Page 6 of The Gathering
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 despairburied 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.
