Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume14 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 8===

Once he finally recovered from the intense pain, Heivia rejoined the conversation.

They still did not know what the Faith Organization was hoping to accomplish with all this violence, but aside from the hexavalent chromium factories, it had been suggested that they could spread their faith more easily if they created the perfect amount of tension to lead people to cling to a god.

“If the Jack in the Box’s unit is moving north to south along the Greater Canyon while taking over the silo cities and dyeing them in their own colors…wouldn’t they be directly opposed to what Bloodrics’s group is trying to do?”

If the people could gain independence through something other than faith, they would stop gathering at the Faith Organization factories. Then the Faith Organization would lose their means of constructing powerful weaponized springs out of hexavalent chromium.

They were trying to (quite forcibly) take control of the shopping mall that had been designated a wide area wartime shelter, but controlling the people’s hearts with various supplies was only the means. A lot was still unknown about the actual objective they were hoping to accomplish with that.

What if they had some other plans there?

“What if their intelligence agency learned about that offline meeting between Bloodrics and…those triplets? Couldn’t they have stirred up all this chaos to cause a panic and rid themselves of that nuisance???”

“…”

When Frolaytia put her hands on her hips and started glaring at him, the katana-wielding brother in a tailcoat grew flustered at the sudden reversal of positions.

“I-I am relieved to see you have such skilled people at your disposal, Tia-chan.”

“Is that all you have to say for yourself?”

“But what was I supposed to do!? I’m a civilian! I connect a commercial computer up to a router from the ISP and protect myself by updating the OS and security software. What else could I do!?”

“If you can only protect your data like that, you shouldn’t be getting involved in dangerous battlefield countries full of professionals!!”

“Oh, but I did set up a…was it called a proxy server? You see, Rica and Orsia helped me out online and Arisa used a remote server to set up this confusing password for it all.”

“Okay, okay. I get it, so shut up and let me punch you!!”

No one could quite figure out which part of this to comment on first, but they had to keep the conversation moving.

“But why is the Faith Organization so fixated on the silo cities?” asked Myonri with a tilt of the head. “I mean, I know they want those springs made from hexavalent chromium, but is that really all?”

“Mhu hu hu.”

She was answered by a strange laugh.

They looked over to see one of the triplets in red cheerleader-style tank tops and miniskirts…but which one was this? The ample curves barely contained by the tank top meant it was Rica or Arisa who was laughing with her hand over her mouth.

The three of them pressed their cheeks together as they spoke.

“It might be that new faith we’ve heard about☆”

“New…what???”

Quenser sounded skeptical, so the trio took turns moving their lovely lips.

“We have heard rumors of the hard labor used for the hexavalent chromium.”

“But the Faith Organization apparently hasn’t really been manipulating any information to twist how the people of the city explain away the people who collapse and disappear.”

“The people invent their own stories about the technicians and factory chiefs. The Faith Organization might be monitoring how people come to terms with the mysterious things occurring before their eyes. They see how the people protect the ‘myth of safety’ that they don’t want to fall apart.”

It may not have mattered which was which.

The three of them formed a single whole that provided opinions aimed in the same direction.

“So it did not matter to the Faith Organization if the truth came to light.”

“They wanted to see whether or not the present relationship would fall apart afterwards.”

“Yes, the people might say the workers’ noble sacrifices placed their souls in the Object’s main cannon so they could unleash their power to defeat their hated enemy. The Faith Organization wanted to see if that faith would take root in them.”

The triplets giggled as they explained just how horrific the Faith Organization was.

…But even if this was not confirmed, did it sound more in line with the Faith Organization’s way of doing things than the simple benefit of the springs?

The Faith Organization was in the extremely dangerous Greater Canyon where the Capitalist Corporations and Information Alliance stared each other down and they had risked pulling the trigger on the end of the world in order to take over these silo cities. Why? …People’s souls reside in springs. It sounded absurd in isolation like that, but they had wanted to see if it would develop into a proper faith. And if need be, they would protect that faith…just not the people who held it.

This was a delicate time when the faith had yet to fully take root and it could go either way. It was possible the bubble could burst. The Faith Organization felt like a mother bird incubating its precious egg, so they would make sure they got the result they wanted even if it took some desperate measures.

“I can’t believe this…” Heivia scratched his head. “This goes way deeper than I thought.”

“This doesn’t change what we need to do. We can bring this all to a close if we construct our maintenance base over the silo city and buy enough time to crush the Faith Organization’s Jack in the Box.”