The Mech Touch

5871 Malleable Cat

What Ves attempted to do next was the final and arguably the most crucial part of the puzzle.

Success could make a huge difference in this wave and the subsequent ones.

Failure would force the Dominion of Man to violate the unwritten rules of the ritualistic combat setting that had formed between the two sides.

Borrowing the power of spirits was a time-tested technique to Ves. He had done it plenty of times in the past, but he had never done so during a lightning tribulation!

The storm clouds raging from above produced a lot of interference that vastly reduced his connection to other spiritual entities.

Ves was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to borrow the power of the Superior Mother or Gaia because he had a strong feeling that the tribulation storm would smite him for the act of borrowing power from an external source!

The only exception to this rule was the Golden Cat. Not only did Ves maintain an active spiritual bond with the ancestral spirit of the Larkinson Clan, but he also had the Larkinson Mandate close at hand.

However, Ves instantly dismissed this option. What could Goldie do in this situation? There weren't any other Larkinsons on the Dominion of Man, and she never excelled in combat in the first place. She also lacked the strength to overpower the lightning insect formations.

The only viable option was the ancestral spirit that Ves modeled after Supreme Marshal Caramond Perle.

Enough time had passed by now for the newly created spiritual product to reach a much greater stage of maturity.

Despite his extremely rapid and messy growth surge, Caramond smoothly reached the threshold to True God and began to overcome this major bottleneck by relying on brute force.

The efforts of the Red Fleet to publicize Caramond across human-occupied space succeeded!

A huge number of third-raters and second-raters had his name in the forefront of their minds. No matter whether they revered him or not, even a slight amount of respect was already enough to contribute to Caramond's initial growth and formation!

Even though the newborn ancestral spirit was wholly unqualified in every other way, the sheer amount of spiritual feedback pumping into his malleable form was already starting to induce qualitative transformations!

This was an extremely crucial step because Caramond began to get into contact with faith energy for the first time.

The transitioning entity was barely able to harness the power of faith energy at this point, but just a little bit was already enough to supercharge his evolution and perfect many flaws generated by his rapid growth process!

At this stage, Caramond was bound to become a True God so long as no outside factors attempted to interfere with his ongoing transformation.

Ves was previously content to leave Caramond alone, but no more.

"Caramond! Wake up! The Dominion of Man needs your strength!"

The ancestral spirit was no longer as ignorant as before. He had matured rapidly as a huge amount of focused human thoughts poured into him. Every individual who thought about the Supreme Marshal contributed their impression of this historic human hero to the ancestral spirit.

Combined with the personality template that Ves had programmed into his spiritual product beforehand, Caramond already developed a relatively stern and strong-willed personality!

"<nullb>Progenitor." The spirit spoke for the first time. Since he was modeled after a human, he preferred to speak like one as well. "<nullb>I would like to aid you, but I am… preoccupied. I am also in pain. Furthermore, I am not proficient in the combat methods that you require from me. I may not be able to meet your expectations."

It was difficult for a spirit modeled after a fearless and indomitable human hero to admit weakness, but it took true courage for a proud personality to be frank with his shortcomings.

Ves could already sense that Caramond's evolution was anything but perfect. There was always a price to pay. Gaia had been in the exact same position in the past. She was still attempting to correct her glaring defects to this day.

"I am aware of your difficulties, but this is exactly why you must work together with me. This lightning tribulation is not only a test for the Dominion of Man. It is also a test for you. Further delays won't improve your situation. In fact, it is better for you to enter the fight right away. You have many defects that can still be fixed or reduced by baptizing you with tribulation lightning. Besides, these Dread Marines need your power. Each of them are fighting on behalf of the human race one way or another. The least you can do is to join their side. This is what the real Supreme Marshal would do if he was in your place."

Caramond did not offer any words in response.

His answer came in the form of deeds.

When Caramond began to open himself up to cooperation despite his relatively flawed and fragile state, Ves smiled and commanded Blinky to channel the newly created spiritual entity.

This was the first time he performed this particular technique with Blinky. It was a lot different from his usual modus operandi, but there was no reason why it shouldn't work.

Blinky was a direct extension of his own Spirituality. It was capable of performing the exact same spiritual techniques as himself.

The difference was that Blinky's own nature would result in substantially different effects.

What happened next blew Ves away.

Unlike the instances where Ves called down different design spirits when he needed to borrow their power, Blinky proved to be a lot more accommodating to the foreign spirits.

It helped that he was a pure energy-based life form who excelled at energy manipulation.

His sense of self was also much weaker than that of Ves.

Whatever the case, when Caramond began to descend onto Blinky, the 'body' of the companion spirit began to stretch into a shape that deviated enormously from a cat!

Blinky's form gradually morphed into one that looked incredibly iconic to Ves and every modern human.

Of all of the changes Ves anticipated when he decided to let Blinky channel the ancestral spirit, he never expected his companion spirit to outright take on Caramond's form!

The ancestral spirit had chosen to embody Caramond in his most iconic appearance when he was at the peak of his power.

He wore a ceremonial navy blue dress uniform with golden epaulets and stars twinkling on the spotless fabric. A gilded saber that bore the name 'Nikara' hung from his belt. There were rumors that the weapon used to belong to a mythical human hero from the past, but most people treated this story as one of the many embellishments invented during the most glorious period of the Age of Conquest.

The most iconic feature that instantly enabled everyone to recognize Caramond Perle from a distance was his hat.

He wore a peaked officer's hat that featured an emblem of the Vitruvian Man.

Compared to the archival depictions of the Supreme Marshal in the distant past, the ancestral spirit literally looked larger than life.

The historical hero had always been fit and athletic, but the current Caramond had clearly bulked up to an extent.

The ancestral spirit also looked a lot more handsome and authoritative, especially when combined with his human-

centric domain.

The only clear break from his past image was the black scepter in his hand. This was a special addition from Ves in order to serve as a much more distinct symbol for the present Caramond.

This was because Ves did not want to fully recreate the Supreme Marshal as he was depicted in all of the history books.

Ves wanted to create a living symbol of human superiority and domination. Caramond needed to embody humanity's desire to win, conquer and rule over the cosmos!

From what Ves could observe and feel from Blinky, he had done a good job this time!

As soon as Caramond settled into Blinky's surprisingly pleasant and accommodating 'body', the guest brought a huge amount of power.

A spiritual shockwave erupted from Blinky's position as Caramond channeled a significant portion of his newfound strength!

While his control over his energies was anything but impressive, the raw power was so much more than Blinky was able to disgorge from his Blinkyverse!

"<nullb>Rejoice, soldiers of man! Your god is here! Let it be known that I, Caramond, has led his soldiers to victory for the first time since my rebirth!"

"..."

Ves grew speechless. His latest creation certainly developed a strong ego. All of the praises mixed into the spiritual feedback must have gotten over Caramond's immature head.

Still, they had work to do. Since Caramond did not possess the right technique to absorb and channel fire energy, Blinky would have to do it in the ancestral spirit's stead.

"Don't resist. Try to play along."

Even though Blinky seemed to have disappeared, he was still present in other ways. It was not that difficult for the companion spirit to draw in fire energy once again.

This time, there was no rejection reaction. No matter whether Blinky tried to manipulate it or absorb portions of it into his Blinkyverse, the fire energy remained fully docile!

It worked!

Ves began to grin. His theory was correct! The spiritual imprint on the fire energy belonged to the living spark.

This normally meant that only the entity stuck inside the Spark Reactor was able to freely manipulate this energy.

However, Caramond happened to form a Bloodfire Pact with the living spark with fire energy as the predominant medium!

In this circumstance, fire energy was no longer hostile towards Caramond. Even if he was not its original owner, he was able to leverage it almost just as well as its original source!

A wonderful synergy formed between Caramond and Blinky.

Caramond's form became increasingly more red until flames radiated from his position!

A large and powerful corona of fire surrounded his form like the flame barriers of the Fallen Heralds of Akshi!

Caramond became so infused with the power of the Spark Reactor that he quickly became intoxicated!

He raised his flaming black scepter in a dramatic fashion!

"<nullb>Rally to me, my loyal men!"

The summoned spirit pointed the ball of the scepter towards the nearest lightning insect formation and released a concentrated ray of fire energy that struck the protective barrier with great force!

An explosion of fire and power occured on impact that inflicted serious harm. The metallic energy barrier clearly struggled a lot more to restore its integrity.

Though Caramond in his summoned form was able to cooperate with Blinky to launch further attacks, this was not a one man show.

The lightning baptized Dread Marines had received new instructions that caused them to come to Caramond.

Each and every Dread Marine felt a lot more invigorated by the higher concentration of fire energy in the environment.

On top of that, they also felt a strong connection to Caramond himself!

The ancestral spirit smiled at his strongest subjects. "<nullb>The power of fire shall forge your units into a flaming fist. Together, we shall crush these aliens and cleanse them with the power of our spark! For Humanity!"

"FOR HUMANITY!"

It only took a few words for the Dread Marines to resonate with Caramond and form a spiritual network that was blessed with fire energy!

Though Caramond appeared to be in charge, Blinky was doing all of the heavy lifting in forming spiritual connections and channeling fire energy into the Dread Armors in a controlled and organized fashion.

The companion spirit had to struggle a lot to make sure that the injected fire energy properly empowered the armaments of the Dread Marines. It was impossible to exert any fine control, but it was already possible to produce better results with a slight amount of effort.

Every Dread Marine connected to Caramond or rather Blinky all began to erupt in flames as well!

The illusionary fires had returned as each Dread Armor became a lot more connected to the Spark Reactor!

"<nullb>Arise, my very first Bloodfire Legion! Burn our enemies to ashes with the power that binds us together!"

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