Chapter 6949 The Power of Alien Delusions
Chapter 6949 The Power of Alien Delusions
As unpleasant as it was to speak to Sev Larkinson, the session already bore a lot of fruit.
The Larkinsons and their partners gathered plenty of information about Ves' alternate personality.
So far, they have already managed to form a number of preliminary conclusions.
The first and most obvious conclusion was that Sev most definitely existed as a full and separate personality.
He was not a drunken or impaired version of Ves.
Sev existed as his own person. He possessed radically different views on a large variety of topics. The real Ves would never harbor those thoughts, let alone voice them with so much confidence and belief.
Second, Sev was rational and capable of communicating normally.
Sev did not willingly cooperate with the Larkinsons, yet that did not stop him from spilling the beans under coercion. He did not stubbornly refuse to divulge his true thoughts like an idiot, but surrendered to reality and did whatever was necessary to avoid another painful smack to his head.
Although it looked rather silly for a phase lord as large as Sev to exhibit obvious vigilance towards a mech that was several times smaller than his true body, the ace mech was just too powerful.
Even without her superdimensional conversion, the First Sword Mark III still had a high chance of defeating the human phase lord in a duel!
This process would just take a lot longer due the presence of a strengthened spatial barrier.
Another conclusion the Larkinsons made while interviewing Sev was that he was an unequivocal bastard.
Sev did not care about the feelings and opinions of 'mortals' and 'weaklings'. He firmly placed himself above the rest and expected everyone to do his bidding without question. He genuinely believed that he was a god and that it was his right to lord over those that failed to match his strength.
One important curiosity was that he reluctantly regarded ace pilots as gods in equal standing to his own. It was only due to their impressive combat power that phase lords such as Sev were forced to make this admission.
Perhaps the most important conclusion that the Larkinsons drew from the interview was that Sev possessed at least a portion of Ves' memories, but also acquired knowledge about phase lords that he originally shouldn't know!
He sounded as if he was Ves who got corrupted by the heavenly authority of the Red Ocean until he turned completely native!
After Gloriana took a break, others picked up where she left off and began to ask the questions.
Vector Loban asked one of the most important questions that all of them had on their mind.
"Which side of the Red War are you rooting for? Are you siding with the native aliens, who all possess the stance on phase lords such as yourself? Or are you still willing to side with red humanity, who have killed more native gods than you can count?"
Sev pressed his lips. "The Red War is a war fought between machine gods and the descendants of the Elder Gods. The former are individually strong, but that is only because they are much more extensively integrated with technology than the latter. The phase lords and phase whales have made an egregious mistake by neglecting the difference that good equipment can make. They have already begun to remedy this problem. Once they are able to reduce the parity between combat gear, the real gods of the Red Ocean shall vanquish the foreign gods. We are the blessed sons of this dwarf galaxy. This war shall end so long as the right gods regain complete control over our blessed galaxy."
That was a lot of information. Sev expressed an unusual stance towards the Red War.
He unambiguously sided with the native aliens, not even caring that they were committing a huge amount of atrocities against the human colonists!
What was more important was that Sev did not consider the Red War a struggle between races.
He instead considered it to be a war between different kinds of gods. The alternate personality completely disregarded the worth of mortals and solely interpreted the ongoing conflict as a power struggle between 'machine' gods and 'real' gods.
If Sev's opinions happened to be representative of the opposing alien phase lords, then the unspoken implication was that the two sides might be able to find enough common ground to coexist with each other!
Of course, the premise of all of this was for red humanity to completely abandon its high-ranking mech pilots and put their human phase lords into absolute leadership positions!
As the listeners deduced the implications of Sev's words, they began to harbor even more doubts towards the Phase Lord Department.
Was Sev the exception, or the rule?
Had other human phase lords secretly gone native and chosen to side with the Red Cabal due to holding the correct stance towards the deification of phase leaders?
If this was the case, then the Phase Lord Department became a lot less reliable than before!
Even if the collies who worked for this department were disciplined and loyal enough to maintain their allegiance to red humanity, the brainwashing of human phase lords would definitely lead to undesirable changes in policy.
Nobody dared to voice their suspicions about the Phase Lord Department. This was way above their pay grade. They should just pass on this information to the bigshots and let them handle this hot potato.
"One more question." Maria Abselon spoke up after a time. "If our clan is about to enter into battle against a hostile force of native aliens that is led by formidable enemy phase lords, will you agree to fight alongside our mechs?"
"As shameful as it is for me to fight on the wrong side of this war, I shall not capitulate. The gods of this dwarf galaxy are too blinded in their hatred against 'humans'. Besides, I can only secure my place in the Red Ocean if I demonstrate my strength. Just because we are the same kind of gods does not mean we automatically get along. I shall fight against my fellow gods because I must."
If Sev spoke the truth, then he could still fight on the 'right' side, but only if the native aliens were hostile against him. If for whatever reason the phase lords decided that they belonged on the same side, then that spelled a lot of trouble for the Larkinson Clan!
Fortunately, the notion that all phase lords belonged to the same group was not a given in the Red Ocean.
Not even the Red Cabal was able to unite all phase lords and phase whales. These native gods were quite selfish and conceited by nature. It would be difficult for them to truly set aside all of their rivalries and competitive tension.
After all, the Red Ocean was still a relatively small dwarf galaxy. Its territories and resources were limited. The new frontier could only support so many phase leaders at a time.
Many phase leaders likely chose to isolate themselves in their pocket spaces and hibernate for thousands of years at a time because they could not bear this competitive pressure.
Now that Sev answered the most acute questions, the Larkinsons were ready to wrap this session up and conduct an extensive analysis on all of the information they had gathered.
It was not a good idea to let Sev out for too long. The Larkinsons feared that the longer he remained active, the more control he could wrest away from Ves.
"It is time for you to withdraw and let Ves regain control over his body. Will you do so voluntarily, or do we need to instruct Saint Dise to give you another corrective tap?" Vice Director Maria Abselon asked.
Sev raised his palms. "Whoa there. Let us not be too hasty, here. The real gods shall vanquish the machine gods in time. I am patient enough to wait until that moment has arrived. Once that happens, I shall finally be able to discard my weak original self and embrace my true destiny as a god among mortals. I will even be generous enough and shelter you from the predations of other gods and aliens so long as you submit to me. I only ask for a couple of boons in return."
"You are not in a position to negotiate with the Larkinson Clan."
"Oh, I disagree. There is always room for negotiation. From the way I see it, you desire answers while I desire control. I would be happy to share the truth of the gods to you. I know more than you think. I merely ask that you grant me the time to exercise my divine body from time to time. My weaker self will agree, as letting me challenge other real gods and win may be the only way for 'us' to subjugate our enemies. The alien mortals resist your invasion because they reject your gods. Present them with an acceptable alternative, and they shall kneel before you before you know it. Only one kind of god deserves to rule over the Red Ocean."
With that, Sev waved everyone goodbye before folding back his true body. His stature steadily shrunk until he slowly returned to human proportions.
During this transition, it became pretty clear when the real Ves managed to return.
Multiple indications including the First Sword's Saint Kingdom confirmed that Ves had definitely regained control over himself.
Everyone relaxed when they saw that Ves was still able to restore himself. There was a chance that Sev might have been able to replace his original self entirely, but that did not happen.
"Welcome back, sir. Are you aware of dialogue that we just held with your alternate self?"
"Yes, but not directly." Ves replied as he inspected his own nanosuit-clad body for any unpleasant surprises. "I can recall what you guys said to each other through Blinky's memories. When 'Sev' takes control, I am completely taken out of the equation. It is quite disconcerting. There is no way that Sev will voluntarily relinquish control to me if he can help it. He's just like me in this regard."
"That is what we suspect as well. Please stand still and allow us to scan your body. This will take a while, so please remain patient."
Ves had to subject himself to a battery of tests and examinations before he could leave the main chamber.
He soon entered the control room where a large amount of personnel were still in the process of analyzing the data. He soon moved to an adjacent room where Andrea Vox, Vector Loban and Maria Abselon sat around a table.
"I hope you have answers for me." He said.
"We have already developed 4 different theories of what has caused you to develop an alternate personality with delusions of godhood." Maria said. "We have yet to gather enough data that can enable us to determine which theory is correct, but the ones we have formed so far should at least give us directions to work towards."
That sounded productive.
"So what do you have?"
"The first theory that we have devised is based on the assumption that there is a mutual exchange between the so-called heavenly authority and dominant thoughts of all of the intelligent life forms in the Red Ocean. This theory is based on the observation that E energy both influences and is influenced by the thoughts and emotions of sentient beings. If the vast majority of residents in this dwarf galaxy believe that phase lords are gods, then the environment itself will begin to enforce and propagate this norm. The arrival of humans to the new frontier cannot shake this dominant assumption because their population is too small relative to the native aliens."
Ves looked thoughtful after hearing this theory. It aligned with his own theories, though it went a lot further than he imagined.
The theory sounded surprisingly plausible, though it would be hard to prove its validity based on the hearsay of Sev alone.
Based on this theory, Ves spawned a second personality because a phase lord must embrace his own divinity.
A phase lord that denied his own godhood was a contradiction that was not allowed to exist by the Red Ocean!
Since Ves was crazy enough to cling to his own humanity and mortality, the heavenly authority which was shaped by millions of years of alien delusions essentially tried to fix the glitch by clumsily inserting a more pliant personality in his true body!
It sounded crazy, yet it may just be true!