RECAP— #3
Seer’s skin prickled as his words confirmed everything he’d seen as well from the beginning. This was a divine war. Chaos was merely a component, nothing more.
“Are you saying everything we’ve studied for centuries…” Oblivion muttered. “Was a delusion?”
Zodak regarded him. “Yes,” he said, eagerly. “But you also, were a decoy.”
“Now wait a minute,” Colton cried, face perplexed. “You saying they thought they were fooling us but really we were fooling them? All without us even knowing it?”
“That is exactly it,” Zodak assured, turning to the Creole Kings.
“My brothers were given the secrets that the Pillars once protected. But the knowledge of those secrets was hidden even from them.” Zodak lowered and picked up a paper, showing Nidev.
“The prophecy coins. They were shielded by myth.” He scanned his brothers.
“Their understanding protected by the faithless.”
“I’ll be a son-of-a-bitch,” Colton muttered, sounding like a con man conned.
Soren’s chuckle drew all eyes. “So, we are actually scholars of illusions.”
“No,” Zodak corrected, eagerly. “Your knowledge is valuable, only not how you thought.”
“Just tell me that we get to actually use our knowledge, in a physical capacity,” Soren pled.
“Are you saying the destruction we have seen,” Nexus began in doubt, “our stronghold, this country, the world, was all merely an illusion of chaos?”
Zodak turned to him. “It is not chaos, brother.”
“Then what?” Noctis demanded.
Seer stared at the final paper, suddenly realizing. He lowered and picked it up. “It’s a summoning.” The words sat in the air, now entirely quiet as he looked at Nidev. “To a prophetic war.” He realized even more as he looked at the images. “Velkratos was merely a veil. And it’s been torn away.”
“Yes,” Zodak said eagerly, seeing with him. “The battlefield had been revealed.”
That set off a new round of energy amongst men ready for action.
“So, how does this tie into what’s currently happening?” Rukem asked. “We’ve got thousands of beacons going off on the Dream Bridge demanding immediate extraction. Is this too an illusion?”
Zodak crouched again, lifting one of the sheets and began showing it to the entire room. “These are why the war is being fought,” he said, his voice steady, absolute. “Al-Namuthaj Al-Ilahi,” he said.
“The Divine Templates?” Zahir asked, getting Zodak’s immediate gaze.
“Yes. Humans selected for the restoration. They are to be protected from the Dead Kings who have come to annihilate humanity.”
A murmur moved through the room as understanding laced with the first edges of urgency.
“All of humanity?” Mah-Mah asked.
Zodak turned to her. “The templates are the target. They are the hope for the rest of humanity. If they are destroyed, those that remain will destroy themselves.”
She looked right at Lazure and whispered, “I’ve been saying we’re like an ark,” she whispered with awe and joy.
“Then we don’t have time to waste,” Bullets said, ready for battle. “We need to organize a rescue party now.”
“If those beacons went off for extraction of over two thousand people,” Skul said, “does that mean the Dead Kings are already mobilized?”
Zodak paced along the pages before mumbling, “I don’t know.”
“I think I might know,” 8-Bit said, getting the attention of the entire room. “Just got a report from the Triplets. I asked them to investigate a strange death.”
“What sort of strange death,” Nexus hurried.
“He said a man was turned into something like a pillar of salt.”
“Something like?” Seer wondered.
“Fetch said the body wasn’t fully crystallized—somewhere between salt and stone.
Whatever did this started a full-body conversion but stopped before it finished.
No struggle, no external wounds. Just frozen solid, mid-reaction.
He also picked up a weather anomaly right before it happened—static charge buildup, sudden temp drops, and an electromagnetic spike localized to the area.
Whatever hit this guy, it wasn’t natural. ”
“That’s not the only odd death,” Sinrik announced.
“The pillars found a man sitting up in an alley. Like he’d just stopped to rest. No wounds, no decay, and no eyes.
Not gouged, not missing, just gone. Lids half-open, like there was something holding them up.
Optic nerves still firing, processing light like something’s there.
There’s no way for a brain to keep seeing without eyes but he sure seemed to be trying. ”
“What the hell are these dead kings?” Shank wondered.
“The Dead Kings are not simply men,” Zodak said.
“They are entities forged in The Groaning Deep—a prison of despair buried beneath the ruins of a fallen empire. Born from the lineage of both jailers and the condemned, they exist to corrupt, to consume, and to annihilate the soul of humanity itself. Their crowns—crafted in the Dark Forge—bind their purpose to destruction, each one a tether to the ancient forces that sustain them. They do not rule. They do not conquer. They unmake. And they will not stop until there is nothing left.”
“Holy fuckin’ moly,” Hurricane cried at those ridiculous odds. “How the hell we supposed to fight that?”
“Very carefully,” Nidev thought.
“Everything has a weakness,” Sinrik said.
“And I’m equipped to find it,” Bishop added.
“How?” Noctis wondered.
“His biology is a self-optimizing system,” Quantum explained.
“His blood is a hyper-adaptive construct, integrating foreign genetic and energetic data on contact. Once assimilated, his neural network deciphers its function, strengths, and vulnerabilities—allowing him to counteract, nullify, or weaponize it.”
“What he said,” Bishop muttered. “I just need to touch one.”
“That still doesn’t give us enough boots on the ground for this extraction,” 8-Bit reminded.
“We have several hundred of those Vicki’s,” Bacon reminded.
Bullet’s single laugh split the air like a gunshot. “I wouldn’t trust them to extract their fingers from their asses.”
“I have two hundred Riftborn,” Sinrik said. “They can locate all of them.”
“What the hell’s a Riftborn?” Hurricane demanded.
He met his gaze. “They’re upgraded soldiers. I believe some of your team met them.”
“How soon can you mobilize them?” Bishop asked, tone dark as ever.
“Immediately,” Sinrik said.
The air charged with thick urgency as the weight of what was coming pressed down.
Bishop stood. “Nidev can put together a team that excels in strategic extraction.” His gaze turned to Sinrik. “You and I will discuss other critical particulars.”