ASCEIA OPENED HER eyes with relief that finally, Yrevia will never wreak havoc in the world. While she was still catching her breath, she closed her eyes back again and started establishing a telepathic connection to all serceans, including the remaining Parents of the Order that were still alive.

“Yrevia’s gone and she’s not going back. Serceans, if we wanted to be part of this world, to have a space for our kind, this is not the way. We can’t just live on the land where too much blood was spilled. Our kind and their kind have conflicted for centuries, we did unforgivable things to each other…and today is the day we will end it. Enough with the deaths and pain. I will not control you all but please, help me take out those beasts.”

“I’m afraid I’m going to disagree with you, Asceia,” a sercean said that echoed to her mind. “You can’t just decide this for all of us. Our kind remained in hiding just to stay alive, while they populated the whole world and made changes that slowly kill us.”

“I am so tired of sending my family to observe them. I am tired of being invisible. Yrevia was right, our kind is meant to rule this world!”

“Why are you doing this? Why are you siding with those humans?”

“Yrevia was doing what’s best for our kind, what we really deserve.”

“Yrevia was right!”

“This is war, Asceia. This is survival of the fittest kind. To end this war, only one kind must remain.”

“Bring back Yrevia!”

“Bring back Yrevia!” they all chanted.

“Leave us alone, Asceia! Get out of our minds!”

Asceia was shocked to hear those words from her people. She wanted to stay in their collected minds but they were pushing her out. They succeeded in cutting her influence off of them, but she was still tapping into their sense of sight and hearing. She can’t explain her disappointment and fear of seeing all of the families of the serceans surface and left the sea. They were marching on the coast, in the same direction as the beasts. They were carrying weapons they picked along the way and started murdering any humans they encountered.

“Asceia…”

“Troy!”

Hearing his voice, she quickly tethered her mind to him. She found him still trapped in the cylindrical glass tank, breathing well, and pounding the glass.

“Asceia, please help me.”

“I will come to you, but first, you need to get out of here. The serceans and beasts are out for blood. You’re not safe.”

She sang the Song and channeled her powers to Troy. She used the force of the water to push the glass until it caused a crack. With one last push, the glass shattered into pieces and the water flowed out. Being exposed to air, Troy’s gills under his jaw were closed and sealed by his skin, leaving no trace of their presence. He gasped for air and coughed when he started breathing through his nose again. He carefully stepped out of the tank, avoiding the sharp pieces of glass scattered everywhere.

He quickly headed for the door when suddenly, it opened, revealing Frejean’s presence. She had a small wound on her forehead that was still bleeding. But the expression on her face was unrecognizable, she wasn’t the Frejean she used to know.

“She killed Fatima…” Troy said to Asceia and he stopped walking.

“And she will pay for that.”

Frejean stepped inside the room, pulled out a gun from behind, and pointed it at him. “Tell Asceia to stop these attacks or I will pull this trigger,” she warned. But Troy wasn’t bothered, he didn’t move and just stared at her. “I know she’s with you now! Call her or I will fucking shoot you.”

Troy cleared his throat. “She said hi.”

In a blink of an eye, the pool of water on the floor was blasted to Frejean’s hand, giving her no time to react. She lost her grip on the gun and it was flicked off of her hand. She was about to chase the gun when suddenly, the water grabbed her feet and pulled her. She smashed her face to the ground and broke her nose. She screamed in pain and tried crawling for the gun, but the water reached for her first. It went into her nose and mouth and it didn’t stop flooding her insides. She struggled, scratching her face and throat in the hope of breathing air. But there was still more water around waiting to fill her up.

Troy just watched his best friend fight for her life and that triggered their memories together. He still can’t accept the fact that she betrayed them and that their friendship was fake and staged all along. He wasn’t happy about this, but he believe she deserved it. He let out a sigh when she stopped moving. Frejean’s eyes were still open and the water, mixed with blood, flowed out of her nose and mouth.

“Wait for me and be careful,” Asceia said when she stopped manipulating the water.

Asceia didn’t waste any second and disconnected herself from the power of the chamber. She left the cave and burst out of the water. With her influence on water, it only took her seconds to reach the shore, near the facility where she was held captive. As she looked for clothes outside the houses of coastal inhabitants, she heard distant explosions and rapid gunfire. Jet planes were flying overhead her, unsure if they were those privileged and the government of the Philippines escaping or the reinforcement of the armed forces trying to stop the creatures of the trench.

After finding clothes that were perfectly fit for her, she proceeded to the facility of Herozoan Genetics which has broken windows and cracked walls. Just by looking at it, she knew it will give in and collapse soon if another earthquake will strike. She went inside and saw the dead bodies of scientists, doctors, and guards scattered in the corridor. She can’t recognize them anymore for there were only bits and pieces of their bodies and clothes left.

She tracked Troy back to the surveillance room of the facility. Inside, she found him facing the wall full of small monitors, each monitor showed footage taken from the sky. Right there, she witnessed how the beasts ravaged the humans. Together with the serceans, they took down the defenses, armed forces, and reinforcement from other neighboring countries.

“How did you access these?”

“It turns out, Herozoan got hundreds of drones stationed everywhere in the country. I activated them to see what we are up against.” Troy turned around to face her.

“This country will not stand against these species. They will not stop until they conquered the world.”

He sensed Troy’s fear. “How can we stop this, Asceia?”

“I...I don’t know. I can’t override their minds anymore. They wanted Yrevia and they wanted this war to happen.”

“Where’s Yrevia?”

“She’s trapped in my mind, with Goddess Aesercean guarding her.”

“What are we going to do now?”

“I don’t...Wait, what’s that?”

Their focus shifted to one of the monitors where a bright white light fell from the sky. Troy’s fingers pressed the keys and instantly, that specific footage was zoomed and it took over the whole wall of monitors. They watched how a bizarre white light fell from the sky, both clueless about where it came from. Then it hit the ground where it didn’t result in any explosion. Troy and Asceia waited for a minute, trying to spot what was going on. Until their questions were answered when suddenly, five of the beasts from the trench grew larger than the buildings around it.

The beasts’ body was mutated, instantly placing them at the very top of the food chain. They had impenetrable thick scales. Their head had many eyes and one big mouth with overlapping sharp teeth that can chew heavy-duty vehicles. And three long and scaly tails that toppled the buildings. They started trashing the city. They opened their mouth wide and blew out a red fire that toasted and melted everything on its path.

“What the fuck is that?”

“That’s Apocalypse.”

They both turned around to face the woman who answered them behind them. She was tall, she had long black hair and an aura that screamed she knew everything.

••°°••

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