Searing pain and a profound sense of loss overtook Gloriana. If not for her strong determination to remain under control, she would have lashed out already!
As it was, she could barely hold herself together. It helped that she was familiar with her boyfriend's presence. Having taken in the profile of his presence made it a little bit easier to refrain from doing something that would ruin the procedure.
In the meantime, Ves cautiously withdrew his active spiritual projection through the hole that Gloriana still kept open. Now that he had his prize in hand, he had no desire to linger in her mind any longer.
Despite his spiritual prowess, Gloriana was a Journeyman who was just as strong as him! As long as her design seed roused into action, a mere spiritual projection would never be able to resist!
His gradual withdrawal from her mind proceeded without incident. The awful consequences that he imagined never came to pass.
"Success! You can relax now. I can complete the last steps on my own!"
She visibly slumped and nursed her head as she tried to make sense of what had happened.
Meanwhile, Ves steered his spiritual projection to the P-stone which still held the broken shards of Nyxie's spiritual fragments and the images and energy he already deposited.
Compared to his own contribution, Gloriana's thoughts were relatively minor. Only a small amount of her spiritual energy had blended with the thoughts, giving them just enough substance for Ves to be able to handle them in this fashion.
Ves wasn't too worried at the lack of quantity. From what he discovered about spiritual manipulation, it would be enough to harvest some of Gloriana's thoughts. The abundant spiritual energy he supplied would mostly be used to glue to the broken shards and scattered ingredients together.
He proceeded with the act of spiritual restoration.
This had always been a mystifying process to him. How could it be so easy to fit different spiritual shards and elements together using his own spirituality as glue? Was this normal, or was he the only one who could do this due to his unique design philosophy?
Whatever the case, Ves soon became immersed in the profoundness of what he was doing.
Ever since he muddled-headedly created Vescas and the Solemn Guardian, he resolved to pay more attention to the mechanics behind spiritual restoration.
He couldn't keep creating spiritual products without truly understanding the process. The engineer inside him recoiled at remaining as ignorant as a barbarian staring at a campfire while remaining ignorant of what was truly taking place!
He paid extra attention to why certain spiritual shards fit with other shards or other ingredients such as his images or Gloriana's thoughts.
Unfortunately, he saw no rhyme or reason why they inexplicably fit. Either his spiritual senses were too insensitive to detect what was going on, or some kind of invisible rule was in effect which he hadn't figured out at the moment.
He was inclined towards the latter possibility, which only made him feel more stupid.
"This is harder than I thought." He grumbled, though he made sure to maintain his concentration.
While Ves stared at the P-stone while he fiddled, Gloriana slowly regained her senses.
Anything that manipulated the mind resulted in major consequences. Even the act of depriving her with a portion of her thoughts on the Adonis Colossus severely altered her memory and perception of her current project!
Shock and alarm momentarily suffused her agitated mind. She felt violated in a way that struck her very being!
Though she had been warned by Ves of the danger of the operation, she had difficulty of accepting what had happened.
If anyone other than Ves or her closest family pulled this off on her, she would have torn into them like a wildcat!
As it was, seeing Ves consumed in his current task made her calm down. He hadn't hurt her on purpose. It had simply been necessary in order to achieve the result they wanted.
In order to design the perfect vessel, Gloriana already knew she had to make some sacrifices.
A few minutes passed by in silence as she recovered in a sense. While she hadn't regained what she lost, she at least sensed that her wound had been patched somehow.
Hopefully, the scars of what took place in her mind would fade. The lingering aftermath left her in an uncomfortable state.
In order to distract herself, she turned back to Ves and what he was doing.
Try as she might, she saw nothing special except Ves holding a rock.
She let out a frustrated grunt. She lacked the ability to perceive the wonders that Ves had described!
Even now, she sensed some unfathomable pressure emanating from the rock, yet that was far from detailed enough for her to get a sense of what was happening!
Maybe looking at it with her eyes was wrong. They clearly weren't working under these circumstances, so she simply closed her eyes and relied on her other senses to feel what was happening.
Without the distraction of visual clutter, she became a bit more sensitive to what was taking place. She leaned in a little, allowing her to sense some of the activity.
As she did, she slowly began to perceive the strength emanating from Ves. Though she was already familiar with it whenever they became immersed in their collaborative design sessions, she had never felt it as clearly as today!
His presence was different, foreign, masculine and conveyed entirely different principles of mechs than hers! Despite that, she basked in its comforting familiarity.
She focused on her boyfriend's presence and followed it down to what it was doing. At some point, Ves' presence began to mix with an entirely different presence.
Curious, Gloriana tried her best to perceive the activity better, but without much result.
Frustrated, she tried a little harder, scrunching her face furiously as she threw in whatever she could muster from her mind.
Eventually, something changed. She sensed something faintly familiar in the mixed presence.
Her own thoughts!
An aching sense of need welled within her depths. She wanted to take back her stolen thoughts and restore her original perception of the Adonis Colossus!
Before she knew it, her mind welled up as the core of her design philosophy acted on instinct!
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