"It's time to find out if it carries anything exceptional."
Ves wasn't sure if his mother imbued anything special to what was supposed to be a casual gift to his grandfather, but he hoped he might be able to uncover something.
Unlike his own spiritually-empowered works, the statuette didn't radiate a glow. Yet the more he observed it with his spiritual senses, the more he thought it hid something unusual.
Ves began to exert more effort in his examinations. He strengthened his spiritual efforts and expended so much energy to seek something unusual.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, his mind flashed brightly! After his senses penetrated the statuette past a certain degree, he abruptly encountered something strange!
Though it was hidden and self-contained, Ves recognized the spiritual residue for what it was! It carried the same 'flavor' as the ghost that he encountered in recent years!
His eyes were filled with shock! "So it's true. She's my mother after all!"
He had obtained near-definite proof that the mother who birthed him and raised him was the same as the ghost who claimed her identity!
Though Ves was paranoid to acknowledge that this might be part of an elaborate ruse, it was too convoluted for him to bother. In this case, he was much more inclined to apply Occam's razor and accept the most obvious explanation!
Now that he finally found something, he eagerly studied the spiritual residue.
It was small in quantity but very high in quality. His mother probably didn't set out to empower the statuette consciously. It was just that she concentrated for hours to make the statuette that she passed on a small amount of spiritual energy during her creation process.
What Ves found peculiar was that the spiritual residue in the statuette didn't seem complete. It lacked a lot of spiritual attributes he expected to find.
That signified to Ves that his mother may have purposefully imbued the statue with her spirituality, but in a highly altered form.
When Ves inspected the attributes, he found that most of them were benign.
"Happiness, family, love, affection…"
All of these traits subtly enhanced the appeal of the statuette to someone like his grandfather.
There was one attribute that possessed a lot more presence than the other presence!
When Ves tried to identify this strong attribute, he couldn't help but be reminded of what he sensed from the previous relic he inspected.
"Motherhood!"
His eyes quickly sharpened as he inspected the depiction of his mother in a carved form. He specifically looked at her belly and realized that it bulged slightly more than usual!
"She was pregnant when she carved this work!" Ves uttered in realization!
That explained the mix of attributes she passed on in the statuette. Though ostensibly the piece was about their couple, in actuality his mother had been channeling her hopes and expectations of motherhood!
A very warm feeling engulfed his mood. Regardless of how his mother turned up these days, back then she was genuinely happy when she carried him in her womb!
"This feeling.. it's so pure and pleasant."
He almost couldn't equate the sensations he was feeling now with the ghostly mother who reintroduced herself into his life. The transition from life to death must have done much to alter her psyche!
As Ves entertained various theories, he suddenly had a stroke of inspiration.
The sense of motherhood he gained from the statue was so pure and and exceptional that it might make for a good ingredient for one of his upcoming mechs!
Having worked on the Hexer mech for months, Ves had always tried to design it in a way to make it with a design spirit derived from the Idol of the Superior Mother.
While such a spiritual product would probably turn out okay with his current abilities, he always felt as if the spiritual residue from the former Hexer relic wasn't enough.
In order to create a spiritual product that was powerful enough to influence the Komodo War, Ves knew he had to add additional ingredients to increase the dimensions of his creations!
Though Ves already planned to borrow some spiritual energy from sources like Qilanxo, adding one that revolved more explicitly around motherhood would be a great addition!
"This is a fantastic idea!" He grinned. "This is the perfect way to elevate my next mech!"
Using his own mother as an ingredient, why didn't he think of it before!?