Chapter 71: The Genesis Cipher

Chapter 71: Chapter 71: The Genesis Cipher

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." — Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

•••

Morning arrived, and Hall Nine was unusually quiet.

Joel spent his time doing something simple: organizing his belongings.

He took the Sunken Reliquary from the vault. The storage coffer was no bigger than a hymnbook, yet surprisingly heavy.

VMM!

One by one, he stored everything he had taken from Malakor.

First came the bundles of banknotes, followed by the black bearer ingot and the satchel containing the professor’s research.

Next were the master runes he had collected from the wreckage.

Finally, he carefully wrapped the Folding Rule in cloth before placing it inside.

[Ding!]

[Item secured: estate of Malakor. Storage: extra-dimensional.]

[Inventory note: the Reliquary is now heavier on the inside than the outside. This is considered acceptable.]

Before closing the Sunken Reliquary, Joel decided to try one last experiment.

He activated his Domain and unfolded a single joint of the Folding Rule.

For a moment, the two powers seemed to react to each other across the desk.

Then, without Joel doing anything, the Rule suddenly folded itself shut.

It was almost as if one powerful ability had recognized another.

Joel found it interesting, but decided to investigate later.

He put the Rule away, closed the Reliquary, and secured the vault with three ordinary locks.

Then he sent Nyx through the reclamation pipes to deliver two invitations.

•••

Roan arrived at noon, already cursing.

Sybill arrived at the same time, completely silent.

"You killed a professor," Roan said. "In his own basement, without us.

"He was Level 50," Sybill muttered, staring at the ceiling as if trying to understand something impossible.

"Fifty," Joel confirmed. "It took everything I had and a very good Thursday."

"You two were needed elsewhere," he added. "An alibi doesn’t work if you’re standing in the middle of the explosion."

"We’re your alibi?" Roan asked, unsure whether to feel proud or insulted. "Three years studying rune theory, and my job is to be somewhere else?"

Sybill was already removing her gloves.

"Show me the notes."

Joel brought out the documents, and they spread everything across the workbench.

There was the cipher ledger, the research folio, several letters marked with a black sun surrounded by teeth, and the master index.

Two layers of protection stood between them and the most important information.

The first was Malakor’s accounting cipher, which Joel had already cracked the week he stole it.

Even a man conducting forbidden experiments still needed to keep financial records.

The second layer was much more troublesome.

The important sections were sealed with special imprint wax that could recognize anyone who touched it.

Joel picked up a pencil and carefully pressed its tip against one corner.

KRK!

The wax suddenly snapped off the pencil’s tip and swallowed it.

"Charming," Sybill remarked.

Then she pulled the documents closer and got to work.

TSS!

Sybill’s anchored hex slowly spread across the first page.

Rather than breaking the seals by force, she carefully unraveled them one by one.

The process was slow, but it was her strongest technique. Neither Joel nor Roan dared interrupt her.

Meanwhile, Roan worked on the symbols.

TIK-TIK!

His chalk and compass moved across his slate as he studied the patterns hidden within the glyphs.

But it was Joel who finally noticed something.

"It’s bookkeeping," he said. "The inner cipher is connected to the ledger columns. Every glyph matches a column total."

Roan stared at him.

"He hid his secret research inside accounting records," Roan said. "I’ve never respected a dead man more."

At the top of the document, Malakor had written a title in his usual neat handwriting.

The Genesis Cipher.

[Ding!]

[Hidden objective completed: decipher the Genesis Cipher.]

Roan began reading the decoded section aloud, but his voice gradually grew quieter.

"The Tear isn’t a relic. It’s a fragment. The tower wasn’t built to reach the sky. It was built around something that fell from it."

He swallowed before continuing.

"Whatever the Spire holds in its upper levels has been breaking into smaller pieces. The academy uses those fragments to awaken its students."

The next page contained an ancient account, written long before the academy existed.

It described grey mist, a strange sound like the sea pulling away, and something falling from the sky.

But the most disturbing part was the final sentence, which had been underlined by three different people over the centuries.

"It is still falling."

For a moment, nobody spoke.

The water inside the aquarium continued moving in slow circles.

"Every Class recorded in the registry," Sybill said slowly, "comes from fragments of whatever is inside that tower?"

"Every awakening is the Tenant shedding pieces of itself," Joel replied. "And the academy gives those pieces to students and calls it destiny."

Joel remembered the grey mist.

He had stood inside it before. He had also heard that strange sound of the sea withdrawing.

Until now, he had believed the experience was connected only to him.

But these documents suggested something else.

Malakor’s notes called the mysterious being the Resident.

Joel preferred calling it the Tenant.

He kept his thoughts hidden.

The notes written along the margins revealed something even more disturbing.

For nine years, Malakor had been working toward one goal.

Sybill took over reading when Roan could no longer continue.

As she read, the materials listed in Malakor’s purchase records began making sense.

Soul-glass. Imprint wax. Ascendant bone.

Everything had been purchased for his experiments.

Then Sybill reached the most important section.

"A pure Tear, condensed at the bottom of the world. Tenth Stratum. If consumed whole, it can bypass a person’s genetic limit and force a second Class Evolution."

Silence filled the room again.

Joel stared at the document.

"He spent nine years trying to create something he planned to steal from the source," he said. "Those grafting experiments were just practice. The Apex Tear was his real goal."

Roan swallowed.

"Can someone actually consume one?"

"No one has ever mapped the Tenth Stratum," Sybill replied.

"Then we’ll deal with that later," Joel said, setting the document aside.

"We have a shipment to stop first."

He looked at the others.

"Six days. Twelve units. One reservoir."

[Ding!]

[Discovery logged: the Genesis Tear is a fragment of the entity housed in the Zenith Spire’s upper levels.]

[Ding!]

[Theory logged: ’Apex Tear’ (10th Stratum, pure). Claimed effect: bypasses genetic limits; forces a second Class Evolution. Verification: outstanding.]

•••

By dusk, the academy had discovered what remained of Malakor’s laboratory.

The professor had missed his morning lectures, his first absence in nine years.

By noon, academy officials had opened the annex.

And by evening, they had discovered the hidden passage behind his ninth Instructor of the Year certificate.

Inquisitor Thomas entered the ruined laboratory, carrying a truth-lamp. Two clerks followed him with brushes and equipment for collecting evidence.

KRCH! KRCH!

His boots crunched against the black glass covering the floor.

The laboratory had been completely destroyed.

The intense heat had melted the brass from the tanks into the walls. Even the ultraviolet lamps had softened and hung loosely from their fixtures.

The two clerks knelt and began carefully searching through the debris.

For several minutes, the only sound was their brushes scraping against the floor.

Then one of them spoke.

"Teeth. Forty sets. More."

Thomas looked around the ruined laboratory.

His Truth-Seeker Class allowed him to uncover the truth hidden within places and objects.

"What magic was used here?" he asked.

The truth-lamp remained silent.

No magical residue.

No traces of spells.

Not even the lingering energy that should have remained inside a Level 50 Flesh-Crafter’s laboratory.

Everything had been completely wiped clean.

And that was what disturbed Thomas the most.

He moved toward a large crater in the laboratory.

Cracks spread outward from a single point at chest height. The surrounding stone showed signs of enormous pressure.

Thomas had witnessed powerful siege spells that caused less damage.

He placed his palm against the center of the crater and examined it carefully.

The cold stone pressed against his glove.

"One event," he said quietly. "Kinetic."

He looked around the destroyed laboratory again.

"Everything else was just cleaning up."

"Housekeeping with a furnace," one of the clerks muttered.

Thomas didn’t correct him.

As he climbed the ruined stairwell, he carefully considered everything he had discovered.

First, it couldn’t have been a battle between mages. There were no traces of magic, and a Flesh-Crafter wouldn’t completely destroy his own laboratory.

Second, it couldn’t have been a monster from the Deep. Nothing had broken through solid rock, destroyed the laboratory, and then carefully erased every trace.

And it certainly wasn’t an accident.

The crater showed that someone had deliberately struck a single point with tremendous force.

That left one possibility.

Someone had absorbed an enormous amount of kinetic energy and released it all in one devastating attack.

And Thomas knew exactly one registered Class capable of doing that.

[Aegis Juggernaut.]

A unique Class with the ability to absorb kinetic energy.

It belonged to a first-year student who had sat calmly through his interrogation, giving him nothing but static whenever he tried to read his mind.

Thomas remembered the strange seismic spikes that month.

The boy returning from the Deep with the skull of a Level 45 monster.

And now, this destruction, just after the boy’s case had been closed.

"Destruction this clean has an owner," Thomas muttered, staring at his truth-lamp. "I’ve met the owner of that incredible luck before. He sat very still."

"Should I retrieve the Class registry, Inquisitor?" one of the clerks asked.

"I already have it. Only one name matters."

Thomas turned toward the stairwell.

"Bring me the merit rosters and the boy’s schedule. This time, I’ll ask the right question."

The clerks went upstairs, carrying their brushes and bags containing the teeth they had collected.

Thomas remained alone in the ruined laboratory for another minute.

Standing among the black glass, he looked up through the burned hatch toward the academy he had served for thirty years.

Then he extinguished his truth-lamp and followed the clerks upstairs.

•••

By midnight, Nyx returned with news from the annex.

Hidden in the shadows beneath the roof, she had watched everything: the banners, the clerks collecting evidence, and the Level 60 inquisitor who had entered the ruins and taken his time coming out.

"He’s early," Joel said, unsurprised, as he put the kettle on.

But his plan was still working.

He would release the documents whenever he decided the time was right.

The destroyed laboratory held no evidence against him.

Meanwhile, the teeth of the dead students would keep the academy investigating for weeks, with every discovery pointing toward Malakor.

And the professor deserved every bit of it.

Until then, Joel only needed to maintain his disguise.

He would remain exactly what the academy registry claimed he was.

A first-year student ranked fiftieth, with an unimpressive Class and an ordinary schedule.

[Ding!]

[Notice: a second inquiry has been opened. Cause: forensics. Named subject: none.]

[Recommendation: keep it that way.]

The next morning, a substitute taught Anatomy.

Joel asked no questions, and quietly continued taking notes.