Chapter 26: What is Greatness to You?

"The Boss? I thought Boss Morg was..." he said, but Dumblewick shook his head.

"I can’t say anything about The Boss."

"Just know there are quite several bosses, though I’ll confidently say Boss Morg, with her ability, still ranks among the Top Ten Bosses!"

"You are to understand, Declan. She is a force of nature..."

And once more, the unending flattery of Boss Morg continued, making Declan chuckle to himself.

This man had to be the real definition of a die-hard fan.

________________

Six hours later...

GRRRUUUUUUM!

The heavy sound made Declan’s eyes open, releasing a green glimmer.

To think he had eventually fallen asleep.

When he turned, he noticed the helicopter wasn’t in the sky anymore, having landed upon a helipad with a large X symbol instead of the usual H.

"You up, Declan?" Dumblewick said, looking at him, and Declan sat up straight, only for the hatch on the other side of him to open.

"Don’t worry, we’re close," he said as his own hatch also opened, and he got down.

Declan followed, stepping out of the helicopter, but the second he did, he noticed something strange.

He turned his head toward the sky and found that it wasn’t there.

The usual three big moons in the sky were nowhere to be found, and the sky itself was... dark?

"What happened to..."

VROOOOOM!

The roar of an engine distracted him as he turned toward the far side, and there he found it.

A truck with six massive tires, both of its headlights currently illuminating the distant darkness.

Dumblewick appeared from the side, signaling for Declan to follow him with an arm wave, and both of them continued toward the vehicle.

Declan thought Dumblewick would slide around to the side where the driver’s seat was and perhaps exchange a few words with the driver, but the window was tinted pitch black.

And Dumblewick didn’t even look at it.

Instead, he shifted the sliding door of the vehicle open and stretched his hands within it in a politely bowed gesture, asking Declan to go in first.

Declan entered the vehicle, only to watch Dumblewick shut the door without entering himself.

At the last moment, Declan looked into Dumblewick’s eyes, and for a moment, he saw them ripple with different emotions.

They weren’t joyful. Instead, they looked somber, almost wary. It was the last thing one would expect to appear on a face like Dumblewick’s.

"Hey, why..."

"Declan Ezra?"

The call suddenly came from the side, the unexpectedness of it almost making Declan jump out of his seat.

Yet he didn’t move a single inch.

Instead, he turned his head toward the far end of the vehicle.

Only now could he see it.

The vehicle wasn’t exactly a passenger-like vehicle, but more like a miniature room.

There was a round sofa, with Declan sitting at the opposite end, while at the far end sat a figure, with a glassy white desk positioned between them.

It was a man, dark-skinned, with thick dreadlocks falling over his back.

He was muscular, incredibly so, with his fingers folded together on the table as he silently stared at Declan.

He had an angular, sharp face, with a peculiar scar running from the far left of his eye diagonally across his face before ending just beneath his nostril.

It was the type of scar that could only have been left by the sharpest of blades.

Yet even with the scar, it wasn’t the man’s most arresting feature.

What truly drew Declan’s attention were those eyes.

They were pitch black, with freckles of silver hidden within their far depths.

Looking into them gave Declan the strange illusion that he was staring into the vastness of starry space.

He hadn’t noticed this man at all until he called his name, almost as if he possessed no presence whatsoever.

"Yes," Declan replied.

A deep—

Hmmmmmm

—echoed through the room.

"What is your name?" Declan asked in return.

The question was followed by a deep silence that lasted for about four seconds before the man’s thick voice finally echoed through the room.

"I have none," he said, leaving Declan speechless.

"Though you may refer to me as the others do... The Boss."

He said it, and only then did Declan realize it.

This was the one Dumblewick had told him he would need to meet before becoming a true part of the Organization.

"Declan," the man called out, bringing his attention back to him.

He leaned closer before asking,

"What is your greatest wish?"

"My greatest wish?" Declan replied, perplexed by such a sudden question.

"What keeps you breathing aside from your heart?" the man asked. "What makes you look forward to waking beneath tomorrow’s sun?"

"There are a lot of things," Declan mused.

"What is the greatest of them all?" he asked, his words almost resembling a growl, though his fingers remained calmly folded together on the table.

Declan didn’t immediately respond.

If someone had asked him right now why he was breathing, he would have said it was to get rid of the bastard who had killed him.

Sir Tonald Eldwood and those he was working for.

They were what currently drove him forward, making him want to survive at all costs.

But were they the greatest?

No.

They were far from being his greatest wish.

His greatest wish remained unchanged, even after his death.

"I wish to be great."

Those were simple words, almost naive, yet the pressure that followed in the room was monumental.

A creeping silence settled over the room, making Declan feel his own words echoing within his heart.

Many had laughed in the face of such a declaration, and while it had brought claps and praises when he was younger, it had brought nothing but scoffs once he had grown older.

Eventually, Declan had learned to keep such wishes to himself.

But even beneath the creeping silence, his expression didn’t change, and neither did the face of the man before him.

When it finally did, only his lips moved.

"Admirable," he said before his fingers finally unfurled.

He shifted them toward the marble-like desk between them, and the sound of a drawer being pulled open echoed through the room as he reached inside and brought out a blue hardcover.

He placed it on the desk and slid it toward Declan, stopping just inches before him.

"Go through it," he ordered.

Declan turned toward it, reaching forward and opening the cover, revealing a collection of files that he immediately began to analyze.

The more he read, the more he was left without words.

When he reached the final page and closed the hardcover, his widened eyes slowly settled before he turned to look at the man, who calmly asked,

"Does that summarize all the major events of your life up until now?"

Shockingly, it did.

The file contained everything about the major events in his life, including his secretive affinity potential, rated Null, from a test he had taken at a nearby facility.

And yet, here it was before him.

There were even images, clearly taken from CCTVs, showing his time in school and his eventual induction into the Mechnoheart Organization.

It even included a picture of the entire group that had been placed on that project.

All of whom were now dead, of course.

It was everything... Almost.

"It’s true," he replied, and The Boss hummed, signaling for him to return it.

Declan handed the files back to him, and they were placed inside the drawer.

"At first, you used to wish to become a great Nexian," he began.

"But when you realized your potential was poor, you changed your wish, instead choosing to become a great Mech Scientist."

"This makes me curious," he said before folding his hands together once more and leaning ever so slightly forward. "What is greatness to you, Declan?"

"Is it being a Nexian, possessing destructive force, and by greatness, perhaps being the strongest Nexian?"

"Or is it being a Mech Scientist, building the most capable mechs and, by greatness, earning the respect of the strongest Nexians?"

He asked, and it was a question that struck hard.

Greatness wasn’t limited to any single aspect, though in Mordran, it could largely be summed up by two important things: a Nexian or a Mech Scientist.

Greatness in either of these two fields would be considered true greatness.

He had initially wished to become the strongest, and then he had switched to becoming the most respected.

It made him question:

’Was the one I wanted at first the truth of who I was, while the second only arose because the first had failed?’

"There are Nexians," Declan began. "They fuse with Cores designed by Mech Scientists and grow stronger."

"To fully maximize the power of the Cores within them, they fuse with Mech Modules also designed by Mech Scientists," he explained.

"They’re powerful, but... they’re also reliant," he ended, and the man gave a single nod, showing that he was following.

"Mech Scientists, on the other hand, are knowledgeable, creating the best Cores and Mech Modules."

"In doing so, they earn the respect of the Nexians, who know their strength is owed to them."

"They do not earn the respect of the people worldwide because only the Nexians are the ones shown in videos fighting off the Ember Race."

"They’re more of a side character, and oftentimes, they’re usually weak and at the mercy of the same Mech Designs and Modules they make."

"If their respect is lost, the Nexians will have no trouble getting rid of the Mech Scientist."

"So, as much as they earn the respect of the Nexians, in a way, they’re also reliant upon their mercy."