Chapter 264: The Plagued Gemstones [Edited]

The peace in Grayland lasted exactly four days.

Nicholas was in the underground training room of the Association headquarters, working on a heavy punching bag. He wasn’t using any of his abilities. He wasn’t channeling Qi or manipulating gravity. He was simply throwing steady, grounded punches. It was a habit from his previous life, though he didn’t get to do it as often here. There was always one mission or another keeping him busy.

’There’s been almost nothing to do lately. Feels like I’m wasting away,’ Nicholas thought as he threw another heavy punch.

He’d never expected the sudden peace to feel so strange.

"Keeping yourself busy, aren’t you?"

The heavy steel door to the training room slid open with a soft hiss.

Nicholas stopped the swinging bag with one hand and turned around, immediately recognizing the voice.

Selena walked into the room.

"Get your jacket," Selena said, her voice tight and professional. "Eric just called a Top Hero meeting upstairs. We need you in the briefing room right now."

Nicholas grabbed his jacket from the bench and slipped it on. "What’s the situation?"

"It’s Zero," Selena said, turning to lead the way down the hall. "He just submitted a report to Eric... and it seems something serious came up. I don’t know the details."

"Well, let’s go find out," Nicholas replied.

They took the private elevator to the highest level of the headquarters. The doors opened into a quiet, heavily guarded corridor.

Four elite Association guards stood outside the main meeting room. They nodded respectfully to Selena and pulled open the doors.

Inside, the room was simple but tense. A long wooden table sat in the center, surrounded by several chairs, with a large digital screen covering one wall.

Eric sat at the head of the table, leaning forward with his hands clasped together. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. Nicholas could understand why. The Association already had plenty to deal with.

Standing on the other side of the table was Zero.

Unlike the rugged, dust-covered explorer Nicholas might have expected, Zero was dressed in his usual pristine, dark combat uniform. He had been back in the city for weeks, but something about him had changed. His posture was rigid, and his expression carried the weight of someone who had seen something he wished he could forget.

His longsword rested on the polished table in front of him. Its dark sheath hid most of the blade, but the hilt was clearly visible.

Zero sat calmly with his arms crossed, his gaze locking onto Nicholas the moment he entered the room.

Nicholas felt an unsettling energy pressing against him. His eyes immediately snapped toward Zero.

’Is this some sort of test?’

He quickly realized what was happening.

Zero was sending Qi toward him.

Nicholas responded without hesitation, pushing Zero’s Qi back with his own. His expression remained calm, though a deep frown settled across his face.

So much for pretending their last encounter had been forgotten.

Nicholas shifted his attention to the rest of the room. Nectron and Vixen were sitting together in another corner. Several other top heroes were seated around the table, including NightNinja, Plasmagirl, and a few others Nicholas didn’t know well.

"Have a seat, you two," Eric said heavily, gesturing to the empty chairs. "We are keeping this circle strictly to the top tier."

Nicholas and Selena took their seats across from Zero.

Nicholas kept his expression calm, but his dark blue eyes remained alert as he took in the room.

"Phantom," Zero said, giving Nicholas a slow, respectful nod, followed by a faint chuckle. "You’re quite the fast learner, aren’t you?"

"Attacking someone in a general meeting. Quite an unpleasant way to build a good relationship," Nicholas replied calmly, a deep frown on his face.

"Please, let’s all try to get along. We don’t want to start fighting in here, do we?" Eric said with a light laugh, cutting through the tension. "I asked you all to come here because there’s something important Zero wants to tell us."

Eric turned toward Zero.

Zero reached toward his sword. His hands stopped just a few inches from the hilt before suddenly—

Whoosh!

His hands moved with frightening speed as he drew the blade and held it out, point forward. The movement gave everyone around the table a clear view of the weapon.

A thick purple gemstone was embedded in the center of the blade, just above the hilt.

The moment it was exposed, everyone in the room felt it.

A strange, heavy miasma spread from the gemstone, filling the room with an uncomfortable pressure.

"I travelled to Africa sometime ago, and then I came across this item upon killing an A-ranked plagued beast."

Zero held the sword up slightly.

"It’s quite noticeable that the energy inside it is identical to the plague that mutated humanity decades ago and created the impures," he said calmly.

"Can you get on with the report? We aren’t here for bedtime stories," one of the heroes interrupted.

"I believe my story is an important part of my report, so if you can’t listen, you have no business being here," Zero shot back coldly.

"And what do you mean by that?" the hero asked, frowning as his sharp gaze settled on Zero.

Zero met his gaze with a faint smile.

The others didn’t notice anything unusual, but Nicholas did.

Zero’s Qi was quietly rising.

’His control of Qi is terrifying. He can increase it without anyone in the room even noticing,’ Nicholas thought, glancing at him.

"Aegis, allow him to get on with his story," Eric interrupted gently. "Zero, please continue your report."

Zero’s expression hardened.

"The gemstone had effects on any beast that came in contact with it and turned them into impures. It also amplified the power of my blade. I found that strange, so I decided to do a little more research into the gem."

He lowered the sword back onto the table.

"For years, I searched for the origin of this gemstone," Zero continued. "The energy inside it is pure. It isn’t a natural rock. It was manufactured. I followed old maps, tracked down people who dealt in strange artifacts, and finally traced its origin to a deep part of the Sahara Desert. When I took my team out there a couple of months ago, we dug into the sand."

The large screen flickered to life.

A dark, grainy photograph appeared. Flashlights revealed massive walls made of smooth, black stone, buried beneath thousands of tons of sand.

"We found ruins," Zero said. "Ancient ruins. But they weren’t built by any human civilization. The design was completely strange. There were no doors, no stairs, and nothing built to fit human proportions. It was a massive underground vault, sealed tight."

Zero pressed a button, and the image on the screen changed.

The room darkened as another image appeared.

This time, it showed a huge underground chamber, easily the size of a football stadium. Resting in the center of the room was a ship.

It wasn’t a boat, and it wasn’t an airplane.

It was a massive, angular vessel made of the same smooth black metal as the walls. Strange purple lines covered its surface, glowing with the exact same color as the gemstone in Zero’s sword.

The ship looked sleek, terrifying, and completely alien.

"A spacecraft," Nicholas said, his voice flat and calm, though his mind was racing as he tried to understand what he was looking at.

"Yes," Zero said heavily. "A vessel from the stars. It crashed, or it landed, thousands of years ago. The ruins were built around it to keep it contained."

He pointed toward the image.

"We found hundreds of empty slots inside the ship’s hull, all shaped perfectly to fit the gemstone in my sword. They were power cores."

Zero turned off the screen, bringing the room back to normal lighting. He leaned forward, resting both hands flat on the wooden table.

"The plague didn’t come from a laboratory accident," Zero said. "The mutation that created the impures, the energy that changed our world... it didn’t start on Earth. It leaked from that ship. The plague is alien."

The room fell quiet.

For their entire lives, humanity had believed the impure mutations were a tragic accident of nature or science. Now they knew the truth.

They weren’t dealing with a natural disease.

They were dealing with the remains of something that had come from an alien spacecraft.

"Who else knows about this?" Selena asked, her voice trembling slightly before she forced herself back into her usual professional tone.

"Only my scout team and I," Zero said. "I sealed the site before we left Africa. I buried the entrance tunnel and placed automated sensors around the perimeter. But a discovery this massive leaves a trail. We had to buy heavy digging equipment in Cairo. We had to hire local guides. People talk. I spent the last few weeks verifying the data, but the clock is ticking. It is only a matter of time before the rumors reach the wrong ears."

"There were a total of ten gems needed to power the ship. I’ve been trying to find the other gems, but there are no traces anywhere."

Eric let out a soft sigh.

"I believe you all have heard what he has said," Eric said with a stern expression. "If something as dangerous as that falls into the wrong hands, we’ll be facing a whole lot of trouble. And that is why I summoned you all here. We can’t let these gems fall into the wrong hands. We need to retrieve them and keep them away from anyone who might use them."

He looked around the table.

"We still have the League of Villains roaming around, and now a fake Phantom as well. We don’t want to have another threat capable of putting humanity’s safety at risk."

"Yes, we cannot let that happen," Selena said firmly.

"We aren’t going to," Eric said, standing up from his chair. He looked at Zero, then at Nicholas, before slowly shifting his gaze across everyone in the room.

"This changes everything. We can’t afford to wait and see what would happen if those gems fell into the wrong hands. We also need to examine the ruins and understand how that spacecraft came to be there in the first place. We need every piece of information we can get."

Eric walked around the table, his eyes filled with determination.

"I am putting together a team right now," Eric declared. "An off-the-books Association expedition that no one outside this room needs to know about. We are going back to the Sahara. We are going to explore that ship, secure anything dangerous, and lock down the ruins permanently."

Zero nodded in agreement and picked up his sword.

"I will lead the way. I have the coordinates mapped."

Eric turned his gaze to Nicholas.

"Phantom. I need you on this team. You are our strongest fighter. Will you go?"

Nicholas didn’t hesitate.

"I’ll pack my bags," Nicholas said calmly, standing up from his chair. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning," Eric said, his voice grim. "You all should pack your things and prepare. The desert is unforgiving, and we have no idea what is waiting for us inside that ship."

Nicholas nodded, his dark blue eyes completely cold and focused.

The vacation was truly over.

The real mission was just beginning.