Chapter 84: Authority

It was a hot mess.

That was what Fire MOTH experienced at the night of the fifth major eruption.

First was the loss of satellite feeds. Nearly all camera feeds within the four cities struck by the eruption got lost. As a result, they had to manually read and predict the situation through honkai energy readings as well as the convergence of honkai beasts.

By the time Mei returned unscathed inside the fourth institute, she was welcomed by the hectic workload handled by numerous Fire MOTH analysts.

"Loss of satellite feeds? At this point in time?"

"Well, it's strange, definitely. We're—"

"It's back up!"

"Huh?!"

The researcher talking to Mei returned after a while.

"Everything's back to normal. It might be caused by the intense honkai energy readings…"

The phone on her coat's back pocket vibrated. She took it out and answered the call.

"I'm heading back. The fifth herrscher is neutralized."

"Neutralized?"

"It's a long story. Let's just say that… we can convince a herrscher this time."

"..."

Mei could not believe it. Within all these years, Fire MOTH attempted to talk with the herrschers, only to be met by their destructive nature. It was at that time it was deemed impossible to convince them through words.

Nevertheless, she did not dwell much on it. In the end, it was Aleph they were talking about.

"Was that why you… did that?"

"Yeah. As for the Herrscher Core, let's just come up with a believable excuse."

Hearing his words, it seems like there would be more trouble for her.

"Let's deal with it later… when everything ends."

"Alright."

*****

The sheer intensity brought by the fifth major eruption caught the entire world by the storm. The Western Continent had just experienced a major eruption three months ago. The same went for the Eastern Continent a year ago.

The aftermath of revealing the honkai was still being processed when such a big thing occurred.

It wasn't as simple as other major eruptions. The remaining honkai energy from the western and eastern continent stacked together with the newer honkai energy. It caused a huge surge of honkai beasts as well as people being corrupted by honkai energy left and right. It was bad enough for the casualties to reach millions.

The appearance of a high-intensity honkai eruption turned the four cities into a wasteland. The other three weren't as taken care of as the City of Justice, moreover.

It wasn't just the Western Continent. The Far East also experienced another onset of a major honkai eruption. It was estimated they need years to recover to normal… if they were given breathing time, that is.

This incident revealed a huge flaw Fire MOTH has—military force.

To deal with the fifth eruption, the dispatched troops were stretched out thinly. The response time was also longer due to the last-minute allocation planning done by the analysts.

That brought out the existence of Meta-Morph Soldiers—MANTIS—to the forefront.

"With that said, Director Mei asked Doctor Mobius to create these… soldiers. How come we haven't heard about it until now?"

"Soldiers strong enough to fight emperor-class honkai beasts alone is a big deal! Are you sure you aren't planning anything else, Director?"

"Exactly! Fire MOTH belongs to humanity. We have poured countless funds to make it come true. Why is it so, Director Mei?"

Amidst the questioning voices, Mei calmly looked at their projections. Only the commander-in-chief was the real person inside this meeting.

'It's time to deal with the checkmate.'

"First of all, it fell under the research policies. It was clearly stated in Project Soldier that for it to be considered as a success, an acceptable success rate should be reached. In short, what Doctor Mobius did was an experimental trial with volunteers, just as what has been done in the past."

Mei listed out numerous responses to their questions.

"Finally, the trial's success was mentioned to the commander-in-chief."

Everyone's gaze turned towards the steadfast middle-aged man in the center of the conference table.

"I can attest to it. Given two to three months, we will receive its mature version. That announcement was three months ago."

Silence swept all over the room. They didn't expect the commander-in-chief, Hagen, to side with Mei. His words subtly reminded them that Project Soldier reached success, and that the capabilities of the soldiers who underwent it could possess the strength of an emperor-class honkai beast.

"It's all within the rules. There's no need to make a fuss about it."

"They come again with another round of slander. You aren't even staying in the institutes, yet even I with little experience could see how difficult it was."

"If that is so, when are you planning to distribute the research findings, Director Mei?"

Amidst the 'firing back' of Hagen's comrades within the councilor circle, one of them asked Mei in a polite tone.

"We started compiling the reports three days ago. It should be accessible in the database tomorrow."

Another round of deliberation began. This time, however, the opposing voices to Mei shrank. It was at this time did the others realize it was a plot all along.

Some of them are feigning calmness despite seeing Mei alive and well on the other side. It indirectly showed how much cards she has on her hands.

Some realized that Mei planned to establish her authority within Fire MOTH. Seeing that the commander-in-chief received updates and they did not, it only meant that Mei could do it again. Worse, they couldn't even do anything against it as excuses such as experimental trials could be used again.

In the end, it was forcibly turned into a situation where everyone tacitly agrees with Mei's actions. At the very least, she has the authority to do that. 

The best they could do now is to stop pressuring her. Even the assassins they sent didn't do anything to her. 

Nevertheless, they wouldn't have thought that there was another Herrscher-level combat power that sides with Mei this time, and that the fifth Herrscher was taken down by him alone. The 'peaceful' facade they tried to put up would stay longer than they have expected.

"We should stop with the slanders now. Director Mei did nothing wrong."

"Project Soldier is successful. Let's come up with the proper policies regarding it."

"Hm… the success rate goes lower the further it goes up. We should implement the listed pre-test policies to make sure…"

At this moment, Mei had truly established her authority.

*****

"Phew… It should be fine."

Aleph heaved a sigh as he thought of Mei's plans. He knew how difficult it was to pull off. After all, he already went through it once in his past life. Before he got the position of director in the Specialized Weaponry Research Division, he had to pull off stunts like it. Be it lobbying or forming a circle through knowledge and exclusive technology you knew, he had gone through it already.

In this life, he saw that Mei was a better fit than him in this position… and he was right.

"We should be able to do things more flexibly after this round of politics… Hm?"

The bright white light in his left hand disturbed his thoughts.

Over the past three months, it was fluctuating. Great Sage judged it as "increasing" its strength. Everything that he found about it were as follows:

[Worlds' Light]

[Type: Artifact]

[Use 1: To break world boundaries.]

[Use 2: To interfere in space-time vectors.]

…

There are numerous theorized uses to it. The first one was the one that took Aleph's attention the most.

"Kurumi… What were you doing over there…"

The intensity of the light became stronger. Yet, he did not see Vill-V react to it. This time, he turned on his Elemental Sight and saw more about it.

'I knew it… An information state. Just what is…'

Buzz-!

Hum-!

Shatter-!

Within his sight filled with nothing but blue, a silver light appeared in the shape of a crack.