The Mech Touch



The large and expansive hall that was supposed to serve as the recreation and socialization area used to be a lot more pleasant in the distant past.

Though Ves had few clues of how it actually looked, Ves imagined that there used to be a lot more greenery and brighter colors.

The place was a means to reward and rehabilitate well-behaving phase lords. This was not easy as those delusional aliens all saw themselves as gods. They could be as bad as the members of the Five Scrolls Compact in that regard.

Nonetheless, Ves guessed that one of the reasons why the cells were designed to be so empty, monotonous and barren was to break the wills of unruly and overly inconsiderate phase lords.

Those nunsers, orvens and other aliens that had just succeeded in adding phasewater to their bodies must probably be full of themselves. They had already cleared the hardest hurdle and became insanely confident that they would be able to attain full godhood in time!

If they became crazy with power and started to break the rules of society on a massive scale, then their reign of terror had to end one way or another.

"This place isn't a traditional prison per se." Ves spoke as he continued to move in the direction of the recreation area. "Gods that cannot rein themselves in need to regain their patience, humility and respect towards authority. That is what this prison is actually for. It is probably a socialization center for inexperienced and delusional phase lords. It's a boarding school for troubled and recalcitrant gods!"

His sister thought about this analogy and reluctantly nodded. "I suppose so. The native aliens of the Red Ocean have odd views towards gods. They solely obsess over materialistic factors such as phasewater and body transformation. I believe that they do not exercise their mental discipline that much. They lack a single coherent guiding ideology that can ground them and maintain their connection to their original species. It is much different in the old galaxy. Even the highest practitioners of the Compact dedicate themselves to strong beliefs. Their faith in the Sacred Scrolls and the immortal gods ensures that each of them will remain united and motivated to fight for a common cause."

It was easy to look down on what the natives considered to be gods, but Ves did not dare to underestimate phase lords too much.

For all of their power, spiritual entities had a hard time in the Milky Way and beyond. The current environment was not conducive to their growth and many humans started off as defective in this department. Their journey to godhood was fraught with peril and insurmountable obstacles as they needed to repair their deficiencies by going above and beyond.

Pure spiritual entities did not possess as many limits, but were constantly at risk of getting blown away into the merciless and deathly imaginary realm. They needed physical anchors as well as a steady supply of spiritual feedback to prevent themselves from losing their power and fading into irrelevance.

In contrast, phase lords had it relatively easier. They just needed to figure out a way to safely absorb phasewater into their bodies and go from there. The only reason why a lot of aliens never managed to overcome this starting hurdle was because they needed to develop the mentality to go beyond their safe confines and have the courage to take an exceedingly large risk to their health and life.

However, once they overcame this starting hurdle, it appeared that phase lords relaxed a little too quickly and became drunk by all of the power and status they gained at once. This transition was too abrupt and if there were no senior phase lords in their circle that could restrain their impulses, who knew what they would do with all of that power!

As Ves spent more time in the prison facility, he felt as if he began to feel as if he steadily managed to decipher its history and purpose.

Many details such as its architecture, its security measures, its design and its age provided a lot of clues to Ves. His imagination even conjured up illusions about how the place looked when it was in its heyday.

Dozens of different alien species worked together under a strong authority. They behaved firmly against the misbehaving phase lords but also showed understanding and compassion.

Phase lords were rare in the Red Ocean and each of them possessed a lot of value. The supply of phasewater in the Red Ocean was not great, but there was still enough to satisfy every would-be god under normal circumstances.

Perhaps the Red Ocean's multiracial community was a representative example of how a galactic society might look like in an age where multiple different races lived alongside each other.

Though the relations between the major races such as the phase whales, the nunsers, the orvens and so on were not that harmonious, they at least did not get locked in an eternal struggle to the death. Individuals from different races had no problems with working together with each other as long as they shared enough interests.

The Milky Way used to operate like this as well. The human race badly wanted to become a part of it, but the problem was that it used to be too weak to gain a proper seat at the table.

In the end, power mattered the most!

Since humanity couldn't gain the respect and consideration of the aliens in the Milky Way by playing by the rules, it was better to flip the table and demand respect by force!

At least, that was the prevailing logic among humans today.

Learning about the hidden truth of humanity's deeper and more complicated history put an entirely different spotlight on this matter.

Unless Helena and his birth mother were completely wrong, the history of human lineage and the history of the Milky Way Galaxy were much more complicated than he assumed.

Major events took place hundreds of thousands of years ago that caused the primordial humans to rise in a galaxy that was much more conducive to spiritual ascension.

Unfortunately, a mysterious calamity occurred that ultimately forced this earlier strain of humanity to disappear from the stage.

What Ves found strange was how completely primordial humans fell from grace. This used to be a race that could travel the stars and occupy other planets.

A lot of difficult questions arose from the information that Ves had available.

How did almost all of the primordial humans disappear so suddenly?

How could they have cleaned up their traces so extensively that hardly any alien civilizations in the Milky Way learned of the powerful humans that preceded their rise?

Why go through the trouble to develop baseline humans in their place and settle them on Earth to give them the illusion they evolved naturally on the planet?

Did primordial humans ever had a plan to engineer a comeback, and if so, would there be any room left for baseline humans in their society?

The possible answers to all of these questions were both profound and frightening. Ves had the feeling that he had finally touched upon the deeper truths behind humanity's rise, the origins of the Five Scrolls Compact and perhaps the nature of his own birth!

As Ves turned his attention to himself, he began to doubt his identity once again.

"Helena."

"Yes, brother?"

"All this recent talk about primordial humans got me thinking. Is our mother descended from this group of ancient remnants?"

The spiritual goddess directed a deeper look at him. "You can say that. There are distinctions that I will not get into as you are not a part of this complicated world, but generally speaking she bears little difference from the ancient humans who have once populated the Milky Way. The potency of her blood and soul are identical to that of the powerful human gods that once wielded great power in their heyday."

"Am I a blood descendant of my mother."

"Yes." Helena said. "I did not exist at that time, but my mother has made it more than clear that you are her son. She carried you to term in her stomach and took great care of you during your earliest years. A part of her blood is running through your veins and you have gained great advantages due to your heritage."

"Are you sure about that?" Ves furrowed his brows. "Because from my perspective, I grew up as a dead-normal baseline human. I am pretty sure that all of the medical checkups and so on would have clued people to the fact that my physiology is drastically different from a normal human. I did not grow up eating all of the exotic materials that are required to grow an extraordinary physique either. Shouldn't I have starved to death when I was young due to my inability to absorb the right nutrients to support my more demanding growth?"

This was a clear contradiction in logic. An authentic primordial human like David managed to grow a powerful skeleton that was grown out of a mixture of treasure materials while Ves was pretty sure he possessed normal bones before he graduated from university.

"You think too simply, brother." Helena replied. "I told you earlier that our mother had been struck by a curse that caused her to grow weaker over time. I did not describe the nature of this curse too deeply, but one of the major consequences is that her physical state deteriorates rapidly over time. Though she managed to delay her degeneration, by the time she settled in the Bright Republic, she had lost much of her original power, making her almost indistinguishable from baseline humans. The only difference is that she was still able to exert great control over her own genes and body tissue, allowing her to prolong her demise by conducting an orderly transformation to a lower form of humanity."

"Oh."

The control needed to do all of this while constantly suffering in pain and losing more and more power must be insane!

"Her body has lost the qualities that made them different. This meant that you were able to grow up as a normal human baby for the most part. You were almost entirely unaffected by the burdens that primordial humans must bear to live in the environment of these modern times. That is a blessing, not a curse."

The answer disappointed Ves. He thought that he gained a lot of special and cool abilities due to the higher life state of his mother.

"Did I truly get nothing special from my mother?" He asked.

"That is not true, silly brother. You are always special. Our mother used to be a powerful practitioner once. Even in the last years of her life, her soul was stronger than that of any baseline human. When you were growing in her womb, she was able to pass on a part of that strength to you. Her body, though drained of what made it strong, was still able to impart a trace of the great potential of primordial humans in your unborn body."

Ves turned back to her. "What does that mean…?"

"It means that while your mother couldn't bring you to life on a higher starting point, your latent potential is deeper than others. Your physique is more adaptable and your soul can endure greater stresses and changes without breaking. This is her greatest gift to you. You were indistinguishable from baseline humans when you were born, but you do not have to stay that way for the rest of your life. If you ever decided to follow in her footsteps or yearn to attain greater personal power in another capacity, you will not experience as many insurmountable obstacles as other modern humans. As a child of our mother, ascension is not a path to regaining the power of your distant ancestors. It is a journey of rightfully claiming the power that should have belonged to you but has been withheld due to the realities of the time. This is your birthright, Ves."

Ves became shocked by what he heard.

He never knew that his mother had so many deep considerations towards her son.

It made him feel warm and loved.  He could feel the care that she had given him even to this day!