The Mech Touch

"This is not what we originally agreed upon, Hierarch."

A bishop and a team of priests dispatched from the largest DNR church on New Constantinople VIII arrived at Diandi Base only to hear the disappointment of the century.

After Ves came back from his meeting with Jovy, he did not think about defying the latest directive from the Survivalist Faction and tried his best to work with the new limitations.

Just as predicted, the church officials that looked forward to bringing over their god through an accommodating vessel all reacted with disappointment at this unexpected change of terms.

Good business was founded on mutual understanding. When Ves acted in a high profile to unite all of the faiths together in his coalition, he promised to give them a lot more than he was currently allowed to deliver.

To say the religious organizations were disappointed was an understatement.

Ves genuinely felt back for going back on his promises as a service provider. It was bad form to change the deal after the contract had been formed. Failing to live up to his promises not only pissed a lot of people off, but also discouraged repeat business.

He was sure that his reputation had taken a hit as a consequence. The only consolation was that he had a much larger track record of meeting his obligations without fail and that he should still come away with a fairly good image.

In order to compensate the parties for failing to fulfill their expectations to the fullest, Ves allocated additional time to improve the artistry of his work.

Since the Survivalist Faction did not want him to create any humanoid gods, Ves tried to put his artisanal skills to good use by designing and crafting the most exquisite intangible relics.

Since these 'artifacts' were supposed to be divine in origin, then he had to make sure they all looked the part!

"Your order is complete." Ves said as he let out a slightly tired breath. "I have interpreted your new specifications as best as possible to develop a representation of your Holy Grail."

The Holy Grail looked magnificent. Though it was made out of mundane alloys and gems that used to be seen as precious on Old Earth in the distant past, the artwork alone surpassed mortal limitations.

Supposedly, the Holy Grail was supposed to be the cup that one of the three versions of 'god' shared his blood with his buddies, though what they actually drank was wine.

Ves had to employ a combination of ancient methods and cutting-edge technological devices to build up the grail into a chalice of divine providence. The combination of gold and agate stone granted the object a look that was so luxurious that it seemed otherworldly.

Supposedly, the Holy Grail was supposed to be the cup that one of the three versions of 'god' shared his blood with his buddies, though what they actually drank was wine.

The 'god' and his pals were also clearly a part of a subjugated population in a land under occupation. There was no way these sort of folk could afford to own a cup that incorporated so many precious materials and was shaped with such artistry that it was fit for an emperor!

The entire tale surrounding this Holy Grail sounded incredibly confusing and contradictory to Ves, but the bishop practically threatened to thump his head with a big fat book if he did not try to recreate this totally historical chalice.

So that was what he did, more or less.

Ves had created both a physical and spiritual version of the Holy Grail. The former had reached masterwork quality due to his efforts. It existed to anchor the latter while also giving the DNR a certain measure of control over their own divine avatar.

While the bishop and his entourage were initially in a disappointed mood, that quickly disappeared as they beheld the sacred splendor of Ves' latest works!

The physical grail glowed as a huge influx of seemingly sacred energies began to flow into the object.

Its spiritual copy was frantically devouring the huge amount of spiritual feedback of all of the worshipers that earnestly prayed or thought about the Holy Grail.

It was apparently a big deal to the flock of the DNR and other related churches.

Once the gathered church officials finally completed their prayers and picked up their jaws from the floor, they cautiously beheld the grail with a mixture of different emotions.

None of them dared to touch the Holy Grail, let alone get too close over it. They had already unfolded a gravitic stretcher of sorts that would allow them to safely transport their new divine avatar back to their church where the masterwork would be prepped for transportation to the New Rome System.

"Hierarch Larkinson, you have created a miracle today." The bishop approached Ves with much more appreciation in his tone this time. "You have reintroduced a piece of our sacred history back to our faithful who are trapped in the Red Ocean. We no longer have to dream about securing passage back to the Milky Way in order to reacquaint ourselves with this holy artifact once again. You have our sincere gratitude for your efforts."

Ves smiled and made a shallow bow. "I am at your service. This Holy Grail should serve you and the rest of the DNR well enough going forward. It is already absorbing the prayers generated by the masses to fuel its own growth. What you need to do is to speed up this process by introducing this Holy Grail of yours to as many of your followers as possible. Right now, their prayers are probably scattered, which this divine avatar cannot catch. You need to show them an image of this object in order to increase the chance they direct their worship in the right direction. Once more people begin to pray to the Holy Grail, it shall grow more powerful and more 'capable' of channeling the power of your almighty deity."

"Can we utilize this Holy Grail to smite down a phase whale?"

"That is… challenging. It is not a weapon. It is not designed to attack or subdue opponents. You can still try to weaponize it, but you will have to develop the methods yourself. Keep in mind that as a chalice, it is best to use it in a way that falls in line with its symbolism. For example, you may be able to borrow the power of the Holy Grail to heal or empower other people."

One of the outcomes that the Survivalist Faction wanted to see was to saddle up the oldest and most powerful churches with relatively harmless divine avatars.

The Red Association did not want to bestow these old and highly influential faiths with sacred swords or spears that could rile them up and make them more militant.

While it was important to mobilize more people for war, the last thing the Survivalists wanted to see was for fanatics to rise up and take up arms at the command of a demagogue!

Ves could not imagine that the DNR could whip up its followers in a frenzy with a chalice of all symbols!

He was glad that the DNR was easy to please in this regard.

"My work here is done. You can take your Holy Grail away while I prepare for my next order. Please make sure to follow my recommendations and do not hesitate to contact me if you require any after-sales support."

The work to create a Holy Grail that was strong and stable enough to absorb the faith of so many worshipers was exhausting, so Ves could not keep this up for long.

Time was short, so Ves needed to get this chore out of the way and satisfy the most critical and influential faiths if he wanted to gain their backing during the next council meeting.

A few days went by as Ves alternated between work. He channeled much of his effort and energies into the creation of multiple divine avatars, and progressed the Swarm Project whenever he grew too tired to satisfy more religions.

Ves entertained a variety of unusual and interesting requests.

For example, the Brothers and Sisters of the Cross couldn't make up their mind on their divine avatar. This was because it wasn't a cohesive church at all. The BSC could more aptly be described as an umbrella organization of many different churches, each of which interpreted the same set of scriptures in different ways. Many of their rituals and beliefs remained the same, but they differed so much on the nuances that there were literally over a hundred-thousand denominations!

That already sounded crazy enough, but the problem was at least a million times worse in the Milky Way!

Ves found the BSC to be a headache to work with. At least the DNR was a lot more centralized and united under a single leader.

In the end, Ves had to balance the very eclectic wishes of many different denominations as well as the paranoia of the Survivalist Faction and end up making a lamb of all things.

While it was a living object, the lamb looked so small, innocent and harmless that nobody was able to regard it as a threat!

The Seekers of the Promised Land were hard to please. After learning about the restrictions from the mechers, they strongly insisted that Ves create a divine avatar in the form of a stylized star.

However, it was such a provoking symbol to the SPL's enemies that Ves was not able to oblige.

Threatened with the possibility of missing their turn, the guests eventually agreed to change their request to a weirdly shaped candle holder with multiple arms.

The candelabrum or whatever it was called looked quite ceremonial, and it already started to lit up in sacred flames as soon as it started to absorb the intense faith of some of the members of the SPL!

Ves was faintly worried whether the SPL, which already had a reputation for being militant, would somehow try to weaponize the divine avatar and use its flame for offensive purposes.

However, the object looked so unsuited to be used as a weapon that Ves dismissed this fear.

The more divine avatars Ves created, the more he gained an understanding of the power of faith and religion.

The Ves came into touch with the beliefs, practices and customs of other human faiths. His perception of religion was highly skewed by oddballs such as hexism, the Vulcan Faith and the Ylvainan Faith.

This was not exactly a healthy or representative sample of how religion operated in human society.

Ves learned a lot of lessons from these jobs, though it was hard to describe what exactly he managed to gain. It could range from greater reverence towards faith towards more effective methods to capture spiritual feedback.

All he knew was that he gained a much stronger urge to start a brand-new mech design project that was expressly designed based on his recent lessons and observations!

He wanted to design a mech that expressly utilized the power of belief in one way or another.

Perhaps he wanted to create a new god in the form of a mech

Maybe he wanted to design a mech devoted to one of the gods of the religions he worked with and grant them the most perfect 'prayer machines'.

All he knew was that he had accumulated a lot of creative energies, and that he needed to expend them quickly in order to extract the most value out of his desire to create!

Ves frustratingly shook his head and refused the impulse to drop all of his ongoing work so that he could indulge himself in a brand new exploration.

He could not afford to get distracted! Finishing the Swarm Project came first! Ves did not even want to think about designing another mech before he completed his first commercial Carmine mechs!

"It shouldn't take too long." He whispered to himself. "Once I survive the next council meeting, I should have enough time to devote myself fully to completing this damned project."

Ves deeply desired to set aside all of these political maneuvers and go back to his original job!

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