The Superior Mother had descended!

Normally, the spiritual product that Ves had made through a bizarre ritual directed her attention elsewhere. With the rapid rise in Hexer worshippers, the Superior Mother seemed to be preoccupied with attending her new flock.

Ves also repeatedly admonished her for showing up out of the blue. He did not want to go about his day only for a giant ghostly hand to appear out of nowhere and smack his body down!

It was fine if only his core bodyguard detail observed the Superior Mother's moves, but he did not want word of her existence to spread!

Fortunately, the Superior Mother must have inherited some of Cynthia's caution. The design spirit no longer manifested herself willy-nilly anymore, though Ves still noticed her peeking at him at times.

To be honest, Ves did not have a good understanding of the Superior Mother's personality. She seemed to embody his original vision of a Hexer ideal, but she might have inherited some of Cynthia's personality and abilities.

At the very least, the Superior Mother truly treated him like he was her son sometimes!

It made him feel quite exasperated. As her creator, Ves was supposed to be a father figure towards the ancestral spirit. Other spiritual products such as Goldie, Lufa, the Illustrious and so on all looked up to him despite possessing more spiritual strength than him. Only the Superior Mother deviated from this pattern!

It was unfortunate that Ves couldn't do anything about it. With trillions of Hexers providing her with spiritual feedback, she had rapidly grown to the point where Ves couldn't really do anything to deter her from doing anything. Despite her age, the Superior Mother already caught up and surpassed Qilanxo, who was previously his strongest design spirit!

If not for the fact that she bumped into a bottleneck, she would have been more insufferable!

Still, no matter how much the Superior Mother changed, she was still affectionate towards him. As long as she believed he was her 'son', Ves was confident he could ask for help.

After all, that was what a good mother should do for her child.

In order to perform his experiment and strengthen the defenses of his clan, Ves threw away his pride. It didn't matter if the Superior Mother treated him like her son instead of her father. Ves would even be willing to wear a dog collar and crawl on all fours if that was what it took for the Superior Mother to lend him her power!

Of course, just because Ves was accustomed to the Superior Mother didn't mean that others were accustomed to seeing a myth come to life!

"W-W-What is that, sir?!" Venerable Joshua reacted with shock!

Expert pilots were known to be fearless. Joshua showed nothing of that. As soon as the giant hand patted Ves to the deck of his personal workshop, the expert pilot jumped back and adopted a defensive posture. His force of will became agitated as well!

"Calm down, Joshua! She's friendly!"

"Are you sure?!"

"I am! There is no need to panic. Stay still and put down your guard. Let the Superior Mother get to know you know better. As long as you gain her approval, you'll be able to pilot the Valkyrie Prime and any other Hexer mech that I've designed with ease."

The prospect of being able to pilot a Hexer mech without feeling rejection aroused Joshua's obsession. His trust and belief in Ves overruled her vigilance against seeing a giant hand coming into existence.

"Really?"

Ves nodded. "Look, I can't explain who or what the Superior Mother truly is, but she is a friend, not an enemy. She is one of several entities who are responsible for helping us all. Have you ever wondered where glows truly come from? Now you know."

The revelation shocked Joshua! As the expert pilot realized the truth behind glows, he clarified some of the mysteries he had been grappling with. Comprehension dawned in his mind.

"No wonder your glow mechs are so remarkable. Ever since you released the Crystal Lord, your mech designs became a lot different. It turns out that you've been partnering up with these.. gods?"

"They are not gods!" Ves immediately insisted. "You can think of them as powerful, incorporeal entities. They are alive in a sense and they can die if they sustain too much damage. Do you remember the so-called 'dark gods' we defeated in the Nyxian Gap? They are a similar kind of existence."

"I see! So that alien woman that came at the end…"

Ves curtly nodded. "Reality is much more complicated than you think. What you see, hear, feel and smell is just the tip of the iceberg. Scientists and researchers have managed to expose more aspects of the multiverse, but they do not claim to have explored more than ten percent of all phenomena in existence. The existence of entities such as the Superior Mother is known to very few people. Now, you are one of them. Please don't disseminate what you have learned today. We can get into a lot of trouble if the Big Two becomes aware of some of the truths they want to keep hidden."

"This…" Venerable Joshua looked lost. "I don't know what to think about this. I never thought that your mechs would be hiding such a massive secret."

"You don't need to overthink this issue. Leave that to researchers such as myself. I will explain everything you need to know about the Superior Mother and my other 'design spirits', as I like to call my incorporeal friends. Let me introduce you to another one while I am at it. I am sure you are already very familiar with her considering she fought alongside you in the previous battle."

Ves took the Larkinson Mandate from Nitaa and waved it in front of him. "Goldie! Come join the Superior Mother in welcoming Joshua to the fold!"

Nyaaaaa.

The Golden Cat materialized her body just above the book. Joshua looked shocked yet again!

"She.. I can feel her… no, that's not right. I always felt her, but I didn't realize she existed like this. She's not just the source of the glow of the Quint and the other Bright Warriors, right?"

Ves nodded. "She's the invisible glue that binds us Larkinsons together. She's the reason why tens of thousands of adopted clansmen such as you immediately develop a belonging to our clan. She is our invisible guardian against enemies like the dark gods."

Upon his prompting, the Golden Cat and the Superior Mother both drew closer to the expert pilot.

Now that Joshua did not mistake the spiritual entities as possible threats, his force of will no longer closed up like a wall.

Instead, he cautiously opened himself up. As his force of will interacted with both design spirits, Joshua suddenly realized that he was already familiar with them. The design spirits corresponded almost exactly with the glows he came in touch with on a regular basis!

Suffice to say, Venerable Joshua didn't need to be close to the Larkinson Mandate to recognize Goldie's familiar warmth. As Goldie's glowing form floated in his arms, he automatically stroked her back and scratched her chin. The young cat radiated pure affection as she luxuriated in Joshua's comfortable force of will.

Nyaaa~

The Superior Mother's giant hand slowly hovered closer. Though its enormous size intimidated Joshua a bit, his courage as an expert pilot finally asserted itself again.

Since Ves vouched for the giant hand, it shouldn't be a threat.

Fortunately, the Superior Mother did not touch the expert pilot too much. The hand stretched out a finger and softly poked Joshua's body at different angles. With each poke, the ancestral spirit seemed to become more friendly towards him. His will also became more accustomed to the entity's distinct presence.

Ves stood quietly to the side as the powerful spiritual entity seemed to be growing more familiar with his favorite expert pilot. It was as if Ves brought his playmate home one day and introduced him to his mother!

Eventually, his mother satisfied her curiosity. Her change of attitude became very evident as Venerable Joshua experienced remarkable changes in the glow he felt from the giant hand and the Valkyrie Prime that was standing behind him. The Hexer glow no longer felt weird to him. Instead, it became friendlier and more welcoming somehow.

Together with Goldie's warmth, Joshua had the illusion that he was visiting Ves' home!

Unfortunately, being welcomed by the design spirits didn't mean that Venerable Joshua could communicate with them. Ves actually thought that Joshua's life domain bestowed him with the same ability to communicate with other forms of life as him, but it turned out that his talents lied elsewhere.

It wasn't a big deal. The Superior Mother and the Golden Cat both approved of Venerable Joshua, and that was all he needed to leverage their strength the next time he piloted the mechs they watched over.

The truths and insights that Venerable Joshua learned today should be enough to give him an advantage over his fellow peers. Ves was not above playing favorites. It was in his best interest to give Joshua a leg up, if only for his rare and very compatible domain.

Eventually, Goldie went back into the Larkinson Mandate while the Superior Mother's enormous hand faded away.

"Where are they going?"

"Existences like them aren't native to the material realm." Ves answered.

Joshua responded with a dull stare.

"They are like.. ghosts." Ves tried to dumb down his explanation. "They belong to another plane of existence, one exclusive to intangible ghosts like them. While Goldie and the Superior Mother are strong enough to cross over into our physical reality and show up in the way they did, it's quite strenuous to them. They're strong, but they can't exert all of their strength on the dimensions we live in. They need help in order to do so, and that is where my mechs come in. My products are interfaces which connect different entities together."

That was too much for the expert pilot.

Ves helplessly groped his hands in the air. "Let me give you an example. Whenever you pilot the Quint, you form an invisible cooperation that consists of three different living entities. First, there is the mech pilot. You control the machine. Then there is the mech. It not only serves as an interface, but is also alive in itself. In my early career, that was it. As you have already realized, I introduced a third element later on. Design spirits not only strengthen the mech, but also lend their glows to it. By combining your strengths whenever you pilot a mech, you are able to accomplish feats that you could never have accomplished by yourself. The Unity of Man and Machine that you've formed during the Battle against the Abyss is proof of that!"

This time, Venerable Joshua understood the gist of what Ves was trying to tell him. The continuous realizations enlightened him to such an extent that his willpower altered in character!

As Venerable Joshua turned around and looked up to the Valkyrie Prime, he no longer felt repelled by the Hexer mech. Instead, the dormant mech's glow seemed to embrace him. In turn, his force of will welcomed the glow with much less reserve.

"So a mech is actually like this…" He muttered in fascination.

Ves walked closer until he stood next to the expert pilot. "There is nothing hindering you from piloting the Valkyrie Prime now. The Superior Mother approves of you now that I told her that you are my protector."

"What about the mech itself?" Venerable Joshua cautiously asked.

"That shouldn't be a problem either. Ordinary, my Valkyrie mechs repel any mech pilots who aren't Hexers and who aren't women. However, I've altered that when I worked on the Valkyrie Prime. Since it is my work to begin with, it is easy for me to alter its character a bit. The mech might not completely open its doors to you, but it should at least tolerate your presence."

"Then can I try out this mech?"

"Not yet." Ves shook his head. "I need to perform one more procedure before the Valkyrie Prime is truly complete."