Time seemed to freeze when Ves boldly brought out his first ’Chosen Envoy’. Upon Venerable Imon Ingvar’s demise, Ves took advantage of one of the Sacred Temple’s functions and turned the expert pilot into his first Chosen Envoy. The System had only managed to salvage a remnant of Imon, so Ves did not seem overly impressed with the results. Much of Imon had died and disappeared. Only fragments of himself had remained, which wasn’t enough to preserve his consciousness and awareness. The Sacred Temple only managed to preserve a husk of the once-brash and confident expert pilot. What was worse was that the entity that became the first permanent resident of the Chosen Courtyard also underwent a horrible transformation! The implications of this conversion were profound. How Imon ended up was one of the biggest reasons why Ves had always felt reluctant to show him off to the Saint Commander. Ves had already presented his Chosen Envoy to Casella early on, but back then Imon was still in a heavily damaged state. He was completely unable to speak, let alone hold any coherent thoughts, so Casella always held out hope that he would recover to his old self. In the months that passed since that initial meeting, the Chosen Envoy continued to ’recover’ with the help of the Chosen Courtyard. The problem was that Imon did not regain a semblance of his old self. He instead underwent a transformation that caused him to become increasingly more alien to Ves. It was difficult to identify the current state of Imon to Casella’s sister. Ves felt that his new position in the Chosen Courtyard had become his sole purpose! This made Ves more and more afraid to present Imon to her sister again. Yet the longer he postponed this reunion, the worse it would get for everyone. With that in mind, Ves had made the bold and admittedly impulsive decision to just get this over with and summon Imon from the Chosen Courtyard. Now, a dreadful silence had spread across his personal design lab as Casella Ingvar displayed a mixture of emotions as she gazed upon the floating and semi-solid form of her brother. His physical appearance precisely matched how he looked just before he died in combat. Casella could recognize her brother from anywhere, and that face was unmistakably the real deal. His piloting suit was a customized version of a high-end model that the Larkinson Army especially made for its high-ranking mech pilots. What was different from before was that Imon had not only regained a lot more life, but also gained near-physical substance! It was as if he was almost physically resurrected! Casella initially reacted with shock and disbelief at his current state. Was this truly her brother, or was this just a physical projection? However, her domain had instantly informed her that this was no technological apparation. Even if her Command Field was not as strong as a Saint Kingdom and even if she was not piloting her ace mech at this time, his brother was so close that she was able to sense the metaphorical weight behind this entity. Her brother had turned into an existence that existed in two realms at once. He initially felt similar to the design spirits that the Larkinson Clan extensively cooperated with. His extraordinary willpower had disappeared, but Casella did not really care about that. It was more than worthwhile to lose all his power as an expert pilot so long as he was able to cling to life! His situation appeared to be more optimistic than that. As Casella’s Command Field kept trying to make sense of Imon’s new state, she was able to confirm that he possessed a ’false body’ of sorts. His physical state was extremely weird. Despite his mortal appearance, his body came across as fake. His skin was not made out of organic cells. Blood did not flow through his body. From what her domain could tell, Imon’s body could best be described as a temporary physical form that was completely uniform inside and out! The only differences were cosmetic. This was not an actual organic body in the truest sense! Still, as weird as this may be, the Saint Commander could still overlook this anomaly so long as her brother was back. Casella also discovered that his new state of existence had gained a measure of actual strength. Although it was nothing too impressive, Casella felt a little more reassured. The stronger Imon became, the less likely he would die! Only a very short amount of time had passed when the Saint Commander processed these thoughts. A smile began to bloom on her face. She had already begun to rush forward in order to hug her brother. Even if her brother’s body was completely false, it didn’t matter so long as she was able to embrace her returned sibling! Yet before she could take another step, her powerful mind could no longer ignore the many alarms. Her observation and her intuition had already picked up many signs that Imon was not as familiar as he appeared. For one, his posture, his body language and most egregiously his expression were completely different. She initially assumed that her brother became a lot less confident and more placid due to losing his body and turning into a ghost of sorts. However, that did not really add up to how he currently appeared. If Imon was still his original self, then he would be staring straight at Casella. Yet since the moment Ves summoned him to this chamber, he had never once stared at her in the eye. She did not even tilt his head to gaze in his direction. Instead, his adoring eyes solely fixated on Ves from beginning to end! Casella’s rational mind had already picked up all of these clues, but her heart refused to accept the conclusion that she had formed. She tried her best to figure out whether she made a mistake in her observations. The Saint Commander was not blind, and no falsehood could escape her domain. Had she misinterpreted the clues that she gathered? No. She was not stupid. She knew that she was definitely the most intellectually gifted among all of the expert pilots and ace pilots she had met. Even if she was not able to work with technology as well as mechs, she honed her skill in observing and interpreting anything she encountered on an active battlefield! Unless she was affected by the God Kingdom of an unknown god pilot, there was no way to refute her conclusion! Her brother… did not show any signs of recognition! Had he failed to recover his memories? Was he so disabled that he was unable to recognize the people he was familiar with when he was alive? "Imon…" She finally couldn’t hold back her voice. "Do you still… recognize your sister?" Her voice used to captivate her brother’s attention without fail. Back when he was alive, the Saint Commander frankly grew disgusted by how sticky her brother had become. She used to wish that he would go away and spend his time on more fruitful activities. Now, she wished that she was in the presence of the Imon from back then. Yet as the seconds passed in silence, not a single shred of recognition appeared on his face. To the ghost that somehow acquired her brother’s appearance and a remnant of his soul, he maintained no ties of significance to the woman in the lab. His attention had always remained fixed on Ves from beginning to end. What was worse was that Imon looked completely subservient towards the patriarch! This was an attitude that should never appear on a proud and confident expert pilot! Even if Imon had lost his strength, Casella knew that her brother would never debase himself to such an extent. Imon came across like a lovesick puppy who only recognized his new owner. As for Casella, she was just a guest who happened to visit his owner’s home! "This is wrong. This cannot be. Wake up, Imon! Do you recognize me?! ANSWER ME, BROTHER!" Her Command Field grew more agitated. Her emotions began to spiral while her mind kept trying to come up with explanations. Meanwhile, Ves let out a regretful sigh. In the end, the Saint Commander reacted as bad as he had feared. It was better that she found out sooner rather than later. Ves could not imagine how she would react if she had become a lot stronger and more influential. Even though he had warned her in advance of how Imon might end up after he managed to salvage his soul, Casella likely hoped that more parts of Imon would eventually recover. Unfortunately, it was not to be. After intermittently examining Imon’s state in the past few months, it became clear to Ves that the Chosen Envoy may never regain a greater semblance of his old self. Ves needed to inform Casella of the truth. If he delayed for too long, then she would definitely resent or even hate Ves for keeping Imon’s transformation a secret! Read exclusive adventures at freewebnovel He turned towards the almost physical Chosen Envoy. It was remarkable how the Chosen Courtyard was able to create such a weird and unfathomable being. "Imon. Answer her question. Do you recognize your sister?" "I do, master. You are Casella Ingvar, otherwise known as the Saint Commander." "So you do recognize me, Imon! Why are you speaking to Ves instead of me?! What is wrong, brother?!" "Answer her, Imon." Ves ordered. "I am the First Chosen Envoy." Imon spoke. "I exist to serve the users." "The users?" Casella reacted with both dismay and puzzlement. "..." Ves sighed as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "It’s useless, Casella. From the moment your brother became a ’Chosen Envoy’, he has become hardwired to obey my orders. Know that I never want this to happen. I can promise you that I have earnestly tried to free him from his service and live a life as an independent existence, but I have not been able to produce any results. As far as I am aware, he is stuck like this. This is one of the functions of the ’special relic’ that I have employed." A part of Casella seemed to crack when she heard this explanation. "Can… can you change it? You are a mech designer, right? Can you amend whatever protocol is responsible for turning my brother into your servant?" Ves shook his head. "I am sorry, Casella, but the relic that is responsible for saving what was left of your brother before turning him into… this… is likely more powerful than the Heavensword. You have seen how little Ketis controls this grand work. I can do even less in the face of an artifact that exceeds your imagination." Though Ves revealed more information than he was comfortable with, he felt it was best to be honest and a little more forthcoming than usual to the Saint Commander. The ace commander lowered her head. A sense of profound disappointment spread from her Command Field. Ves let out another sigh. "You should have been smart enough to account for this possibility. Back when I told you that I managed to save a semblance of your brother, you knew that I did not manage to save all of Imon. There are… many gaps in the remnants of his soul. It is not that surprising if the relic filled up those gaps with other stuff." "..." Both Imon and Casella fell silent, though for different reasons. The two siblings had reunited with each other, but they had become completely alienated from each other! Casella experienced great pain in her heart. She would rather get confronted by an incomplete and heavily injured version of Imon rather than this brainwashed and reprogrammed version of her brother! What Casella feared the most was that this transformation could not be reversed. Great fear welled inside of her as she could not discount the possibility that once her brother embarked on this abominable transformation, there would be no chance to restore him to his old self!