"The gear cult?" Dante frowned.
Larry fixed him with a look of suspicion, remaining still and not saying anything. He furrowed his bows after a while and tilted his head a little.
"You… don't know?" He asked.
Confusion continued to paint Dante's face, and for some reason, that caused Larry to relax.
"I guess you really don't." Pausing, he looked at Dante one more time. "Just to be sure, you aren't telling the truth, right?"
At this point, Dante had every right to feel annoyed.
"Listen, man, this is the first time I'm hearing about this Gear Cult." Thinking for a moment, he decided to confirm the suspicion he got just now. "Don't tell me they have something to do with that dead religion."
"Well, you could say they are what remains of the Eternal Gear." Larry answered after a moment of hesitation. "They went undrground after Eidolon began spreading its Genomes around. Nowadays, they're considered a terrorist organization."
"A terro-" the word got caught in Dante' throat and he broke into a coughing fit. "What… the hell…? What made you think…"
Anger was anyone's natural reaction at being suspected of belonging to such an organization, but when he thought about it, Dante realized that the underground doctor was onto something.
'I guess I killed plenty of people…'
Not to mention the six heroes. That said, he wasn't doing it for the sake of some political ideal. He only ever killed people if he was getting paid to do it, if they were getting in his way, or if he wanted to kill them. He wasn't trying to push anything on the world by doing what he does, and though he rambles about the state of society from time to time, his goal never was to change it.
"You pulled up with an implant I've never seen before and…" Larry swallowed the rest of his words, sealing his mouth before puffing his cigarette. "It's the only explanation I could come up with."
"Do I seem like the religious type to you?" Dante asked.
"You're trying to go full cyborg and you hate Genomes. Those are basically the two biggest boxes on their recruitment application, and you checked them both."
With no comeback, Dante could only look down at his feet. The more he learns about this cult, the more it seems like a place he belongs in. Still—
"Why bring it now, though?"
The Doctor knew about his hatred for Eidolon and its Genomes—it was one things they had in common. He also knew about his plans to g full cyborg. If that was really enough to suspect him of being a part of the cult, why would he wait until now to confront him about it?
Of course, Dante already knew the reason.
"They say the cult has some… special implants." Said Larry, his eyes veering to some point on the floor.
"Well, isn't that obvious?"
The original religion worshiped machines and and aimed for cyborg supremacy. That's likely still their goal, so it's only normal that they would continue to develop new bionics while keeping the best to themselves.
"No, there is more to it than that. Their implants… well, the ones the higher up have, at least. They're said to be… very unique." Once again, the underground doctor stopped, as if searching for the right words to say. After a while, he seemed to give up, biting on the butt of his cigarette. "I… hard rumors. They say the cult has a method to enhance implants, even if they're already installed. That's what makes each one unique and… far more powerful."
Something click in Dante's mind, and his eyes gradually widened.
"Of course, those were just rumors." Larry quickly added. "Or they were, until I saw what you did to those implants."
Mind Link Ports, as the name suggests, are implants that work directly with the brain, while Synaptic Reflex Enhancers connect to the spinal cord. Both were some of the most sensitive parts of the human body, and any damage they receive could easily leave one crippled, and in worse cases dead. With that being the case, Dante couldn't risk upgrading them while they're attached to his body.
Volcan's upgrade function required the implants to be a part of his body, and for them to register as such, the surgery had to be completed. The workaround Dante found was that once the implant is registered as a part of his body, it remained as such so long as it's not removed entirely. By distancing them slightly while keeping them connected to his body through the neurosteel nanothreads, he would be able to upgrade the implants without frying his brain and nerves.
Of course, the only one who could arrange things so he could do it was the underground doctor, and because of that, there was no avoiding his witnessing the upgrade. Dante trusted him enough to let him operate on his brain. Compared to that, revealing one of his secrets seemed like nothing significant.
"So… you're telling me they have someone who can upgrade bionics just like me?" Dante asked.
"That what it sounds like," Larry replied. "I still can't believe something like that is possible, but… now that I saw it with my own eyes, I can no longer deny it."
Lowering his gaze, Dante spoke to his resident AI.
'I'm not too sure, but doesn't that sound exactly like…'
[Indeed.] Volcan replied.
A while back, Volcan revealed that he was once capable of external upgrades, but that function was missing for whatever reason. Now, they were learning about a cult with people who can upgrade their bionics. It was impossible not to see the connection between the two
"Yeah…" ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⁂𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾⁂𝔫𝔢𝔱
After hearing all of that, the conclusion Dante arrived at was that he had to find the Gear cult as soon as possible in order to reclaim what was stolen from him. He didn't care if it was a notorious terrorist organization. They had something he wanted, and he would do anything to get it, even if it meant having to crush the entire organization.
'Come to think of it…'
Looking at things from a different angle, a strange idea popped up in Dante's mind.
'What if the relic belonged to them?'