Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)-Chapter 1141. Gathering of the Ravens

Another day, another soul ripped off by a vendor on the streets of the City of Diamonds. No matter which alleyway one ventured into, they would come across numerous beggars hunched over a flame. It was also not uncommon to find people hunching over whilst clasping at various body parts.

Normally, particularly in the unscrupulous areas of the City of Diamonds where law enforcement was upheld by Branches, Offices and the Guild questboards: these people would be clasping near their lower backs or chest.

Organ harvesting, of course, to turn into gold. People didn’t have much use for organs. There were no cannibals outside of the City of Spades to delve into taboo. However, the Midas Conversion Procedure allowed for precious organs to be turned into coins, thus, giving one’s organs value.

Of course, people were not stupid.

But one could not call an act of desperation stupid.

Mothers needed to feed their children. Men had families to look after. The elderly had little to rely on, and children who found themselves on the streets could only resort to selling pieces of themselves to pay debts, or for a morsel of food.

It was ironic. The City of Diamonds housed the richest citizens in the Nex Megalopolis. Yet, the same Sectors where strips of golden buildings existed were shared with horrific slums. They were often within reach. In some instances, there was not even a fence to separate the rich from the poor, yet the poor rarely passed through the imaginary barrier.

Healers, of course, were deployed to amend such issues. White-haired angels blessed the impoverished with magic to restore lost limbs and cure diseases.

However, this in of itself was an issue.

If a Healer could return an organ, then, what would stop people from selling their bodies again? The root of the issue stemmed from desperation, ignorance, and the addiction of unregulated underground casinos which thrived where the Head could not look.

Then, there were the monsters who preyed on these people.

After all, the Nex Megalopolis was an enormous place. There were the surface and the abandoned railways, as well as the sewers, and various subterranean layers, including Atelier Installations.

Rarely was the dark side of the Nex Megalopolis spoken of.

But one would be mistaken to believe that it was being ignored by the Head and its bodies.

* * *

Dangolda was one such hotspot for crime. It was not a known hotspot until recently, when the Guilds reported frequent relapses of citizens arriving at the Guilds missing various organs. At first the case was treated as an Impuritas threat. The Blood Festivals were the only ones known to repurpose organs.

However, no evidence pointed to the Impuritas beyond this, and it was left for Adventurers and the Offices to sort out. But when Adventurers returned missing, and low-ranking quests resulted in injuries or the deaths of high-ranking Adventurers, then the matter was moved to the Branches.

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When they failed, the Associations took matters into their own hands. The Oathbound Association: one of the largest partners of Justica Arms: were commonly deployed in the City of Diamonds. As knights who were bound to oaths, they were largely immune to bribery. They took pride in their resilience. To this day, there had never been an Oathbound Associate who had left their ranks, be it for a Syndicate or an Atelier.

But even they failed to uproot the source of the organ disappearances.

However, they managed to narrow it down to several locations within Dangolda.

And that alone was enough information to wipe them out in a single fell swoop.

* * *

Once a threat reached a level where Associations could not feasibly handle it without major losses, then, it would either escalate to either Ateliers, or–

“The Nex Megalopolis is a place where humanoids and only humanoids may live.”

–One of seven figures recited from a handheld book. It was a black book with a golden apple etched on the front cover, with white brambles twisting along its spine. Caldera Industries’ gravity technology enabled this figure to gravitationally lock it inches away from an outstretched palm.

Had the figure tried to hold it with her bare hands, then she would have been pinned to the ground. It alone weighed seven tons, yet the other six figures help these books affixed to their hips, as though it weighed nothing at all.

This was the Black Wing Codex, or the Exterminatus, as the Ravens and the Blood Angels agreed to call it. Contained within the Exterminatus were nine hundred and ninety-nine methods to eradicate either an individual, group, or population. These of course, were not specifically designed by Frost, but rather, through the collaborative effort of the Black Wings, Sanguine Doves, Blood Angels, and relevant Atelier personnel.

Indeed. If something did not belong to the Nex Megalopolis and posed a significant threat, then, it was the duty of the Black Wings to eradicate them according to the Exterminatus.

The seven figures were all women of varying heights and facial expression but possessed the same hair and military apparel. Exposed along their chests were seven golden feathers, indicating the rank of a Raven.

They were currently inside of the Floor of Civilization, surrounded by a holographic reconstruction of the Nex Megalopolis. The power of the Awakened Floor of Civilization enabled the Nexus to observe the Nex Megalopolis in real time, though it could not identify individuals clearly. They were only represented as colored dots.

The seven Ravens: the figureheads of the Black Wings: stood around a table that possessed a miniaturized version of the holographic Nex Megalopolis.

The woman who spoke earlier, whose hair was straight and wore sharp, contemptuous eyes, snapped the book shut, only for it to reopen on another page. This was Akira.

“EX 11: 1: An eye exchanged for an eye. A soul for a soul. We must punish evil the same way they spread it.”

A faint giggle came another woman. She had much shorter, unkempt hair, and her eyes were perpetually peeled, as if possessed. Her apparel was also messy, and unlike the other Black Wings, there were chains wrapped along her body.

“Organ harvesters! We did EX 11: 1 yesteryear on the last illegal establishment. The EX 11: 2 variant swaps it from an eye to a heart. Or we can try the EX 11: 3 special. An eye for a flayed strip of humanoid musculature. Aaaaahhhh~”

She squirmed, reveling in the mental image of peeling back the flesh of what the Head had now designated as ‘monsters’. This Raven was Chiara.

“Please do not bring in your Maestro tendencies here.” Another Black Wing with straight, long hair sighed. This was Lucy, one of the Ravens to have personally become acquainted with Frost.

“Objet D’ Art.” Chiara corrected. “Hehehehe. My dad might have been a Maestro, buuuut, that doesn’t mean I am. I don’t even like music. Or do I?”

Sana zoomed into the Nex Megalopolis by squeezing her thumb and index finger together. She brought them to the City of Diamonds and stopped at the city of Dangolda.

“Please do not entertain the Thrum.” A squeaky voice called. A short statured girl sat cross-legged on a floating Exterminatus, just so she could be level with everyone. Her sleeves were far too large for her body.

But when she raised a hand, one could see the faint glimmer of a gun barrel hiding within those sleeves.

This girl was Lior. She had twin tails and wore a monocle for no other reason than aesthetics. Furthermore, she wore an onyx hairpin and a chibi wolf badge. Needless to say, she was a diehard fan of Ber.

Lior added: “It didn’t look like an Impuritas threat. Would you look at that. They’re coincidentally hiding where the Archivist hasn’t logged.”