Back at Ash's office in Paradiso. One Exusiai was burning holes through Mostima. Her arms crossed, tapping on them impatiently.
"So? Exusiai, explain what your relationship with her is first." He gestured for the angel to do so, because she would be more truthful.
"Her name is Mostima, she's a good friend of my adoptive sister Lemuen. But one day, they returned from a mission and she was crippled. While Mostima seemingly violated the law of Laterano. And she turned to that." Exusiai pointed at her halo.
"Interesting, interesting indeed…" Ash squinted his eyes and analyzed Mostima. She cowered from the intense gaze. Hoping that they wouldn't vivisect her or something.
"We won't experiment on you." Ash rolled his eyes. She went wide eyed at that.
"Well, you suddenly brought me here. You can't fault a girl for thinking that." Mostima scratched her cheek nervously.
"You used your arts on us." Ash snorted and Mostima winced.
"I needed to get away! Lemuel was aiming her gun at me, she was about to shoot me." Mostima huffed at the Sankta.
"If you don't keep running away whenever we meet, then I won't try to shoot you!" Exusiai glared and Mostima stared right back.
"I told you, what happened to Lemuen is not my secret to share. You just came from Laterano! Why didn't you ask her about it?" They started arguing back and forth.
"Ladies, shut up. You're both wrong anyways. Exusiai, understand that she doesn't wanna tell you crap. And Mostima, you should know how Exusiai feels, her sister suddenly got crippled." Ash sighed and they both went silent.
"Though you should stop pestering her Exusiai. You're being a creep, imagine Lemuen's friend being as pushy as you. You have no right to interrogate her." Ash chided her and Exusiai deflated.
Mostima had a smug smile on her face and was relieved that he told her off.
"If… She didn't have anything to do with it. Now, you are a criminal. Attacking royalties and national leaders. If you did it against Exusiai only, it would be kinda fine. But you used your arts on us. That's attempted regicide in everybody's books." Ash raised a brow at her.
Mostima started sweating bullets. "Please don't execute me! I'm too young!" She pleaded for her life and they thought she was kinda funny.
"Then start talking, give me those too." Ash asked for her staves.
She reluctantly gave it to him and he had to grip it tightly. The Feranmut sealed into it was struggling like hell.
"Unhand me you fiend! You will not use my powers to cause apocalypse on this planet!" It hissed at him and he raised a brow.
"What are you talking about you prisoned lizard? I'm doing more good for this planet than all of the people that have lived here combined." Ash snorted.
People of Paradiso were even beginning to worship him after his displays of power. Referring to him as a kind god that gives people purpose and an honest living.
"You fiends slaughtered gods for entertainment!" The dragon screamed at him and he was getting annoyed.
"What do you mean?" He raised a brow and it sneered at him.
"Don't play coy fiend, you're a gray one. You must have already destroyed entire countries on your own." Ash squinted his eyes.
"Your kind's complexion turns gray when you've made the world weep and has experienced great sorrow due to your slaughter!" It said with contempt.
"Then ask your wielder what has been happening in the world." Ash gave the staves back to Mostima.
He wanted to know more about what the dragon knows. But it was obviously more racist than america back in the days. It basically sees him like the damned Devil himself.
Mostima went quiet for a second and she blinked. Looking at Ash with fear in her eyes. He thought that the hybrid must be explaining the history of Terra.
"Wow… Your ancestors are bonkers." Mostima cowered at his gaze.
He raised a brow and Mostima gulped. "The dragon here explained that thousands of years ago, your kind were like the Boogeyman. The Boogeyman of even the devils that is." Ash gestured for her to continue.
"Your ancestors are the enemies of the world. Gods called Feranmuts died by the dozens every clash. Terra was in shambles and he said that you maniacs bathed with rivers of blood." Mostima shivered.
"That was actually the reason he was sealed in this stave. To give his power to the other Feranmuts in order for them to have a fighting chance. And the only reason it's not crumbling yet is due to his power to manipulate time." Mostima explained and he nodded.
"I don't know who the lord of fiends is, but Kazdel apparently helped with the process to protect the planet." Mostima was amazed by the history lesson.
"Hmmm, I really need more information. When is Kal'tsit going to send that translation?" He massaged his temples.
"Really? But he's like kind and generous!" Exusiai was in disbelief.
"I think it's an inherent trait if our race Exusiai. Only few know this, but I can easily lose myself to rage and my desires." Exusiai gasped and he smiled wryly.
"So you're not going to assault us then kill us?" Mostima looked at him while hugging her body.
"What do you think? I'm not a rabid animal, you want to stay in a cell?" Ash deadpanned at her.
"Sorry, please don't." Ash snorted. "That's what I thought."
"We're getting off track, were you responsible for Lemuen's injury? She returned to Laterano in a coma!" Exusiai glared at her and was getting antsy.
"Calm down Exusiai, let her talk. And no, you have no choice." Ash hurried the hybrid up.
"Hah, I guess you were in the dark for a long time now. Honestly, I thought you would've learned more from Lemuen by now." Mostima sighed and Exusiai pouted. It was a sore spot for her that she hasn't seen her sister.
"Damn right." Exusiai nodded at her and looked really impatient.
"Lemuen, Fiammetta, and I are under a Andoin. You know him right? He was a priest and we were his subordinates. When we were at Kazdel, the group happened upon a pair of relics inside some ruins." Mostima raised her staff and the key-like other one.
"Andoin suddenly panicked when we went near it. Lemuen was about to grab them, but he used his arts on her and she went into a coma. I fired my gun at him and I fell. Resulting in my appearance." Mostima pointed at her Sarkaz traits.
"Then why didn't he!?" Exusiai knew their previous leader and he was still at large somewhere.
"I don't know, he didn't fell. That means that he did not violate our laws. Meaning, his actions weren't malicious at all." Mostima's face scrunched up.
The priest definitely harmed another Sankta. Which is against the law. But it still confused her why it did not made him fall.
"No way…" Exusiai felt complicated about it. "The law? So if you break it you'll fall?" Ash remembered Federico. His halo was almost all black. So he was sure that it isn't absolute.
"Yes, I broke the law in which we aren't supposed to hurt other Sankta." Mostima shrugged.
"But why do you have Sarkaz traits?" Ash was interested in that part.
"I honestly don't know. Maybe we are cousins with the Sarkaz?" Mostima asks that question in her head a lot too.
"But why are the Sankta so racist against the Sarkaz though?" Ash was confused about their attitude towards the Sarkaz.
"It has been like that for as long as I can remember." Exusiai frowned, she didn't know and now that she thought of it; why was it like that?
"No use in thinking about it now. We have plenty of time to unearth the secrets of Laterano." Ash dropped it for now. There are better things to do.
"So… Can I go now?" Mostima gave a smile. "Nope, you'll work for me." Ash grinned and her power would come in handy.
He'll be busy researching the abyssal hunters. So Mostima can increase the perception of time of everyone. Making their efficiency skyrocket.
"What!? But I'll have unpaid overtime! You're pretty much like my boss already! I'm an employee of Penguin logistics!" Mostima complained.
"You are? Then that's your punishment. Or you want to go behind bars? One of our prisoners would appreciate a friend." Ash grinned at her.
"Ugh, no thank you. And a prisoner?" Mostima slumped down and was depressed.
"Talulah." The room went deathly quiet. They heard what the tyrant of Reunion did at the battlefield. Everything in the way turned into smoldering craters and molten lava.
"Uhhh, nice to work for you sir. Thank you very much for this opportunity, it's an honor. I will work really hard." Mostima bowed.
"Damn right it is. Exusiai, can you show her around the place? I need to meet up with the Rhine labs scientists." Ash left them behind.
"Lemuel, will I be fine here? I don't know, the boss is quite scary." Mostima was getting paranoid.
"What are you talking about? He's the best, look at this. This isn't my patron gun, it's much better. And he gave it to me as a gift." Exusiai presented her bullpup and was proud of it.
"Woah, are you for real? Okay, I'll try to stay alive here." Mostima gulped and Exusiai ignored her paranoia.
"Come on, we need to check out the gun factories. There's all kinds of bullets and guns being made there!" Exusiai pulled her for a tour.
Ash called for a meeting for an important matter. Originium's usage causes catastrophes. He was sure of it.
Just like greenhouse gases, when originite prime is used for fuel and other applications. Particulate matter of the stuff goes to the atmosphere and results in catastrophes. Similar to global warming.
And they need to phase out the usage of originium in order to decrease instances of oripathy. Terra is too reliant on originium for its society. And Ash felt like they had enough clout to change that.
"Ash, what's this about?" Margaret was curious as everyone got called in.
"We start changing the world everyone." After his talk with Lemuen, his mind cleared up and he was able to think up a plausible way to slowly transition away from originium.
The problem that Terra had, Is they have no goddamned clue of other energy sources. Something that he would rectify.
"Take a look at this." He gave them some files with the title named project Terra.
They started reading it and they were shocked. "Really? There are so many veins of that oil that we took from Ursus?" Shining was shocked. It powered up their choppers. And its energy output isn't much worse than originium.
Though it needed a lot more of it to match originite prime's efficiency.
"Yes, and I have my sights on Sargon. There are deserts around there. Fossil fuels form in anoxic areas where organic matter does not oxidize and decompose. Gulfs like Siesta are also a great environment to develop what we need."
Continental drifting and tectonic activities bury organic matter and they are cooked just right to be used as fuel.
"We will establish power plants in Kjerag first. With the place being safe from catastrophes. Power lines won't be destroyed by them. I have a plan on using the chimera treatment from Rhine labs to reverse seed the environment so we can establish larger power grids." Ash explained and they blinked in awe.
"Wow, this must have taken a lot of planning…" Degenbrecher could tell that it wasn't that simple at all.
"Yes, so please send out teams. We will be using the resources of the earth and slowly decrease the incidence of oripathy on Terra. This will take a long time. So we should start as quickly as possible." Ash sighed, it's a grand plan that would most likely take decades.
"Why not use nuclear power plants? We have already established that they are more efficient and safer for the environment." Gnosis raised a question.
"Because it is much easier to build a power plant that is using fossil fuels. That's the next step, when we establish lines, pipes, grids. We will transition to nuclear energy. Though all of the next mobile cities will already be using that." Ash looked around to see if they had more questions.
"Then dismissed. I am counting on everyone, this will be a hard and thankless task. But that is Deliverance's job. To bring a brighter tomorrow, step by step." Ash nodded at them and they saluted.
He then went to his personal lab to continue his research. "I have a lot of time. We can't get that much oil quickly. And we need to manufacture everything all over again so even a damned lightbulb won't use originium." Ash groaned.
They would also need to mine tons upon tons of precious metals like platinum, silver, gold, chromium, lithium, etc.
"The path to greatness and peace is surely a thorny one… I'll do it though, I can't break this promise at least." He rubbed his head and entered the lab.
"Oi! Joyce and Saria have been giving me nothing but assignments! Please! I beg of you, end my misery." Ifrit went limp towards him and Ash raised a brow at the two.
"Subject Ifrit is being overdramatic. We were memorizing the multiplication table until 100. Joyce and Saria did that easily when we were even younger." Joyce shrugged and Saria nodded.
"Hah, you two are being ridiculous you know? Sorry Ash, I couldn't stop their antics." Silence smiled wryly and Ifrit looked like her head was gonna explode.
"Ifrit, until what number have you memorized?" Ash patted her head and soothed her headache.
"Uhhh, until 23?" She looked at him nervously. He was the big boss who is also the head of the research department. So she thought that he would be disappointed.
"Good girl, Joyce, Saria. Stop hassling her for that kind of crap. Until 10 is good enough, she won't be multiplying those amounts of numbers for daily use anyways. And you can carry calculators everywhere." He deadpanned at them.
"Oh… I forgot about phones… I tend to do it manually." Saria had an epiphany and Joyce tilted her head.
"Here, have a treat. Don't worry about those dummies. Tell me if they're abusing you with homework okay?" Ash carried Ifrit. And due to his size she was like a baby in his arms.
Her eyes shone and she almost cried due to her savior. "So cool… Yeah! Thank you!" Ifrit hugged him and was ecstatic.
"Now, run along now and play with Narcissa or the twins." Ash pushed her a bit and she skipped away with a beaming smile on her face.
They watched her go with a smile. Then he looked at them and they straightened up due to his expression.
"Silence, call Closure and Maria now. We're going to make a logarithm in order to sequence DNA much faster. Those two can give us tons of input towards coding our softwares." Ash ordered the Liberi and she ran immediately.
"Saria, you call all the other researchers that are from the structural department from Rhine labs. They also worked on biology, no? We will be focusing on our top secret project from now on." Saria nodded and she exited the lab.
"Joyce, I want you to keep archiving the information. You will receive tons of data. I will be upgrading your chip so you would have more storage. Then we'll dump the data you sorted into an external hard drive. I need you awake as much as possible to record data." Ash squinted his eyes.
"Yes, subject Joyce is at your command." She bowed at him and Ash nodded, pleased with their reaction time.
"Hmm, it seems that sending Silence and Saria to the front lines yielded some results. We will begin now, there's no time to waste Joyce." Ash beckoned her over and they went to the testing area where abyssal hunter samples were being experimented on.
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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.