Blade of the Goddess
Chapter 119 - New Project

Chapter 119: Chapter 119 - New Project

"Farissa, I have a task for you," Zion said as he stepped out of the carriage and viewed the run-down but still operational church.

"I shall enact your will to the best of my abilities." She bowed.

"Summon everyone who is an active member, a retired member, or a former member of the church here within two hours. I’ll pluck out the weeds now so we don’t have to deal with them later. After that, summon every citizen to the city square to announce my presence."

"It will be done! Let’s move everyone! Our Divine Apostle has spoken!" She shouted, getting to work immediately.

"Helen," Zion called.

"I am here, master."

Alice jumped back, a bit startled. "What the! She just came out of nowhere."

"Ahh, that, you’ll get used to it once you hang out with him often." Lidia patted her back

"Take me to our base here." He ordered.

"Please follow me."

---

On a hill that overlooked the entire city sat a large white and gold mansion meant for a wealthy noble with a luscious garden that made the city look dead compared to the greenery that surrounded the house. At the front door, three people were engaged in a conversation that was quickly turning sour.

"No! Stop! Let me go!" the woman cried out, struggling in her maid’s attire, her voice trembling with fear and defiance.

"Don’t be like that hot stuff, just come hang with us for a few hours." A brown-haired man said, grabbing her arm.

"That’s right, it will be worth your time, geehee." Another man with black hair chimed in.

The woman pulled her arm away, backing up until she collided with the front door. "No, my master will be here soon, and I have to prepare for his stay! Please leave me alone."

"Pfft, yeah sure. You’ve been saying that for a year now, and your master still hasn’t shown up." The brown-haired man laughed

The black-haired man laughed. "Still playing hard to get, huh? It’s okay, sweetheart, we know you want us."

The woman was about to decline once again and tell the men to go away when she spotted three familiar faces strolling up the hill.

She gasped with excitement, waving her hand over her head with glee. "Master! You came!" She ran over to him, hugging the man as she was happy to see him.

"Freeda, what’s up? How’ve you been?" Zion asked, returning the hug.

"Ugh, horrible. No offence master, but this place sucks. I’ve had to deal with those ugly, annoying, lustful men who only want to get in my pants for the past year." She replied, her entire persona doing a 180.

"Hey, I’m annoying and lustful." Zion clutched his chest, acting as if he was hurt by her words.

"But you’re not ugly." She winked

"Aye! What the hell is this?" The brown man shouted, throwing his hands in the air in a fit of rage. "You blow us off for a whole year, yet you’ll spread your legs for a kid who’s old enough to be your son?"

Zion furrowed his brows. "Who the hell are these clowns?"

"I don’t know? Some losers from a local gang. When we built this mansion, I think their boss told them to see who owns it or something like that. They tried to take it from us, but they learned the hard way not to mess with us, ha."

He looked Freeda up and down, tilting his head with confusion on why she was wearing a main uniform. She was the leader of his intelligence force, not a maid.

"Sooo, why are you dressed up as a maid?" He asked

"Oh, this? It helps me get information more easily. Fuckers like them are quick to spill vital information to helpless maids like me." She said in a mocking tone. "Makes them think they’ll get laid easier."

"Heh, I bet."

"Oi, kid. I don’t know who you think you are, and I don’t know what sick game you’re playing, but it’s best you get out of here while the adults talk." The brown-haired man said, resting his hand on Zion’s shoulder.

The moment his finger palm touched his shoulder, Helen vanished like a shadow in the night and cleanly sliced off the guy’s head.

"What the fuck! Carl! You just killed Carl! Do you know who he is, who his father is?" The black-haired man asked, panicking as he fell to the ground.

"Should I care?" Zion asked

"You just killed the son of the Horned Bear Gang! He’ll kill you for what you’ve done!"

Helen stepped forward. "I’ll take care of him, master."

"Wait. Horned Bear Gang, you say? Go ahead and tell him what happened here. Oh, and take this as compensation." He tossed the man a bag of gold coins.

"G-Gold coins?!"

"Well? Go on."

The man skurried to his feet and left without looking back.

"Why’d you do that?" Alice asked. "Now he will tell his boss about you."

Lidia chuckled, "That’s the point. Makes one less gang easier to deal with."

"Freeda, do you have information on the criminal network in this city?"

"Who do you think I am, master? Of course I do!" She smiled

He nodded. "Good. I’ll look over it after I take a look at the workshop. Take me there."

---

"Woah! This is your workshop?" Lidia and Alice asked, shocked by the sheer scale of the place.

Underneath the mansion, a few miles underground, was a massive workshop that was as large as the city itself. It wasn’t just a workshop, it was an entire underground ecosystem and civilization.

Here, every single one of Zion’s projects was being worked on, no matter how large, small, important, or unimportant it was. There was a section dedicated to training new recruits for his personal military force, intelligence gathering and infiltration, assassination and reconnaissance, weapons development, automotive, aircraft and watercraft development, infrastructure development, magic and aura development, science and technology development, communication development, and finally, medical practices and drugs.

Everything was equally funded and equally important. There were other smaller projects that were being worked on as well, but those were the more important ones that would shift the balance of this world.

"Oh, boss, what’s up?" A dwarf asked while removing his welding helmet.

"Eitri! Hey man, how’s everything coming along?" Zion greeted the dwarf with respect. He was the brother of Brok.

"Good. We’re ahead of schedule, in fact. The communication satellites are ready to go, as well as the communication towers. I’ve finished working on some submarines, jet planes, aircraft carriers, and what was it, cerrs?"

"Cars." Zion laughed.

"Ah, yeah, that." He nodded

"And the nukes?"

"Done. We’ve safely tested it in a fracture. The destruction was something I didn’t expect. I can’t believe these invisible particles can cause that much damage. I’m still fascinated by that discovery. I knew mana was invisible, but to think another force was out there just waiting to be harnessed. Man, this science stuff is way cooler than magic."

Zion smiled, also agreeing with Eitri. "Just wait until you see the next thing I have you build." He handed him some blueprints.

"Hmm? What’s this?" He asked, looking at the large circular machine on the paper.

"A particle accelerator. It will allow us to harness a new type of energy. Antimatter."

"Antimatter? Like the opposite of matter? How is that possible? If my understanding of matter is correct, then antimatter wouldn’t function well in a world made of matter."

Zion’s eyes lit up. "That’s right. One gram of antimatter would be equal to a small nuclear bomb, so imagine if we could harness the energy properly?! We’ll-"

"Look at the two nerds going at it." Lidia laughed

"I think it’s kind of cute." Alice smiled

"Master always gets like that when someone else is interested in the things he likes." Freeda chuckled

"Master, you have to get back to the church soon." Helen chimed in, stopping his conversation with Eitri.

"Oh, ahem, that’s right." He cleared his throat. "Well, this is the next big scientific project to work on after you finish your tasks. I’ll be back later."

Eitri nodded with excitement. "You got it, boss! I can’t wait to start on this!"

"Lidia, Alice," Zion said, turning to the girls."Why don’t you two settle down and make this place feel like home?"

They both looked around at the massive factory they were standing in and gave worried expressions.

"Not here! The mansion!"

"Hehe, I know, babe. Have fun, we’ll catch you later." Pulling Alice’s arm, Lidia ran up the stairs to start unpacking her stuff.

Zion looked at Helen. "Let’s go."