“Was this how you imagined it?” Damien asked cheekily, speaking barely above audible so the blue-ties wouldn’t hear. His back was pressed against the newly-erected bars of his holding cell they’d raised to keep him in. Him, High Dominion, and whoever else they were bringing for the carnival show.

The smell of bitter chemicals was in the air: contra-system. Damien lightly coughed and let his head sink lower, feeling the foreign substance settle inside his body. If there was an opposite feeling of that liquid gold morphine, then this was it. Instead of pleasure, this was sheer discomfort. Head woozy, legs shaky, mind foggy.

Even as a half-demon, a bug was quite effective on him. He still had partial access to magick but trying out a few parlor tricks in a room of skeptics and truth-seekers would book him a fast ticket to the underworld.

Plus, being interrogated about Problem’s whereabouts was not a pleasant time either; they’d used magick to force the truth out but (un)fortunately nobody knew. His location was known to only him.

Votary was handling both the bug and the aftereffects of the interrogation worse. According to her fellow colleagues who were stuck in the same cell as her—off in their own corners silent as a mime—some Slayers had different reactions to bugs. For her, it seemed, everything accumulated into fever.

“Votary,” he called to her again, “you’re not dying on me, are you?”

“Not yet…” she muttered, and he didn’t need to look over his shoulder to know her condition. “How are you handling this so well, demon?”

“Because I’m a demon.”

“Ha.” Votary sucked in her teeth. “A part of me thinks we deserved this… It’s retribution. Punishment. For letting a Nemesis run rampant across the multiverse.”

“Do you? Do you genuinely believe that?”

“I don’t know. Should I? Sometimes I think you’re rubbing off on me because I don’t feel as guilty as I should be.”

Because the event itself is so isolated to us. Like the average person listening to the news about a genocide in another country in another continent that had zero effect on them. That’s normal human behavior. That willingness to say, “That’s awful,” and carry on with your day. “Whatever it is or however you feel, it’s your choice on how to react but you aren’t the only criminal here.”

Votary breathed out a raspy laugh. “That’s surprisingly kind of you to say.”

“Well, I can’t ignore pretty women suffering for no reason. If you care what I think, this sin falls on me and your leaders and not you, but like I said, the only thing that matters is the reaction.”

“Then… Can we break out?”

“React a little less, nun.”

Damien risked exposure and flashed a small but comforting smile—as much a demon could give a human—to the pale and sickly Angel. A theatre's worth of voices clamored behind him and he thought he had to face the music and be marched off into an execution by firing squad. But it wasn’t him who caused a commotion. The agents had their phones out, all of them.

He couldn’t make out full sentences but one word was a constant.

Kosmos, Kosmos, Kosmos.

~~~

The international community was driven by a single conversation: the subject of Seraph’s arrest and her supposed crimes. Broadcast stations spoke on end and relentlessly about rumors they’d picked up on the ground and each had their opinions, podcasts argued and posed their own postulations, tens of millions—maybe hundreds of millions—scrolled through the sea of posts and videos and images attempting to get the bottom of this fiasco.

The whole world had their eyes on Ordo from the second the outbreak was declared and when it ended.

Then, without warning, within the chaotic storm of the internet, a small light had appeared from the deepest depths. Unannounced, and it exponentially expanded. Soon there was not a single soul speaking about the arrest and instead had their eyes and ears tuned into the anomaly.

It was as if the whole world had simultaneously stopped what they were doing.

Across every platform of social media and video services, a journalist account by the name of Isabella Alvillar—known for first breaking the Oasisgate story that soon led to the series of scandals and investigation realized today—was broadcasting a livestream titled with three simple words: INTERVIEW WITH KOSMOS.

The first image the audience was greeted with was a warehouse devoid of furniture and tools save for the bricks and large chunks of concrete plastered across the grounds. Then, the camera panned to two chairs placed near windows that had been covered by nailed sheets—surely to hinder the International Agency from finding the location. In place of natural light were spotlights, shining brightly on the two sitting figures.

A Hispanic woman with a neatly tied ponytail, who had been a feisty figure in her early youth but had grown into a more mature version of her firestarter days. She shuffled in her chair anxiously as anyone would, eyes switching between the camera and the crew behind the lens and finally her guest for today.

The SSS-Rank Slayer, wearing his [Compound Myth Armor], Kosmos.

Isabella saw her cameraman nod and she took a deep breath, first addressing her audience: “Good evening, citizens of the world. I apologize for the sudden livestream but considering the status of our guest, we made accommodations. We are broadcasting from the devastated city of Ordo, and I’m sure all of you know by now, but big moves are happening.”

She looked at Kosmos. “That is why you’re here right now, sir. This has been the first time in years that you are doing an interview. Am I correct?”

Kosmos exhaled, each breath he took was heavy as a mountain. He straightened himself on his chair and stared unflinchingly at the journalist. “Yes, I am here to address the arrest of my wife and the current chaos surrounding Angels and Royals Guild.”

“And the allegations of her contracting with a Nemesis. Everyone who has been arrested thus far was involved.”

“Correct: Seraph, Monarch, High Dominion, and two Baptists. Anyone else who was detained after the fact was detained for, objectively-speaking, being an obstacle to the investigation.”

“And the Baptists being…?”

“Evenfall, son of Duskfire; and Problem of Glory Guild; of the Dawn Baptists who pursued the Kreutz Sungrazers during the Disaster and subjugated them. For those who aren’t aware.”

Isabella cleared her throat and had a quick sip of water. It seemed like she was having trouble believing Kosmos was a few feet away—an interview like this was what every reporter and journalist and news outlet dreamed of.

Normally it would make a career, but this put her between crosshairs. She resumed, fully committed, “Let’s start at the beginning, then. With what we, the public, know and what the rumors say.”

Kosmos nodded and allowed her to continue.

“This will be a mix of fact and rumor, but from what I can understand…” She gulped, “…during the Disaster, a Nemesis was spotted within the city and specifically rumored to be in Darkrealm’s Hold. An operation was launched but instead of a subjugation, it was instead contracted and was intentionally kept hidden from the public. That is the crime in question. Not only that, it is rumored Seraph had given up one of the devices the Sungrazers wielded for its cooperation against the very invaders.”

“Yes.”

Isabella stammered, “Y-Yes?”

“Operation Darkspace. The Nemesis they contracted was a Void God, a variant of the Void Demon that had assumed the corpse of a deceased god during his creation. His name was Devoy.”

Everyone in the warehouse was stunned. Except for Alistair Romanos, plus Leona Ahn and Althea Shen who he brought as company and extra hands to set up the broadcast. They had known what he was going to do from the beginning.

But they gulped.

“Devoy?” Isabella asked again on reflex.

“Yes. Monarch, High Dominion, and my Baptists ventured into Darkrealm’s Hold and formed a contract as per Seraph’s orders. We successfully engaged in a deal: in exchange of Devoy’s powers to combat the Sungrazers, we handed over a universe splitter which allowed the invaders to summon monsters across the multiverse. In other words, we gave the Void God the ability to traverse the multiverse and in return he would never touch this world again.”

“…What does the Void God do?” Isabella asked shakily, glancing at her crew and new acquaintances.

Kosmos paused for thought. “He converts worlds into Void and consumes them.”

“And he’s traversing through the multiverse right now? Doing that?”

“We don’t know. Maybe he is, maybe he has been stopped already. We don’t know. This is the price my wife has paid.”

“So it’s true?” Isabella pushed, leaning forward not out of disrespect but from shock. “The allegations are true? By legal definition, Seraph and her peers are Apocalyptics?”

This time Kosmos paused for longer as he contemplated his next words, but he had already taken the next step in his life. To fight Sirius Aethfell, this was the way and this was how he would confront it. There was no better remedy, he thought, than unfiltered and honest truth by being a paragon.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “By legal definition, they would be considered Apocalyptics.”

Isabella exhaled and nodded multiple times to process this confession. She openly turned to her crew and they were sweating, shrugging their shoulders and pressuring her to endure longer. Alistair Romanos and his guests urged her the same.

“Okay…” she muttered. “Okay. You do understand the gravity of this, do you? It’s the worst thing a person can be designated—they won’t be a person anymore.”

Kosmos simply nodded. “Yes, but I am here to appeal to the world. By all legal means, Angels and Royals would be dissolved and their leaders scattered to the wind—but I am here to say otherwise. They have committed a crime—we have committed a crime but the International Agency is operating under the assumption that we did so out of malice and hatred of the world and that couldn’t be further than the truth!

“We needed to save Ordo! Our home! We were willing to cross any line to achieve it and ultimately we had because the extinction that’d come was not a future my wife wanted! In Scorcher, killing Pereyra and Tewfik left thousands dead including Archknell and devastated our infrastructure and resources. Ordo couldn’t survive another operation like that, so we had to pilfer through any opportunity we saw to gain the slightest advantage.

“If rationality won’t appeal to you, then look at her character. She founded charities and built homes in impoverished areas, erected portal redirection sites and built infrastructure to better secure our planet—her entire existence is charity and kindness. I know her not as Seraph but as the woman I married and the mother of my daughter. The same woman I met when I was an orphan at Giants’ Protection at a time where no one reached out to me. That’s her! That’s Sera!

“And my colleagues too, sitting in a cell. High Dominion, our finest team composed of some of the most virtuous members you’d find; Monarch, whose reputation goes as far as my wife’s; Problem and Evenfall, who volunteered themselves to accomplish something nobody else had. And Evenfall especially, who had been a Pseudo during the Disaster.

“Their crime resulted in Ordo getting rescued from a worse Hell than the books described, and I utterly condemn the Global Guards and the International Agency for targeting us and prioritizing our downfall for their own slimy and opportunistic gains instead of focusing on the real threat that had resulted in tens of thousands lost: the commander of the Kreutz Sungrazers, Sirius Aethfell!”

His unprompted speech had turned the warehouse colder than a blizzard. Isabella was flabbergasted at his strong words never before seen in such a figure such as him, nor had anyone else in the room. For his close allies, who had seen Kosmos as Nathan Hyun-Creed, it was a startling transformation from the man who’d taken little things about himself seriously.

For him to be pushed this far…

No, for the world to push him to this extent, he had lasted admirably long.

But no more.

Kosmos breathed to recognize the weight of what he said, and seeing Isabella was in no courage to follow up, he continued: “If the Global Guards actually cared one damned thing about your home, then they would not have done this. They have lost all trust in me, so I will not be cooperating with them in their operations against the Lord of Many.

“Instead, I will lead my own operations against him. I will create a new organization dedicated to this purpose and other humanitarian efforts across the globe. We will find a way to cross the multiverse and slay the king in his throne. We will bring peace back to this planet.

“I repeat: I will establish my own organization to achieve this, seperate from Angels Guild, and I will be its co-founder!”

The very order of the world itself, one established by the Global Guards, had reach over the latitudes. Their domain was the globe, their goal was security under one. Anyone fighting against them was no different than an Apocalyptic fighting against the world. The Disaster had given them this pretext to begin the integration.

But in their push for an unquestionable unity, they had pushed Kosmos and that was a mistake. His announcement buckled and cracked the status quo and created division through competition and defiance. At this moment, child and politician, had a singular unanimous thought: What would happen next? as a mythos was born before them.

The new organization, Kosmos as the…co-founder?

Co-founder?

Isabella rushed to ask without thinking, “The co-founder? Who else is joining you?” She glanced at the Baptists before turning back at him. “Seraph? Rector? The other Guild Masters?”

Kosmos looked at Alistair, Althea, and Leona; the man in the group approved.

“The [Hero of Ordo], the [Silver-Eyed Demon], Conqueror. He will also be its co-founder with me.”

“Alex—?” The journalist cleared her throat, troubled by the continuous onslaught of revelations. It was amazing she was still conscious. “Conqueror? The man who slayed Kreutz?”

“Yes. During the last moments of the Disaster, Conqueror had experienced a Second Emergence and used his newfound [Honor] to save the city. While I’m not able to show you, I have concrete evidence that his new Slayer Rank is EX.”

Alistair sputtered in the background, and his reaction was the most muted compared to everybody else (save for the Baptists who already knew).

Normally this declaration would be laughed at and considered a joke by most, but Kosmos had said this. If it was him, then it was the truth. This new organization, then, had both the current SSS-Rank and future EX-Rank as founders.

The power it now wielded…

It could be greater than the world itself.

Kosmos stood and a collective gasp echoed throughout the warehouse. He stared directly into the camera. “That is everything I have to say. Thank you for listening, and I apologize for these uncertain times.”

The livestream ended.

According to analysts, within twenty-four hours of its upload, over two billion people had viewed it.

***

“Before you ask,” Nathan started before his peers would, “I’m fine. I was a little fired up, that's all.”

“Literally declaring war against the Guards is ‘a little fired up’ for you? Sheesh, I’ll never make you angry… I mean, I wasn’t plannin’ on making the Kosmos angry to begin with…” Althea said nervously. Despite that, she seemed somewhat more comfortable around him. Good.

Besides from that, the exact opposite of ‘comfortable’ was behind them: darting between her people and computers and equipment like she just drank a whole vat of coffee. They watched Isabella almost trip on an extension cord and stutter a thousand miles a minute, completely unintelligible to her colleagues.

“Miss Alvillar!” Romanos called out and her head jerked up like a hedgehog spotting food. “Breathe. It’s over.”

“Over…” she muttered, eyes bloodshot. “Oh Lord, it’s over. How did everything escalate so quickly? I just got here and the first thing you ask me is if I could do an interview this Kosmos! Kosmos! How else am I supposed to react to all that information? My platform was used to a podium to war against the Guards and to top it all off, our Alexander is an EX-Rank Slayer? Our Alex? The angry little guy I had to bug all the time?”

“Little?” Leona questioned, looking down at Isabella.

“She got the ‘angry’ part right…” muttered Althea.

Nathan sighed and nodded. “Everything comes full circle for you, Miss Alvillar. It looks like you made the right connections.”

“Right, thank you—” She stopped and stared at him, frightened, “—why is Kosmos talking casually to me?”

Romanos added, “Breathe. Because what I’m going to say might cause you to faint.”

“Could you do worse than him?”

“Maybe. I wanted to point out that you could be targeted by the Guards. They’d want to know how and why Kosmos agreed to a interview with you.”

“Ah, you’re right. How long have we known each other, Mister Romanos?”

“Years at this point.” He glanced at Althea. “For us.”

“Mhm. Trust me, if I could survive Oasis, then I could survive the Guards. Especially if I have Kosmos’s protection hanging over my head.”

“You have Romanos’s number in case you need anything,” Nathan told her. It’s surprising how fast she adjusted to the new change, but then again, she won’t really know the extent of her boosted popularity until a few weeks from now.

Leona hummed. “While I would love to get to know you better, Miss Alvillar, we don’t exactly have an open schedule. Kosmos, how sure are you that this interview will have the, err, intended effects. You did admit that, uh…”

“Everything is true,” Althea finished for her.

“Mhm, everything is true. I don’t disagree but at the same time, the whole world doesn’t work that way.”

“I don’t need the whole world charmed by my confession; I need enough. Besides…” Nathan thought back to his conversation with Problem shortly after Sephirah Hamidi had left, tying the ideas discussed then to the current events today. “As much as I loathe to admit, what the average person thinks is worth almost nothing to the Guards; the people I’m appealing to…”

“The world leaders,” Alistair concluded right on the money. “That’s why you said your confession first, then followed up with your declaration.”

“Mhm. Not only have I provided an alternative to the Guards, I reversed their own motives against them. Each day our allies are kept behind bars, the more the Guards are shown to value ‘petty conflicts’ over protecting our world. We have all the time in the world now.”

“Then what should we do next?” Leona followed with another question. “We have people at the Hospital and wherever we keep the you-know-what.”

If anyone could see under his helmet, then they would find a cool smile on his face. A smile that a superhero would have. “Oh, don't worry. As Kosmos, I’ve done everything I needed to do. Like I said, we have all the time in the world.”

On que, he received a [Private Message] from the man he’d contacted before he took this interview.

Righteous Jin Tiehan:

Where do you want it sent?