5026 Long Overdue Reunion Venerable Benjamin Larkinson had risen again. After spending half of his life as a harmless, disabled man, his willpower and fighting intent had completely revived! Not only did he gain the chance to pilot a mech once again, but he also regained the might and bravery of an expert pilot! Though he did not actually regress in age, Ves had the illusion that his grandfather had truly returned to his glory days when he served in the Mech Corps! Along with Venerable Benjamin's glorious return, his new partner mech received ample benefits as well! The successful establishment of a Blood Pact completed the Dawn Star Project's formation of a strong sense of self and identity, thereby marking it as a third order living mech. Not only that, but the pseudo-breakthrough that Venerable Benjamin just experienced also channeled a lot of spiritual feedback to his new bonded mech, causing it to mature and grow stronger to an extent! All of the previous events had caused their Blood Pact to grow thick and solid. The two were bound for life! From this point onwards, Venerable Benjamin Larkinson had no way of piloting another mech! His permanent commitment to the Dawn Star Project exceeded every other oath or restriction subjected to him. Even if the old Larkinson found a way to completely restore his brain and his nerve cells in the future, his blood bond prohibited him from piloting any other machine! This was a heavy restriction to most mech pilots, but it was completely trivial for an old man who unwillingly went into retirement! What happened today was an unprecedented feat. Although Ves had no idea whether the Mech Trade Association had accomplished anything similar, he seriously doubted that their methods were as practical and affordable as his own solution! "There are so many disabled mech pilots out there that are desperate to attain a second chance!" There were more old dogs like Benjamin Larkinson out there. Mech pilots rarely sustained physical injuries over the course of their careers. They either remained in good health or died in an instant after a powerful weapon breached their cockpits. Nonetheless, there were still edge cases where a defeated pilot managed to survive a battle with injuries. This meant that a lot of experienced veterans and former expert pilots suffered fates similar to that of Benjamin over time. Ves did not believe that too many of those retired soldiers emigrated to the Red Ocean. There was little point to doing so unless they wanted to accompany their families. Nonetheless, there were still old soldiers who had taken up related jobs such as becoming a mech instructor or continuing to serve in the military as a staff officer. How many of these people would leap at the chance to pilot a mech again? There were bound to be soldiers and warriors who would give up anything in order to return to their former lives! The most fantastic part about the Carmine System was that its technical requirements weren't all that high. It could be scaled down to a cheap third-class system that might not be as damage resistant, but still offered the same essential experience! It could also be scaled up to a highly luxurious third-class system that was a lot more resistant to damage, thereby reducing the chance of ruining an old mech pilot's return to the battlefield. Ves predicted that he could extract a lot of concessions from unwillingly retired first-raters! There were bound to be a lot of rich people among them. They could easily pay millions of MTA credits, barrels full of phasewater and even entire starships just to restore their ability to pilot a first-class multipurpose mech again! Even though Ves did not possess the qualifications to design a first-class mech himself, he just needed to whip up a basic Carmine mech before delivering it. Other first-class mech designers should easily be able to rework it into a proper combat machine! "I can't do this." Ves sighed in regret. This was way too high-profile for him. He could not resist the greed of so many powerful groups. Besides, he already made an agreement with the Survivalists about maintaining the confidentiality of the Carmine System. Ves did not think his buddies from this faction would be pleased to know that he had invited the companion spirit of a Rubarthan god pilot to this party! As Benjamin Larkinson and his new living mech slowly became accustomed to their new states, the powerful cat retreated from the pair and flew straight towards Ves! "Miew!" "Uh, hello there pretty kitty. How's it going?" "Miew miew miew!" "Uh, I can explain!" Ves innocently raised his hands. "This situation might look a little confusing to you, but Blinky is-" "MIEW!" Emma's manifestation lost patience and dove straight into Ves' mind! "OUCH! What are you doing!?" The destructive cat surged into Ves like a spiritual armor-piercing projectile, breaking through all of his protective barriers with contemptuous ease! Once she traveled deep enough, her teeth sank into Blinky scruff and dragged the purple companion spirit straight out of Ves' head! "Mrooooow! Mrooooooow!" "MIEW MIEW MIEW!" It looked as if Emma harbored a lot of grievances towards the Star Cat! The powerful god feline kept her hold on Blinky and continued to beat up her original creator and benefactor with her paws and her head! Ves groaned and placed his palm on his face. He refused to witness this shameful sight! It was not as if Blinky allowed Emma to have her way. He tried to absorb Emma's spirituality, but the strong divine will originating from the Destroyer of Worlds had reinforced her manifestation into an unbreakable form! Not even the devouring ability inherited from the Unending One was strong enough to shake Emma's metaphysical substance! "Mroow!" In desperation, Blinky absorbed as much ambient spiritual energy as possible. Yet even as he used that to reinforce his own counterattacks, Emma remained as solid and unmoving as ever. The difference in strength was too great! Even though Blinky was one of the first companion spirits to come into existence, he was born after the Age of Meehs had already persisted for over four centuries. Emma on the other hand was not only born two centuries earlier, but she had also grown alongside a powerful soldier who eventually transcended to godhood! Suffice to say, Blinky had no chance of asserting his dominance over the female god cat! Once Emma relieved all of Divine Irene Mox's grievances towards the cat that had been absent for over two centuries, she mercifully let go of the beat-up Star Cat. "Mrowww..." Blinky might not have suffered any serious damage, but Emma had been anything but gentle to him. She had somehow managed to make him ache and suffer across his entire spiritual body! "Miew miew!" "Mroww..." "Miew miew miew!" "Mrow!..." "Miew miew miew. Miew!" The Destroyer of Worlds was no longer as weak, ignorant and naive as she was in the past when Ves descended into her mind. Her long life experiences, her evolved cognitive functions along with her extensive access to many of the secrets held by the New Rubarth Empire enabled her to put all of the clues together. The god pilot pieced together a story that closely matched the truth of what Ves had done! Ves grew more nervous, but not too much. He already anticipated that this would happen as soon as he pulled out Emma's spiritual fragment from the System Space. In order to save his grandfather's life and reignite his fire, Ves did not hesitate to expose himself to the Destroyer of Worlds. He bet that Divine Irene Mox would still remember the gratitude she owed to Blinky and by extension Ves. Fortunately, his bet paid off. Though Emma put on a resentful act, she could have done much worse. Once Emma vented her feelings, she began to talk about more relevant matters with Ves. "Miew miew miew miew." "If you have been tracking my career, then you shouldn't be surprised that I can do this." Ves responded. "Miew miew!" "I can't. I am already cooperating closely with the Survivalists on this. I also maintain an active cooperation with the Transhumanists as well. You need to get through them first if you want to have a piece of the pie." "Miew miew miew. Miew miew. Miew miew miew." "Look, it just isn't convenient for us to meet together. Our identities are too far apart and we don't have any existing ties that we can reveal to others. I was planning to wait until I realized my design philosophy before trying to make contact. I don't think the mechers will like it if we do, so we need to do it behind their backs." "Miew miew." "Oh, that's convenient. Thank you for that. I was afraid that I may have missed a few bugs." The two talked a bit more before Emma withdrew her attention from this location. Venerable Irene Mox was far too preoccupied at the moment due to the crises that emerged in the aftermath of the Great Severing. The orange cat threw a final look at Ves and Blinky before she withdrew from the workshop, causing the energies that remained to recondense into a diminished and half-depleted spiritual fragment. Ves grabbed a hold of the floating fragment and immediately stuffed it back into his System Space. He was pleasantly surprised by the fact that he got back half of the original fragment. Apparently, Emma did not consume as much energy to manifest herself and help Benjamin reforge his force of will. Ves did not want to utilize the remaining fragment in the same manner again. There were much more convenient methods to communicate with the god pilot, and now that they had reestablished their 'friendship', there should be enough opportunities to exchange with each other in the future! The only issue at the moment was that Divine Irene Mox immediately became involved in a secret operation that was targeted towards the Red Cabal. As one of the few human god pilots in the Red Ocean, the Destroyer of Worlds had to bear a huge responsibility! Ves was happy with this as the operations targeted towards the main elements of the indigenous alien races would likely drag on for numerous years. It was unlikely that Irene would receive a break anytime soon! This suited Ves fine. It granted him enough buffer time to build up his strength and increased his negotiating power. He temporarily set his affairs with the Destroyer of Worlds aside and turned his attention back to his grandfather. Though Venerable Benjamin had already begun to grow exhausted by all of his recent life-changing experiences, he couldn't help but test his new capabilities. His freshly fabricated mech continued to make more and more deliberate movements under his direction. From lifting the arms to taking a few cautious steps forward with the legs, it became clear that Benjamin truly possessed the capability to control his machine without using a neural interface from beginning to end! "Jannzi was right." Ves spoke under his breath. He already had a strong suspicion that this was the case, but he still harbored a small measure of doubt. No more. Now that he obtained solid proof that the Carmine System could function as a substitute of the neural interface in the case of an expert pilot, Ves experienced a sense of fulfillment that excited his design philosophy! He had yet to verify the effectiveness of the Carmine System when paired with a standard mech pilot. However, as long as it worked for an expert pilot, Ves was convinced he could find a way to increase the practicality of the Carmine System and ready it for mass adoption! "You can stop now, grandfather. I know you're excited to get back into the saddle, but your body is still in a relatively precarious condition. Please power down your machine so that we can check your health. There is no point in restoring your ability to pilot a mech only for you to suffer a heart attack a minute later!"