20 The Veiled Universe

"You don't have to put up your guard, son of Eva. I will, of course, explain it to you." Smiled the Ancient One. Her posture was calm and dignified with both arms behind her back. She was still staring at the Genma's Time Generator. She continued, "But first, let me greet our little guest, Edward is it?"

Huh? How did she know?

I was caught off guard, I forgot that she was the most powerful sorceress currently on Earth.

"I'm always watching you, little one, even when you weren't born yet."

Okay, now it's creeping me out.

"However I am still surprised. Can I ask you a question?"

"Without further ado, Ma'am."

"You don't have to be so formal. All I wanted to ask is, how were there two souls inside your body?"

Just like a trigger, the system's notification suddenly warned me.

<Warning: Commencing full protection on users mind, blocking any interference on a mental basis.>

"Huh? How did you do it? You resisted my ability. This is the first time since centuries ago ever happened."

'Interesting' she thought.

'I knew it, she has the mind-reading ability, my secret almost got dissected. Thanks, system.'

"Well, let's leave it at that. So anyway, What's your answer, Edward?" She turned her back and faced me. Her penetrating gaze didn't allow me to avoid her eye contact. I was frozen to a still.

"I simply didn't know, Ma'am. May you describe it in detail?" I told her an outright lie. Although she could be trusted, we were in an open space. You would never know who was observing us right now. Besides, I was curious about her perspective on my reincarnated body.

"One is definitely yours, but the other wasn't, and it was only half of the souls that were in you."

'It wasn't me? If I was reincarnated, wasn't I supposedly have the same souls? How could I have another soul in me?'

Now I'm also intrigued by it. Whose was it? While I was contemplating something, she approached me silently. Leaving me no chance to move, she pushed her palm to my chest. However, Dante moved faster and grabbed her hand, stopping it from moving any further, "Now that you got your answer old woman, it's your turn to explain."

"Oh, that's right. I need to warn you all, including you, a man of the past." She pulled her hand back and glanced toward Samanosuke. That was almost a super dangerous moment, I shouldn't let my guard down in front of her. "Fortinbras, the Demon King is coming back, be prepared."

Now it was Samanosuke's turn to be stunned. "No! It can't be. I already killed him back then in the Voidworld."

"You didn't kill him, merely sealing him." She paused and formed a bubble of protective shell. Some genmas that were charging was blocked outside. They were banging the shield with their weapon and body, but it was useless. She then looks at Dante, continuing, "There's one guy that could travel freely in between the worlds. His name is..."

"...Mundus." Dante interjected. "I knew something was wrong, I could smell him when I arrived but I was only greeted by these weird demon."

"Mundus took a liking on Fortinbras' underlings and power, so he took him under his wings. To Fortibras,500 years was enough to regain his power. Luckily you sent Mundus back to hell before he could replenish his power in time."

"Fortinbras was defeated once, shouldn't it be easier for us to defeat him once again?" Dante said.

"It's not that easy. Even your father was quite annoyed by his power."

"What did you mean by that?"

"The day your father left, and the day when your mother died. He fought the half restored Fortinbras. Although the latter was defeated, he was unscathed because of Mundus' protection. Using him as a decoy for your damned father, Mundus went for your mother instead."

"How did you know all that!? You must be there! Tell me!" Dante was agitated at the sudden revealing.

"Enough!" The Ancient One shouted, her voice echoed inside the bubble. Samanosuke and I were forced to cover our ears because of the noise. However, Dante was unperturbed. He was still staring back at her.

She sighed, "Dante, your mother was my disciple. If there is one person that should have been by her side if she ever in danger, it should have been me."

"Then why the hell were you not there?"

"It was for you two! She begged me in her own tears, to hide you and your damned brother in the monastery. Leaving you among humans? Mundus is a God, finding two little brats was like flicking a finger for him."

'It seems Vergil was a problem too in her mind.' I thought.

I couldn't hold myself anymore. This family drama needs to be put on hold, for now. I advised them, "Dante, my dude. Let's stop for now. We must put our priorities on track. Uhh... Ma'am, do you know how to shut down this generator?" I indicated at the huge machine behind her.

"Son of Eva, visit me on the monastery later if you are still curious." Dante didn't respond and just stood back, seeming to contemplate something. "Little guy, I do have a way, but all of you must be prepared. Once we start, every single one of those things would notice and pounce on us."

"Understood. We will try to hold them, we will depend on you for it." I took out two P90 and inspect it for any defect. Samanosuke also used a new weapon, a huge ax. Dante sighed before he too preparing his weapon, he wanted to vent on the genmas. I almost took pity on the genmas.

The Ancient One floated toward the machine and while making signs with her hand. A green object was revealed from inside his yellow robe. I knew what that was, The Eye of Agamotto. The pendant that holds the time stone. I couldn't put my eye away from it.

With a simple gesture, the pendant clicked and rotated. "It will take some time, just hold on!"

The protection shell cracked and disappear just as she started, green auras rose from her body and traveled to the Time Generator, covering it. The waiting Genmas pour down on us. The number was bigger than we expected, but for us, it was not enough.

I reinforced all of Samanosuke's and Dante's equipment, including their socks. I might have even reinforced their undies.

With a triangle formation, we hold our ground. Dante dashed and begun his rampage. With a single swipe of his sword, the enemy in a fan-shaped area was cut in half. He threw the sword and it spun, grinding on the genmas, after a while, it moved back on his hand. With a combination of his guns, Dante becomes the mot effective killer compared to me or Samanosuke.

However, Samanosuke wasn't going to play soft either. Time after time, his sword turned into lights and changed shape. Sometimes it becomes twin swords, sometimes a broadsword or ax. He smashed the Genma's with the ax, and when it flew he followed up with a crescent gust to finish them off.

My task was to protect The Ancient One while she defusing this time bomb. Occasionally, the time sphere would be spawned once in a while. Why were those things dangerous? It was simple. The sphere becomes a connecting gate between two worlds, however, it was only safe when you traveled from the past to the present. However, if you want to move from the present to the past, you might get lost in a random time. This machine was like a beacon, it can be a mark for those who wanted to come, but it would never show you a destination you wanted.

...

Somewhere, underground.

A man was looking at several papers that jotted information about their research progress. On top of the paper was written, Nemesis T-type. In front of him was a man-sized tube with some kind of parasites inside, floating on the murky water.

This is Europe Umbrella's main laboratory, they were developing a type of parasites that had intelligence and control over any T-Virus B.O.W. When the parasite is implanted into a B.O.W, it will control the body and also enhance its combat effectiveness.

Although T-Virus B.O.Ws are being researched and developed by every research team in all Umbrella branches, all results produced were mostly failures, which ended up with low intelligence.

Under the lead of William Birkin, the US branch Umbrella succeed in making Tyrant T-001. Although it was low in intelligence, it still gains popularity on Umbrella's headquarters. When The US branch was much more focused on the brawl, the Europe branch was focusing on developing the brain.

With countless attempts and resources being wasted, they finally made the perfect parasites. Now, all they need was improving it before testing it. With gods on their sides, they took hold on a golden ticket, the freshly captured Genma. After countless suffering and sacrifice, they got several chunks of flesh.

One of his colleagues asked, "How's the testing of the specimen going?"

The man smirked, "It was perfect, by comparing the DNA with the progenitor virus, we could infer several similarities with the nemesis parasite."

The progenitor virus he meant was the origin of T-virus, a special flower that grew on wildlands in Africa. "Stairway of the sun" was first discovered by Westerners in the 19th century, and the virus that was extracted from it would become the base from which the Umbrella Corporation's most successful Bio Organic Weapons research would stem several decades later.

"Start calibrating, we need more samples. Transfer every single sample to the main lab's testing silo. We must not waste any more time."

"Yes!"

Every researcher started to busy themselves in their own way. The research progress was breaking at a crucial point. If they succeed, they would make perfect parasites. Their Nemesis Project would take a new turn.

The question was, which or whose Genma's flesh was used in this development. Let me give you a clue.

A FUCKING MAD LOYALIST BASTARD!!