5578 True Friends
After exchanging a few words with one of the most powerful warrior gods in the Red Ocean, Ves calmed down from his initial state of fear and apprehension.
He had never come so close to a god pilot before.
Ves was no stranger to True Gods. He breathed life into Gaia and the Superior Mother. Veronica talked with Cynthia Larkinson on a regular basis. He met and talked with two incredibly knowledgeable Star Designer fairly recently.
Hardly anyone outside attendants and direct subordinates had so much frequent contact with post-divinity entities!
The vast majority of people never even resided in the same star system as one of these eminent figures, let alone catch their personal attention!
Ves had truly managed to climb from obscurity and established several cooperative relationships with the top powerhouses of both galaxies.
Yet for all of these accomplishments, Ves never deluded himself into thinking he had become any of their equals.
He learned more than enough about True Gods to realize that there was a huge world of difference between pre-divinity and post-divinity entities.
The former could always get squashed by the latter!
Even the weak and deficient Gaia was able to leverage her transcendent qualities into building up a rapidly expanding power base among the cults that worshiped Old Earth!
None of these figures were easy to deal with. They all had their own goals, and their expansive power and influence granted them a much greater chance at accomplishing their objectives than others!
That made them far scarier than other people. Even peak ace pilots and highly accomplished Master Mech Designers had to bow their heads due to the restraint imposed by society.
God pilots were different because their personal power had become so exceedingly high that they could break any opposition with violence or just the threat of it! They were so imposing that people would already take the initiative to surrender to them just because they were so awesome!
Ves was already experiencing this up close. His high spiritual sensitivity had become a burden rather than a boon at this time.
He possessed a much more comprehensive understanding of the difference between himself and Divine Irene Mox. The gap was so immense that a part of him already felt it was futile for him to catch up with such an impossible powerhouse.
The Destroyer of Worlds was not just a god pilot.
She was a god pilot with a companion spirit!
This not only granted her additional powers or capabilities, but essentially gave her another life!
A god pilot and a god mech combination could basically be treated as a merger between two True Gods.
Adding a companion spirit on top of that turned the Destroyer of Worlds into a fusion between three True Gods!
If Ves1 suspicions were correct, then the Destroyer of Worlds was probably the most powerful god pilot among her peers in the Red Ocean!
The only god pilot that might be able to challenge her dominance was the First Flame. The man was 600 years old and had been piloting mechs long before they had begun to define an entire age!
Though his biography did not mention anything of the sort, Ves was convinced that Divine Harald Genoa had to be a former member of the Five Scrolls Compact!
Given his elemental proclivities, he had to have been in touch with the Fire Scroll once upon a time.
His extreme age and his extraordinary background gave him the capital to rank at the top of the power ranking.
Perhaps the Destroyer of Worlds did not live long enough to accumulate her power over time, but the existence of her companion spirit had doubtlessly increased her future potential by a huge extent!
How could Ves possibly maintain his composure in the presence of such a top figure?
It was only because Irene presented herself in a similar fashion to how she used to be back when she was just a humble second-class expert pilot that Ves was able to speak with her in a more normal fashion.
Even though only a year had passed since Ves completed his last Mastery experience, so much had happened to him during this period that his memories of his latest time jaunt had faded to the back of his mind.
It took a considerable amount of effort for him to dredge up the memories of his interactions with Irene Mox.
"You have come a long way." He said with a complex tone in his voice. "You've traded your Iron Hedgehog for the Ragnarok, which you have turned into your second body. How does that work, exactly? Is your machine made of the same solid matter as it had originally been built, or did you convert it into energy, thereby turning you into a complete energy-based life form?"
An amused smile appeared on her face. Irene's mood was easy to sense given that her god kingdom clearly broadcasted all of her emotions in the open!
"So this is who you truly are. It is much more interesting to know the person behind the disembodied voice. Let me make you feel more comfortable."
The entire chamber changed into a completely different setting all of a sudden.
Ves only felt the god kingdom flare in power before it physically generated an observation compartment that was situated aboard a Rubarthan starship!
The air, the deck, the bulkheads along with the lounge-like interior looked and felt completely authentic.
However, Ves still understood that this entire setting was false. For one, the view through the transparent window displayed a top-down perspective of the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy!
This was an impossible sight as a starship would have to travel tens of thousands of light-years away in order to produce such a magnificent vista!
The plain metal chair where Ves rested before had transformed into a soft and luxurious cushioned contraption.
It even started to massage his back in an attempt to relieve the tension in his body!
Unfortunately, his phase lord physique rendered this practically useless. He shut down the setting and waited for the Destroyer of Worlds to settle down in her own seat that had appeared next to the expansive window.
The god pilot did not speak up. Instead, her burning orbs continued to stare at Ves as if she had encountered an interesting toy!
"Meow..."
"Miew."
In the meantime, the two cats had settled down to an extent. Lucky objected to being treated as a kitten, but Emma was too big and strong for him to resist.
The gem cat had eventually decided to give up and allow the supremely powerful companion spirit to give him a bath!
Emma was not doing this for nothing. Somehow, her licks not only soothed the damaged cat's pain, but also sped up his repairs to an extent!
When Ves noticed this effect, he grew even more intrigued about Emma's properties.
"Your Holiness..."
"Call me Irene." The Destroyer of Worlds. "No titles. No honorifics. I tire of formality. I am not as stiff and obsessed with status and etiquette as the Spacelock. I have too few people who I regard as my true friends. I do not want you to abide by the social structure that separates us from each other. Do not be afraid. I know you have secrets. I will not insist that you share them with me. However you managed to travel back in time and intervene with my life, your answers are of no consequence."
She truly sounded sincere about wanting to form an equal relationship with Ves. He could feel the yearning and sincerity in her overpowering aura. God pilots disdained lies. As the most honorable warriors in existence, their words always reflected their deepest and most honest desires!
That reassured Ves a lot. He became so taken by her offer of friendship that he made an impulsive decision.
"I do not mind explaining to you how I am able to travel back in time." Ves said. "Since this environment is completely under your control, I don't have to be afraid that others might eavesdrop on our conversation. I can tell you outright that my power is derived from a fragment of the Metal Scroll."
"I suspected as much." Irene did not sound surprised. "Your relationship with the Polymath is... unusual. The New Rubarth Empire's secret archives have recorded a large amount of information about the Five Scrolls Compact and the powers ascribed to the Metal Scroll. I do not know how accurate the records are, but there are many gaps that have made it difficult for anyone to gain a clearer understanding of what went on during those times. It is troubling to confirm that your relic enables you to travel back in time. It makes me wonder who else has made use of the same power?"
That immediately made Ves feel uncomfortable. The timeline of human civilization clearly wasn't as simple and one-directional as he thought. The Metal Scroll was able to bring him to the past and enable him to make real changes that would permanently induce changes that affected the present time!
The miraculous rise of the Destroyer of Worlds and his meeting with the powerful god pilot was a direct consequence of his last attempt to meddle with the past!
Who else traveled back in time to enact changes, and how often did this happen?
Had any time travelers attempted to intervene with Ves' life directly or indirectly?
None of these questions offered him any reassurance!
"Calm yourself, Ves. No one will threaten you while you are under my protection. I will not allow anyone to torment a friend of mine. Let us leave the matter of time travel for another time. It is clear that you are unable to supply any meaningful answers on this subject. You are a user, not a mastermind."
The topic clearly concerned the Destroyer of Worlds a lot. It was not difficult to imagine why. She was right that Ves could not offer any useful answers, though. It made him feel useless.
An awkward silence ensued. Ves had been caught off-balance ever since the Destroyer of Worlds first appeared. He had yet to regain his composure and constantly found himself flat-footed.
This was not good. A meeting with a god pilot was a rare opportunity to get in touch with a top powerhouse. Ves would never forgive himself if he squandered his chance to form a genuine friendship with the Destroyer of Worlds!
He struggled to think about what they could talk about. They were people who belonged to completely different generations.
To Ves, he last spoke to her only a little over a year ago. Much may have happened, but if he were to meet with Irene again, he should have expected her to appear as an up-and-coming expert pilot.
Seeing her appear so soon yet also wielding the strength of god pilot was jarring to say the least!
Irene did not see a problem with this meeting, though.
"You made me, Ves. I owe my life, my strength as a god pilot and the companionship of Emma to you. Without your intervention, our race would not have gained a god pilot. Nobody around me has truly understood how many years I have spent while thinking about you and why you appeared that day. Everyone always believed that I am solely responsible for developing my talents and breaking so many limits. I always wanted to correct them, but they simply did not believe me. I will not deny the truth now that I have reunited with you again."
"That sounds like a major burden. It must have weighed heavily on your shoulders all of these years."
The god pilot responded with a genuine smile. "lam happy today. I have finally met the only person in the Red Ocean who knows where I truly came from. You are my creator. As far as I am concerned, I am your greatest work None of your mech designs have contributed to our civilization as much as setting me up for ultimate success. My friendship is only the least of what you deserve for everything that you have done."
