Transcendent Gene-Chapter 282: Deception [6]

A few days over two weeks passed from the moment the scenario began. Gio’s party had been secluded from the world outside for almost twenty days.

It wasn’t a short period of time. In fact, twenty days was more than enough time for the state of the entire world to change.

Of course, the entire state of the world didn’t instantly collapse for no reason, but that didn’t mean there weren’t changes in what Gio knew. The world had been progressing just as steadily as his party.

Farrah’s meeting with the Admiral took place some time ago.

He wasn’t a person affiliated with any specific military force. None of the Federations or Clans could claim him, and even NEXUS didn’t have the authority to control him.

He was not called an admiral rather than a general or a commander without reason. Only, the fleet he led rarely found itself on the water.

Admiral Sinclair was a man who exclusively lived within the Gehenna Army. He was one of the many heads that helped it function, the most selfless form of human being who threw away everything else in life to become a representative of the entire race.

His own family was included in those sacrifices.

He spoke happily to Farrah, but their relationship was strained because of him and him alone. In fact, if her call came for any reason other than business, he wouldn’t have entertained it for more than a few minutes.

His arrival in Celestelle would have been news for the entire world. The average person didn’t concern themselves with his movements, but everyone with some status would be in an uproar the moment he made his location public.

As such, he arrived at the lab through Nightreign and wore a disguise to get around its employees. He saw the samples she’d been studying and went over her data in person, but his strength wasn’t research.

After seeing for himself that her conclusions came from a real place, he immediately transferred the data to someone much more qualified and got a second confirmation.

Farrah didn’t feel offended. Everything in research and development needed to be checked and cross-checked several times to be proven.

The important thing was that her findings were proven within the next twenty-four hours, and an effort to look into the traces of the Obsidian Eye Faction was launched. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

That force wasn’t a joke. The Obsidian Eye Faction was once a threat on a level that the Apocalypse Church was bound to reach in the future. They caused tens of millions of deaths and the destruction of an entire country before the war to take them down ended.

The Gehenna Army couldn’t get involved in matters that didn’t concern the safety of humanity as a whole. If it was just a matter of some believers sprouting up and imitating what once was, they could hand authority over to smaller forces who could do the dirty work instead.

If, instead, it was found that the traces found through lab results were real and not extremely similar imitations...

In that case, the Obsidian Eye Faction had an unknown number of members who’d been propagating across the world and expanding on everything the faction was doing before they were destroyed.

Those people existed and passed down their teachings for at least a hundred years. One could imagine the damage they could do if they were left alone.

Under Admiral Sinclair’s command, several teams were sent out into all even Strata to find anything close to a trace. They moved stealthily, blending into djinn and asura societies to find information without exposing themselves.

These activities eventually led to the discovery of several forces that were fated to become dangerous in the future. Ironically, the snowball effect of Gio’s actions helped him with some of his future work.

However, time truly was a contradictory thing. Two weeks was nothing at all.

There were clues. There were rumors and talks about the Obsidian Eye Faction and in some places, there were even people claiming to be in contact with them. The spies were all following trails that could lead somewhere, but the ones they had followed to their ends served as nothing but fruitless pursuits.

Well, to the Gehenna Army, those trails led to nothing.

At the end of one of them was a very specific force. It was a cult that had been operating for a long time and sometimes acted on similar ideals to the Obsidian Eye Faction.

The Gehenna Army could not touch them until they reached a certain threat level, but its leaders always knew about them.

As such, they were directly targeted.

"Where are they now?"

"They’ve only found bases in Pangea, but one of them was a Cloud Space. There’s no telling what kind of information they managed to take before we shut it down."

"They’ll start searching here and Asphodel as well. We’ve already started moving."

The conversation was taking place in an environment very similar to the Godspark Mountain Range. It was a place that ordinary humans and Sequencers rarely frequented, meaning it was the perfect place for djinns.

The people talking were all relevant members of the Apocalypse Church’s upper echelon, but none of them were Archbishops or the Pope. Those seven were listening to the ongoing conversations without a hint of expression on their faces.

"What do we do? This isn’t the NEXUS or even the Empyreans. This is the Gehenna Army. They have the ability to end everything."

"They have the ability..."

The voice of an Archbishop rang through the room, silencing everyone else.

"...but they will not act unless they learn of the possibilities of beast control."

Their most important projects would turn them into true enemies of humanity that the Gehenna Army could target. The Cloud Space that had been raided didn’t contain much important information, but it had clues that could be traced back to beast control or the mech suits they were developing.

"There is no need to fret," the Archbishop said, addressing the lower forces on behalf of his peers and superior.

"This is but a minor setback. The necessity to relocate forces us to halt many of our current plans and productions, however, our momentum can still be gained back. The array has been tried and tested, and we were only holding back so we could attack at the perfect timing."

When would be better than during an event where all of the First Institute’s students were guaranteed to be gathered?

"That will change now."

The Gehenna Army’s interference made it impossible to aim for the most perfect moment.

"The array under Celestelle will be complete in two weeks at the least and one month at most. Remember this time period, for you must all prepare to execute your own orders the moment they are given."

His meaning was clear. Now that they were being pursued, they had two options. They could either quiet down and hide for several years before the world was again for them again, or...

"...we’ll strike early. Once we prove its effectiveness in a real setting, we will gain VNGRD’s full support. It will be much easier for us to stand against the Gehenna Army then."

Two weeks to a month.

Originally, they were meant to attack at the beginning of the next year. There were still two and a half more months before the new year, even. They were being forced to rush their schedule too much for any ordinary high-ranking member of the church to be comfortable.

But as the Archbishop said, they’d been prepared for some time now.

They were only waiting for the right moment.

The church’s Pope watched over the meeting, his expression shifting into a slight scowl by the time it was over.

’How?’

He’d already asked the Archbishops about it, but they were unable to answer him. Even the fact that the Gehenna Army was their current enemy was something they were barely able to grasp.

It wasn’t that the Apocalypse Church suddenly got weaker. The importance and status of the Gehenna Army couldn’t be exaggerated.

They were single-handedly the reason why humanity still existed. Most of the world’s Starlight Class Sequencers were raised in the Gehenna Army.

The Apocalypse Church could be as much of a threat as they wanted, but as long as they were alone, they would never be able to match the army’s strength before it came for them.

’VNGRD has become our only option.’

The Pope understood that they’d overstepped their bounds.

’However, in order for our beliefs to spread...’

They had no choice but to take the difficult road.

’Hmm...’

Despite the seemingly dire situation, he didn’t feel any fear or wariness.

It had been too long. They had planned too hard and set too many things up. Over the course of the past several years, they’d created an entire array under Celestelle, one of the world’s most famous cities, without being noticed.

Whether it happened in two weeks or two months was irrelevant. The beast control array had to be put into practice.

After all, it was the first step. Once they’d proven its worth, the Apocalypse Church would be faced with a tsunami of open doors. The faith they’d been slowly cultivating could finally spread across the world, and...

"Humanity will be cleansed."

The words that came from the Pope’s mouth were deep and gritty, filling the whole room as if they’d been said through speakers. All conversations stilled again as the eyes in the room went to him.

The Apocalypse Church was a faith, and the one who started and continued that fate for all these decades was none other than the very Pope who stood at its head to this very day.

He was a presence no different from a God in the eyes of his people. His words could be met with nothing other than reverence.

And once the First Institute became a shadow of the past, the rest of the world would slowly come to realize the same thing.

Humanity was irrelevant.

The Apocalypse was fated.

Eternal bliss could only be found in a reality where they laid down their weapons and cleansed themselves of the plague that had taken over their genetics.

Once Sequenders were gone, the world would return to stability. The church could finally establish order and save the true members of humanity.

...as long as nothing went wrong.