Now that Ves received the outcome he wanted to produce, there was not much point to letting the prototype Geist System run any longer. The more time passed by, the more things could go wrong. It was not necessary for Ves to take any further risks with the new system. "Shut down the connection!" Ves quickly instructed the other Journeyman. "We've got the result that we needed. Now let's pull Mephisto back before he starts to do his job on my ship instead of an enemy target!" The magnitude of the effect was not as important. Ves already accounted for the possibility that the dinky setup he and his collaboration partner had cobbled together wouldn't produce any drastic results. Besides, he had limited the strength of the connection at the lowest viable level. Ves did not have any desire to dial it up for fear of overwhelming a new and relatively fragile spiritual fiend. The finished version of the Geist System should be capable of accomplishing a lot more. Not only would it be paired with lots of stronger spiritual fiends that had more time to mature, it would also be larger and made out of more high-end parts and materials! If that wasn't enough, then once Venerable Zimro Belson and his completed expert stealth mech finally combined together, the true resonance that they could produce should grant the Geist System and its numerous fiends a huge power boost! The effect should be similar to how Commander Casella Ingvar was able to Commandeer friendly Larkinson mechs and mech pilots, thereby granting them a substantial boost in combat effectiveness. The only difference was that Venerable Zimro was only able to do that with the fiends attached to his expert mech with the help of the Geist System instead of an inherent quality of his willpower. In other words, Ves essentially managed to reproduce the effect of Commander Casella's domain in a limited and more specialized form! "How wonderful. This is a true innovation!" The hardest part was over now. Almost every subsequent step in the Ghost Project should be a straight path forward. It would not be long before Ves and Cormaunt would be able to complete this project and introduce another expert mech to the Larkinson Clan! Ves eagerly analyzed the data and obtained tentative confirmation that his theories had mostly been proved. He still needed to conduct follow-up experiments where he tested the same circumstances before changing up the variables in order to obtain a more robust answer that could stand up to scientific scrutiny. However, since Ves was working for himself, he had no great need to conduct a proper scientific study. He believed in his work and he understood the mechanics well enough to know that his promised Geist System would definitely perform well once the Ghost Project was complete! As the days went by, Ves eventually had to update his wife on his progress with the Ghost Project. Though Gloriana was nominally involved in the Ghost Project as well due to the fact that it was an expert mech, she spent more time on the Greenaxe Project and the Bloodripper Project due to various reasons. She was not that charmed with the Ghost Project and her responsibilities diverged a lot from whatever crazy stuff that Ves and Cormaunt had dedicated their time upon. This was why she had fallen out of the loop with regards to the recent breakthroughs in the Ghost Project. It took a bit of time before his wife returned from a longer-than-usual session in the design lab. Ves had already returned to his grand stateroom and kept watch over the children who had ended their respective schooling a few hours earlier. Despite the exceedingly high demands of their studies, the children hardly seemed to have lost any energy throughout the day! "Hihihi!" "Hihihihi!" "Where's my cookie, Marvaine?!" "Meow… meow…" "Miaow miaow miaow!" Kids were running around the living room while the cats played the role of babysitters and kept an eye on energetic brats. "Beware the might of my dark sword!" Andraste dramatically shouted as she lifted up a swordsman Mekanos that her little brother had recently made. Aurelia did not let her little sister keep the initiative and lifted up a pair of white tiger Mekanos in response! "My twin tiger stars shall vanquish over your evil mech and restore the light to the galaxies!" The two kids proceeded to bash their Mekanos against each other. Of course, the toys made the appropriate noises, sound effects and movements as they simulated battle against each other. When Gloriana finally entered through the hatch, the children all stopped their games and ran up to their mother and obediently presented themselves. "Come here and let your mother give you a kiss. Have you been good today, again?" "Yes, mama~" As dinner was being prepared by a bunch of highly skilled chefs, Gloriana chatted with her lovely children for a few minutes before joining Ves at the couch. Her scent wafted over to his nose. The woman studied her husband with a critical eye. "You look inordinately satisfied at the moment. I know when you are in this kind of mood. You made a lot of progress, haven't you? Is it the Ghost Project that you are working on lately?" He grinned at her. "Yup. The Ghost Project will definitely be finished. I can guarantee you that. We can't be stopped anymore now that we have overcome the hardest technical challenges of our upcoming expert mech design." Ves quickly filled her in on the Geist System, Mephisto and a bunch of other fiends he had created since. The most interesting part about the fiends was that not all of them were made out of Helena's spare death energy. In the interest of expanding the versatility and arsenal of the Ghost Project, Ves had experimented with creating fiends by utilizing spiritual energy derived from other sources as the base. He only wanted to make use of fiends derived from a negative energy type, so he did not have many eligible donors to draw his ingredients from. Aside from Helena, only the Superior Mother's darker aspects met the standard. Every other design spirit under his collection either possessed neutral or positive spiritual attributes. Not even his third order living mechs or the companion spirits he made for various people provided him with another source of negative energy attribute. This was not that surprising as Ves preferred to deal with friendly and trustworthy partners instead of entities that would stab him in the back if they had the chance. Still, the lack of 'dark' design spirits exposed a gap in his design spirit collection that might become a critical weakness in the future. For now, Ves made due to by making a bunch of fiends derived from mostly neutral spiritual energy. The resulting spiritual entities were not as nasty or dangerous as Mephisto, but they came with a bag of tricks that introduced new ways to mess with enemies! As Gloriana listened to his astonishing progress and many new discoveries, she exhibited a mix of reactions. Once Ves ended his story so that he could give his wife a chance to offer her feedback, she needed a moment to compose her thoughts into words. "I… half-hoped that you would hit a wall so often that you would see sense." She eventually spoke. "When you initially conceived of the Geist System, I found that it was too much even now that I have become accustomed to your habit of going off on weird and unusual tangents. Everything that you have told me so far does not not reassure me much. These fiends of yours sound dangerous! What if they slip out of the shackles that you have put onto them? They can easily pose a threat against our clan if they are able to wreak havoc in our fleet!" Ves leaned over and put his hand on her palm. "Relax, honey. I have already accounted for those possibilities. The tech is risky, but so is a plasma cannon. We can't make progress if we aren't willing to push the limits. The fiends that I have made won't get loose because they are inherently anchored to their fiend vessels. If these specialized totems ever get destroyed, the fiends won't get loose, but they will likely die or disappear as they have lost their hold on reality. I have expressly designed them to remain dependent on their fiend vessels as a way to anchor them to reality as well as create an easy means of control." "What if your assumption is wrong? What if these fiends act similarly to design spirits and are able to subside away from your reach? What then, Ves?" "I have implemented a few more safeguards to increase the chances that they will remain beholden to us or their precursor. I can't make any guarantees as life has a way of evolving into different forms, but even if the worst has happened, it is not as if we are under immediate threat. These fiends are purely spiritual entities, and without willpower or true resonance empowerment, they can hardly do anything in the material realm." Gloriana remained critical. "What if they found a way to evolve around that problem? I know it sounds unlikely, but go along with me please." Ves smirked and leaned back on the couch. "Even if these fiends pose a threat to others, they will never be able to assail our clan. We have a lot of protection in this area. I made sure of that early on. Goldie is our main line of defense against any spiritual intrusions. If her strength isn't enough, we can call upon many other design spirits such as Qilanxo and the Solemn Guardian. On top of that, we can always call upon our third order living mechs or our expert mechs. Both of them should have the means to beat up spiritual fiends or any other nefarious spiritual entities for that matter. I did not create living weapons that I can't even defend against. That would be stupid." The Geist System and everything attached to it still sounded iffy to Gloriana, but it was not as if she could deter Ves from making use of it. When he was in this mood, he would proceed with an experimental solution regardless of how much she and everyone else complained. Compared to telling Ves to rein in his risk taking, Gloriana would rather discuss a more relevant topic with her husband. "Have you reconsidered my proposal yet?" She asked. "You definitely have enough MTA merits left over after you have allocated spending on refitting the Spirit of Bentheim and a few other useful acquisitions. Why aren't you buying a new cranial implant for me yet? It is only 120 million MTA merits, which should be easy for you to earn back since you insist on heading back to the frontier soon!" "Not this again…" Ves grumbled. "Don't dismiss me again, Ves!" She barked back in frustration as she held onto his uniform shirt. "I am telling you that you are missing out on the most promising investment that you can make in the clan! Pay for my new implant and I will earn it all back within five years or less! In fact, I will do even better. I will double the merits you have spent because I am confident I will advance to Senior and develop a fantastic design application by then!" "Uh huh." "What do you mean, 'uh huh'? You are not the only mech designer in the clan who can develop fantastic new innovations that the MTA appreciates! I would like to inform you that I am in regular contact with the Mech Supremacist Faction!" "If you are so great, then why don't you work hard and earn the required MTA merits on your own?" Ves retorted. "Besides, if you really can't wait, you can make use of the MTA merits earned by the Glory Seekers. They are yours, right?" "That's not an option! The Glory Seekers have earned the smallest share of the three alliance partners. They are already weak and they need to invest all of their MTA merits into strengthening their forces. My brother Brutus and the other Glory Seeker expert pilots all need the merits more in order to keep up with our future growth. Besides, you're my husband, Ves. You are the one that is supposed to be pampering me, so open up your merit account already!" He looked at her with an odd expression. "That is a surprisingly paternalistic statement, honey. Aren't Hexer women supposed to be strong and independent woman who don't need no man to provide for their needs?" "THAT'S DIFFERENT!"