The Mech Touch

Chapter 7206: Who Is In Charge?

Chapter 7206: Who Is In Charge?Eventually, his children had to go.

Ves may still be bedridden for the time being, but he had to take care of a lot of business.

A man of his status and importance could rarely afford to let issues pile up for 5 straight days, at least not without making prior arrangements.

While he was sure that his assistants and staff were doing their best to deal with the more routine and low-level issues, they lacked the authority to decide on anything of importance.

This was why Ves only reserved an hour of family time before he was ready to deal with serious business.

He kissed his children one last time before sending them away.

A small group of collies waiting outside the hatch soon stepped inside the compartment.

Ves slightly grew disappointed when he did not spot the presence of the chief enforcer, but quickly shrugged this feeling aside.

The Patient Builder was a busy man who was chiefly responsible for the Red Collective’s participation in the Red War. He could not afford to remain aboard the Tarrasque and wait for Ves to wake up again.

Instead, four collies chose to visit him first.

Eliza Mo Ragadan, his chief of staff back when he held the officer of chief councilor

Zariel-775, the secret keeper assigned to help him understand the intelligence related to the Phase Lord Department.

Divine Harpoon in his human form, the strategos of the Faceless Giants.

Andrea Vos, a formation master who served as the head of the Moloch Squadron.

Two of the gathered collies pretty much served as his trusted aids and could be considered as reluctant members of his inner circle.

Ves did not know the other two collies as well, but both of them had the potential to join his inner circle in time.

The RC had chosen its envoys well.

"Before we begin, I need you to refresh my memories." Ves said as he continued to lie on his large and ruffled white bed. "My memories of the end of the leadership challenge are rather fuzzy. What happened?"

The collies remained silent for a moment.

"What do you last remember?" The dark robed spy eventually asked.

"I think... I observed my other self grab hold of the Oscillating Fist before stabbing his Murder Knife into his opponent like crazy. I suppose that is the last I know."

Several collies frowned.

"That is odd." The Farseer spoke. "The Dark Apostle lost consciousness not long after we confirmed that the Oscillating Fist had lost his life. The Superior Mother left you after she did something to your incapacitated true body. When your companion spirit regained his original feline form, you apparently found it difficult to maintain your state at the time. You strongly insisted on claiming the true bodies of both the Unshakeable King and the Oscillating Fist. We... shipped them over to you despite the fact that it would have been more appropriate to surrender them to the Phase Lord Department to give them a dignified burial."

Ves wanted to scratch his head. Why did he make such a spontaneous demand?

The powerful pharmaceuticals used to dull his pain was also dulling his thinking. He couldn’t recall why he wanted to obtain their corpses so urgently.

"What happened next?"

The formation master directed a concerned look at him. "Do you truly not remember? You transferred them to your private pocket space, something which we have always suspected that you always had at your disposal, but only obtained proof of its existence for the first time. You lost consciousness soon afterwards."

Ugh.

This time, Ves wanted to palm his face.

Although it may be true that Ves had never done a good job of hiding the functionality of the Vault of Eternity, there was a difference between being discreet about it and showing off the capacity to disappear two phase lord corpses in front of the Red Collective!

Wait. This did not make sense.

The volume of the two corpses was quite notable. Ves only rented so much storage capacity from the Vault of Eternity. He definitely did not have enough AP to expand his allowance.

What did he do with the two true bodies?

Ves felt more and more frustrated at his inability to remember these crucial moments.

Was there something wrong with him? Had the previous battle caused injuries that impaired his cognition in any fashion?

He paused in thought.

He eventually recalled that the Oscillating Fist had managed to land a few fast punches onto the Dark Apostle’s Head.

Since they were merely quick jabs, they did not convey much oscillating force, so the punches shouldn’t have rattled his brain too much.

However, the Oscillating Fist was so skilled and so practiced that even his quick jabs conveyed at least a small amount of oscillating force!

So it was still possible for his true body’s brain to suffer strange effects.

Since this was not the right time for him to enter the System Space, he decided to shove aside the matter of this confusing incident.ic Empire will still recognize your right to lead the only legal and authorized force of human phase lords."

That actually sounded quite generous.

Ves hadn’t thought about what would happen if the RC collapsed. Would his original deal still hold?

It appeared that the collies had thought ahead and took multiple different contingencies into account.

"I am happy to keep the Ascended Giants in check for the next 20 years." Ves wearily smiled before he recalled a troublesome issue. "Wait, what about the Dark Apostle? Who is actually in charge?"

"You." Eliza said. "The documents you have just signed contain clauses that officially recognize your dual identity as both Ves Larkinson and the Dark Apostle. This was one of the complications that we had to solve in the past 5 days. We do not fully understand your abnormal condition, but we have little choice but to adapt to it given that the Ascended Giants mainly recognize the Dark Apostle as opposed to your human identity."

Ves looked confused. "How does that even work? Give me the short version, please."

His newly reappointed chief of staff looked troubled. "It is not easy to succinctly summarize the legal principles that we have employed to solve your issues. The best I can do is state that we believe that Ves Larkinson and the Dark Apostle consist of a single legal identity, but function as two distinctly different individuals. We have borrowed heavily from unfinished regulations related to companion spirits to make this work."

"So you are all behaving as if the Dark Apostle is another companion spirit of sorts?"

"Yes. We understand that this is not a completely correct description of your current state, but it is the best we can do on short notice."

This interim ruling had many implications for Ves.