The Mech Touch

Ves successfully relied on a combination of brazen confidence, information asymmetry, borrowing powerful help as well as shock and awe to pave the way for his takeover.

He knew at this time that unless one of the other representatives countered his shocking feat with one of their own, there was no way his plan could be stopped!

After Gaia withdrew her presence from Blinky, a brief lull ensued as the representatives were finally able to breathe easily without Gaia pressing down on their spirits.

The representative of the Seekers of the Promised Land maintained an impassive expression that gave away none of his true considerations.

That was already a signal in itself as he would have expressed himself more if he intended to counter Ves' arguments.

Yet in the face of powerful entities that could convincingly pass themselves as gods, the representative completely lacked the confidence to mount a successful counterattack, especially when he couldn't summon his own 'god' to serve as a counterweight to the likes of Gaia and the Superior Mother!

In fact, the representatives all knew that Ves had way more backing of a more divine nature to call upon.

Not only did he harbor a whole collection of 'design spirits' and 'ancestral spirits', he also enjoyed the explicit backing of the Destroyer of Worlds!

Let alone false gods, many real gods could not even pose an effective resistance against the most destructive god pilot among the 8 that presided over red humanity.

Perhaps the only representative that could offer a legitimate counterweight to Ves' power play was the one that spoke on behalf of the Hunting Association.

However, the man in question simply sat back and watched the show as if he was a curious bystander. He acted as if his rising association had nothing to do with the complicated affairs of the coalition of faiths.

That was good news and bad news to Ves.

The good news was that the SPL and other dissatisfied faiths could not lean towards the Hunting Association to speak on their behalf. Their interests diverged too much to establish any meaningful form of cooperation during these tense negotiations.

The bad news was that the clear sense of distance from the Hunting Association meant that it likely had no interest in becoming a part of the coalition of faiths. That would deny the new cooperative a powerful pillar of support that could strengthen Ves' voice in the Red Collective.

Oh well. Ves accepted the fact that the Huntsman did not desire to take his side and proceeded with his plan while accounting for this variable.

It would have been easier for Ves to wrap up this meeting in the confidence that he could count on their obedience, but this was not possible without the support of the Hunting Association.

In order to compensate for this missing condition, Ves needed to do more to truly win over the various representatives.

He needed to give them a carrot that they could chew upon.

Relying on the stick alone may allow Ves to gain their reluctant agreement for now, but he bet that they would definitely resent him and seek to undermine him right after the meeting had ended!

It was what he would do if he was in their shoes.

Therefore, for the sake of his own safety and the long-term stability of his plan, Ves needed to give them a sweetener in order to give them a proactive reason to cooperate with his coalition of faiths.

"Participating in the coalition of faiths is not without rewards." He spoke up in a deliberately more conciliatory tone. "Our churches and temples need to stick up for each other and form a united front, not just because we will continue to face heavy discrimination and obstruction in a human society that is predominantly controlled by secularists, but also because we can offer help and salvation from an angle that conventional technology cannot replicate."

The representative of the Diocese of New Rome adopted a suspicious expression.

"What are you proposing, Professor Larkinson?"

"Vulcan. The Superior Mother. Gaia. These are but a few of the deities that humans have worshiped for centuries if not millennia throughout human history. For the vast majority of those times, the people who prayed to them almost never got any answers back. I happen to 'solve' those problems by creating… vessels of sorts that allowed these deities that were separated from us by another layer of reality to anchor themselves closer to our current realm, dimension, universe or whatever."

The more clever representatives had already deduced what Ves was hinting at, but most of them still did not understand.

Ves needed to be a little blunter. He turned to the man with the funny bright red headcap.

"The Diocese of New Rome is directly related to one of the oldest and most traditional faiths of human civilization. You worship one god, correct?"

The old man nodded in a dignified manner. "We worship God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit."

That sounded like three gods to Ves, but whatever. He had learned a long time ago that logic took a backseat in any topic related to faith and superstition.

"Well, your three-in-one god is worshiped by a huge amount of people. You have churches in pretty much every state that does not outright ban religion. Many of them have grown up attending churches throughout their entire lives and have remained steady in their faith. Is that correct?"

"Faith is a personal choice in our current society. Not everyone holds God in their hearts as they grow up. This is a manifestation of their nature as humans. God has given us free will because He does not force us to love Him, for He knows that applying force will only turn love into fear."

Ves wanted to scratch his head. He was not interested in debating religious dogma.

"Well, your 'god' works in such a mysterious way that he has never manifested himself or his powers in an overt manner. Even his act of giving our race free will is not a falsifiable claim that can be scientifically proven. I know that true faith should not require flashy displays of divine might, but we humans are very flawed as a species. We tend to get impressed much more when our gods are in front of us and regularly demonstrate their awesome power in the open. This is why the Pantheon of Modern Gods has risen up so quickly to the point where it can rival old faiths such as yours during the Age of Mechs."

The representative of the DNR acknowledged this truth with a nod. "Be that as it may, belief in God has waxed and waned, but it has never collapsed despite all of the challenges that have risen up in the past. Not even the Big Two and the explosive rise of the PMG has shaken the beliefs of our flock."

Ves smirked and shook his head. "That may be true in the old galaxy during the previous ages, but this time is different. First, we live in a time where miracles have become much more common, tangible and accessible. Second, we live in a galaxy cluster where the faith of humans has gained much more power than in the past. Third, the belief of so many humans in the same collection of gods will produce results over time, because E energy is both a psychoactive and psychoreactive phenomenon. Fourth, competition exists. Now what can you conclude if you combine all of these four points together?"

The expressions of more and more representatives grew concerned. They all started to connect the dots.

"Faith shall overcome every doubt." The representative of the DNR bravely said. "I do not deny your description of E energy, but that only reinforces my conviction in the power of our Mass. Our God shall reveal Himself once more to us as he did in the past on Old Earth. The greater our collective prayers, the sooner He shall arrive and offer us salvation from the heathen alien threat."

Ves actually nodded in agreement, which surprised more than a few representatives.

He coughed. "I am sure that your 'god' is sitting cozily somewhere in the old galaxy, and needs the prayers of enough of his worshipers in the Red Ocean to lock onto our coordinates and manifest himself here, but… I don't think this is good enough. It takes a long time for a god to act. Those are precious years that the DNR is stuck in a state of limbo while other faiths with more 'active' gods regularly intervene to ease people's lives during a time of war and hardship."

"He is Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnibenevolent. He shall not abandon us for He has never left us in the first place!"

"Whether that is true or not, so far I think he is taking his sweet time. Perhaps his perception of time is much different from mere mortals such as ourselves, but most humans really don't have the patience to wait until your 'omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and omniwhatever' god gets his divine butt off his heavenly couch and does something useful."

"How dare you, professor?!"

Ves laughed. "Hahaha! I dare, because as far as I am concerned, your god is probably having problems manifesting his power in this galactic neighborhood. Don't forget that aliens have their own gods! I won't say anything about the pathetic excuse of gods that the native aliens of the Red Ocean believe in, but I would like to point out that Messier 87 is much more powerful. Just think about it, people. Even if the gods of Messier 87 cannot match the awesome power of your own gods, this is their home turf. I am sure they can rely on their own tricks to keep foreign gods at bay for a time."

"If that is the case, what are you offering, exactly?" Another representative asked.

"Good question! I am offering you all an essential service. You see, I can create… well, localized avatars of your deities that are anchored in this dwarf galaxy. Only I possess this ability. Not even the god pilots and Star Designers can compete with me on this. Before you object, I am not claiming to give life to your gods. I am merely giving them a convenient vessel that can not only act as a beacon to draw them in from afar, but also allow them to interface much more efficiently with their faithful worshipers in the new frontier. Now, this is not strictly necessary as the beliefs of your people will already produce this result over time, but what I can do is give your churches a shortcut by skipping this lengthy accumulation process."

None of the representatives here were idiots. They all understood what Ves was truly trying to convey.

Ves found it a bit annoying that he had to couch his words from this angle, but he wanted to minimize reflexive dogmatic objections as much as possible.

"Time is of the essence. Our society is undergoing rapid changes, but this period of turbulence will not last forever. If you are not able to call upon your god and have him manifest and produce proven miracles, then you will fall behind in the competition to convert believers. Faith has become a hard currency in the Age of Dawn. Many groups have good reasons to compete for it much more actively than in the past. It matters whether your god has become tangible like our current god pilots or remains a distant and nebulous experience as is traditional. I don't know about you, but I think most people with spiritual needs will choose the certain over the over uncertain, especially during these darker days."

Many representatives had fallen deep into thought. Multiple of them were probably contacting their superiors and leaders in order to decide how to respond to Ves' helpful 'service'.

In order to increase his chance of gaining everyone's cooperation, Ves threw in one more bone to the gathered faiths.

"You can… specify many of the traits and conditions of the avatar of the god you want me to make for your religious organization. Even if your god is omnipotent and can do everything, I am sure that you do not necessarily want to call in every aspect of your deity. Perhaps you want to call upon the god in his aspect as a warmaker, or maybe you want to call in a god that conforms to specific scriptures while disregarding the ones you don't agree with. The thing about relying on the masses alone to spawn an 'avatar' of your god is that the result will reflect their collective desires as well as misconceptions. There is no barrier to faith except sincerity, so a lot of weird cults and subgroups could potentially corrupt the outcome. Naturally, high-ranked members of the faith such as yourselves know much better, so it may be more useful to allow you to directly dictate the form of your god or goddesses to ensure that there will not be any 'mistakes'."

That was the decisive argument. If these representatives thought Ves was credible enough, then they should have no choice to cooperate with his schemes!

Ves had already made it clear that if they refused to take advantage of his services, he would go on to empower their rival faiths, thereby allowing them to steal the worshipers of faiths that could not obviously manifest their gods!

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