Alba left the gate of the artillery factory and walked towards the protesters. In the vast squares of the forbidden city, armed soldiers were constantly running from side to side, only Alba did not understand the meaning of such a chaotic situation. He caught one of the soldiers and asked where he was going, to which he received an inarticulate answer, slapped the idler in the face and ordered him to go to the place of the enemy militia.

Alba moved forward and on the left hand saw small barracks, made of red brick and with a high wooden roof, he stopped for a second, looked at the battered half-open door and went inside, where the soldiers were resting after the guard duty, drinking whiskey and laughing. They caught sight of Alba when he was already standing speechless in the doorway. The grave like silence fell in the barracks.

"What kind of shit are you drinking?"

"Whiskey."

"Whiskey, then."

Alba took the crate and smashed all the bottles, and swore.

"You drink when a thousand enemies are trying to storm the government buildings, don't you?"

"Sir, we are…"

"Fuck off, you idiot. Who let a crowd of revolutionaries into the city?" he asked.

No one answered. Everyone stared at Alba with frightened eyes and did not want to betray either themselves or their friends.

"Guard schedule, quick!" Alba ordered.

He checked the schedule, which indicated where the guard had been during the four hours of the previous day; he called them by name and asked them to come to him. Eight people stood in a row in front of him, heads bowed.

Alba walked up to the first-in-command, flexed the fingers of his right hand, straightened them, and without a word struck the soldier in the neck. The man fell, clutching at his throat, and rolled on the floor, grunting. The others wanted to help their fellow soldier, but Alba ordered no one to move. He went to the next soldier and asked him if he was the second-in-command. The answer was positive. Alba then asked if he had taken the oath before the Holy Inquisition, to which he received another affirmative answer.

"In that case, you said the following words: «In the face of danger and death, I will not flinch and will fight to the last, for the sake of maintaining peace, and bright future. » Isn't that right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then explain to me why I see you in the barracks, drinking whiskey, instead of your dead body at the main gate?"

"But sir..."

Before the second-in-command could finish, Alba clenched his right hand into a fist, closed the distance between them, and, putting his whole body into the blow, hit the solar plexus, and then in a turn hit his elbow in the jaw.

"You joined the army, apparently thinking that nothing dangerous would fall into your service, that you would sit at your post and smoke, right?"

"Not at all, sir!" all the soldiers in the barracks answered.

"This is all bullshit. No one believes in this country anymore. Take these two to the medical center. And then go to the main gate. As soon as it's over, you'll be disbanded and court-martialed."

Alba walked out of the barracks, barely able to contain his anger. His body was shaking with anger, and Willie's grin, like a nightmare, could not get out of his head. The closer he got to the gates of the government chambers, the more he heard the sounds of a woman's loud speech and the shouts of the revolutionaries who accompanied the end of each sentence with their shouts. Alba has already figured out how things will turn out, it is only necessary to coordinate the plan with Gennox.

As he drew closer to the crowd, he could see that there were about three hundred armed rebels and another five hundred civilians in front of him, with two women standing on a small podium in the center. One of them was tall, with red hair standing on one end, and she was clearly feeling out of place, and every couple of seconds she looked at a piece of paper hidden in her palm. The second stood with a spear in her hands, the head held high, long, thick black hair, and a golden diadem on top of the head. Her body was covered with white plate armor, and on the wrist of her free hand, several saffron bracelets reflected the night light. She spoke loudly, confidently, without delay, everyone listened to her with such attention that they did not even pay attention to Alba, who was standing behind them all and decided to listen to the speech for a short time.

"In this country," Boadicea continued, "we are only puppets controlled by the fear of death. And if those Inquisition bastards don't meet our demands by twelve o'clock at night, we'll take this damned city by storm! I don't want bloodshed, but those who want to prevent a peaceful revolution from happening will inevitably face the consequences of their decision – violence."

"Yeah!" The revolutionaries shouted.

"Until a week ago, we all had no hope that something would come out, but look! Beyond this gate is someone who has lived in the shadow for hundreds of years. And we'll see him and tell him what we want. For the sake of the future and for the sake of the present! I'm willing to risk my life, not because it's easy for me, but because it's hard, just like it is for all of you. We are all in the same boat, and we have the same path - forward along the rapids of the river, around the boulders."

"Yes!"

"Our future victory is our child, whom we will raise, take care of and protect."

"Yes!"

"Many failures stood in our way, but this is why I now stand before you, before the people who came here not out of fear, but out of a desire to change their lives, to get the freedom that God gave to every person, and they took it away from us!" Boadicea screamed at the top of her voice.

"Yeah!"

"But don't expect that after tonight, your life will immediately become easy. I hope that you have the courage to be strong to continue, stand your ground and fight until the very end!"

"Yeah!"

Alba decided not to continue listening to the loud speeches and headed for the gate, where there were about three hundred armed soldiers, with massive metal shields one and a half meters high and modified steam crossbows, long swords and two 75 mm gun tractors. Alba suddenly realized that Heron, Willy's inventor, whom he had mentioned in passing, had developed most of the equipment for the Inquisition.

The bastard tricked me even in that. Fuck!

In the center stood the leader of the unit, who to his loyal soldiers was half-human, half-god. His height was two meters thirty-five centimeters, huge hands, muscular sinewy legs and a long gray beard. He saw Alba and greeted him.

"Thomas said not to kill anyone until you arrived, sir. And the nonsense this woman says, none of my guys believe her."

"I appreciate it. How much time is left until midnight?"

"Half an hour, sir!"

"These rebels don't look like trained soldiers."

"Yes, sir. They're not soldiers at all, just kids with crossbows."

"What makes you think that?"

"I remember every soldier who was in my service, and I do not recognize any of them, so I draw conclusions."

Alba froze in horror, stopped moving. His eyes were bloodshot, and his breathing quickened.

"Are you all right, Alba?"

He glanced at the general from under his brows and nodded his head.

"I'm fine, but I suddenly realized something."

"Realized what?"

"Never mind, it can wait. Now, take your men, the gun tractors, and head towards the main gate, okay? Let anyone who wants to enter here before midnight, after that, close the entrance, and don't let anyone in."

"But, sir, what about…"

"Do as I say."

The general shouted with all his strength and ordered everyone to follow him. No one said a word. Everyone obeyed the order unconditionally. Boadicea paused and saw Alba leaving through the gate to the government chambers and a bunch of soldiers leaving their posts. After a few minutes, everyone was gone, except for the two wardens on the fortress tower, who were ordered to open and close the gates. More and more people were gathering around the rebels, coming from the main entrance in an endless line. There were elderly men with military backgrounds, ordinary women, hard workers and other representatives of the estates dissatisfied with the living conditions.

Boadicea made sure that enough people were gathered and asked Mazeppa to start her speech.

"Come on, honey, it's time for your final speech."

Mazeppa nodded uncertainly and began to search for her husband in the crowd of people. Boadicea noticed this, put her hand on her shoulder, and pointed to where her lover was standing. Mazeppa smiled and nodded to him, and her husband smiled back and shouted words of support.

"Listen up, everyone!" Boadicea began. "This beautiful girl who stands next to me is called Mazeppa. She worked for the Inquisition for many years and now she will tell you about what is really happening here."

The crowd cheered, everyone shouted, and then clapped their hands. Boadicea paused, then raised her hand, and the crowd fell silent. People were still coming from the direction of the main gate. She began to worry, wondering what Alba was up to and why he was even here and not at war.

"Good night, everyone," Mazeppa began, stammering a little. "I've been working in a research center for several years, studying the deaths of ordinary people and metentises who were executed by the guillotine. Coming to the results themselves, I want to tell you that they all died the same way. I thought for a long time, why did it happen like this? Why didn't people with the power to change the nature of things resist, use fireballs, cause storms, or whatever else the metentises do? After all, we were told from school how dangerous this type of people are. In general, the answer is obvious. There are no enemy metentises in our city. It's just that the Inquisition kills people who are inconvenient for it, hiding behind this lie. The final confirmation of this theory was the recent death of my close friend and teacher, which you all witnessed in the square, as well as the death of your leader and the husband of Boadicea, whom she had known all her life - Rufus."

The crowd gasped and some people began to whisper among themselves. Mazeppa began to observe the reaction of the crowd and felt Boadicea's hand touch her back.

"Go on, dear," she said.

"For years, we've been asking ourselves, is there really someone behind that gate? And the answer is yes. Not once did I see Thomas, Alba, or Atilla go inside these gates and apparently report or consult or receive instructions from someone. Whatever they did there, the same thing happened naturally - a significant event that shook the whole city. One would think that they were talking to each other there, and that would be possible, if only I hadn't witnessed them going in there one by one from time to time, and the only logical conclusion is that someone is giving them orders. But that's not all... if it were so obvious, the Inquisition would not be able to hold power for so long."

The crowd fell silent again. The eyes of more than a thousand people were riveted by Mazeppa's speech, she felt confident and continued:

"Have you ever wondered why your great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers also prayed on icons depicting Alba, Attila, Thomas and some other representatives of the Supreme Inquisition? Why do they all live so many years and never get old? And we die, replaced by a new generation?"

In her peripheral vision, Boadicea saw Alba come out of the gate and wait for the end of this speech.

"There is only one explanation for this... the main representatives of the Inquisition are the only metentises who inhabit our country…"

Alba clapped along with the crowd.

"The Inquisition is a vile plague that poisons our lives!" Boadicea shouted, egging on the crowd. "In this world, the people should rule, honestly, long, continuously. We won't give up, no matter how much, no matter how little, no matter what. The authorities have lied, but now their secrets are open."

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" the crowd shouted.

Boadicea looked at her watch, two minutes to midnight.

"Look who's here!"

The crowd began to look around and everyone saw Alba standing at the gate and still applauding. He leaned back against the door and shook one leg at the knee, the hood covering the top of his head.

"Alba! Can you tell us everything? And let us finally see those who are at the head of our state."

Alba took two steps forward, bared his teeth, straightened his back, and removed his hood.

"All right," he said.

People did not immediately believe his words, but Alba waved his hand and the iron, massive gate began to open.

"Come to the square. Half-past one in the night, when everyone is assembled, from that single building, the ones you want to see will come out to you. It's not just one person."

When the entrance was fully opened, Boadicea saw Thomas in the square. He stood like the mythical Death waiting for the end of another nameless person. He crossed his arms, snapped his fingers, and bright lights shone everywhere.

"Metovis!" Boadicea gasped. "We were right!"

"There's no point in hiding it," Alba said. "So come on in, we'll answer all your questions."

Boadicea came down from the podium and helped Mazeppa do the same, then she went to her deputy and told him to warn every soldier on their side not to relax.

"This is the first time we've seen true metentises, and we can't yet assess how dangerous they can be. Keep Alba and Thomas at gunpoint."

"Yes, ma'am."

A crowd of people ran to the government chambers, everyone tried to take a place in the front rows, a stampede began. In the turmoil, Alba disappeared. And the people from the main gate stopped coming.

"We'll be the last to go in, my dear," Boadicea said to Mazeppa.

They stood and watched while the armed rebels formed two rows, creating a sort of passageway. The people had subsided a little.

"Calm down! Calm down! There is enough space for everyone!" said the deputy. "We don't want anyone getting run over, do we?"

Palace number two was located around a small, blooming lake. A wooden bridge led to the main door, and there was a small iron fence on it to prevent people from rushing in at once. To Thomas' surprise, the people gathered very peacefully, without panic, although there was worry in everyone's eyes. No one tried to jump over the bridge or get in from different directions. He couldn't even hear loud conversations.

The palace itself looked like a huge observation tower, the size of a ten-story house. Each floor was accompanied by square darkened windows and concave roofs of black tiles beneath them. At the very top, on a golden spire, hung an incomprehensible flag. The atmosphere was steeped in mystery and uncertainty.

The entrance doors were lined from top to bottom with neat rows of metal needles, and in the very center were handles in the shape of human bald heads, with taped eyes, and missing ears. Instead of them on both sides there were holes, from which the handle-hammer, in the form of a crescent with encrusted animal fangs, was suspended.

An icy wind blew, trying to stop the moment, under the cold white light of the stars that rose in the black glaucoma of the sky. There was a lull, which is often heard by warriors before the final battle. The placid satellite of the planet reflected through its surface the rays of the sun, which had gone into the world of shadows, and directed them straight to the square with people. It could have been a historical moment, worth weaving into the yellowed pages of Genesis in hindsight.

Thomas went to the palace gate and sat down on the step. Meanwhile, Alba was checking to see if anyone was lost in the forbidden city. Boadicea, Mazeppa, and the rebels were watching the people. And while everyone was thinking about their business before such an important event, Willie, along with a couple of his assistants, took out their harpoons and climbed up the huge wall behind the castle, made sure that no one was watching them, and began to observe the continuation of the last supper.

Alba returned to the post of the main entrance to the forbidden city and ordered the soldiers to disperse the people.

"And if there are those who do not want to leave?"

"The gun tractors are at your disposal, General."

"This is too much, Alba. They are ordinary people, not enemies of the state."

"If you have to…"

"I won't have to," the general said firmly. "Go on, we'll sort it out."

"And don't you dare challenge my orders again."

The general said nothing, but began issuing orders and telling the men to go home.

Time slowed down; a minute seemed like an hour. Everyone was wordless. The only sound was the ticking of some particularly rich people's wristwatches. Willie suddenly saw a strange man in a bright blue robe, three meters tall, come out of the back door of the palace. Judging by the very thin and weak hands. A man, if you can call him that, was pushing a small wooden cart, the contents of which were hidden under white sheets. Each step was difficult for the unknown man, it walked more slowly than a hundred-year-old man on the verge of death. The thing turned a corner, stopped and looked at the crowd. The people in the front rows saw the huge giant and spoke, pointing at it with their fingers.

"What's going on out there?" Boadicea asked. "I don't see anything."

"Someone has appeared behind the palace, take a closer look. You can see it in the torchlight."

Boadicea squinted and could make out the strange figure.

"Stay here, at a safe distance, and I'll go to the front rows and negotiate."

"Very well," replied Mazeppa.

When Boadicea was in front of the bridge, she saw Thomas and a huge blue creature whose face could not be seen because of the seemingly metovisal outer darkness under the hood. Thomas lifted his head and looked at the unearthly creature with his red eyes, then turned away, stood up, and said:

"Merge with the dark (rank 5)."

He was gone. The people and Boadicea gasped as if at the wave of a conductor's baton. The creature bent down to the cart, picked up the first white sheet, and dropped it on the ground, then the second, then the third. Willie couldn't see what was inside, but he didn't want to give himself away either, so he had to make do with what he had.

"What is this unearthly shit?" Willie's assistant asked.

"Gennox. Hm. It's been a long time since I've seen them."

"I thought things like them didn't negotiate."

"They were working with every single metentis until Erving was killed. And after the death of their close friend, it was like… fuck… I dunno, like they had fucking lost faith in people. Which, in fact, if not true, is very close to it."

"Do you think they've changed their minds?"

"How the fuck would I know, hmm? To understand what's in their head is pointless, they haven't been out of their doghouse for who knows how fucking long, mate. Anyone would not have gone nuts in situation like this."

"Aren't you afraid?"

The "Grandfather" shook his head, accompanying each nod with a hand gesture and a strange, sullen laugh, and replied:

"No. I fought against them. They're strong, but they're not invincible, mate."

Boadicea put her hands on the waist-high bridge railing, leaned forward, and said:

"My name is Boadicea, and we've come to talk to you. I'm leading all these people."

The creature paid no attention to her words, it bent down and pulled out of the cart a long humanoid skeleton, about four meters tall. No one understood what was going on, and people began to talk among themselves, but Boadicea ordered everyone to be silent and looked back in the direction of the deputy, who indicated with a sign that no one from the Inquisition was nearby.

The creature covered the skeleton with a black cloak of unnatural size and began to speak in an incomprehensible, coarse language consisting only of consonants. The skeleton suddenly came to life, squaring its shoulders, and bright blue eyes lit up from under the black hood. It bent its knees a little, pushed itself to the ground, leaped over the gasping and moaning crowd, and landed behind them all. The ground shook. And the people turned around, and Baodicea was completely at a loss for what to do. She asked the blue-robed creature a few questions, but it didn't seem to notice what was happening around it.

The water bubbled in the lake, and out came three creatures with bald heads, larger than their bodies, weak and little arms and legs, and huge black eyes without pupils. They hummed and swayed like trees in a hurricane. Then the palace gates opened and a creature with a metal veil instead of its head, shaped like a sakkat hat, a long steel stick, and bared bony legs and arms appeared in the dark yellow light. A creature that looked like purple jelly with a human face flew out from behind it. And then, out of the darkness of the corridor, came an old man, short and hunched, with hollow eyes and dead-white hair. The fingers of his hands were sewn with thin white threads that controlled the massive puppet of a formidable armored warrior appearing behind him.

People screamed in horror and ran to the exit. But the huge giant behind them waved his hand and the iron gate, twenty centimeters thick, closed in a split second. People scurried around and panicked. Boadicea looked up and saw a creature crawling on all fours on the highest part of the tower, its head completely wrapped in white bandages and a thick red line in the middle.

"That's enough. Fuck it," Willie said, "let's get out of here, they're all going to get killed."

They climbed down the ropes from the wall, dropped their harpoons, and were about to run when a monster with blue skin, darned eyes and mouth rose out of the ground in front of them. The body was covered with open wounds, but the blood did not flow, like any other liquid connective tissue. The creature howled and ran at them. Stone spikes rose out of the ground and slammed into Willy and his team at a speed of a hundred kilometers per hour, causing the ground to shake.

At the same time, in the square opposite the government chambers, a creature with a veil and a long steel stick jumped over the bridge and in one blow broke all the bones of Boadicea. The small hands of the big-headed monsters transformed into huge bear paws, and they rushed forward, tearing apart everyone they met. The rebels began firing all their crossbows, but the arrows did not cause any harm to the creatures of the world of darkness.

Alba returned to the main gate once more, having finished scanning the area of the forbidden city with a small squad of Inquisitors, and Thomas. He went up to the general and asked how they were doing.

"As you can see, everyone's gone. Without any drama."

"It's quiet here."

"Yeah. I love silence."

"Me, too."

"So, the revolutionaries were given the opportunity to talk to our government?"

"Yes."

"Lucky bitches."

"That's right. I'm sorry for being so abrupt, General."

"You don't have to apologize to me."

"I have to. It was a terrible day. Problems at the front. How I got to the forbidden city is also not the most pleasant story. That's the nerves and gave up. Thank you for not killing anyone. I shouldn't have given you that order."

"It's all right, Alba. I can understand you. I wonder what they're discussing? I'm interested to the point of trembling! Such an event!"

"I'm wondering too."

The huge creature in the dark robe clapped its hands and all the air on the perimeter of the square disappeared, people began to suffocate, completely helpless and weak. Mazeppa beat against the iron gate with her hands, breaking them into blood, and shouted for someone to help her. But even on the lookout towers, all the soldiers were gone. A woman on horseback appeared behind her. Both consisted only of white bones and an unusual white cloth that resembled skin. She took out a spear, plunged it into the back of Mazeppa's husband, and held him up without saying anything. Then she threw him over the gates. Mazeppa tried to blend in with the crowd, but when she turned around, she saw that almost no one was left alive, and a huge armored puppet was ripping off the head of Boadicea's deputy. In the next instant, she repeated her husband's fate.

All of Willie's assistants, including himself, dodged the blow, and one of them pulled a flamethrower powered by fire VV crystals from behind his back and singed the creature with flames. It screamed, but there were no visible wounds or burns. Willie took the sword with the metovis element "light", burning with a white flame, from his back and ran forward at a breakneck pace. The creature could barely stand on its feet, but that didn't stop it from dodging the slashing attack in a somersault, and then raising the walls of earth around Willy, which hit each other like a press.

"Willie!" one of the assistants shouted and fired another volley of fire. The creature lunged forward and threw him away with a wave of its hand, then brought ten shadow spears down on his head. The assistant was protected by a metovis armor made by Willie himself, who ran out from behind the creature and cut off its head with his sword.

"They seem to forget how to fight. What were they doing in their kennel, if not training?"

"Why didn't the fire do any damage to this incomprehensible humanoid shit?"

"These things, my friend, take nothing but light. Well, all right, guys, take the body and drag it out."

"Why the fuck do we have to drag it out, Willie?"

"Do you want the Inquisitors to know later that someone else was here besides those poor rebels? Alba will know what's going on right away."

"He won't do anything to us in any case."

"He won't, but Gennox and the other Inquisitors will. Or have you decided to declare war on an entire country, hmm? These fucking creatures, are fucking vindictive, believe me, mate, they'll get you even in heaven. So, we drag this "fuck knows what" to our factory, bury it somewhere underground, the lawyer will quickly take the money from the treasury of the Inquisition, and we all get out of this city together."

They took the monster's huge body and dragged it by its arms and legs, and disappeared through the doors of the artillery factory half an hour later, meeting no one else in their path.

Alba and Thomas went to the gate and saw two bodies on the ground.

"I see they're having fun," Thomas said.

Both of them, with the help of metovis, jumped over the iron gate and saw a thousand corpses of people. Gennox approached them and said in a language they understood:

"What do we do next, Alba?"

"You can rest now. Thomas and his proxies will remove the corpses, and tomorrow we will say that all these corpses, "Alba broke off and immediately corrected himself," people, they went with you on a zeppelin to see the surroundings of our country, in order to settle all the issues. In a couple of months, almost no one will remember them. And we will post a new article that all the revolutionaries decided to participate in the war against Porhol land, inspired by your friendliness."

"And understanding," Thomas added.

"Yes, and they left everything to us - the venerable Holy Inquisition."

A creature with a huge metal stick and a veil came up to Alba and asked how things were going in the war? Alba said with confidence that they were getting closer to their goal – capital of Porhol land.

"We will participate in the final battle," the blue-robed creature said.

"You mean you all, right?"

"Yes."

The big-headed white creatures hummed. And the woman on the horse broke the iron wicket on the bridge and went inside the tower palace.

"As you wish," said Alba.