(Elaria POV)
To think brother Brendan managed to crack the code on ascending to Godhood like that, he truly is a genius! Now I see why Onii-sama likes him so much!
Because of that, I wanted to bring brother Brendan back to my secret base at home to help me with the thing I was stuck with. He should be able to help me find out what's wrong!
Which was why we're back in my hometown that I had turned into a production facility to build all the things I have created.
Sister Diao Chan had gone to find her Witch friends too, stating that she had some kind of ritual to complete that could lead to her ascension as well. Apparently she also got an idea of what she needed to do after hearing brother Brendan's explanation.
I looked outside the window of the hover jet, grinning when I saw my place come into view.
Sister Manami had teleported us back to Onii-sama's courtyard for brother Brendan to pick up some things so I had called for this jet to pick us up from there.
Unfortunately, I received the news that Onii-sama had gone out that day so I wasn't able to get him to pamper me for a bit.
I looked behind me to see brother Brendan's eyes widening at the sight outside his window, the newly ascended God obviously trying to comprehend what he was seeing.
Heh heh, I can't wait to show this to Onii-sama too! I'm sure Onii-sama will praise me if he saw all of this!
"You made all this?" Brendan asked, pointing at the factories and facilities down below.
"Yep! Impressive, isn't it?"
"I'm impressed alright… But more because you managed to keep all of this secret from Master."
"Ehehehe~ I asked Onii-sama not to check here since I wanted to make it a surprise when everything is finally done! I can't wait to show all this to him! What do you think his reaction would be like?"
Brother Brendan made a complicated face at me, "Hmmm… I think Master would most probably be speechless…"
I grinned, "Ha! I knew it! Onii-sama told me before that boys would definitely think a Sci-fi industrial city would definitely look cool!"
Brendan's face looked a little weird but I ignored it as we were coming up to my private landing pad.
"Requesting for landing clearance, Commander," The ship's AI informed me.
"I love Onii-sama, Onii-sama is the coolest and the best! I'm Onii-sama's best imouto in the entire Universe!" I answered without hesitation.
"Clearance accepted, welcome back, Commander."
The plane hovered in the air for a moment before touching down on the pad just outside the mansion.
The ground shook slightly before the platform we were on started to lower into the ground, revealing it to be an elevator that went deep underground even as another platform slid into place above us.
"Where… Where are we going?" Brendan asked, looking slightly concerned.
"You'll see! Just give it a minute!"
It took a while for us to reach the bottom and when we did, it was at the back of a huge underground facility with various machines, gadgets and weapons all locked away beneath the earth.
I turned back to Brendan once again, "Tadah! A secret base underground! What do you think?!"
He blinked a few times at the sight before slowly turning towards me, "Kind of cool…"
Ehehehe! I knew it! Onii-sama said that underground secret bases were the coolest things ever too! Ahhh~ I can't wait to show all this to Onii-sama and listen to him tell me how cool it is!
The door to our plane opened, allowing me to step out where two hoverboards were waiting for us.
I immediately jumped onto one and waited for Brendan to do the same.
He eyed it for a second before turning back to me, "I'll walk."
Hmm… Maybe he's shy.
Shrugging to myself, I led the way deeper into my facility on my hoverboard, waving at a few of the workers as I passed them.
Brendan used his powers to float along behind me casually, it must be nice to have become an ascended Divine.
"What is all this?" He asked behind me.
I turned to see what he was looking at, "Oh! That's an antimatter artillery cannon I'm experimenting with. Do you want to take a closer look?"
Brendan shook his head, "I'm good… I think Master would appreciate this more than me anyway."
"Ehehehe! I know!"
I brought him to my personal lab at the back which took up about a quarter of the floor. I had everything I needed to do all the experiments and research I wanted including a small scale particle accelerator.
Most important of all was my very own Project Apotheosis.
I went up to the wall and flipped one of the false panels over, letting the security scan my palm, retina and face before I provided the voice and numerical pass code on another panel.
The wall then slid open, revealing a hidden corridor that lit up automatically.
Passing through that corridor, we finally arrived at the location of where I did my research on Project Apotheosis, the research that was supposed to allow me to ascend to Godhood.
Inside this hidden room, there were several machines whirring and beeping away, collecting and displaying multitudes of data on their screens without pause.
There were centrifuges, gene splicers, electron microscopes and various other equipment spread out around the room.
In the centre of it were several vats of bluish liquids, each of them holding a human inside them with tubes and wires attached to their bodies.
"Welcome to Project Apotheosis, Brendan! What do you think of this?"
The Alchemist was looking around with his mouth hanging open, taking a few moments to inspect the place before looking back at me.
"You… Have tried experimenting on other people?"
Eh? He's not going to start talking about human rights or something boring like that is he?
I tilted my head, "Yes? How else am I supposed to make sure that what I'm doing works?"
"I mean… Aren't you worried that you might accidentally make them into Gods themselves?"
Ah… So that's what he's worried about. Oh come on, Brendan! Do you think I don't have fail safes in place to prevent such a thing from happening? I have contingencies on top of contingencies too! There's nothing to worry about!
I waved my hand casually, "Psh, please. I don't do 'accidents'."
"Are they volunteers?"
"Nah, they're either criminals or bandits we captured raiding our people. I'm not that cruel, ok? Plus this frees up our dungeons from keeping people like these~"
He nodded slowly, "That's pretty smart. So… Where do we start?"
I thought he'll never ask! Let's start my ascension!
