5024 Motivation to Live Ves had become fascinated by the power of blood when he initially conceived of the Carmine System. Blood was both a carrier of life and a medium of power. By absorbing the occult knowledge contained within an enlightenment fruit, Ves had learned many powerful properties and nuances of blood. Ves knew so much about the more mystical aspects of blood that he could probably do a good job of impersonating a member of the so-called Blood Cult! Of course, Ves did not bother to waste his time on reproducing the archaic and outdated methods of this forbidden organization. The knowledge he learned from System mainly served to provide him with the building blocks he needed to come up with his own innovations! This was why Ves had great confidence in the Carmine System. Perhaps it might look like an abomination to other people, but he considered it to be a brilliant fusion of different concepts. To Ves, the Carmine System was one of his most beautiful inventions, and one that embodied his design philosophy to an almost perfect degree! The fleshy organic components of this large mass web of artificial human tissue contained a multitude of life and potential. By connecting the Carmine System to Benjamin's body, Ves hoped that his grandfather would somehow be able to borrow the abundant strength and vitality of the Dawn Star Project! So far, Ves saw no sign of that happening, but this was just the beginning. There was still time for his grandfather to draw strength from his new mech. Although Ves did not have a complete understanding of the mechanisms of his own invention, he still possessed a decent idea of how the Carmine System affected the mech pilot. The Carmine System was the element that enabled mechs and mech pilots to forge a closer connection to each other than was possible with the neural interface. By forming both a spiritual and physical bond through the medium of blood, Venerable Jannzi had been growing stronger in a remarkable fashion in the past few weeks! Each time she went through another routine health inspection, her physical body became a little more solid and stronger than before. While it was not unusual for expert pilots to grow even fitter and healthier due to the influence of their willpower, the degree of Jannzi's physical improvement far surpassed that of other Larkinson expert pilots! Even the introduction of exotic radiation did not change this fundamental equation! Ves theorized that Jannzi's strong bond with the Bastion enabled her to inherit a small fraction of her expert mech's power! At the same time, the Bastion slowly absorbed and integrated Jannzi's exceptional willpower, thereby slowly perfecting its own shortcomings. His brief observations of Venerable Jannzi and the Bastion confirmed his assumption that the Blood Pact was mutually beneficial to both sides. Neither of the parties suffered or lost anything serious aside from their independence. "C'mon. Please work. You can do it, grandpa." Ves and Goldie both kept observing the Dawn Star Project as it slowly attempted to leverage its tentative new Blood Pact with its pilot. However, nothing seemed to happen. Although blood continued to circulate between the Dawn Star Project and Benjamin's body, the Blood Pact remained inert. The machine was not the problem. The living mech had gained a lot more life and activity after it successfully formed a bond with Benjamin Larkinson. It followed its programming and its own desires and worked hard to strengthen the Blood Pact by pushing for a mutual exchange. Yet despite the new custom mech's earnest efforts, the pilot remained unresponsive! Benjamin had done nothing after Goldie nudged him to accept the Blood Pact! "Nyaa nyaa nyaa." Goldie grew frustrated as she tried to encourage the unconscious man to interact with the Blood Pact. It shouldn't take too much effort to deepen his connection with his new mech, but the lack of any strong movements prevented the new bond from developing any further! Ves grew frustrated with the lack of activity. I Ils grandfather was getting nowhere like this! The Blood Pact needed to be actively used by both sides in order to unlock its potential! It was like opening a communication channel between two different parties, only for one end to remain completely silent and unresponsive! ·?θm This was not the result that Ves desired. His control panel produced several alarming noises. "Damnit! My grandfather's body can't withstand the stress of this activity!" His body's condition was already hovering at its limits. Though the new blood circulating through his body forcefully injected it with vitality, the current state of the Blood Pact prevented his grandfather from properly drawing strength from the Dawn Star Project! Instead, it produced an adverse effect as the powerful foreign blood of the new mech seemed to push Benjamin's feeble body beyond its coping ability. If this continued on without any changes, his grandfather might die due to subjecting it to an excessive amount of stress! Ves worked to adjust the parameters, but nothing helped. The problem was not that Benjamin was physically incapable of interfacing with the Dawn Star Project. The true cause of the lack of activity was that his grandfather did not show the initiative to engage with the Blood Pact! Ves understood why this was the case. His grandfather was too lacking in motivation! Every mech pilot possessed a strong fighting Intent. They relied upon it to push through any pain or discomfort. The stronger their desire to fight, the more successful they became in their careers! Expert pilots were exceptional because their fighting intent pushed their willpower beyond any mortal limitations. It should normally be impossible for expert pilots to experience any fatalism! No matter how poor the odds had become, they never backed down and never admitted defeat when duty called them to fight to the end! Ves had only seen two expert pilots completely lose their fighting intent. Venerable Davla Stark was originally a broken woman, but with the help of Venerable Brutus, she regained her fire and forged herself anew! Benjamin Larkinson had not gone through a similar journey. He had grown so old and spent so much time as a 'cripple' that he no longer saw himself as an expert pilot and a soldier in any fashion! He simply embraced the identity as a retired and disabled Larkinson and grandfather. There was not a bone within him left that possessed any serious desire to pilot a mech once again. "That's not quite true." If Benjamin Larkinson truly had no desire to pick up his original profession and perform his duty once again, then why had the initial form of the Blood Pact taken shape? Its existence proved that despite all of his words, there was still a part of the old Larkinson that still aspired to be a pilot and a protector! "There Just isn't enough of it, though." This left Ves at an uncomfortable impasse. The data readings that reported Benjamin's health were producing increasingly more alarming signs. Even if Ves suspended the attempt and pulled his grandfather out of the cockpit, it was doubtful that the old man would live past this day! For better or worse, Ves needed to step in and ignite his grandfather's fighting intent somehow. How could he properly stimulate his grandpa without killing him outright? He shifted his gaze to a nearby work table where he prepared several different items and ingredients. He had a feeling that none of them would help with what he was trying to accomplish. For example, what was the point of injecting his grandfather with a lot of universal life-attributed spiritual energy? All Ves would do was waste an entire vial of high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum! As for other ingredients such as Venerable Relia Foster's remnant willpower, they were not compatible with his grandfather and had little chance of doing anything productive. "Nya nya nyaaa!" Goldie expressed increasing alarm. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶 There was nothing she could do at this time. Benjamin's physical condition continued to deteriorate the longer he remained connected to an active Carmine System. Ves needed to make his move right away, or else his grandfather would pass the point of no return! Dozens of different options flitted through his mind before he recalled that he had recently gathered a powerful spiritual ingredient. Though it didn't seem special when he harvested at the time, right now he believed that it held unmatched power that exceeded anything else that he had in his possession! A pained expression appeared on his face. He originally had plans for these special ingredients. He could produce all kinds of powerful spiritual constructs with the help of this spiritual fragment! He had little doubt that he and his clan would experience another major leap in strength if he was about to process his spiritual treasure! Yet... was this gain worth the cost of losing his chance to preserve his grandfather? Now that Ves had to choose between a potential source of power and an uncertain possibility of bringing Benjamin back from the dead, he had to make the right choice. He closed his eyes and thought about what he cared the most. "I like power, but... I like family as well." There were times where he prioritized one over the other, so Ves did not have an obvious answer to this dilemma. "Nyaaa..." The Golden Cat was different. She understood his difficulties, and offered her support by rubbing her manifested body against his cheek. "Maybe you are right. No matter whether I succeed or fail, I will never forgive myself for forgoing this chance to save my grandfather." Ves strengthened his resolve. He no longer thought about the massive opportunity cost of his chosen course of action. He left the control panel and floated forward and up until he reached the chest of the struggling Dawn Star Project. He held out a hand and concentrated his mind in order to communicate with the Mech Designer System. A moment later, he withdrew a special and extremely valuable spiritual fragment from the Vault of Eternity! The System Space had completely Isolated the fragment from the Destroyer of Worlds, making it so that the fragment remained completely inert and unchanged ever since Ves returned to the present time. This was no longer the case! The consciousness of an overpowering companion spirit traversed an enormous distance and instantly made contact with the spirituality that it had lost over two centuries in the past! Even though it was a small spiritual fragment from a companion spirit that had just been born at the time, its undeniable connection to a powerful god pilot instantly caused it to transform far beyond its initial state! Ves had no idea what the spiritual fragment was turning into, but he could feel that the infusion of an extremely explosive and evolved form of will was completely its very essence! "Before it could complete its transformation into a much higher form, Ves threw the evolving fragment towards the chest of the Dawn Star Project! "Go! Please save my grandfather's life!" The strengthening fragment passed through the layers of the custom mech and quickly arrived in front of Benjamin's old and weakened body. It stopped. It refused to get too close to the aged and retired Larkinson. As the fragment continued to receive an infusion of power from a distant source, it slowly shook before it exploded and morphed into a small but fiery cat! "MIIIIEEW!" Emma's cry shook the entire workshop and shocked Ves to the point where he almost broke his Blessed Workshop state! "I know this may be awfully confusing to you, but this is not the time to answer your questions. Please save my grandfather's life!" The newly cat seemed to peer straight through the cockpit and pin Ves or more precisely Blinky with a judgemental stare! "Nyaaa!..."