Artificial 7: Genesis Requiem

Chapter 6: Garden Of Eden

(Artwork is done by AI. It's Maddie Martinez.)

Male Terra's POV: 1 week after a lot of daily workouts,
Pope Rekture called the team into his chambers.
"Alright, everyone, listen up! The Church Organization has been given an anonymous tip from a reliable source. Our source says that Genesis and his lackeys are going to various holy grounds, collecting rare and mythical weapons of legends. Currently,
they are heading to Mesopotamia,
where they believe the Garden Of Eden is located. The coordinates are at the head of the Persian Gulf in southern Mesopotamia, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea and in Armenia."

The meeting concludes,
and this time,
no Jin Kotomura or Relius.
Everyone boards the helicopter,
and we take off.
Ventus, Reed,
and I played our Nintendo Switches together,
Zoey, Seth,
and Yuzuhara was working on some new contraption that looked like a sword and a cross guard.
Female Terra sat by Alexander, Elizabeth,
and Arthur,
having pleasant conversation,
and finally,
you have Selena,
who closed her eyes,
and I believe getting sleep or something.

What's actually happening: Selena closed her eyes to pull herself into her mind,
where she's chatting with the twins, Chase and Sora,
and they begin to have a card game and eventually begin training in her own mental scape.

Back to Male Terra's POV: Ventus, Reed, and I gamed until our Switches died. Reed and I dorked around on our phones, and Ventus became bored 2 hours or longer into the flight.
"Terra, I'm bored."
I looked at him like,
"Don't you have a phone?"
Then I pitched reading,
which he definitely didn't like.
"Look, kid, do something, but don't drag us into your boredom. Here's my book and a dictionary. Entertain yourself." Jeffrey hands Ventus both,
and Ventus did just that.
He read the whole book and shortly started reading the dictionary of all things!

The next thing I know,
he gets a paper and pencil from Seth, who creates it from a rune he cast on his palm,
and now Ventus is writing words he likes and their meanings!
Don't underestimate a bored Ventus. After 13 hours and 10 minutes of flying, we finally arrived at our destination. Uniforms on,
gear on, weapons,
tacticals, and lethals,
check.

Helmets were put on except for Reed and Jeffrey,
who were Church Inquisiters,
much to my surpise.
That's quite the leap in promotion, which means the missions Alexander took them on were a lot more dangerous than what we went on.
Anyway,
after two or more hours of nonstop, walking hiking and looking at the map. There came a point where we found a magic barrier that kept the inside transparent,
something a normal person wouldn't see.

Reed busted out a device that scanned the barrier and decoded the symbol needed to dispel the barrier.
It was Hebrew language,
so Reed cast a dispel in the Hebrew language,
drawing the letter with his finger using magic,
and the barrier goes down.

We entered through it,
and the sky looked like we were under water,
but the terrain was a beautiful forest. Everything I pictured Eden would be. "Hey, Chase, doesn't this place remind you of the Mind Marble that Metatron put us in?"
Chase magically appears in thin air and walks beside Seth.
"Yeah."
Mind Marble?
What the heck are they talking about? Selena and Alexander took charge,
and we walked around and around.

There were grassy hills,
flowers,
gaps in the earth,
and passageways through trees.
With enough walking around,
we encountered a tall humanoid creature with a large machete and two large teeth sticking out of its lower jaw. I didn't get a demon vibe from it, but it certainly wasn't human either.
"You're the boss. Tell us what to do." Azura says to Selena.
"Umm...attack? Stab. What do you mean tell you what to do? If it talks, ask it some questions and see if it's reasonable. If not, kill it. Do you want me to hold your hand or something?" Selena says.