"Come on, hit me!" Bella said to Natasha.
Bella was wearing a sports tank top and spoke in a decidedly provocative tone.
Natasha held a stun baton and kept looking Bella up and down, seemingly considering the best place to strike.
Little Elsa sat far away in her stroller and watched.
Little Kitty had already abandoned the stroller that limited her mobility. These days, she ran around like a little terror. The moment she entered the hall and saw the tense atmosphere between Bella and Natasha, she strolled over and patted Little Elsa on the head, wearing the expression of someone who had just walked in and caught Chang Wei beating Laifu red-handed.
Little Kitty looked back and forth between the two older sisters about to fight, then at the Divine Dragon, who was playing games on a laptop and showing every sign of turning into a full-blown gaming-addict dragon girl. Both sides looked equally entertaining to her.
Her footsteps caused a shift in the standoff. Natasha stamped hard against the floor, raised her arm, and drew back the baton, ready to strike hard.
"Wait, wait! Not the face!" Bella saw where the blow was headed and instinctively tried to stop her.
The face was absolutely off-limits!
"Fine. I'll start over."
"Stop, stop! Where are you aiming? There's a child right here! Have some decency!"
"It's completely flat. What are you afraid of? Fine... fine, fine. I'll start again."
"Stop, stop..."
"Quit whining! Just take it!"
Natasha swung the stun baton and attacked at full force. Bella continually dodged and parried, using the fight to gradually familiarize herself with the strength growing inside her body.
The method worked very well. Its only drawback was that she had to do it far too often. The strength inside her body increased every single day, so she had to train every single day! Natasha was annoyed, Bella was annoyed, and eventually even Little Kitty and the others got tired of watching.
Bella shut herself inside a quiet room and wondered whether there was some way to solve the problem once and for all.
The appearance of Iron Man always filled her with a constant sense of urgency. If she did not want to turn into a useless couch potato later, she needed even greater power.
If she wanted speed and convenience, the simplest solution was to find some sucker willing to pour Divine Power into her without restraint. Then she could skip straight to the end, directly condense her Divine Body, and completely master the Secrecy Portfolio.
A sucker like that was not easy to find. Anyone below the level of a chief god was not even worth considering.
Even if their raw strength was a little lower, they still had to be a chief god on the level of Odin or Zeus to help her directly condense a Divine Body. Ordinary gods simply did not have that much Divine Power. But where was she supposed to find a chief god? Anyone who had already climbed that high could hardly be easy to fool!
Bella thought long and hard. After searching through her memories over and over, she actually found a shortcut. Perhaps there really was one chief god—a sucker—who could help her.
When she used divination to search for further clues, a powerful Divine Power blocked her. She tried several times and failed to obtain any more information.
Magic would not work, so she had no choice but to use a more cumbersome method.
Bella summoned one of the Assassin Brotherhood's elders, William Miles, and explained what she wanted. "I need one of our people to infiltrate Trinity and gather intelligence."
She did not hide her intentions. At least the first step could be explained clearly to her subordinate. "As far as I know, Trinity is currently searching an ancient kingdom called Paititi for two treasures: the Key of Chak Chel and the Silver Box of Ix Chel. I need to know how far they've gotten, and I need the exact locations of those two artifacts."
The Brotherhood had been going into enemy strongholds to search for artifacts for more than two thousand years. There was nothing novel about it. After William Miles understood what she needed, he brought her a candidate the very next day: his own son, Desmond Miles.
"You've thought this through? No regrets?" Bella asked.
Desmond Miles, who had once been despondent and completely rejected the Brotherhood's future and ideals, now looked resolute. "I'm willing to shoulder my responsibility."
"Good! Very good." Bella was delighted. Sending the Assassin Brotherhood's protagonist into Tomb Raider as an undercover agent struck her as extremely entertaining. May the ancestors of the Assassins watch over you.
Old William had sent his own son on the mission. Bella had to offer something in return.
She motioned for Desmond Miles to roll up his sleeve, then rapidly drew a Secrecy Rune on the inside of his arm.
"This rune represents secrecy. It represents a secret that has not been revealed. You're going undercover now, and only your father and I know this secret. As long as nothing leaks from our side, and as long as you don't actively take hostile action, this rune will shield you from every form of detection, whether technological or magical."
She explained the rune's effects. In ordinary use, it simply reduced Desmond Miles's presence. Sneaking into Trinity would not be difficult, but there was no chance he could become one of Trinity's leaders. Forget three years—even three hundred years would not be enough, because his presence would be too weak! People would overlook him far too easily.
There were quite a few drawbacks, but naturally there were plenty of advantages as well. In form, the rune worked somewhat like a Fidelius Charm. As long as Bella's side did not expose him, Desmond Miles would be extremely safe while undercover.
After sending Desmond Miles off, the Assassin Brotherhood gathered most of its manpower in New York. The last time so many people had assembled was to seize a Templar treasure. This time, summoned by Bella in her capacity as Mentor, they were preparing for the organization's second grand "union activity."
Using the Animus, the Brotherhood read the memories in Desmond Miles's genes and found the location of the Grand Temple in the memories of the Miles family's ancestor, the legendary Assassin Connor Kenway.
It had to be said that William Miles really was hopeless. There was barely any useful information in his bloodline. His son, on the other hand, could trace his ancestry back and immediately turn up a whole pile of famous people.
Back in the era of the legendary Assassin Connor Kenway, he had already found the Grand Temple in New York. Unfortunately, he had not possessed an Apple of Eden and therefore could never open the temple doors. That was no longer a problem now.
The Assassins had already completed most of the preliminary work. They had bought the land above the Grand Temple in advance and built a department store there.
Night fell over New York. The group quietly entered the store, then made their way downward.
The Grand Temple beneath New York was the largest and oldest underground structure the Isu had built to deal with the Toba Catastrophe. Bella had been thinking about this place for a long time and wanted to make it the Brotherhood's headquarters. The conditions had not been right before, but now they could officially occupy it.
Unlike in the game, they had dug a passage directly down from the surface. The elevator descended more than three hundred meters before finally slowing to a stop.
Statues of Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno—the three deities ancient Romans called the Capitoline Triad, or the Etruscan Triad—stood silently before the doors.
Most of the Assassins had never been here before. From scattered information within the organization, they knew at least a little about the legends of the three figures, and each of them felt somewhat excited. Their discipline was excellent, however, and no one whispered among themselves.