Kyle arrived at Forward Base 198 and went to Major Sovignor.
After some greetings, Kyle asked about any new messages.
Naturally, there were a couple of them, and Kyle read them.
Swamp Dragon was talking more about the different Rites. Fierce Breaker said that he managed to condense an Imposing Law of his own. Manny said that he was still developing his new method of communication and that everyone can expect it to be finished within a thousand years. These messages weren't very informative.
However, Star Genesis attached a long analysis of the Formation Arrays in the Elemental Dimension.
As Kyle read through the analysis, he realized that Star Genesis had already overtaken him in the field of Formation Arrays. Sure, Kyle had been outstanding in the field of Formation Arrays as a Crusher, but that was in the past.
Star Genesis had studied Formation Arrays for the last 1,400 years. Kyle had spent a similar amount of time studying them, but he had only been a Crusher. Star Genesis was about to become a Major Sage. The mind of a Sage was vastly more capable than the mind of a Crusher. Lastly, Star Genesis was learning the secrets of Inner World. It was only natural that she would overtake Kyle rather quickly.
Yet, even though she had already made great strides in the field of Formation Arrays, the Formation Arrays in the Elemental Dimension were far more advanced. She could analyze some parts, but her analysis was more akin to an educated guess.
'As expected, there are several Formation Arrays, not just one,' Kyle thought. 'There are some Gravity Energy Generation Formation Arrays to act as Energy Sources, but based on her guesses, they aren't enough to even cover 20% of the Barrier Formation Array's Energy consumption. The remaining Energy comes from the absorbed Elementals.'
Kyle sighed. 'It's basically impossible to set up a Gravity Energy Generation Formation Array without knowing the Major Law of Gravity. The fact that there are this many most likely means that the Overseer knows the Major Law of Gravity and that they are intelligent enough to understand these complicated Formation Arrays.'
'This is not a typical Divine Beast. They can understand Laws and create Formation Arrays. At this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if they also had access to Momentum. They might as well be a human.'
Kyle finished reading the message and went to the next one, which was another message from Fierce Breaker. Apparently, he had sent two.
Fierce Breaker suggested that Star Genesis should ask a trusted person in the Sects to help her analyze the Formation Arrays. There was no reason to keep everything this secret. They were fighting with Humanity, not against them.
Then, there was another message from Manny, arguing against sharing their knowledge for now. Manny argued that their secrecy wasn't due to distrusting Humanity but due to the possible lack of security in their communication method.
There was no answer from Fierce Breaker. It could be that he disagreed, but it could also be that sending frequent messages was simply too difficult.
The last message was from Sebastian, and it was as short as it was impactful.
"I found something crazy, but I'll wait for Manny."
That was it.
"You found something crazy, Sebastian?" Kyle transmitted to the relay.
"What?" Sebastian answered, confused. Naturally, Sebastian and everyone else had already received their relays. If Kyle wanted to, he could contact them.
Sadly, the way the relay worked didn't allow for perfectly isolated communication. While the messages were coded with the recipient's aura, other people with a relay could still listen in. It was like an open piece of paper with the recipient's name on it. The others could read it if they wanted to, but they knew that they were not the target.
"You said you found something crazy," Kyle transmitted again. "In your message."
"Oh, that! Nah, I didn't find anything. Manny told me to write that," Sebastian answered.
"It's to gain more information," Manny interjected. "This adds urgency to the message, which might motivate some people to probe us. They said that the messages are encoded and could only be decoded by the recipient's Emblem, but I don't believe that."
"I agree," Fierce Breaker added. "While I can see that all of the soldiers are united, I don't believe Humanity is. The people in red have too much control, and there are too few of them. It's notoriously difficult to join Humanity directly, and the power the people in red hold is too great. A Representative can even tell Commanders what to do. Technically, the Commanders don't need to listen to a mere Aspirant, but it's smarter for them to do what they're told."
"Aspirants are merely Sages, while Commanders are almost all Advanced Spirit Lords. It makes no sense for a Minor Sage to command someone ten times their age and power level. There must be more to it."
Kyle didn't show any outward reaction since Major Sovignor was still in front of him, but deep inside, he was a bit surprised. "Weren't you the one who suggested asking the Sects for help?"
"I told him to say that," Manny interjected. "If our image seems perfectly unified, without any disagreements, an observer might perceive it in two different ways. Either they feel a bit more threatened since they don't see a way to split the group, assuming they needed to, or they feel suspicious. After all, every group has some disagreements and discussions."
"As of now, our semi-secret way of communicating has not been established yet. We need to assume some roles, which will differ slightly from the roles we will play when our semi-secret way of communicating works. We need to hide our true secret behind another secret."
"Fierce Breaker, as someone working with the Shields, is supposed to trust Humanity. He sees how united the Shields are. It makes sense that their unity would affect him. Kyle, you will act similarly, but not exactly the same. You will trust Humanity, but you will also be a bit more... curious."
'Not quite sure what he means, but sure,' Kyle thought. 'He's gonna tell me what I should say anyway.'
"I'm about done reading the messages," Kyle transmitted to Manny. "What should I do next?"
While listening to Manny, Kyle looked at the Emblem with an eyebrow raised in slight worry.
Then, his expression turned to normal, and he looked at Major Sovignor. "I also need to send a message," he transmitted.
"Transmit it to me, and I will forward it," Major Sovignor answered.
Kyle's message consisted of a recounting of his last shift, his plans, and a statement that said he would wait for Manny before saying more.
"I will forward it," Major Sovignor transmitted.
"Thanks," Kyle answered before he seemingly remembered something. "By the way, how does this method of communicating even work?"
"It's rather simple," Major Sovignor answered. "I will encode it and directly send it to a trustworthy agent. The agent's job is to deliver sensitive information physically since this is the safest way of sending information across a great distance. The agent can't decode any messages they're tasked with transporting."
"What if the agent dies? Can the messages be stolen?" Kyle asked.
"The messages and their encoding are linked to the agent's life," Major Sovignor answered. "If the encoding gets broken, the agent dies. If the agent dies, the messages get destroyed. The leader of any given base accepts the messages on the recipient's behalf and disconnects the agent from the message. Then, they forward it to the Emblem of the actual recipient."
Kyle nodded with interest. "Can those leaders decode the messages?"
"Only if they unassign the true recipient's Emblem and assign the Emblem to themselves," Major Sovignor answered. "This is a noticeable act, and our system logs it. If a recipient of such a high-security message has their Emblem unassigned, a security alarm is triggered, and an Overlord is informed."
"Snooping into these messages without an explicit order would be suicide."
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