Ed created an underground basement for the blood farm. It was dark and gloomy like a dungeon. He locked each person he had taken from the Commerce and Supply department into individual iron cages. They were completely chained down and unable to move. Tubes were hooked up to them for both collecting blood regularly and for feeding them.

"I'll leave the blood slaves to you." Ed smiled. "I'll send more in the future. Especially once we start gathering prisoners of war. The blood farm will remain secret. On the surface, you'll act as a kind nurse that helps anyone that needs it. The soldiers and other members I send here will be completely unaware of what's going on beneath the surface. So, make sure the secret doesn't get exposed."

"Mm." Mary nodded, her face slightly pale.

Ed happily whistled a tune as he walked away, his hands in his jacket pockets. 'Everything should be all caught up for now. Time to play with the manullium.'

He returned to base and gathered the 100 ingots of manullium. They were to be locked in his underground lab until further notice. He picked up one of the purple ingots and lightly tossed it into the air. It slowly floated back into his hand as if it was a feather.

'Such an odd material. I wonder how it got into the mountains. Was it there before mana came into existence and no one knew about it? Or did it appear afterwards somehow?' He placed the ingot down while shaking his head. The origin of the material wasn't important to his current agenda.

'Let's begin.' He pulled out a notebook and pen, jotting down words as he experimented.

Experiment 001 – I tested whether the purified manullium ingots would interfere with my mana or not. Unsurprisingly, they didn't. I had expected this, as Terra had been able to use her powers even when wearing a collar made from manullium. Unfortunately, this means I can't use my current supplies to further improve my mana control. I'll need to gather raw ore in the future for that purpose.

Experiment 002 – The ingots are currently impractical. I need a way to divide them up. I attempted the process with a vibro-knife, but all I got were a lot of sparks. The material is ridiculously strong.

Experiment 009 – I've sprinkled an ingot with all seven types of mana-powders. The powders instantly activated as a result. The good news is that none of the ingot is used up upon coming in contact with the mana-powders. The bad news is that I still need a way to cut or mold the ingots. My powers don't work for this.

Experiment 037 – The answer to cutting and reforming the ingots was shockingly simple. Simply melt it with ordinary flames that have no trace of mana within them. I tried this on a whim using an ordinary fire and it worked. I've created a furnace for my future work.

Experiment 038 – It only takes a very small piece of manullium to trigger mana-powder. This means that my current supply is enough to arm thousands of soldiers. Through the use of a simple triggering mechanism, I can allow soldiers to have strength similar to my own metal limbs. The only downside is the lack of fine control. I can easily adjust the strength of my flames by limiting my mana output. However, manullium will activate the mana-batteries at full strength. I'll need to create weaker batteries or come up with a new control method.

Experiment 112 – I've spent dozens of experiments attempting to create a new control method and have finally succeeded. I call them segmented mana-batteries. I've divided the single large mana-battery into 10 smaller mana-batteries. Then, I use a thin bar of manullium to slide over the batteries. This allows outputting anywhere between 1/10th of the power to full power.

Experiment 139 – Using myself as the test subject, I've managed to create an ideal control method for humans to use the limbs. I simply connected the manullium bar to muscles. After a bit of practice, activating the batteries at different output levels should be as easy as breathing.

Experiment 147 – I accidently burned myself when my muscles twitched. If I was an ordinary human, then that would have killed me. I've made further improvements to the muscles so that they can only be controlled via active thought. I've also added a safety mechanism on the outside of the arm.

Experiment 169 – I had World Walker test teleporting with the manullium. He succeeded with very small amounts. This is good news for the upcoming war. He'll still be able to transport our strongest troops into key support positions.

Experiment 192 – I was curious if manullium-powder would be useful for anything. It took me a lot of effort to scrape a tiny trace of powder from an ingot. I wasted dozens of the strongest tools I could find. I finally succeeded after breaking nine diamond-tipped drilling tools in a row. The reward for my efforts? Nothing. Manullium-powder seemingly has no special uses. I don't know why I expected otherwise.

Experiment 200 – I humored the idea of turning my entire skeleton into manullium. I got about as far as my pinky finger before aborting the idea and replacing my pinky finger with a normal one. Manullium naturally interferes with my mana-paths. The blockage of the path was extremely painful. My head throbbed with unbearable pain as my mana-core swelled from the blockage. I thought I might even die for a second. It appears that I'll have to keep the mana-infused humans I plan on creating separate from those that gain artificial limbs, or else the manullium in the limbs will interfere with their mana.

Ed left the lab while yawning. It had only taken him a couple days to run through 200 experiments. He was efficient if nothing else. Tomorrow, he would be ready to begin creating his first batch of super soldiers. All of them would be given limbs similar to his own, capable of wide-spread destruction through fire. 'It's probably about time for me to upgrade my own limbs as well. I've been using this model for a long time. I think I'll upgrade my own limbs after I finish with the new soldiers.'

...

Night. Ed slipped into his peaceful dreams. A vast white space appeared in front of his eyes. He instinctively reached out with his arm but couldn't feel the surroundings. Not even a trace of wind seemed to exist in this empty void.

"Kekeke." A mysterious shadow appeared. "We meet again, Edward. I didn't think I'd be meeting with you again any time soon."

"Oh?" Ed rose an eyebrow. "I'm quite surprised myself. I didn't think I'd see you again until either right before the upcoming war or after it ended."

"So, you are going to war?" The shadow grinned as it slowly spun circles around his body.

"Don't act like you didn't already know." He scoffed. "It's hardly a secret. You should even know the dates and everything."

"True." The shadow nodded. "However, I am not here about that today. A little bird told me that you broke into a manullium mine and made off with quite a big treasure."

"Right." He agreed. "I suppose someone from that mining base told you about it? So, what do you want?"

"The manullium, naturally." The shadow replied. "There's no such thing as too much manullium. Even I have a hard time gathering it in large quantities. I am willing to trade for it. You still wanted a cultivation technique, right? I think that would make for a more than fair deal in your favor."

"Forget it." Ed frowned. "It's not for sale. It's an essential resource needed for my future plans."

"Kekeke. Don't be so quick to reject!" The shadow wrapped around his body. "I have so much information to sell. How about the best mechs of Sinless? I also have the shaman techniques of Africa. There are plenty of other secrets I know from around the world. Have you ever been to the Bermuda Triangle? Let's make a trade!"

"The answer is no." He declined again, his arms crossed across his chest.

"Tsk!" The shadow untwisted itself from around him. "Are you sure about this, boy? Do you really wish to make an enemy of Nexus? I could simply crush you and take the manullium for myself. Your little playgroup is nothing to me."

"Threatening me when you don't get your way?" He grinned. "Come make an enemy of me then. I'll burn your shadow to hell and scare you back into your little gopher hole! Do you think I fear a coward that hides behind a shadow?! A coward that doesn't even meet with others face to face?! Attack me if you want to, but I guarantee you'll regret it." He glared menacingly at the shadow, ready to tear it limb from limb should the need arise.

"A pity." The shadow sighed. "You had your chance. I can't be blamed for what I'm about to do."

Suddenly, a loud siren could be heard. Ed's head throbbed in pain as the white space began to shatter. His eyes shot open, staring at the dark ceiling of his own room. Warning sirens went off throughout the base.

He quickly got up and looked out the window into the streets. A group of unfamiliar espers was attacking the base! 'No, wait. I recognize one of them... Mordy?!'

Ed hurriedly opened the window and jumped down from the 20th floor of the building. Flames blasted him forward as he rocketed downwards towards his friend.

"MORDY!" He yelled as he landed. "What the hell is this?!"

Sounds of gunfire rang out as the soldiers fought back against the attacking espers. Their training was already being put to the test. Steam mechs exited from various garages and blasted streams of water and fire towards the espers. A steam tank rolled out and fired, causing a deafening sound. Ed felt his ears buzz as a result. The projectile slammed straight into one of the invading espers, blowing them into nothing more than chunks of flesh.

"I'm sorry." Mordy sighed while shaking his head. "But I have my own circumstances and goals. Just hand over the manullium and I'll call off the attack."

"Nexus bribed you to do this?!" Ed replied in shock.

"Right." Mordy nodded. "So, what will it be? Fight or surrender?"

"I'll naturally be handing over nothing." He glared at his friend. "You should know you don't stand a chance against me."

Flames from the nearby fighting quickly lit up the dark night. Mordy's green eyes looked menacing as they reflected the flames. He glared into Ed's eyes. "You overestimate your own abilities." Streams of black acid shot upwards from all over his body. Even the air was corroded as the acid passed through it. The various streams converged towards Ed from all directions, allowing no chance for escape.

"Humph!" Ed snorted. He melted the ground and disappeared beneath it. His powers were no longer as slow as in the past, thanks to his hard work at cultivation. His powers still weren't well-suited to offense, but control of the battlefield was as natural as breathing air to him.

A 10-meter-wide dome began to form from the ground, rising to cover Mordy. Mordy could have easily escaped, but he didn't seem to mind it. "Is that all you've got?" He laughed. "It'll take a lot more than this to defeat me, Ed. I excel at combat in enclosed places like this."

"That's only if I enter the enclosed space with you." He replied. "Interesting thing about small enclosed spaces like this. It makes it easy for me to manipulate the gas to have high concentrations of oxygen." As soon as he finished speaking, a blast of flames entered the earthen dome. An explosion rang out as the flames instantly spread through the whole dome, causing cracks to appear on the dome's ceiling.

Mordy was trapped inside, being scorched by the heat. His black acid mixed with the flames, causing them to turn black and release poisonous fumes. Anyone that went near the dome would likely die from inhaling it. He calmly walked towards the wall of the dome and corroded it away. He was completely unharmed as he left the dome, much to the surprise of Ed.

"You've certainly become hard to kill." Ed smiled.

"Same goes for you." Mordy returned the smile.

"AGHHH!!!" A voice interrupted them. They turned to see a fatty running from an unfamiliar white-haired esper.

The white-haired esper shot spikes of ice towards the fatty. "Haha! Run fatty run!" He yelled.

"Husky...?" Mordy gasped in surprise upon seeing the familiar face.

"Ah, right." Ed nodded. "I recruited him a while back. Still not quite sure how I feel about it."

Suddenly, the fatty spun around. He took a deep breath, causing the air to be sucked into his stomach. His body grew taller and leaner. Bulky muscle appeared all over his body. "DIE!" He yelled in rage as he threw a fist towards the white-haired esper. A strong gust of wind travelled from the fist, sending the white-haired esper flying backwards.

Cracking sounds rang out after the attack had finished. Several palm trees had literally bent in half from the wind before snapping. The white-haired esper slammed into a building. Blood dripped down from his head, seemingly dead from the impact.

"Holy shit!" Mordy yelled in shock. "That's Husky?!"

"Ah, his powers were supposed to be some kind of weird wind buff." Ed nodded. "It's stronger than I thought. He'd make for a tough opponent."

Ed glanced around the surroundings. Many soldiers had died in the attacks. However, most of the invading espers had also died. Only the stronger ones like Mordy remained. Harmony wasn't easy to invade so casually. Even if they were lacking strong members right now, they still had quantity and military-grade weapons.

"GAHAHAHA!!!" An enraged Ray could be seen sliding across the ground, a trail of plasma being left in his wake. He jumped straight towards a group of three espers, his body surrounded by a silver glow. When he landed, lightning snaked out onto the three espers, shocking them dead before they even knew what hit them.

"General!" Some nearby soldiers screamed in a mixture of shock and joy.

Ray glared at them. "What the hell are you waiting for?! An invitation?! Kill them! Kill them all!"

Suddenly, a stream of fire shot towards Ray from behind. He casually waved his hand, glowing with a silver plasma ball, and deflected the fire away. He raised his other hand and a stream of plasma fired into the distance. A scream rang out as the fire esper was melted to the ground, making him look like burnt roadkill.

"It seems that Phantom really underestimated this base." Mordy sighed while shaking his head.

"Mm." Ed nodded. "Where is he? Not joining the attack?"

"No, he had other things to attend to." Mordy looked unwillingly at the many dying espers on their side. "RETREAT!!!" He yelled towards them. The espers glanced at Mordy, seemingly unwilling to leave, but they soon started escaping from their enemies.

"Your side lacks military discipline." Ed commented. "It's only natural you lost."

"So that was the case." Mordy nodded. "We had the advantage in espers and still lost so miserably. I'm convinced." He turned around and began to walk away.

"I'll be coming to Phantom for an answer later!" Ed yelled towards him. "I'll be damned if I let that son of a bitch stay in my city after this!"

Mordy waved his hand without looking back. Soon, the enemy was gone. Only the damage remained.

'That was convenient.' Ed smiled. 'I should thank Nexus. They sent real combat training to my men so early. I'll be sure to repay the favor in the future. It was odd how many espers they had though. Just what is Phantom planning?'