Chapter 168: (2) Antanria Renaissance

Emperor Malekith waved the arm that wasn't holding his daughter's hand. "Guards, lower your weapons!"

The man approached Emperor Malekith, looking him straight in the eye without saying anything.

Then something unbelievable happened.

Emperor Malekith released his daughter's hand and knelt before the man, bowing his head. "God-Emperor, we were not expecting you here."

The God-Emperor replied, "Yes. your men attacked me."

Malekith replied, "I am sorry. We are in the middle of a major battle. Their orders were to attack anyone except for our people."

The God-Emperor made a casual gesture for Malekith to rise. "I have heard that you wish to use the Ultimate Weapon."

Emperor Malekith replied, "Your Splendor, we have been trapped in a one-sided war for three years now. We have already lost control of half the galaxy! If Oralia falls, the Empire will crumble with it. We must destroy this enemy to avenge the billions of Zetark who fell in battle, to avenge my sons who paid with their lives to defend the Empire!"

The impassive God-Emperor replied, "Revenge is not constructive. You must renounce this plan. You know that the Ultimate Weapon may never be used."

Malekith replied, "Your Splendor, if I give up, our soldiers, our sons, our heroes will have fallen for nothing! If you will not allow us to defend ourselves, then I beg that you annihilate the enemy hovering over my planet, so that my people and my civilization will survive!"

The God-Emperor's face was still expressionless. "If I intervene, this mortal war will change and become a divine war. What, you think your enemies have no gods? If I step in, all the gods will descend upon the mortal worlds and confront each other. The galaxy will be utterly destroyed in a way which may never allow life to return."

Malekith's mind finally broke under the strain.

He screamed in a high, strange voice, "If you will not save my people, I will destroy this galaxy myself!"

"Enough!" the God-Emperor snapped. "Give me the weapon! Obey!"

Malekith pointed a shaking finger at the God-Emperor. "Guards! This is the enemy! He stands before you! Kill him!"

Then, as though the enemy were not standing right there and listening, Malekith clutched his daughter's shoulder and spoke to her in an insane, loud whisper. "Run, Antanria! Run! Go to the bunker, quickly!"

The God-Emperor didn't even move as a ray of negative color swept across the room.

In less than a second, the ten most skilled Rank A Ascensionists in the galaxy fell to the ground, decapitated.

The God-Emperor shook his head sadly. "Forgive me, Malekith."

Then he tore the Zetark Emperor's heart out, letting the sorrow-maddened ruler's corpse fall to the ground, joining those of his loyal bodyguards.

***

In the underground parking facility, Antanria took a long pause before continuing her story to Apophis. "Then I found myself alone with this man. I was... terrified. I ran to my father's dead body, which had fallen right at the foot of the throne, and I couldn't stop myself from crying, even though a princess must never cry in times of danger. I had learned that from a very young age, but... I simply could not stop.

"For a moment, I could think of nothing except Father... and all the blood pouring out of the hole in his chest. I did not realize that the God-Emperor person had walked behind me until I heard his words. 'Forgive me, Antanria.' Then I felt as though someone had slapped me on the back, and I saw a blood-covered hand protruding out of my chest, going so far that the tips of his fingers were touching Father's body."

Antanria seemed to lose the ability to speak for a moment. Her mouth opened and closed several times before she could summon her voice again. "Then it... hurt. More than anything I've ever felt. But only for a moment, because then... I died. I know that I truly did."

Apophis didn't let his expression change as he heard all this information. It did, of course, match what he had witnessed when he'd been teleported to the raid months ago. "Well," he said, "if this guy killed you, then how are you still alive? You're not an Eternal."

Antanria answered, "Well... I don't really know. But I had a vision of sorts afterward. I don't know how long afterward... but a goddess carried me to the laboratory where you found me."

Apophis raised his eyebrows. His heart beat with excitement. This sounded like more support for the theory that he'd told to Emma! "A goddess?" he asked. "Then you know who she is?"

Antanria answered, "Yes... Her name is Varda Elentári. She is one of the Empire's patron deities. In fact, she baptized me when I was three years old and became my protector goddess."

Apophis forced his expression back into neutrality, though inwardly he was cheering with triumph. "Why didn't you tell me all this when we met?"

Antanria glanced away. "We had just met. I knew nothing of your intentions. It was clear that you were using me as a tool, at least at first. I wanted to keep my most important information to myself, at least until I found someone I knew I could trust."

Apophis nodded. He understood the strategy. He wondered if things would have been any different if he'd known the truth from the beginning. "If you know how the Empire fell," he asked, "What are your real intentions? What's your endgame?"

Antanria's eyes burned brighter red as her anger burned hotter. "I will find whoever did this, this mysterious enemy of the Empire, and make them pay for the suffering my people have endured."

She seemed to be reliving memories in her head, but then met Apophis's gaze again. "I am very sorry that I lied to you. Especially now that you are the only person who has helped me, and have even enabled me to awaken my Ascensionist abilities."

Apophis responded, "I still don't understand. Why is your body able to reproduce my energy? Your story didn't explain that at all."

Antanria answered, "I don't know. It's also a mystery to me. But it seems that when you injected your energy into me, I became a kind of extension of you, and this allowed me to continue to grow stronger over time."

That was, of course, exactly what Apophis had assumed, but it didn't tell him anything more.

In any event, Apophis was very skeptical about the idea that Antanria had truly told him every detail that she could remember. If she had hidden the truth once, then she could easily be hiding more details now, assuming that she believed they would be dangerous for her to share with him.

But he also realized that he would gain nothing more from any further interrogation. The specific details about the war the Zetark had fought were interesting enough... as well as the details of what his own future timeline apparently held as the God-Emperor Apophis.

So Apophis stood and took Antanria into his arms, embracing her tightly. "You must never lie to me again," he said.

She returned the embrace. "I know," she whispered.

***

Terra—Somewhere close

In a meeting room which had been abandoned by its original owners, a crowd of more than ten players sat in discussion around a dusty, battered table.

Ceasar stood from his seat and said, "Thank you all for answering my invitation."

Zelda answered from her seat, "Not like we had anything better to do. This was a distraction, at least."

Mario spoke up as well. "We're listening to you, Ceasar. Skip the formalities. What's your plan?"

Ceasar cleared his throat, but before he could begin his prepared speech, his deputy slammed the room's door open in a frantic haste and moved to Ceasar's side at once. "Chief," Tibirus whispered in his boss's ear, "Some other representatives are demanding to be let in right away!"

Ceasar sighed in frustration. They couldn't have arrived a single minute earlier? "Let them in," he said.

Four players entered the room, and their identities surprised Ceasar a great deal. "Lucifer?" he asked in astonishment. "Zeus? Joker? What the hell are you doing on Terra? Weren't you in the Coalition fleet?"

Then the fourth player spoke, a dark-skinned woman with a determined expression. "We were blocked by the Imperial fleet, so we committed tactical suicide in order to help you in person."

Ceasar was astonished at this wild gambit which had cost all these players a whole level. He could swear that he'd seen this woman before, but with everything on his mind, he couldn't remember exactly who she was. "And you are?"

"I am Lotus," she said, "Commander of the Coalition Fleet... and the guild leader of Eclipse."

Ceasar nodded. That made sense. "I'm surprised to see you here. We already have Apophis down here, after all."

Lotus's eyes narrowed. "Apophis has nothing to do with the Coalition mission. Like you, I am here with one mission: to get my men off of this damn planet!"

Several other players around the table gave cheers which varied in their levels of enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Ceasar gave a half-sarcastic grin. "Well, the more the merrier."

Lotus said, "I can't imagine 10,000 players volunteering to kill themselves and join you, but Hulk told me you had a plan, so we were willing to put quite a lot at risk to enable that plan. However, I fail to see how our different guilds can change the situation here."

Ceasar's grin grew. "Then you lack experience in politics and strategy. It's true that if we rely on random players to follow intricate battle plans, then we're lost. You simply can't trust them to cooperate.

"However, we do have one other asset... the NPC population of the planet! Since Azerof took power, the Xeno population in particular has gotten pretty restless. As you might imagine, most of them are pretty unhappy that their entire way of life was ripped out from under them, and that makes for the worst possible situation for an occupying force. If we can rally the NPCs to revolt, we can destabilize the occupying military and create an opportunity for ourselves!"

Lotus was surprised. "I don't understand. Even if a billion Xeno citizens revolted, we still couldn't escape Azerof's orbital fleet."

Ceasar answered, "That's why destroying the anti-aircraft batteries is only our first step. Our second is to take the planet hostage!"

Lotus was skeptical. "Destroying the turrets protected by assault mechas might be possible if we had perfect organization... But taking the planet hostage? Honestly, I cannot see how that would be possible! Do we have a few billion players somewhere that I am unaware of?"

Ceasar replied, "Two words: tactical bomb. The Federation has used both thermonuclear and antimatter bombs in the recent past, and they probably keep a few in the military bunkers here. If we can get our hands on them, then we can force Azerof to let us go so that we don't destabilize and shatter the planet!"

Everyone in the room was amazed at Ceasar's plan. It was, to say the least, incredibly bold.

At last, Zelda said, "It's a risky plan... but I honestly don't think we have any other option. Unless we accept Azerof's ridiculous conditions, that is."

Lotus added, "Well, we came here to support your plan without knowing what it was. That was a gamble, and I cannot say that I like how it sounds, but we have no way of backing out and trying something better. All right, let us give it our all!"

***

Underground Parking Lot

Apophis exited the supply room and found Hulk. "Is everything ready?" he asked, as though Antanria hadn't just recently punched him so hard that he'd shattered several ribs while flying through concrete.

Hulk looked at him warily. "Yes. Are you... alright? What did Antanria tell you?"

Hulk, like most of Horus's players, was quite curious to know the secret behind Apophis's incredible and unique power. Of course, Apophis was not the sharing type. He'd made Hulk participate in two dungeons of incredible difficulty, but still hadn't explained his secrets.

Hulk was growing tired of the secrecy. At some point, Apophis needed to trust those around him enough to let them know the truth.

But today was not that day. Apophis stared Hulk right in the eye and said, "She didn't tell me anything you'd find interesting."

Hulk returned that stare for a long moment, then nodded. "Alright, Boss. Whatever you say." He didn't bother keeping the disappointment from his voice. He respected Apophis too much to suck up to him.

Apophis gave a grim smile in return. He understood Hulk's frustration. He also knew that this wasn't the right time to share any information. "Good," he said. "Well, here's our plan. We'll attack the first anti-aircraft battery north of the Temple of Valor. Then the one near the huge shopping mall. That's not all the batteries, of course, but it'll disrupt their coverage enough to create an opening where we can easily dodge the remaining fire in the area."

Hulk nodded slowly as he visualized the area in his head. "Alright. I'll speak to the rest of the guild members and get some training exercises started."

But no sooner had Hulk finished speaking than Apophis received a message from Lotus. "Meet me inside the building located at global position 25487,11254 in one hour with everybody."

Apophis answered, "Are you alright? What's going on?"

Lotus replied, "I have no time to talk. There are too many factors I need to focus on. Just do what I've instructed."

Apophis understood the urgency of the situation. "OK. We'll be there in an hour."

The team packed up and made all the necessary preparations.

Finally, they all set off together: Apophis, Banana, Chocolate, Hulk, and White, each leading a team of ten players.