Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 7

Chapter 38: 666 The Mark of the Beast

(PART 1)

Messor is watching Abaddon socialize with the men on Caesar’s ship.

Her eyes shine bright gold and a disgusted frown that doesn't match her usual demeanor resides on her face.

The reason for this, is that the person who helped create the abyss of eternal hell-fire for her and Ubica to burn in is right in front of her.

“You guys stay here...” Messor demands through her teeth.

The others try to plead her into staying but she has already opened the door and walked out onto the deck.

She shoves through a couple of men to get closer to Abaddon, and when she gets a proper sight of him, she raises her index finger.

A little black ball of energy floats above her finger until it takes the form of what looks to be a black monarch butterfly.

She gently pushes it off and it flies directly toward him.

The little black butterfly lands on his chest, and as soon as he notices it, he is propelled backwards at such a speed he viciously flies through the thick oak guard of the ship and is sent skidding across the water hundreds of meters away.

It all happened so fast that it took the crew a couple seconds to process what had just occurred.

They turn to Messor and glare at her in shock.

Napoleon comes rushing out of the barrack room to see exactly what is going on. He had heard the noise and immediately ran to the deck, and after seeing the destruction firsthand, he'd have to be dumb not to know what happened.

“What are you doing!?” Napoleon yells toward the back of who he thinks to be a Harvest God.

She doesn't turn when she replies in a mumble, “I'm going to kill him...”

Caesar is angered about the sudden attack on a helpless man, he grabs her shoulder to turn her towards him so he can give her a scolding.

However, when he pulled on her with all of his might, she didn't even budge, it is like she is a solid pillar of stone that has been planted in the ground.

Messor moves her eyes to him and gives him a look of murder.

A cold feeling rushes down his spine and causes his knees to instantly quiver like a scared child.

The captain doesn't even say a word and backs off.

“That guy is a monster! We need to come up with a strategy to somehow defeat him, we can't just attack him head on!” Napoleon tries to urge her back into the barracks.

“I know exactly who he is... “ she says as she takes off her trucker's cap and lets her silky white hair flow in the wind.

She then takes off her button up plaid shirt and tosses it aside as well.

Shedding these extra layers of clothing gives her body room to reveal her true self.

Messor shines in a gold light, and that light moves from around her body and forms into a mass above her head, and that mass of light in turn forms into a brilliant halo. From the white of her half bare back comes two white wings that shine in a gold tint, each of them are six feet long, giving her a twelve foot wingspan.

“What?” Napoleon mutters in surprise.

What he is seeing is an image that belongs in the color pages of the Bible, in front of him stands the perfect image of an Angel.

Messor flaps her wings and flies fifty meters up in one flap, the air pushed into the floor of the ship is so strong it blows a few men off their feet. Floating in the sky, she looks down on her target like a bird of prey.

Coming out of the water and standing on his feet on the ocean surface is Abaddon.

Surprisingly, he has a wide grin on his face, and without batting an eye he speaks, “Well well, if it ain't the whore of the Antichrist! Damien did mention to me that you were here in Purgatory, I shoulda known you'd go rushing to Ubica.”

Even though the distance between them is rather far, Messor heard his words perfectly, that accent of his is unmistakable. Just hearing it causes her to grit her teeth in anger.

Without an ounce of hesitation she waves her white wings in his direction and hundreds of black butterflies come from the wind it created.

The butterflies zoom at the speed of sound and land in the water all around Abaddon, every last one of those butterflies explode violently and send multiple plumes of water stretching hundreds of meters into the sky.

The blasts are so intense and so loud that the crew on the deck of the ship are put in a hazy state where all they hear is an intense ringing noise in their ears much like someone is blowing a high pitched whistle right in front of their face. The hundreds of blasts seemingly block out the sunlight and replace it with the white of the water. An occurrence this outstanding is so surreal that they literally think they might have died.

In actuality, this is the power of the False Prophet, the one person who could stand beside the Antichrist and share in his strength.

Messor smiles devilishly, “I've wanted to kill you for a long time now... this is revenge for creating that wretched abyss. If it wasn't for what you did, Ubica and I would still be living the way we once were!”

As if responding to her words, a fierce wind brews from the center of the explosions and each blast that had sent the water upwards into the sky begins twirling in the form of numerous tornadoes.

The swirling masses of water rush toward Messor and the ship, and out of the center of that tornado comes Abaddon with two swirling forms of water under his feet propelling him into the air.

“Ha! How cute of ya to hold a grudge, too bad that without the Antichrist yer nothing!”

Abaddon keeps his laugh as loud as possible while he takes a marble out of the pouch he holds on his waist. He flicks it from his hand and the marble flies faster than a bullet towards the face of Messor, but this isn't just any kind of attack, the marble has a bright orange light trailing behind as though it were a comet.

“!!”

The destructive power in this attack is felt in the trembling air, Messor knows that she will likely be blown into oblivion along with the ship once his attack hits.

But not having time to counter attack, she covers herself with her wings and hopes to somehow get out of this without losing all of her limbs.

Abaddon uses the destruction point of any object, living or not, to manipulate it into doing what he wants.

He can literally control the flow of normality in an object or person and bend it in any direction.

With this ability he can turn water into a tornado, fire into a solid mass, and a marble into a projectile with as much destructive force as a comet falling from space.

If any of those don't happen to work, all he'd need to do is touch a person and reverse their bloodstream or expand their organs to turn them into a ball of flesh.

This is why he was able to rise the ranks from a disgraced Angel of Heaven all the way to the top 7 Demons of the Hierarchy. Other demons don't like his personality or his past, but it is more than likely they are intimidated by this seemingly unstoppable ability.

The marble is only a few feet away from tearing both Messor and the ship apart when it is suddenly intercepted and sent flying off in a random direction before exploding out in the distance over the ocean.

“What!?” Abaddon shouts as the momentum of the tornadoes under his feet behind him send him zooming uncontrollably towards Messor's direction.

Then, through the white wash of the ocean he feels a hand grip his face and the next thing he knows he is blown through the tornadoes and skipped across the ocean at an incredible speed.

Messor still had her wings shut so she couldn't see what had just happened, but all the danger that she had just felt from Abaddon's looming attack disappeared in a flash.

She realizes that she has just been saved, but who could possibly be strong enough to have saved her from a situation like that?

Upon moving her wings, she catches sight of him.

The man's sudden appearance puts her into a slight state of shock.

“Damien..?”

The confident grin that normally resides on Damien's face is not there, he exudes such an air of seriousness that it makes Messor's body feel like it weighs a ton.

“I can't have you being killed just yet Messor... don't let your foolish attempt at payback cost you your life.”

“Why are you here?” Messor asks hoarsely.

“You don't actually expect an explanation do you?”

“I'd like to know if it somehow involves me. I still haven't done anything contrary to our deal that would bring about a reason for you to show up.”

Damien begins to float down toward the ship as he says, “I know you haven't.”

That's all he needed to say in order to show her that he isn't here to harm her in any way.

As far as she knows, it is his time to personally kill off the rest of the humans, and she has no intentions of stopping him if that turns out to be the case.

On his way down from the sky, he is pelted by the frightened glares of the crewmen.

He gets ready to land when the voice of Abaddon is heard just to the right of him.

“What the fuck was that for!?”

The demon has reappeared winded and soaked in water, his shoulders rising with each heavy breath. However, he is uninjured despite the sudden and vicious attack.

Damien's eyebrows twitch at Abaddon's tone. “If I recall correctly, I believe that Leviathan told you not to touch the False Prophet.”

Abaddon shrugs his shoulders as if he doesn't care, “Tch, she attacked me first. Nonetheless, she's still alive ain't she? At least lemme finish my job in killing those humans, I haven't even started havin' fun yet.”

“There's been a change of plan.”

“Hah?”

“None of those humans will be dying today... so I'll need you to head back to Hell until further notice.”

Abaddon frowns and voices his displeasure, “Fuck that! I already got screwed outta havin' fun last time when Beelzebub got in my way!”

Damien takes his index finger, points it to the sky and replies, “Tell me something Abaddon... when I gave you a seat in the Hierarchy, what was the one condition?”

Abaddon clicks his tongue and looks away, signifying that he knows exactly what it is.

Damien smiles and then points that finger at his underling before saying, "Obey me.”

Out of nowhere, Abaddon is engulfed in a dark red flame and disappears into the sky.

This is apparently some kind of transportation spell that sent Abaddon straight back to Hell.

Now having no one between him and the ship, Damien floats down to the deck and scours the faces of the people with his eyes.

“Oh? I recognize you.” he said when he spotted Napoleon glaring at him with a face full of caution.

“Y-You...“

Napoleon pulls out his sword and readies his mind to attempt to defend his comrades and the crewmen.

Finding this all too funny, Damien decides to get straight down to business.

“Don't be wreckless, I'm not here to kill anybody. If you decide to come at me, you’re as good as dead.”

This threat hits Napoleon like a fast moving car crash, he had just seen Damien repel the ferocious attack of Abaddon like it was nothing. No matter what kind of ability he possesses now, Damien would be able to kill him as easily as stepping on an ant.

Seeing that he isn't going to do anything, Damien shifts his attention to the door to the hallway that leads down to the barracks.

His red eyes glow and he says, “My real target is in there.”

In a flash, the entire hallway is blown into pieces and are sent flying off in the distance, if one blinked, they would've missed the entirety of what just happened.

Standing where the hallway once was is Trojia, Strauphius, Daey, and Tsubiri.

They each look at him in shock and wonder why he is here instead of Abaddon.

“Who is this guy??” asked Strauphius.

He has yet to see Damien in person so as far as he knows, the man standing before him could potentially be an ally.

But that is so far from the truth it's comical, the person on the ship deck is the puppet master behind every single event that has plagued the group thus far.

Damien walks towards the four and Strauphius can feel the fear emanating from the girls behind him, his natural instinct is to protect them so he gets into a guarding posture.

"Don't take another step.” he orders.

But Damien doesn't stop, instead he keeps walking and points his index finger upwards.

“You're in the way.”

He simply motions his finger to the left and Strauphius is sent screaming across the wooden deck and into the ledge. He was moving at such a speed his body almost plowed right through it, he’d be lucky if a bone hasn't been broken in that impact.

The three girls don't even have a chance to look his way to see if he is alright because Damien is right in front of them, staring at them with those frightening red eyes.

Because the three of them are standing on the stairs that lead down to the barracks, they are looking up at him, which adds to the tension of this situation. It's as though they are small animals that have been cornered by a large predator.

Damien leans down to their level and speaks, “Would you ladies like to know why I'm here?”

Before he can continue speaking, Messor lands to the side of him and says, “I'd like to know the same thing.”

Damien ignores her presence and speaks as though she wasn't there at all.

“What if I told you that Ubica has abandoned you so he could protect a family he has met on the way to the Gate?”

“Abandoned?"

“I'm telling you that Leviathan gave Ubica an ultimatum earlier... he knew that Abaddon was coming here to attack the ship, but chose to stay on the island that family lives on instead of returning to help you.”

Messor frowns, “Let me guess, if he left, Leviathan was going to kill them?”

“He had to choose between the lives of you and the others or the lives of that family. He had to decide which was more important to him. And he isn't here right now is he?”

“There has to be more of a reason behind it than that. I'm not stupid enough to believe that it's that simple.” Tsubiri said, confident in her declaration.

“How loyal you all are to the image of him you’ve created...”

Damien takes something out of his pocket and holds it in the palm of his hand. It looks like it is a red diamond and it spirals in his hand as if there is some kind of magnetic force moving it clockwise.

“I would like to give one of you a gift... the problem is, I don't know which one of you three I should give it to.”

Even though he says he plans on giving them a gift, the statement came across like an executioner’s final words to someone he’s about to behead with an axe.

Damien moves his frightening red eyes to the right and begins to speak to Daey, “You seem to be a dear friend of his, I’m certain if you had grown to hate him, he’d be devastated. However, I think you are too kind to be capable of harboring a resentment strong enough to give you the strength needed.”

“ W-What are you talking about?” warily asked Daey in response.

Damien ignores her words and then addresses Tsubiri. “I think you’d be able to compartmentalize your way into forgiving him. You'd be more of a trigger if you were to just die.”

Tsubiri wears confusion all over her face, she also wonders just what in the world he is talking about. But hearing him say that she'd be better off dead is enough to throw a heavy weight of fear into her chest.

Not to be left out, Trojia takes the next glare from Damien. As if stumbling upon a great treasure, his eyes seem to glisten when he addresses her.

“But you… If you are anything like your mother, your feelings would change upon seeing the truth. You’d reject the cruel world he created and come to reject him. As the first person he’s ever protected, he wouldn’t be able to handle your hate.”

By now, the three of them know that he is talking about Ubica, they just don't know how he knows all these things about them.

Trojia can't help but want to ask that very question, but when Damien looks to Messor and then back to her, she gets her answer.

“A spy?” Trojia asked, her eyes widened by the revelation.

Messor shrugs her shoulders, “I wouldn't go so far as to say that, I'm merely working to make Ubica happy. I'll never do anything that doesn't benefit him.”

“How can you say that working with Damien is benefiting Ubica!? Just who are you anyway!?” Trojia inquires.

“You'll know soon enough.” Damien says, interrupting her interrogation.

Damien then takes the hand opposite of the one holding the diamond and grabs her by the neck, he pulls her from the stairs leading down to the barracks to his level on the deck.

“Trojia!!”

Both Tsubiri and Daey shout and they each head up the stairs to attempt to retrieve her, but before they can get any closer they are stopped by the wings of Messor.

“Don't be stupid, if you try to stop him you'll just be killed”

“B-But!”

“He's not going to hurt her, you heard him right? He isn't here to kill anybody.”

The only thing the two of them can do is watch in horror as he holds her up above his head as if he is hoisting a prized trophy. None of the crew members interfere either because they are either in a state of shock due to the pressure of his presence, or they were told not to move by Napoleon, who is also standing there watching.

While holding Trojia up by the throat he looks her square in the eye as he says, “It’s always been thought that you can’t see into the past. But I can assure you that it’s more than possible, in fact, the past is constantly flowing unseen around us in the form of never ending energy. At certain points, the energy of the past radiates stronger than others and lingers behind forever like an unforeseen ghost trapped in the modern world. I’ve been able to gather the remnants of that energy and encapsulate it into this little diamond you see here.”

He tosses the black diamond from his palm up in the air and points his index finger up, the diamond falls on his finger tip and swirls just above it.

“I am going to give the energy of a long forgotten part of the world to you. This gift will allow you to see the truth for the first time in your life, and you will harness it into a strength unparalleled amongst the humans unfortunate enough to continue living in ignorance of it. You’ll choose to use this strength accordingly I’m sure.”

With the index finger holding the diamond, he thrusts it into her mouth and sticks it as far down her throat as possible.

Trojia can feel the warmth of his finger with her tongue and she can't help but feel violated to a certain extent.

However, the feeling of being violated is overrun by the sharp feeling of pain falling from the back of her throat all the way to her chest. It's as though her heart is about to explode as each beat is more forceful than the last.

The pain keeps getting more and more intense until...

There's nothing.

Trojia blacks out and falls limp in Damien's hands, he tosses her on the ground and addresses the crew like nothing has happened.

“Well then, I shall be on my way.”

He takes a step off the ledge of the ship and levitates in the air, he bursts into dark red flames like Abaddon did and disappears into the sky.

The crew and the rest all take a collective sigh in relief before rushing to Trojia's aid.

Napoleon is the first to get there and he immediately checks her pulse. From his point of view, it looked like she was being strangled and may need some form of resuscitation to at least get air through her potentially blocked airways.

But to his relief he finds that she is breathing fine and the rest of her vitals are in check.

"What did he do to her!?” Daey shouts while running up the stairs to her side.

Napoleon has no clue how to answer that but tries anyways, “She's passed out, I don't quite know what happened but it looks like she'll be fine.”

Daey shifts her attention to Straphius and finds that there are a few crewmen including Caesar tending to him.

After that, she turns to Messor, whose wings and halo are now gone.

“Just who's side are you on anyhow? Why didn't you even try to stop him? How are you so familiar with those guys from Hell??”

Messor folds her arms and replies, “Having every question answered doesn't help when you're not supposed to know... That girl on the other hand, is going to wake up with a head so full of answers she might fall into insanity.”

---

“What is happening?” Trojia asks upon finding herself floating weightlessly in a black world that holds no light nor sound.

Her cognitive ability had dropped considerably to the level of someone half asleep. She could not think logically and even her five senses and sensation of gravity are blurred in this dark space.

After several seconds, her mind rapidly cleared. It is now that she realized the ambiguous information coming from her five senses was not mistaken after all, she really can’t see her hands, nor her body. The sensation missing out on what she normally feels when she’s conscious makes her doubt she’s even existing physically.

Able to speak even without a mouth physically present, she starts yelling out the names of the others that she was just with a few moments ago.

When the only response is her own echo, she becomes even more frightened.

That is, until she hears a familiar voice saying,

“So you finally reveal yourself.”

“Ubica!?”

There is no doubt in her head that the voice that had just spoken is his, her field of vision turns to its source and a flash of light hits her from within the darkness. It was so bright that it took a moment for her vision to adjust, it's almost as though her entire being is a camera lens that was fully zoomed in and had been panned back out too quickly.

But once out of this disorientated plane of being, what comes into focus is the sight of a man walking alone down a long stretch of paved road leading towards a massive futuristic cityscape.

Looking closely, she finds that the man is Ubica; he’s wearing an odd wooden mask that covers half of his face with three horns on it and his visible eye's sclera is as black as night with a black line seemingly falling down his cheek. He is wearing a black robe that sways in the wind with each step, and a dark aura spews from his back like ash from a burnt tree after a strong gust of wind.

This person is nothing like the Ubica Trojia knows, she almost didn't recognize him even after analyzing him from head to toe.

She unintentionally follows him toward the city until out in the distance on the bare road in which he walks comes a little girl.

The girl is dressed in tattered brown clothes and looks to be a homeless child of around eight or nine years old.

The two of them are on a collision course and eventually stop just feet away from each other.

Ubica takes his mask off and drops it into a puddle of darkness that suddenly appears behind him, then from out of that circular puddle of darkness, his sword rises into his hand.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he points it at the little girl's neck.

Trojia is shocked that he'd even wield his weapon towards an innocent girl like this and her heart pounds when he gives off the feeling that he actually intends to kill her.

“Ubica don't!” she shouts.

But both he and the girl don't hear her, she is a phantom onlooker as she waits in fear for the worst.

“Why now of all times?” Ubica asks.

The little girl closes her eyes and above the top of her head a bright gold halo forms, she reopens her eyes and they go from a depressing and weak black to a bright gold.

She folds her arms in a combative manner and replies, “This is the moment where you and your Prophet fool the world into making an enemy out of me. I wouldn’t want to miss this.”

“And you have no intention of stopping me?”

“It’s not my job to interfere with what’s to come.”

“And here I thought I was supposed to be the heartless one between us.”

The girl smiles and shrugs her little shoulders.

This prompts Ubica to say, “In a way, I pity them. But at the same time there is some comedy in it, so many of them put their faith in someone that cares so little about their suffering.”

“Should they put their faith in you instead?”

“I'm not that selfish. I won’t punish them because they don't worship me, I will punish them because I can.”

“You're wrong, Ubica, you are punishing them because I wish it so.”

“You’re saying that this is all part of your plan then is it?”

“Not entirely, you yourself exist outside of my wishes. I simply have to constantly adjust to your actions.”

The two of them give off similar airs, this mysterious young girl is glowing with a glorious confidence that shines brightly in a warm light.

Whilst Ubica's darkness leaves a trail of devastation behind him, this darkness gives him the same kind of confidence as the girl.

“Your wishes must be to watch the world crumble. If it wasn’t, you’d be here to stop me instead of bearing witness to destruction.”

The girl gestures to him to pass her as she takes a step aside.

“It’s much more than that.”

Ubica smiles as if he has just realized something.

“Then for now, I will do it on your behalf.”

The girl faintly laughs and the halo on the top of her head spins.

“It’s what you exist for, my child. You’ll never be thanked for it.”

The girl’s eyes turn back to black and the halo above her head fades away, the girl looks like she is almost in a trance and ignores Ubica as she turns and walks back toward the large city.

On her way she raises her arms and drops to her knees in the middle of the bare road.

She points her hands to the sky as if trying to grab the light and yells, “I'm free! Oh God, you’re real. Thank you! Thank you!”

The girl weeps and lets her weak body rest on the asphalt. But it would seem that all the pain of her miserable existence brought upon her by the civil war in her country had been lifted.

Ubica takes a look at the rejoicing girl and frowns as he says to himself, “So this is my desired action to bring upon the correct end.”

The sword that he once held toward the neck of the girl is now pointed at the center of the city.

Trojia is watching this whole thing unfold and almost has no clue what that conversation meant and who in the world Ubica was talking to.

The thing she understands for certain is the evil shining in Ubica's eyes at this very moment as he points his sword at the city. It is just like when he fought Nero a couple months back, the stunning lack of empathy seemingly oozes from his aura.

She wants to stop him somehow, but no matter what she says her words won't reach him. She begins to get a sickening feeling in her chest as she almost knows what is about to happen.

“...Please don't do this Ubica.” she begs to herself as the only one that can hear this plea.

The edges of Ubica's lips rise to form a thin crescent moon like smile as he says,

“Let the journey to your end begin here.”

He turns his wrist and the sharp end of the blade turns up toward the sky.

It is that simple motion which signals an attack so loud that it takes a couple seconds for it to ring.

A massive shock resonates from within the city and a blast of intense heat rushes outwards in a giant circle. The city skyline disintegrates and sends millions of shards of glass and debris blowing into the air as if it was a water balloon popping. The buildings then split in half and break apart on their way to the ground.

And then...

BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!

A light that shines brighter than a thousand suns turns everything visible into a hot white, the noise is so loud that it could destroy the eardrums if a person was within a hundred miles of the explosion.

The light and noise spreads towards Ubica and the girl, and it hits the little child first.

She looks toward Ubica and smiles as contentedly; and an instant after, the heat along with the shock-wave disintegrates her to dust.

The trail of destruction hits Ubica but flows around him as if it was afraid of touching him.

This is the power of Ubica, this is the power of Dantega, this is the power of evil.

Nothing and no one can stop him.

Millions of men, women, and children are all decimated with a flick of his wrist.

By simply imposing his will, they died in one instant.

But why is this? Why did he kill all these people?

Trojia has stumbled upon the beginning of Man’s third world war.

Now every moment she'll spend is watching this massive conflict unfold alongside the presence of Ubica the Antichrist.

Without knowing what kind of geopolitical situation that the world was already entrenched in before she reached this point, the coming week is spent watching Ubica’s daily actions begin to answer it all in explicit detail.

The country he had inflicted that original atrocity on is China, the city is Beijing.

By this point this massive nation has been in a civil war between anti-government rebels and party loyalists. In the streets at that very moment a year’s long battle was being fought between the two forces.

Drawn to a costly stalemate for the last few years, it was only recently that the rebels began growing in numbers to an extent that the Chinese government could no longer contain the movement.

The rebels of China have been led by a mysterious woman with silky white hair and white golden eyes named Messor; and ever since her appearance two years prior, the tides of war have turned in their favor, and the revolution has almost been grasped by the time of this attack.

What the destruction of Beijing did was effectively destroy the government, and deal a tremendous blow on the fighting power of the rebels, completely destabilizing the entire country.

In the coming weeks after the massacre, Messor seizes control and announces China as a new nation. In this new nation, she spends her days indoctrinating the people in this secular ideology, and blames the warring religious states for the attack on Beijing. It was easy for her to convince them since both sides were indiscriminately attacked by an outside force. She simply took advantage of the unifying power of a mutual foe.

The next biggest nation of the United States was currently in the throes of civil war as well, and Trojia is currently watching how every second of it unfolds in the months she’s spent following Ubica.

The structure of the American civil war is different from the one in China. The calamity here is structured by many different warring factions, each one with separate political ideals.

Dozens of different idealogical militant groups have been fighting for what they believe to be the true path forward, and with a population so large and so diverse, the fighting only intensified as the factions gained more and more members. The stunning amount of available arms to the citizens has even made constant martial law almost unattainable outside of the large cities. Wide open swaths of open land are controlled by the factions and used as home bases. Ubica had gained control of a faction, secular in its foundation, and had been warring on multiple fronts starting from the south west coast of the continent and working its way inland. Gathering land, resources and troops along the way, it steadily rose into the most formidable of the warring American states. One so large that it has finally been at the cusp of overtaking the powerful Military Government set in place in the north east since the civil wars began.

But simply taking over as ruler of this one group isn’t enough to unite the people against a common enemy.

A war so complicated must end in an equally simple way.

And this means inflicting a blow on everyone involved, except a certain group of people to be used as a sacrifice towards a future unification. New York city had become a bastion of social democracy and an anti war bubble filled with members of opposing warring states that fled the war. From anti-government Libertarians to Communists, to those who were not involved in the conflict in any way and just wanted to live a life separated from the fighting, the now tens of millions of people there have been able to live side by side in relative tranquility.

In order to do this however, they have banned refugees from the religious states of the south and midwest, and kept the entire city as a secular mini nation within the bigger nation, and have been left alone by the Military so long as they pose no threat to their war effort.

But this bastion of peace is set to be destroyed just like Beijing was.

Trojia had spent this particular day watching Ubica and Messor finally reunite from opposite sides of the world.

What was once an intricate jumble of fighting, the web of violence has broken down into a few sticky lines where Ubica and Messor have come together in an alliance to make an enemy out of a certain group of people.

In a large room with a stunning view of bright skyscrapers outside of the windowed walls, Ubica and Messor stand shoulder to shoulder looking out into the distance.

Messor is dressed beautifully in a white dress and Ubica is dressed sharply in a black suit.

“I had thought spending three years away from you would have been easier to handle.” Messor said, expressing her relief. “I’m glad that particular part of our plan is finally over.”

“Taking over a country of a billion people was easier than being separated from me?”

“Very much so. Can you confidently say you weren’t feeling the same way?”

Ubica doesn’t react with a facial expression, but blows air out of his nose as if puffing in agreement.

“I’ll admit that going so long without your touch was difficult. Especially on the long nights I fought as a simple human alongside war weary men.”

Ubica puts his hand on Messor’s shoulder, and with a flick of his wrist, Messor’s dress falls to her ankles. With her naked body glistening in the lights of the cityscape outside their window, she looks like a magical being one could only dream about in a fairytale.

Messor smiles, showing no sign of bashfulness upon Ubica’s glare.

“So today we should celebrate the years spent apart, and today we'll celebrate what’s to come tomorrow.”

She runs her fingers through his hair and kisses him before replying, “Then make this one special.”

Trojia is forced to watch a scene that hurts as much as the many atrocities she’s watched him commit. Not being able to escape the sight or the sounds of the two of them together creates a pressure inside of her that she can’t possibly relieve herself from.

Her only solace comes when Ubica is sleeping, and after what felt like many hours, the world she can feel and see goes black until this monster she has been forced to watch take over the world awakens.

The morning sun brightens the large bedroom of this highrise condo they’re in, and the light entering windows gleams on the two beauties as he gets out from underneath the covers. He then gets to his feet and leaves Messor naked and sleeping on the bed without much regard to how his stirring might awaken her.

Today is their biggest day, yet he casually prepares for it as though it were any other.

Upon leaving the building and getting into the street, he can see everywhere around him billboards with Messor’s likeness, and electronic news bulletins talking about the new alliance formed between the new country of China and Ubica’s faction in the United States. The city streets are abuzz with so much excitement that the people rushing about don’t even notice the object of their attention is standing amongst him.

Ubica smiles, not offended by his anonymity.

“You’ve done well, Messor. Now it’s my turn.”

As soon as he said that, he vanished.

Appearing suddenly in New York City, Ubica makes his way towards the mass of people and modern buildings before him.

After killing the hundred armed guards protecting the entrance to the city by simply walking near them, Ubica passes their corpses and stands on the Brooklyn bridge looking upon the giant city.

Trojia watches this and is almost immune to the shock of his disregard for human life. She has been stuck watching him for a year by this point, and has seen him commit countless atrocities since thrust into the world she had no idea existed before this.

This time however, there is no mysterious person here to greet Ubica.

He stands alone, confronted by no one and with no reason to hesitate in wiping millions of people off the face of the earth.

He holds his sword out, and without so much as a second thought, the simple turn of his wrist creates a wall of white so bright it seems as though reality ceased to exist for an instant.

Once the mind numbing blankness regains its shape, an explosion so loud ensues that Trojia would be surprised if not every last person on the continent could hear it.

It is exactly like Beijing.

Millions of people, dead in an instant.

The destabilizing effect of this attack will allow Ubica’s clout amongst the people to rise exponentially, especially when he gives them something to blame this on.

But this is more than just wrapping his fingers around the last bastion of the world functioning independent of him.

If he is to fight against Heaven, the power of man is not enough.

When the massive blast finally ends and the mushroom shaped cloud above the once vibrant city begins to fade away and the aftermath is seen. There is a massive crater that looks as though a huge asteroid has hit there, and the dust and debris ominously looms over the top of it.

Ubica takes a bite out of his finger and draws blood, he takes his thumb and wipes the blood from the hilt all the way to the tip of his sword. After that he draws it back and swings his sword toward the crater, this sends a red gust of wind that pierces through the dust like a knife through butter.

Once the light flies over the crater, Ubica puts his sword back in his scabbard and holds his arms out, he smiles and raises his voice.

“It’s time for you all to live once more.”

His voice is used like a trigger, and reacting to that pull of the trigger comes a large hand from the crater.

It rises up and reveals its disgusting figure.

A bloodied red demon the size of the skyscrapers that were just destroyed comes walking out of the crater, its freakishly deformed yellow eyes scour the area until they land on the Antichrist.

It opens its mouth and its jaw drops to its chest, then from the back of its throat come thousands of demons, flying, falling, climbing down as if being poured from a milk carton.

From behind the massive demon, the silhouettes of many others begin to appear, and from the edge of the crater, hundreds of more demons climb from the rubble of the city.

The numbers grow by the thousands with each passing second and after a minute or so it becomes obvious that an army has appeared before him.

Although the demons carry many different forms, some being human, some being a sort of chimera, they all have one thing in common.

666 the Mark of the Beast.

Somewhere on their bodies is the mark proving their loyalty to the strongest being.

They are part of his fighting force and are the chosen ones to fight the army of Heaven alongside him.

In their own way they all bow to their leader to show solidarity to his cause.

Ubica gestures to them and speaks in a tone of address like a natural born leader, “You have all been punished by the rules of God long enough, if what you want is to destroy the person that made you suffer, then follow me.”

He turns around and the wooden mask appears in his hand before putting it back on his face.

Each stride he takes on what's left of the bridge in which he walks on gives off the feeling of absolute strength; the army of millions follow this strength and look forward to the upcoming battle.

People will believe anything under the threat of annihilation from an overwhelming power, they will commit themselves against any foe if their existential preservation is at stake. So after blaming God and his followers for this massive attack while simultaneously continuing to put people through the peril of living under this threat, getting what remains of humanity outside of his control to flock to his side will be easy.

Soon, most of the world will bear the Mark of the Beast.

The smile brimming with confidence in this fact is evident on his face.

Under his breath, Ubica mutters, “Oh God... let’s see if this is what you really want.”

Trojia watches him lead his army towards the next massacre. Even now, she can't believe that the person she cares about so much was at one point capable of killing millions of people and turning them against one another; her mind is in genuine turmoil as the sight of the person she is looking at now completely replaced the Ubica she thought she knew.

“I can’t handle this anymore...”

If Trojia had hands, she would most certainly be wringing her hair in despair right now.

“How could I have so easily turned a blind eye to what everyone was telling me?”

Trojia knows that this is only the beginning of his sins, his evil will shine even more brightly onto the world in the many months to come and she will be forced to watch every detail unfold.

She now sees what Ubica has felt so guilty about all this time, she sees why he is so desperate to try and do good as a way to repent for what he’s done. She can finally see why he’d starve himself of genuine happiness.

It is because he doesn’t deserve it.

Although she at first told him that what matters is the person he is now and the good he has been trying to do, she finds herself rejecting that statement and the naivety of those words wholeheartedly.

Stuck in this bodiless nightmare she has found herself in, and after already bearing witness to his existence for this last year, she has been forced into a maturity influenced by all that she has experienced alongside him.

“How could I have let myself ignore the lives of all these people before me?”

All of the warning signs were there, but what she was being warned about was as unfathomable to the human mind to truly grasp as a billion light years of distance.

It’s only now she can grasp the truth of Ubica.

It’s only now that she has the ammunition needed to hate him.

---

The current Ubica is standing in the rain at the doorstep of a certain girl who has been pestering him to come to her house for days now. And due to certain circumstances he has brought the girl and her family into a dangerous situation in which their lives are in peril depending on what his next actions are.

After thinking about what Leviathan said, he has come to the decision that abandoning the helpless girl and her family to protect his able comrades is the wrong thing to do.

He knocks three times on the door and the sound of footsteps rushing from the inside reaches his ears along with the falling rain.

The door opens and Amber's relief filled face is the first thing he notices.

“I was hoping you weren't going to be stubborn once it started raining. Come in so you can dry off.”

Ubica shows her a strained smile and his eyes are filled with a certain look of despair that only a keen eye would be able to catch. Amber is one of those people able to see that there is something hidden behind a smile.

“What's wrong?” she asks.

He would like to tell her, but he fears that she'd begin to panic and inquire as to why this is happening.

With these thoughts in mind he holds back his explanation and passively replies, “It's nothing.”

She raises her eyebrow, “It doesn't look like nothing, you look afraid.”

Ubica hides his eyes under his wet silver hair and leans his shoulder against the door.

What she said is spot on, he is afraid that his comrades could be getting slaughtered at this very moment and this is weighing on his conscience like an anvil. What's even worse is that he can't lift a finger to stop it. If he does, the girl standing in front of him and her happy life will come to a horrible end.

All of this because of what he's done in the past.

No matter what he does he can never escape it, instead he'll just bring this burden onto everyone he meets and cares about until they break under its weight.

He was foolish to think that he'd be rid of it so easily, and this is resulting in the hopeless desperation that Leviathan is pushing him towards.

He clenches his fist and squeezes his jaw tightly as he realizes that this is all going exactly how Leviathan wants it to go.

With that in mind there is only one thing he can do.

“You're right, I am afraid.” he says as he takes his first step into Amber's house since the awkward dinner. “But I'm going to do the best I can to fight it.”

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