The Mech Touch

"Uhm… I didn't intend to do that."

An awkward silence ensued as both Ves Larkinson and Erexi Aduc remained frozen as they stared at the empty pedestal before them. The second and much more hidden heirloom of the Aduc Family had disappeared.

No. Disappeared was not the right word for it. The centuries-old scroll that dated all the way back to the Age of Conquest had crumbled before their eyes!

Before this point, the Annals of Terra Vita may have gradually shown greater and greater signs of aging, but the Aducs took such good care of it that it was nowhere near the end of its lifespan!

There was no reason to believe the old paper scroll had deteriorated much more extensively than expected. There were advanced sensors in the small and isolated chamber that were monitoring the condition of the relic nonstop.

Yet only a few minutes after Ves, or more precisely Gaia, spiritually reached out to the scroll and resonated with its dense collection of spiritual letters, everything changed!

Ves wasn't really sure what happened. All he felt from the spiritual entity that he was channeling with his mind was that Gaia had become incredibly active and excited!

Not only that, her contact with the true secrets of the Annals of Terra Vita seemed to have triggered a process of change and evolution that was completely unexpected!

It was as if she was absorbing whatever spiritual sustenance the old scroll had stored for centuries and used it to fuel her growth!

Even after the scroll had already crumbled, Gaia was nowhere done with her shift. As the powerful spirit slowly retracted her presence from his mind on her own accord, he could feel that she was rapidly growing more powerful and complex.

What puzzled Ves was that despite the destruction of the Annals of Terra Vita, the flow of energy hadn't stopped!

In fact, as soon as the energies began to pour in, they quickly expanded in both quantity and quality.

The situation completely and utterly left him speechless. He was pretty certain that he had not yet designed and published a single mech with Gaia as a design spirit.

Where the hell was she getting all of this spiritual feedback from?! How could she be earning so much sustenance, and why did it keep increasing in magnitude!

Right now, the amount of energy she received had already surpassed the amount of feedback that the Superior Mother received from trillions of devoted Hexer believers!

"No wait! Much of this energy… is of a higher grade!"

There was only a single instance where he came in touch with this type of high-quality energy in the past.

That was back when he was mucking about in the Nyxian Gap while playing around with dark gods like the Inexorable One and the Unending One!

Ves quickly tried to recall his memories of the time and dug up the observations and conclusions he had made.

According to his theories at the time, faith energy was a form of high-quality or even transcendental energy that was somehow generated by the worship of believers in their supposed 'gods'!

It dwelled and circulated in a deeper part of the imaginary realm.

While it shared many similarities to the spiritual feedback that Ves was familiar with, faith energy was a qualitatively better phenomenon altogether.

There was much that Ves didn't know about faith energy!

Perhaps the only solid information he possessed about it was that neither him nor any of his design spirits were strong and developed enough to gather and receive sustenance from this mysterious but extremely potent energy.

The first challenge was receiving it. Ordinary spiritual entities couldn't even gain access to it in the first place. Ves was a little better off as he could consciously extend his influence deeper into the imaginary realm.

Yet then he needed to overcome the second challenge, which was trying to make sure he could endure the extremely potent power of this new type of energy!

From what he could figure out, not even the Superior Mother was qualified to gather and absorb faith energy!

If she couldn't do it, Ves would have to be dreaming if he thought that he could do any better!

He speculated that he would have to advance to Master Mech Designer or Star Designer in order to get started on this. He also guessed that faith energy might be one of the secrets of these transcendent ranks.

Whatever the case, after he initially came across faith energy, he never really did anything with this discovery because he already concluded that he lacked the strength to do anything meaningful.

He expected that he would need to progress for many decades before he could start experimenting with this more powerful form of energy feedback.

He never expected that his latest spiritual product not only got in touch with faith energy at the starting point of her existence, but also possessed the ability to absorb it all without getting burned!

"What have I created?!"

Ves gradually felt he was losing even more control over his newborn spiritual product. Though he developed all of his creations with the ability to grow and evolve over time, Gaia was transforming way too fast!

This was incredibly dangerous because not only was Gaia experiencing a lot of growth without having spent much time with Ves and the Larkinson Clan, her evolution also had the potential to change and overwhelm her original programming!

This included all of the precautions and contingencies he had buried inside of her! Would she still remain loyal and affectionate towards him and his clan after she experienced thousands of years of growth in a single instance!?

"Gaia!" He conveyed!

The evolving spiritual entity was almost completely immersed in her own world. Whatever inheritance she received from the Annals of Terra Vita had given her such a massive boost that she could not pull herself away from the onset of power and knowledge that poured into her spiritual being!

Gaia only briefly responded to his call by giving him the spiritual equivalent of a pat on the head. After that, she fully retracted her presence from his mind, having fully returned to the body of the Old Lady in order to complete her profound evolution and process her humongous gains!

The chamber truly went still at this time.

Without Gaia's powerful presence and glow, the atmosphere was no longer as heavy as before.

Both Ves and Matriarch Erexi could breathe easier as of now, but both of them were still impacted by what they witnessed.

"I'm sorry." Ves plainly said without any pretension. "I didn't mean to, but my actions inadvertently led to the destruction of your relic. Your scroll…"

The leader of the Aduc Family did not look upset. "It is not important, Patriarch Ves. I have seen first-hand what took place. You bear none of the fault. I should thank you, even."

"Huh?"

"Though it is true that our family has owned the Annals of Terra Vita and managed to decipher a portion of its contents, we never had the impression that we managed to penetrate its core. It is only now that I realize that we were never intended users of it at all. We were merely tasked with holding it so that one day our fated goddess would come and receive the sacrifice prepared by a cult that has worshiped her centuries ago! It all makes sense!"

Ves almost wanted to sputter when he heard this ridiculous chain of logic.

How could a spiritual sorcerer deliberately create a scroll filled with spiritual secrets at least six centuries in advance, pass it on to the Aduc Family that was still an established Terran power at the time, and expect that a spiritual entity as powerful and aligned to Earth as Gaia to swoop in and unlock the very same relic?

There was no way this was plausible!

He was more inclined to believe that the Annals of Terra Vita was meant for another earth worshiper. Gaia just happened to unlock it by chance because her powerful earth, life and wood domain allowed her to spoof past its security measures and unlock the highest possible authority from the scroll!

The problem was that Gaia happened to be so strong that her power overwhelmed the fragile paper vessel, causing it to crumble as the excess of spiritual power was too much for the material to bear!

This was also a good reminder for Ves to pay a lot more attention to the hardiness of the materials of his products.

It wouldn't do for his totems and mechs to break apart because they couldn't handle the excessive flow or concentration of potent energies!

While Ves deeply wanted to refute and correct Matriarch Erexi's rationalization, he did not choose to do so in the end.

The story was implausible, but as long as she and the Aducs believed in it, then none of the blame would fall onto Ves!

The only other candidate that could bear the fault of the destruction of this ancient relic was the Mother of Earth herself, and it was unthinkable for her newly-converted believers to accuse the object of their faith!

This was why Matriarch Erexi did not dare to even think about taking the culprit to account!

The pair of leaders slowly exited from the secret chamber when they both confirmed that the Annals of Terra Vita was completely gone.

Even if they recovered every single piece of dust and reconstructed the entire scroll by utilizing advanced technology, what emerged would simply be a shell of its former self.

Without the spiritual letters that a mysterious spiritual sorcerer had imprinted on its surface, the scroll was just a worthless roll of paper!

"I do not think our relic is gone." Matriarch Erexi guessed as she led Ves to the hangar bay of the Green Dream.

"Hmm?"

"The Mother of Earth read the scroll that we have kept for all this time." She spoke with increasing certainty in her tone. "Scrolls are only carriers of knowledge. Now that Gaia has taken all that she can from our relic, I am confident that my fellow family members and I can continue to unearth the secrets of Old Earth! The only difference is that we no longer have to rely on our power to interpret a scroll that was not meant to be read by mortal eyes. We only have to visit our Green Sanctum and pray to our goddess in order to receive her tutelage!"

While her words sounded like a desperate attempt to downplay the loss of a scroll that had allowed many members of the Aducs Family to develop a uniform affinity for earth, life and wood-attributed energy, Ves actually found them to be plausible at this time.

Ves did not know exactly what Gaia had gained from freeloading off the Aduc Family for a second time, but it was sure to be rich!

As her creator, Ves should be entitled to receive a share of her gains.

Will she be willing to share, though?

He briefly turned his head towards a specific direction. Beyond his sight was the Green Sanctum, where an enormous oak tree was swaying on its own accord.

Gaia's humongous feast was changing her essence even now, causing many of the surrounding Aduc worshipers to feel both joy and awe at the increasing amount of power exuded from the massive tree!

Ves turned back but grimaced. He couldn't get a hold of his spiritual product at this time. He needed to wait until she was done with whatever she was doing in order to obtain his answers.

"I truly hope that Gaia will be generous enough to pass on what she has learned from the Annals of Terra Vita." He eventually said. "She might not make it easy, though. You will need to show constant respect and devotion. Do not slack off and always pay attention to her reactions. I hope that will be enough for you and your fellow Aducs to continue your development."