The Mech Touch

Ves felt like he was trying to coax a rebellious kid out of his bedroom.

The difficulty of trying to dislodge Saint Jeremiah's remaining spirit from his dead and frozen body was much greater than he expected.

"Sure enough." He spoke as he continually exerted his own Spirituality. "Ace pilots are incomparably stronger than expert pilots. If I was dealing with the body of the latter, then I would have been able to obtain what I wanted in a matter of seconds."

Ves gained a much deeper comprehension of what made ace pilots special now that he was wrestling with the intangible remains of a recently deceased Saint.

Though Ves was able to meet with Patriarch Reginald Cross in person from time to time, he would have to be suicidal if he ever attempted to lock horns with the Cross Patriarch's domineering force of will!

People like Reginald weren't called Saints for nothing. They possessed their own dignity and their incredible strength gave them capital to be treated as a higher form of humans.

This was one of the reasons why he looked forward to this visit. The chance to bump into the spiritual remains of an enemy ace pilot was a priceless opportunity for him to perform detailed examinations and experiments on an actual Saint!

If other people would see Ves now, they would probably condemn him in the strongest terms for desecrating the remains of an honored and revered figure.

Hardly anyone thought it was permissible to torture and experiment on ace pilots regardless whether they were alive or dead!

Fortunately, neither Patriarch Reginald nor Master Benedict cared that much about silly morality.

As long as Ves didn't profane the remains of Lord Hemmington Cross himself, the Cross Clan was fine with anything else!

It was rather convenient that Patriarch Reginald was currently deployed on the surface of Pima Prime.

It also helped that Master Benedict's hands weren't exactly clean.

Ves had no worries about doing what he set out to do with Saint Jeremiah's spiritual remains.

Seeing that whatever was left of the ace pilot remained far too strong and stubborn to leave its longstanding home, Ves figured that he needed to employ more drastic measures to secure his loot.

"Are you having problems, Ves?" Master Benedict asked in a gentle tone.

Ves filled up his mouth with air and blew it out in an exasperated manner.

"My current operation is not going as smoothly as I wished. I need to resort to another solution."

"What do you have in mind?"

"There are two possible ways for me to proceed. I either need to open up the skull and retrieve Saint Jeremiah's brain, or I need to send out one of my cats."

Master Benedict grew speechless for a moment. He could understand the logic of the former option, but the latter one sounded completely unrelated to the problem at hand!

"To be honest, I would prefer it if you don't take away the brain." The Master Mech Designer said. "It has great research value. Not only that, the MTA will come to recover the body sooner or later. It would be rather inconvenient for me to explain why it is missing a brain."

Ves knew quite well why the MTA wanted to retrieve the brain of an ace pilot. The mechers must have already made plans as soon as Saint Jeremiah fell in battle.

To be honest, trying to take away Saint Jeremiah's remnant spirituality was a risky move. He did not know how important it was to preserve this part of the ace pilot to the mechers. Perhaps whatever plans they formed for the brain might get ruined due to the absence of a critical element.

That did not stop Ves from taking action, though. If Patriarch Reginald dared to claim Jeremiah's skull for himself, then it should be fine to take out a bit extra, right?

If the mechers disapproved of Ves' actions, then they should just come and warn him not to touch an ace spirit's spiritual remnant next time.

Though Ves felt it would be a lot more convenient if he could just take out Jeremiah's brain and put it into a special cultivation tank to preserve its biological state as best as possible, he did not want to generate too much controversy with his actions.

His own clansmen would definitely condemn him if they found out what he had done!

"I will take more direct action, then." Ves spoke. "I've never had my cat challenge an ace pilot directly. This will be an illuminating confrontation. Get out, Blinky!"

Mrow!

A furry purple companion spirit squeezed out of Ves' head. The light trials coursing across his body had grown a lot more vigorous by this time, showing that the spiritual cat had recovered from his previous exertion to a large extent.

Though Blinky's condition had yet to return to its peak, the cat still ought to be able to tackle this latest challenge.

Ves stroked his companion spirit's head for a few seconds.

"Well, Blinky? Are you ready to drag Jerry's spirit out of its broken body?"

Mrow…

"Don't sound so timid. I know you can do it. You are a cat that is born to harness energy. The spiritual remains of an ace pilot is not much different from that of a dark god. There is just a lot of willpower infused in Jeremiah's spirit that makes it extra tough. If not for the fact that he has died, it would have been impossible for you to do anything. Let's hope that our target has weakened enough for you to be able to gain the upper hand."

Blinky steadily flew towards the cockpit in stasis. The more the companion spirit Jeremiah's broken body, the greater he experienced the oppressive willpower from the deceased ace pilot.

Even in death, Jeremiah still hadn't completely died!

Though Ves was rather certain that the former Saint was no longer awake or aware was going on, the man's remnant spirituality still possessed such a strong instinct to defend itself and repel foreign influences that Blinky rapidly encountered increasing resistance!

Mrow! Mrow!

It was like trying to approach a burning star. Blinky's progress slowed as the ace pilot's remnant willpower condensed into a weakened version of a domain field that caused the companion spirit to feel as if he had entered a dense minefield!

Ves was able to experience all of this first-hand as Blinky was essentially another side of himself.

Seeing that Blinky couldn't proceed any further at this point, he finally made a decisive decision.

"Take action."

Mrow!

Blinky no longer acted gentle this time. The cat began to suck in ambient spiritual energy and even a bit of willpower.

Though it was incredibly difficult for the companion spirit to absorb and digest this foreign matter, the fact that Jeremiah was already dead for the most part made it a lot more possible to affect whatever was left!

Slowly but surely, Blinky drew out more energies and began to pass it on to the P-stone that Ves had prepared.

This was the companion spirit's unique ability. The Unending One's devouring ability was so powerful and comprehensive that not even Jeremiah's remnant spirituality and willpower could resist this power!

As this process continued, Jeremiah's willpower continued to weaken and lose strength at a steady rate.

Perhaps it might have been able to put up a better fight against Blinky if it was conscious, but this was not the case.

Soon enough, the resistance had weakened to the point where Blinky could finally move closer without encountering any powerful blockades.

Though Ves lamented the fact that he had been forced to cripple Jeremiah's spiritual remnant a bit more than he would have liked, he also felt it was better to neutralize a hidden danger in advance.

After all, if he tried to preserve Jeremiah's spiritual remnant as completely as possible, who knew whether the ace pilot might actually regain consciousness and begin to stir up trouble!

Right now, Blinky had cut away so much energy from Jeremiah's spiritual remnant that the P-stone was currently filled with the former ace pilot's powerful aura.

"Luckily, I made sure to bring an extra."

Ves set aside the P-stone and brought out another one that was ready to be filled.

This time, Blinky no longer damaged Jeremiah's spirituality any further, but instead attempted to dislodge it from the ace pilot's body!

Though the resistance was still great, Blinky was so good in this aspect that he eventually succeeded in pulling out Jeremiah's weakened will and spirit!

The cat quickly dragged his booty to the second P-stone and completed his mission.

"Good job, Blinky. I knew you could do it. Take a rest."

Mrow mrow.

Blinky dove back into Ves' head, thereby concluding this important event.

Ves gazed appreciatively at his two P-stones. Though it was rather weird for him to split up Saint Jeremiah's spiritual remnant into two, he felt this was a good way to disarm what would otherwise be a powerful hostile entity.

He carefully set the two P-stones aside, making sure they were placed far away enough to prevent them from interacting with each other.

He already made a plan to store the second P-stone in his B-stone lockbox as soon as he returned to his own ship.

Seeing that Ves was done with claiming his share of the loot, Master Benedict moved to another section of the workshop.

"Come. There is something else that I want you to see. I believe it is of great professional interest to a mech designer like yourself."

Ves grew curious as he followed the Master Mech Designer for a while.

The two eventually reached a large weapon rack where the Crossers had mounted a familiar-looking sword.

"Is that… the plasma sword used by the Neo Amadeus?"

"Correct." Master Benedict let out a soft snort. "It's not an average sword. As one of the three primary armaments of an ace mech, the tech and material composition of this weapon are both luxurious and well-designed. This is a weapon worthy of a Saint."

There was no way for Ves to hide his appreciation for this high-tech weapon. Perhaps Ketis would squeal out loud if she was able to get in touch with this priceless piece of equipment.

The plasma sword was not only an exquisite technological product, but it had also been baptized by Saint Jeremiah's willpower for at least several years.

This changed and enhanced the weapon in ways that were difficult to describe.

Even now, pieces of Jeremiah's spirit and willpower still clung to the weapon. Ves was tempted to send out Blinky in order to decontaminate the precious plasma weapon, but he thought better of it a moment later.

There was no need to act in a hurry. Cleansing the weapon might cause it to devolve back to its original state.

Ves quickly recalled an interesting aspect about the three main swords of the Neo Amadeus.

His eyes widened a bit as he turned his gaze and his spiritual senses towards the hilt of the high-tech weapon.

Deep inside the body of the large mech-scaled weapon, Ves was able to sense a weak but distinct human presence that gave the plasma sword a different vibe!

Master Benedict wordlessly activated a projection that displayed a deep scan of the plasma sword's interior.

The insides of the swords contained all of the complicated internal components that were needed to make a plasma sword work.

However, at the place where Ves was able to sense another mind, the scan results clearly displayed a highly reinforced pocket where the head of an actual person was actually being kept alive!

The surprising part of all of this was that despite all of the knocks that the plasma sword had suffered over the course of the previous battle, the decapitated head of an unknown expert pilot was still alive!

"This…"

Master Benedict crossed his arms. "Can't you see, Ves? Just as you have been busy with trying to rip off other people's design solutions, a certain Master Mech Designer from the Gauge Dynasty has been attempting to imitate your living mechs. As crazy as this plasma sword looks, it is perhaps the closest and most successful attempt to reconstruct your work up to this point. It is quite literally a living sword."

"...If this is a living sword, then I'm a Star Designer."