Chapter 6952 The Functional Purpose of Worship
Chapter 6952 The Functional Purpose of Worship
Communicating with Qilanxo was different from talking to people.
The former sacred god used to be a massive exobeast back when she was alive. Her giant lizard body could roar and make all kinds of animalistic sounds, but she never grew the organs to articulate human words.
This was why she relied on telepathy and silent exchanges of impressions as her preferred methods of communication.
In certain cases, it was much more efficient for Ves to exchange his ideas with Qilanxo through these means. It reminded Ves of how he conveyed information to others in a design network.
The tiny manifestation of Qilanxo rested on his shoulder and quietly began to offer her own side of her story.
Unfortunately, it was not as comprehensive as Ves liked.
As the other people patiently waited for Ves to extract answers from the design spirit, Qilanxo earnestly tried to be of assistance, but her understanding of her past situation was never that good from the beginning.
After a few minutes of silence, Ves finally turned to the others. "Qilanxo and her fellow 'sacred gods' never saw any reason to conduct research on their own existence and the workings of their own powers. While they lived long enough for them to make interesting discoveries, it is not systematic enough. The information she is able to share with us is not as comprehensive as we would like."
"That is okay." Vector Loban said. "Can you tell me whether Qilanxo has been able to suppress or remove her savage nature by allowing herself to get influenced by the thinking of other intelligent beings?"
"She is not quite sure of that." Ves replied on the design spirit's behalf. "She has never formed a definite causal link between the two. It may be that her growing intelligence and rationality are a result of long-term exposure to a specific type of higher-dimensional energy. The sacred gods and their primitive worshipers did not bother to conduct a proper scientific study that could help them investigate the root of the phenomenon. Acquiring worshipers was more of an ego thing for her and other sacred gods. They liked it when the primitive humans respected them, worshiped them and catered to their needs."
The answer disappointed his audience. This was not a particularly helpful answer.
"What about her current state? Is there any risk of her backsliding to a violent exobeast?"
The manifestation of Qilanxo emphatically shook her head.
"No." Ves responded. "When she died and somehow managed to ascend her spirit, she had completely divorced herself from her alien beast strengths and weaknesses. Her mind and spirituality are no longer affected by the hormones, instincts and other influences of her powerful flesh. She escaped her mortal coil during a time where she was still in a rational and intelligent state. This has become her default state after she has started her second life. There was never an instance where she regressed back into savagery."
That had many implications. The most important one was that if the body ever became a problem, then removing it was the most direct way to address the problem.
Of course, killing Ves in order to get rid of his alter ego was an absurd notion!
Not only was there no guarantee that Ves would be able to live on after death like Qilanxo and his mother, but he also risked losing his connection to the Red Kingdom.
This would be a destructive blow to Ves!
Being a mech designer was his life. If he was unable to design mechs as well as before, then what was the point of staying alive? He might as well end himself entirely and spare him the misery!
What Ves took from Qilanxo's spotty account was that she was no longer defined by her species anymore.
From the moment she ascended to a pure energy-based life form, Qilanxo grew in ways that made her more helpful to the Larkinson Clan and the people who piloted mechs that she oversaw as a design spirit.
Ves had never heard of any stories where phase lords were able to project their power elsewhere and make a difference to the lives of their worshipers.
That might change now that they became affected by exotic radiation, but for now they were mainly physically imposing powerhouses.
Phase lords and phase whales mostly kept themselves in seclusion over long periods of time, but there were plenty of stories where they unleashed extreme violence against the masses as well as each other.
Most researchers previously attribute these violent outbursts as normal psychological problems associated with long-lived alien organisms that all developed a god complex, but the truth may be different.
What if every phase whale and phase lord was a powerful exobeast that were only civilized on the surface?
Perhaps the mass worship of mortals had a very real effect of tempering their savagery and increasing their rationality, but there should be a limit how extensively the power of collective thought could remedy this problem.
Ves frowned deeper.
The others followed suit.
They all drew the same implications from Qilanxo's testimony.
"There may be a functional reason the practice of deifying phase leaders has engulfed the entire Red Ocean." Formation Master Andrea Vos said. "It is because the mass beliefs of all of those alien individuals are needed to maintain the civility and rationality of phase lords and phase whales. In my opinion, they are engaged in the equivalent of a continuous galaxy-wide battle formation. They may be very different from each other, but almost every alien prays for their phase leaders to comport themselves as the gods of their imagination. If there are any phase leaders that are left out of this benefit, then the risk that they degenerate into menaces to society is great."
Vector Loban began to buy into this theory. "That might be the origin of numerous savage and cannibalistic phase whales. We have always found it odd how unclean whales keep emerging among the population of phase whales. Now we find out that it is a problem that is inherent to their species from the beginning. They are genuinely exobeasts, but managed to evolve and develop a measure of rationality after receiving worship among other forms of tribute."
"If this theory is true… then the secret to keeping Ves rational and Sev in check is to encourage people to worship him as their god." Maria Abselon made a tentative conclusion.
The conversation had taken an absurd turn!
Each of them were secularists who never had any reason to embrace religion. Even if they were aware of the existence of god pilots, that was still not a reason for them to ignore their own values and turn into believers.
It was therefore difficult for them to change their mentality around worship. If people discovered that faith and belief could produce tangible benefits for phase leaders and potentially other recipients, then people would become charlatans overnight! As Ves thought about how the practice of worshiping him as a god might change him, he suddenly thought of a huge issue.
"What you have mentioned is not the only viable possibility. You are making a dangerous assumption about who this worship will benefit. What if all of that spiritual feedback doesn't go to me, but Sev instead? The act of deifying me will end up feeding the beast that is lurking inside my body. One day, he may grow strong enough to wrest all of the control over my body from my hands!"
That ended any hasty plans to experiment with faith. They simply could not afford to empower the wrong personality of Ves. It was much better to maintain the status quo and find a different way to solve the root of his current issue.
"Those are three theories." He said. "What is the last one?"
The others hesitated for a moment before Vector Loban decided to explain their last and most problematic theory.
"This is a separate way to explain what has happened to you. We assume that everything that you have experienced is unique. We are aware that you are not a conventional phase lord. You became a phase lord without intent. You spontaneously absorbed more phasewater despite the fact that the source is completely unknown. You also grew a full started set of phasewater organs. You did not suffer from the same level of risky and dangerous ordeals that other alien hopefuls must overcome in order to trigger the evolution of their bodies."
"What is your point, Vector?"
"My point is that our last theory assumes that the Red Ocean especially singled you out. You received special treatment that other phase leaders typically do not enjoy. However, it would be too naive for us to believe that the collective will of this dwarf galaxy harbors goodwill towards you. If the heavenly authority of the Red Ocean is hostile towards red humans, then the purpose of transforming you into a phase lord is to conquer you and subvert you. Do you understand what this means if it is true? Your body cultivation is a curse rather than a blessing. It has become a vector by which a galaxy that is hostile towards red humanity seeks to subvert or sabotage one of its leading figures."
"..."
The last theory was the most damaging one to Ves.
The most troublesome part about it was that Ves could not refute it. He undoubtedly knew that he received special treatment from the Red Ocean.
He had been trying hard not to think too much about why it chose to 'invest' in him in particular.
If it held any evil intentions, then Ves would find it difficult to resist its machinations.
"For what it is worth, when I came into contact with the heavenly authority of the Red Ocean during a weird and trippy dream sequence, I did not sense any obvious malice from the dwarf galaxy." Ves said.
His words probably would not make much of a difference. It was difficult to dispel suspicion.
The risk that he became compromised by the bestower of his phase lord cultivation was an important reason why the Larkinson Clan sought to remove him from his high office.
It was better to be safe than sorry.
So long as Sev continued to lurk within his true body, there was no telling what he would do in the future.
After Ves learned about the four theories, he found it difficult to determine which ones were true.
There was not enough information to conclusively prove or disprove the validity of any of the four theories.
The Larkinson Clan, the Red Collective and the Transhumanist Faction all needed to conduct their own studies in the hopes of obtaining the answers.
It might not even matter. If the Red War took a turn for the worse, then who cared whether human phase lords like Ves had become compromised.
At least they had a better chance of persuading the native aliens to let them off and accept their existence!
"So what now?" Ves asked.
"We do not require you to participate in any further experiments." Maria Abselon said. "We have made an agreement with the Red Association and the Red Collective to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are still loyal to red humanity. It is enough to keep you in the company of at least one reliable ace pilot and the elements of the Bluejay Fleet at all times. We believe that keeping Sev suppressed and under our control is sufficient to contain your problems. You can continue to design your mechs as before as we do not have any indication that it is related to your phase lord cultivation."
Ves relaxed. That did not sound so bad. This arrangement sounded completely acceptable to him. The latest changes might have given the others reason to push him out of direct leadership positions, but that also liberated his schedule and enabled him to allocate more time into developing his true passion.
"Thank you. I have no objections to this plan. I hope that we can develop a more permanent solution on how to deal with Sev."
Now that they had managed to get a grip on the latest crisis, Ves hoped to get back on schedule. The upcoming campaign should still be on the agenda despite this upheaval. There were too many reasons for the Premier Fleet to move to the frontlines and contribute to the survival of red humanity.
Hopefully, Ves might be able to find a solution to his latest problem on the battlefield!