"Our enemy is none other than the Cult of Feyr, whose leader and second in command we currently have under constant surveillance in the Central Prison. Although their leaders are disconnected from the actuality, what we are currently witnessing seems to be a contingency plan of some sort. The end goal is not certain quite yet, and we aren't sure if the Cult is attempting corruption for the sake of research, or, with a larger plan in mind."
Fornicus was already sweating, fearing judgement from his colleagues for not being more educated on a topic he is introducing as something so dangerous. His throat was parched, and his breathing heavy. As he finished his opening remarks, he reached for his water bottle, his hands slippery. He nearly dropped it and then proceeded to drink almost the entire bottle in one breath.
All the while, a loud, yet incomprehensible whisper spread throughout the room. "Damn it," thought Fornicus. "Can you not be quiet!?"
He placed the bottle back down, and violently coughed, before continuing.
"The topic at hand is the phenomenon we call corrupted Essence. Although we knew of it's existence before in theory, the first actual encounter with this threat occurred during Operation: Pier Strike. While attempting to rescue Aiden Silvius, the captured Vessel of Feyr, I, along with Lieutenant Silvius and third rank Cosineau, faced corrupted Essence for the first time. Here, the term we is quite broad. The three of us were caught off guard by the now defeated Benoit Charnier, a man who was tarnished by said corruption."
Fornicus looked over at the Offense Corps stand, almost directly at Aiden, before gently nodding downwards.
"Wait, am I supposed to speak already?" said Aiden as he stumbled and began adjusting his hair and preparing his voice.
Synnove attempted to calm him down, although that would be hard. "Take it easy, Aiden. No one is expecting you to be perfect, they just want to hear your side of the story."
Fornicus continued, his voice still slow and his movements still jittery and rigid. "Benoit Charnier possessed an unnamed power which manifested as a toxic gas, one which had the ability to put anyone to sleep upon interaction. We were subdued by his power, however, in a fast reaction, I released Aiden Silvius from his bindings, and he defeated Benoit. Now, I pass over the conversation to the person with first-hand experience against our next enemy. We will firstly cover what we know for certain. Please, Aiden, if you will?"
Fornicus flipped the switch beneath the stand once more, and walked away towards the Offense Corps stand, where he soon took his place next to Aldegar. On Aiden's receiver, a light that was so far red, turned green, and it was his turn to speak. He stood up, before he took a deep breath to calm his nerves.
"Thank you, Mr. Tosetti for passing the discussion onto me, and also, thank you to all the ranked officers, willing to listen to my witness report." he said, and stopped again, almost to recall the fight with Benoit and make sure he isn't missing anything.
"After Benoit activated his power, Mr. Tosetti reacted quickly and made his way over to me, setting the ropes that tied me down on fire. The flaming ropes awakened me, and, upon awakening, Benoit tried to subdue me once more, and failed. I'm not certain what exactly caused his toxin to fail on the second attempt, but, it did. I fought Benoit using my inherited Matchbox power, and knocked him down to the ground."
He paused again, his eyes distant as he relived the memory. The weight of his promise to Benoit still lingered in his mind. Does he mention it now? Should he keep quiet and tell Aldegar about it later?
He sighed, assuming it's best to stick to the topic at hand, and continued. "I grabbed a sword from nearby, and rushed to take Benoit's life after defeating another wounded adversary and inheriting his power too. Benoit urged me to listen to his words before I end him, and I reluctantly accepted, despite fearing a surprise attack, or worse."
The room was silent, each word of Aiden's reverberating like the drops from a leaking tap, the only thing that dared to make noise. He looked around, briefly meeting the eyes of the many unknown Corps officers. All their faces were etched with a mix of fear and worry, as everyone anticipated the worst.
"He," said Aiden as he took a sip of water to soothe his nerves. "He told me about a machine called the Overloader. According to him, the Overloader works by adding Essence to someone, and forcing them to go over their Bound. Not even Benoit was sure of the specifics, but, the machine was used on him. The corruption was more than evident, his skin distorted, scarred, and his eyes completely lacked pupils."
A ding was heard, before an unknown voice spread through the room from the speaker system.
"Defense Corps fourth rank, Vivianne Clarke, requests permission to speak." called out the announcement system.
"Aiden, press the accept button on the receiver…" whispered Aldegar to him, and he did exactly that.
"Thank you, Mr. Silvius." said a woman from the Defense Corps stand as she stood up, her blonde hair shimmering from the overhead light. She adjusted her long, beige coat, before she turned to face Aiden.
"Mr. Silvius, I understand it was a combat situation, but did you make any attempt to verify if the man was telling the truth? After all, he is working for the enemy."
She sat back down, her gaze still fixed on Aiden as he considered his response.
"Well, my worries were soothed after Benoit lowered the conversation to a personal level. He told me about his reason to join the Cult, how he was living in poverty with his sister, Nadia. How he joined as the Cult promised to keep her safe and fed."
Vivianne turned around to face the assistant sat behind her. "Can we confirm the existence of this Nadia Charnier?" she whispered to her, before the assistant began typing away at a laptop.
"Thank you, Mr. Silvius." said Fornicus as he stood up from his seat. "That covers what we know so far. From now on, we move onto the second stage of the discussion - planning out our approach to combat this. Anyone have anything they wish to say before we begin?"
The announcement system chimed again. "Defense Corps fifth rank, Ambrosio Sierra, requests permission to speak."
Fornicus returned to his seat, and Ambrosio stood. "Earlier today, before the assembly began, several Defense Corps privates and I were sent by Mr. Luzatto to re-investigate the warehouse where Operation: Pier Strike took place. During our investigation, we didn't find much at first. However, near the end, Lieutenant Silvius arrived and searched a terminal that Mr. Luzatto had already checked. He found a file in a folder labeled 'blueprints'—a blueprint file called 'Overloader.' It was secured by a password, which we don't have."
Ambrosio paused to let the information sink in. "I urge any officer who encounters the Cult of Feyr from now on to be mindful of the need for a password. Thank you."
"Thank you, Ambrosio." said Fornicus. "Now, the discussion begins. There is no need to stand up when speaking anymore. Dr. Arroyo, if you will?"
Aiden's gaze shifted to the Medical Corps stand, where Dr. Arroyo was sorting through a large stack of papers.
"Thank you, Captain. The first thing I need to make clear immediately is that, corrupted Essence is a phenomenon we have never encountered in reality - other than a few isolated, self inflicted cases. However, if Mr. Silvius' words are correct, this is corruption caused forcefully by an outside source. The intensity will most certainly be much, much greater than we have ever witnessed.
She passed a piece of paper to an assistant above her, who placed it against a scanner of some sort. Soon, the sketch on the paper showed on the large overhead screen, grabbing everyone's attention.
"This graph should roughly illustrate what our understanding of corrupted Essence is. The beginning part, where the values are below the red line, is standard power use on an example persona. The red line, is the Bound. Once the Essence surges past the Bound, the excess Essence can't be handled by the body. We believe that that is what causes the corruption. The higher you go over your Bound, the more excess Essence there is, and the worse the corruption is."
The assistant switched off the view, and the screen returned to the usual interface showing the speaking order.
Dr. Arroyo now passed a few papers to Dr. Ishikawa and Dr. Carruso, after which she continued. "However, you must understand that this is still theory. The only subject we know of that was put through the Overloader was Benoit Charnier, who was defeated before we could examine him. I can't confirm the theory won't change."
The designated speaker switched, and the screen now showed "Dr. Lucia Carruso".
"Fellow officers," she softly spoke, her voice no louder than a whisper. "I advise for maximum wariness if facing someone corrupted, because, we do not know if their condition can affect the non-corrupted."
"Exactly," said Dr. Ishikawa. "The Medical Corps will be more than prepared to deal with any new discoveries, and we will also collaborate with the Defense Corps to create armor that would protect from corruption in case that it can be transmitted somehow."
"This covers the base of the plan. Now, if anyone has any suggestions, I suggest you speak…" said Dr. Ishikawa as he turned off his receiver, and leaned back in his chair.