The Mech Touch

Chapter 6591 The Nature of Demons

Compared to her difficult talk with Master Willix, Veronica had a much easier time convincing Helena to play along.

When the Cyborg Cat left the design lab and navigated the halls of the Throne of

Light, she eventually visited a meditation room that was located on a different section of the flagship.

Helena was not a corporeal life form, but that did not mean she was unable to maintain a trace of herself in the material realm.

When Veronica entered his eldest sister's private meditation room and other chambers, she flew closer to a certain gray mechanical cat.

Veronica originally chose to fulfill Helena's desire to interact with physical reality with the Helcat avatar instead of a humanoid doll in order to stay in the good graces of the Big Two.

She no longer cared that much about the taboo against imparting human identities to inhuman entities anymore.

While Veronica had offered multiple times to replace the Helcat with a proper human-like vessel that could host her manifested spirit, Helena actually changed her opinions about her choice of physical avatars.

Helena had fallen in love with the Helcat!

Adopting a mechanical cat form made her smaller and more adorable than her usual scary death goddess guise.

The Daughter of Death could relax and split a portion of her vast mentality into the Helcat so that she could pretend to be a pet and act cute in the presence of other people.

Since the years that Veronica initially crafted the Helcat, she had taken the mechanical construct to her workshop and upgraded it several times.

Veronica made use of better materials, better craftsmanship and increased time investment to turn the Helcat into a work of art..

By this time, the Helcat had turned into a masterwork cat avatar. It still boasted a relatively unobtrusive gray color theme, but Veronica cleverly alternated the tints of her exterior to add more contrast and sophistication to her visual appearance.

The Helcat also gained additional decorative flourishes in the form of carved runes of Helena's choosing as well as embedded obsidian-like jewels.

Veronica had come to take pride in this example of craftsmanship.

Even if Helena abruptly came into existence and became a part of the family, Veronica had come to accent this sudden family relationshin

Veronica did not have many people that she could trust on an unconditional basis. She was never able to trust her mother all that much for obvious reasons. That was an unfortunate reality.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The Cyborg Cat was instead able to channel her need for family affection in the Daughter of Death, who may have been raised by the Oblivion Empress, but inherited none of her mother's acerbic personality.

"Mraw! It has been a while since you last paid a visit to me, little sister!"

The gray cat jumped out the army of interactive animal plushies and dove straight. towards the biomechanical cat!

Veronica promptly got pounced by her own masterwork!

"Myaow! Stop that, Helena! I am not a little kitten!"

"Mraw mraw mraw! I will never stop because this is what all big sisters do to their younger siblings!"

After the two metallic cats wrestled and bit each other for a minute, Helena finally had her fill and withdrew her cat avatar.

The two 'sisters' eventually settled down on a pair of comfortable couches.

Veronica idly looked around the meditation chamber and found that it differed

substantially from their mother's mediation room.

Where their mother's private sanctum gave off a refined and peaceful atmosphere, the room claimed by Helena was brash and loud!

The initially calming interior gained a lot of personality when Helena plastered the walls with projected posters of bands and promotional artwork of popular dramas.

The army of animal plushies that Helena had been playing with earlier made it seem as if it was owned by a preteen girl, which actually happened to be true.

All in all, Helena had more in common with a little girl like Andraste than a grown adult female like Gloriana.

Veronica loved Helena all the more because of that. The two could comfortably talk with each other without any regard for schemes, duplicity and ulterior motives. While Veronica knew quite well that she was setting herself up for a painful betrayal if she kept talking earnestly with her supposed eldest sister, she disregarded this vulnerability and continued to place her trust in Helena.

Perhaps Veronica simply did not want this fantasy to end.

Once the two cats settled down, Veronica quickly explained her newfound demand for souls and why she needed Helena's cooperation.

The Daughter of Death calmly listened and fell into thought.

to know a thing or two about demons. That is part of the lore that mother has taught to me. She told me that demons are souls that have lost so much hope and suffered so much pain that they have become tainted by darkness. Once the taint has completely filled their essence with hatred and suffering, their transformation into demons is complete. From that point onwards, these beings have become damned by existence and have developed an irreconcilable hostility towards the living beings they used to be a part of. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are not exactly dead, but they are still intrinsically opposed to life."

Interesting!

Veronica's visit already paid off. Gathering information about the true nature of demons was vital information. The more Helena shared, the better!

"That is helpful to know, but much of it sounds a bit vague. Can you tell me anything specific about demons? For example, where do they hang out, how often do they appear in reality, and is it possible for us to hunt them down?"

Helena chuckled. "Our mother did not get that far in her explanation. She might not even know the answer. I can tell you that as my influence in the Red Ocean and the Milky Way grows, I may have come across a number of suspicious traces that may have denoted the passage of demons. I do not think I have encountered one directly, sadly. As for actively hunting them down, that is futile if we do not know enough about them to track their locations."

"Ah. I guess I was hoping for too much."

"Knowledge solves everything, little sister. Be patient. We shall be able to unearth the hidden secrets of demons in time."

"What else do you know about them, Helena?"

"Our mother has taught me that certain demons are far more threatening than others. The weakest demons are usually spawned from fairly strong mortals with relatively excellent abilities. They cannot emerge from weaklings because the metamorphosis into demonhood is demanding and painful. The souls that cannot endure this torment will shatter and disappear."

"I see."

That was an important piece of information to know. If Ves wanted to spawn his own demon, then he had to make sure to capture the soul of a 'fairly strong' mortal first, which probably translated into an individual in the first major cultivation rank. This may include expert pilots, Journeyman Mech Designers, Senior Mech Designers, swordmasters and qi cultivating foundation builders.

"Is it possible to convert a stronger soul into a stronger demon?" Helena frowned. "Possibly, but... stronger souls are generally much more tempered

and can endure far greater torment than normal. They are far too unlikely to degenerate into demons. I think that it is much more likely for stronger demons to emerge from the ranks of weaker demons."

"How do weaker demons become stronger?"

"Oh that is simple. Demons are malevolent and cruel by nature, so satisfying their destructive urges will feed their strength. It is not that easy for them to promote themselves, however. They must kill a large number of people in order to trigger a second transformation. They may also have to satisfy other conditions that I am not aware of. Whatever the case, once they have succeeded, they gain much more power but also regain a part of their lucidity. They will become more capable of rational thought, but that will only make them more dangerous."

"All of this sounds rather scary, Helena. How can ordinary folk defend against the predation of these deadly demons?"

"Oh, do not worry too much. Demons cannot sustain themselves in the material realm or close to it. They sustain damage with every second they reside here. One of the reasons for this is because the heavens are unfriendly towards them. If the demons insist on staying, they will eventually be wiped out before they can kill a large number of people. At most, a handful of unlucky individuals will collapse and suffer from a

permanent coma before the demon is excised from reality"

That was also important information!

The heavenly authorities were actually doing good this time by doing their part to

keep their galaxies clean of any demon infestations.

Was this why Ketis and the Heavensword were negatively predisposed towards

Demoncasting?

"Okay, I understand. These demons must be residing in other dimensions or 'realms', is

that correct?"

"Presumably that is the case, but do not ask me where they can be found. I am willing to help you search for them, but my capabilities are limited in this area."

Veronica shrugged.

"It's okay. I think I will settle for getting my demons, particularly stronger ones, by

starting out with Minor Demons and nurturing them into stronger ones. With so many souls in the Milky Way to harvest from, I do not think it will be challenging for me to pluck out an ample number of stronger ones. The question is how exactly I can transform them into demons on an industrial scale."

"We can work on this problem together." Helena offered. "I can imagine that the basic process to artificially transform a demon into a soul is to inflict an excessive amount. of raw pain onto them. Relying on brute force is not my preferred solution, but it is the only means we can rely upon to produce consistent results on a larger scale. The greatest challenge is to make souls suffer to the point where they do not want to live anymore, but not inflict too much actual harm. Abusing souls too much will cause them to shatter outright, you see."

Veronica grinned and lifted up a silvery paw. She waved it forward, causing a small

Soul Whip to lash out and strike the air.

"Will this do?"

"That... that is a remarkably pure technique!"

The Helcat already tried to imitate it. Her imitation ability should not be underestimated. She was not only an energy-based life form, but also received a lot of

focused teachings from her mother,

Barely half a minute had passed before Helena produced her own intangible whip!

Unfortunately, her first attempt not only lacked the length and cohesion as a whip, but did not even promise that much pain when hitting a soul.

"Would you like me to pass on my technique to you?" Veronica offered.

"No, I can figure this out myself!" The eldest sister insisted! "It shouldn't be too difficult

to replicate a technique this simple! In fact, it is criminal that no effort has been made to 'encrypt' it. That allows anyone including myself to decipher how it works and understand its weaknesses. You should seriously think about obfuscating the details of your Soul Whip by altering it with your unique powers and specialized knowledge. The more your technique deviates from this crystal clear technique, the harder it will be for others to imitate or counter your whip."

Veronica never thought about that. This was one of the many valuable life lessons that his mother declined to teach to her original child.

"Thank you for your advice. I will do so whenever I have time. For now, I think the

basic version of a Soul Whip is sufficient. Do you have a 'fairly strong' soul in your

possession that I can practice this on? I want to see how difficult it is to produce a demon."

"Give me a moment."