Inside the lab of the Ubiquitous Force, two mech designers faced each other.

Despite the immense disparity in age, knowledge and accomplishments, the older of the two listened attentively to the younger mech designer.

In a complete flip of normality, the Journeyman Mech Designer was in the process of schooling the Master Mech Designer!

"The basic premise of my work is symbiosis." Ves began. "As you certainly know, I categorize my design philosophy as Metaphysical Man-Machine Symbiosis. Each and every word has meaning."

Master Willix looked intrigued. "I believe I understand the meaning of three of the four words in this description. However, the exact meaning of the first eludes me. Metaphysics encompasses many different fields. You need to be more specific."

"Ah, I don't disagree. To be honest, another word is supposed to stand in its place. Am I allowed to say the P-word here?" Ves cautiously asked.

Master Willix dismissively waved her hand. "Only the two of us are in this discussion. The rule prohibiting you from mentioning psionic power is mostly to prevent its dissemination. Too many people are unaware of how little privacy they truly possess. Our Association does not believe that spreading awareness of psionic power to the public will benefit the current order. However, this is a different situation. You are exempted from this rule."

"That's good to know. As you may have already guessed, the symbiosis that I have been trying to develop functions on a psionic level." He revealed, using the MTA's own terminology for spirituality. "I can enable my mechs to form bonds with their mech pilots that transcend physical reality. The neural interface doesn't even play a role as this bond is intangible and exists on an entirely different level."

"How do you form this bond?"

"By making my mechs alive."

She frowned again. "I thought I told you to leave your deceptive practices behind."

"I'm telling the truth! Why don't you believe me?!"

"Don't raise your voice, Mr. Larkinson. Be serious. Now, what are the essential conditions that allow you to form this symbiotic bond?"

Ves threw up his hands. "I make my mechs alive first. Wait! Before you think I'm messing with you, let me elaborate. Symbiosis describes a mutually-beneficial relationship between two living entities. This means that both sides have to be able to reciprocate to each other. Do you think that symbiosis can be achieved with something that has no life?"

"Cooperation between living organisms and lifeless objects is not unheard of, Mr. Larkinson. In fact, the classic relationship between mech and mech pilot is already a good example of that. I believe this is a definition problem. You are not providing me with a clear explanation of what it actually means for a mech to be 'alive'. Please clarify."

"A living mech is.. can you pull up one of my mech designs?"

She did so. She sent some commands to her implant. Just a second later, the lab projected his Valkyrie Redeemer design.

The MTA wasn't supposed to get their hands on it. Ves did not ask how she managed to get her hands on a privately-commissioned design.

"Can you feel it, ma'am?"

"I do 'feel' a faint external stimuli that reminds me of your Blessed Squire design."

"That's the proto-god. It's one of the two living elements inside my mech."

The Master frowned at the mention of the word proto-god. "There is another life in your mech?"

"It's complicated. Can you let me manipulate this design? It's easier if I strip it down."

"Be my guest."

Ves copied the design in order to develop a variant that wouldn't affect the original. Once he made sure that the copy would not affect the regular functioning of the Valkyrie Redeemer mechs, he straightforwardly stripped the Superior Mother from the design.

The feel of the modified schematics immediately dimmed. The presence of the Superior Mother was overpowering. It covered any other living activity for the most part. Only those who piloted the mech or were blessed with a lot of spiritual sensitivity could sense the full range of life within a machine.

From how Master Willix became more attentive, she must have sensed the difference as well. Ves paid a lot of attention to her reaction. He knew that Master Mech Designers were powerful in many ways. He wondered how her spiritual sensitivity matched up against his own. Were Masters really capable of matching him in this area?

She looked studious at the changed design. "I sense something missing. I cannot feel anything else."

"You can't? It's right there! The Valkyrie Redeemer is a harbinger of death. It is a design that channels the death phase of existence in hexism belief. While the intrinsic life of the design doesn't have a powerful glow, it is still perceivable to me. Let me try and alter it. You might be able to sense the fluctuations."

He grew quite interested in her ability to sense the spiritual foundation of his mech designs. If a Master like her was blind and deaf towards it, then Ves would have much greater assurance that he would be able to keep his spiritual component monopoly!

Since the variant of the Valkyrie Redeemer design was separate from the base model, Ves did not hesitate to do something that he would never do in his normal work.

He deliberately messed up the spiritual foundation. He began to make some meaningless changes to the design schematics. At the same time, he did the opposite of concentrating his mind. He began to fill it up with all kinds of junk to distract him from his core purpose.

He thought about whether Venerable Ghanso Larkinson was still alive.

He thought about how many days it had been since Gloriana demonstrated the real value of physical projections.

He thought about how he would miss experimenting on pirates. Once he left the Nyxian Gap, he needed to curb his habit of performing dangerous experiments. With Master Willix paying closer attention to him than ever, he might not be able to satisfy his cravings as often as he wanted.

His chaotic wanderings quickly messed up the surprisingly-fragile spiritual foundation. The neat order and unified direction it previously held quickly turned into a discordant mess.

It was as if Ves took a very elaborate wedding cake and put it into a blender until everything was mixed together.

While the end product was still sweet and edible, the blended cake completely lost its original identity!

Master Willix looked closely at the design schematics. She saw that Ves did not mean to do anything by shifting the physical design. She tried her best to peer underneath the surface.

"I believe I sensed something. It is.. difficult, however. If you hadn't pointed this out to me, I would have never realized that this aspect exists in your mech."

Ves turned to Master Willix. "Every mech possesses this distinct element. It's just that they are much more chaotic than mine. It's the foundation upon which all mech designs derive their psionic power."

That got a reaction out of the Master! "Tell me more about this foundation."

"As I just said, it's how high-ranking mech designers like you and me impart our specialty into our mech designs. Did you think they would just get stuck in the lines of the schematic? The.. psionic foundation of a mech design is what truly makes it special! As far as I know, it can only be formed by sentient mech designers. AIs do not count. Every design philosophy shapes it in a different way. Mine basically makes it alive and gives it conscious direction."

He just revealed a lot of information of great import! Ves was surprised that Master Willix wasn't aware of the existence of a mech's spiritual foundation. Had the MTA developed another theory?

Master Willix slowly took in the revelation. She frowned and fell silent for a minute before she called up a projection of another mech design.

It was a very simple third-class mech, yet it was clean and optimized beyond any level that Ves had ever seen!

"This is one of my casual works. Does it possess a psionic foundation as well?"

"Definitely." Ves nodded. He could sense it clearly and matched its character to what he felt from her. "This mech probably reacts to gravity and gravitic systems differently if I read its psionic foundation correctly."

"Is it 'alive' as well, then?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"It's malformed, stillborn and defective. You didn't employ the right method to give it a chance of life."

"Is this what Mr. S. has taught you?"

Ves replied with a half-truth. "He taught me some basic concepts and left me to fend for myself."

"How difficult is it to learn your special method?"

"It's easy. You just need to concentrate your mind and design your mech with purpose. Let me show how."

He began to instruct her how to do so. He already taught this method to Ketis and Gloriana in full. He also gave some instructions to his assistants, but not enough to reveal anything sensitive.

Given that she was one of the best mech designers in the star sector, Master Willix only needed a minute to understand his simple method.

"Let me see whether your method works."

Master Willix called up a design interface and began to design a third-class mech at an insanely fast speed!

Ves couldn't even keep up with her work as she designed so quickly that she would probably be able to complete her design in less than twenty minutes!

There wasn't any point in studying her design work. The design was irrelevant and she didn't add anything strange that would make the mech special.

He decided to do what was expected of him and observe the spiritual foundation that formed under her ministry.

Once she finished her casual design, grew inquisitive. "Is this design alive?"

The results surprised Ves. He hadn't expected this outcome.

"No."

"Why?"

"I.. you did a good job. Its spiritual foundation is remarkably smooth and largely conforms to the vision of the mech. It's just.. still without any inkling of life."

"What am I missing?"

"Did you design this mech while believing that it is alive?" Ves guessed. "I think that's pretty important. If you approach it as an ordinary machine, then it shouldn't be of any surprise that the mech will ultimately match your expectations. You need to regard the design process as bringing a mech to life. Anything less will not allow you to accomplish what I do on a daily basis. Without designing a living mech, you will lack the basis that is needed to implement my other solutions."

"I shall try again with your advice in mind."

She proceeded to make several more attempts. Due to her rapid design speed, the spiritual foundations of her mechs were much weaker than usual. Even so, they should still be capable of coming to life if Ves was performing the work.

Instead, no matter how Master Willix approached the design process, her mechs remained cold and sterile.

Certainly, this was already better than what many other mech designers accomplished. Their mechs were pretty much lifeless pools of mud due to all of the mech designers imprinting their muddy thoughts onto the designs.

"I seem unable to replicate your ability to design these so-called living mechs." She concluded without much emotion. "I believe that mech designers must abide by several stringent prerequisites in order to accomplish this feat. Perhaps this is why Mr. S. selected you to carry on a part of his legacy. You must be one of the few individuals in the galaxy who happen to possess the right qualities."

Okay. Let's go with that as well.

"I guess so." Ves nonchalantly shrugged. "I can't tell you why I can do this while you can't. I'm still figuring out this stuff myself. It's a pity that you can't get this far. I'll have a very hard time finding disciples of my own to expand my design philosophy."

In truth, he was ecstatic! His mind had practically turned into a party as he celebrated Master Willix's inability to copy his design philosophy!

If even a Master Mech Designer who excelled at simulating other design philosophies couldn't do something as basic as designing a living mech, then his secrets still remained safe!