Minutes earlier, in the new secret base of the Extremist Movement.

KABOOM!

Everything happened extremely fast as the live video was interrupted by a black blur, the first interruption since Lucian started planning to subjugate Leviathan Quay for his God.

To Lucian, despite being the expert of dreams, what happened still felt like a dream to him.

One moment, he was showing an example to all of Leviathan Quay with the sacrifices on hand and the next moment, the black robot burst into the underground chamber, blitzing through him and all his subordinates singlehandedly!

In that moment, Lucian was shaken.

This was not a D Rank Ascended!

This was just a robot, the robot of an E Rank Mechanist, and yet it was enough to force them on the back foot, dealing devastating damage in the process.

Lucian was never an arrogant dictator, but he was an E Rank Ascended with a quiet but steadfast pride. He was confident in his own abilities.

He would never say it out loud but Lucian truly believed that he was the strongest E Rank Ascended alive.

Like he told Leon, his story was one of redemption.

He was tortured for years but in return, his suffering forged him into this- a monster. The forbidden experiments of his enemies turned him into this, a formidable E Rank Quantum Shaper with 10 unique Racial DNAs.

But now, for the first time since he left the laboratory years ago, Lucian's confidence in his strength was shaken.

He still heard the voice lingering in his head.

'Lucian, do you know which Class is strongest at E Rank?'

He clenched his fists tightly as his face twisted in wrath. 'You're a human! How dare you betray the divine blueprint?!' He raged in his mind.

He just couldn't understand why Thomas Riley didn't reveal divine revelation from God as a pure human just as he received.

Leon's decision contradicted his faith and all his believes. If he managed to escape, does that mean it was not God's plan for him to be the face of the Extremist Movement?

Despite the conflicting thoughts in his head, he didn't move to stop them from escaping, neither did his Holy Champions.

The absolute dominance and power that was displayed by the robot in those few seconds left them traumatized.

"Ugh…!" Blake groaned in pain, still reeling from the heavy damage that he took in those few seconds as Jake went to attend to his brother.

Instead of following the soldiers outside, Xena recovered as she projected a virtual hologram through the CCTV cameras of this underground complex showing them as they escaped.

Through the hologram, they watched them escape and through the hologram, they also watched the double-seater Aerodyne approach.

In that moment, a sudden chill descended in the base.

'He already called for reinforcements?!' Lucian was alarmed.

The only reason why they were not evacuating yet was because they thought it would take the soldiers some time to call for reinforcement, and it would take them even more time for the reinforcement to arrive.

Afterall, they literally just escaped! They shouldn't have time to call for reinforcement yet!

But sometimes, things don't always go according to plan.

Spotting the familiar face inside that double-seater Aerodyne, Lucian shivered as for the first time since he started his divine journey in Leviathan Quay, he felt true fear.

'I miscalculated!' He was horrified.

He was angry, he felt betrayed by Leon, he felt exploited.

Despite how powerful he and his Holy Champions were, Lucian had enough combat experience to know that in the face of a true D Rank powerhouse, they stood no chance.

Major Roshfield could take care of them in less than a minute! It was light work for the Major.

BADUMP! BADUMP!

His heartbeat accelerated as instinctively, he started getting prepared to fight his final battle.

'If it's God's will, then so be it!' He thought, his eyes lighting aflame with pious faith. 'Gud er større!'

He was ready to sacrifice his life for his faith!

But then, it happened.

KABOOOMMMMMM!

As the same time that the multitude of explosions rippled through the city, through the CCTV cameras installed in and around the underground complex, Xena instantly got feedback of what was happening.

Shocked but overjoyed, she stared at Lucian and blurted out with tears welling in her eyes. "Lord Lucian, it's an invasion!"

"It's the Omnicore Federation!"

"…"

After Xena's words, for a moment, there was absolute silence in the charred remains of this underground chamber as her comrades took a few seconds to internalize what she just said.

It was that feeling of facing execution by hanging in a court of law, then all of a sudden the Judge revoking the sentence and setting you free!

That was how the terrorists felt in that moment.

Lucian reacted first as his dual-colored eyes widened in shock, then his face changed as he threw his head back and erupted with laughter.

"Hahahahahaha!" He laughed till his eyes turned watery.

"Muahahahahahaha! I-I can't believe it… hahahaha!" Lucian laughed till he wheezed.

With a sudden fanatic zeal in his eyes, he spread his arms piously towards the sky. "It's God's will!" He declared.

"An invasion by the Omnicore Federation at this time?" He cackled. "Brethren, this is not a coincidence, this is a divine orchestration by God!"

"This is God's will!"

"This is evidence that God is with us!"

"This is evidence that God supports what we are doing!"

"Gud er større!" He chanted with zeal as swept by his enthusiasm, his Holy Champions also forgot their fear as they chanted excitedly.

"What are we going to do?" Xena asked.

Lucian finally calmed down as with an eerie gleam in his eyes, he looked at the NetRunner. "We're not running anymore," he grinned. "God already paved the way for us, now it's on us to take advantage of it".

"Right now, the Gene Army won't even have the time to focus on us".

"Set up another equipment," his gold and white ADE flared. "What I need you to do now is to set up another live video".

"This is an opportunity to claim this city for God!"

"This is our best chance". His eyes gleamed. "Let us make this sinful city seek forgiveness and receive God's mercy!"

Leon was right, Lucian was never going to stop.

He was unhinged and psychopathic in his beliefs and he would stop at nothing to accomplish his goals for his God, just like he killed Sister Mariah.

…

Far away in the Western Fringe, Drift Haven.

For the umpteenth time in the last few days, a squad of elite operatives of the Freegrid Collective clashed against a squad from the Omnicore Federation in the underground skirmishes hidden beneath the resources battle at the borders of Drift Haven bordering the Federation's Neo-Solace.

Among the leaders of this squad was Talia Venn, a powerful E Rank NetRunner who was quickly making a name for herself in the border skirmishes.

After an intense battle with few casualties but with both sides dealing significant damage to each other's mining efforts underground, the skirmish finally came to an end.

And that was when a taciturn Synth quickly approached Captain Talia. "Boss, you need to see this!"

Talia squinted her tired eyes and looked at Ghostwire, then she focused on the holographic projection that was in front of her.

On it, one of the most prominent news platforms in Verdanthold, the capital of the Geneforge Clans broadcasted the news online and it was already trending across Neo-Tokara.

[BREAKING NEWS!]

["Federation Invasion on Leviathan Quay!"]

["…"]

Talia quickly read through the long article detailing Verdanthold's declaration of public war on the Omnicore Federation due to an ongoing invasion currently in Leviathan Quay.

Verdanthold already retaliated, sending bio-missiles to the Omnicore Federation's nearest city in the Coastal Megopolis!

Seeing that it was the Federation again, Talia bit her lips in quiet anger but then she was stunned as she remembered. "Daren is there right?"

Ghostwire nodded solemnly.

Before she could say another word, Kain walked into the conversation and commented with a solemn look on his gray mechanical face. "Leon's also there".

"What?" Talia was taken aback.

Kain nodded as he looked at her. "A few days ago, Daren sent me a message that he's injured and in the hospital, he also said that Leon is there with him in Leviathan Quay".

Kain paused, then he added. "He said Leon is already E Rank".

Ghostwire sharply looked at him and though he didn't say a word, his surprise was evident.

Talia also kept quiet as her gray-green eyes flickered.

"What do you think boss?" Kain asked as he looked at her. "Should we go to Leviathan Quay?"

Talia shook her head. "There's no way we're going to make it in time if we go now, an invasion attempt is not going to last that long".

"We'll see the outcome in a few hours". Her eyes gleamed.

Kain was concerned. "Will they be ok?"

Talia looked at him, then she smiled and nodded. "Of course, it's Leon. Don't worry, they'll be fine".

"Ok". Kain finally agreed with a shrug.

…

Leon left the underground shelter with the Doom Rover v0.1.

Unlike in regular times, the usually bustling streets of Leviathan Quay were deserted of people as it was filled with only patrolling military trucks and police trucks who were scouring the streets for any civilian who was still stuck in the Upper Districts.

Flames raged across the city as firefighters were hard at work amid the ongoing battle against the invading force.

Also, the war between the Federation Army and the Gene Army already spilled to the ground as foot soldiers now engaged in an intense battle.

Tututututututu!

The sound of gunfire reverberated, making the ground vibrate as bullets flew like rain, forcing Leon to stay alert.

But he showed no fear as with Davis controlling the Doom Rover v0.1, the A.I updated the robot's route to the Cathedral in real-time, projecting the safest route each time as the towering 10-meter tall black robot weaved through the chaos.

Leon's reason for deciding to go to the cathedral of the Reclaimer Church in Leviathan Quay was simple.

After the mission to eradicate the terrorists that went completely wrong, at the end of that battle, Leon realized that even if he was not the strongest, the leader of the terrorists was definitely the most difficult E Rank Ascended to kill.

The combination of his Class plus his 10 Racial DNAs literally made him unkillable by other E Rank Ascended.

He was far more difficult to kill than an E Rank Gene Augur.

Alongside his wariness for Lucian's trait from his Rat DNA, this was the reason why he didn't forcefully try to kill Lucian right there after the Doom Rover v0.1 broke into the base to rescue him.

But he also wasn't discouraged.

Leon firmly believed in the concept of Mechanists thinking outside the box to solve problems. Not just to solve problems, but to also break down enemies.

He believed that with the right knowledge, even an abused Frankensteinish monster like Lucian could be brought down.

After compiling everything that he knew about Lucian mostly from his conversation with the terrorist leader, Leon realized that to kill Lucian, he needed to learn more about him to find his elusive weakness.

Leon believed that everyone had a weakness, including himself. You just had to find the specific weakness.

And to learn about Lucian, the first idea that came to him was Saint Serena Cathedral where the terrorist leader served for over a year.

According to Lucian, he got his God's calling to be his Prophet during his period in Saint Serena Cathedral.

Leon realized that it was probably through the history from this period of time that Major Roshfield knew the terrorist's real name, and he also realized that if there was a chance of him getting the information that he wanted, it was most likely going to be here.

Talking of the Reclaimer Church, Leon's first experience with this religious faction of Neo-Tokara was when he sat next to one of their priests on the maglev train during the journey to Leviathan Quay.

His first experience with Saint Serena Cathedral though was when he met a middle-aged woman who suddenly blocked his path on the way to the restaurant.

She gave him a flyer. On the flyer, there was an image of a naked human bathed in holy white light with his hands outstretched at the world around him.

In hindsight, the image on that flyer was very similar to the bronze statue that Lucian prayed to in the base of the terrorists.

On the flyer was written…

[Reclaimer Church- Saint Serena Cathedral]

["Come and witness the warmth of the divine blueprint."]

Then, his opinion of the Reclaimer Church was neutral.

But after the deep conversation that he had with the terrorist leader, Leon was convinced that the Reclaimer Church was not as simple as it seemed.

Maybe they were not totally bad, but they were clearly not totally good either.

After everything that happened in the past few days, thinking of that woman now, Leon's face darkened. He wondered if she was one of the terrorists who willingly offed their lives on suicide bombing missions.

He was also worried if the Cathedral would be open due to the ongoing invasion by the Omnicore Federation.

Lost in his thoughts, it didn't take long for him to arrive and finally, he set his sights on the infamous cathedral.

Saint Serena Cathedral was at the heart of Compton District.

The cathedral was massive, built from warm, pale stone that glowed softly under the illumination of countless lightbulbs.

A long row of massive columns supported an entablature crowded with sculpted figures of saints and holy figures standing watch along the roofline, their pale forms sharply outlined against the sky.

Leon guessed that one of these depicted saints was Saint Serena.

At the center, the massive structure rose into a great dome that was crowned with a lantern, giving the entire cathedral a feeling of vertical ascent.

Unlike the rest of Compton District though, the cathedral was untouched by the destruction happening around as a large dome-shaped energy shield was erected, protecting the cathedral from the invaders.

'The Cathedral has such a large-scale energy shield?' Leon was surprised because with the relevant knowledge now, he knew just how much was required to construct an energy shield of this scale.

Also, the Federation Army didn't particularly target the cathedral. For some reason, they seemed content with skipping past it.

To Leon, this was an abnormality!

He was puzzled by this but he didn't stop.

The robot hid as alone, he walked into the cathedral; nobody stopped him.

Unlike what he expected, inside the cathedral was not empty. There were long rows of chairs in the cathedral and almost all of them were currently filled to the brim with hundreds of believers.

They all had fearful expressions on their faces.

Some were on their knees, most stood on their feet as they all clasped their hands together in a praying gesture while facing the altar where the presiding Priest was, leading a solemn prayer.

The moment Leon laid his eyes on the Priest presiding the prayer, he realized something. 'This is no ordinary man'.

'He's an Ascended!

...

[Check Author's Note.]

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