Several days after Ed's meeting with Fang. Ed returned to Reef City by train. The train lines were beginning to travel there again due to the repaired wall and the mutants being cleaned up.
'So many people?' His eyes widened in shock. The Sinless base he operated already had crowds of people around it. To his surprise, the base had already gotten rid of the red and black flag that represented Sinless. A new black flag with a green tree and green leaves hung in its place. Likewise, the soldiers of the base wore new black and green uniforms.
He walked towards the base and some people in the crowd outside the gates noticed him. They quickly separated to form a path for him. When the guards on duty saw him, they saluted while quickly opening the gates. He entered inside and felt a bit relieved to see that at least the interior hadn't changed much in the short period of time he'd been gone. Gunther ran towards him and put his right fist across his chest in a salute, "Welcome back, Forge!"
Ed rose an eyebrow before nodding. "Inform Nick to meet with me in my office."
"Yes sir!" Gunther ran off in a different direction to fetch Nick.
Ed returned to his office and sat in his chair. 'Dupe must be behind this.' Soon, his door swung open and Dupe cheerfully walked in. "Hey boss. I've done well, right?"
"You have." He nodded in agreement. "Tell me. How did you pull this off? Even if the base's citizens do like me, they should have resisted this. Espers are their sworn enemy after all."
"Well actually, it was the people that came here to join Harmony that caused this. They told us all about Harmony, Forge, your speech, the attack in Georgia, and such. After hearing the stories, I naturally decided to change our base accordingly. There was some resistance at first, but the people that didn't like the changes either left or changed their minds. It's hard to resist something like this when the people outside the gates outnumber you three to one."
"I see." He tapped his finger against the desk while thinking. "Set up the people outside in the buildings surrounding our base. Recruitment doesn't begin for another ten days. In the meantime, work with the others to plan a recruitment system, ranking system, merit system, and any other rules you deem necessary."
"Understood." Dupe nodded. "I had already been planning most of those things for Sinless anyways. I only need to make adjustments for the modifications you'll make on people."
"Mm. Good. Also, send some trusted soldiers to start guarding the train station. There's only one way in and out of this city and I want full control of it. From now on, we're only letting those that join Harmony enter the city. I don't care if they used to live here, own property, or work for the government. Starting now, this is my territory and this whole city will become our stronghold."
"Haha!" Dupe laughed. "Things are really getting interesting. I'll go get to work then." He left the room.
Ed went to his secret lab and locked the hatch. Then he pulled a small book out from his pocket. 'The Mortal Dragon Technique. I hope it's as useful as Fang made it sound.'
He opened the book and began to read. 'Every human body contains a system of meridians. These are the natural pathways qi, also known as mana, should take. Unfortunately, the meridians are blocked for most people and must be forcefully opened. This technique will allow your qi to become the dragon that opens the path. The first step is to...' He finished reading the book and furrowed his brows. 'At first, I thought the meridians would refer to human veins, but that isn't right. It's a spiritual network that travels throughout the human body. It stores extra mana within a total of 20 meridians, which consist of 12 organs and 8 storage areas. What a strange concept. I'll just get started with the first step since that's supposed to be easy.'
He closed his eyes and sat in the lotus position on the floor near his desk. He focused with his mana. It took him several minutes of concentration before he could feel invisible paths within his body. These mana paths created a circuit throughout his entire body and connected to the 20 meridians. A small amount of his mana entered these paths naturally, but most of his mana just radiated off his body instead. He controlled his mana to continually enter the path. Soon, all of the mana being emitted from his mana-core flowed into the path. It looped from his head down to his hands and feet. It traveled throughout his entire body in a perfect circuit.
"Amazing!" He couldn't help but speak aloud. 'I'm surprised it works this well with my artificial limbs. Is it because of the spiritual nature of the meridians? Or because I used actual flesh to create my limbs?'
Previously, his mana was like an unstable gas that covered his entire body. It was difficult to control and provided little benefit to his body. Now, his mana was like a small current of water traveling throughout his body. It provided nourishment to all parts of his body, which absorbed it like arid lands in desperate need of rain. Each time the mana in his body finished looping back towards the mana-core, it became slightly stronger and more compact. The best part was that once he put the system in place it continued operating automatically. All the mana exiting his mana-core entered the appropriate path without any effort on his part.
'According to the book, I can also meditate to consciously speed up the process. This allows me to increase my total mana in quality and quantity faster than usual. I doubt I'll have much time for meditating though. Anyways, let's jump to the next step.'
He began to concentrate again. He could only sense the 12 organ meridians at the moment. The other 8 storage area meridians were more difficult to sense. He wouldn't be using them prior to finishing the organs. There wasn't a particular organ he had to start with. So, he chose the heart. The mana traveling through his body all started to gather near the heart. His mana shone with the seven colors of the seven elements. There was a barrier blocking the spiritual area of his heart from connecting with the mana paths in his body. He compacted his mana as tightly as he could and slammed it into the barrier.
"PFFT!" He spit out a stream of blood from his mouth after doing so. He clutched his chest in pain. His heart stopped beating for nearly a full minute before resuming its normal operations. However, he had succeeded. Mana naturally started entering his heart meridian. It seemed like it would take a while to fill up completely. What was interesting was that he felt the barriers surrounding the remaining 11 organ meridians become much stronger. It would take a lot more effort to break through them in the future.
'I might as well try to open the other heart meridian while I'm at it.' He was unsure why, but the heart was the only organ with 2 meridians. The other one was called the pericardium meridian. He didn't pretend to understand it, as the concept of Chinese cultivation was wrapped in mysteries and concepts he had no understanding of. However, he could sense the pericardium meridian right next to the heart meridian. It was like a 2nd layer of protection for the heart.
He gathered his mana and compacted it again. Then he slammed it into the pericardium barrier as strongly as he could.
"UGH!" He groaned as blood spilt from his lips. He even wobbled backwards to lean against the wall. It was taxing on the body trying to open these so-called meridians. Especially since he was starting with what was basically the most fragile and important meridians of them all. He grit his teeth and tried again. It took him several more tries before he finally succeeded. His entire body was pale and there was a small pool of blood in front of him.
'Damn, that feels good.' He slowly relaxed against the wall and fell asleep. Opening a new meridian felt like throwing a heavy chain off his body. It made him feel lighter, faster, and stronger. The sense of relaxation felt after opening one was pure ecstasy for his mind and body.
He awoke several hours later and stood up to stretch. 'It'll probably be a while before I can open any more meridians. The barriers got even stronger. I'll probably have to wait until I fill the two open ones with mana. I'll also need to further refine my mana for higher-quality.' Right now, his mana was still like a gas, though much more concentrated than before. Eventually, it should reach the state of being like a liquid. Then, a flexible solid. It would be a long time before he reached those levels though.
'Hmm?' Ed's eyes suddenly widened in surprise. Amongst his mana, he could feel a thin thread of golden energy. It moved and followed the rest of his mana, but it was different from his ordinary mana. His ordinary mana was a gaseous mixture of the seven colors of the seven elements. However, this new golden mana was solid and flexible like spider thread. It radiated overwhelming power that was completely unfamiliar to him. It nourished his body far more than the rest of his mana.
'What the hell is it?' It felt both foreign and familiar. Like it belonged to him but also didn't. He tried to control it and failed. It continued flowing through his mana paths as if it had a mind of its own. 'Weird. The Mortal Dragon Technique made no mention of such a thing... Oh well. Nothing I can do about it for now and it doesn't seem to be hurting anything. Time to get to work.'
Dupe was handling most of the paperwork and organization of Harmony. This left Ed much more free time than he had originally planned on. It was hard to be more efficient than five or six Dupe's working together in perfect coordination. He decided to help out with engineering in the meantime. It was convenient as he no longer had to hide his powers.
He began to directly melt large piles of raw resources into fully functional mechs. 'God, this is amazing. I wish I had the Mortal Dragon Technique sooner.' His control was so much better than in the past. He could easily form the mechs without taking breaks or forming individual parts. It only took him around 15 minutes per mech he made. Granted, they were the standard 3-meter-tall models that were only useful against ordinary mutants. Still, it had previously taken him nearly two days to make only ten such mechs. Now it only took a couple hours for a similar amount.
Nearly a week passed. They would be starting their official recruitment in just a few days. Ed had created hundreds of mechs in this time. He also repaired his fleshy-metal limbs completely while adding some rubber insulation in fear of future lightning strikes. There were plans to begin tearing down all the nearby buildings and convert the base into a true military headquarters. One suitable for mobilization, defense, and training. However, that would have to wait until after the initial wave of recruitment finished.
Today, Ed had just finished a meeting with Dupe. They had finalized some things regarding the new merit system being implemented. He was filling out some paperwork when he suddenly had the strange feeling someone was watching him. 'Is it my imagination?' He looked up from his paperwork. "WHAT THE FUCK?!" He screamed as his chair shot backwards. He quickly aimed his arm at the strange entity in front of him. A humanoid with long hair floated in front of him while glowing blue. Suddenly, his eyes widened in surprise. "Yuki?!" He questioned.
"Eh?!" Yuki jumped up in shock. "You can see me?"
"Of course I can see you. Do I look like a blind man to you?"
"Ah, that's not what I meant! Can't you tell I'm dead?!" She pouted while puffing out her cheeks in irritation.
"Dead?" He got up from behind his desk and walked towards her. Then he grabbed her arm.
"Hey, let go!" She yelled. She struggled pulling her arm back with all her might but had no success. "Why?! I should be able to phase through things!"
'Is that the cause?' Ed wondered. He could feel the single thin thread of the golden energy he carried reacting to her. It was trembling like a dog waiting for its meal. 'Does it want to eat her or something?!' Fortunately, the thread didn't seem to go out of its way to devour her. It was as if something was preventing it from doing so.
He began to manipulate his mana and send it towards her. 'My powers don't work on her either. Is she really a ghost or something...? No, wait. I shouldn't jump to dumb conclusions.'
Suddenly, his door swung open and Gunther rushed in. "Sir!" He saluted. "Some guards reported to me that they heard you scream. Is everything alright?"
"Uhm... yeah." He nodded. He glanced back-and-forth between Yuki and Gunther. "Hey. You see her too, right?"
"See who, sir?"
"The ghost floating right next to me?" He pointed.
Gunther stared at the air really hard for a few seconds while frowning. "Are you sure you're alright sir?"
"Haha! I was just joking. You're dismissed." He waved his hands towards him.
"As long as everything is alright, sir!" He saluted again before turning around and leaving. His movements were becoming more and more like an actual soldier.
"So, Yuki. Why have you come to visit me?" Ed questioned.
"Humph!" She snorted. "Naturally it's to haunt you in the afterlife. Getting me killed like that!"
"The shock I used shouldn't have been enough to kill you." He shook his head in denial. "Why don't you tell me what happened to you after you got knocked out? Then we'll try to figure out what's going on."