Chapter 82
The Dark One’s Respite Epilogue
-:-
3 weeks has passed since the annihilation of the Man Eater Cult and things have been relatively peaceful.
The first thing Theo’s group did was to fortify the building and the surrounding area with as much military force as quickly as possible.
To do this, Theo transmuted a large underground highway that went from his lair to the center of the building.
Through there, hundreds of equipment, weapons, tech and supplies were funneled into the building. All of Theo’s manpower was diverted there to get it in working order post haste.
Combat personal, drones, tanks, artillery, guns and a mountain of ammo were transferred there in the first 24 hours since Theo’s unit liberated it.
They could essentially wage a small scale war if they wanted to.
Theo did feel a bit depressed when a large chunk of his collection shelves sat empty in his lair, but such complaints were moot.
In the second day, the builder Reformants started full scale repair and construction of the building.
The fabricators Theo created during his spare time that were designed to manufacture non-combat items such as wirings, monitors, light bulbs, etc was moved underneath the building where they were fed tons of junk and spewed forth essential materials for construction.
These were then used by the builders to quickly bring the building into working order.
The power was supplied by one of Theo’s 50 meter Archon Generators via a very very long cable.
Theo didn't join the construction project because of 2 main reasons.
First, he had school
He needed to make sure that Dorothy’s colar was tightly fastened, thus quite a bit of smexy time was spent on her.
Second, he realized that the amount of fabricators he had on disposal was not enough. While they could supply his current troops without any problems, it could not possibly be enough when the recycling of Reformants kicked into full swing once again.
As such, he spent most of his time making more fabricators that would manufacture everything required by the eventual exponential increase of his troop count and bases.
In the 3rd day, the base experienced its first conflict with the many many scoundrels of the Vermilion City scrapyard.
Unfortunately for the scoundrels, the technological gap between Theo’s troops and the gun wielding nutjobs was so vast that they didn't even get a chance to see the building before having their heads blown off.
And the sad thing was that they didn't even know who killed them.
This was due to the Reformants were receiving a bit of training from Juno in the fine arts of stealth combat.
Let’s just say Juno didn't like the cowardice they showed her during their operation a few days ago. And she had absolutely no intention of forgiving them for such a shameful display.
As such, whenever Juno wasn't in school, she unleashed her displeasure on the Reformant combat units via ‘training’.
Theo had a fair bit of misgivings on letting Juno have full reign on the Reformant’s training, but all of it was shoved down the toilet when he saw the results.
Slowly but surely, the Reformants were getting better at fighting.
As such, he decided to focus on the fabricators and let Juno do whatever she wanted.
By the 8th day after the building’s liberation, it was as good as new.
From the outside, it looked like your normal 2 story building with a large factory on a separate building.
The inside were more or less normal as well. Offices spaces, cafeteria, guard stations, the works.
However, the hidden underground rooms were that of a military complex complete with training area, barracks, armory, the fabricators that produce weapons and the more destructive combat drones available in Theo’s arsenal.
By the second week, Theo’s forces have restarted the ‘recruitment initiative’ to ‘convince’ those annoyances in the area that connected the building and the civilized people of Vermilion City.
The ‘recruitment’ also doubled as a means to remove the harmful elements and keep the road safe for his future employees.
Once again, Juno took the helm of the ‘human resource management’ with glee.
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And by the 3rd week, Miss Samantha and her group finally moved into the new building. They took charge in forming the guidelines of the workflow when the office work starts. From bookkeeping, accounting, inventory, bills payment and human resource management.
Theo was extremely thankful for Miss Samantha’s contribution since he was clueless on how corporations worked.
Naturally, he was going to follow the laws and pay the employees the salary that they deserved.
His company was still a bit ways off before it could truly start production, but things were going smoothly
-:-
Approximately 10 minutes walk from Theo’s building was what could be considered as a graveyard of civilization.
This area was one of may points where buildings too damaged from superhero fights were dumped.
In the forest of concrete and steel was an unassuming door that fitted the ‘ruin theme’ of its surroundings.
However, it was literally impossible to open unless the one opening it belonged to a specific group of people.
There were 2 things that might happen to outsiders that dare force their way through the door.
First: Nothing
If the outsider were just some random hobo that just wanted to find a place to sleep, there was no need to do anything to him/her.
Second: Killed
If the outsider was someone who was literally searching for ‘the particular group’, said person would be captured then tortured for information.
And eventually, the person would die.
Now then, upon entering the door, there was a flight of stairs about 5 minutes long.
The stairs itself was nothing special and so was the passageway.
There was no light or electrical equipment to be found the entire way.
At the end of the stairs was a circular cavern that was about 500 meter in radius.
If you follow the walls, you would spot multiple exits that lead to different places on the scrapyard above.
In the middle of the cavern was an idol made of pure gold.
It was about 5 meters tall, clad in thick armor with beautiful gemstones on various areas.
It sat on a throne made of thick black iron with carvings of gears and skulls all over it.
5 meters around the throne was a sea of candles that burned silently.
As the only source of light in the pitch black cavern, this gave the area a solem aura.
One could say that this area was sacred.
Outside the ring of candles were people that cladded pure white robes.
They knelt to the golden idol and prayed vehemently.
Some of them were so deep in prayer that tears began flowing from their eyes.
Try as they might to muffle their sobbing, it would still reverberate through the silent cavern.
Another person clad in white robes approached one of the sobbing individuals. However, unlike most of the believers in the cavern, this individual had an iron halo strapped to the back of her head.
This signified that this person was of higher rank than everyone else in the room.
The high ranking person touched the sobbing one on the shoulder.
“What’s wrong acolyte?” asked the high ranking individual in a beautiful voice.
“Queen Lector Juno! I apologize! It will never happen again!” said the acolyte in a whisper.
“You were crying because you are frustrated, correct? Speak your concerns. That is why I am here” replied Juno in a motherly manner.
The acolyte was silent for a second before gathering the courage to speak.
“Queen Lector. I couldn't help but feel a great deal of annoyance on the fact that our god is still trapped in his prison of flesh. I long for the day that he shed from his mortal coil and ascend to godhood of steel! But what can I do to accelerate his ascension?! How many enemies must die?! How many heretics must be converted?! Is my faith not enough?!” said the acolyte with his voice increasing in intensity.
All the other acolytes were listening in.
A fair bit of them smiled wryly, as if understanding the young one’s plight.
“I understand your pain. All new initiates goes through the frustration that the Machine God still walk among mortals and not ascend to the purity of sacred steel. But do you know what the Machine God’s desire is?” asked Juno
“To ascend to godhood. Isn't that what all god's desire?”
“Wrong. What he desires more than anything is for us humans to ascend.” said Juno, much to the surprise of the new initiates that were listening to her.
The ones older ones simply nodded in agreement before returning to their prayers.
“Us humans?” asked the confused acolyte.
“Unlike the unnatural and illogical arts of magic and martial arts where you must be special to grow, science is the creation of a normal human’s desire to understand and better themselves. The machine is the product of human ingenuity. And like humanity, the machine can always be upgraded. This is the reason why the machine god is human. Because he wants us to join him in the path to overcoming the limits of our flesh. If you want the Machine God to ascend into the godhood of steel as fast as possible, then look inward. Understand yourself and find where you can make improvements. For the more you better yourself, the more powerful the Machine God becomes.”
Quite a few acolytes were sobbing by the time Juno ended her short speech
Satisfied with this, Juno stood up and addressed everyone in the cavern.
“Remember this my fellow followers of the machine faith. You do not come here to pray to the Machine God. You come here to give him a status report. For no matter how small, nothing pleases the Machine God more than to watch his flock improve. THE MACHINE GOD’S WILL BE DONE!”
“””THE MACHINE GOD’S WILL BE DONE!””” replied all inside the cavern.
With a satisfied nod, Juno and began patrolling the area around Theo’s building.
There was a reason why Juno volunteered for the ‘recruitment’ duty.
This was in order to cherry pick those who would be ‘joining’ Theo’s glorious legions.
Ever since the ‘recruitment’ drive for the Reformant Unit started, Juno made sure to target people that were part of cults. This was in order to abuse the fact that magic reacted to the power of belief.
And there was no one that believed more purely than religious fanatics known as cultists.
With this in mind, Juno’s ‘recruitment’ campaigns focused mainly on cults.
About 70% of Theo’s Reformant Units were former cultists.
“~Fufufufu~ The foundation of my love’s rise is finally taking shape.” thought Juno. “Hmm…. while the groundwork is still at the starting stages, I think I should pursue the next phase of the plan…. It’s still a decade too early for it… but this timeline is too messy. Better start the Ultima Weapon Project now before it's too late”