Chapter III: The World is His Oyster
The flight to the nearest Vega facility, which was in North Macedonia, felt long and tiring. Alice and Akemi passed out from their adrenaline rush, Ray was out cold due to his injuries, none of the remaining world leaders could even rest let alone close their eyes and the remaining faculty members who survived the massacre at Vega HQ were all on edge.
The whole bay inside the helicopter was filled with anxiety and trepidation. They had at least seventeen hours remaining before that monster starts to make Hell look like a playground. But there is nothing anyone can do.
Ezekiel knows this too well. They were too weak. He was too weak.
The world was going to burn…
Whether they like it or not.
“Hey, kid.” spoke a man.
Ezekiel did not respond.
“Yo, are you alright?”
“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah.”
“The names’ Hector. Hector Aetos. What’s your name?”
“Um… Ezekiel Erden.”
“Ezekiel, ey? I’ll call you Zeke for short.”
They shook hands as a form of greeting each other.
Ezekiel looked at the man he was speaking to who wore a dark gray vest that bared a red insignia of the Union, meaning this guy was one of the low tier security guards. How this man managed to survive and only one of the Seven Deadly Sins was beyond him.
It dumbfounded him to put it simply.
“How long have you been working for the Union?” Ezekiel asked.
“About four years, give or take.” Hector responded.
“Four years? That’s an abnormally short amount to be working for the Union.”
“Thats what I have been told. But being a security officer for this organization has taught me a couple things. One of the main lessons that I was taught countless times throughout these four years is that the world isn’t what it appears to be.”
“Yeah, so it would seem.”
“How about you, Zeke? How long have you been part of the Union?”
“Me? Uh, well-” Ezekiel was cut off by the sound of the intercom starting up.
“We are approaching Watchpoint: Гавран (Raven) in T-minus five minutes! Prepare for departure!”
The passengers inside the bay began to stir from the announcement. Well, most of them anyway. Ray was still sleeping away without a care in the world. That worried Ezekiel quite a bit but he knows that the agent will pull through.
“Already there huh?” Hector looked at his watch to check the time.
“What’s the time?” asked Ezekiel.
“Seven after eight.”
That left twelve or so hours left before that monster will start rampaging across the world. First all the anomalies that have appeared that have changed the world drastically. Earth was twice its size with both the continents and gravity remaining the same, two more continents appeared overnight, several countries have grown new territory such as Germany and Japan, and now half of humanity was going to perish tomorrow afternoon. It was so much change for him to handle.
All this thinking was making him tired. Way too tired. His body was jolted awake as the helicopter landed alit upon the pad of the base roof. The bay doors slowly opened to bright lights that shined against the gray pavement. The passengers aboard unbuckled themselves and steadily departed into the facility with help of the base’s own members.
Among them were three men that stood aside looking at the helicopter as if they were waiting for something. One of them looked to be in their early thirties with silver hair, golden eyes, mildly tall, but wore a smile on his face.
Ezekiel knew this man and he stumbled towards him until collapsing onto him.
“Well, it’s good to see you too Ezekiel.” His voice was like music to his ears, but he quickly passed out and carried off by medics.
“Ah, Prime minster Luka, it’s so nice to see you again. Makis and Zephyr too? What a sight for sore eyes.” exclaimed Gunther as he shook their hands.
“A pleasure to see you again President Gunther. We were quick to respond to your distress signal and offer shelter here for now. But what has happened at headquarters?” asked Luka.
“We were attacked. Nearly everyone at the facility was murdered but what you see here along with him, Kabuto, and Xiang.” Gunther responded solemnly.
“What about the Seven Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues?” asked an older man. This was the president of Greece, Makis Nomikos. He had brown hair that were as dark as an oak tree and his eyes were dark green like pine tree needles.
“They’re all dead except for one.”
“How many were there?” asked the other man. This was the prime minister of Greece, Zephyr Papatonis. He had navy blue hair as were his eyes.
“…One…” Gunther muttered.
“Let’s get everyone inside before we continue. I’d rather be sitting and taking all of this in than standing outside.” Makis complained.
“Agreed. I’d rather not have anyone find us. Not like they could.” Zephyr added.
. . .
After discussing about what has happened at Vega headquarters, which left the leaders of Greece and North Macedonia speechless, they decided to bunker up and communicated to every facility across the world to initiate a lockdown for the upcoming apocalypse that was soon to happen. Sure enough, they responded with haste and awaited further orders.
“Alright, so we have everyone up and accounted for. All Union bases are secure and locked down. I’ve told the head of each base that the people can try and get their families to their location as fast as they could and that was all. Is that good enough?” said Zephyr.
“That’s fine with us. I pray that the spirits will be in our favor for survival.” Kabuto sighed as he leaned back against his chair.
The base was on high alert made sure every sector of the base was clear before initiating lockdown procedures. Thankfully all was accounted for. Nothing out of the ordinary or supernatural was occurring inside the base.
“I have to ask, what was this Nathanial Oracle like? How did he act?” Luka curiously asked.
“He… was nothing short of a madman. He was calm and collected but his entire body language screamed for murder. It was like he was holding himself back.” said Gunther.
“Noted. And he was able to take out all the members of the Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues all by himself. Weren’t those soldiers beyond human capabilities to the point of being more than the average super-human?”
“Yes, we’ve already established this.”
“And then you sent out Ezekiel to chase after him after making him watch footage of what happened, which was highly risky, and he managed to return an hour later barely with his own wits. By the way, how was he able to even find this Oracle?”
“We actually do not know about that. We are waiting for him to be more functional for him to report back to us.”
“Figured. From the information that you have told us, it sounds like you see Ezzy as a robot or an object which doesn’t sound convenient for the agreement you made with Oracle.”
“That is enough bickering amongst us! I need to report to my country and speak with my subordinates.” Xiang barked and left the room.
Luka itched his brow and turned his chair away from the group. He knows everyone was on edge. The world was about to turn to chaos in nearly half a day’s time. Making that knowledge public would only worsen the outcome. But if they didn’t, they would all be turning their backs on their countries. Even making the deaths of the Russian, United Kingdom, and American leaders death known would cause a huge fiasco.
“So, what appears to be the situation?” spoke a voice that spoke on the tv monitor. It was the vice president of the United States and Queen of England. Luka rose to his feet and bowed.
“Good evening. This is prime minister Luka Milan speaking.”
“Good evening to you, prime minister, what is happening to cause a lockdown of all Vega facilities?”
“Well, first, I am afraid to inform you both that president Niel Hamilton and prime minister Joseph Smith have been assassinated alongside Russian president Kolya Agapov and Korean president Ch’ae Jin-Hwan.”
The first piece of news shocked them both. Four leading figures of the world have been assassinated. It was common for one to be assassinated but four all in one day was unheard of.
“Secondly, the world as we know it will be taken over by a secret terroristic organization known as the Daybreak Empire. They plan on securing the world within five days or less.
“Hold on a moment, did you say five days? Are you alright prime minister?” asked the Queen.
“I’m afraid so, your majesty. I can only wish I was insane.”
“How did this happen?” exclaimed the vice president.
“An intruder apparently broke into the compound and killed nearly everyone in sight along with every members of the Heavenly Sins and six members of the Deadly Sins. He then broke into the office the leaders were in, made an outrageous deal with involved the deaths of Neil, Joseph, Kolya and Ch’ae, and then left.”
“One man did all of that?”
“That appears to be the situation, sir. I would like both of you not to report of deaths of these figures out to the public. I do not want to cause any more chaos than what will happen tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry Luka dearest, but it seems that we’ll be moving our schedule to now than later.” spoke a voice that interrupted the call.
“That’s him… that’s Oracle.” Gunther muttered.
The screen cut out to a man with orange hair wearing a lab coat with a man who kept his face hidden with a dark gray hoodie.
“My lord Tashiro planned on starting early. No way that I can stop him now. By the way…
This is being broadcasted to the entire world to see. Our first stop, New York City.”
The camera turned to show the city of New York off in the distance below the two. There was nothing for them to stand on except air. The camera then faced Tashiro who raised his hand right by his face and snapped his fingers. A bright light engulfed the screen in which the camera was turned to face, showing what appeared to be something similar of a nuke going off. After the light fades, all of New York city is replaced with a giant crater.
The sight was both astonishing but downright terrifying. Oracle turned the camera and appeared to be dancing with glee as he saw the aftermath.
“What I have shown you all today is a mere sample of my power, any of you who dare face me head-on will be met with a fate similar to this.” Tashiro pulled his hoodie off and faced the camera, his blue eyes looked fierce enough to cut even the strongest metals and even concepts themselves. “Choose your foe carefully. I’ll be going to the next handful of cities.”
More Tashiro quickly appeared behind where Tashiro was standing from the camera’s point of view. Where one stood, now were six. Five of them quickly dispersed in different directions, going to their destinations to cause more chaos and destruction in whatever way they deemed suitable. However, the real Tashiro disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, uttering his final words for the world to hear.
“I look forward to having some fun.”
The camera turned and faced Oracle who have a devilish smile on his face and giggled in delight.
“Oh, what a lovely day for humanity to perish. You all sought salvation from your gods and fairy tales and look at how they answered. They blessed my sweet lord with their divine blessing to deal with you, insignificant worms that plague this planet. Soon everything that the old world stood for will be gone. All of us united under a single entity that is Tashiro Satoru, leader of the Daybreak Empire. We will all see the light of a new day, a new era, the new dawn. But right now, it is time for daybreak. I will see you all later! Too-do-loo!”
The camera shut off and all that was left was silence in the conference room until videos from all around the globe was showing the destruction from major cities where the clones of the Empire’s leader were currently, Dubai, Tokyo, Moscow, London, San Francisco and Berlin.
It was too late for any of them to do anything. Blood ran down Luka’s chin as he was biting his lip in sheer rage and anxiety. Gunther collapsed to his knees in defeat and watched as Berlin fell in mere moments. This was it. This was Armageddon.
