Chapter 127: An Unexpected Mode Of Transportation

The six followed the president down to the lowest floor of the Pentagon. According to him, they were at least sixteen hundred feet underground.

Ding!

The elevator doors swung open, and unlike the other floors, what they saw wasn’t a corridor with doors on parallel sides.

No, to even open the elevator to get to this level, it needed the president to scan his blood, his palm print, his retinas, a code, and finally facial recognition.

What was hidden down here? All five wondered, while Trisha just followed behind. She was so silent she was mostly unnoticed.

It took Elaine dragging her by the hand on several occasions; if not, they might have lost her on the way.

Sometimes, with the way things had changed, it was easy to forget that the girl was blind — especially with the way she acted at times.

The doors parted, revealing a grand room housing what seemed to be a gigantic particle accelerator — at least that’s what they all concluded it to be.

After all, the huge construct before them matched all the features of a particle accelerator.

It was a giant circular metallic ring, connected with various bus-sized tubes sitting on a platform of steps one could ascend to—

"Holy shit!" It finally dawned on them.

"Finally got it?" The president chuckled as he snapped his fingers.

And the entire room hummed with power, coming to life. The lights of the ceiling flickered, the tubes connected to the giant ring buzzed.

A brilliant light began to spin around the rim of the ring, slowly increasing pace...

The six watched in awe — well, five; one was blind — as sparks slowly ignited at the center of the giant ring before blazing through, turning it into a veil of myriad swirling lights.

The president walked away toward an operating section. "I’m coming, let me steer the coordinates."

His words cemented their deductions. Jaws dropped.

This was a portal!!!

"Oh my god, aren’t things progressing a bit too fast?" Brandon exclaimed, wide-eyed.

But Uriel, always level-headed, replied, correcting him. "No, it makes sense. Our race awakened, getting a boost in intelligence. Then the racial lamp was lit, giving us the binding trait of intelligence.

For us, our intelligence has been wired toward another direction, naturally why we comprehend things so easily...

But think about it — what about figures who have spent their lives pursuing science? Mechanics? Biology?"

Uriel’s words really were food for thought. They broadened things and showed one the terrifying capabilities of a race with a binding intelligence trait.

It had just been at most a month plus some weeks. Yet—

So what if they were given a year? Five? A decade? Or even a century?

What bottom of the food chain? They would be above the cycle!

Once more the words echoed in their minds, ’infinite potential’.

No wonder the system’s description of this trait was so vague. It wasn’t that it wasn’t doing the trait justice by explaining it well.

But just that the use of this trait was so broad and mind-boggling that if put into words, 90% of the population probably wouldn’t comprehend it.

Their infinite potential stemmed from their minds; its effect on their bodies was just secondary.

So when scholars who pushed all their focus into intelligence activated this trait... hiss! They all dragged in a breath of cold air at the thought.

Honestly, they didn’t know much about the wider cosmos. Heck, they hadn’t fully understood the other native races of Earth.

But they were already sure about one thing: humans were a terrifying race!

Conviction solidified in the depths of their eyes, and until their race was fully ready to weather any storm that came their way...

They had to do all in their power to protect it!

"Alright lads, this will be farewell." The president waved from the operating box.

Naturally, the reason he was here all alone was because of how classified this piece of tech was.

Aside from Seth and the others plus the president now, only four other people knew about it — and they were the creators.

Seth and the others braced, their muscles tensing instinctively.

Aside from the trip to the Origin Realm, this would be their first long-distance transportation.

They didn’t know if there’d be any side effects or anything, but no one thought the president would possibly seek to harm them. So they slowly ascended the steps toward the giant ring of swirling lights.

Holding their breaths, Elaine leading Trisha by hand, they all stepped through the curtains.

...North Dakota...

The terrain and placements of cities had changed due to a lot of factors, and the state as a whole was unrecognizable.

With corruption zones tearing regions apart and so few habitable spaces, North Dakota had almost been reduced to ruins.

Many civilians died, some fled the state, others banded together to start camps at the edges of corruption zones where monsters weren’t as rampant or strong.

And in one of these camps at the border of the US and Canada...

"Please have mercy, don’t kill us!"

"My daughter — they took her away, what have you done to her!"

"Please sir, I’m ready to do anything, please don’t kill me."

A group of barely managing survivors were rounded up, surrounded by men dressed in crimson cloaks, their faces hidden by crimson hoods.

This survivors’ camp, which had been patiently waiting for rescue while trying to survive, had been taken captive by them.

"Come on comrades! The holy hour is near, let us spill blood to honor the Descent!" A man announced in righteous fervor, his arms raised to the skies, his robes distinguished by the black embroidery lining the rims.

The men in crimson echoed his chant. "TO HONOR THE DESCENT."

Glinting edges of cold silver blades peeked from their sleeves as they slowly walked toward the increasingly panicked hostages.

Silver streaked, a shrill scream rang, splashes and slicks rang out for a few seconds before the entire area went silent.

All that was left were piles of corpses and streaming pools of blood.

"TO HONOR THE DESCENT!"