The Mech Touch

hour went by as Ves clumsily groped around.
Often times, he applied too much force, which accidentally damaged the valuable spiritual imprint.

”I can ’t go on like this. ” He sighed and stopped what he was doing.
”It ’s obvious that spiritual imprints can ’t propagate by themselves. ”

He was hopeful that his contamination theory was true, because he could just sit back and supervise the process if that was the case.

Instead, it seemed he needed to take a more active approach.

The only problem was that Ves didn ’t know where to start.
He didn ’t know what a spiritual imprint was made of, let alone know how to replicate it if it belonged to someone else.

”It ’s easier if its my own imprint. ” He muttered.

According to what he saw back then, an imprint formed on spiritual energy after they blended with someone ’s thoughts and emotions.
The imprint was basically a marker that claimed the spiritual energy to the originator of the thoughts and emotions.

This presented Ves with a clue.

”The thoughts and emotions of the Grey Martyr are well-documented. ”

Although Ves didn ’t pay close attention to the Grey Martyr ’s life back when he visited the grand church, he developed a pretty good picture of the man back when he was alive.

”If I replicate some of his thoughts and emotions, would I be able to do something with his imprint? ” Ves wondered.

It was worth a try.
Even if he failed, he would only ruin the spiritual accumulation of an insignificant seed at worst.
He could still try something else with the commemorative medallion.

Having lived in the Ylvaine Protectorate for a couple of weeks, Ves developed a better understanding of the Ylvainan Faith than most citizens of the Bright Republic.
While that didn ’t make him as knowledgeable as a devout Ylvainan believer who memorized all of Ylvaine ’s predictions and sayings by heart, he at least understood some of their core beliefs.

”The central belief of the Ylvainan Faith lies in their assurity that every form of life will transcend their mortal forms and ascend into godhood! ”

This was a bold and radical assumption to make.
There were so many implications and problems associated with this core belief that Ves didn ’t even know where to begin.

”Yet most Ylvainans don ’t express any doubt at all. ”

A Brighter like Ves would constantly doubt and question the validity of this radical belief.
An Ylvainan would simply accept it as the truth.
At best, some of the details might differ due to the variety of interpretations available, but most Ylvainans adhered to the most widely-accepted interpretation set by the Grey Martyr himself! ”

That made things easier to Ves.
He knew the basics of the Ylvainan Faith and he knew that the Grey Martyr ’s own personal beliefs didn ’t diverge that much from the mainstream interpretation.

What he did next was a little bit troublesome.
In order to put the replication process in motion, he needed to provide the fuel in the form of his own emotions and thoughts.

It couldn ’t be his own emotions and thoughts.
It was not his intention to impart his own scent on the spiritual accumulation of the little seed.
What was the point of designing an Ylvainan mech when it carried the aura of a secular Brighter?

No.
He needed to adopt the mindset that closely matched that of the Grey Martyr.
He began to recall the lessons he learned when he toured the museum wing of the grand church.

”The Grey Martyr is first and foremost a teacher. ”

The man wasn ’t an academic at all.
He grew up as an average citizen and never achieved anything remarkable before the prophet converted him in his later years.

He took on the role of teacher and interpreter because he wasn ’t capable of doing more.

”According to the records, the Grey Martyr was a curious man who constantly tried to find the hidden meanings in the predictions and sayings of the prophet.
He also wanted to share his understanding with others in order to gain a better understanding of Prophet Ylvaine ’s original intentions. ”

Ves constructed an image of the Grey Martyr in his mind.
He derived the man ’s original personality from the information he learned and added some of his own guesses along the way.

The image of the Grey Martyr became increasingly more rich.
What Ves did right now was no different from forming an image to define the X-Factor for his mechs!

The only difference this time was that he wasn ’t going to put his image to use on a mech.

Once he was finished with the process, the image of the Grey Martyr was rich but largely hollow and insubstantial.
It was just a figment of his imagination at this point.

Usually, the next step after forming the image would be to breathe life into it by imparting it with spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy came from himself or from a spiritual fragment he scavenged from somewhere.

Not this time.

Ves developed a bold proposition.
Instead of breathing life into an image, what if he breathed the image into his own mind? Would he be able to ’embody ’ the image and take on its personality and traits?

”It ’s like donning someone else ’s mask. ”

After a bit of fumbling, he figured out how to apply his ideas.
He inflated the image and tried to merge it with his own mind.

Nothing drastic happened at first.
He was still preoccupied with blending in the image to his mind, which wasn ’t easy as his mind did not wish to be encroached by a foreign personality!

He had to lower his mental defenses and use quite a bit of strength to merge the image with his mind.
Even then, the process only happened gradually and tentatively.

Twenty minutes in, Ves noticed that his mentality had changed by quite a bit.
When he thought back on the Ylvainan Faith, he found to his surprise that he instantly felt a lot of heartfelt devotion to the prophet!

He hypnotized himself into becoming a devout worshipper of the Ylvainan Faith!

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