Anthony sat back in his chair and listened to Charlemagne’s information collected from DGSE—the French secret service—who had been hard at work investigating the various threats moving against their country since The Oscillation.

Charlemagne had indeed maneuvered himself into a powerful position for not being an elected official, but his resume spoke for itself as a retired military general and politician that had his youth returned to him by the Seed.

His name was on the ballot for President due to his strong public presence. Of course, Jeanne d’Arc was also a candidate, yet she didn’t wish to take office, wanting to serve the people as a shield from a more active role than a directing one.

It was natural to believe many legends from their past would be reborn, and the President ordered a strict internal scan to root out anyone who would put the current stability of France at risk of conflict.

Laws had been rapidly passed that anyone who was a Demi had to disclose such information to the public to run for public office, and many in France took on the very names of their legends to be totally transparent.

When it came to those that could cause trouble, Joseph Fouché had been on that list as an extremist, among many others. The government had secretly curbed multiple efforts to plunge the nation into chaos, such as the Lioness of Brittany.

However, as the legendary emperor solemnly explained, the strict crackdown on controversial figures had forced them into hiding, and the National Registry of Demi had been a very unpopular move by a vocal minority across Europe, which had caused quite a bit of internal conflict in several countries.

France had welcomed the military might of the many religious factions within their history that had caused a division with the anti-religious revolutionary extremists. The national election was coming up, which caused tensions to be high, and several terrorist attacks had come from a few different factions that should have no business working together, yet they were.

Joseph Fouché and the Cult of Reason weren’t even on their radar until Anthony had informed Gilles about what he’d learned, who forwarded it to Charlemagne. The sharp-eyed man put a dedicated team in DGSE on the topic, digging up what they could, but Charlemagne believed the members had been drawn into something far deeper with these aliens.

Obviously, the energy beings weren’t just sitting on their butts after Anthony’s stunt, and their rogue A.I. exposed their presence to the world; the President was already on the line with the E.U. representatives and other prominent allied leaders around the world as they went into hiding after the country-level attack.

Everyone was looking to France for answers, and the President had placed Charlemagne in charge of understanding exactly what occurred as he met with the world leaders to discuss the information the special appointee sent him.

As for their group, Anthony sent Selvaria and her mother to spend the rest of the day touring France since much of it would be spent on planning and research. Meanwhile, the entire world was scrambling for answers from the company within this room, and the leviathan wasn’t one to wait around.

Selvaria invited Melissa to join them, but the young woman kept her gaze firmly fixed on Anthony, wanting more than anything to put all of this behind them and find her sister. Word among the lowlifes was that a sea monster was being passed between hands in France through underground organizations.

There weren’t any leads as to how Melissa’s little sister had landed in this position; at the moment, her safety was all that they were after. Anything more, like revenge, would come after, and word reached Jack that this Peter fellow was connected to an organization with deep underground reach; he had had no clue it was the Cult of Reason.

Their attention went to the window when a monkey tapped on it, having somehow bypassed security by wearing an invisibility cloak he’d stolen somewhere in France. The officer of Ward’s crew had discovered his first mate’s location.

Unfortunately, Cahira and Jack had already skipped the meeting to possibly find more drinks to cope with what they’d lived through earlier. Sending the intelligent monkey away, Anthony assumed they were following other leads involving Melissa’s sister; the plasma nuke probably made them antsy about staying in the city, as well.

Mara and Nemesis remained silent, listening to Charlemagne and Anthony discuss the possibilities around these aliens as they received live updates from various intelligence networks.

Anthony could tell Melissa was frustrated, feeling like her sister was being shoved aside by this sudden threat’s appearance, but he knew she understood the severity of the alien’s reveal. They had enough trouble internally, not to mention the Crystals; an extraterrestrial problem wasn’t the most welcome news.

He brought Tom into the meeting through video and comforted the tentacle cat that by merging goals, they had access to not only France’s full support and resources but the United States, as well; the U.S. had declared DEFCON 3 once they detected the alien attack.

The majority of the planning had moved between Tom, Charlemagne, and Anthony as Jaenona rested on a couch nearby; she wasn’t really sleeping, though, and Anthony knew she would bring up some random solution at some point by the tingles on the back of his neck.

Tom’s deep voice sounded rested on the other end. “We must assume that these aliens have been here long enough to infiltrate every major government, and having dealt with creatures from other planets, we can’t be certain how they think. Heh. The little guys Mythic encountered last month believed Doctor Who was reality.”

“Why integrate, though?” Charlemagne questioned, sending texts to the President and likely answering the man’s queries. “If they have built a weaponized A.I. satellite around our planet, couldn’t they be listening in on us as we speak by others hidden in our orbit?”

Anthony puffed out a long stream of air, studying Jaenona on the couch beside him; she was trying very hard to understand what he wanted and how she could help, which took a lot out of the eldritch entity.

“My guess would be that they updated their satellite after studying the effects of The Oscillation and realized the sudden change across the world could compromise their anonymity.”

“It was a weapon they upgraded,” Tom growled, rubbing his bald head and looking at many displays from what appeared to be the situation room in the White House. “I have a lot of Demi working for me, and we’ve done a lot of screening, yet I haven’t found anything similar to what you described to me, Anthony.”

Charlemagne’s fingers paused over his tablet, vision narrowing. “What if many of the deaths of many political figures and influential people have actually been dealing with this threat underground?”

Anthony’s mind instantly went to Twilight, following Rachel’s concerns; without a doubt, his girlfriend would be on the move when she awoke, and the fact she hadn’t heard a whisper about these creatures would put her guard up.

Tom’s voice drew Anthony’s attention to the screen. “That has been something that crossed my mind, yet something doesn’t feel right… Rachel’s team brought back an extremely powerful reactor from the aliens she encountered that may actually be more advanced than the ones that quietly invaded us.”

Charlemagne straightened. “You’ve hidden it away… or are you saying it could have been stolen or a fake put in its place? If they have more weapons like that and get their hands on such a power source… who knows what they could do?”

“Not only that,” Anthony muttered. “These aliens were able to detect the unstable reality Jaenona and I generated when opening a path to Neil’scera. I do believe there are other factions working against them at this point, which means they may become desperate, especially after I used Melishna to counter their weapon.”

“Well…” Charlemagne hummed, rising to peer through the closed curtains. “A second attack hasn’t come since.”

Tom sighed. “The silence certainly is disconcerting. Our only lead is this Cult of Reason, and the only person with answers is dead… We may have an answer via spiritualists and necromancers. Some of the Native American tribes have people that can…”

He trailed off as Jaenona yawned and stretched out on the couch, mumbling, “Peter isn’t dead? You can ask him about the things confusing you.”

Charlemagne’s gaze shot to Anthony as he ran his hand down his face. “You… said the man was killed by the unknown liquid from his amulet?”

“He was,” Jaenona giggled. “Peter was moving with Neil’scera at the time, and it was this that triggered the terror in the little sparks in the box. It could not properly monitor Peter’s state of being, nor the twists in logic it could not make sense of. It appears to have been quite the inconvenience to these energy creatures you speak of.”

A strained smile came to Tom’s face. “Eh-heh, and I thought dealing with Hades and devils was tough to grasp… Where is Peter so we can question him, Anthony?”

Charlemagne was flipping through reports. “His corpse is still in the bar; the local police forensic team is going over the scene as we speak.”

Anthony felt dumb, but it wasn’t his fault; it had been challenging to even follow the random shifts in dimensional spheres when it came to the eldritch girl. “Peter was recounting his sins from everything he experienced within Neil’scera, living through a fractured existence to uncover the truth within him, hidden behind his ideology… He’s still going through it beyond the door I closed when returning Melishna to the void.”

“Ugh, I hate to say it, but…” Charlemagne’s humorless smile tightened. “Is he even going to be… able to tell us anything at all after being shut inside of some eldritch space?”

A bewildered look crossed Jaenona’s young face. “Do you not understand that Melishna was that of the eldritch, not Neil’scera; Peter has never once touched the Pure Song. My master sent him to the place of transition and understanding… A reflection of that which is mirrored in the eldritch.”

The legend and Tom’s telling grins asked Anthony to translate, but to Anthony’s surprise, Mara was the one to answer from the corner.

“Correct me if I am wrong, child, but you are saying he is living out his own personal penance as we speak in a world beyond our grasp… a place that can facilitate the learning of true eldritch knowledge?”

“Hehe.” Jaenona’s white locks bounced against her shoulders as she shook her head. “Not completely correct, Mara. If it is penance his Core most seeks, it will be shown to him; it is the purpose of Neil’scera to bridge The Truth with the soul’s blindness. He will not be the same when returned; whatever he has found to be within himself will have broken, molded, and renewed him.”

“Right…”

Melissa jumped in, excitement on her face. “If he is alive, we can get answers about my sister, the aliens, and the cult, right?”

Charlemagne motioned to Anthony. “Can I assume you have the ability to bring him out of this Neil’scera place?”

“Huu-haaa.” He rubbed between his eyes, feeling the weight of what he was asking against his shoulders. “Honestly… I don’t know if I can. My Seed was corrupted by… real eldritch beings which go way beyond anything close to this Existence; I can’t always use it because of the stress put on it. Maybe in a bit…”

Tom cleared his throat. “It should give us time to prepare.”

Charlemagne nodded, realizing the general’s concerns. “If these aliens can warp into space, what’s stopping them from sending an assassin to kill him the moment he is out; we can’t risk it since he’s our only true lead… Could you remove him from that place anywhere?”

Anthony turned to Jaenona, who giggled, head bobbing.

“Of course, all paths within this universal center connect to Neil’scera, and it is because of the special affix of this maelstrom singularity that Neil’scera did not fracture under the weight of my master’s total presence being spread throughout it.”

He took her explanation as meaning he was way more powerful than any typical mirrorverse, and this Neil’scera was different due to multiple Existences being funneled to this universe. Anthony wasn’t even sure what he did, but it had stressed out his Greater Seed into hibernation, which was a first within their group.

“I probably only need a few hours of rest before I can do something simple like opening a small rift to pull him through… Right, Jaenona?”

“Mhm! It will be quite doable, and his anchor to this fragment of reality will allow my master to tug his Thread of Existence to return him to the place he was last broken to be renewed, molted in newfound understanding.”

“Great,” Mara snickered. “So he’s going to return a guru… in the place he ‘died.’ Surely that won’t present any problems.”

Charlemagne took a moment to piece together what the child said. “In short… Anthony can pull him back from anywhere, but he will return to the same bathroom he left?”

Jaenona’s eyes began to water unexpectedly, turning to her master. “Have I misinterpreted the desire they have? I tried… extremely hard to see the notes their small strings made.”

Anthony chuckled and moved over to sit beside the girl, patting her head. “You’re doing great, no need for tears. Is there any way we can bring him back to another location—move his body?”

“Oh, umm… not as you are, I am afraid, Master.”

Tom groaned, stretching his arms over his head. “That’s that. Do you have anyone who can help safely extract him, Charlemagne?”

A twinkle came to the man’s eyes as he took out a curious antique watch from his drawer and twisted the top. “I do, and we can make preparations to move him to a safe location for questioning. I suppose whatever happens during this will give us more answers as to these aliens.”

Nemesis rose to his feet, not looking amused, which made sense when they’d been close to being vaporized; he also seemed to care more for those under his protection than his own life, which was very lion-like of the man.

It was time to call everyone back to set up a perimeter, and Selvaria would be useful to have around; with Nemesis and the leviathan nearby, there was a good physical balance between defense and offense.

He expected resistance from these aliens, and with his eldritch abilities locked down, Anthony was just a physically strong spearman; he needed a team. His goal was to have a solid lead on Melissa’s little sister by the end of the day, and he had the resources now that the whole world was looking to France.

Mara smirked as they gathered near the door, Charlemagne calling multiple parties to meet him at the bar location. “What do you bet they’ve already extracted his body with some kind of illusion or copy; will that matter?”

“Nope!” Jaenona grinned, fixing her hair. “That corpse is a phantasm of Existence, filling in a spot that abruptly vanished; it will correct itself once my master provides an answer to its conundrum.”

“Perfect!” the mermaid laughed. “I wonder what looks those aliens will have when they realize their efforts were wasted; I’m sure they’ve tried something. Humph. Try to vaporize us? I do hope they are against us so I can give them a piece of my mind, even if it was a mistake.”

Maria cleared her throat, her arms crossed under her bust; it was the first time the unicorn had interrupted as she’d listened to everyone talk. “Aye, not going to ask me if I can heal your fatigue?”

Anthony’s mind blanked. “I… hadn’t thought about that. Will that work on my Seed, though?”

“Meh. I don’t know,” she mumbled, getting to her feet and adjusting her coat; it was ironic that the woman made of solar energy could get cold. “Maybe your whole weird eldritch stuff can funnel the healing rays into it or something. I’m just saying.”

“Go for it,” Mara encouraged, brow furrowing as Nemesis moved to the window behind Charlemagne’s desk to peer outside. “Sense something? Nothing vocal has caught my notice.”

Maria’s shimmering horn brightened the room, bathing Anthony in restorative light; the fatigue vanished, yet his insight into the obscure was still blocked.

“Hmm. No luck.”

“Freak,” Maria grumbled, fingers sliding through her illuminated snowy locks as her tail swished to the side. “I’ve been feelin’ a bit left out recently… Everyone’s busy doing crap, and I’m just kind of floating along… Freakin’ moon.”

Nemesis’ jaw worked around, scanning the grounds. “Something doesn’t feel right…”

“Such as?” Charlemagne muttered, peering through the window from the opposite side. “We can’t rule anything out if we’re dealing with an advanced alien race. Holograms, lifting the whole building into the sky… mind control?”

Anthony shook his head. “That’s something Jaenona would definitely detect.”

Maria huffed. “Okay, what if they lifted the whole city block up and put an illusion around us? We’re actually in their mother ship, and they’re monitoring us.”

A strained smile lifted Melissa’s face. “Eh-heh… that’d be insane.”

“Unlikely,” Mara smirked, seemingly studying the vibrations in the room. “Our contact with Tom would be broken.”

“True,” the general said from his feed. “Nothing has been detected thus far, which is actually the real concern. Their A.I. went rogue—according to Jaenona—and has just tried to wipe out an entire country. It’s been more than three hours, but no escalation or de-escalation… only silence.”

Maria giggled, leaning to the side and randomly waving her hand around. “Maybe they’re nearby, and we can’t sense them because they’re energy. Huh? Dang, that’d be trippy.”

“Not impossible,” Charlemagne hummed, focus drifting to Jaenona.

The girl shook her head. “I’m very limited in my perception due to my Master’s current state, although I would sense any kind of deception impressed upon us.”

“Not the environment,” Mara interpreted, arms tightening against her core. “An unsettling thought.”

Maria’s horn reappeared as she thoughtfully studied the space. “I should be able to identify anyone nearby with their disabilities… Uh. Not a frikin’ thing.”

Charlemagne went around his desk. “We have our lead. General Dallas, I will bring you back in when we have more to work with.”

“Understood.”

He cut the feed, and they exited the building. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, but Nemesis was still on-edge. Anthony picked Jaenona up to get by the reporters swarming the building, searching for answers, still on the phone with his free hand, gathering his team.

Apparently, Selvaria had tried to go up the Eiffel Tower and broke the elevator—the worst part, she jumped to see if it would hold—causing Maria to curse and tell her to get back here before she did any more damage; their funds weren’t endless. Some local officers had detained them, and she promised to join them after returning her mother to Zippy since things were getting a bit out of hand.

Cahira and Jack were in the middle of a meeting so they couldn’t join them. According to the pair, the Lioness of Brittany was about to make a major move against the French government; word was, nothing had changed since the alien attack—in fact, the woman was using it to her advantage.

Anthony saw his own breath as the chilly wind picked up and the bundled-up reporters pushed against the officers attempting to hold the line; the walkway was fairly well cleared to allow them access to the waiting vehicles.

He put away his phone as they passed through the crowd; everyone wanted to know more about the flower than the ball of light.

Charlemagne entered an SUV, followed by Maria and Mara. Nemesis was working his way inside the back as a wolf Beastkin officer stepped to the side, catching their gaze; a female reporter stumbled forward, in her push to get a comment, her phone going flying.

“H-Hey!” she cried, heel snapping; she was having a bad day.

Anthony instinctively reached out to catch it, and two of Melissa’s tentacles slid out of the back of her shirt to save the woman and new-looking device; his fingers touched the glass, and a quiver ran through every fiber of his being—the world spun.

He pulled Jaenona closer, hoping he would land on his back; instead, he was left hovering in the air. The air in Anthony’s lungs froze when the world bled into focus, showing Earth below him; they’d been transported to space.

“M-Master… I can’t…”

He only lightly let up on Jaenona’s body, keeping her close as he tried to grasp what was happening.

“Anthony?!”

Melissa was beside him, golden circles of light spinning around them, and the reporter breathed out a long sigh as she studied them, hovering twenty meters above the glass-like surface below them.

“What a blunder this has been, Owen.”

An Indian man wearing a business suit appeared from twinkling light beside her, hands held behind his back. “It was only a matter of time before our presence was known, given the catastrophe that struck this world.”

Anthony found his feet in the air as a platform of light solidified below him, and he held out his hand when Melissa’s twelve tentacles, six draconic heads, and wolves leaped out to surround them. “Hold up, Melissa!”

“W-We’ve been abducted?! What else should I do?” she asked, snarling dragons looking in all directions so as not to be surprised.

Owen’s eyes narrowed; their focus was entirely on the tentacle girl. “You could send her back, Lev.”

The woman rolled her eyes, gesturing to the planet. “We are in a state of emergency, and you think it is an acceptable option to send her back when she has already seen where we orbit? Intelligent as always, Owen.”

“As you said, we are in a state of emergency; if she were to expand to the size we have documented, we cannot be certain our defenses would hold.”

Anthony wanted to facepalm at his statement and the fact he hadn’t calculated this scenario—it was so obvious now—take Jaenona and him off the map, and there’s no lead.

Melissa’s panic began to ease. “Oh… I just need to grow, huh—Anthony, you can survive space, right? I think I can!”

“No! No! Hold up!”

Lev seemed to be having a very bad day as she looked up at a blank, obsidian ceiling and shook her head; beams of light flashed through various points, never showing the same pattern, and he couldn’t be sure if they were supposed to be up or down.

“Once again, Owen, stating the facts in such ways is not an advantage to the scenario we have established.”

“The scenario we established was flawed from the moment you failed to conclude the Mythickin’s addition, Lev. It is these shortcomings with your electro stimuli that directly influenced our current situation in regard to the flaw in N.C.281…”

He paused, turning to stare at the planet, Lev whispering, “Asher has been pacified… an audience proposed. Resistance is futile, as we have seen in their coordinated assaults.”

“Excuse me,” Anthony interrupted, having Jaenona transform into a spear so she wouldn’t be so vulnerable. “I believe we could work this out if you are willing to have a friendly talk… Are you under attack? By who?”

Owen turned his light-brown eyes on him; he was likely in a mechanical suit that contained his energy. “The anomaly wishes to negotiate. There could be a benefit in bringing an outside party to stir the opposition’s leverage within planetary dominance.”

A slight frown shifted Lev’s mouth. “Perhaps there is merit to your suggestion; we were not instructed to come unattended. What motive do you have in this creature of unknown matter? It is not our intention to see your wrath placed against the Union of Light, and it is… challenging to determine the true intentions of humanity when a major power of your planet marks us as threats to be dealt with.”

“What the crap are they talking about?” Melissa asked. “I could probably hold you and fall through the atmosphere. I don’t want to be dissected!”

Anthony only partially followed their conversation, but if this wasn’t a ploy, then it could solve the biggest problems; he just needed to convince them, and it seemed logic was what they understood.

“If someone is waging war against you without informing the rest of the world powers, then it would be a pretty big deal. One of your people is being detained and being used as a bargaining chip to meet, right?”

Owen hummed, sparks flashing across the air that Anthony guessed was their transmission of energy, sending information. “Redirecting human affairs to one another is the acceptable outcome. A large number of individuals will be seen as a hostile action.”

“Indeed,” Lev sighed, staring at Anthony. “What do you suggest, anomaly? We have lost all grasp on understanding this new humanity. Our infrastructure has been stolen, and errors have entered our systems due to incompetent actors attempting to utilize our technology.”

Light brightened Melissa’s eyes. “They’re… in trouble? Oh, so… was the rogue A.I. caused by these attacks, too? Was it actually caused by another nation?”

Anthony assumed they were using some kind of universal translator since they were speaking English to him, even if he had a Feat to bridge the gap, and their words were probably Greek to Melissa.

“I don’t know, but if we knew what your purpose was, we might not have to be enemies… We could even be friends. Transport Melissa back to Earth with something to bring back someone; she can have Charlemagne—someone who has great influence in France—to this meeting, and he can balance the negotiations in this hostage negotiation.”

“Woah… How did this even happen?” Melissa chuckled, stroking one of her wolves, probably for comfort. “We went from abducted to hostage negotiators for… aliens?”

Lev and Owen looked at one another, sparks dancing around the pair before the woman turned and nodded to him.

“We have been caught within an elaborate and intelligent trap that goes beyond what we have calculated to expect from humanity. If an entity above all understanding thinks this is the path we should take, we shall learn from your suggestion.”

“Eh-heh… I’m not some all-knowing creature beyond all logic,” he muttered, thinking back to the eldritch entity he’d summoned that had likely totally fried these aliens’ brains; it did react differently to every person, and he had no clue how it would affect light creatures.

Owen’s gaze drifted to the world below them. “We came to this planet to understand this concept of belief without reason… and you have shown us something we cannot overlook. It must be studied to further imagination in the unknown that we cannot grasp. We will make this… uncomfortable leap.”

Melissa forced a laugh. “Anthony… heh, did you just start… an alien cult? Oh, can they find my sister?! They totally can, right?”

“I don’t know!” he growled, making Jaenona giggle from inside him. “Look. We have no idea where this is going to take us… I’ll ask when we get a chance, but just explain it to Charlemagne.”

The fake humans studied their reactions before sending Melissa back with a black stone that would transport the emperor to them. The dark-haired man’s blue irises scanned their environment when he returned; he was alone.

“Your group sends their regards… Hehe. Mara made me promise to tell you to watch your butt.”

Anthony rolled his eyes—not like he’d already been kidnapped—his group could be so immature at times.

“So… who are we negotiating—well… I feel like I shouldn’t be surprised.”

The world spun, and they were standing in an extravagant eating hall with dozens of powerful Mythickin and Legendkin; a single table was placed in the center with a smiling, raven-haired woman already seated. Wearing a quite expensive and opulent gown of rose, white, gold, and orange hues, she wore a crown-like headpiece.

A man with curly red hair sat across from her, showing the same emotionless expression as the two aliens; he hadn’t touched his food, and a black choker was around his neck.

“Saint Charlemagne, and if it isn’t Rachel’s boyfriend… Anthony, was it? Welcome to China.” Setting down her utensils, a soft, feminine chuckle shook the woman’s ample chest as she turned her rosy red lips to them. “What an unexpected move, Lev; I applaud you for deviating from your typical behavior. Attempting to destroy France before asking them to help negotiate? Bold. I like it!”

“Empress Wu,” Charlemagne whispered. “China has declared war against the aliens?”