apotheosis and become an ace pilot, thereby fulfilling the dream of many of his family members!

Ves wondered how much help the Devil Tiger still provided to him. He was lucky that he turned his first masterwork mech into a fluid machine with continuous evolution in mind.

The most capable mech designers in the employ of the Oblivion Empire should be able to upgrade the Devil Tiger into an ace mech without losing its advantages.

His father and his mothers didn't need any further assistance from him. His sister also sounded as if she could take care of herself in a fight.

However, given that Helena was much younger and less experienced than their parents, Ves wanted to give her a bit of extra insurance. He did not want his new sister to fall in battle so soon!

He gazed at her form and tried to figure out a way to boost her combat effectiveness.

Ves was a bit new at this. He was much more familiar with mechs than with spiritual equipment. For a moment, he felt a bit lost.

"Wait a second."

What if he could design a spiritual mech for his sister? He entertained this idea several times in the past, but never went through with it as he was short on time.

However, if a spiritual mech could help his sister survive the Nyxian War, then he would gladly invest his time into developing a working example!

"It is still too difficult, though."

Ves did not think he was ready to design such a massive spiritual construct. Not only did he have to push his spiritual engineering skills to a much greater height, he also needed to collect a huge amount of spiritual resources in order to be able to build a spiritual mech that was able to accommodate a powerful spiritual entity!

He wanted to give her a birthday present right away instead of several years later. He needed to scale back from his earlier idea and settle for a more modest creation that he could finish within the day.

The sooner his Helena obtained new gear, the sooner she could leverage her new advantages in battle!

Ves could think about providing her with stronger and more impressive gear in the future. For now, he needed to make sure that Helena possessed the capital to fight and defeat the Compact's powerful envoys!

Her battle was his battle, after all. Ves did not forget that he was a priority target as well. If he did not want to be pursued by the Compact, then he had to make sure his parents and his sister were strong enough to keep attracting all of the heat!