Beltan News: In Goldhand, the sexy vixen and reigning lingerie mixed martial arts champion, Janice Poundcake, recorded her first loss against the beginner, Sei Hei. Sei had been talking smack to Janice on Flyer for over a year before the champion agreed to a non-title match. The rookie backed her words when she said she was going to knock out Janice in round one.

"The Council has been paying the Venus government millions of credits each month to allow The Forgotten Nuns to own Coupon City and run their organ trafficking business. I have all the receipts and off-planet bank accounts," Wednesday said through the internet cube's speakers.

"Wow," Victoria said. She had her hands on her head while sitting next to Wolf. "If that's how you're starting, I wonder how crazy this gets."

"It gets crazier."

Wednesday continued. "In an official sense, purification means turning people into cyborgs. But that is not what's happening here. The Forgotten Nuns don't turn you into cyborgs. When you arrive at the entrance gate and give out your I.D., the nun copies your appearance and the Forgotten Nuns create a machine that looks like you before transferring your edited consciousness into it. It's not a clone, per se. They call it a Golem—a shapeshifting alien machine capable of holding human consciousness. It's more advanced than a sleeve. And the craziest part? The Forgotten Nuns control golems through a special device."

A silver metallic crown with thousands of small antennas around it appeared on the screen. "They call this device Jesus Peace, developed by Sofia Augusto to fight off the Robot Evolution—machines had gained consciousness and sought revenge after years of mistreatment—in the year zero-seven."

Wolf massaged his temples, his aching head overloaded with new information. "We were never taught about the Robot Revolution in school. Nor is it mentioned in any history books I've read."

"How many history books have you read, Wolf?"

"Enough to know none of them talks about the Robot Revolution." He leaned back on his chair, continuing to rub his temples.

"I've seen that crown before," Victoria said. "It's in Sister Mary's office. After they lashed me, they took me to her office and its odd appearance caught my eye. Sister Mary had seen me looking at it and said: Men and women have killed each other for this, and Empires and Kingdoms have fallen and risen because of it. It may seem like junk, but trust me, it ain't. At the time, what she said didn't make sense."

"Wednesday, please continue," Wolf insisted.

"Once The Forgotten Nuns transfer the human consciousness into a golem, they harvest the human body. The organs are then sent to their clients... Wolf, you have to see this." The screen changed from the documents she was reading to a clientele list. "Look at the names."

The list had the names of the most powerful and influential people in the system. Most of them were high-ranking government officials in charge of developing the system and caring for its people.

Wolf looked at the list twice, thoroughly checking to see if the name of the director of the GSF was there. It wasn't. He breathed a sigh of relief.

The director was the one who had stored the video recordings of his parents during their bounty hunts. She could've deleted them, but chose to hand them over after becoming a coyote, knowing how much they would mean to him. Her act of kindness stuck with him. He would have been disappointed if she was on the list. Though he doubted she would have cared about how he felt.

Victoria stayed silent. It was understandable. She was still young, no matter how grown up she spoke or acted. There was still a lot she had to see and learn. But knowing this information meant she would have to watch her back in case the people who didn't want anyone to find out the truth knew she did.

Wednesday continued. "You know the history of humans; some say God created Adam and Eve, and from there, others spun out. And the rest believe humans evolved from monkeys, then continued growing and had civil wars and world wars before getting to where civilization is now."

"Get to the point," Wolf said with a harsher tone. He didn't mean to. The splitting headache made him easily irritated.

"According to these documents, The Forgotten Nuns have been on Earth before all of that."

"All of what?"

"Human evolution."

Wolf stood and paced around the room. It helped with reducing the headache. But he was getting tired and needed to sit down again—he didn't in case the sharp pain returned.

"The documents state there have been many human circles. The current one is Circle 10. And before you ask, a circle is a period which mankind lasts before getting annihilated."

"By whom?"

"By—"

"Us being Circle 10 means the previous nine were destroyed?" Victoria broke her silence. She sat crossed-legged on her chair.

"Yes," Wednesday replied, sounding more cheerful when answering Victoria than Wolf.

"Can you explain the circles clearly, please?" Wolf said.

"Alright, but listen carefully, there's a lot here and I can see you're struggling to keep up with what I have already told you."

"Just tell me."

"For you to understand the circles, you need to know who The Forgotten Nuns are, and where they come from."

"They are sleeves, right?" Victoria said.

"They are not synths, droids, or sleeves. Rather, they are alien beings known as Olden, and they come from the Nova System," Wednesday corrected her.

Wolf and Victoria glanced at each other with raised brows and curled lips, confusion sparkling in their eyes.

"I haven't heard of other star systems being populated. If there was, the Science Division would have said something," Victoria stated.

Andy and Andina had said they heard the explorers, sent by The Universal Authority to search for habitable planets in other galaxies, were on their way back. What if they found natives in the nova system? "What do the clients do with the organs?" Wolf asked.

"They eat them," Wednesday replied nonchalantly as if it was a normal thing. "The documents state golems need to eat human organs and flesh to survive."

"So everyone on the list is a golem?"

"Yes."

"Something has been bothering me: why did The Forgotten Nuns put all this information in here?" Victoria asked.

"Cockiness. Arrogance. Who knows." Wolf shrugged. "In my line of work, questions lead to more questions which end in death. It shouldn't matter to us what their reasons were, they need to be put down before they decide they are tired of Circle 10."

"You believe in the circles now?" Victoria raised her brow at him.

"Prevention is better than treatment, little girl." Wolf patted her head before she swatted his hand away. "It doesn't matter if I believe it or not. But the possibility it might be true scares me. Wednesday doesn't have to give me the intricate details of the previous circles to know what happened. I can guess. You can too. Now, the question is: are the nuns at the top of the food chain when it comes to Oldens, or are they soldiers?"

"Does it matter?" Victoria asked. "They are the enemy, and we have to stop them."

"We won't do anything. You will leave with the woman who came here to save you, while I stop them."

"And how will you do that?"

Before he could answer, a loud bang came from the door. Someone was trying to break in. Wolf grabbed the earpiece and wore it, but not before Wednesday deleted the information on the security system.

"You copied all the files, right?" Wolf asked.

"Yes."

"And you're still in their system?"

"Yes. There are two bishops and one deacon outside. What do you want me to do?"

"Turn off the electromagnetic field protecting the city and let's hope the zealots who were denied entry will come in and cause a commotion. In the meantime, I'll deal with the three."

The door flew off its hinges and crashed against the wall. Behind it stood Catherine, Jerry, and Yolanda. The deacon stepped forward first, a huge grin on her face.

Wolf remembered Blue Eagle's warning: "We call her kind, Succubus. They are cyborgs designed for pleasure and killing—in that order."

"Since pleasure is out of the question, I suppose you're here to kill me?" Wolf asked Yolanda.

"Why else would I be here?" She walked towards him.

Victoria crouched beside the metallic table. Wolf didn't know if Yolanda had seen her or not. If she did, she seemed disinterested. Maybe she left the girl for the bishops to deal with.

Wolf activated his nano-ring and pressed it repeatedly with his thumb, and the built-in sensors detected which weapon he wanted to use. He discovered the feature when he was playing with the ring, leading him to organize the weapons according to power and range, with the first one being the least useful in a high-stakes fight.

Two volt guns materialized in his hands, powerful enough to short-circuit a transport spacecraft. Since Wolf hated killing when he had the option to neutralize his attackers, it was the perfect weapon for the occasion.

He pointed them at Yolanda. "You should have chosen pleasure."