Inside the aircraft that was flying, I was still trying to calm my mind. Gruzhnil, Grelmure, and the other officials were still conversing but were not discussing the strange occurrence that had just happened to me. It seemed they considered such oddities normal and without real impact on them.
I had very often experienced things beyond reason shortly before the disaster of the monster invasion occurred in my world. But why did what just happened still linger so strongly in my mind? Who actually was that entity? Could it have come from the realm of hell? If it was not merely my hallucination, what did it want from me?
I was still afraid that the figure was Ruciphar who had already known almost all the secrets I obtained from Mendicore.
I even fell asleep until I was awakened by Grelmure.
"Johann... Wake up. We have arrived." he said.
I opened my eyes and my vision was still slightly blurry.
Ahhh... I didn't have the chance to see what the structure of that building looked like from the air. Maybe inside I could understand its overall form.
When I got out of the aircraft, I only saw a building that was more or less like The Graendall's main headquarters but smaller in size.
I wondered and felt a bit doubtful whether this was the place used to create that infinite energy.
We entered the building. Inside, I saw that its structure was the same as the typical offices here. Why did my image of a sophisticated Grivendal-style laboratory not appear here? Was this not the destination I wanted?
One person approached us and saluted Gruzhnil and the other officials.
"He is the director of the research agency here." said Grelmure to me.
Ooohhh... so I was in the right place. But... where was the research area located??? Could it be...
"Johann, you must be confused why this place does not match your expectations. That is because we are still in the office section. The actual place we are heading to is underground." said Gruzhnil.
No wonder I kept feeling doubtful since seeing this place. It turned out it was hidden beneath the surface of this planet. It made sense to me since it involved the greatest secret of Grivendal.
We walked toward a fairly large elevator. Before reaching it, I glanced to the side where a large map was displayed on the wall. The map seemed to show one of the northern region of Planet Grivendal.
I noticed there were two circles where one was very large covering various smaller regions. Then inside it there was a much smaller circle whose one point line overlapped with the larger circle. That overlapping point was exactly at the building we were standing in. I wondered what those circles actually were.
Before I could guess, the elevator door opened and everyone entered. I didn't ask about the map because I might find out later when the director explained.
Our elevator descended and it felt quite long to me. It was like going down to the starstone mining site deep beneath the planet that I had visited before.
After waiting for quite some time, the elevator finally opened. My eyes were immediately amazed because this was truly what I had imagined, a massive super-advanced laboratory. I could not believe the people of Grivendal built such an advanced research facility. I had watched several documentary videos about leading research facilities on Earth and this was the most advanced in my opinion.
They used many advanced robots and computers that I could already call supercomputers. Elite soldiers were also seen patrolling there. We then walked toward a meeting room. Many scientists and soldiers on duty immediately saluted Gruzhnil.
Upon arriving at the meeting room, all of us except the director sat in the available seats. The director then gave a welcome speech and a brief introduction about what this place was.
"This is the most strategic and secret place in the Grivendal empire. All research from the beginning until now that supports technological advancement in various fields was born here. Without this place and all of us, Grivendal would never have become the strongest empire in this solar system..." said the director proudly.
"I have been here for the third time. Previously there was indeed a special division in the military order that supervises and ensures the security of vital imperial objects, one of which is this place which is the top priority." said Gruzhnil during the director's speech.
I responded with a nod and a focused gaze while listening to the director's explanation.
"As is known, we have a special guest named Mr. Johann. I was given a mandate by Supreme Commander Gruzhnil to explain only the determined matters. I will explain the outline so that Mr. Johann can understand it easily." said the director while looking at me and smiling.
The director then showed a map image on the screen identical to the one I saw before entering the elevator. He explained that besides the advanced laboratory, the most important structure of this research center was a circular particle accelerator machine 30 kilometers long and 4 meters in diameter. The machine was placed deep underground at a depth of 100 meters similar to an underground rail tunnel structure. Then there was a smaller circle which was also part of the accelerator machine with a length of 5 kilometers.
"This giant machine is what creates what we call the Element of Desire. This energy is formed from two particles colliding at speeds close to the speed of light. These two particles originate from the extremely high kinetic energy of Dreadstones and Starstones..." said the director.
He continued that initially the energy from Starstones and Dreadstones was condensed as much as possible in the small circular machine by rotating it as fast as possible. The accelerator machine had two tube channels inside it. After that, the Starstone and Dreadstone energies with very high speed entered the large circular tube path in opposite directions and intersected at four points so that collision processes occurred which could be detected at those four points.
The circular tube was empowered by special magnetic fields so it could travelled stably even with near-light speed. The detector also built with special containment technology to catch Element of Desire.
"Not all detector points produce the Element of Desire, we have even sometimes not obtained it at all. This formation process requires very large electrical power and Dreadstones which are also very limited in supply. Therefore this machine is often inactive for dozens of years. From all experiments, we have only succeeded in creating the Element of Desire twice." said the director.
I was actually still somewhat confused and trying to digest the director's explanation which I thought could only truly be understood by physicists. But I had once read in my world about a super large and advanced physics research facility where leading scientists created it to study what composes the universe.
The director then showed a photo of the machine on the screen. I saw it was shaped like a large pipe inside a tunnel. This was similar to the machine I had read about, but I forgot its name.
I watched an animated video visualizing the collision process that produced that infinite energy. I understood better now.
The Starstone energy which looked like white and yellow light collided with the Dreadstone energy in the form of dark black mass with glowing red light producing bright white light but with a deep black center.
Ohhh... this is what they call the Element of Desire...
Truly two very opposite things but becoming one and having an abstract name...
"Now we will go to the place where the Element of Desire is stored." said the director.
We left the meeting room and walked toward a different elevator. I could not wait to see the true form of that energy with my own eyes. We entered the elevator and it didn't move up or down but horizontally.
After exiting, I saw a room that was not very large but filled with computers and machines with dense cables. In the center of the room in front of us there was a cylindrical cabinet. We walked closer to it. I could clearly see that inside the cabinet was the Element of Desire. Its size was very small but it appeared bright with a tiny deep black dot in the center floating.
"Excuse me, Mr. Director said earlier that only two of these energies were successfully created. Where is the other one, sir?" I asked while approaching the director.
"Oohhh... This is only a fragment of one Element of Desire, Johann. One element is located in the central power plant of this planet and the other we gave to High Heaven as a sign of eternal cooperation. Because yesterday The Graendall managed to bring a large amount of Dreadstones, it is possible that we can create more..."
"I want to thank you very much, and perhaps your other companion as well. Although you are not one of us, your presence can truly advance our empire in the future..." continued the director while smiling at me.
I just nodded and thanked him back for the compliment. Indeed, it cannot be denied that Hellraider's presence brought significant change to Grivendal.
But I still worried about his fate if it followed the storyline of The Mayhem game.
I then observed the Element of Desire carefully while Gruzhnil and the others discussed what plans would be made with so many Dreadstones.
Suddenly I experienced something quite strange again.
As I stared at it, I heard voices like many people speaking at once. The surrounding sounds became muffled.
I was not afraid, instead I became blank and kept staring at the energy continuously.
Suddenly someone tapped my shoulder from behind. The voices disappeared instantly. I was startled and turned back, it turned out to be Gruzhnil.
"Are you alright Johann??? I was calling you but you didn't respond. The tour is finished, let's go home." said Gruzhnil.
"O-Okay commander... S-Sorry I was zoning out..." I said still stammering in shock.
I left that place and we walked back toward the building above the surface.
I was still confused why already twice whenever I observed something, strange things would happen to me. Was this a sign that major events would occur again in the near future? I truly didn't know what to prepare if that suddenly happened.
I felt that besides continuing to protect my body and soul, Hellraider was the only person I could follow until the end of this journey.