The Mech Touch

The beautiful Hand of Creation that represented his purest desire to create works of life had become marred by the iron-like crown that attached itself to the Divine Core like a cuff!

Ves couldn't even begin to understand how the crown managed to attach itself to a symbolic representation of his most important essence.

As far as he was aware, the Sacred Hearth did not actually hold his Divine Cores, but still allowed him to interact with them through a mysterious fashion.

This reassured Ves a bit as he knew that the crown hadn't directly attached itself to his Divine Core.

It was projecting itself on the Hand of Creation!

Ves theorized that the crown was unable to influence him directly because of this. When he recalled his behavior of the day, he recognized that his behavior was subtly different from his usual self.

He made decisions and conducted himself in a fashion that was not typical to his normal self.

What struck him the most was that he was behaving a bit more assertively and became more keen on seeking greater advantages.

He castigated the powerful and influential faction leaders in order to signal that he was maintaining a healthy distance from them. He boldly told Alexa Streon that he intended to visit the New Constantinople System so that he could personally take her on as his 'personal disciple1.

When Ves thought back on the reasoning and logic behind these highly impactful moves, he failed to detect anything amiss in his decision-making process.

None of the links in the chain seemed iffy to him! His logic was completely sound in his opinion. The only reason why he thought that there was something wrong in the first place was that the outcomes of these logic chains caused him to act too far outside of his usual modus operand!.

Ves felt even more disturbed. He truly did not feel he had made a mistake today. Sure, talking about the likes of the Fist of Defiance and the Polymath was a quick way to become a pariah in society, but his recent promotion to a tier 3 galactic citizen and strategic importance to red humanity shielded him from the negative consequences.

Since he could get away with it, there was no reason to restrain himself as much as he did in the past. He had already decided to go high profile. Of course his new behavior pattern had deviated from his old one. Now that he had begun to enter an entirely different political environment, he needed to make a lot of adaptations if he wanted to protect his interests.

"The crown might not be the cause of my change of behavior."

Even if the crown hadn't sneakily found its way into the Sacred Hearth, he probably would have behaved exactly as before!

Yet the fact that the crown did manage to get itself attached to a projection of his Divine Core prevented him from ruling out that he had been tampered with. It frustrated him a lot that he couldn't determine where the crown had interfered with his thoughts and actions!

"I suppose that is the insidious part about the crown that my mother has warned about. No wonder the Polymath never thought that she had ever acted against her own nature." Perhaps the crown did not inject suggestions that went against the nature of a person, but lowered the individual's inhibitions instead!

That made a lot more sense, though he wasn't sure whether that was truly how the crown manipulated its wearers.

Ves lacked too much information. He kept second-guessing himself because he did not possess enough facts to make any solid conclusions.

"The important part is to get this crown away before it actually does something truly concerning!"

The problem was that he had already tried and failed to remove the crown. No amount of physical force made any difference. The symbol of authority did not even shake from its position even when Ves brought out a rod and attempted to utilize the principles of leverage to exert the most out of his body weight and physical strength!

It became clear that Ves was dealing with an object of power that was far more powerful than was apparent on the surface!

Ves considered whether it might be useful to start a dialogue with it, but then he figured that this was exactly the kind of situation where the insidious crown was at its strongest!

He could not afford to get pulled into a negotiation with a powerful object that was derived from a supposed immortal god and likely inherited much of that ancient being's deviousness!

As a mech designer and an engineer, he knew that the best way to handle a source of contamination was to minimize any contact with it. He needed to minimize his exposure and avoid showing as many openings as possible.

"Is that even possible here?" He frowned.

Perhaps the only way to get rid of a devil was to negotiate with the nefarious being.

The thought filled him with dread. As much as he had improved his negotiation skills over the years, he did not think he was ready to match wits against a crown that had successfully managed to distort the Polymath!

There was one other alternative that he could turn to. After a bit of thought, Ves decisively exited the System Space so that time in realspace could resume according to his perspective.

Though he was afraid of what might happen if he left the crown unattended, this was a necessary action.

He shifted most of his attention back to the Milky Way where his cyborg cat incarnation waited patiently outside of his mother's meditation room.

"You may enter." Her musical and slightly ethereal voice whispered directly in the metallic cat's auditory sensors.

"Myaow."

The hatch slid open, allowing the cat to hover inside and make her way over to the robed woman sitting in a lotus position in the center of the peaceful chamber.

Incense burned from the side while traditional candles lit up the wooden walls and partitions.

Veronica noticed that her mother had added a few more touches to her meditation room since her last visit.

Traditional watercolor paintings hung on the walls. They depicted sceneries of nature that seemed to calm down anyone who gazed at them for more than a second.

Even though these watercolor paintings were completely mundane and devoid of any spirituality, Veronica couldn't help but notice that the strokes and patterns possessed an inherent mystery that granted them greater power than they should.

She would have loved to spend hours gazing at her mother's artwork in order to decipher the principles that made them so soothing, but she was more pressing matters to deal with at this time.

"Mother."

"My child."

As Veronica plopped herself onto her mother's lap like usual, a gentle hand already began to caress her metallic feline back.

It was no wonder why Lucky always sought to get petted by people. The feeling was just too sublime. Though there were times where Veronica could get overstimulated from all of the petting, it still filled a void in her heart!

"Myaow-" Veronica lazily stretched her cyborg body. "I'm in trouble, mother."

"Is your trouble related to the Iron Resonant Crucifix Crown?"

The cat nodded her head. "You expected me to come."

"The crown is a remnant of one of the most powerful beings to arise from ancient society. It is not difficult to predict that it will soon become a source of concern to you. I actually applaud you for recognizing the danger this soon. It shows that you are sufficiently alert and took my warnings seriously. Now explain your situation to me. What has the crown done to cause so much concern?"

Veronica talked openly about her problem. She described his atypical behavior and briefly described what the crown had done inside her System Space.

"1 see. That is indeed a concerning state of affairs, but you do not have to fear that the crown will take direct control over your soul. It does not work that way."

"Are you sure about that?" Veronica narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"I know how the symbols of authority work." Cynthia spoke in an authoritative tone. "Regardless, I have already devised a plan that should hopefully mitigate your problem."

"I am not looking to mitigate this problem, mother. I want to get rid of the crown!"

"Calm down." She spoke as she pressed her hand on Veronica's head. "There are ways to remove the crown from your possession, but I do not recommend you take this course of action. Despite its dangers, the Iron Resonant Crucifix Crown is one of the most powerful relics that you can get your hands on. It is well worth keeping it within your reach in case you need it later. What you should actually be looking for is to reduce the negative impact of the crown to a tolerable level. It just so happens that I have already been working on a solution that just so happens to be relevant in your case."

She summoned a stack of traditional papers and placed them in front of Veronica's eyes.

When the cyborg cat skimmed through the documents that contained actual handwriting, it soon became clear what her mother had presented.

"This... this is a translation of the notes of an ancient Divine Blacksmith!"

"I have done my best to interpret the ancient texts based on my own understanding of this ancient language and the long-dead culture of the time, but it is anything but perfect. The notes are not complete. I have taken the liberty of filling a few of the gaps with my own understanding of what they might contain. I have especially marked these sections to prevent any confusion. Overall, the notes contain a wealth of information and insight that is especially relevant to Divine Blacksmiths. I do not think they are as useful to mech designers."

She was right. The notes contained a lot of technical data and tables such as the physical properties of powerful hyper materials that he never heard of. They also contained the Divine Blacksmith's attempts at deducing high-level forging techniques that were inextricably paired with the long-dead figure's cultivation method and core techniques.

The fact that the notes lacked any details about the Divine Blacksmith's cultivation method and so on was a serious bummer!

"Uhm, mother?"

"Yes, my dear?"

"These notes are pretty interesting. They probably contain a lot of powerful insights, though it will probably take a lot of research to figure them out. However, I haven't spotted anything that will help me get that blasted crown off my Divine Core!"

His mother did not look surprised at his lack of understanding.

"You do not recognize the true value of these notes. Leave aside the meaning of the words. The fact that it was written by a True God makes it valuable in itself. This goes double when the notes are a direct reflection of his dao."

".."

Veronica looked completely clueless.

Cynthia let out a sigh. "Think for a moment. What is the Iron Resonant Crucifix Crown? It is a companion of the Metal Scroll. What is the Metal Scroll? It was not made with mechs in mind, that is for certain. That is a perversion brought about by the Progenitors of Mechs long after the Sacred Scrolls had been created. The Metal Scroll originally existed to teach cultivators to produce armaments that are worthy to be utilized by cultivators up to and including True Gods. It is not mech designers, but Divine Blacksmiths that come closest to resembling the immortal god that created this specific Scroll!."

Veronica widened her artificial purple eyes. "Wait! Are you saying that I can get rid of the crown so long as 1 train someone else to become a Divine Blacksmith?!"

"That is largely correct, my child. You are mistaken on one crucial detail. You should not let anyone else become affected by the crown. It is too dangerous to leave it out of your sight and reach. Only you can bear this burden."

The cat grew confused. "That doesn't make any sense. I am already a mech designer, you know. I can't possibly become a Divine Blacksmith. That would make me abandon everything I have worked towards in these last few decades!"

Cynthia snorted in disapproval. "You have come to the wrong conclusion once again. It is not you who should bear this crown, but one of your other incarnations. Can you make a guess?"

There was only one particular incarnation that fit the requirements of this radical suggestion!

"Vulcan. You're talking about Vulcan!" Veronica reacted in shock!

"The God of Dwarves, Mechs and Craftsmanship is an empty title. Let us make it real, and the Iron Resonant Crucifix Crown shall help your incarnation fulfill his destiny!"

"What?! That's crazy!"