"The comms still aren't working…" Tom muttered as he strained to establish contact. "I can't believe how dependent I became on that Codex all this time. Come on… work, damn it."
"Tommy!"
A voice suddenly rang inside his left ear.
Tom spun around, scanning his surroundings, but there was nothing.
"Where the hell are you?" he demanded.
"I'm speaking to you through one of Wally's nanobots. Listen carefully…" Moriarty's voice replied, tense and hurried. "We need to call for an extermination protocol."
"Wait—what?!" Tom snapped. "Are you insane? I banished the demon on my end. If you need help, I'll be there in a moment, just tell me where you are!"
"That's not the point," Moriarty shouted. "This whole thing… this entire damned world is a stage!"
"You're not making any sense!" Tom shouted back. "What do you mean by that?!"
"Willing hosts—! Old General—! It—!"
The transmission cut off mid-sentence.
"Old General… willing hosts…" Tom repeated under his breath as his gaze drifted toward the base.
Realization struck him like a blade to the gut as he looked at the sky.
"By the Emperor…"
--------------
Back At The Base
--------------
The Old General looked down from the command center of the base at the tide of heretics that drew closer with every passing second.
"Sir… what do we do?" one of the soldiers asked as he stepped closer.
"…You still call me that after everything we've been through?" the old man asked, not turning to face him.
"You're the one who built this base, who made us who we are today, who taught us everything we know," the soldier replied. "We all have nothing but respect, for you, and only you."
"…Gather every soldier in front of the gates," the old general said quietly. "Seal the base from the inside."
The soldiers rushed out immediately.
That was when a grin slowly crept across his face, his eyes turning pitch black.
"Hm. Didn't you say none of these people were expendable to you?" the General murmured, glancing toward where we were. "Well then… let's see what you do when you're forced to kill these mortals with your own hands."
"Let's dance, then… 'angels'."
He stepped out of the shadows, his eyes returning to normal as he adjusted his old hat and walked out of the room.
The moment he emerged, he was met by the gaze of millions, countless eyes staring up at him from the spiraling staircases below.
"My people…" he began, his voice echoing throughout the vast interior of the base.
"Dark days lie ahead of us. The angels have failed us. Our men are dying outside those gates, one by one, as they struggle to hold the line…" His grip tightened around the stone railing. "Some of them are your children. Some are your family."
"The new general died trying to save an angel, but like the coward he was, he used that opportunity to flee the battlefield."
A ripple of murmurs spread through the crowd.
"Is this truly who you wish to serve?" he roared. "Is this what you want your sacrifices to amount to?! Ungrateful, selfish angels who know nothing of honor, and wouldn't bat an eye as we die for them?!"
The whispers grew louder, fear and doubt bleeding into panic.
"But fear not," the General continued, spreading his arms. "Not all hope is lost. We can still help our soldiers, just in a different way."
"Pray!" he commanded.
"Pray?" someone echoed uncertainly.
"Yes," the General said, lifting his gaze skyward. "Pray! Call out to anyone… anything… that will help us. This is the only option left to us."
"If we pray together, at the same time, then even a god would be forced to hear us!" he shouted. "Millions of souls crying out for salvation! Who could possibly ignore that?!"
And so… they prayed.
Without the faintest idea of who they were calling.
Their souls screamed through the physical plane as the collective plea of countless mortals tore open a realm that could not be described in simple words.
CRACKLE
Their shared faith found its way to a being that could answer them…
But not the one they had meant to call...
The sky bled red...
The clouds blackened and twisted, and then…
An eye appeared.
A vast, crimson eye opened in the sky, gazing down upon the world.
"At last… He has answered!" the General screamed as he looked upward.
The base shuddered violently, its structure rupturing as massive fragments tore free and began to float into the air.
"….."
"Yes—yes! These are the mortals I have prepared for your arrival. Please, use them as you wish, my master!" the General answered eagerly, his voice trembling with devotion.
"….."
"I—I will ready them as well! Just… just grant me a little more time!" he pleaded.
"….."
"W–Wait! No—nooooo—!"
The General's eyes ignited with searing light as his body lifted into the air, suspended for a brief, horrifying moment—
THUD
His lifeless vessel crashed onto the floor.
Then, all at once, a wave of black smoke erupted from the corpse, surging outward like a living tide. It poured into the bodies of every mortal present within the base.
"….."
The people, their eyes still locked onto the colossal eye in the sky, couldn't comprehend what was happening to them.
Red light began to glow from within their vessels.
Their flesh peeled away from bone, unraveling like molten wax, rising into the air in flowing streams. The mass of living matter spread throughout the base... wrapping itself around the colossal dragon skeleton.
"…Raymond," Tom exhaled, watching the colossal dragon skeleton slowly being wrapped in living flesh. He stood beside Moriarty, whose surroundings were littered with the bodies of fallen heretics. "About the extermination protocol… I think it's time we call it."
"I would, if I could," Moriarty replied, carefully keeping his pupils away from the sky. "That thing up there is interfering with the signals. Extraction won't be possible."
"That thing is at least A-rank now…" Tom said quietly, turning to face Moriarty. "We're very much dead."