Ed and Gunther returned to Reef city. Ed decided to leave the mech in Gunther's care, and then he returned to his lab. He entered a private room and sat down in meditation. 'I don't have much time left before the war, so I'll need to manage it appropriately. It'd probably make more of an impact on the war if I worked on the condensed mana-batteries, but I have a feeling my limbs can't handle that kind of power yet. The steel barrel of the manullium rifle was made with crocodile bone, but it was still completely trashed after a single shot. I'll need much stronger flesh to handle that kind of power.'
With those thoughts in mind, he decided to work on his next meridian breakthrough instead. The mana within his body had already filled his currently open meridians when he concentrated on meditating at Horn Island. The crocodile flesh had further expanded his storage capacity in those meridians, but it was possible for him to fill that new capacity and make a breakthrough within the remaining month.
He sat still in the lotus position, his mind completely empty of thoughts. His mana-core drew in more mana than usual and sent it along his mana-paths. The open meridians greedily absorbed a portion of any mana that passed through them. Nearly a month passed before he filled his three open meridians to full capacity. By now, his body was covered in a layer of dust. He hadn't taken a single break the entire time. Only an esper with a particularly strong body would be capable of such a feat. 'Finally.' He sighed to himself. 'It's time. The new capacity was much larger than I expected. Now, which meridian should I break through?'
Ed thought for a moment and then decided on opening the lungs meridian. 'According to the book, the lungs help control mana. The increased control will help decrease my training time for other meridians in the future.' He had also considered opening the stomach meridian, for it would provide benefits in digesting flesh that contained mana. Additionally, the book claimed that opening the stomach meridian would reduce stress and anxiety. This would be beneficial considering his newly heightened emotions from the crocodile flesh. However, Ed was the type that preferred putting power first, and therefore he chose the lungs which would offer quicker long-term gains.
The mana in Ed's body began to flow towards the lungs. It slammed into an invisible barrier near the throat, causing him to release a series of coughs and wake up from his meditation. 'Mm.' He nodded in understanding. 'So that's the real challenge in breaking through this meridian. Breaking through will interfere with my breathing. According to the cultivation technique, I need to break through it quickly. Otherwise, I'll pass out from lack of breath. Unfortunately, this often leads to severe injuries, as rushing the process leads to mistakes and wild destruction. Fortunately for me, I have a cheat.'
He grinned as he began using his powers. Some flesh and muscle within his chest melted and formed a new pair of lungs. A hole appeared on his chest and connected to the new lungs. He slowly breathed through them, causing the new lungs to expand and compress repeatedly. The inhaled oxygen was carried to his bloodstream.
'An interesting feeling.' He reflected on the new sensation. This was his first time creating an entirely new organ while leaving the old organ in place as well. He closed his eyes and reentered meditation. He focused on his mana-paths and found that they were not affected by the new pair of lungs. The spiritual paths completely ignored the new lungs, neither avoiding them nor creating a new meridian within them. 'I figured as much.' He sighed in disappointment. He had vaguely hoped that he could cheat the meridian system by creating a bunch of spare organs, which would then allow mass storage of mana. Unfortunately, the mana-paths were spiritual in nature and it was often difficult to determine what did and didn't affect them. For example, he had retained his meridians in his limbs even after losing them. However, mixing his human flesh with mutant flesh had caused the storage capacity of his meridians to expand. It was yet another mystery of the workings of mana, as well as the human body.
'Oh well.' He quickly recovered his thoughts and concentrated once again. The mana flowed towards his original lungs. He was no longer able to breathe through them, but his new lungs on his chest took up the job, allowing him to stay focused on the task at hand.
Ed didn't rush the breakthrough like he had done in the past for the heart meridians. Instead, he slowly ground down the barrier, like he had done for the triple burner meridian. This barrier was unique in that it was particularly long. It stretched through the entire throat before branching into the two lungs. His mana slowly whittled away at the barrier, like raindrops wearing down stone over time.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye. A cracking sound rang out as the long barrier shattered. The mana quickly entered his lungs, swelling them with power. Large amounts of dopamine filled his brain, resulting in an extreme sense of pleasure. Ed slowly breathed out from his lungs, causing a black air to exit his body. The cultivation technique called this turbid qi, or turbid mana. It represented the impurities within his lungs.
"Mm." Ed moaned as he stood up and stretched. He cracked his neck while swinging an arm. 'I wonder if this is why ancient monks sit in meditation all the time. Just to chase after the momentary pleasure of ecstasy that comes with a breakthrough. I guess the long-term feeling of having a chain lifted from your body would make it worth it too.'
Ed exited his lab and headed for his office. He sat behind the chair and checked documents which had piled up over the last month. Most of it was just status updates on various projects, training, and other preparations. 'Good.' He nodded. 'Everything is on track. Nexus should think the war is starting tomorrow, which means it's time to put my first plan into action. I'll find out whether Dupe is secretly working for Nexus soon.'
Ed began to call for meetings with his various officers and some others. He had a private meeting with Ray, Husky, Rupert, Flair, Ochre, Ash, and a few others. Each meeting discussed rather trivial things. However, he gave each of them one particularly interesting order. "For the next two weeks, you're to follow Dupe's orders without question. No matter what he tells you, you are not to show even the slightest hint of confusion, doubt, or questioning. You'll follow his orders as if you had already expected them, no matter how unexpected they are. Additionally, you're not to tell Dupe that I informed you to do this." These orders naturally led to much confusion, but each of them agreed to it.
Next, Ed called Dupe in for a meeting. This would be the final meeting before the war began.
"Hey!" Dupe waved as he entered the office. "I figured I'd be next since you've been calling everyone for private meetings today."
"Mm." Ed nodded. "I wanted to discuss some specifics with them for each of their departments. More importantly, I've given them all the same order. Now I'm giving that order to you as well."
"Oh?" Dupe raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Starting tomorrow, we're delaying the war for two weeks." Ed said with a deadly serious face. "The soldiers will be confused, but you are not to explain the finer details to them nor how long we are delaying the war. Just have them carry on training as usual and give them some extra vacation time during this period."
Dupe's eyes widened in surprise. "Why would we do that?!" He questioned. "We've already prepared, and everything is set to begin tomorrow. This will throw all of our plans out of order!"
"It's simple." Ed replied. "It's to wear down the enemy. It's all but guaranteed that Nexus knows the day we planned to begin the war. They likely know some of our other plans as well. Obviously the governor and mayors will know this secret information too. So, what happens when we delay the war two weeks?"
Dupe lowered his head in thought for a moment before speaking. "They would question the accuracy of the information from Nexus?"
"That's part of it." He agreed. "However, there's a far more important aspect. All of their soldiers are going to be on edge waiting for the war to begin. They'll be filled with vigilance as they await our attacks that aren't coming. This anxiety and stress will lead to lack of sleep and doubts in their leaders. Meanwhile-"
"Meanwhile, our soldiers will be well rested and in prime condition to start the actual war!" Dupe interrupted, a sparkle in his eyes. "It's genius! I can't believe I didn't think of it!"
"Right." Ed nodded. "As of now, only you and the other higher-ups I met with today know of this. All of you are my most trustworthy men. Tomorrow morning, I want you to inform the entire base that we're delaying, but remember that we can't tell the soldiers why we're delaying or for how long. If anyone does so, then I'll consider them a traitor. You'll likely receive some flak from the soldiers for not providing enough information to them, but that is the role I've assigned you in this plan. Anyways, that's all I wanted to talk about. Anything you need to report to me before the war?"
Dupe explained his concerns over some minor issues throughout the base, but nothing of much importance. Then he left the office.
Ed leaned back in his chair, a smile on his face. He slowly tapped his finger against the arm of his chair. Thud, thud, thud. 'The plan is complete. Dupe thinks I told everybody the same orders, but I really only told him. The others were only told to follow Dupe's orders without questioning and without showing any confusion. This will cause him to think that everyone is on the same page. If Nexus finds out about the plan, then there is little to no doubt that Dupe is working for them. If our enemies are left in the dark, then either Dupe doesn't work for them or he outsmarted me.'
'Now, what should I do with my new 2 weeks of spare time?' He wondered. He thought for a brief moment when he suddenly felt a strange sensation on his chest. It was his new pair of lungs trying to breathe through his shirt. 'Oh, right. I forgot to remove them.' He controlled his powers and melted the lungs back into the original muscle and flesh he had used to temporarily serve as the lungs. 'Actually, I guess that's something worth doing before the war. I could use some backup organs.'
Ed returned to his lab and fetched some more crocodile flesh. They were starting to run low on the supplies of it, as he had used the condensed versions of the flesh on the soldiers. Still, there was no point in trying to conserve it. He could always hunt for stronger mutants after the war when he had more time.
He melted the flesh from the crocodile and created two spare hearts, giving him a total of three. Then he created a pair of extra lungs that breathed through two small holes on the back of his neck. He didn't bother with other organs, as he could easily repair them if needed. The hearts were essential. The extra lungs weren't really necessary, but the extra oxygen intake was a nice benefit. Also, it would allow him to breath if something ever happened to the front of his throat. He could place the extra lungs elsewhere, such as his back, but there wasn't really a point. He would pretty much have to be beheaded to stop him from breathing from both pairs of his current lungs, and that would kill him no matter what.
"Grr." A low growl came from Ed's throat as his pupils turned vertical. 'Too much crocodile flesh.' He thought as he controlled his mana to forcefully calm himself down. The new organs had raised his crocodile mutant flesh percentage above 50 percent. He started removing some crocodile flesh from less important muscles and flesh, bringing the percentage back down to 50. His eyes returned to normal as his rationality slowly returned. 'How terrifying.' He sighed at the strange phenomenon.
...
The next morning. The sun was just rising in the sky, causing the shadows within the base to slowly recede. It was hot despite it being winter, which was a rather ordinary occurrence in Florida. The humid air caused the soldiers to sweat heavily.
Dupe stood on stage. Brass horns were in front of him, in order to carry his voice far into the crowd. Rows and rows of soldiers were lined up along the street, to the point that the end of the line couldn't be seen. Mana-radios were distributed down the street, so that the speech could be heard by all. He leaned near the horns and began to speak. "Starting today, we will be delaying the war for an undetermined period of time. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it is a necessary part of our plans. I know this unexpected change may cause some of you to feel anxious, but nothing will change. You'll all continue training and preparing as you have been. Additionally, we will be allocating additional vacation time so that you may relax during this postponement."
A series of whispers echoed from the crowd. The whispers quickly grew in volume as the soldiers fought to speak over each other, arguing over what they thought was really going on behind the scenes.
"ATTENTION!" Ray yelled into the brass horns as he stepped in front of Dupe. There was no hesitation or doubt visible on his face nor heard within his voice. "You heard the man! Get back to training. I'll be assigning extra vacation time as he just said. You should be celebrating, not doubting."
"SIR!" A chorus of voices rang out, so loud that it seemed to shake the streets. The soldiers started marching back to their stations to continue their work and training. It was obvious to anyone that Ray had earned the soldiers' deep respect as he trained them over the past few months.
Ed watched the crowd leaving, a smile on his face. 'I think I'll relax these next two weeks and intermingle with the soldiers a bit. It'll do good for morale if they actually see Forge's face before the upcoming war. More importantly, these could very well be the last two weeks of my peaceful life. I might just die during this war if I'm unlucky.' With those thoughts in mind, Ed headed for the training field.