"You can't do it?

"

Bloody Chariot looked at the people standing in front of him with a raised eyebrow. The two rectangular chips that are obviously of different styles but with numerous similarities are resting on his table.

"Two days, two dozen experts and you consumed a ** load of resources. But, you can not do it? Is that what you are telling me?

"

The group nodded without saying anything. They looked dejected and depressed. After dismantling, Bloody Chariot isolated the three experts that were involved in the process. They were kept in the secret room.

He came out with the two rectangular crystal chips and made all the formation experts and inscription experts left behind in the academy. For the past two days they were intrigued, interested, amused and almost lost their goddamn minds as they tried to decode those chips.

They almost brought themselves to their own despair.

It is not easy after all.

But the problem is no matter what they tried, they couldn't understand or decode these chips. All they understood is that the formations are inscribed on a granular level in that chip. And one chip as hundreds of layers, each layer with its own formations inscribed. All of these layers are connected.

They could identify that much.

But they couldn't identify what kind of formations they are except for the few surface layers. Then, the rest of it is blank.

The only way they could think of understand what is beneath it is by removing it layer by layer, which also means destroying it.

However, Bloody Chariot has just one statement for their thoughts.

"Unless, you can reconstruct the whole thing without a single flaw and make sure it works the, don't even think about leaving a scratch. Otherwise, be prepared to have your bloodline exterminated. It has been a while since I went on my last genocide.

I am honestly itching a bit.

So, be my guest and try it.

"

A very light threat, one could say. So, they are unable to do anything.

"All the talk and all those honors behind your name. What they are good for? You can even retrieve some coordinates from these things. Waste of resources.

"

Bloody Chariot muttered and took the chips away. He walked towards the hub.

Fifteen minutes later..

"So, you want my help again. But are you sure, you can pay the price for it?

"

"Trust me, I don't want. But I need this. So, as long as it is reasonable.

"

Another streak of painstaking negotiations later…

"Alright, for this… I will just think of it as teaching another thing to the Zeus academy.

"

Joker said and took a hold of one of the chips.

"I understand that this compact chip is very complex for you guys to decipher without destroying it. But sometimes, you don't really have to deconstruct everything to understand it.

You can take a different approach.

First of all, you know what purpose this chip serves. This is the one that enables these puppets to find the location of the nest. So, there should be coordinates somewhere within it.

And for it work properly, the puppets need to have those coordinates imprinted in their pseudo-minds.

That means, when this chip is activated, the puppets are directed to those coordinates.

"

He paused and placed the chip in the middle of table. There is a small formation inscribed on the table and it created a scaled projection of the chip in the air.

"Now, the second thing you need to do, to understand how this chip can be activated. For that, you need to have some visual understanding and a few trial and error attempts to understand from where the energy goes in and from where the energy comes out of this chip.

That way, you will know that the chip is being activated.

Of course, it would help if you actually have the parts that are connected to this chip, so that you can understand it even better.

"

As he said, he started injecting the energy from a few directions, one after the other. All the energy input process and rejection process can be seen in that scaled projection.

After a few attempts, the energy finally went through. The chip started glowing properly. Like how it glowed when it was still working in the puppet.

"Now, you know that the chip is working.

So, think about how this gives the information to the puppet. All you need to do is find, how this chip is connected to the core of puppet and analyze the part of the core that 'thinks and understands'. If you can't even do that… all you need to do is understand how this is transmitting the information to the core of the puppet.

Then, use that understanding to transmit the information to a puppet core that you are familiar with. So, when the information was registered in the puppet core that you are familiar with, you can get that data out of that puppet spirit.

It is that easy.

"

Joker stopped the projection and gave the chip back to Bloody Chariot.

"I will stop here. I can decode it, but I am sure, you would be more secure with me not actually knowing those coordinates.

With the current hostile state between Zeus academy and Hub, I would rather not add another reason to clash.

You can go back and follow the process that I mentioned to decode it yourself.

"

Joker's projection disappeared.

Bloody Chariot held the chip and looked at the room. He keenly observed the walls for two minutes before he left.

He gave the chips to the experts and told them exactly what Joker said. Then he called one of them who is known for the formations that are meant for energy control.

"I need you to test something else for me.

"

"What would that be, sir?

"

"I need you to create a formation. There should be a place within it for energy storage. I should be able to manipulate that energy to do anything in that formation. I should be outside the formation completely and operate it remotely through the spirit.

"

"It is not really that complicated. Almost all kinds of formations can be made to be operated remotely.

"

"Yes, but the issue lies in how delicately can you manipulate that energy.

The energy storage shouldn't highlight itself. It should appear like the natural part of the environment. Also, the energy control should also be delicate. It should almost be like… the energy should act like my arms and legs.

I should be able to control it to do even the delicate of things. Like holding something gently, or moving it around, tossing a coin, threading a needle. Something like that. Can you do it?

"

The elder frowned.

"Doesn't that mean, you want me to create a zone in which you will have absolute control of everything?

To make it happen, we should either condense the energy to act as a tangible and controllable entity. Or you should be able to control the laws within.

"

"I don't care what approach you take, try to make it happen as soon as possible. I want to see how this works.

"

The elder went away.

Everyone is busy with the new developments. Except for Christos.

After repeated failures, he came back to the Olympian region. And a message from his family awaited him. Which frustrated him a lot. When he looked at the message, he was actually more anxious than frustrated.

From the message, he learned that various forces hidden deep in the shadows are attacking Vlachous family at the moment. The family is still unable to track down who these forces are and what their goal is.

But the attacks are happening in various methods. Financial, physical, methodical. They are targeting in every way possible.

Vlachous family lost a bunch of their businesses, resource points and lost a few loyal people who hold a lot of information regarding their family.

Christos was told to be careful, because the academy realm is the only place where the Vlachous family were not attacked.

This new development is actually beneficial to Christos because, they are not going to pressure him for the time being. But that didn't stop him from feeling a bit lost and anxious for the Vlachous family situation.

If attacks came from a source that even the Vlachous family couldn't track down… this actually narrows down the forces by a lot and there are only a few that could actually do it.

And if the forces are really part of that select few… then things are actually a lot more troublesome.

Everyone has something they need to worry about. Even Sam is worried as he looked at the young man from Viswakarma academy grappling with the bird puppet.

"Do it fast.

"

He muttered to himself and looked at holographic screen beside him. It contained the pictures and names of the people who were formerly just the students of the academy realm, but now the followers of the Faith of Agmon.