I Only Wanted A Class In The Apocalypse-Chapter 1941: A Shocking Discovery!
"However, we do not know the identities of these Elders. Our rank in the city hierarchy is too low to be privy to such names. But we are certain of the arrangement.
Our families were brought here one hundred years ago, just like many other hidden cities scattered across this planet. Our primary objective has always been to dig into the mountain you see behind our city and extract a specific resource."
"What resource?" Hye’s eyes shone with a predatory brilliance. This was the missing link. The mystery of the Elders aligned perfectly with Moth’s warning, but this specific mining operation was something Moth had never mentioned. Most likely, no one on the Grand Elder’s side even knew of its existence.
Hye realised that this was the true heart of the conspiracy. Understanding exactly what material the Toranks were willing to pay such a massive price for—risking a war with the Hescos to obtain—would provide the ultimate clue to their long-term endgame.
"We don’t know its ultimate purpose or its name, but we all carry small samples of it as part of our payment for working in the city and using it to trade items and such," a captain explained. He reached into his inventory and pulled out a small shard of dark, translucent ore.
The moment it appeared, the air in the briefing hall seemed to hum with a low-frequency vibration. Hye’s eyes went wide, his breath hitching in his chest. He didn’t need to analyse or run tests to tell him what he was looking at. The piece of ore was saturated with the same terrifying, transcendent energy he had narrowly escaped a few days prior.
It was filled with God’s power. It was the same divine essence he had identified during his previous clashes—a power he could never fail to identify.
"No way! But... How?!!" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Hye turned his gaze toward the horizon through the flagship’s massive viewports. The grand mountain city lay there in a bruised silence, punctuated by flickering orange spots where fires still raged from his earlier bombardment.
"I need to dig deeper. I need to get to the bottom of this," he whispered.
He ordered every captured captain to leave their share of the material behind on the table. He spent several minutes carefully examining the shards. Without a doubt, they were raw conduits of God’s power, the very same fuel that powered the Toranks’ most terrifying, world-ending weapons.
"That means their source of fuel came from this world... But how? Why?" Hye began to pace rapidly, his mind racing through a hundred different scenarios.
"How is it possible the Hescos never found this source before? And how did an outsider race like the Toranks discover the existence of this material right under the Hescos’ noses? Is this vein limited to this world, or are similar operations occurring at other secret sites across the universe?"
Hye found himself burdened with a mountain of questions and no immediate answers. However, he knew the simplest and most direct way to find those answers was to seize the source itself. He wasn’t going to wait for the Elders to finish their civil war; he was going to take the mine.
"Give the order," Hye barked, ordering his warriors. "I need the sky above that city to be covered with a dense, impenetrable layer of our other-universe ships."
He began to spread the tactical deployment orders to his forces. "Activate all shields. Do not fire back. I repeat: do not attack. Maintain a perfect defensive canopy."
He stood on the bridge of the flagship, watching the real-time feed as his fleet moved into position. He watched with cold patience as his vessels performed the manoeuvre, surrounding and roofing the city in a literal dome of impenetrable shielding.
Below them, the city’s remaining defences roared with relentless waves of fire and missiles, but the other-universe ships simply soaked up the damage, their iridescent shields rippling but never buckling. Not a single cannon from Hye’s side fired back.
"Time to do it," Hye muttered, his voice a low rumble of command.
The flagship surged forward with a steady pace, positioning its massive bulk directly above the artificial canopy created by the other-universe ships. The deck of the flagship was suddenly flooded with bones. As he started absorbing a few bones, Hye fully unleashed his cultivation technique.
Thousands of shadowy arms, long and undulating like the limbs of a cosmic deity, lanced downward, bypassing the shields of the city and reaching into the minds of those below.
"If you think you can hide the truth from me as you did with the Hescos, then I beg to differ," he growled. His eyes burned with a dangerous light.
Back at the Elders Council, this display instigated a fresh wave of panic and confusion.
"What is he doing?!!"
One of the elders from the hardliner faction lurched to his feet, pointing a shaking finger toward the display. His face was pale, his composure shattered. The move Hye was making was one they had witnessed several times throughout the trial, but never on this scale. It was no longer a skirmish; it was a mass subversion.
"What else?" Moth snorted, leaning back in his chair with a calculated air of amusement. He took a perverse pleasure in watching the suspected traitors squirm under the weight of Hye’s actions.
"He is going to take control of every single resident in that city. And god knows what he will do with them next, but the real question is... Why does this bother you so much, Elder?"
"N... Nothing," the elder stammered, quickly sinking back into his seat. He realised too late that in his moment of panic, he had slipped up, drawing a bright red target on his own forehead and the faction he represented.
Moth glanced toward the Grand Elder. The old leader remained as still as a statue, calmly observing the unfolding scene without a single flicker of emotion on his weathered face.
[Are you also suspecting them?] A message flashed on Moth’s private interface, sent by the Grand Elder.
