“How much have you progressed?” Percy questioned Jason who was seated on the bed with his arms crossed and a grumpy expression.

“Want to have a go?” Jason said, stretching his arms and flexing his palms a bit.

The Captain started laughing hearing this as his eyes turned serious.

“It seems you have grown a lot of nerves during this time.”

Jason did not dare to speak another word, for he knew the terror of the person in front of him. Both of them soon entered into position. It seemed as if they were about to proceed with a match of arm wrestling.

“Alright show me!” The Captain said taunting Jason.

The muscles on Jason’s arms bulged all of a sudden as a huge amount of power surged through them in order to push Percy’s arm but no matter how much he tried he could not move the Captain’s arm even an inch. Refusing to accept this outcome Jason grit his teeth and a tinge of red appeared in his pupils and fumes emerged from his arm.

“Hmm, now that is interesting! Did you come up with his method yourself? It seems you are relying on the Inheritance along with your ability to propel your Resonance Factor. Quite clever, but that is just another shortcut.”

To this explanation, Jason did not show any surprise. As he knew he could not hide this from the Captain anyway. So he focused his whole power in his arm. And it was successful, as the Captain’s arm started moving backward. A smile appeared on Jason’s face, just when he thought victory was within his grasp. A glint flashed past Captain Percy’s pupils, his arm stopped moving back and was held in place like a mountain. No matter how much strength Jason applied it was impossible for the arm to move even a millimeter.

“Impossible!” Jason gritted his teeth and exclaimed.

“Hahaha, I told you right in the beginning, the path of pure strength lies not in shortcuts but in dedication. Even Lucifer, who was the weakest among us, could use you like a punching bag.” Percy explained but Jason still refused to accept his defeat.

The tinge of red in his pupils turned a lot darker as he applied more strength, but the Captain’s arm would match it accordingly.

Suddenly, he felt a terrifying amount of power surging through his arm. This power instantly crushed every ounce of obstacle, but soon vanished. Jason’s pupils turned normal along with his arms and he looked at the smiling face of the Captain, which gave him endless chill.

“I lost.” He opened his mouth and accepted his defeat.

The Captain nodded at this and continued.

“Although you can gain an increase in your strength in this way, how long can you manage to remain in that state?”

“Ten minutes.” Jason answered.

“It might make you invincible for about ten minutes but remember that is only in terms of the power level on the surface. Those fools are not our opponents.” The Captain replied.

“How did you manage to reach such a level Captain?” He asked with curiosity.

“Not only me, James and Lucifer are also not far behind me.” Percy answered with a smile on his face.

“Not fair, you guys left me behind.” Jason grumbled.

“It was you who did not want to stay behind. As your Captain I respected your decision, now what is this?” Captain Percy said in a cold tone.

The incident back then was something which had divided their team and it was something that Percy was not very happy about.

Jason frowned but still locked gaze with the Captain. The Captain finally sighed and sat down, ready to answer.

“Alright listen carefully, I will only explain once.”

Jason nodded and the Captain began.

“The Mysterious Manual, as for the detailed explanation, go ask Lucifer.”

“What was that? Hey why is everyone being like this? Come on Captain please tell me, I too want to become powerful and cool.” Jason started throwing a tantrum but was thrown out of the cabin by Percy.

While outside, Jason pondered over what Percy had just said recently.

‘The Mysterious Manual? Is it really the reason behind everyone’s increase in power? Hmm, should I ask Lucifer about it? Forget it, that devil will probably eat away my ears with his lengthy explanations.’

[Everyone to the command deck.]

Lucifer’s voice cut short his thoughts. Very soon, Percy, Jason along with a pale faced James were seated on their chairs in the command deck. Before them lay a vast and detailed three-dimensional chart of the solar system with a path highlighted towards a location in the dark.

“Okay so there are two situations in front of us.” Lucifer said calmly.

“Now what?” Jason asked in irritation as he was still angry about him being tossed out.

“We successfully crossed the asteroid belt, but the spacecraft was damaged.”

Listening to this everyone panicked. It must be known that this was the first time that the group had ventured this deep in the vast black expanse and no one would want to be stranded in such a place. Even the always calm Percy was frightened by this news.

“How bad?” Percy asked.

“It’s not that bad, but we underestimated the dangers of space. We lost our conventional communication systems, thrusters sustained about ten percent damage, hull damage was around thirty percent and most importantly even if everything was alright we would have to stop as we are running low on basic supplies ....” Lucifer stopped for a bit and looked at everyone’s puzzled expression and sighed.

“In short, with our basic supplies and the sustained damage it should be possible for us to reach only till this point as after this.” He pointed at the end of the path on the chart which was the vast blankness of space and continued.

“So the first option is to return back, but it might be more difficult as the battleship might not be able to make it back in one piece. The second is that we still possess the operation quantum communication system, we can use it and send a message to Diane while waiting for her to send someone to pick us up.” Lucifer explained the two options.

“What nonsense are you spouting? We are enroute to rescue Diane and Sophie, how do you expect them to save us? Much less contact them?” Jason replied in a frustrated voice.

Lucifer was not bothered by it, as his gaze was locked on Percy.

The Captain on the other hand pondered over the situation and asked.

“Is there really no other option?”

“None. I know this is risky, but then I will inform Diane to be as covert as possible.” Lucifer said in a confident tone.

-Sigh-

“Fine. Let’s proceed with it then.” Percy confirmed the plan.

“Wait! What is this? Why am I the only one puzzled here? Even Uncle James seems to know something. Uncle James, what is the Captain and that crafty fox talking about?” Jason felt extremely stupid as he exclaimed.

Just then a glint flashed past Lucifer’s eyes which the Captain noticed.

“If there is nothing else, I will leave then. Call me once we have established contact.” Percy turned around and swiftly left the command deck while praying for Jason’s safety.

James too ran out of the command deck while holding his mouth with his hands, trying hard to stop the spurting of the fountain.

“Did the Captain not inform you about it, Jason?” Lucifer’s voice lightly sounded beside Jason’s ears, just like a whisper of the devil. Jason felt a chill run down his spine, but then curiosity got the best of him and he neared Lucifer.

“What are you talking about?” Jason asked. Lucifer had his back facing him thus he did not see his face or else Jason might have held back his curiosity but alas.

“What do you know about the Legion?” Lucifer counter questioned in a mysterious tone which made Jason question his information.

“Hmm. Isn’t Legion the force under Diane and Sophie after they established during the decade of Reboot?” Jason spurted his information.

“That is true, but then why did they form an alliance with the Commercial League?” Lucifer raised another trap.

“Wasn’t it due to Kevin? I thought it was due to him asking for their help.” Jason replied as a hint of sadness surfaced on his face. Lucifer too, sighed remembering those days.

“Yes, but that is only on the surface. During the decade of Reboot, Commercial League was a powerful organization with vast resources under the lead of the Luther family. But then everything changed after that one incident.” Lucifer explained.

Jason was dazed as that incident was still etched in his mind.

“There was more to it than what we saw during that incident. Someone or some power was manipulating the Luther family during that incident, it seems Kevin was aware of it and tried to ask for our help but before he could contact us, that incident happened.” Lucifer said as his tone turned cold and eyes sharp.

“WHAT!” Jason screamed, but he calmed down as he looked at Lucifer in a threatening tone.

“Who was it?” He asked.

“It was not me nor Captain who noticed this anomaly. It was Aria, given the nature of Aria as an Astral being he was able to observe some clues to the nature of the incident. Although it isn’t confirmed, only those few can interfere with something of this caliber. While others might not be aware and the I-CA seems to be controlled by the three factions on the surface but that isn’t the reality. We too were forced out by them.” Lucifer spoke.

“You mean?” Jason asked dumbfounded, as this was something very hard to believe.

“Yes. Apart from them no other power should be that capable. It was our fault that we trusted them and asked them to lead the planet to a new age with their knowledge but only for them to reveal their fangs that they had hidden for ages.” Lucifer said as he sighed.

“Those old fossils, they dare touch one of us!” Jason’s heart bubbled with rage the more thought about that incident. His pupils were rapidly shifting from red to black as his breathing ragged.

“Calm down, Jason.” A cold voice sounded from behind. It was Percy who had returned at some point. The Captain’s abyssal pupils seemed to create a terrifying aura that immediately calmed down all the rage bubbling within Jason.

“We shall have our revenge, but before that we need to know more about them.” Percy continued.

“We devised a plan to let Sophie and Diane infiltrate their faction and find more about them. The Flagship was a huge bait that we laid out to attract those power hungry fossils. We knew that they would never let such a huge opportunity pass-by. Thus the act of Diane and Sophie betraying us was all just to fool them.” Lucifer continued.

“Anyways, there is no longer any need for precaution. Once we reunite with Sophie and Diane we shall proceed with the plan.” Percy explained.

“But then what about Kevin? The Luther family took his body into custody after that incident.” Jason asked.

“Don’t worry someone will deliver it safely to us.” Lucifer said as his lips curled upwards in a cunning manner.

“Who apart from us is strong enough to confront them?” Jason faced Lucifer and asked in a puzzled tone. As he could not think of any power that could steal something from right under that old fogies nose.

“Heh, you underestimate the powers of our planet and its deep history.” This time it was the Captain that spoke.

Meanwhile on Earth, a man wearing nomadic clothes gazed at the distant walls and sighed. His eyes displayed a frightening level of calmness while an aura of purity radiated from his body.

‘Hmm, he should be here.’

Thinking so, the man walked towards the giant wall in the distance. Although he seemed to be walking slowly but with every step the air trembled with sheer pressure but everything turned normal after a few seconds.