As Intellus and Julian continued on their heated discussion, the AMR arrived from the skies and landed 50 meters away.
On its hand was the fresh and mysterious hexagonal crystal core of the sand elemental.
The AMR saw Julian and approached him, kneeling on the ground while presenting the dazzling prize it had just received.
Julian reached out and touched the hexagonal crystal core, feeling some vibration and a powerful invisible force gathering into it.
It was light, smooth, and soft to the touch, like an ornament polished by the best craftsman in the entire universe.
He raised it high and tried to see through it, to no avail.
"That is an extraordinary material, successor," Intellus added, breaking him out of his stupor.
"You have any idea what this thing is?"
"Currently not." Intellus shook its head in the portrait. "Though if I can search through the data left behind by the Ancien Regime, then I may be able to find something."
Tasha suddenly arrived on Julian's side. Her eyes twinkled in delight, salivating at the hexagonal crystal core he was holding.
"What do you want?" Julian looked at her jovial expression.
"This. Give it to me, captain, please!" she fawned out to him.
Julian shoved the hexagonal crystal core away from her sight and tightly grasped it within.
"And what if I don't?"
"Then I won't tell you what this hexagonal crystal core is truly about." Tasha mischievously smiled while running her index finger into her pretty face.
"Hmph, then tell me first." Julian didn't give in. Who knew what this woman was up to?
He had forgotten to ask her before because everything was too quick for him to do anything.
"Fine." Tasha rolled her eyes. "It's the core of a nature elemental. It possesses the power to form and use the forces of nature. This one is an earth-type. If a normal person consumes it, they can gain heavenly powers at once. Of course, that is only possible if a psionic is nearby to help them integrate the natural powers into their bodies."
Julian grinned and looked at the hexagonal crystal core lovingly.
"So if I consume this with your help, I'll become one of those gifted people?"
"Not necessarily. Although I've said that normal people can consume it with the help of a psionic, that is only under the condition that they have powerful physical bodies. As for you..."
Tasha glanced at the PMS-MD-103. "I think you'll pass, but you don't have to concern yourself with these things for now..."
"Why not?" Julian raised his eyebrows.
"Once you've consumed a core of any nature elemental, you will only be stuck with that element for the rest of your life. Do you really think that becoming a sand is a good thing, captain?"
Julian's face twitched. He almost made a fool of himself. If he wanted to attain such heavenly powers, then he needed something more powerful than that, shouldn't he?
He threw the hexagonal crystal core to Tasha and ignored it.
She smiled and thanked him wholeheartedly.
Julian rolled his eyes and was about to continue talking with Intellus when a beep was transmitted into his VNI.
He opened the connection and saw Unducel's portrait. "Unducel, what happened?"
"Successor, one of the saved memories in Miss Tasha's brain has been fully decoded. Do you want to see it now?"
He jolted for a second, remembering it after three full months of silence from Unducel's side.
"Wait."
He turned around and called her out. "One of the stored memories is ready. You want to watch it with me?"
Tasha raised her eyebrows, curious about this sudden discovery.
"Sure, if you don't mind, captain. I am rather interested in the rest of the memories stored in my brain." She put her index finger onto her chin, pondering about it.
"You didn't memorize them all?"
Tasha laughed him off. "I'm not a god, captain. Even my mind has its limitations. Most of the memories stored were compressed data anyway. There's no way that I can peek through them unless I wanted my brain to explode."
Julian furrowed his brows. "I see. That seems reasonable. Let's go then. We'll continue this discussion later, Intellus."
Both of them flew straight back to HQ and arrived in less than five minutes.
Julian was surprised to see that Avina's automaton was waiting for him there. Even the small Avina-2 followed on her sides...
"Don't tell me you want to watch a drama of that doctor?"
"Avina and Avina-2 are interested in any data that this memory will present, successor." Avina and Avina-2 bowed.
Julian felt that something didn't feel right, though he could not just shoo them away, could he? He nodded and proceeded inside, followed by his three subordinates.
Tasha smiled on the side, having a little familiarity with how Julian was feeling right now. This poor captain was no less different from a celebrity being stalked by his diehard fans.
She kept her thoughts to herself, however. Julian's suppression wasn't something she wanted to experience all over again.
Unducel had been waiting for their arrival and the successor was dumbfounded to see another set of automatons waiting for him inside.
'What is going on? How come everyone is suddenly interested in this?!'
He ignored this ridiculous setup and gestured at Unducel to start playing the newly decoded memory.
The large monitor screen buzzed for a second before showing a first-person view of Doctor Steve walking into a dark corridor in the middle of the night. On his right were large tempered windows, showing the lights underneath a large city.
"This is-!"
Julian immediately recognized the scenery. It was one of the Federation's most secure and largest cities in its entirety: Alessia City!
And this building must be the Authority's one and only Solitude Spire!
As he spoke out those descriptions, the light in the digital eyes of his subordinates flickered in interest, especially Avina, Hesab, and Intellus.
As Doctor Steve made his way through the long ass corridor, a tall middle-aged man appeared in his view. The guy's mustache was suave and could charm any innocent lady.
His bluish eyes looked at Doctor Steve disdainfully but still opened the door for the doctor to enter through.
Doctor Steve entered a dimly lit room with only one wooden table and leather chair at the end. Sitting atop it was a blonde woman wearing an eyeglass.
"Doctor Steve. You're here. I heard you want to go to Planet X10-254-L2 and see... him?"
Her brownish eyes emitted a cold glint as she stared at Doctor Steve.
"You should bear some respect to that young one. His parents are the reason where you are right now." He snorted and glared at her. "And what if I want to see him? You want to stop me with your sentinels?"
The blonde woman chuckled and ignored his pretenses. "I know where my power lies, doctor, but there's no point in reminiscing..."
Doctor Steve suddenly slammed the table with both his palms, yet the blonde woman remained still and unaffected by his outburst.
"There is a point! You were supposed to provide backup on that day! If you were just one second earlier, Julian's parents could have been saved! The Federation is one thing, but you, as the sole director of the Authority, and a previous soldier should know better! You should have known better!"
He shouted while pointing at her contemptuous face.
She snorted and slapped his hand away.
"You talk as if you know everything, doctor. If I were a few seconds earlier, I wouldn't be here with you right now, hearing you preach your magnanimity over my ungratefulness. Whatever happened has happened. Julian's parents died, and that won't change a thing. They may have opened that facility but they should have given it to the Federation as soon as possible. And now what? A tragedy befell upon them. The Federation has nothing to do with it and so am I. It was simply their own fault for not listening to orders."
Doctor Steve gritted his teeth and everyone could feel the bitterness in his heart.
"So you just let them die there because they were stubborn? And you call yourself a damn hero! I swear if I could control these sentinels, I would have them rip you all into pieces instead!"
He could not help himself but blurt out such demeaning words. After all, how could these people be that heartless?
The Ancien Facility was not theirs to begin with and to think that they had to audaciously kill off the owners in public while getting away with it...
Meanwhile, Julian blankly stared at the monitor, fazed by the sudden revelation of his parent's death.
"So it wasn't an accident... but... mom and dad were killed?! And she even fucking blamed them for their deaths..."
Why? Why did no one tell him that that was what happened to his parents?
Julian thought that he would be at peace once he knew the reasons behind it. Never had he imagined that it would bring dread upon him instead.
Meanwhile, the argument between the blonde woman and Doctor Steve intensified.
"The Federation appointed me in this position, doctor. You have no right to tell me what to do! Instead, how about you go back to your little laboratory? Didn't you enjoy using your formulas on your test subjects?"
"Shut up, damn woman, and don't try to change the subject!" Doctor Steve yelled once again. "Whether you like it or not, I will go to that planet to see him, dead or alive! It's the very least that I could do for him!"
He turned around and headed to the door.
At this moment, the blonde woman let out another laugh and pointed the tip of her eyeglass into his body.
"If you were such a samaritan, why didn't you approach him earlier, doctor? Is your conscience really a wholehearted emotion or simply because you don't want to die in shame like the rest of us?"
Doctor Steve stopped and glanced back at her. "I have the conscience and respect for my benefactors! I will not let the legacy of those two soldiers be buried and used by scoundrels like you!"
"And don't try to make me look like one of you bastards! I swear if I see him alive in that place, you will get to taste what vengeance is like." Doctor Steve stormed out of the room in a hurry, ending the footage of the memory right there.
The rest stared at the monitor for a long time. Then they heard a whimper from the sides, coming from Julian.
As the doctor and the blonde woman's words echoed in Julian's mind, a raging fire of emotion swelled inside his heart.
"Tsk!" Julian's body jolted before bolting out of the room.
Tasha hesitated to follow him, knowing that such a revelation would snap something in that poor boy's heart and mind.
Intellus approached her and bowed.
"Miss Tasha should look after the successor. We would like Miss Tasha to leave us for a moment."
Tasha nodded and turned around, chasing Julian's trail. She did not see the changes on Intellus, staring at her departing figure with a scarlet glow on its once serene digital eyes.