Marcus was left alone for only moments after Ah-Nu made his ominous proclamation and then vanished. For Ah-Nu to behave in the manner that he had, Marcus could only imagine what kind of thing or person had been observing them.

Before Marcus had a chance to do anything, another voice he recognizes calls out to him. "You are quite the industrious pain in my ass, aren't you, Marcus?"

Marcus slammed his focus down to the first floor of his dungeon. Sitting on the bottom of the spiral staircase, was The Agent. "Hello. What horrid maladies do you intend to bring upon me now?"

"Oh, Marcus," The Agent said, standing and walking towards the bunker room where Janel's body and Marcus's core were. With a thought, Marcus slammed the door of the bunker, activating the locking mechanism that he had come up with.

The Agent sucked his teeth at Marcus, "Don't be like this, Marcus, I am only so patient. Let me put an end to this. You can die, and maybe if that Goddess you worship, Bellona, not that other useless bitch Elina, has any sympathy, then she will let you have the afterlife you deserve."

Without hesitation, Marcus responded. "I can not do that. I don't know how you have tricked the Gods and Goddesses as to what you are, but I do not believe a word you say. You have power, but I will not be standing idly by while you do as you wish."

Marcus knew it was not a great boast, but something about this creature set him on edge. Even if he was not a God and had not tried to kill him already, Marcus would still oppose him. The Agent laughed, "Fair enough, Marcus, and just so you know, the entity that I, shall we say represent, has told me that I am not to directly interfere with you again. Even by talking to you now, I push that line, but he is the forgiving type. Well, at least to me. The trick is that he said nothing about the precious little priestess that you have. Maybe I take her and turn her into some fel lord's plaything, give her a collar, and let someone train her up as a good little pet. Well, either way, I think that Elina's head priestess will be coming with me."

Before Marcus could respond, The Agent vanished. Marcus shifted his focus to the inside of the bunker and found Janel still resting and glowing slightly on her bed and his core untouched. He shifted his focus back outside the bunker and found a fuming Agent standing at the door. His voice was icy with anger. "So you somehow managed to stop me from entering, but you can not stop a God. I can feel Elina's ilk coming from the inside."

"He is not a god then, but somehow he has the power to kill gods, and interacts with them on a level that other gods are unable to tell he is not one of them. What is he?" Marcus thought to himself.

"It is pointless. Eventually, I will send someone who will succeed. If it is me or another, I will break your mind, Marcus Terno." The Agent said, "I will send people to kill Janel, I will personally rip Elina's heart out, and then I will force you to watch, trapped inside that dungeon core body of yours, as the Solarium falls to The Swarm."

"Ha!" Marcus could not help but laugh.

"You think this is a game!?" Roared the Agent.

"No, I do not," Marcus said after getting his laughing under control, "Quite the contrary, I take this far more seriously than most. I think and analyze everything, and I task my AI to perform in-depth analyses of different possible scenarios. I spent every waking moment as Legatus of the First Solar Legion analyzing The Swarm, and you have just confirmed something that I have always thought."

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"Oh, and what is that?"

"There is no way that The Swarm could have lasted as long as it did without some kind of external help. We were too good. We were too efficient when it came to wiping them from the face of the galaxy." Marcus would have smiled grimly if he could. "You talk like I was the sole reason that the Solarium was winning. And in the beginning, when I first started out, I may have been. But to claim that for the entirety of the time I was Legatus, that I was the sole reason for Humanities success? That is a bold statement if ever I have heard one, and it is a statement that drastically underestimates the Human species."

"How does that underestimate the humans." The Agent asked, its blood near to boiling with how angry it was.

"It is pointless to ask because I am going to make sure that you see it," Marcus said, coming to a conclusion. "It seems to me that you have to hinder me here, for some reason. Maybe your boss wants me slowed down, or he wants me to fail, maybe something else, but you can not let me work unchecked, so I am going to make it your full time job. I am going to work so hard to succeed and fulfill my tasks that you have no choice but to spend every waking moment countering me, because if you slack off for even a moment, I will make such progress that it will seem as if you face the entire Solar Legion, rather than just their commander. So buckle down, Agent, because you are going to fail on both fronts. You will be so busy barely keeping up with me that you will not have time to babysit The Swarm, and the Solarium will wipe them from assistance. And there will be a moment when you or your boss decide you can both ignore me just for one day, and you will go to help The Swarm. On that day, I will succeed here, and we both know that by that point, the Solarium will have victory well in hand. Then, I will spend the rest of my essentially immortal lifespan finding a way to ensure that you can never set foot on this world again, and even more time in figuring out how to get that knowledge to the Solarium. I will spend every Iota of my ability, skill, and power to oppose you and your boss."

Marcus felt like The Agent looked as if he was about to pass out, but suddenly, The Agent's eyes rolled into the back of his head and filled with pitch black. When he next spoke, the voice that rolled forth from his throat resonated with the very fabric of reality. It terrified Marcus. "You seem to have upset my Agent."

"I believe I have," Marcus said, his voice sure, while his mind was in a panic trying to figure out what was going on. "I take it that you are The Agent's boss."

"I am."

"What the hell are you? Why do you want The Swarm to succeed? Why do you want me to fail." Marcus asked in a rush. He knew deep down, in the most instinctive place in his mind, that this thing could kill him.

"It matters not, as I heard what you said to my Agent, and I have decided that I will not be allowing that, so I will simply kill you." The Agent turned to the wall of the bunker. "I can not simply move into this space as this body is blocked, but I wonder how much damage this can take."

With no warning, the possessed Agent wound up, and dark energy that made his flesh smoke wrapped around his fist. When he struck the wall, Marcus could feel a chunk of the wall simply ceases to exist. The possessed Agent chuckled, "This will not take long. Just wait, Marcus, I'm coming. I had hoped to turn you to my side, but it seems that death might be the best option."

For the next few minutes, Marcus desperately applied more layers of Manastone, Dungeon Stone, and any other material he thought might help, and reinforced them with as much mana as he could force into them. He was convinced that the end was near when suddenly Ah-Nu reappeared inside the bunker.

Ah-Nu waved a hand, and the wall vanished, leaving Ah-Nu face-to-face with the possessed Agent.

The anger and fear that plastered themselves across The Agent's possessed face made Marcus feel a deep sense of relief.

Ah-Nu smiled. "Hello Zi-Ko, how are you, my son?"