Rome, Summer 2046

“Man, sometimes I wonder if I’ve wasted the last twenty years,” Eron gazed out into the darkness.

The second floor apartment looked out directly down a straight street leading to a walled city within a city.

Cal studied the wall separating Vatican City from the rest of Rome.

He had visited once as a tourist back in the B.S. era.

“The wall’s a lot more functional than I remember. Can you see the patrols?”

“Don’t give me the soft handle,” Eron snorted. “You know I can see them and I know that you know everything that you need to know about the place. Probably scanned it all out the moment you got in range, dude.”

“I figured a normal conversation would help keep you distracted from them dark thoughts and shit.”

His brother chuckled.

“I’m staring out of a dark window with only moonlight to illuminate my face. Let me brood.”

“Nah, you’re a light-type, not a darkness-type.”

“C’mon, man. This is serious,” Eron whined.

“Fine, fine,” he waved his brother on.

Eron took a breath.

“The last time I was here was, like, four or five years ago. You’re thinking that’s way too long—”

“I wasn’t…”

“And you’re right. I mean, I can travel to anywhere on the planet in minutes, sometimes seconds if I wasn’t being careful not to set the air on fire. So, years is too long, but I try. There’s just so many things going on all the damn time. I came to this place for the first time to make sure that the Church didn’t backslide to the days when they set ‘witches’ on fire and checked periodically after.”

“Prescient decision as it turns out.”

“That’s just it though. They were generally a force for good in the area. The Pope was a fairly young dude for a pope. Third one since the spires. He was a kid back then, his parents were liberal. Euro liberal, so they brought him up progressive-style. They managed to survive until he was, like, a teenager. Anyways, the Church wasn’t really in a position to be exclusionary. A lot of the older folks died in those early years. So, you had young men and women smiting monsters and bad guys with faith-flavored spells and Skills. Did a good job of keeping people mostly safe, so I figured I didn’t need to come around too much. Just every few years to make sure the priests didn’t go back to molesting kids, you know?”

“Among other things…”

“Which is brings us to now…”

“You can’t really blame yourself. You couldn’t know that a demon would worm its way in.”

“I’d argue that it’s exactly what I should’ve been looking out for. I’d look and listen in from a distance every time I happened to be flying in the area, but somehow I didn’t notice. Two decades of hard work undone in a few years.”

“Demon magic.”

“Is that a theory?”

“Nope. The demon fooled your senses.”

“I can see bacteria if I concentrate hard enough.”

“Magic.”

“Yeah,” Eron grunted. “It’s taking a lot more effort to see and hear anything even from this close. Should’ve realized something was up before. Thinking back, I didn’t hear or see anything back then.”

“Magic to block the senses and magic to trick an observer into not noticing there should’ve been something there to notice. And, like I said, not your fault. It’s hard work piercing the barrier,” Cal wiped the trickle of blood from his nose.

“Been awhile since you’ve bled from your face holes.”

Eron turned away from the window, searching the darkness.

“I forget sometimes,” his eyes fell on the large framed picture hanging in the center of the living room wall. “People lived here once. I wonder about them. What was their life like? Young looking parents. Two young kids. They looked happy. You can tell by how their smiles reach their eyes. They didn’t survive the first night. I cleaned this place up before you all got here.”

Cal eyed the dark stains on the floorboards, the walls, the furniture.

Age had taken away the blood-red color leaving them closer to brown.

“There were bones in the bedrooms. Scattered all over. You know what I hate?” Eron sighed. “That I’ve seen enough places like this that I can tell what human bones look like and can guess pretty closely to how old a person was just from looking. Fuck… I can see the bite marks where something gnawed on them. Even the smallest marks.”

“What did you do with them?”

“Gathered every piece no matter how small, burned them to ash and scattered them in the sky,” he shrugged.

Cal’s eyes drifted to the crucifix on the wall.

“Yeah, they probably would’ve wanted to be buried, ash or whole,” Eron sighed. “I don’t know. It felt wrong to just dig a hole and chuck them in. Who’d mourn them? They’d just be forgotten like billions of other people.”

“The scale is staggering when you allow yourself to really think about it.”

“Most of the apartments in the city are the same. Bones left where the monsters discarded them.”

“The living need to worry about living before they can lay the dead to rest. One day there’ll be time to go through places like this and do what you did. You see? You did a good thing for this family. You did the best you could.”

“I need to spend more time with my own.”

“And you will. Still bringing Lera and…” he sighed, “Wytchraven to Boy’s sweet sixteenth?”

“Dude, I told you it’s weird Fae stuff. Using her real name will draw the wrong kind of attention to her and you.”

“How does that even work? There’s got to be multiple people with her real name out there.”

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t be thinking of them. You’d be thinking of her and that’s what matters or so she told me,” Eron shrugged. “All I know is that I tried it once and the Wild Hunt dropped on my head. Killed them all, but,” he held his hands out wide, “dead isn’t really dead when it comes to the faeries. They come back, different, but sort of the same. You know how it is.”

“I’ll take your word for it. For now.”

“Whatever man, just don’t screw it up for her. Remember that it’ll affect everyone else in her coven out in the Fae Realm.”

“I’m going to have to check that place out one day.”

“I keep asking you. Your mind powers might be useful. Get the faeries off their back. Lera’ll be able to travel the real world freely without the hunt always popping up.”

“Maybe you guys coming isn’t a good idea.”

“Nah, it’ll only be a little dangerous since you’re doing the escort. Portal gates might throw the hunt off too. In any case since I won’t have to protect them, I’ll be able to just destroy the hunt. So, no powers or class yet with Boy?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s good… no fogginess?”

Two sets of eyes narrowed at each other.

“No.”

“Probably wouldn’t be a big deal anyways. You and Nila did a good job raising him. That should counteract the… uh… bad stuff potential. Yup a perfectly normal teenager. Perfectly, normally, expert swordsmanly.”

“Great at other melee weapons too.”

“Still risky without any powers or a class.”

“I’m hoping he’ll realize that and decide on a less violent career.”

“Doctor, lawyer or…” Eron scratched his head, “what was the third one?”

“I don’t actually remember.”

“C’mon, dude, you know that’s bullshit. Go search in those archives you call a memory.”

“I’d rather not. It’s best left a mystery.”

“Is it nurse?”

“I don’t think so. That seems redundant.”

“We’re terrible Filipinos. We should know this,” Eron grinned. “Well at least you’re setting him up with some good gear. Although, spending millions of Universal Points for a sixteenth birthday present seems a bit much. Remember that old TV show with rich brats getting, like, the wrong kind of luxury car and throwing tantrums?”

“Super Sweet Sixteen?”

“Something like that. Poor kids. Screwed up before they really had a chance to not grow up into assholes.”

“What’re you trying to say?”

“Nah, Boy’s situation is different. I mean it’s life and death. Say, I’m interested in bringing some stuff over for Lera. Defensive stuff. Power armor. Shield generators. That sort of thing. She’s already got plenty of magic-based stuff, but some tech-based gear wouldn’t hurt.”

“You can ask the Threnosh yourself.”

“No shit? They’re actually going through with it.”

“They’ve saved up the points. Earth is going to be a sort of retirement for the ones getting old.”

“We’re old,” Eron sighed. “You’re, like, eighty.”

“I don’t even remember.”

“Liar. Can you get the senior citizen discount yet? Still have your driver’s license?”

“Yeah and I still look like the picture.”

“True. No one would buy that you’re an octogenarian.”

“C’mon, man, I’m not even sixty.”

“Creeping up on you though.”

“Does it bother you?”

“What?”

“That we aren’t aging.”

“I don’t know about me, but I see a few white hairs on your head. Twenty to be exact.”

“And how many of them have been there since I hit thirty?”

“How should I know?”

“Nila’s getting older. Sure, she’s doing it much slower than a normal human. But… I’m worried about our son. He’s aging at a normal rate. Growing up too fast.”

“So’s Lera, but I figure it’s one of those things were they grow to adulthood normally, but then it slows down. It’d suck if puberty lasted a decade. Not looking forward to that. Can you imagine? A moody teenager with the strength of a thousand men and the ability to vomit solar heat rays.” Eron shook his head with a grimace. “Fuck! I can hear the torture.”

Cal silenced it, blocking his brother from sensing what was going on deep within Vatican City.

The necropolis underneath Saint Peter’s Basilica. A holy place desecrated by those supposed to take care of it.

The demon’s corruption ran deep.

It had twisted itself within mind, body and soul.

Could it be undone?

He had tried with the flesheaters of the Meat Parade.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Ten years of failure and yet he hadn’t stopped.

Surely, the demon-corrupted deserved the same chance.

“Damn it. I recognize that look,” Eron grunted. “Thanks, by the way. Don’t know how much longer I just stand here. If your team doesn’t get here soon…”

“Patience. We’re not just here to kill the demon.”

“Yeah, I remember what you told me. We hurt the demon and it’ll have its followers kill the prisoners for healing and power.”

A faint thought tickled the walls around Cal’s mind. He had been waiting for it, so he let it through.

The telepathic conversation was lengthy, but with the way he could speed up perception it took place within the span between seconds.

“Speak of the devil,” he removed a small stone from a pouch of holding. He traced the rune on its smooth surface then tossed it into the middle of the living room.

“My kids do good work,” Eron nodded proudly.

“Yeah, portal stones are really useful. Especially, since they managed to make these short range, temporary ones. Not everyone has bags of holding or the strength to carry a hundred pounds worth of stones.”

The portal started as a tiny pinprick of light above the stone.

Eron pulled the curtains.

“Don’t bother. I’m in control of this area. No one will notice.”

Light grew larger and brighter in a slowly expanding circle.

It was a strange sight as though one’s mind couldn’t quite understand what they saw.

The circle was opaque, but instinct told them that they should’ve been able to see through it.

It fluctuated as one moved around.

Stare straight on and all one saw was a circle of light.

Move to an angle and one could almost be certain that they saw through to the other side of the living room. Or was it a reflection? One that the viewer was absent from.

The first person stepped through with gauntlet-clad fists raised protectively over his helmed face. Thick plate covered the big man. Almost too much and too heavy to be believable. Indeed, the floorboards groaned in protest at his booted steps.

“Is that Rynnen?” Eron moved forward in a blur, crushing his nephew in the manliest of hugs. “It’s been too long! Look at you! You’re so huge and built! Hey, Cal! It’s Rynnen! Why didn’t you tell me he was part of the team?”

“It didn’t come up.”

“Please put me down Tito Eron,” Rynnen managed to ground out.

“Oh, right, sorry,” Eron sized the young man up. “What are you, like, 6’4”?”

“Yeah, something like that,” Rynnen said.

“Man, I haven’t seen you in like five years.”

“I know. We kept missing each other.”

“I’ve heard a lot about the good work you’ve done in the Philippines.”

“Yeah, no big deal,” Rynnen shrugged pauldron-covered shoulders. “Killing monsters mostly.”

Cal suppressed a laugh at his nephew trying to act nonchalantly.

“Hey, Cal,” Eron grinned. “What’s it like being the only one that didn’t grow?”

“I thought about it. Dismissed it.”

“I grew, like, six inches. Rynnen here’s like the Juggernaut. Boy’s like a head taller than you and he’s still growing. Must be tough.”

“Wait!” Rynnen’s eyes widened as he pulled the buzzing gem from his pocket.

“Family catch up later, quest now,” Eron nodded.

They made room for the rest of Cal’s team to make their way through the portal with two locals in tow.

Unnecessary introductions were made.

He already knew what he needed to know about the two through a surface scan of their thoughts. Just enough to make sure they weren’t a threat or a trap with a minimum amount of privacy violation as possible.

Eron surreptitiously picked up the now useless portal stone and ground it to dust.

The casual act wasn’t missed by anyone.

“Okay. We’re on a timetable, so I’ll make this quick,” Cal regarded the two locals. He focused on the woman since she was the leader.

She met his eyes with an intense gaze. Righteous vengeance blazed from behind them as befitting her class. She removed her helmet to reveal long, raven hair tied into a tight ponytail.

“Please answer my questions quickly and too the point. Understand that we will verify truthfulness.”

“They already did that,” the man grunted. “Truth gems, truth spells, truth Skills. We passed. They passed ours, so let’s get going. People need us.” Long-fingered hands hung close, but not on the wooden weapons at his hips. They looked like old flintlock pistols without the iron barrel, trigger and lock mechanism. The thin wood looked delicate. “We called you here.”

“No you didn’t.”

“Fuck off. We posted a Quest on the spires.”

“I already told you we didn’t see it. You posted it locally or regionally or whatever. We’re from much farther away,” Drake snapped.

Cal sensed that there was tension between the two.

“They’re here because I called them,” Eron said.

The man was about to argue further when the woman raised a finger.

“I will answer your question, but answer this first,” she regarded Eron, “are you the one that brings food and kills monsters and bad men?”

“Yeah.”

“Bullshit. He’s been doing that for almost twenty years. You’re too young,” the man said.

“What’s that truth gem in your pocket saying?”

The man pulled it out.

“I’ve been helping communities all over the world since almost the beginning,” Eron said.

The gem glowed bright yellow.

“Is that the kind that glows when it’s true? Or the opposite?” Rand whispered.

“Oh my god!” Emma hissed. “You’re making Ms. Teacher look bad.”

“What? I’m a battle wizard. You’re the ‘wizard’ wizard. You keep saying that we need to honor each other’s strength. So, I’m asking you to lend me your expertise.”

The whispered conversation drew eyes and ears seeing as how it wasn’t that quiet and half the people in the room had superior senses as their baseline.

“Glowing means truth,” the man raised a brow, “who does it the other way?”

“I know right,” Rand grinned.

Cal cleared his throat.

“So, our plight finally drew your attention,” the woman nodded.

“The demon’s magic concealed its activities,” he said.

“That became clear after the months turned into years.”

“I’d like to hear your story… an abridged version for now.”

The woman, Iria, told the tale quickly.

Her anger grew with the telling.

He sensed something like a raging fire in and around her.

An aura on the verge of erupting, but kept under the control of an iron will.

The Church had changed slowly at first.

The unprecedented openness that the progressives had instituted in the name of survival against the monsters and evil men began to close.

The Pope, a man in the prime of his health, grew ill then died within the span of weeks.

The new Pope was an ancient man. One of the last surviving holdovers from the pre-spires days.

Still, there hadn’t been much worry.

The old priest was much beloved. Even in the old days he hadn’t belonged to the conservative faction.

Unfortunately, old traditional ways thought long left behind were brought back from the refuse heap of history.

The strictest interpretation of doctrine and dogma returned to the forefront.

Those within the Church that didn’t fit or pushed back were never seen beyond the walls again.

And like a single pebble growing into an avalanche that could swallow an entire town things escalated with frightening speed.

A brand new Inquisition was instituted to root out so-called evil.

Inquisitors took people with impunity to torture until confession.

There was talk of a new crusade and crusaders to bring the faith back to the rest of the world.

Darker still were the rumors of depraved acts and rituals behind the walls.

Now, the communities in Rome lived in terror as the Church could take them and their loved ones at any time of the day and at any moment to vanish forever behind Vatican City’s walls.

Iria had come to the tale late.

She and Javier had lived in Spain along with their band.

Several dozen strong they roamed the land as some sort of vigilante group avenging wrongs at all costs.

Many a marauding band learned to fear them… at least the survivors did.

Word had traveled across the Mediterranean and they had come.

The years hadn’t been kind to them.

Battles in the dark and shadow of Rome’s twisted streets, underneath the watchful eyes of ancient cathedrals and coliseums ate away at their numbers.

Only a handful of the original members remained.

They had drawn replacements from the locals, but those lacked the levels of the dead and growth was never fast enough.

“You’re an avenger. Personal grievances? Or can you act on behalf of others?”

“I fight for all that lack the means to gain vengeance for themselves,” Iria said.

“Will you take prisoners?”

“No. Their deeds are evil beyond doubt. That much we’ve been able to discover. All those responsible must die.” Her glare dared him to object.

The decision point came to him sooner than he’d have preferred.

It was a flaw from certain viewpoints.

His need to consider consequences beyond the immediate.

A pebble dropped in a lake ripples out.

He needed to know what that hundredth ripple meant.

“You know what they are behind those walls. Demon-touched, Demon-corrupted. These and many more. It’s a part of them now. Their class. They have chosen to embrace it. There can be no redemption in this life. Perhaps in death, but that is not for us to decide. It’s God’s judgment that awaits them and let them be damned for their actions.”

“Your band is too weak.”

“That’s what you’re here for, is it not? I’ve heard stories of the flying man killing giant monsters with a single blow,” she regarded Eron. “The people will rise if they know you are here to smite evil.”

“You’ll just get them killed if you think you’re leading them into a battle with demon-boosted bastards,” Eron sighed.

“She’s not.”

Iria’s eyes narrowed.

Cal continued.

“You’re going to keep your people outside the walls at a safe distance. We will bring everyone kept prisoner to you for safekeeping. Beyond that your only role is to surround the Vatican and try to keep demon-aligned people from escaping. Now, I’m not one to stand in the way of a righteous cause. That would make me a hypocrite and I try not to be. So, you and anyone over Level 40 can enter and pursue your vengeance after all of the prisoners are out. Your fate at that point is solely in your hands. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Iria said. “Return us to our people.”

One portal stone later and Iria and Javier were gone.

“She’s intense,” Rand nodded. “Hot too.”

“Kid, do you not have that voice inside your head telling you to keep the dumb shit to yourself?” Howard grunted.

Rand flushed, but kept quiet.

“Sir, what would you have done if she hadn’t agreed,” Emma said.

“You’re so old,” Eron snickered.

“I would’ve put them to sleep, Emma.”

Cal regarded the team.

Always with the danger, but they were all adults and they had chosen to be here.

Still, he could’ve done this by himself.

Eron alone.

The two of them.

Success was almost a guarantee in any permutation.

The presence of a team meant that more living prisoners would remain at the end of it all.

“We’ve practiced this plenty of times. Stick to the plan and your roles. Don’t freelance. That could cost lives. Your own and the ones we’re here to save. Get in position and wait for the signal. Don’t worry about surveillance. I’m blocking everything,” he said.

Eron pushed the window open as the rest of the team departed.

Cal joined him while mentally keeping tabs on every moving piece of consequence in the area.

His team.

Iria and hers.

The calls traveling through means as varied as spells, Skills, or good old fashioned running messengers.

“Five minutes for our team to get in position. Who knows how much for Iria to gather her revengers?” Eron said.

“Ten to fifteen. They were ready. Got the word out as soon as they left.”

“Surprisingly efficient and organized.”

The silence grew uncomfortable.

Both of them itched to go.

Every second was a second a person endured torture.

“You remember how I used to say that if I had the power I’d destroy the Church?” he sighed.

“Yeah, Mom used to get so mad,” Eron nodded.

“In my defense I was an edgy teenager.”

“I remember you used to say that when you were in your twenties.”

“But, I was only half-serious that time.”

“I guess time is flat circle. You’ve gone all the way around back to your edgelord phase.”

“It was less of a phase and more of a dabbling.”

“Sure, sure, whatever you tell yourself to not be a dork.”

A loud chime in their ears made them jump.

The familiar voice accompanied the familiar text.

----------------------------------------

Congratulations!

Your world has entered a new phase.

It stands revealed as a Terminus World.

Prepare yourself for the greater challenges ahead.

Information is now available for purchase in the Spire.

----------------------------------------

“Fuck you, spires!” Eron shook his fist at the one visible a short distance away.

Cal came out of it a moment after his brother.

“What the hell! Terminus World? New bullshit ass pulls all the goddamn time! I swear, it’s just dicking us around at this point. What does that even fucking mean!”

“The end.”

“Yo, what?”

“The word, it means the end. Like the last train stop or something.”

“So, Earth is the last stop. Fuckers lied to us about upworlds and downworlds. We’ve been the downworld the whole time.”

“Possibly worse,” Eron frowned.

“It could be like we thought. A chain of worlds with ours at the end. The Threnosh world above, Zalthyss’ above that and so on.”

“That’s actually better since we don’t have to worry about a second world below us. And since the Threnosh are your friends, we’ve got a buffer.”

“It could be worse. What if Earth is like the train station in a port city?”

“All the tracks from all the cities lead straight to it,” Eron groaned. “Multiple worlds, all worlds have a straight shot to us.”

“The only way to find out is to visit the spires.”

“This is shit timing.”

“Nothing changes.”

Cal reached out to his team and assured them that the plan was in place.

He did the same to Iria.

A simple call and they pushed that disturbing message to the back of their thoughts.

He may have added a little mental help to keep them focused.