Chapter 1413  Foral Project

Author's Note: Unedited Chapter

----------------------

E.E. who was seated on the opposite side, reached out to receive Damien's handshake after a while.

"Nice to meet you Damien, I'm..." Before he could complete his sentence, Damien chimed in.

"I know you two... you are friends of big brother Gustav," He stated with a look of excitement.

"Big brother Gustav?"

"Friends?"

E.E. and Endric voiced simultaneously. "He once came to Burning Sands city and caused a ruckus. He might be on the wanted list now but to me, he is still big brother and I will help anyone related to big brother Gustav," Damien had a look of adoration as he spoke.

E.E. immediately understood that Gustav must have had a type of relationship with the kid when he worked with scientist Zil who ended up betraying him.

Endric stared at Damien with a slight look of jealousy.

"Big brother eh? Well, I am his real..."

"Yes we are his friends," E.E. cut Endric off before he could complete his sentence.

Endric squinted his eyes while E.E. shook his head, signaling for him not to reveal his true identity.

"It is great to meet you two. I am sure you two must be just as amazing as big brother Gustav," Damien voiced with interest in his eyes, but E.E. swiftly went to the point.

"How exactly can you help us? You see this matter is directly linked to Gustav so we need to find your grandfather," E.E. voiced with a longing gaze.

"First, Grandfather was working on something that I know was related to Big Brother but he didn't want anyone finding out. I was focusing on school then so I never tried to ask him or know more about it..." Damien began narrating.

"However, things got more suspicious when I visited his lab one day and found some documents of land purchases on his desk. Just checked out of curiosity since he wasn't in at the time but the moment he walked in, he drove me out of his lab. This was quite the shocker for me since I usually visited him even when he was working with big brother Gustav," Damien added lengthily.

"My grandfather was of course still nice to me and promised to take me to see a live performance afterwards. He just told me he was too busy at the time and didn't want any distractions so I shouldn't visit his lab.

I didn't think much of it, but eventually, he became harder and harder to see until we got the message that he would be out of touch for a long time till his research was completed. I haven't seen my grandfather in nearly two years. Even Ciri was sad for a long time." E.E. and Endric exchanged glances in understanding. Damien was practically telling them that his grandfather had been busy creating a clone of Gustav the entire time. It added up since no one was aware of the clone's existence till it revealed itself.

This made them wonder why Scientist Zil would even let the clone expose itself like that. There was no doubt that it would get caught so it seemed like a waste.

Who would want their hard work of two years to go to waste?

'...there's more to this than just clone creation,' Endric came to the conclusion very swiftly.

"Do you know where those lands he bought are situated?" Endric questioned with a suspicious look.

"Yes... the reason I found it odd was that these locations used to belong to the Ring Lords before big brother Gustav got rid of all of them," Damien answered.

'Ring Lords? Wasn't it those guys that ran illegal underground battles and were practically the crime bosses of this city?' E.E. recalled what happened back then. However, Endric had no idea since he wasn't around at the time.

It had caused such a huge ruckus that even they had to be involved. It made E.E. remember that it wasn't the first time Gustav had been branded a criminal. Just that this time, it was on a way larger scale.

"Where exactly are these lands?" Endric inquired.

"They should be in the city..." E.E. was a little bothered because they had already checked every possible location in the city and still couldn't find Scientist Zil.

"Not in the city... around the city," Damien corrected.

"Huh?" E.E. and Endric exchanged confused looks since they were well aware that the only things around the city were yellow sands that were always ablaze.

"I don't know why he would do that when the underground tunnelways deep underneath the burning sands that led to the fight arena had already collapsed . They have since been inaccessible," Damien voiced in bafflement.

E.E. and Endric's faces suddenly lit up with expressions of realization. "How long ago did the tunnelways collapse?" Endric inquired.

"Over two years ago when big brother Gustav came to this city..." Damien answered.

Endric and E.E. exchanged glances once more before jumping to their feet.

Damien was confused as he watched them step out of the hover car in urgency.

E.E. made a gesture by crossing his index and middle fingers.

Zhrrrouhh~ A violet-colored vortex suddenly appeared before them.

"Stay close," Endric said to Damien as he spread his telekinetic wear.

Damien was immediately covered with invisible layers of telekinetic energy as they stepped into the vortex.

The view before them transformed the moment they arrived on the other side.

"Ahhh!"

Damien jumped upwards as soon as he noticed they were standing on the flaming sand.

Endric caught him in mid-air and pulled him downwards casually, "I said to stay close."

Damien landed on the sand and noticed he wasn't burned up. "Oh?" He raised his right foot and planted it back on the burning sand repeatedly. He seemed quite astonished.

"How are you doing this?" Damien questioned after recalling that one would need to be at least beta-ranked to pull something like this off.

"Damien, are you saying the lands he bought are underneath these sands?" E.E. called out to him.

Damien swiftly regained his composure and answered, "Yes... thousands of feet below are ruined tunnelways."

E.E. closed his eyes and tried to focus while making a hand gesture.

After a few seconds, "So that's why," He muttered in conclusion while reopening his eyes.

"Can you send your telekinesis beneath...?" E.E. asked Endric by the side.

"It throws my senses off... almost like there isn't a single space to scout down there," Endric replied.

"But if I forcefully push it, I can go further... and finally sense the space down there," He added.

"Same... for me to open a vortex that would lead there, I would have to be aware that a space was down there. When Gustav and I came here earlier, we couldn't sense anything like that. Although we weren't looking around here.

With Gustav's senses, he would originally be able to sense the existence of space down there but with the burning sands throwing off our senses, we skipped without suspecting that anything could be down there," E.E. analyzed with a disturbed expression.

"Are you saying grandfather is down there?" Damien inquired.

"We do not know but one thing we are sure of is, those tunnelways have been renovated... but no one knew," Endric responded.

"Come let's go," E.E. voiced while opening another vortex.

The trio stepped forward once more and arrived in another location upon entering the violet vortex.

Zwhiiihh~

In the dimly lit confines of a massive tunnelway, the hum of machinery echoed as three figures materialized and stepped out of a swirling violet light.

The air shimmered momentarily, and with a soft ripple, they stood surrounded by a myriad of advanced equipment and humanoid bots engaged in purposeful tasks.

"Are we underground?" Damien inquired.

Holographic displays dotted the environment, projecting three-dimensional models of complex research findings.

Some diagrams looked atomic and cellular.

"Looks like we found where your grandfather has been hiding out," Endric muttered as he approached the bots.

Their expressions shifted from curiosity to engagement as they tapped on some of the holographic displays to see what scientist Zil had been up to.

"Eh all these are too complicated, I don't understand what I am looking at," E.E. scratched his afro hair with a befuddled expression.

Damien moved over to him and began scanning the scientist's notes and diagrams on display. "This is a finished research," Damien spoke with a tone of certainty.

"Finished? Hmm, maybe that is why he isn't here currently," E.E. had a look of intrigue as he responded.

"But what was he working on?" E.E. asked once more.

"It says... Foral Project," Damien stated while scrolling to further display other parts of the research. "What the fuck is a Foral project?" E.E. had an even more bamboozled look on his face.