"HELENA! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE JUST DONE?!" "Hihihihihi!" "I know that you are still young in absolute terms, but that doesn't mean you can fool around and violate a taboo!" "Hihihihihi!" "I am being serious, Helena! If you won't take this seriously, then wait until I tell our mother!" Bonk. The older sister slapped her fist against her angry brother's head. "Be cool, Ves. I was just honoring a tradition. There is no need to blow it up. It was just a kiss!" "WE ARE SIBLINGS, HELENA!" "So? That hasn't stopped the Gemini twins from smooching each other when they have grown old enough." "I am pretty sure that you are underage!" "I AM NOT!" Helena barked back! "I AM OLDER THAN YOU! Since you have already become a father, what is the harm of letting me enjoy a kiss?" Ves let out a frustrated grunt. "I don't object to your desire to kiss someone in the mouth. You just don't do that with your own sibling! That is a great taboo in both human and alien societies!" "I'm not even human, brother. You can't impose your legacy race's standards onto me. I am a god. I am above these mortal rules. Besides, isn't it a tradition for human gods to mess around with those closest to them? They don't always have the luxury of choice at times. Their family trees are quite interesting to say the least." "You're talking about ancient myths invented by power hungry soothsayers! There is no basis in fact in those tales!" "I am just bringing those examples up because you need to get rid of your attachment to your human norms and values. You have ascended, Ves. You should listen to your own advice. You are not beholden to human society anymore, just like how the Phase King should no longer abide by his biological imperatives." That was a more serious argument than Ves expected from his sister. He needed to spend more time to formulate his response. He let out a tired sigh. "I'm not like you, Helena. I did not wipe out a dark god moments after my birth. I entered this life as a bog-standard human baby, and grew up within the rules and structures of human society. I did not receive the treatment of a princess. I grew up in a fairly normal middle-class household on a backwater planet where nothing special happens. The only times my life became more interesting was when I was able to stay at the family gatherings at the Larkinson Estate." "..." "I cherish my childhood, Helena." Ves smiled. "My family and the society around me has taught me to be a human. I still value those lessons, especially now that they have become more relevant than ever. I will always stay a human in heart even if I become something completely different." "..." "Besides, your contempt towards human society is seriously misguided. Have you forgotten that the Big Two managed to depose the Five Scrolls Compact? God pilots paired with god mechs can eat pretend gods like you for breakfast. I am still a believer in human power." His sister shrugged. "I guess you are right. I only have a partial glimpse of what humanity is like. The mechs that I am connected to are overwhelmingly used by Hexers. They are fine and all, but they only occupy a tiny corner of human civilization. You need to get to work and design more powerful mechs. I want to see what life is like for first-class mech pilots." "I'm working on it, but becoming a first-class mech designer is not easy. My recent evolution has considerably accelerated my time table, but it will still take many decades before I am ready!" One of the most important requirements of first-class mech designers was their mastery of many different fields of high technology. It was practically impossible for baseline humans to learn all of the essential kinds of high technology that was necessary to design a basic first-class multipurpose mech. The study load was at least a hundred if not a thousand times greater than the study load of a second-class mech designer! The only way that students could even keep up with such a brutal study schedule was if they were set up to study so much science and engineering from the start. Every first-class mech designer was a designer baby that had received many cognitive augmentations over the course of their life. The installation of an expensive cranial implant that excelled at calculation, memorization and logical deductions provided them with another powerful learning boost! Though Ves could theoretically use the System to skip much of the essential learning, he would still have to spend up a lot of Ascension Points in order to round out his knowledge base. Ves no longer believed it was necessary for him to scrounge up a lot of Ascension Points anymore. His recent sublimation propelled his learning ability to an insane height! Not only that, he believed it would take much less time for him to complete a design project by himself, so that allowed him to free up even more time for his studies! While Ves thought about his future, his sister had stripped off a couple more pieces from the half-dismembered unclean whale. The fact that the beast still managed to cling to life was not that unusual among spiritual life forms, but it was clear that the unclean whale was not too far away from dying for real. "Here." Helena offered up one of the chunks of spiritual whale meat to him. "You should keep yourself nourished. I don't care about your vegetarianism. Our family has always thrived by absorbing the essence of our defeated foes. Let their souls fuel your growth." Though Ves did not really look forward to this, he did not refuse his sister this time. He was afraid that she might do a repeat of her earlier move. "Fine. Don't complain if I get a stomach ache or something." He grabbed the spiritual meat and took a cautious bite. The mechanism of eating the spiritual whale meat was rather weird. He felt he was chewing on a real piece of raw meat despite the fact that he was not eating anything material. Once he swallowed his bite, the nutrients seemed to disappear in a bottomless pit in his stomach. He doubted whether he could regurgitate what he had just eaten. "I feel warmer." "That is the engine of your growth at work." Helena smiled at him after he chewed her own portion of whale meat. "Death can engender life. It is one of the oldest rules of reality. You have just entered the threshold of a nascent god, so you still have a lot of room for growth. Take advantage of this starter period. You are still in a relatively malleable state which means that you can grow faster without meeting much resistance. Would you like to eat another portion?" Ves raised his palm. "No thanks. I am good. I don't think I am cut out for this. I would much rather stick to a more sober diet." He was beginning to feel warmer and more energetic by the second. It was as if he had just stoked a flame in his stomach. It made him feel powerful and more awake than before. "Hm, there is not much left of the unclean whale anyway. Your Phase King has already absorbed most of this poor fellow." The Phase King had become so enthused about his meal that he was devouring his portions as fast as he could shove them through his mouth! By the time Blinky delivered the final remains that marked the spiritual existence of the unclean whale, the powerful design spirit soon began to enter a state of slumber! The overflowing power contained within the Phase King began to trigger a metamorphosis. The body shape of the Phase King already started to lean towards that of a phase whale. As the manifestation of the Phase King slowly faded from view, the room became a lot emptier than before. Mrow. Blinky rubbed his cheek against the head of the cyborg cat before diving back into Ves' mind. Helena on the other hand developed an interest in the latest cat to join the family. "So this is your new pet, huh? I can already tell it is a lot more special than your other incarnations. Come here, you cutie." "Myaow~" The Daughter of Death grinned as she stroked the cyborg cat's silvery armor plating. "Hm?" Helena interrupted her ministrations when she noticed there were no distinguishing marks at the bottom of the cyborg cat. "Am I holding a boy or a girl?" "I haven't decided yet." He answered. "My cyborg cat is not entirely fixed in shape. It can look the part as soon as I make up my mind." "I'm surprised you haven't chosen to turn him into a boy. All of your previous incarnations are boys as well." Ves curtly nodded. "That is why I want to do something different this time. I hate monotony. It's too boring. A bit of variety will go a long way into spicing up my life." "So you plan to turn this incarnation into a girl?! How adorable!" "I haven't decided yet, Helena!" "Oh, it will be so fun! Ves wants to live the life of a pussy cat! Mother will find this so amusing!" "Don't tell our mother!" Ves didn't want to talk about this topic any further. While he wanted to settle on a name and a gender for his cyborg cat, he wanted to do this on his own terms. He intended to wait until Helena had left before he finalized his decisions. "I doubt that snacking on the unclean whale is the sole reason why you have manifested like this. You normally don't bother me that much. What else has brought you here, sister?" His sister grew serious again. "You're correct. While you may be resistant to your new self, there is no doubt that you have become a greater existence than before. This has granted you greater power than before, but it has also made you vulnerable to gods that like to prey on existences that are packed with vitality such as you. Life can be dangerous for existences such as you. I can take care of myself because not a lot of gods want to take a bite out of me, but you are different." "I think you are exaggerating a bit. I already have Vulcan for a while and he has never encountered the threats that you are referring to. Even if he gets into trouble, I can always call upon you and my other design spirits to back up my incarnation." "You aren't listening to me, Ves! You are a walking nutrient pack for hungry and greedy gods! You are a delicacy that tastes several times better than the phase whale that we have just devoured! Look, it is not as if other gods will drop everything and seek to devour you at all cost, but the temptation is multiple times greater than normal. Neutral gods who ordinarily don't have any reason to bother you might decide to take a risk and attack you out of the blue." Ves looked troubled. "That... is not what I signed up for. I have been working on hiding my strength. Hopefully that will help with avoiding these opportunistic predators." "I wouldn't count on that if I were you, brother. You are just too nutritious. It's like a scent that you can never get rid of. Anyone who comes close enough to you will be able to sense how full of life you are. This is why I am telling you that you need to focus on developing more teeth. As long as you are able to become strong enough to deter rival gods, everything will be alright. This is the strategy that our mother has adopted, and it has worked well for her for the most part." "If that is the case, then why has she fallen in such an awful state?" Ves skeptically asked. "That's because she was pursued by too many powerful gods who understood her power too well." Helena solemnly replied. "That's also why I am here to guide you. Our mother doesn't want you to repeat her mistakes." "Oh."