Transcendence.

The word was packed with many different meanings. It held a lot of connotations.

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It also featured prominently in many religions. The notion that humans were able to transcend their humanity and mortality was a popular notion. Who didn't want to shed their weak and boring human existences in order to become a powerful god or other supreme entity?

The Ylvainan Faith centered around it, and so did hexism! Many other religions constructed myths where the faithful would be rewarded for their piety by giving them an opportunity to transcend into a higher existence.

Ves thought that all of these promises were false. The faiths merely dangled imaginary rewards in front of the faces of gullible believers in order to incentivize them to act in a manner that served the interests of the charlatans who perpetuated the delusions.

The reason why they got away with their lies was because it was impossible to prove whether someone actually transcended when they died. Almost every person in the galaxy lacked his spiritual perception, and no tools existed that could register whether someone's souls ascended to a higher plane of existence, so every con artist could keep the lies going as long as the claims remained unfalsifiable!

Yet as much as Ves looked down on religions that offered promises that they could not possibly fulfill, transcendence was not an imaginary concept.

It was very much real.

While Ves did not know of any actual instances of transcendence before the Age of Mechs, it was a different story once the Big Two ascended into power.

The arrival of the MTA and the deliberate formation of the mech market and mech industry introduced a lot of changes to human civilization.

One of the most esoteric ones was the emergence of humans who had truly transcended their mortal and human limitations.

The existence of high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers proved that humanity was capable of transcending in a more controllable and universal process without needing to rely on any specific faiths.

What was great about expert pilots, Journeyman Mech Designers and so on was that they were concrete entities whose existences and powers could be verified!

Even the most ardent secularists in human space found it difficult to deny the greatness of god pilots and Star Designers!

For the first time in human history, people found not one, but several proven ways to make themselves better in an existential fashion.

Instead of praying to some imaginary god or whipping your back fifty times each day, a person who yearned to become someone greater could work earnestly to raise themselves higher!

Although reality soon proved that the success rate was abysmally low, the fact that there were cases where it worked drove many people to pursue a career in mech piloting and mech design!

In fact, if expert pilots, ace pilots and god pilots didn't exist, Ves was sure that there would be at least 50 percent less potentates who decided to take advantage of their genetic aptitude!

The profession of mech designer also wouldn't be as popular. Less people would apply to become a mech designer as this specific profession was less able to compete against other engineering professions, such as becoming a naval engineer or civil engineer.

Yet because unexplainable people like Journeymen and higher existed, students continue to flock to programs that caused the majority of graduates to become marginal figures who had no realistic chance to achieve transcendence.

"In the Age of Mechs, the importance of mech pilots and mech designers cannot be overstated."

As he began to travel the galaxy and explore different facets of humanity, he became more and more aware of how the MTA rigged society in its favor.

From allowing squabbling states to wage war against each other to enacting policies that actively aimed to drown the mech industry with a tsunami of mech designers, everything appeared to be set up to maximize the emergence of as many high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers as possible!

The MTA must have poured an unimaginable amount of funding, resources, manpower and time into increasing their chances of helping someone attain transcendence.

Ves wasn't sure if any of their secret projects achieved success, but he was quite sure that any possible solution was bound to be impractical!

This effectively meant that the vast majority of humans had no choice but to rely on their own efforts to transcend mortality.

"That's not all that bad, actually. As long as the requirements are high, then only the best and most deserving individuals get to go a step beyond."

People like himself for example.

This was why the quantity of high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers remained miniscule despite the huge amount of low-ranking equivalents that walled at the bottom of the pyramid.

Though it was easy for Ves to dismiss these losers as unworthy pretenders, his understanding of spiritual potential and how infrequently it occurred among people made him feel otherwise.

The truth was that he had met a lot of good, hard-working people who deserved a shot at transcendence, but got denied because they lacked a special sauce.

The most galling aspect about this was that developing spiritual potential was essentially uncontrollable!

Ves had observed a lot of people and beasts who possessed or lacked this critical trait, but so far he had yet to find a logical explanation. The only common factor that he managed to ascertain was that spiritual potential was tied to sentience, but that was not enough to do anything!

"It's like a lottery. Some people just get lucky while the rest get left with nothing."

He had long been frustrated by this condition. There were plenty of assistant mech designers in the Design Department who deserved the opportunity to bloom, but wouldn't be able to do so because their spiritualities were almost non-existent!

The same went for his growing roster of mech pilots. While numerous great and supportive Larkinsons like Venerable Joshua managed to realize their potential, too many clansmen lacked the same chances.

"How would Melkor react if he hears about this?" Ves idly asked.

If Ves revealed that Melkor originally never had a chance to become an expert pilot, the Avatar Commander would likely become crushed.

Yet if Ves revealed right afterwards that he could give him a chance, then Melkor would likely explode with glee!

"Should I even give him this opportunity, though?"

Melkor was already doing quite well in his current position. The Larkinson Clan wouldn't gain that much if he managed to undergo apotheosis. Ves could pick any other mech pilot in the clan to become a supreme warrior.

"Well, I can consider all of this later. First, I need to process this result!"

Ves tried to temper his enthusiasm by reminding himself of the many caveats of his ground-breaking experiment.

Even though he technically imbued an average human with spiritual potential, it only happened milliseconds before the person in question blew up in the most explosive fashion he had ever witnessed in any of his experiments!

"Why did this happen?" He puzzlingly frowned.

He went back over the final moments before Dr. Redmont's demise. The strong spiritual activity he sensed had become far greater than any average human was supposed to generate.

Ves quickly figured out the reason why Redmont was able to exceed his own limits.

"Resonance. The power of resonance strikes again."

He was quite familiar with the concept of resonance. He observed it often enough among mech pilots and mechs that developed a close and intimate bond with each other.

The Larkinson Clan's expert pilots were particularly good at resonating with their mechs, though it was a shame that they were still waiting for actual expert mechs.

Yet what he managed to observe was a process where Redmont's singular obsession occupied so much mental real estate that… it became too big to be treated as a single subject!

At some point, Redmont's intense desire became so big and unwieldy that it seemed to collapse under its own weight, metaphorically speaking.

It split up and began to occupy different parts of his mind. When that occurred, these split parts of the same subject began to resonate among themselves.

When that started to happen, the test subject's mind activity quickly exploded!

In fact, not only did different parts of the specimen's mind begin to resonate with each other, they also resonated with his weak but attuned spirituality!

All of this dynamic activity continued to grow in magnitude as the expansion still continued. Even after Redmont's obsession had fractured into several identical parts, these shards continued to expand as there was plenty of free real estate left for them to occupy.

"It was only when this growth was nearing its limit that the critical moment came."

Just like how filling a balloon with air caused it to tighten up, the unrestrained expansion of Redmont's obsession eventually occupied every available space in his mind.

There was no more room for his obsessions to expand any further!

Yet the growth didn't stop. The violent resonance caused Redmont's mind activity to become so great that his straining mind triggered a mysterious and unclear response that somehow caused it to fuel the growth of the test subject's spirituality!

Ves still remembered what his spiritual senses managed to perceive as this ultimate moment occurred.

It happened remarkably quickly. In one moment, Redmont was still an average person. In the next moment, he had become someone who might not have become a transcendent, but gained the possibility to attain this status!

Essentially, the experiment provided Dr. Redmont with a path to transcendence.

Yet something went wrong during this critical moment.

Just as Dr. Redmont's spiritual potential came into existence, it began to resonate with the man's supercharged mind.

The difference was incredibly drastic.

Before, his mind resonated with a weak spirit that was as small and pathetic as a peanut.

Afterwards, his mind suddenly resonated with a spirit that had become as big and strong as an elephant!

The disparity was not only massive, but the transition was too abrupt. Dr. Redmont didn't have any time to adjust to his new circumstances. When his overactive mind recklessly resonated with his newly-grown spiritual potential at full strength, the activity generated by this process exceeded Dr. Redmont's limits by a huge margin!

"This explains why the destruction wasn't limited to his head."

Ves turned his attention back to the observation window. Enough time had passed for most of the blood that had splattered against the observation window to drip down to the floor.

The view in the testing chamber was still too murky though, so Ves activated a small command that instantly caused all of the blood stuck on the window to shake to the floor.

Red.

Almost the entire chamber was dyed in red. This was what transcendence had wrought to the traitor. In the middle of an expanding center of blood and microscopic body tissue, a pile of bones had fallen onto the comfortable chair and floor.

In fact, several bones had been flung to the sides of the chamber. There was nothing in the bloody space that was remotely recognizable!

"Damn. Resonance isn't always good, I guess."

Ves didn't clean up the mess right away. He wanted to examine it in person and inspect the space while it was in its current condition. He needed to make as many observations as possible in order to prop up his analysis of the situation.

If he wanted to make use of the Aspect of Transcendence as a safe and easy method to grant spiritual potential to selected people, then he needed to understand exactly what was going on! The more data he gathered, the greater the chance of realizing one of his ambitions!

As his eyes continually swept over the pools of blood, he thought that there was too little of it. One test subject was far from enough to attain his goal.

Fortunately, the solution was simple.

"I'll just have to obtain more test subjects."

A devious grin appeared on this face. "It just so happens that there are plenty of candidates on this planet!"