Epolas sighed in resignation as he meandered through the streets of the Lial, one of the many provincial capital cities within the Grand Imperium of Hergalexy. He knew attending the meeting tonight would be a waste of time, for though his youthful followers held great respect for his ideas and notions, most of them were so young and full of energy and naturally reviled his rather quaint and old-fashioned form of peaceful resistance.

Yet, not attending was out of the question. No matter how wayward they may have become in recent decades, the group were sort of like his children and the academic felt a paternal duty to try and guide them on the right path – but whether they heeded his advice was a whole other question.

They just didn’t get him and his methods. They still clung to the hope that their planets could go back to the way they were, despite the fact that every piece of evidence pointed to the fact that the system's integration process was irreversible and, in most cases, inevitable. However, Epolas could not blame his followers for their folly, as at one point he too had clung to hopes of returning back time and restoring his world to how it was before.

Alas, his efforts had all ended in total failure. His experience of failure matured his all-consuming hatred of the system into a melancholic acceptance that the best he could do for his old world was try and preserve what remained, not give in to the temptations of power and wealth, and advocate for those who were victims of the system’s ceaseless hunger. For truly, what else could he do in a multi-verse governed by a system that he hated?

He nodded at an octoid doorman as he walked through the open matte-black iron door that served as the brotherhood's main entranceway. Epolas noticed that many of the group’s members were lining the corridor chattering amongst themselves, all of them looking at each new attendee who walked through the door with some amount of suspicion. It was then that Epolas knew that something big was going to be announced at this evening’s meeting – something they hadn’t bothered informing him of which likely meant it was something he’d not like very much.

A frown formed on his face – one that only deepened as a grey-skinned slender youth walked towards him, his arms out as though he intended to embrace the embittered scholar. An embrace that Epolas would have firmly rejected, which is presumably why the youth lowered his hands to his side upon getting closer.

“Revered Founder, it is good to see that you’ve come to today’s meeting. Your attendance is like a fine wine, rarely had but appreciated always, I can assure you.”

The youth’s voice hid his insincerity well, but Epolas had a very sensitive bullshit sensor and it was currently screaming at him that the young man was just playing gracious host.

“What’s got everyone so jittery Edgar? It makes us look extremely sketchy.” Epolas asked, deciding not to mince words with the bastard in front of him.

The youth’s disingenuous smile did not falter as he responded, “I’m sure you’ve heard the news. Word of what happened in the newly colonised sector had everyone here in high spirits for a couple days. There will likely be many new members joining our cause soon. The Imperium higherups also know that however so a lot of our more veteran members are fearful of another crackdown.”

“You’re not?” Epolas asked, sensing that the youth was not telling him everything.

The young grey humanoid barely concealed a smirk, before replying with a slightly condescending voice, “Things are moving very quickly in the multi-verse, revered founder, thus I think the Imperium will be very busy, very soon. Or at least, busy enough that dealing with us won’t be at the top of their list of priorities.”

A man whose head resembled a wolf walked over to Edgar's side and whispered something into the young man's ears. Edgar nodded, before saluting Epolas and saying, "It seems I must make my way into the hall to prepare my speech and welcome tonight's guests. Please, share your wisdom with some of our newer members - Loa knows they need it." And with that, Edgar turned his back to Epolas and walked off towards a large oak door that served as the entrance to the great meeting hall.

Epolas barely managed not to physically cringe at every word that left the man’s mouth. The young man was clearly up to something big, and the scholar doubted that it was something that the boy could come back from should all of his hair-brained scheming come to nothing. However, what most concerned him was what he would turn Epolas' group into. Though he had voluntarily ceded the leadership of the group to the younger members, he honestly couldn't think of the group as not his responsibility.

Whether Edgar liked it or not, which he didn't, Epolas was the founder of the Reactionary movement. He would not go quietly into retirement. Someone in the group had to keep them all from making rash decisions and Epolas guessed it would have to be him.

A small amount of time passed before a grand silver-backed wolfman walked to Epolas. Finally, the old man thought, a welcome sight for his tired eyes.

"Teacher, I was not aware you'd be coming this evening." A genuinely reverential voice spoke - the voice belonging to the wolfman who had been one of his most ardent followers since the very beginning.

"Someone has to keep Edgar from catapulting our small group into a full multi-verse-spanning war of some kind, Sertorius," Epolas replied bitterly, not bothering to hide anything from his favourite student.

The wolfman laughed emptily before saying, "Well you're probably a bit too late for that teacher. The gues..."

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His voice was cut off by the sound of the door to the great hall opening and a 10ft tall giant man stepping out into the corridor.

"Initiates, Members, Elites, and Revered Founder. I hereby invite all who have taken their oath into the grand meeting hall as per tradition." The man bellowed out.

Without a word everyone, including Epolas and his student, shuffled into the meeting hall without saying a further word. Epolas guessed he would soon find out what his student wanted to warn him about from the horse's mouth as it were. Everyone took their seat, and a few minutes later, Edgar walked out from the back holding a sceptre in his hand. The sceptre was made out of adamantine and it bore the mark of the Epolian Brotherhood, a shattered spear.

The young man placed the sceptre by his side as he approached a centrally placed lectern. He looked around the meeting hall and nodded his head at each of the 4 hundred or so members who had managed to be at the hall in person, though undoubtedly there were at least a few million people observing the man's speech from afar. Then, after every person in attendance had been acknowledged, he began speaking.

"Only a few decades ago, my world was taken from me." Edgar proclaimed boldly. Letting the words sink in before he continued, "And even as I speak to you now, I have not recovered one-tenth the kind of happiness I'd had back then."

"My family? Gone. My homeland? Gone. My former life? Gone. Everything that I held dear and all that kept me happy was brutally torn asunder by the very thing that this whole accursed multiverse worships as if it were a god. The system!" Edgar said with such passion that Epolas could almost physically feel the man's pain and anger.

"However, I am not the only one whom the system has stolen everything from. You all have likely either experienced this irreparable loss yourself or know someone who has. For after witnessing first-hand the suffering and the indignity that comes along with becoming nothing more than a user in some sick and twisted system, only the craven, the mad, and the evil can bear to speak in its favour!"

"There are many who suffer in this cruel multiverse due to factors other than the system, this we do not deny, but unlike every other kind of suffering, the egregious suffering that we have gone through garners absolutely NO sympathy from those in power."

"We were too weak they say while hoarding all of the precious elixirs for themselves and their grotesque progeny that could have made us strong. We lacked the proper resolve they say, as they all cower like dogs behind their ancient ancestors so desperate are they for protection against one another. And if the sheer and utter contempt they held for us was not obvious enough, they punish us again and again for daring even to be annoyed about what happened to us - as many of you veteran members can attest to."

"So the news we've all heard in recent days should come as no great shock to you. For it came as no great surprise to me, that those who choose to worship the system above all else have become carbon copies of their cold and heartless master. That such people would sacrifice billions if not tens of billions, of innocent people so as to win glory for one pompous general. Do any of you really think that the Imperium's higher-ups thought for a single second about the poor people of Earth whom they bombed into oblivion and or all but fed to the colossal world boss coiled at the heart of their world? Do you?!"

"I think we all know that they didn't even flinch when given the choice between saving lives and gaining more power for themselves and their accursed empire. For that is the way of the system. Strength no matter the cost."

Edgar paused, then mimicked the face of a man barely restraining himself. Before he said the words that Epolas had known were coming from the very first words the man had spoken upon beginning his speech.

"I say no more."

"No more needless death. No more power games. In simple terms. No. More. Imperium. Unlike the system, it can be defeated. Therefore it must go."

The room that had once been electric with fury and energy cooled into total stillness.

A young man with a determined look in his eyes called out, "But Master Edgar, How can we defeat the Imperium by ourselves? When we are so few in number?"

Everyone in the room nodded their heads in agreement - the question being one that was on all of their minds too. They all likely agreed with Edgar's words but at the end of the day they were people with jobs, lives, and families and no one would risk all that for an unwinnable crusade on the Imperium at this point in time.

Edgar gestured at a painting that hung on the wall and said, "We need not fight against the Imperium directly my friends. Only, we need only cut the head off the snake."

A tough man in shining armour stood up and shouted, "Killing the Grand Emperor?! Have you lost your mind Edgar?! We'll be dead before the end of the month!"

Edgar simply shook his head before saying, "Calm yourself! Much has already been planned and put into place - none of you will be necessary to perform the deed. Our new allies are to be responsible for actually gutting the bastard. All that is needed from you for all of us to achieve our shared vision is for you to be ready to cause as much chaos as possible once the emperor lies dead."

Everyone seemed uncertain about Edgar's words but most felt at least reassured that they would not need to be present at the attempt to kill the Grand Emperor. They held no great love for the tyrant, quite the opposite in fact, but fighting against monsters in human flesh was a one-way ticket to the afterlife. And no one, not even the youthful would-be revolutionaries that surrounded Epolas, sought death that much.

The revered founder stood up, and asked the only question that mattered to him at this moment, "Who are these new allies, Edgar? How are you so certain that they'll be able to complete the abominable task considering that man's overwhelming strength?"

Everyone around him but Sertorius looked at Epolas as though he were a traitor but the old scholar didn't care.

Edgar's glare turned venomous as he looked at the old man before him, "Though you are our revered teacher, you do not have the right to answers to questions that concern this brotherhood's security."

"Horseshit!" Epolas exclaimed in genuine anger. "These fools have the right to know with whom you have forced them into bed with. Who is it hmm?! Which faction have you prostituted this once honourable group's name too?"

A round of boos directed at Epolas began but was quickly silenced by Edgar waving his hand - activating the sound-killing runes on the great hall's walls. Everyone instantly turned silent, all but Edgar that was.

After shooting an imperceptible smirk at Epolas the young man said, "Do not be angry at our dear founder. He is right that you are entitled to know and in time you will all be informed."

"In time everything will become clear!" Edgar proclaimed. "So let me hear you say, Death to the Imperium!"

"Death to the Imperium!" A woman cried out in response.

"Death to the Imperium!" The people around Epolas all began shouting.

He stood alone in silence - a defeated look on his face. Times of chaos and despair were ahead.