“As you command, Boss!” Kojiro shouted as he snapped a crisp salute in Crow’s direction.

“You’re pretty good,” Talwar said in a deepened voice.

“New standing order,” Crow said without looking back at Kojiro. “If we’re outside of Castle Bosporus, don’t salute me.”

“Why not?” Svenheim asked.

“We don’t want our enemies to know who’s in charge,” Crow said without explaining further.

We reached a line of four limousines that had just arrived at the edge of the roundabout. I figured they were probably reinforced in order to hold the weight of several Apostles.

“Four in one limo, three in the other three,” Crow said tersely as she gestured to the limos.

The four low-numbered Apostles boarded the first limo, and I boarded the second limo with Poldra and Dendrite. The windows of the limo were heavily tinted, so the three of us removed our masks a few seconds after the vehicle started moving.

As the limo exited through the open portcullis and started traveling down the only road connecting Castle Bosporus to the outside world, I saw thousands of Cognoscenti fly past the window in an endless horde of support and adoration. A huge crowd rivaling Times Square on New Years Eve had accumulated in the sidewalks all the way from the City of Ternarus to Castle Bosporus. There must have been at least a mile of switchbacks and sparsely-developed land between the two areas. I couldn’t fully comprehend the number of people that were present, but it must have been in the tens of thousands. All of them - at least, all that I could see - were cheering for the Dark Apostles.

“Wow, there sure are a lot of them. Poor bastards,” Poldra said as she shook her head.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“They were told that the Dark Apostles were invincible demigods, and they got us,” Poldra explained.

“They got Kojiro,” Dendrite laughed.

“Before we get there, is there anything else I need to know? Crow was still talking when I left,” I said quickly.

“Oh yeah, that,” Poldra said offhandedly. “Other than the ‘genocide debate’ between Melkior and Kamil, Crow mentioned that the only sure-fire way to kill Revenants is to cut their heads off.”

“A bit dark,” I said with a grimace.

“Well, we’re deploying to an area filled with Revenants. We might be forced to kill a few.” I was disturbed by the casualness in Poldra’s voice. As she spoke, she reached into a nearby mini-fridge and removed a bottle of champagne and a glass. “Crow also talked about Shadow Magic.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh?” I said, intrigued.

“Shadow Magic is teleportation,” Poldra said as she poured herself a glass of champagne. “It’s way easier than Battle Aura. To use Shadow Magic, you just click on the ability and choose a location you’ve already been. There’s a drop-down menu and everything. You lose a hundred mana, and you teleport. Easy-peasy.”

“Oh, that’s how GM gets around, isn’t it?” I said, wagging a finger.

“Yeah,” Poldra confirmed, “and our close connection to GM allows us to use the power. Convenient, isn’t it?”

“Well,” I said, scratching my chin, “I’m not gonna turn down at-will teleportation.”

The vehicle came to a stop. We looked outside and saw that the limo had stopped in the center of Ternarus. Buildings loomed above us, and a structure that could only be the Town Hall stood a few dozen feet beyond the limousine’s doors.

“We’ve arrived, my lords,” a voice said from the direction of the front of the limo.

We once again covered our faces with the metal masks before we exited the vehicle. The entire town square of Ternarus - an area easily big enough to hold a football stadium - was filled with cheering Cognoscenti. As we exited, we saw the other ten Apostles exit their limos nearby.

I raised my hand to wave at the crowd on impulse, and a ripple of enthusiasm traveled through the crowd near us. As I looked out at the huge crowd of adoring fans, I also saw a much smaller - almost nonexistent - group of people standing more than a hundred feet away from where we stopped. Some of them wore bandanas over their faces, and some waved cardboard signs. The signs said things like “Stop The War” or “Call Off The Deluvians,” though a few of the signs were written in Iron Script. There couldn’t have been more than a dozen of them. Were these the “protesters” that they had mentioned on the news two nights before? They were so far away that I could only see them because of my Enhanced Vision.

The thirteen of us were herded to a raised platform a few yards away from where the limos had stopped. Svenheim stepped in the center of the platform and jumped a few times to make sure it was sturdy enough to hold an Apostle. Seeing that Svenheim didn’t immediately fall through, the rest of us slowly stepped atop the platform.

A graphic had been printed on the ground of the platform. Thirteen red circles were laid out on the ground, and each circle held a number. Staggered slightly with odd-numbered Apostles standing in front of even-numbered Apostles, we lined up in numerical order.

Within seconds of me finding my place at the far-left side of the line, dozens of cameras were flashing in front of me. Some of the contraptions facing us were recording, and others were taking still shots. Some Cognoscenti was talking - I think he was some kind of elected official in Merkopia - but I wasn’t listening.

I zoned out and spent about a minute absentmindedly adjusting the strap on my carbine before I felt Dendrite’s hand lightly slap my upper arm. I turned to him.

“Hey, Enzo. Show your tattoo,” Dendrite whispered to me. I saw that he and Poldra were pulling their shirts away to reveal the Roman numerals printed on their collarbones. I did the same, pulling the carbine to one side as I did so.

There were a few flashes, and I allowed my shirt to readjust and cover my chest as soon as I saw the others do the same. I was not particularly interested in the event. They were all NPCs, after all.

The elected official stepped in front of us and began to give an impassioned speech to the crowd that - for the life of me - I can’t remember. About thirty seconds into the speech, Crow started to walk off the stage and, at a volume loud enough for us all to hear, said, “Get back to the vehicles, we have work to do.”