The Mech Touch

ng during his lifetime! He was never afraid of stepping on the toes of established factions and powers in order to enlighten the masses!

”You regard yourselves as the handmaidens of the great prophet, is that right? ” Ves continued.
”For those who are ostensibly the closest to Ylvaine, why are you the most eager to trample over his grave? Your fear of diversity and of others who don ’t share your beliefs is crippling you all! Since when has the Ylvainan Faith ever wavered against those who scorn or dismiss its tenets? Even during the darkest days of the Great Flight, the fleeing Ylvainans never gave up on converting new believers along the way! ”

While this sounded quite impressive, the reality was that few people in the star regions that the refugee fleets passed through actually converted to the Ylvainan Faith.
To most people who saw them pass through their space, the Ylvainans came off as crazy cultists who received their just deserts.
Only the most desperate and poverty-stricken bystanders hitched a ride on the Ylvainan refugee ships!

Even so, the attempts to gather new believers even when they were at their lowest point was still a point of admiration for the Ylvainans of the time.
The Ylvainan Faith still possessed a missionary drive back then! The followers of the great prophet still dreamed of a day when their beliefs swept throughout the entire galaxy, uniting both humans and aliens under a common faith!

Ves turned his back to the high inquisitors in order to face the gallery in the rear of the courtroom.

”The Poxco Dynasty pride themselves on being the most devout, but this is nothing but a fantasy that obscures how far they ’ve deviated from Prophet Ylvaine ’s will! While it is fine for the inheritors of his legacy to adapt his ways in order to better fit the circumstances, they have gone too far! The trauma of the First Calamity and the Great Flight has scarred the Attendants of Ylvaine to such an extent that they listen to their fears rather than their hopes! ”

One of the central messages that the great prophet tried to convey was hope! Hope for an end to endless war and slaughter! Hope for different races to embrace each other as fellow brothers and sisters! Hope for a time where everyone would transcend into a higher state where hunger, death, war and deprivation no longer existed!

Every Ylvainan learned of the great prophet ’s hopes from seminaries and classes when they were young, but how much of it was left in the modern Protectorate?

Ves forced his listeners to recognize this painful disparity!

It was so painful in fact that the shells around the high inquisitors finally broke! Both Xefin Lin Poxco and Kelly Ixef Poxco looked devastated!

Although they did not believe they acted wrongly, they recognized that the Attendants of Ylvaine exerted too much of their efforts on the wrong activities!

As much as they wanted to deny this conclusion, the words that Ves forced into their ears forced them to question their conviction! Had they truly advanced the will of the great prophet, or were they merely perpetuating the power of the Poxco Dynasty?

Ves was glad that he managed to crack open the high inquisitors, because he knew that his time was short.
The strain was eating up his mind and his spiritual energy was constantly diminishing! He needed to wrap up his speech!

Ves waved his hand back towards the three silent judges.
”This tribunal may have come into being in order to judge my supposed crimes, but make no mistake, it is not me who is on trial today! It is the three leading dynasties who should actually be judged! ”

He closed his eyes in a theatrical fashion.
”I believe the Ylvaine Protectorate still has a chance to return to the light.
The great prophet may no longer be with you, but as his inheritors you bear the opportunity to decide whether to follow in his footsteps or walk a different path! ”

To many Ylvainans, this was the first time they heard someone say that the Ylvainans had deviated from Ylvaine ’s will! Such a thought was completely unimaginable for them because they had been taught from birth to revere the prophet!

His eyes opened up and seemingly flared into the eyes of the people in the gallery.

”Right now, your path has been deviating too far from Ylvaine ’s footsteps.
What ’s worse is that your people have done so for all the wrong reasons! You can ’t have it both ways! If you want to make a mockery out of the great prophet ’s beliefs, then don ’t pretend you revere him to the point of turning one of his nutrient pack wrappers into a priceless relic! ”

Essentially, Ves tore down the illusion that the Ylvainans could be both devout while deviating from many of the core beliefs that the prophet once held!

Causing such a schism in the minds of many believers caused them to feel highly uncomfortable! Hardly anyone was equipped to solve the turbulence in their hearts and minds!

Ves couldn ’t take it any longer.
He gradually and carefully drew back his mask.
His exhausted mind and spirit couldn ’t sustain the partial fusion any longer.

What he said was enough.
The tired and muted spiritual fragment in his mind had expressed everything it wanted to say through Ves.
Now that it said its piece and helped Ves out, it quickly drilled out of his mind and flew back towards the conceptual space of the Transcendent Messenger in order to rest and recuperate!

As for Ves, he might have lost his sacred and awe-inspiring aura, but that did not lessen most people ’s admiration and astonishment for him! He calmly sat back down to his seat and smiled.

”Pardon me for the interruption, Your Honors. ”

A tense and awkward silence ensued.

Eventually, Judge Kelber Kronon filled in the void.
”This tribunal is adjourned.
It will convene again in two hours. ”

The judge struck his gavel, causing every Ylvainan present in the courtroom and those who followed the broadcast to be released from their spell!

”What have we witnessed?! ”

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