A few hours later, Jonathan received an emergency call. A man sent by his private contacts was going to inform him about new discoveries from an investigation he had started, and Jonathan had to attend that meeting before deciding what he would do next.
Jonathan sped up his vehicle along the lonely roads, the wind whipping harshly as he headed toward the café where the meeting would take place. The purring of the engine echoed in his ears, but his mind was filled with thoughts and doubts.
He wondered what he would really discover about the possessed and the demons. He needed to find out why they were here and how these emergences came to be.
Since he wanted to investigate some things on his own, he wasn't worried about involving anyone else in this dangerous organization of which he was a ruler. Dark entities were unpredictable and could represent a great risk to those who tried to face them.
Jonathan had gone through dangerous situations and had seen firsthand the devastating effects of dark entities on people's behavior after the incursions.
While driving, Jonathan remembered the conversations he had had with many of his agents under his command. The truth was he had always supported the idea that people had the right to know about the existence of dark entities, since in that way no one would be greatly surprised when they could no longer be contained from the public.
The world must know, that was the reality.
Jonathan parked his car in front of the café in Jericho. He adjusted his jacket and walked into the place, looking for the man among the crowd of people enjoying their afternoon coffee.
Entering the café, Jonathan saw the man named Gabriel sitting in a corner. "Your mind must be somewhere else, you should be paying more attention to your surroundings…"
Jonathan sat down absentmindedly, without looking further around.
"I see you're doing well. Judging by those scars, though, I can tell the job hasn't treated you kindly these last few days…" Gabriel said as he placed two large files in front of him.
"Have they discovered anything about the vampire organization?" Jonathan didn't ask directly about the content of the two files but instead focused on other matters.
Gabriel shook his head, his tired expression glancing at the documents. "We still haven't found where that organization originates, nor do we have reports about its whereabouts. Even so, they're not the ones you should be getting involved with for now."
"Lately, the corporeal dark entities that awaken in the human body are like eggs at rest… An infection, maybe a virus that lies dormant in any living being and then mutates into monstrous creatures," Gabriel said slowly while drinking his second cup of coffee.
Hearing Gabriel's words, Jonathan recalled everything he knew about anomalies. Since he had decided to fight dark entities, he had noticed that sometimes the monsters were mutated humans in a very peculiar way.
The mutation that transformed the human body into monsters was unknown to him, but he knew one thing: the body was aware it was undergoing a metamorphosis and that it was slowly losing its sense of self.
"Are you saying that the corporeal dark entities are in their premature metamorphosis phase and haven't completely changed?" Jonathan asked, unable to believe it, since that would mean anyone had the possibility of becoming a dark entity.
Even with his limited experience, he had never encountered a dark entity in its premature state. According to the files he had found, the transformation was the ideal moment to eliminate a dark entity without greater problems.
However, Jonathan had never been able to understand how humans could mutate in that way until he learned about The Healing Church.
Some kind of virus? Radiation? If so, how could an ordinary civilian end up becoming a monster? Then how could one explain the exponential mutation of animals into their frenzy state?
Before, Jonathan couldn't imagine something so strange. Even different organizations and other nations didn't know where dark entities came from or how they mutated.
He had even read reports written by scientists, but these were merely speculations. A possible explanation could be through the interaction of genetic and environmental factors.
The report described a scenario in which certain individuals possessed a unique and exceptionally complex genetic combination.
These genes could contain encoded information that, under certain specific circumstances, would trigger the manifestation of anomalies in their bodies.
These circumstances could be related to exposure to radiation, chemicals, or unknown energies. Imagine that an unusual exposure or an anomalous reaction to these environmental factors triggered a series of events within the organism.
These events could include accelerated or uncontrolled genetic mutations, the activation of "latent" genes that normally remain inactive in humans, or even the integration of extraterrestrial or otherwise unknown genetic material.
Such mutations and genetic changes could drastically alter the structure and function of the human body, giving rise to monstrous or anomalous traits.
These beings could present physical deformities, superhuman abilities, or extraordinary sensory capacities. Moreover, in this hypothetical scenario, these anomalies could be linked to the activation of parts of the human genome more closely related to primitive or ancestral life forms that had remained inactive throughout human evolution.
Gabriel smiled strangely and said: "It's the only explanation we can find… Most of the dark entities identified around the country are always linked to a brutal death of some policeman or civilian. If we're lucky enough to identify something unusual, we might find the corporeal dark entity before it makes contact with civilians."
Jonathan understood this, but unlike incorporeal entities, the physical ones couldn't be tracked with special equipment. Werewolves, fully embodied demons, or vampires couldn't be hunted down directly—the process of finding them depended entirely on investigations.
"That would be impossible if it's still in its mutation process. There's no guarantee it can be contained completely, and most likely it already has victims." Jonathan ordered a coffee and looked at the files on the table.
"You're curious, aren't you?" Gabriel, who understood much more about the matter, said: "The first folder contains the new secret program the country will implement in the coming weeks."
"Is this the new program?" Jonathan picked up the folder and began reading the information.
"A new distribution of the organization your church is creating under the influence of your family, the Belmonts. The first thing you should know is that this new organization will be under the intelligence services of each country, for better or worse…"
Then he explained in detail that the government had approved it through the hands of the Belmonts so that it would be officially integrated into the army's plans and any department involving the safety and well-being of the people. Gabriel continued: "Seeing the inefficient work being done due to the church's poor organization, the government approved this new command group that will take full charge of everything related to corporeal dark entities, working with the Association of Light. I believe this was already explained to you briefly before."
"Cleanup department, logistics, investigation, immediate response command, and even the simplest special investigation agents will be the new departments dedicated solely to dark entities." Gabriel sighed helplessly as he lit a cigarette right there, not caring about the place.
"Maybe someone else already told you briefly about this new government plan to confront the continuous outbreak of dark entities and our inefficiency in eliminating them immediately."
"Metropolitan city and province: at first there will only be one special base of this organization, mainly in charge of corporeal dark entities. While more bases are created around each city for immediate response, there will be support from military bases only if a disaster occurs… But from now on, the army's infantry will focus on securing the area with the help of anti-terrorism police to give the hunters time to eliminate the threat."
Jonathan listened in silence to Gabriel's explanation. Looking through the information sheets, he found a special section.
"[Metropolitan City of Pennsylvania]"
"[General Captain assigned to the central base of The Order: Jonathan Belmont.]"
"Full authority to deploy the containment power of The Order's base and its personnel.
Each regent has full authority to communicate directly with the Commander General of the Armed Forces. They have full authority to communicate directly with the acting president in a situation of extreme emergency. In addition, they have full authority to speak under the same conditions as a Belmont high command.]"
"The country you were assigned to, and the ones who named you, were the Belmonts. They decided to grant you full rights. Many believe Pennsylvania must be especially protected due to its high rate of supernatural entities," Gabriel said with evident disgust in his voice. Taking a sip of coffee, he checked the time on his watch and waited for Jonathan to express his opinion.
"My family, the Belmonts…" Jonathan knew these old men wanted to completely enslave the family.