The Mech Touch

n waiting for.
He tapped Gloriana ’s shoulder.

”Let ’s head to the infirmary.
William has finally recovered from his treatment. ”

”He ’s awake? That ’s great! We can finally complete his custom mech! ”

The two walked to the infirmary and entered William ’s room.

The Urbesh clansman looked awake and alert.
His back was straight as he sat rigidly on his bed.

His intense eyes glared at Ves with silent resentment.

Ves smiled.
”You dare? ”

William didn ’t respond immediately.
Instead, he glowered at Ves as if he wanted to do nothing than skewer this mech designer that had put him through so much torture!

”Good. ” Ves nodded in satisfaction.
He paid no attention to William ’s grievances towards him! ”I like the way you look.
It doesn ’t matter what you think of me.
As long as you can think aggressively, you ’re light-years ahead of your old self! ”

William didn ’t respond.
In fact, Ves found it rather unnerving that William kept staring at him like a bug to be squashed.

How much of Nyxie ’s influence had warped William ’s mentality? Ves had a sneaking suspicion that the ancient alien spiritual entity had contaminated William ’s mind a bit more severely than he planned!

”Can you even talk? ”

”Yes. ” William finally said with a hoarse voice.

Even though he finally opened his mouth, William somehow appeared even more unsettling!

There was something very wrong with the mech pilot!

Nonetheless, Ves did his best to repress his latent fear and suspicion.
Right now, William showed a remarkable amount of courage.
This was not something which Ves wanted to lose.

As long as William was not a coward, nothing else mattered!

Ves waved his hand.
”Gloriana, I think it ’s best if your bodyguards take him back to the lab.
Go perform your examinations and such.
We ’ll finalize William ’s custom mech after we understand his new condition.
Is that alright? ”

”Mmhmm. ” Gloriana wordlessly nodded while studying William with an analytical expression.

As someone who specialized in matching mech pilots to mechs, she was very observant when it came to people.
She immediately recognized that William possessed a radically different demeanor after recovering from his strange treatment.

Whatever Ves did to William, her boyfriend succeeded in altering the Urbesh clansman ’s personality!

The only worry they both held was the repercussions of the treatment.
How many side effects had occurred? How much damage did William sustain? Gloriana was determined to answer these questions.

As Gloriana and her bodyguard guided the taciturn William out of the infirmary, Ves lingered behind as he processed what he sensed with his spiritual senses.

From what he perceived, William ’s spiritual potential had achieved a new state of balance.
His spirituality managed to tentatively integrate the foreign spiritual attributes left over from Nyxie ’s failed attempt to take over his mind.

A profound mental and spiritual transformation had taken place.
In fact, William ’s mentality was still in flux.
It might take weeks or months for William ’s personality to settle down!

Ves welcomed the change.
Anything was better than the old William.
As for the many deficiencies and side effects that ensued as a result of his spiritual treatment, that wasn ’t his problem!

”William should be glad to gain the opportunity to advance! Don ’t you think so, Lucky? ”

His cat lazily clung to his shoulder.

”Meow. ”

Ves affectionately patted Lucky on the head.
”

Both Ves and Gloriana diverted a few days to work on completing William ’s custom mech.
The Desolate Soldier had gone through major alterations.
Though it still used the same parts, Ves found it astounding to how much it diverged from the base model.

A true custom mech designed for a single mech pilot always ended up as an intrinsically-unique iteration.
A mech model that served the masses featured so many compromises that not a single mech pilot would ever be able to achieve a perfect fit with such a machine.

While Gloriana preoccupied with studying William ’s new condition and tweaking the design of their custom mech in response, Ves largely devoted his attention to the spiritual component.

For the new William, the standard X-Factor of the Desolate Soldier was too unsuitable.
His mass market product centered heavily around the concept of duty.

Right now, William didn ’t appear to be the type of person who would sacrifice his life to do his duty.

Instead, according to the personality tests that Gloriana had conducted, William had become a bit more aggressive and assertive.
Combined with his old traits such as self-centeredness and egotism, the new William was anything but altruistic!

”I ’ll have to do something similar to the Prideful Soldier, then. ” Ves concluded.

He came up with an altered concept and also settled for a fitting name for William ’s custom mech.

”What do you think about calling our custom mech the Resentful Soldier? ” Ves suggested to Gloriana.

”That doesn ’t sound very pleasant, Ves. ”

”It fits, though.
I ’ve tweaked the spiritual component of the Resentful Soldier by mixing the spiritual component it inherited from the Desolate Soldier with an extra flavor.
It feels a lot more..
resentful. ”

The addition of Nyxie ’s semi-purified mote of spirituality gave the Resentful Soldier a very different character.
Its duty-oriented aura and X-Factor had been heavily warped by this deceptively small influence.

Duty had warped into purpose! Anything that hinted at responsibility had disappeared, and in its place was a kind of anger and selfishness that made it abundantly clear that the Resentful Soldier did not fight on behalf of others.

The Resentful Soldier purely fought on behalf of itself!

”What a huge change. ” Gloriana remarked when they finalized their design.
”I can feel how different it is from the base model. ”

Ves smiled in satisfaction.
”You can do a lot with a couple of minor changes.
I think this is sufficient.
Shall we go and fabricate this mech? ”

Gloriana instantly perked up.
”I ’ve waited too long for this moment! Let ’s see how close we can get to fabricating a Masterwork mech! With all the work we ’ve put into the Resentful Soldier design, I refuse to accept a sub-standard outcome! ”

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