Chapter 454: The Hidden Research Facility
Arthur spent around five days in Tolgue city doing Mercenary missions to boost his Mercenary Rank to S-Tier before he returned to Militopolis.
Walking through the city streets, he encountered some Demon Military Police officers barricading an area and when he asked what happened, he found that the Serial Killer had struck again.
This victim this time, was a soldier.
As much as Arthur was interested in this, he had to put it on hold as there was a more important matter on the table.
He moved on ahead to the Army Headquarters and went up to Alvey’s office to find out the opinions of the Demon Kings on his suggestion.
Upon entering, he saw Artemisia and Beatrix present, and both their expressions were exact opposites.
While Artemisia was frowning deeply, Beatrix was all smiles.
With that, he could already guess how things had gone but he still asked to get the full story.
Said ’Full Story’, ended up surprising him to the core.
Apparently, when McEnda had gone to speak with his father, the older McEnda was with ’Demon King’ Westley at the time and upon hearing about the situation, Westley took action personally.
The man had gone to talk to the god Rulers and no one knows what he had said to them to make them agree to let their children stay on a planet which was at war with Demons.
They did have a few terms and conditions, along with restrictions on their movements though.
Apparently, Beatrix’s mother had told her to beat up the descendants of some god Lords and Kings for her and kill them if possible.
While one was using her daughter as a hitwoman, the other told his daughter to focus more on Arthur.
god King Delgasso was more interested in this boy from another universe, whom Westley had told him was the Progenitor of a new race.
They revealed to Artemisia that Arthur had been causing ripples on the Interstellar stage and though his identity as a Progenitor was not public knowledge yet, it wasn’t long before it was.
Some Race Rulers who were against the Aramis faction and had spies on the planet had spread news of the Aramisians’ consecutive defeats and this was what got Arthur’s ’Silver Summoner’ persona out there.
Many Race Rulers believed he was part of the new ’Anti-Divine’ race that had been popping up in various parts of the universe recently and since his abilities were the most potent they had seen so far, they guessed he might be an ’Elder’ or ’Ancient’ Breed.
It had also been noted that the numbers of this new Race’s members had spiked considerably in the past three months, enough to make a difference Interstellar stage which had hundreds of millions of planets.
This time frame also coincided with Arthur’s arrival in the Valmone Universe, and the god King guessed Arthur’s mere presence was what was increasing their numbers.
To end it, he added that he and god Queen Xagna had dabbled into the laws of Fate by using their Universal Influence and discovered that being on Aramis had some sort of ’boon’ to the two girls.
"A lot happened in just five days, huh?"
Arthur couldn’t help but make this remark after hearing all McEnda had to say.
’I’d like to meet this Demon King Westley guy...First, he endorsed me to get a General rank and now this.’
With those thoughts going through his mind, Arthur then turned towards Artemisia and the boy’s gaze on her made her feel strange.
It felt like she was looking through him and the words that he spoke next sent a shiver down her spine.
"’High’ or ’Ancient’..."
"What’s Ancient?"
"Nothing. Let’s move on to the next agenda."
Arthur waved off Alvey’s question and continued conversing with the demons, however, Artemisia could not even pay attention to what they were saying due to Arthur’s previous words.
’He knows!! But how? I concealed it perfectly. Father even used his powers and was able to prevent even the god Emperor from noticing. So how did he find out? Is it because he’s a Progenitor of a race?’
The answer to her internal inquiry was YES. As for what Arthur had ’found out’, it was the fact that Artemisia was an atavist.
She had inherited the blood of her distant ancestors and instead of being a High-goddess like her parents, the girl was born as an ’Ancient Breed’.
This was something only she and her parents knew, and they had gone to great lengths to conceal this fact due to the unnecessary attention that Ancient and Elder breeds attracted.
However, as a Progenitor, Arthur was capable of recognizing the Breed differences in other races so at first glance, he knew Artemisa was not a High-goddess like Beatrix.
He didn’t put much thought into this though, instead focusing on his side of the deal that got the two goddesses to stay.
"To think that the base was this deep into Aramisian territory. Since it’s in the North Central Area, we have to be careful or we could alert their main Headquarters."
"Although the Aramisians lost the last battle, not all their Transcendents are gone. My old man said that they may be making moves to call in more Transcendents from other worlds under their control, just like how we want to bring in other races."
"We also haven’t recovered from the damage we took in the last battle. Putting together a force to raid this place would be difficult now..."
"..."
Arthur alternated his gaze between Alvey, McEnda and Sigesi respectively, wondering if they hadn’t realised that the answer to their concerns was right in their faces.
"There’s no need to bother with assembling a force. We already have one right here."
"?"
When Alvey looked at him with confusion, Arthur pointed at himself, the Greater Demon, and then McEnda and Sigesi.
"The four of us are enough of a force to deal with this place."
Their eyes widened in surprise when they heard his words, but after thinking about it for a moment, Arthur was right.
’I’d send some Shadow Demons to go and scout the place and confirm the number of Transcendents present. As far as we don’t have to deal with 8 and above, then It’s possible for four of us to handle it.
With Arthur’s power, they’d be weakened; he and Sigesi would be enough to take out everything below Transcendence—Arthur’s summons included.
I can also summon a few things and then join McEnda to deal with the weakened Transcendents. I’ve also been itching to test out this Rule Breaker so it’d be a nice opportunity.’
Alvey emerged from his sea of thoughts and looked at Arthur who was telling Beatrix and Artemisia to tag along because he wanted to see their powers in combat.
"I agree. Let the four of us handle it."
"Are you serious, Alvey?"
"I am."
McEnda was surprised at Alvey’s reply, his gaze momentarily going to the man’s shadow as he noticed it wriggle lightly for a bit.
’Shadow Demons? He’s probably sending them to scout.’
The Archdemon sighed softly before turning to Arthur and asking.
"So, is there anything else we need to know about this place—Aldwell Forest?"
"Indeed, there is."
Arthur drew his seat closer to where the Demons were and placed his hands on the Gledea Map on the table as he began speaking.
◇ ◇ ◇
Hidden Research Facility
Aldwell Forest
North Central Gledea
January 23rd
531st Divine Year
"Can you raise the output within the month?"
"Raise the Output?!"
The voice of one of the Head Researchers rang out across the loud hall, attracting the attention of everyone present as he questioned the Transcendent Divine Human who had just spoken to him.
"You think we’re all clones of Major Ger or something?! Unlike him, we have to be a lot more careful in creating these Divine.
We cannot recover from failures like he could. Divine Factor wielders are reducing in number. Not many babies are being born since most parents are too busy trying to survive to think about fucking.
We can’t gain as many Divine Factors as before so we have to ration what we have carefully."
"What about the Second Generations?"
"Second Generations? Those are still fetuses in their mother’s wombs. It’d take months before anyone is born, and years before they can become useful in combat.
You lot should stop pressuring us!"
While the scientists and the Transcendents were arguing inside the base, the guards outside were busy patrolling like usual.
This Facility encompassed more than half of the Aldwell Forest, which was over 50 square kilometres in area, so it needed a lot of guards.
They had a barrier that concealed it from the outside whilst also serving as protection from attacks like how Duskhand’s Inner city did, but evidenced by Duskhand’s fall, said barriers could be breached so patrols were necessary.
A pair of guards walked to the gatehouse, ready to switch shifts when suddenly a thin silver line of light sliced through the barrier like paper and proceeded to divide the bodies of their colleagues in two.
Their eyes widened in shock as they saw their colleagues’ bodies split in two and blood spurted on their faces.
"Att..Attacck! WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!!!"
