The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1790

After surviving a suspected mental attack, Ves grew incredibly grave.

Since he woke up a few hours before his usual waking time, he didn’t hurry to get out of his bed. Instead, he scratched Lucky’s chin while he contemplated ways to guard himself against this insidious attack.

The most frightening part about this attack was that it could sneak up to him without alerting him! Before he knew it, the illusion warped his cognition until he completely took its absurdities for granted!

"I need to find a way to guard my mind!"

Before, Ves always thought that his mind was a fortress. As a mech designer, his design seed guarded the core of his mind. Anything that encroached on its territory would invite a terrible counterattack!

Not even Ves’ attempt to investigate Gloriana’s mind yielded much result after her design seed detected the intrusion!

Even though his spiritual projection turned into a dormant spiritual fragment in her mind, it only maintained its existence because Gloriana adored his presence.

Ves thought that his design seed would be just as alert and guarded. Yet when Cassandra Breyer tampered with his mind, his design seed completely dropped the ball!

Was there a difference between their functions? Was Gloriana’s design seed much more sensitive to abnormalities due to her specialization? Was his design seed defective?

"No. It’s because my adversary is too strong!"

Even if he suspected that most of her strength was locked away, she still possessed all of the knowledge and advanced techniques she accumulated over her shrouded lifetime!

How old was she? One century? Two centuries? Seven centuries?

Whatever the case, Cassandra was definitely strong enough to outmatch him on these fronts!

Ves could only take consolation in his defensive advantage and his edge in the amount of spiritual strength he could leverage.

"This is problematic."

If Ves had to make a choice, he would always prefer finesse over power. This applied both to mechs and spirituality.

What was the use of maximizing power if it couldn’t be controlled?

Right now, Ves felt as if he was a child in front of Cassandra Breyer. He only received a minor lesson on how to employ his Spirituality. He learnt the rest of his spiritual repertoire on his own!

"Without a teacher, without a textbook, how can I possibly match against a master in this art?"

Ves believed that Cassandra was definitely connected to the Five Scrolls Compact.

The Compact appeared to be the highest or even only organization in human space that developed a systematic understanding of this phenomenon.

Even though the MTA seemed to be aware of spirituality or ’psionic power’ as they called it, Ves suspected that they weren’t even close to matching the cultists!

He was quite jealous of those who had been taught their arts. Instead of groping in the dark like Ves, these Compact members all received teachings accumulated over centuries or even millenia!

Comparing Ves against Cassandra was like comparing a caveman to Nitaa in full battle gear.

There was no contest!

"Is it even possible to block every attack?"

Ves couldn’t assume that his defenses were infallible. As long as he slipped up even once, he would definitely be vulnerable to hallucinations!

"I have to resolve this problem as fast as possible." He whispered.

Fortunately, it only took half a week for the fleet to arrive at Kesseling VIII. Once they reached the LMC’s new headquarters, Ves would probably be able to gain possession of the Scarlet Rose.

"Hopefully."

He wasn’t sure yet. What if the Hexers tried to make a claim at the ship? That would be a disaster to Ves! Not only would he lose a valuable second-class vessel, he would also lose the mysterious escape pod or provide it with opportunities to plague him with spiritual attacks!

"I need to get some clarification from Gloriana." He muttered.

Until he regained control over the Scarlet Rose, Ves needed to employ a stopgap solution. He needed to find at least some way to repel or mitigate follow-up attacks.

He didn’t have a lot of good ideas except for the obvious. After a lot of thought, Ves simply shrugged and formed an empowered spiritual shield over his mind. He invested just enough spiritual energy in it that it would take an entire day to replenish.

His mental space instantly felt more secure now that he invested in its defense. He estimated that he was a lot more resilient against external pressure now!

Whether it was a spiritual attack from a suspected Compact associate or an aggressive force of will from a hostile expert pilot, as long as he maintained a shield of this strength, he would definitely be better off than if he relied on his natural defenses!

Ves made an important realization. "I should have done this before."

Anytime he didn’t need to accumulate his excess spiritual energy into a P-stone, he should use up his spiritual energy instead of letting it go to waste!

Even if the chance of suffering a spiritual attack was almost zero, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Just like a shield generator, Ves didn’t need the protection most of the time, but when he came under attack, he would be infinitely grateful for his decision!

As the shield settled down and wrapped around his mind, Ves tried to judge its defensive capabilities.

It would definitely work against most attacks of a spiritual nature, but would it work against a master in the arts like Cassandra Breyer?

"She’s way too fearsome." He shuddered.

It could be that Cassandra could easily pierce or bypass his attempt at shielding his mind.

Compared to other other products of spiritual engineering such as the Grand Dynamo and Cassandra’s insidious illusion attack, his shield was completely devoid of sophistication.