Chapter 69: Superhumans

Ed returned to his base, and then to his office. A small white box-shaped portal was already waiting for him. 'Looks like Phantom already informed Nexus.' He made a few trips between his lab and his office, depositing a total of 80 manullium ingots. Then the portal disappeared.

'Such a waste." He sighed. He called for one of Dupe's clones for a meeting.

"Yes?" Dupe questioned as he entered the office.

"Hey." Ed gestured for him to sit. "You told me your father was a senator previously, right? Who is he? Does he have golden faith energy?"

"Ah, so it's about that." Dupe commented as he took a seat. "My father was an esper and a senator in Florida. His powers always had a strange golden glow to them. Unfortunately, he pissed off the wrong people. He was murdered before I even awakened my powers."

"That's a shame." Ed sighed. 'There goes that potential ally.' He opened a drawer and pulled out some ink and paper. His mana surrounded the ink and it quickly melted to form an image on the paper. It was a portrait of Phantom. "Have you ever seen this man before?"

"Hmm?" Dupe studied the picture closely before nodding. "He was one of my father's regular acquaintances. Can't say I know much about him, but my father warned me about him once. He said that he feared that esper more than any other esper, including the president and OP Baldy."

"Eh, why?" He questioned.

"No clue." Dupe shook his head. "My father didn't like telling me the secrets of the higher echelons. He didn't want me to go into politics. I studied it on my own and watched him over the years to learn."

"I see." He nodded. "Do you know anyone else in the higher echelons? Someone that might support us after the war in Florida ends? As it stands now, we're likely to be attacked by federal forces if we win the war. We wouldn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of winning."

"I don't." Dupe replied. "What about the governor of Georgia? You helped his state with the nightmare attack and you're even applauded as a hero over there?"

"Unlikely." He shook his head. "The Governor didn't show up to the ceremony at all. Not even when I caused all that chaos. It's unlikely he would have any interest in me like the mayor did." He turned towards his office window and stared at the blue sky. "What do you think we should do, Dupe? I'm confident in winning the war, but is it worth it? So many will be sacrificed, and there's a good chance it'll all be for naught if the federal government chases us away."

"Well, we don't know if we don't try, right?" Dupe smiled. "Besides, you've already caused the deaths of thousands in your twisted little quest for power, haven't you? If you stop now, then all those sacrifices will be for nothing. Completely pointless deaths that serve no purpose."

"So, you're saying that I have no right to leave the path of blood once I've embarked on it? Heh." He chuckled. "What a ridiculous notion. People die pointless deaths all the time."

"Maybe." Dupe agreed. "But keep in mind that though we may be friends, I'm still following you for the interesting show. If things calm down, then I'll be leaving to find other things to do."

"Got it." Ed waved his hand, gesturing for Dupe to leave. He leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed. 'How does one stop an unstoppable force such as the Hunter Association? Explosions, tricks, technology? None of those will work. Relying on Phantom's words are as good as relying on dog shit. He broke our alliance so easily, so why in the hell would I trust him? Maybe I can visit the other governors one by one and try persuading them to my side...? They should all be stronger than me though, so that carries its own high risk of death. Also, I imagine that more than 90% are happy with the current state of affairs. I, who has allied with the commoners, am the natural enemy of those that exploit the commoners.'

"Ugh!" Ed groaned as he rubbed his forehead, feeling vexed. 'There's no point wasting time on things I can't change. I'm better off being productive and maximizing my efforts towards the current problem first. It's time to create some stronger soldiers.'

Ed returned to his lab and began prepping. It was a small lab, but it was fine since he would only be working on one patient at a time. The patients for mana-infusion wouldn't get their treatment started until a month later when they had given enough blood. Of course, they were giving blood the normal way as opposed to being treated like blood slaves.

He decided to give fire and wind mana-battery limbs to a total of 200 elite soldiers. That would nearly deplete his manullium resources. Originally, he wanted to include other batteries too, but that proved to be more difficult. Water and wind still wore down the metal slowly, making it unsustainable for ordinary humans. Earth alone wasn't suited to being used in the limbs. It could work combined with water to create mud, but that was fairly useless. It could also be combined with fire for lava, but that had the same issue as water and wind of grinding down the metal arms. As for light, dark, and lightning? He hadn't even managed to create safe batteries for those types yet.

It was almost time to get started. At first, he was worried he wouldn't have enough supplies. Fortunately, World Walker had been able to trade the light mana-cores for ample supplies of the other types with various sinner groups. Light mana-cores were inherently valuable for construction, as they could be used as crude lights. If processed, then they could even be used to create advertisements like in Steam Work City.

The sound of doors opening rang out in the lab. Ed turned around and saw a tall man following behind Ray.

Ray stopped and patted the tall man on the shoulder. "Here's the first one. I'll send one every 15 minutes like you requested."

"Mm. Thanks." Ed nodded. He had added a steam-powered elevator for the sole purpose of others visiting his lab. It was less secure now, but he couldn't just expect soldiers to climb down a creepy hatch into a cellar for surgery. It'd be sketchy as hell and scare half of them off.

"FORGE!" The tall man saluted excitedly. "It's my great honor to be chosen to receive powers! I won't let you down!"

"Alright, let's get started." He pointed towards a table. "Lay down there. I'll be upgrading all your limbs to work the same way as mine."

"I'll leave you to it." Ray waved goodbye as he returned to the elevator.

The tall man lied on the bed while fidgeting nervously. His tough act quickly vanished. "Is... Is it going to hurt?" He questioned.

"It won't." Ed replied. "Just keep your eyes closed and you won't feel a thing."

"Alright." The man nodded and shut his eyes tightly. His fists were clenched in nervous, like a child waiting for a shot even though they won't feel the needle.

'Let's get started.' Ed grinned. He turned off the man's pain receptors. Then he welded the man's eyelids shut. 'No point in having him open his eyes mid-surgery and freak out.'

He had put a lot of thought into how to go about the surgeries. It wasn't possible to graft mutant flesh or limbs onto their bodies. The incompatible mana would kill them. So, that had to be saved for the future batch of mana-infused humans he planned on creating. However, this presented a new problem with the soldiers he was about to create. How can they withstand the heat? Their bodies would be too weak. At the minimum, their hands would likely melt like his own had when he first started using fire and wind mana-batteries.

'Well, it's a somewhat crude solution, but it should work.' Ed began to melt the bones within the arms and legs of the solider. It came out of the man's wrists, flowing like a white river. He formed it into a ball and tossed it aside.

Next, steel ingots began to melt. The liquid flowed into the wrist and took the shape of the missing bones. The flesh and nerves attached to various gears and bearings. Now his limbs were identical to Ed's, minus the mutant flesh and mana-batteries. However, Ed did not stop there. He continued to melt the metal and it entered the soldier's body. It formed a thin layer of steel over all existing bones. Thousands of tiny narrow holes formed in the layer of the steel, that way the bone and bone marrow was not completely blocked off. It was easier to just cover the bones than replace them entirely. If he did the latter, then he would also have to worry about moving or recreating the blood marrow, nerves, and more.

Next, he began melting the skin. Ordinary human skin would stand zero chance against the flames being produced. Therefore, he decided to use fireproof ceramic cloth to solve the problem. It could withstand extreme degrees of heat. He melted the cloth and fused it with the skin all over the soldier's body. The topmost layer of the skin was now cloth, so it would likely result in a less sensitive feeling of touch. But the layer of cloth was thin, so the impact shouldn't be a big issue on the soldiers' lives.

Last was the mana batteries. Fire-battery in the forearm, wind-battery in the upper arm, and water-battery in the shoulder. A thin manullium bar was attached to each battery and the human muscles, giving the human full control of them. However, only the fire and wind batteries we're useful for firing projectiles. The water-battery was purely for cooling down the limbs. They wouldn't be able to restructure their limbs on the fly to use the water-battery offensively like Ed could.

"All done." Ed spoke aloud. He returned the man's eyelids to normal and turned the pain receptors back on. "How do you feel?" He questioned.

The soldier sat up and stared at his hands curiously, rubbing his fingers together. "My skin feels silky...?"

"That's normal." He nodded. "You'll get used to it. Probably. By the way, would you ever point a loaded gun at your own head?"

"Of course not?!" The man replied. "I've been properly trained. What kind of moron would aim a gun at their own head?"

"Well, that's pretty much what you're doing now." He replied. "You were informed of the details of the surgery beforehand, right? Your arms have firepower comparable to some of the stronger espers. If you accidently trigger it, then you might die. Your skin can withstand the impact, but your eyes can't."

"Ah!" The man quickly pointed his arms away from himself, fear evident on his face.

"Anyways..." Ed continued. "I took steps to prevent that. The nerves are wired so that you'll never fire on yourself, but that's assuming they're in perfect working order. Things degrade over time and there's no such thing as a flawless system, so make sure to be careful in the future."

"Mm." He nodded. "Thanks for the warning."

"Now, then. Let's do some tests. Try standing up and doing some stretching. Let me know if anything feels out of place."

"Right." He nodded and stood up. He began moving his arms in a circular motion. Then he bent down and reached for his toes. He leaned left and right as he stretched out his legs. He finished the routine by lightly jumping while throwing some fists into the air. It appeared to be some kind of shadow boxing. "Everything feels normal."

"Good." Ed smiled and grabbed the man's arm. He pointed towards the middle of the forearm and applied some pressure. "You have a new muscle here. It'll only activate if you actively think about it. Sort of like how you can voluntarily breathe or involuntarily breath, but in this case you can only ever do it voluntarily." He moved the man's arm and pointed it towards a steel wall. "Try moving the muscle."

"Mm." The man nodded and concentrated. His arm slightly twitched and a small fire lit up in his hand. It was like the tiny flame of a match, waiting for the wind to blow it out.

"Again." Ed said.

He tried again, and his muscle twitched several more times. The flames grew in intensity. It went from a match to a small fire, from a small fire to a ball, and from a ball to a constant stream. The muscles twitched a few more times and the stream died out.

"Good job." Ed pointed towards two other spots on the man's arm. "You have identical muscles in these spots. The one in your upper arm is for wind. You can use it with or without the fire. If you ever use wind and fire together, then make sure to activate the water in your shoulder. It's a cooling system to prevent your limbs from overheating. Any questions?"

"No, it's great!" The soldier yelled excitedly. He pulled Ed into a big bear hug and spoke in a sobbing voice, "Thanks so much!"

Ed made an awkward expression before patting the soldier on the back. "You're welcome. Train hard so you survive the battles to come. You're Harmony's very first superhuman soldier."

"I'll master it before you know it!" The soldier let go and gave a big thumbs up. He walked towards the elevator. "I'll let Ray know to send the next guy down."

'Looks like my work is really cut out for me the next few days.' Ed grinned as he leaned against the table, waiting for his next patient.