The Mech Touch

As much as Ves wanted to stay on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim and preside over the Larkinson Army's winning lap, his obligations as a patriarch and a mech designer compelled him to travel elsewhere.

"We're going on a trip, Lucky."

"Meow?"

Ves rose up from his seat and briskly left the bridge in the company of his cat and his honor guard.

Not many people were walking through the corridors at the moment. It did not take too much time for him to reach his personal workshop where a number of Living Sentinel mechs carefully put down the remains of an important expert mech onto the deck.

Unlike the Crossers who treated the remains brought back by their patriarch as proof of their victory, the Larkinsons who witnessed the retrieval of the scattered salvage all adopted sad or sympathetic expressions.

Ves grew a bit moody as well as he entered the workshop compartment and beheld what was left of one of the strongest and most iconic living mechs of the Larkinson Clan.

He still remembered the initial time where he fabricated the first production copy of his new Aurora Titan design.

Though the Aurora Titan model did not turn out to be a great seller and eventually got phased out of the market, the Shield of Samar lived on and evolved long after the demise of the original design it spawned from. This was a privilege that few living mechs enjoyed!

The mech that Jannzi had bonded with went on to enjoy a life of its own, much like how the Quint diverged from the Bright Warrior line and gained its own separate identity.

The Shield of Samar underwent six major revisions over its lifetime.

It started out as a humble and quirky third-class standard mech and slowly evolved into an impressive second-class mid-tier masterwork expert space knight!

Not only that, but the Shield of Samar's continued association with Venerable Jannzi had forged a strong and unique bond between the two. Both of them had grown from their humble origins and reached greater heights step-by-step over the course of a decade.

Much had changed over the years, but no matter what happened to the Larkinson Clan, the Shield of Samar and Venerable Jannzi always improved a bit more.

Ves still remembered how much he and the rest of his Design Department invested a lot of time, money and resources into upgrading the Shield of Samar during its last major overhaul.

The Larkinson mech designers carefully and respectfully worked to improve its performance and increase its damage-resisting capabilities in order to ensure it was fully equipped to keep up with combat in the Red Ocean.

"We failed." Ves sighed as he looked at how all of those improvements went to naught.

Though the main reason why the Shield of Samar failed to return in one piece was because it fought against a surprisingly lethal opponent with bug-like offensive power, this was not an excuse for how Ves had failed the living mech and its expert pilot.

Ves took a closer look at what was left of the Shield of Samar.

In order to fully convey its condition, it was easier to describe the parts that were at least moderately intact than to list the huge amount of components and subcomponents that the Skorpion Kommando managed to dissolve with its final spiteful attack!

"Damn, this is worse than I thought."

He already had low expectations of what was left of the Shield of Samar, but seeing the remnants for himself gave him a much more accurate impression on how much one of the most valuable mechs of his clan had fallen.

None of the Larkinson expert mechs had suffered so much ruination!

At worst, their armor got battered and a couple of limbs or major systems got smashed or cut off. Though repairing all of that battle damage and returning the expert mechs to their previous peaks would be a long and complicated endeavor, there was at least hope to restore them to their former glory!

The Shield of Samar on the other hand left him with much less confidence.

As Ves approached the gathered wreckage, he made sure his Unending Regalia was fully sealed. He had no idea whether any of the salvaged parts had turned radioactive or were on the verge of blowing up. The preliminary scans showed that they did not pose any significant risk to people, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Venerable Jannzi apparently didn't get the memo. As soon as she exited the cockpit that the Living Sentinels had safely escorted off the battlefield, she had insisted on moving to the side of her battle partner!

Though the distraught and grieving expert pilot was still wearing her custom protective piloting suit, she did not hesitate to move closer and collapse beside the inert head of her expert mech.

"Sammie!"

When Ves stopped by her side, Lucky cautiously floated closer and tried to console the woman.

"Meow…"

Though Jannzi accepted Lucky's company and embraced the gem cat in her arms, her tears never stopped falling as she pressed her helmet against the giant surface of the Shield of Samar's head.

It was as if Jannzi was desperately trying to resonate and connect with the living mech that had accompanied her for almost her entire career as a mech pilot!

It took almost a minute for the young mother to finally acknowledge the presence of the patriarch.

"Ves… you're a mech designer, right? You made my Sammie. You can fix this. You can bring my mech back alive. Since you can create life out of nothing, it should be a piece of cake for you to restore the life of a broken mech!"

"It… doesn't work like that, Jannzi." Ves slowly and carefully replied. "Life and death applies to mechs as well as humans. When the bodies of people such as you and I are broken, we die. Whatever is left of us will pass to the beyond. The same goes for mechs. The Shield of Samar may have been a powerful third-order living mech, but unless it has reached a higher state of growth, it is not so easy for such entities to cling to life."

Living beings did not necessarily disappear once their corporeal bodies died. Of the individuals that Ves had met who had somehow managed to defy the natural cycle of life, both his mother and Qilanxo had managed to overcome the shackles of their mortal coils and live on in a different day through their own abilities.

However, these cases were rare and demanded a lot of growth and proficiency in spiritual manipulation. Ves frankly had no idea how this could be done.

While it was possible for Ves to preserve the lives of other spiritual entities such as Zeigra and the Phase King, he had to intervene quickly and get ready to preserve their spiritualities from the moment they got loose. The bodies of the two entities that went on to become his design spirits were also relatively intact when he had taken action.

As for what had happened to Shield of Samar, much of its spiritual foundation crumbled and collapsed after the vast majority of its frame had fallen apart.

This loss came so quickly that not even sending Blinky to what was left of his masterwork mech could preserve this collapse!

This devastating loss at least confirmed his hypothesis that third order living mechs had not gotten rid of the shackles of mortality.

At the very least, the condition of their physical forms were still tied to the condition of their spiritual states!

Perhaps it would have been possible to give the Shield of Samar's spiritual foundation a lifeline if Ves had turned it into a design spirit like the Quint.

Ves regretted that he did not do so. Perhaps he should pay more attention to providing support to all of his expert mechs in the future.

"The Shield of Samar may have died, but not everything is gone. There is still a remnant inside this head." He spoke as he placed his armored hand on the surface of the expert mech's detached head. "It's only as small as a spark at the moment, but… maybe I can do something with it. Let me think for a moment."

Venerable Jannzi looked a lot more expectant towards Ves at this time, though she did not dare to harbor too much hope.

Her bond with the Shield of Samar was deep and profound. She understood her living mech's condition almost just as well as Ves!

When Ves studied the spiritual remnant of the Shield of Samar in greater detail, he discovered that more of the living mech remained intact due to the intervention of a certain design spirit.

"Thank you, Qilanxo."

The design spirit silently conveyed a meaning to Ves.

It turned out that Qilanxo had used her connection to the Shield of Samar to rescue the spiritual foundation of the living mech.

Unfortunately, 'Sammie' was still too young and had not developed to the point where it could still cling to its own self after the demise of its material form.

The best Qilanxo could do was gather whatever spiritual remnants that were left and hold them in place by expending her own power.

"Can you hold this spiritual remnant, Qilanxo?"

The design spirit replied with an affirmative response. It helped a lot that the Shield of Samar was largely made out of Unending alloy. Much of the exterior of the intact head was made of this material.

Now, it reluctantly functioned as a container for what little was left intact of the Shield of Samar.

When Ves was thinking about what he could do for Jannzi, he recalled an instance in the past where he had to work with less.

A long time ago, Ves came across a nutrient pack wrapper that Prophet Ylvaine had once discarded.

Even though the historical figure hardly spent any time or thought on this wrapper, he still imparted it with a fraction of his spiritual energy.

Ves had taken advantage of this interaction and consciously tried to turn this forgettable fragment of Ylvaine alive.

Once it came to life, it was able to grow rapidly by absorbing a lot of spiritual feedback from other sources.

In the end, that tiny spiritual remnant went on to grow into a fully fledged design spirit that looked as if the Great Prophet had truly come back from the dead!

Since Ves was able to 'revive' Prophet Ylvaine in a sense, how feasible would it be for him to do the same for one of his most important living mechs?

A lot of thoughts began to brew in his mind. He came up with a lot of possibilities as he brainstormed hundreds of different plans and approaches.

He finally turned to Jannzi.

"I can't make any promises, but I will do my best to restore your living mech. There is not much left of her personality and consciousness, but I may have a way to reconstruct them. Whether my efforts will be able to bring back your old and familiar Shield of Samar is uncertain."

"That… is better than Sammie disappearing forever…"

Ves owed it to Venerable Jannzi to restore her battle partner as best as possible. He bore undeniable responsibility for allowing the Battle of Pima Prime to come to pass. The Shield of Samar would have never confronted the Skorpion Kommando in battle if the Golden Skull Alliance hadn't been eager to pick a fight.

Once he made his choice on how to proceed, he moved quickly to preserve the state of his living mech.

He arranged for the physical remains to be stored as securely as possible.

He also moved the Aspect of Healing inside the storage compartment in order to provide additional assistance to the spiritual remnant of the Shield of Samar.

In order to confirm that the Shield of Samar did not die off completely, Ves even called in Helena to ask her judgment on whether the living mech was dead.

"Death… is rather complicated." His so-called eldest sister replied. "This living mech of yours has definitely died, but death has not managed to claim everything."

"Can you help us with preserving or reviving my living mech?"

Helena frowned. "Turning the dead back alive is not exactly my expertise. I thought that was your thing, Ves. I guess I can still do something. I can remove the lingering signs of death from these remains so that they won't deteriorate the situation any further. That is all I can really do with my current powers."

"That is already enough, sister. Leave the rest to me." Ves smiled.