Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

"Hurry up! I just got the Divine Revelation with the cancel password - 34517511754356!"

Cyra was getting more anxious as Raydwin stood there not moving. She grabbed him with both hands and kept pushing him towards the control panel, telling him to quickly enter the code to stop the nuclear launch.

"You sure? This is the code? You're not tricking me, right?"

Raydwin took a while to react to this crazy talk. Of course he wouldn't easily believe it.

But Cyra looked dead serious, she was just saying numbers. It made Raydwin hesitate.

"Idiot, why would I lie? We're almost out of time!"

Cyra was so mad at Raydwin for not trusting her, she kicked him hard.

Seeing only 3 minutes left on the countdown, with no other choice, Raydwin finally decided to go for it. He didn't even have time to tell H-country command center. He just followed Cyra's instructions and boldly typed in the long string of numbers...

"It stopped! It actually stopped!"

What happened next was totally unexpected. Raydwin almost jumped for joy. Even Adrian and I watching from outside couldn't help hugging each other excitedly.

No one could've guessed Cyra's random guess would be right! The countdown on the control panel instantly stopped after entering the cancel password. It meant the nuke that was about to fly to W-country's capital from this base was completely shut down.

But this was only one of three nukes. In theory, the other bases and the nuclear sub also needed to enter this code for all the launch programs to be fully stopped.

"We found the code! Quick, tell command center to let Raydwin know he needs to enter it in the sub by the shore too!"

Time was running out. We didn't know how far the control room was from the shore, but with Raydwin's enhanced body, he might make it if he ran.

I couldn't help yelling to Luke Channing on the comms: "Other teams that haven't finished their mission can also enter this cancel password. The exact code is..."

"34517511754356!"

Adrian has a good memory to remember such a long random string of numbers.

But right then, a weird thought popped into my head. This number seemed familiar somehow, like I'd seen it before. But I just couldn't remember where.

"The only team that hasn't completed their objective is Team 3 near Histon city in M-country. Latest report shows that after their captain left on his own, the other members tried to find the nuke control panel in the base as ordered. But the guards who woke up stopped them, and they're fighting again!"

Luke Channing sent out the code while telling me about the other unfinished teams' progress.

Camille had been dead for a while now. The M-country soldiers who got their minds back found the nuke launch program mysteriously activated, while unknown fighters invaded the base. Of course they thought these guys were the bad guys!

The Histon base was supposed to be handled by Team led by No. 11 Feliciana. But things changed, and the remaining team members were way too weak.

Now that the M-country soldiers were human again, low-level purification spells didn't work much on them. Seeing they'd have to fight with real guns to complete the mission, Team 3 was in big trouble!

Can't be helped. Most team members weren't pro soldiers. It's already good they weren't killed when things suddenly turned bad!

But the Histon base nuke was aimed at H-country's Shine Metropolitan City. Command center definitely wouldn't easily order a retreat. So both sides were stuck.

Luke Channing said they're looking for a chance to break the deadlock through talks. No idea if it'll work.

But the rescue team was in a similar spot...

Raydwin got the order from command center and didn't dare slack off. He immediately prepared to go to the nuclear sub. But Cyra couldn't move by herself quickly. Taking her would slow him down.

The situation was super urgent! After thinking for a sec, Raydwin decided to give Cyra the comms in the control room, then go alone.

Luckily the nuke control room exit wasn't too far from the sub. I switched camera views back to the shore area and saw him sprinting all the way there, finally climbing to the sub's hatch entrance.

Only a bit over a minute left til launch! Surprisingly, the tightly closed sub hatch suddenly opened from inside.

"Who are you? How'd you get here?"

Of course, the ones rushing out of the sub were two M-country soldiers! They got all alert when they saw Raydwin standing outside.

No doubt vampires had taken over leadership in this sub. When the vampires' magic source disappeared and all the minions went back to normal, the chain of command in the sub naturally returned to its original state too.

Looks like the people inside were about to come out, but unluckily ran into Raydwin.

"I'm here to cancel the nuke launch! Has the launch program in this sub been activated?"

Perfect timing! Raydwin's skills were way beyond what one or two normal humans could handle. He snatched their guns in a flash and asked urgently.

"Uh... huh...?"

The two M-country soldiers had no idea how their guns got taken. But they knew something was off before coming out, so they cooperated and explained the situation inside:

"It did activate! We originally came here to do repairs, the sub's power system broke down! But as soon as we docked, some higher-ups boarded and took over the whole sub. They wouldn't let anyone leave. A while ago they ordered the nuke launch program activated, but then they all suddenly passed out. When they woke up, it's like they became different people and had no idea what happened! Since there's not much time left on the countdown and we don't know the cancel password, we had to break the rules and come ashore for help..."

Raydwin dragged the guy along to show him to the command room.

Seems like since Raydwin claimed to have the nuke cancel password, these two M-country soldiers probably thought he was a new commanding officer for now. Though they doubted, the nuke about to launch was way more urgent!

Too bad there were no connected cameras to use after entering the sub. Adrian and I were totally in the dark, no idea what happened inside next. All we could do was stare at the camera outside the sub, waiting for them to come out.

But after almost a minute, a white light suddenly flashed on screen. The nuclear sub docked at the port suddenly exploded!

No doubt the sub and everyone inside had zero chance of survival...

"What happened?"

I asked in shock. Couldn't imagine this happening at all! We already had the cancel password, it was just a matter of entering it. Even if something went wrong, the nuke would launch at most. How did the whole sub blow up?

"...Could someone have set it off on purpose? Looks kinda like a bomb blast?"

After a long silence, Adrian finally sighed softly. He tried to stay calm as he analyzed, frowning.

Raydwin was basically his first disciple. Even though Adrian didn't show it, I could tell he must be really heartbroken.

"Set it off on purpose? Who'd do that? Was there someone in the sub trying to stop him from canceling the launch? But why go that far!"

I couldn't imagine any reason. Too many unknowns. We could only tell Luke Channing about it for now.

"Raydwin's dead? How can this be!"

Luke Channing was stunned for a moment too when he heard. But his mental strength was way better than mine. He quickly recovered and continued:

"At least the sub's totally destroyed, so the nuke launch was successfully stopped! I'll report to General Lee right away. Raydwin definitely deserves the highest military honor!"