Melissa walked behind Dr. Blessed, her head down as she watched the floor sliding past beneath her feet.
Quirk Amplification Device…
It had all started with this horrible device, hadn't it?
If her father hadn't created the Quirk Amplification Device, then the people running I-Island, belonging to various governments, wouldn't have locked it in a vault to be forgotten forever in fear of Villains getting their hands over it.
If they hadn't snatched the right to rightfully use that device from her father, then he would never have had to think of shady ways to get it back; shady enough to stage a fake heist.
If her father hadn't made that mistake, Dr. Sam wouldn't have used him, bringing in real Villains instead of fake ones.
And if the real Villains hadn't attacked I-Island, nothing that followed would have happened…
Her father would still be doing his research on I-Island, and she would have gone to America for university before coming back to work alongside him.
Everything would have turned out the way she had always planned.
Yet here she was, thousands of miles away from her father, who was now a prisoner on I-Island.
Here she was — Melissa Shield — a member of a cult dedicated to spreading the faith of a God completely alien to this world.
Here she was — Apostle Shield — learning one terrifying secret after another, with the threat of Amon and another Evil God hanging over her head like equations with no known solution.
It had all started with that Quirk Amplification Device.
Everything went wrong the moment that machine entered her life.
Now Dr. Blessed — Leader of the Apostles of Mr. Fool — the group she had joined to protect her father and keep the world safe from Villains, rather than rotting as a captive on I-Island — wanted her to build that same machine.
He wanted the Quirk Amplification Device.
Not the half-baked version the Claws had, but the real thing.
The truth was, even though she didn't have her father's years of experience or his genius, Melissa knew she could do it.
If she had to build the device from scratch, she would have failed before she even started.
However, she wouldn't have to start from nothing.
All she had to do was follow the plans her father had already drawn up.
During the I-Island incident, Dr. Blessed hadn't just erased all data on the device from the main servers — he had taken a complete copy for himself.
With Dr. Samuel Abraham having lost his mind, not even her father could recreate those blueprints now; or at least, that was the reason he would give to back his inability in this matter.
That meant the files Dr. Blessed kept at Headquarters were the only complete schematics left in the entire world.
Sure, it would still take her months to piece everything together like a massive puzzle.
Still, given enough time, and with the help of the Blood Creation Quirk…
"We're here," Dr. Blessed said.
Melissa forced herself to look up, wetting her dry lips.
She hadn't agreed to his request yet.
He hadn't pushed her for an answer, either.
"You're overthinking it," Raven cawed into Melissa's ear from her shoulder. "Sometimes you just need to relax… let your boobs hang freely, you know?"
Melissa's eyes went wide, and she snapped her head toward Leader, terrified he might have heard.
He was already walking into the room.
Letting out a quiet breath, Melissa finally understood why Leader had never introduced Nyx as an official Apostle, even though the bird was clearly a Beyonder.
Knowing it was pointless to argue with Nyx, Melissa followed him inside.
The view made her stop dead in her tracks, just for a second.
No matter how many times she came to this room, the sight inside never failed to turn her stomach.
Nomus were everywhere. Most floated inside giant glass tubes filled with fluid, while others lay cut open on metal tables, pinned down with heavy bolts — some dead, some still breathing.
Leader rarely let anyone into this room.
That wasn't just about keeping secrets; it was about how horrifying the work was.
Even Iron Mentor, after seeing it once, had never asked to come back.
One thing Leader had never explained was why he was keeping these Nomus in the first place.
Melissa had assumed he was studying them to see how their bodies handled multiple Quirks.
Now, she finally understood the real reason.
She hadn't been entirely wrong, but she hadn't seen the whole picture, either.
Dr. Blessed walked further into the room and stopped, turning slightly to the right.
Melissa looked closely at two glass tubes sitting inside a locked case.
Compound Monocle and Compound Erasure!
"I've been testing these two for a while," Dr. Blessed said, taking the tubes out. "What I found is the reason I want to move forward with the project I mentioned. Instead of talking on and on about it, I think it's best that you see it with your own eyes."
He carried the two vials over to a table where a small Nomu — shaped like a dog with human limbs — lay strapped down with thick steel bands.
As Melissa walked to the other side of the table, her heart hammering against her ribs, Leader paused and looked at Nyx.
The bird took off from Melissa's shoulder and landed on Leader's as he gave a sharp snap of his fingers.
Did he… just activate a Quirk?
Melissa resisted the strong urge to use Spirit Vision, but then Dr. Blessed gestured to use it anyway.
Caught off guard, she activated the Spirit Vision instantly.
That was a mistake.
Leader's spirit blazed like a blinding sun, completely drowning out the shift she was trying to see on his shoulder.
Looking down to escape the glare, Melissa focused on the Nomu instead.
It looked just like it had weeks ago: three separate spirits sewn together, each with its own messy cluster of Spirit Particles.
Then, before Melissa could ask what he was trying to prove—
—Leader raised Compound Erasure and drove the needle straight into the Nomu!