A few days before the 2-A's first-semester exams, Luke called for a meeting of Apostles.
In the Conference Hall of the Headquarters, he sat as Dr. Blessed, flanked by three girls and only one man.
For a moment, they all felt the gaping absence of Mushroom-nimi.
By itself, the cyborg seemed to have filled the entire Hall even while seated, always ready to pour coffee for everyone.
Even before Luke had said one word, all expressions hardened at the memory.
"It's past time we started actively looking for him… them… whatever," Iwao grunted, looking toward Dr. Blessed.
Luke took a heavy breath, tapping the edge of the long table.
"It's hard to confirm if Mushroom-nimi is hiding by themselves or…" he said, recalling the explosion. "Or… compromised."
That was a possibility he hadn't raised in the last meeting, making all the Apostles' brows jump above their foreheads.
"Amon?" Iron Mentor guessed, taking advantage of the Spiritual Wall surrounding them.
Luke nodded, sharing a glance with Melissa. "I have strong evidence that Amon has crafted Compound Monocle using my Quirk as basis," he admitted, making both Iwao and Kazuho almost stand up. "So… it's possible that He has been aiming for Mushroom-nimi to further strengthen the potency of the Compound."
"Wait-wait-wait…" Kazuho stuttered. "Your Quirk as the basis, Leader?"
This time, even Melissa blurted, "… strengthen using Mushroom-nimi?!"
Iwao merely stared at Dr. Blessed, decrypting one horrible possibility after another, the corners of his eyes twitching at the disastrous implications of each one of them.
Luke didn't let the fellow Cryptologist lose himself in the unending supply of thoughts and theories, though.
Nodding at Melissa to wait, he told Iron Mentor and Trick*Step a watered-down version of how Compound Monocle was related to his Quirk, what the Compound actually was, and its true purpose.
Even though Luke hid most of the technicalities, especially those related to Bioalchemy, Iwao and Kazuho's faces visibly paled.
"Sacrifice the Spirit Body…" Iwao decrypted, clenching his thick fingers into thicker fists. "… to Evil God?"
"Not likely," Luke dismissed the guess he had left unconfirmed with Melissa as well. "It is related to it somehow, though. How? I am not sure. It's hard… decrypting something so meticulously planned by Amon Himself."
A silence fell upon the Apostles, then.
"Why…" Iron Mentor asked after a while, carrying a harshness in his voice. "Why aren't Monocles running around like vermin across the world already, then?"
That was an excellent question, Luke observed.
He hadn't expected anything less from a man like Iwao, especially when backed by the Cryptologist's abilities.
"There… must be some restrictions, of course," Luke said, suggesting that he was guessing as well. "First, it must be the Corruption itself. Amon's Avatar is still an Avatar, having no means of connecting to the Angel outside. So, the more the Corruption He loses, the more it weakens Him."
The Apostles' eyes lit up.
Who would have thought that in the darkest piece of news they would find a ray of light so bright?!
Amon's Demigod Avatar weakening… what else could have been better news than this?!
"Hold your horses," Dr. Blessed said, humorously. "It's only a guess."
Iron Mentor scoffed.
Under the mask of an aged version of himself, Luke smiled wryly.
Iwao knew that for him to speak it outright must mean that he had solid logic backing it up instead of saying it just for the sake of it, giving them false hope.
And Iwao was right.
Miss Justice had already told Luke that the only reason he wasn't weakening as a Beyonder, despite creating over two dozen vials of Potions from Sequence 9 to 7 in the last few months for the Apostles, was because his Corruption came directly from Mr. Fool through her — the System.
Every time he went to the Gray Castle to meet Mr. Fool, He recharged the System.
If He didn't do that, then Luke would run out of his ability to create Potions not only for others, but also for himself.
That revelation had come as a massive shock to him.
Miss Justice hadn't shared it with him before because it had been irrelevant, as he had been digesting Potions by the day; weeks, at most.
With the digestion period lengthening, lasting for months now…
Miss Justice had also said that he would run out of the said Corruption within two to three months, depending on how frequently he created more Potions.
Fortunately, two things worked for Luke.
The next series of Sequence 6 Potions he had deliberately put off for later because he knew he would be faster at digesting them.
Moreover, out of all the Apostles, only Melissa needed a fresh supply of Potions, unlike Iwao, Kazuho, and Nyx, who had already digested their Sequence 7 Potions.
That would change if gained another Apostle, though…
"Second?" Kazuho asked, clearly hoping for another piece of good news.
"Second, it is the quality of Spirit Body," Luke said. "Compound Monocle is already attracting the worst bunch of society. They don't have the Spirituality reserves to go beyond Sequence 8. So, if Amon wants to create stable Sequence 8 or above Beyonders, He must look for people with far stronger Spirituality… or…"
Iron Mentor grimaced. "… or create his own! Dammit!" he cursed, THUMPING his fist on the table. "That's why He wants Compound Erasure."
The girls gasped.
Luke nodded. "Even after you erase a Quirk," he said, "you will still be left with a person with a high-quality Spirit Body."
That… wasn't good news at all.
Now, Kazuho hesitated to ask the third reason, if there was.
"Third," Luke said, "it is related to the creation of Compound Monocle itself. Someone, probably Dr. Sam, is creating these corrupted-Spirit Particles in a lab. It takes time. The higher the Sequence of a Potion, the longer the time. I wouldn't be surprised if all the supply of Compound Monocle we destroyed at the port were Sequence 9 of different Pathways. If you don't know about the significance of the Sequence numbers, it's…"
"… hard to care for them," Melissa finished. "… but what about strengthening, Leader?"
Luke sighed.
"Why stop at a Sequence 5 Wraith?" he asked. "Why not… go beyond?"
The Apostles, including Nyx, looked at him with dread.
"Amon must be looking for a way to create a Compound Monocle equivalent to Sequence 4," Luke guessed. "That's why He must be after Mushroom-nimi. And if He managed to create such a Compound, then His first customer would be…"
"We…" Iron Mentor growled like a beast. "… need to kill that Wraith!"