Exlor
This reminded me of two options. Ves wanted to make a purely spiritual mech interface (which he would probably have to camouflage as “improving” people in small increments until he’s a higher rank and can be open about his methods). Also, the spiritual option in his system could be an option for Ves to retain Benjamin after death and allow him to contnue to improve as either an entity that can still interface with the spiritual mech he wanted to create (or limited interface with tangible Mechs as a design spirit).
I remember many chapters ago when ves first saw what happens to souls as they die that they dissapate couldn't ves make a sanctuary using Goldie where all the souls of those who die go into the sanctuary thus not dying in a sense basically ves can even get his followers of his faith there and thus technically be a form of immortality lol