The Mech Touch

Ves gained a radically different perspective on the Interim Leadership Council now that he attended the third major council session.

Previously, he had been foisted into the ILC without knowing much if anything about how politics was being driven at the upper end of humanity's hierarchy.

He had risen far too quickly and the mechers insisted that he begin to participate in the leadership of human civilization.

He initially resisted this effort and just wanted to go back to designing his mechs.

Now that he had done a bit of political maneuvering himself, his perspective on the matter had shifted.

He no longer considered all of this wheeling and dealing to be a waste of his time anymore.

Though Ves still insisted that he should not allocate too much time on politicking, he at least saw the benefits of properly exercising his influence and leverage to expand his power base.

For better and worse, the people at the top would always make a lot of important decisions that changed the lives of everyone below.

The latter usually had little to no say in any matters due to the excessively high concentration of power of the former.

The huge distance between the two groups also did not help any matters as human leaders tended to be completely divorced from the struggles of the common folk.

Ves did not possess the capacity to solve these societal problems, nor held a desire to do anything about it. Perhaps the Red Collective might be able to reduce the distance between the top and bottom layers of society, but realistically nothing much could be done unless a full-blown revolution upended everything.

In any case, a single person like Ves did not have many choices available to him. His options boiled down to two opposing approaches.

He could try his best to reject anything political and try to stay as neutral and uninvolved as possible. The best way to do that was to botch his job as the Deputy Chief Councilor of the ILC so that a proper politician and administrator could take over his unwanted duties.

Doing so would absolve him of much of the blame if anything went wrong, but also cut him off from the praise if he got stuff right.

That was alright with him, as the lack of involvement would cause him to lose a lot of heat, thereby lowering the chance that he would get bothered by parties looking to gain favors or coerce him into changing his stances.

However, the biggest problem with cutting himself off from the political landscape was that he would always remain a victim of whatever harebrained policies and decisions imposed from the top!

Taking matters into his own hands and embracing the opportunity to become a more active player in high-level politics freed him from this fate, if only partially.

It felt good to take control over his life. Now that he had begun to adopt the other approach towards politics, he realized that it wasn't as bad or tedious as he feared.

Sure, he still needed to take a lot of risks, and he also had to spend valuable time on winning over other parties, but all of it was worth it in certain cases.

As far as Ves was concerned, all of the time and effort that he had spent on building up the Coalition of Faiths in the past few days had yielded a disproportionately high return on investment!

Through a combination of inducements, coercion and other means, Ves managed to form an unprecedented gathering of religious organizations that reluctantly agreed to cooperate with each other despite their massive differences!

Such a group had never been formed in the past. Despite the lengthy history of human civilization, no one had ever succeeded in convincing so many different faiths to unite around a common cause. Everyone assumed that they were too fractious and irrational to agree to cooperate with each other with any sincerity.

Those assumptions were not invalid, but Ves managed to pull it off anyway.

Sure, the faiths in the Red Ocean were much smaller and less cluttered compared to the gigantic mess in the Milky Way. The crisis produced by the Red Tide Offensive also encouraged all of the normally obstinate religious leaders to make an earnest effort to save their shared society.

Nonetheless, that did not take away the fact that Ves was the first man to truly unite the religious landscape and forge it into a somewhat cohesive interest group!

Now was the time for him to make use of his newly formed power base.

As Ves appeared in the same monumentally high virtual council chamber, he received a much different reception than before.

He was no longer the kid who propelled his way to tier 3 galactic citizenship and still remained a clueless newcomer to high-level power struggles.

He was no longer the mech designer who continually expressed reluctance raising his voice and attracting the attention of all of the councilors.

He was no longer a chess piece who lacked meaningful power and was mainly here because he was propped up by the Red Association.

Ves was a different man this time.

The councilors who arrived a little earlier all directed looks at him that they usually reserved for their more respectful peers.

They had all learned about what Ves had done through their own channels.

It was impossible to hide the changes taking place in the religious community. Many church officials possessed deep connections with other powers, and it was not as if most of the changes were confidential.

The appearance of a handful of divine avatars already changed the futures of numerous old and powerful faiths. They had issued a lot of new directions that heavily encouraged their followers to worship 'holy relics' in the form of a chalice, a lamb and other objects steeped in sacred symbolism.

The recently formed Coalition of Faiths had only been established for a short time, but it was already making waves due to how many different faiths had gathered under its banner.

Though the current administration of the coalition merely consisted of an empty shell at this time, all of the other players already took it extremely seriously due to how many neglected faiths it had managed to bind together!

Few of the councilors had any reason to take groups like the Diocese of New Rome too seriously.

Religion already had its heyday in the earlier ages. The mechers and the fleeters both objected to its rise and had employed many measures to keep it that way.

While there were plenty of councilors who were clever enough to realize that the Red Collective could potentially adopt the opposite policy and turn these oppressed faiths into a united political force, none of them had actually done the work needed to turn this into reality.

This was because they all thought it couldn't be done!

This was another reason why the councilors looked at Ves with so much respect and vigilance.

Ves had proven before this session had even begun that he was already capable of coming up with an extensive political scheme and pulling it off without any major missteps!

That already put him at the same level as them at the very least. No councilor dared to underestimate Ves anyone. His relative youth and lack of experience did not necessarily translate into incompetence.

More than a handful of councilors quietly grew jealous at Ves for being able to recognize and seize this opportunity first.

If others managed to come up with the same idea and execute it earlier, then perhaps they would be able to arrive in the virtual meeting hall and command a large amount of respect from others!

Ves doubted they would have been able to pull it off, though. He only managed to secure a favorable outcome due to his unique capabilities.

This also kept him secure. He was not afraid that others would attempt to hijack his Coalition of Faiths from under his nose. They simply couldn't create the divine avatars that had suddenly become the most desired products among the faiths that had yet to receive their turn!

As for the monotheistic churches that already received their turn such as the DNR and the BSC, their religious leaders suddenly realized that since Ves only created a few symbolic objects of their almighty god rather than their deities themselves, there was still room for more 'holy relics'!

If Ves wanted to stretch the boundaries of the restrictions imposed by the Red Association, then he could also attempt to create manifestations of the saints and other sacred historical figures of those faiths!

The promise of earning more divine avatars by becoming an active participant in the Coalition of Faiths motivated a lot of faiths to stick to Ves and remain unwavering in their support!

This was why continued to maintain his confident demeanor as he briefly stopped before his old council seat.

His confidence only wavered for a moment as he stumbled into a dilemma.

Should he take up his old throne-like seat, or should he ascend and seat himself on the highest and most prestigious throne that used to seat the Evolution Witch?

This was an issue that he hadn't thought about, and it cost him a lot.

That was the thing with playing at such a high level. A single mistake or oversight could easily cost him a lot, up to and including his life!

There was no time to think. He could not afford to show any doubt or indecision in front of these sharks disguised as wise people.

Ves did what he always did in these sort of situations and made a gut decision. He acted according to his heart, not allowing his more rational mind to second-guess his spontaneous decision.

His steps did not slow or pause at all. He smoothly proceeded forward until he came close to the throne reserved for the chief councilor.

In the absence of the chief councilor, the deputy chief councilor was supposed to take over. It was entirely reasonable for the latter to occupy the former's seat.

Ves doubted that many other people in his position would dare to do so in this instance.

The chief councilor was more than just a human. She was a god pilot, one of the eight absolute apex predators of red humanity.

It would have been incredibly presumptuous for anyone to occupy the seat reserved for the Evolution Witch, as the strong-willed woman was infamous for her cruelty and irrationality!

Ves knew that, yet still dared to sit himself on her throne!

The impact of his silent choice was almost just as significant as building up an entire new power base for himself from scratch.

The highly symbolic gesture cemented his complete transformation in status. He could no longer be treated as a bystander, lackey or accomplice anymore.

From this moment onwards, the councilors and many other dignitaries would have no choice but to treat him as a boss and a leader in his own right!

He was well aware that the Evolution Witch could take offensive at this and punish him afterwards when she learned about it. Yet the two had become so dependent on each other that it was unlikely for her to do anything too drastic.

This was enough for Ves to take this risk!

Many councilors briefly held their breaths as if the Evolution Witch would smite down Ves for his supposed blasphemy.

Nothing happened, of course.

Ves acted as if nothing was wrong and smiled in a confident manner.

"Hello. I see we have numerous new faces here in order to fill up the seats vacated by all of the absent military personnel. Greetings. You should already know who I am. Today, I will be presiding over the Interim Leadership Council in my capacity as its deputy chief councilor. The current chief councilor has directly invested me with this responsibility, so you cannot challenge my appointment. I possess a different leadership style from my superior, so do not expect me to lead the discussions in an identical fashion. Now let us begin."

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