The Mech Touch

This was the first time that Ves made a spiritual weapon.

This was not a physical gun that just happened to possess the ability to harm spiritual targets. He was already familiar with those kinds of weapons and even made a few of them himself.

The Amastendira was the first weapon he came across that could harm spiritual entities, though it did not particularly excel in this aspect.

Ves no longer needed to rely on the Amastendira's mediocre threat against spiritual entities because he had Blinky now. His companion spirit was practically a natural opponent against any enemies that relied on spiritual energy to fight!

Later on, he learned that masterwork mechs and weapons also possessed the power to harm spiritual opponents by themselves. Ves hadn't exactly figured out why this was the case, but it was a handy discovery that gave him a bit more confidence in confronting troublesome opponents who claim to be deities.

The real breakthrough was when he experimented with luminar crystal technology and managed to replicate a version of the luminar race's iconic light beam technology.

It appeared that the extinct alien race had been keen on developing a technological solution against spirits and so-called gods!

This was an absolutely remarkable achievement and one that Ves still couldn't replicate on his own. The principles and mechanisms behind this feat was still a black box to him. Unless he slowly mastered the fundamentals of luminar crystal technology step by step, it was impossible for him to truly understand and utilize this application in his own way!

However, just having the ability to incorporate them into his own products was enough for now. His stalled Fearless Project was probably the most prominent mech that would take advantage of the power of luminar light beams.

"In any case, what I want to make is no longer a weapon made out of physical crystals. It has to be a purely intangible existence."

The leap from corporeal to intangible was immense! While Ves had come across amazing products of spiritual engineering such as his once-beloved Grand Dynamo, he did not have access to the profound theoretical knowledge that could allow him to make anything comparable.

Just the fact that spiritual energy and matter was not fixed by nature proved to be an enormous hindrance in his efforts!

Ves could make all of the weapons, mechs and even entire starships he wanted by using the power of his mind, spirit and imagination.

The problem was that none of them would last because they would quickly crumble and collapse by themselves as if they were sand castles on a beach!

Ves did not possess the secret to transform spiritual energy into a more fixed and permanent form. As long as this was the case, virtually every form of advanced spiritual engineering was out of reach.

Fortunately, Ves had discovered a loophole.

In terms of spiritual engineering, most spiritual sorcerers were similar to conventional mech designers. They all inherited the same mature tech base that was extremely comprehensive and well-defined.

Ves was like the oddball biomech designer who insisted on defying convention by trying to rely on an alternate tech base to achieve superior results!

Of course, in his case this was by necessity instead of choice. His deadbeat mother was apparently willing to infuse Helena with a lot of her theories, methods and techniques, but didn't leave anything for her son! The only way he could make anything meaningful through spiritual engineering was to fumble around on his own and build up his own theoretical framework!

It was fortunate that he was inventive and capable enough to succeed. He no longer cared about whatever spiritual engineering inheritance that his mother withheld from him. At this stage in his life, he could already make a lot of different spiritual products that were previously unattainable!

The only real limitations that constrained his output was time, ingredients and capacity.

When Ves directed his attention to the matter of developing a serious spiritual weapon for his new sister, he never considered the possibility that he would fail.

He knew he could do it. The only real considerations he had to make was how many spiritual ingredients he was willing to invest and how he should best match the design to his new sister.

Ves spent a bit of time quizzing Helena in order to learn more about her preferences and her needs. He enjoyed the process a lot more this time because he was working on something completely new and because the beneficiary of this project was his sister!

The last reason alone was more than enough for him to put his full effort into making Helena's very first birthday present!

Gloriana had taught him a lot about customizing an order for a client. Not only did he have to pay attention to Helena's answers, he also had to make a lot of deductions based on what she didn't say and his own experiences.

Ves might not have any first-hand accounts on how the Oblivion Empire fought against the Abyssal Empire these days, but he could fall back on his own experiences in the Nyxian Gap.

He recalled the times that he, his clan and his mother fought against a succession of powerful spiritual threats. The original three dark gods stood out as two notable opponents.

If Ves went back in time and confronted the likes of the Inexorable One, the Blinding One and the Unending One once again, he would no longer be as helpless as before!

Even if Blinky by himself was unable to match the might and scale of the Unending One, Ves could still leverage his companion spirit to produce a lot of spiritual arms that could give him and his subordinates a fighting chance against these massive threats!

From what he gathered from Helena, she was already strong and capable of putting up a fight against most dark gods. Her concentrated death attribute energy was considerably more potent than the death energy mastered by the Superior Mother.

This was the benefit of specialization!

As Ves asked his sister to demonstrate a couple of powers, he discovered that aside from harnessing the power of death, she was unable to do anything impressive with other forms of spiritual energy!

"There is a bit of life in every death, and I am no different." Helena stated as she lifted her palm and summoned a tiny mote of life energy. "Our mothers had to invest their life energies and borrow your own in order to overcome the strong natural tendency for death energy to remain lifeless and stagnant. It would be more apt to describe my existence as a fusion of both life and death, though overwhelmingly slanted towards the latter."

Ves looked intrigued. "That sounds interesting. Does the presence of an opposing element hinder your expression of your death powers in any way."

"No. It's not as straightforward as that. If you combine opposing elements in special ways, you can form a stable balance where they can feed and complement each other. One of the reasons why our other mother is strong enough to contend against multiple dark gods these days is because she has successfully applied the theory of yin and yang onto her own domain. Well, this is all a bit too complicated. I am far from being able to apply it myself."

His eyes lit up. His mother might be too stingy to teach him any lessons, but Helena obviously wasn't as careful about sharing what she knew!

Of course, Ves already had a lot on his plate. He did not have any time or need to explore this particular avenue.

He still had a weapon to develop.

After he gathered a sufficient amount of information, he began to sketch and refine his design for Helena's first true weapon.

He started with the base form of her weapon, which actually came in the form of a flower!

Helena was constantly paying attention to his work. When she saw that he was actually drawing a flower instead of a weapon, she became puzzled.

"What are you making, exactly? Don't get me wrong. I like this pretty flower, but it doesn't look like anything you've described."

"Be a little patient, sister. I'm slowly getting to that point." He said as he continued along the lines of his current idea. "One of the key facts you should know about my creations is that they are all alive. I don't have the knowledge or ability to make normal spiritual constructs, but it's a different story when they are alive!"

That caused Helena to regard his current work in a different light.

Ves had opted to base his weapon out of a flower for a deliberate reason. He wanted to gift his sister a weapon, not a pet or a companion.

Compared to livelier animals such as cats, flowers were generally quiet and peaceful. While Ves did not mind giving Helena a pet if she asked for one, he felt it was best to stick to a fairly simple concept for his first spiritual firearm project.

"Is that a lotus?"

"Yup. It will be a lotus that is almost entirely made out of your death energy. It's not just a pretty flower. I plan to implement a few useful functions to it. I will make it so that as long as you carry it around with you, it will steadily absorb any death energy that you feed it or unconsciously leak from your form."

"What is the purpose of that?"

Ves smirked. "The Death Lotus in its Flower Mode will be able to store a large amount of death energy. This will not only be its primary energy reserve for its Pistol Mode, but also serve as an emergency battery in case you are running dry for whatever reason."

"I take it that Death Lotus can do more than just store my energy." Helena cleverly guessed.

"Yes. I have added a few functions based on my own companion spirit to it. Your Death Lotus should not only be able to absorb your death energy, but slowly process it so that it becomes more pure and concentrated. You can choose to reabsorb this purified energy in order to accelerate your evolution or you can opt to keep it in the Death Lotus in case you want to save it for another purpose."

"And what is this purpose?"

Ves grinned. "You can use it to supercharge your next attack with the Death Lotus!"

Once he finished the design of the Flower Mode, he quickly started to shape the Death Lotus in its second and more offensive mode!

Once Helena transformed the Death Lotus to its Pistol Mode, her spiritual firearm truly turned into a threat!

Not only did he try his best to replicate the structure and functions of a luminar crystal pistol that incorporated a light beam attack phase crystal, he also designed it so that it was able to draw from multiple energy sources.

Helena could directly feed her new spiritual firearm with her death energy, but she could also choose to make her Death Lotus draw on its existing energy reserve.

"Depending on how much energy the Death Lotus has gathered and whether you instructed your spiritual firearm to purify what it has gathered, the Death Lotus has the potential to discharge all of its power at once, thereby allowing you to launch an attack that is far above your normal capabilities! I based this special attack capability from your recounting on how you killed the Massive One."

Helena became genuinely surprised when she heard what Ves planned to make. Though she still wasn't sure whether her brother was able to realize this function, if he succeeded, then the Daughter of Death would become a lot more confident in her chances of killing the dark gods that stood in her way!

"Ves… if you are able to pull this off, I'll give you a gift in return. Your present is too valuable!"

"Really?"

"I'm serious! We're family. We should always look out for each other!"