Chapter 6847 Controlled Chaos From the moment Ves struck the Victrix with his Hammer of Brilliance, an unprecedented reaction took place. The injured and suppressed entity that Ves casually named the Feathered Steelwing Bird received such a jarring whack to its metaphorical head that it became paralyzed! At the same time, the subordinate spirit recently created from the Minerva continued to fuse with the avian spirit. As the energies originating from Vulcan coursed over the entire structure of the Victrix, this fusion process transcended common sense. Pressure emanated from the Victrix as the profound reaction tapped into the power of the Mentalist Crystal and other hyper materials, causing them to feed into the ongoing process! While all of this was taking place, Eleiha appeared lost. Casella's companion spirit had been trying her best to suppress the Feathered Steelwing Bird, but after Ves struck the Victrix with the Hammer of Brilliance, Eleiha's role had changed. She too became affected by the inspiration granted by Vulcan. During her momentary fascination, Eleiha almost began to meld with the fusing spirits. Her imprint onto the Victrix deepened as the changing fey increasingly molded itself to her presence. All of these interactions and more took place at the same time. A sense of unholiness began to spread from the inactive fey. The Mentalist Crystal inside the Victrix began to produce strange phenomena on its own. Snippets of memories appeared to Ves. None of them belonged to him. The flashes of memories depicted an avian exobeast trying to eke out a living on an untamed planet as well as an expert command mech leading troops in battle! The flashes of memories continued to alternate between the two before they strangely began to meld together. Ves gained strange and conflicting images in his head. One showed the Minerva flunging steely feathers at a hostile exobeast. Another depicted an avian calamity beast soaring through space while empowering a large number of mechs under the influence of a Command Field! Though the memories did not make any sense, Ves took this as a sign that the two spirits had already reached a considerate state of fusion. More strange phenomena occurred around the Victrix. The inclusion of a Mentalist Crystal along with the presence of other volatile materials such as Dragon Scales caused a lot of different energies and materials to interact with each other. It was beautiful. Ves looked absolutely fascinated by what was taking place. He never imagined that a Mentalist Crystal could spark so many new phenomena that he had never witnessed before. He did not fuss over the data and sensor readings. He did not make any effort to find an explanation of what was going on. He simply… stood and enjoyed the spectacle as if he was a bystander. Pure appreciation welled up from him as he became enamored by what his actions had wrought. "This is controlled chaos." Control. Chaos. These two words normally did not go together, but Ves believed that they happened to be the right words to describe what the Victrix was going through. Ves had the illusion that he had captured the essence of his design philosophy in an oversized fey. He exercised control by gathering specific ingredients together and combining them into a single package. He had put a lot of thought behind the selection of each powerful factor. Yet once he brought them all together, he largely left them alone as they interacted with each other. Each interaction caused changes, which spawned new interactions that caused other changes. Ripples upon ripples of activity fed into each other, causing the Victrix to become the host of increasingly more changes that were largely organic and unpredictable in nature! The less Ves could maintain an overview of what was happening, the more delighted he became. What he created was a work of art that transcended words. He not only appreciated what he saw with his eyes, but also his spiritual senses. He doubted that many people could see the Victrix and the activity taking place inside from a perspective that closely matched his own. They would fail to recognize the inherent beauty and harmony that only he could see. Perhaps the closest person who could fully appreciate what he had wrought through his own labor was Alexa Streon, but her mind was far too orderly to value this spectacle. That did not lower his evaluation of this instance of controlled chaos in the slightest! Ves felt grateful for being able to witness such a unique display. He had taken considerable risks in order to set this situation up, and the outcome already exceeded his expectations! Not everyone reacted as happily as him, however. "What… what have you done, Ves?" Gloriana spoke in a fearful whisper. "I don't know." Ves honestly replied. "I just put a bunch of cool stuff into the same container and attempted to blend them together. I have my suspicions on what is going on, but if I am being honest, I have little understanding and no control over what is happening at the moment. I have not been able to anticipate this at all, but I am sure that this process is going somewhere. Either the two spirits will fuse together, or… something else will happen. If it is necessary, I will deal with the consequences in case there are any problems." "You are speaking as if you are attempting to create a monster." "That is within the realm of possibilities." Ves nonchalantly said. "However, I don't think it will come that far. The subordinate spirit from the Minerva has a much stronger core. The only reason why it is struggling to subdue the Feathered Steelwing Bird entirely is because it is fighting on the opposing side's turf. The fight will settle over time. There is no way the Minerva will find herself at a disadvantage for long." Gloriana frowned. Seeing that she was unable to obtain any clear answers from her husband, she stared at Casella before shifting her gaze at the nearly complete Minerva Mark II. The ace command mech was supposed to be her crowning achievement of her career so far. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦 She had very high hopes in her ability to create an anchor mech, but the mysterious stunt that Ves just pulled off on threatened to destroy her dream! Unfortunately, there was no point crying over spilt milk. She knew what kind of mech designer Ves could be. Although she would not admit it, Gloriana already took his propensity of getting enslaved by his own inspiration into account. The main reason why she was able to tolerate his infuriating behavior was because he usually produced amazing results. Even if his gambit failed this time, that did not necessarily condemn him. He had already produced so many wild successes by following his distressingly regular flashes of inspiration that he could afford to slip up every now and then. Just not this time. Especially this time. The Minerva Mark II had to become an anchor mech. Gloriana could not accept any other outcome. This was why she could not keep her emotions under check. The volatility generated from the Victrix caused her to feel so distressed that she found it difficult to calm down. It was impossible for Gloriana to relax and take it easy like her husband! Where Ves saw an opportunity to elevate the Minerva Mark II to a higher level, Gloriana only saw a potential threat that could ruin the very same mech! "How long will this last?" She asked. "I don't know." Ves shrugged. "I don't think it will take longer than a day, but it may not end very soon. My best estimate is that we need to sit tight for a couple of hours. Can you observe the transformations taking place inside? Not only are two spirits fusing into one, the Mentalist Crystal also appears to be undergoing mysterious changes. Now that it has become connected to the Feathered Steelwing Bird, what is happening to one is also reflected to the other." He called up a projected interface that displayed the data readings related to the Mentalist Crystal. The hyper material was in an active state. It was constantly under stimulation, which caused it to produce activity that stimulated other factors. Gloriana grew concerned as she noticed the escalating trend. "According to the data and my own observations, a positive feedback loop has formed. The Victrix will continue to bear more and more pressure. What happens when the pressure surpasses the living fey's limitations?" "I guess it will explode if we do nothing." Ves shared his guess. "We won't let it go that far. If this positive feedback loop isn't subsiding, we should try and interrupt it. We don't have to let an accident play out before our eyes. We just need to be observant enough to pick the right time to intervene." Ves had no intentions of doing so at this time. He believed in his work and was confident that the Victrix could pass the first test in its short existence! Fortunately, through the combined efforts of Eleiha and the Minerva, the two managed to impose greater control over the volatile activity. The Mentalist Crystal that previously exhibited an eagerness to cause trouble gradually lost steam. "It's happening." He whispered. "The fusion process has reached the final stages." Slowly but surely, the Feathered Steelwing Bird arose from the Victrix. The apparition of the once mighty calamity beast looked a lot sharper and more predatory than the more rounded form of the owl-shaped Victrix. While Ves had tried his best to alter the form of the latter to become more aligned with the former, there was only so much he could do on short notice. It didn't matter too much. Ves could feel that the transformed subordinate spirit and the Victrix were still firmly tied to each other! At the same time, the new version of the Feathered Steelwing Bird had obviously turned into an off-shoot of the Minerva! "Success!" In order to make sure that he had succeeded in his goal, he accessed an internal optical sensor that could display the current state of the Mentalist Crystal. "What?!" Gloriana grew alarmed at what she saw. The internal view was not that great, but it still provided enough clarity to see the crystal's current state. "The crystal… has mutated!" This was a frightening sight to her! Her cranial implant suite utilized small Mentalist Crystal fragments as the core ingredients. One of the assumptions behind their usage was that the Mentalist Crystals harvested from deceased exobeast had turned static and unchanging. As far as she was aware of, there was never a case of a Mentalist Crystal growing after it had been harvested! Yet that was exactly what the interview view showed. The changes were rather subtle. Not only had the Mentalist Crystal increased its radius by 0.3 percent, crystalline growths had also engulfed the support brackets keeping the spherical object in place. "The crystal is alive." Ves made a powerful statement. There were huge differences between living and dead Mentalist Crystals. While he was not sure what the former could do, he was happy that the Victrix had gained a powerful hyper material that could continue to grow stronger over time! Ves nudged his wife. "Let's complete our work. Now that the Victrix has reached this stage, we should complete the remaining linkages to the Minerva Mark II. The two are meant to work together." "You… you are right. We need to complete the upgrade process." The remaining work was not that complicated. They spent a bit of time scanning and studying the Victrix to make sure it had reached stability before fully linking up its systems with the main mech frame. When the mech designers all stepped back, they knew that they had put together a unique ace command mech. "The Minerva Mark II… is finally finished." Gloriana tiredly declared. The ace mech and her living fey stood proudly before them. The pair conveyed both power and erudition at the same time. Now, the question was whether the final outcome was good enough to be recognized as an anchor mech.