PHASE 78 - THIS BIBLE STUDY IS QUITE INTERESTING

So after the war at the dining table, Amy told us that we will be going to the place where our homunculus baby is conceived; Leng City. But we’re not here for a field trip. We’re going to investigate the nuclear test facility.

Right now, we’re in front of a steel fence that has a lot of large yellow signs, saying “GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. KEEP OUT” and “TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT. SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN”. There’s even guards armed with M4 rifles on the gate, and Barrett .50 caliber snipers on the tall watch-house. Is this Area 51?

One of the guards halted us from freely walking in the entrance. He said “You guys should stay back.” in an arrogant manner.

Amy should have been snapped. She went in front and furiously stared at the guard, who is at least one foot taller than her. “Maybe it’s you who should stay out.”

The guard should have seen Amy’s glowing cross sigil from her eyes. He simply stood back and politely bowed. “I’m sorry about that. Come.”

I skeptically glared at Amy, who is having this “I’m the queen!” smirk. When she noticed me, she quickly explained.

“High Guardians like me have the highest clearances to all government facilities. Not even the defense minister can outrank us.”

What a proud little kitten she is.

When the gates opened, it revealed a wide sunny plain, and in the center of it, is an abandoned ten-story building that looks like it came from a zombie apocalypse. There’s also a small warehouse and a ruined airfield that has a lot of cracks in the runway.

“Fifty thousand men used to live here. And now, it’s a ghost town.” Heushac dubbed with an Irish accent. When I heard that, we both smiled and gave a high-five to each other.

If you get the reference, you deserve a high-five too! Wham! Best game ever!

“Stop playing around, we’re here to investigate.” Amy annoyingly said.

Maybe she’s still pissed on the fact that I kissed Tiara. I should explain it to her later.

<>

We split up into groups. Tiara and Key will be investigating at the airfield, Kristoff and Heushac will be scanning the warehouse, and Amy and I will be searching the abandoned building. Amy decided the splitting up, by the way. That explains why the love teams have been shuffled.

The insides of the building have nothing. No furniture or even displays except for the paintings of some scientists which are slantingly hanged. There are broken glasses everywhere.

There’s a floor plan right beside the stairs, and the places worthwhile to be examined is the library, which is located underground. So I’ll be with Amy in that eerie dark place.

As Amy took her first step to the stairs leading to the abyss, she touched her heart and withdrew a ball of light from her chest. It was a Quintessence, and that floating ball of light stayed floating on her palms.

Amazingly, the Quintessence is a powerful source of light. We can navigate safely with these things! Cool!

“You have to use your head a little bit.” Amy said. She’s still mad.

As we take steps down to the underground, the atmosphere between us became awkwardly silent. It’s as if she’s thinking hard of something from that proud brain of hers. Maybe this is the time to talk to her.

“H-Hey, Amy…” I scratched my cheek. “T-That kiss with Tiara…”

“It’s fine.” She immediately cut me off. “You did it to save her, right?”

“R-Right…” I muttered. Cold sweat ran through my neck.

Oh, I’ve been around Amy for more than half of my life that I already know if she’s telling lies or just acting tough. In this situation, she’s both. During these times, she will be the ultimate tsundere.

I have to tease her a bit to cool her boiling blood.

“It’s hard to admit, but in all seven million timelines, I fell in love with you.” I scratched my head as I turned away.

“E-Eh!?” Amy’s cheeks blushed immediately.

“Fell. Past tense.” I said. “Almost all of it resulted in my rejection, but some timelines resulted in us being in an official relationship at a young age.”

“Wha-Wait, you already know the ?” Amy pressed her face towards mine in order to make an eye-to-eye contact.

“Of course. But something is telling me that you already know it long before I discovered it.”

Amy made a long sigh and then her cute smile returned. She’s no longer in a high-blood mode.

“Back when you saved Tiara from Void Wolf, she regained some of her memories from the previous timelines. She consulted me first, and I used my in order for her to remember the most important parts. She told me her suffering as the Brightmore Witch as she saw you die seven million times.”

We finally reached the archives, and tall bookshelves full of dusty books welcomed us. I would want to continue my conversation with Amy but those books sparked her curiosity and she left me alone in the dark.

She scanned the books with her glowing ball as if she’s looking for some specific thing. I also used my own Quintessence as a flashlight, and I looked for some books that might be worthwhile for reading.

I don’t know why, but there is this leathery book that drew me in. It’s the Lost Books of the Holy Bible. I love reading deep web stories and conspiracy theories, and this forgotten chapters of the Holy Bible is no exception to my brain that is hungry for knowledge. I sat on the floor and then scanned the pages.

The book of Genesis is the same, where the Lord created the universe in seven days. The only thing that’s off, which also makes my hair tingle is a chapter that has the title of “The Snake of Eden”.

As we know it, the original sin is made by Adam and Eve when they ate the forbidden fruit. Apparently, The Snake of Eden who tempted Eve to eat that fruit is the first Eidolon. It seems that Eidolons really do exists at the time of the creation of mankind.

(Hey reader, this is a work of fiction so I don’t have any slight intention to alter the real Bible. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.)

In this bible, the word Eidolons and demons are used interchangeably. There are a lot of similarities that the original Bible and this bible, and they all point Eidolons as the entity that gives temptations to mankind. The temptations to commit the deadly sins of wrath, lust, envy, sloth and… I forgot the rest.

Gate Guardians are also told to be the Guardian Angels of humanity. The one and true God will grant selected people to have the power to defeat the Eidolons.

But I don’t buy that. I ain’t seeing halo nor wings in me. I fall more in the Fallen Angels category, who are depicted as Cursed Guardians.

This book also contains some mythologies such as Greek, Roman, Japanese, Indian, Norse, Egyptian, Sumerian, and others. It’s quite surprising to see the most ambitious crossover between all religions and pantheons.

It stated here that the ancient mythical gods are the protectors of humanity from Eidolons. The gods lead the fight with the guardian angels (normal Gate Guardians) to prevent the demons (Eidolons) from corrupting the minds of the people.

So people like Amy who possesses Goddess Cores are ‘goddesses’ that have been worshipped by ancient people. High Guardians sure have a lot of privileges.

There’s also a long list of God/Goddess Cores at the appendix section. Unfortunately, I can’t find Lord Cthulhu in any of these. How did The Outsider obtain that Fake God Core? That man is full of mysteries.

I had a glimpse of the chapter of Revelations, and there was a picture of the , which is a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns are ten diadems. (Diadems are really evil, I’m telling you.)

Maybe this monster will be our final boss battle.

I also scanned the folders near the bible was placed, and I saw a file that has a title “SCP 001 - The Gate Guardian”.

Suddenly, my leisure time in reading was interrupted by a loud cry.

“Kyaaaaah!!!”