The Mech Touch

Ves already had plenty of experience in creating custom companion spirits. There was almost no chance of failure.

Since Blinky was tasked with doing the heavy lifting, his abilities were extremely crucial to the delicate process.

Fortunately, the Blinky had only grown more powerful since the start of the Age of Dawn.

The Imaginary Universe Method mainly focused on increasing his energy reserves and building up his own universe, but it also advanced his qualities as well.

His control over energy had grown a bit more exquisite than before, allowing him to operate on Alexa's spirituality with a delicate and precise touch.

Compared to most people, Alexa's spirituality was already stronger than average.

Her superior background, her frequent proximity to her powerful grandfather, her persistent pursuit of living mechs and more all played a role in shaping her to become the woman she was today.

Of course, the passive absorption of E energy radiation also helped to strengthen her spirituality over time!

This gave Blinky enough room to create a relatively complete companion spirit from scratch.

Ves only made use of two spiritual ingredients.

While there was plenty room for more, he did not see the need to complicate this job by adding useless variables.

Unlike the companion spirit seeds he designed for his children, Alexa was already a mature mech designer who knew what she wanted out of her career.

This was why Ves devoted himself to creating a spiritual cat that was only made out of life energy.

Even if the resulting companion spirit was unable to breathe life into Alexa's creations, it would still come with a complementary ability that could serve her well in her future work!

Aside from that, she still had a chance of inheriting Ves' design philosophy.

As long as she managed to advance to the rank of Journeyman Mech Designer with a similar enough specialization, she still had hope of being able to create living mechs by herself!

With that in mind, Ves and Alexa both agreed that the latter's companion spirit had to possess a complimentary ability.

Just as Blinky was able to absorb, process and output a lot of spiritual energy, Alexa's own spiritual cat needed to give her a strong advantage that would remain relevant throughout the rest of her career.

Alexa's companion spirit gradually took shape. Blinky skillfully combined and sculpted the fragmented spiritual ingredients into a brand new life form.

Ves only utilized two spiritual ingredients this time.

He donated a considerably greater quantity of his own spiritual energy given that it played a much more important role this time.

He combined it with spiritual energy freely given by Gaia in order to add another dimension of life energy to the mix.

It turned out that Ves did not need to worry about Gaia refusing his latest request.

The recently emerged True God had already formed a cooperative relationship with General Axelar Streon.

As his granddaughter, Alexa benefited from the favorable circumstances. The fact that she used to be a Terran also helped to increase Gaia's favor.

The resulting companion spirit therefore combined some of the best traits of Ves and Gaia, leading to an outcome that Ves couldn't fully predict!

Although Ves was able to influence the traits of his creations to an extent, life was inherently complicated and unpredictable. This was especially relevant in cases where he played with forces that he didn't fully understand.

The most important variable that made this job more difficult was the fact that Ves was working with the spiritual energy donated by a True God this time!

Compared with the more low-level spiritual energy of other entities, there was a real qualitative difference with the energy utilized by post-divinity entities.

To be honest, genuine high-level spiritual energy was far too powerful and uncontrollable for Ves to work with. Even Vulkan needed to grow an entire Heart of Steel in order to reluctantly contain and digest the small amount of high-level metal energy that Blinky originally stole from Cassandra Breyer.

It was not a good idea to rashly expose a relatively weak Apprentice Mech Designer to any form of high-level energy. Alexa was far from qualified to harness the power of a True God.

Fortunately, once Ves made the necessary request, Gaia actively put effort into downgrading her spiritual energy to the point where it degenerated into an inferior form.

While the processed energy was not as good as the original, Ves only needed it for its attributes, not its potency.

The process of growth and evolution had to proceed step by step. If Ves wanted to give Alexa's companion spirit the best possible growth prospects, then he needed to focus on giving her a proper foundation instead of a speedy shortcut.

Although Blinky most certainly had to put more effort into processing the degenerated energy donated by Gaia, the Star Cat could still rely on his strong ability to manipulate all kinds of spiritual energies!

As time continued to pass, the newly created cat began to wake up as Blinky had managed to forge yet another companion spirit!

"Myah... myah..."

Alexa watched with amazement as her companion spirit had finally taken a life of her own. The semi-transparent ragdoll cat with a symmetrical pattern of white, gray and dark brown fur was more than just a creature.

It was another part of herself.

The newly inducted Larkinson closed her eyes in order to explore the brand new senses of her companion spirit.

From the perspective of the cat that she was directly connected to, an entirely new reality opened up to her. As the floating ragdoll cat slowly swept her gaze across the workshop, she noticed a lot of phenomena that had always existed but never noticed due to her inferior perception!

The new companion spirit saw the flow of all of the E energy radiation in the environment.

These flows of mixed energies uniformly flowed in a single direction that pointed away from Messier 87.

The companion spirit also noticed the spiritual bond that connected her to a vast and intricate network of connections. Alexa grew amazed that this web of channels spanned over enormous distances.

The mystery of the Larkinson Network had become clear to Alexa's newly gained sight. She even spotted a powerful and formidable golden glow that occupied the center of the magical network!

It wasn't until Alexa set her sights on her new patriarch and mentor that she was able to get to know a greater part of his true self!

Similar to the Golden Cat, Ves had grown so powerful that he appeared to glow in her sights.

Though Ves mostly kept this part of himself contained, he decided to unveil a part of it just to give Alexa an interesting sight.

There was more to Ves that impressed Alexa.

Her new companion spirit observed a flaming ball that was buried in the center of her patriarch's head. Alexa knew without a shadow of a doubt that it encapsulated the essence of his design philosophy!

It was a pity that Alexa had yet to detect anything comparable in her own self, but that could be remedied in the future.

There were more oddities about Ves that she could spend hours on analyzing. The hammers that he carried on his toolbelt were veritable artifacts. His entire body faintly glowed with not just one, but two entirely different variations of power. There were even hints of additional layers underneath what he showed on the surface.

The flood of new data overwhelmed the former Terran. Alexa could not even begin to analyze all of the new sights that fought for her attention!

"This... is... incredible." She gasped as she finally opened her own pair of eyes. "Is this what you and everyone else with a companion spirit see every day?"

"Pretty much. You get used to it after a while. What you are seeing through your new companion spirit is different manifestations of E energy that exists in another realm that is parallel to the one that our bodies occupy. Now that you have opened your perception to a hidden layer of reality, you have gained the qualifications to manipulate it in a deliberate fashion."

"Is that what you intend to teach me, sir?"

Ves nodded. "Yes. Since the Red Two has yet to announce their latest unified technological developments, I will teach you my own theoretical framework. From there, you can choose to learn more specific methods and techniques from me, or you can choose to explore on your own. Whether you want to follow my footsteps or find your own direction, I don't mind either way. I am sure you can contribute a lot to our clan no matter your choice."

"Thank you." Alexa said with a grateful smile. "I have already made up my mind to an extent. If possible, I still wish to learn how to design mechs that can come to life under my power. Too few people can do this. The Senechai had spent decades searching for other mech designers that could produce comparable works, but he never succeeded. This shows how rare you are. If I am able to learn your craft, then our clan and our society will no longer suffer an irreplaceable loss if anything happens to you. This is a strong and persistent concern to many leaders who have a vested interest in your work."

Ves nodded in understanding. "Then we have little time to waste. Once you have recovered and familiarized yourself with your new companion spirit, I will start to teach you right away."

His attention eventually shifted back to the new companion spirit.

"What have you decided to call your new companion spirit?"

"Maia."

"That is simple enough. Have you already learned what she can do? I think I have a vague idea of her abilities, but I am not entirely sure about my guess."

"I think... I know what she can do. Can I try it out on you? I believe that Maia's abilities won't cause you any harm."

"Sure."

The spiritual ragdoll cat slowly flew forward until one of her paws came into contact with Ves.

A warm and nurturing spurt of energy tried to enter Ves' body.

He had to lower his defenses to allow Maia to insert her energy and exert a measure of active control.

Surprisingly enough, Ves did not really feel as if Maia had intruded into himself. Her energy appeared to contain the same trait of universal compatibility as Gaia's spiritual energy!

Once Maia's energy approached Ves' spirituality, the former melted and began to nourish the latter!

Although it had no effect as Ves was in good condition, his eyes widened as he realized what Maia was doing.

"Your companion spirit... is nourishing my spirituality. This is useful! Can you do more than heal any spiritual injuries?"

Alexa furrowed her brows. "I believe so. I sense that Maia can exert her energy in a slightly different fashion. Let me try..."

Maia's spiritual energy began to shift into a slightly different state that caused it to produce a different effect.

Though Maia was still far too weak to produce any noticeable effect on Ves, it quickly became clear what else the new companion spirit could do under her own power!

"If I am interpreting this correctly, your companion spirit should be able to use her energy to speed up the growth of comparable entities. It just didn't work for me because the gap between us is too great." Ves concluded.

It might also be that this ability only worked on younger spirits.

Alexa looked intrigued. "What does that mean, sir?"

"This is really useful in my field of specialization. One of the greatest weaknesses of my design philosophy is that it takes a lot of time for living products to reach maturity. If Maia can cut this process short by several weeks or months, she can contribute a lot to enhancing the combat effectiveness of our new living mechs."

These auxiliary abilities were enough to turn Maia into a valuable addition to the Larkinson Clan!