Chapter 101: Conspiracy at the Hua Mansion

"Enough, Abbas. Although Bakar was a fool, he did leave us a final hope, even if he himself was unaware of it." Ortus seemed to possess a wealth of secrets, a result of the different divine graces bestowed upon them, the Apostles.

Some Apostles were granted immense power, capable of transforming into formidable "angels"—beings so powerful that even the United States military had to expend staggering amounts of human and material resources to slay just one. Others gained peerless knowledge, mastering countless wicked spells, which was precisely how most of the forbidden zones had come into existence.

Ortus was one of those who had received ancient magic. Because the nature of magic was so intricate, the Apostles’ abilities varied wildly. What Ortus commanded were, for the most part, spells devoid of offensive capability.

Yet, it was precisely this that allowed him to identify what the corruption unleashed by Bakar truly was. It was a lingering essence of the True God. If they could harness this essence, shattering that cursed barrier would be a simple matter.

Ortus gestured toward Washington, which had been reduced to a living hell. "That fool Bakar didn't lose the idol; he sacrificed both the idol and himself to the True God. And that source of corruption is no ordinary magic—it is the breath of the True God. Our hope lies within it."

"The breath of the True God?!" Abbas and the other female Apostle were startled. As Apostles who had been granted physical power, they lacked prowess in perception and magic, so they had naturally failed to sense the presence of the deity they worshipped. Had they truly perceived that essence clearly, they would have been assimilated by it in an instant.

"Then what are we waiting for? Those damned human troops have been hunting us down incessantly. It is time for us to strike back!" Abbas gripped his black robes in fury. During this period, the military had roughly figured out how to deal with these cunning cultists: long-range bombardment, or "carpet shelling." Once a target was located, whether by missiles or artillery, it caused devastating damage to these Apostles, who, despite their powers, still remained fundamentally human.

Having finally caught on, the military stopped sending soldiers for close-quarters combat, instead using satellites to lock onto these strangely dressed heretics. Naturally, after suffering a massive wave of bombardment, the cultists had quickly gone into hiding, and those capable of magic had used their arts to conceal themselves.

As a combat-enhanced Apostle, Abbas had inevitably been forced to run and hide. He had originally been holding a grand sacrificial ceremony in a small town, only for it to be interrupted by a missile descending from the sky. If his defensive capabilities hadn't been so high, he would have perished in that attack long ago.

Because he had survived that missile, the military had identified him and was now obsessed with capturing him alive for study. This infuriated Abbas, yet he was forced to keep moving; after all, being able to withstand one missile did not mean he could withstand many.

Sari remained unmoved. He had heard of Abbas's plight, but in his eyes, Abbas and Bakar were birds of a feather—both fools for allowing themselves to be hounded by humans. It brought shame upon all the Apostles.

Sari’s ability was to regenerate from a single drop of blood. Every drop of his blood could manifest into a clone, and as long as one clone survived, he could not be killed. In the eyes of the human military, he was a nightmare; they would wipe out three of him, only for six more to emerge. To many, Sari appeared to be a god-like entity.

He had come here only because he sensed an unusual aura and because of Ortus’s invitation, which had led him to abandon the massacre he was currently conducting.

The other female Apostle, Sharon, possessed the power to control vermin—snakes, insects, rats, and the like—to launch stealth attacks on humans. However, after the military began poisoning animals on a massive scale, her powers had become increasingly difficult to use, forcing her into hiding. Fortunately, because she had always operated from the shadows, the military had not yet obtained her likeness, though her time in hiding was coming to an end.

Meanwhile, following the total failure of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Project Insight and the subsequent sinking of the three Helicarriers, the organization had been disbanded. The military, however, had not come away empty-handed. Due to the catastrophic consequences of Insight, they had taken control of the Insight satellites with a firm hand, utilizing them to track the movements of the cultists.

Now, the Insight satellites had detected all four high-ranking cultists gathering in the Washington forbidden zone. Calculations suggested they intended to enter the zone, leaving the high command baffled.

Since the military began their frontal assault on the cult, rooting out every believer, the once-formidable organization had begun to crumble. Even though they had controlled many corporate giants and high-ranking government officials, the military’s campaign had been remarkably thorough.

Most cult members had been killed, with a few remaining on the run. The four who had fled to Washington were the very high-ranking members the military had painstakingly identified through the interrogation of captured cultists. According to intelligence, they were the last of the cult's leadership.

"So this is why you’re here? To ask us to enter the forbidden zone?" Tony stared in disbelief at the military representative who had come to seek their aid. He and Steve had been about to study Mandarin when they were interrupted.

"I apologize, Mr. Stark, but you are the only human on record who has successfully escaped the Washington forbidden zone. We must rely on you. With the cult leadership gathered in Washington, there must be an unspeakable secret at play." The visitor was a newly promoted colonel, currently looking at Tony with a fawning expression.

"Why don't you just drop a nuke? The place is already lost, isn't it?" Tony set aside his portable screen and looked at the man with genuine seriousness. The military usually loved launching nukes.

"Actually, we have tried. But the Washington forbidden zone is different from the others. Our long-range weapons are completely ineffective; they lose contact the moment they enter the zone. Satellite surveillance shows no signs of explosions, and strikes from outside have no impact on the interior. Here is our experimental data." The colonel handed Tony a report. Tony took it and examined it closely, finding detailed accounts of various failed attempts to strike Washington.

"Alright, I understand." Tony’s expression turned grave. He knew that if the cult leaders were meeting, it could not be for anything good. Whatever they were planning, he had to go and stop them.