"A swell shook the earth in unending agony. As Daphne wailed, so did the oceans and volcanoes. She labored her baby for seven days therefore the earth must suffer for seven days. Men turned into stone. Women froze into ice. Children decimated into dust. But warriors should live, and believers should survive, as now agony is the start of victory. Agony is the redemption price."

⸺ Victory 20:1-8

"Keep the girl."

Standing in front of Judas now would be a tall woman, her stature towering over the man she stared at. She looked like a bloating monster, a pale, fat zombie too old to be messed around, but too naïve to be haggled with. Her cheek was a senseless thing. Half of it was covered by green tattoos of blades and guns, covering the ugly scar beneath them.

"What?"

"Her parents don't want her anymore, true, but she's still a de Staav. You can keep her, make her your crew or whatever you like, but don't get her killed because the blame will be on you."

Judas stared at the smirking girl to his right, her overly minimal clothes thin enough to display these arrays of tattoos that rivalled the big woman's. Her eyes, slanted like needles, shone with contained delight.

"There must be a but," Judas countered. "You're a DC enforcer. You people ain't just gonna let things slide without consequences."

The big woman smiled. "You know me well, Bethelom." She tossed a piece of paper from her coat and Judas caught it.

He read it quickly.

He clenched his fists, rumpling the paper inside of it.

"My boy and his cousin study there, Rohanna," Judas said. "I'm not going to execute their university rector."

"Mr Hansburg is a corrupt extremist with SEU connections. As a parent, do you not want to have a better rector for your kid? What do you think will be the consequences of having an SEU sympathizer as a head? He's dangerous for everyone, your boy included. He needs to be replaced."

"And Artha's hands are too clean for such a vicious act. He can't look guilty murdering a chargeless rector who doesn't have the same ideology as he, so he hired me through you."

"You understand that our president doesn't like to get dirty."

The girl beside him giggled so intensely her mouth started spitting saliva. All of the DCs attentions turned to her, their frowning faces sour.

"What's so funny?" Rohanna asked. "You're a cursed little bliss, aren't you? Half the city wants you dead and here you are, redeemed under the wings of a criminal."

"And that criminal is doing favors for the president. Who's funny now?"

"Cara, stay the hell out of this," Judas warned. "Rohanna, I'm not risking my boy's future for the sake of your job."

"He won't have one if you don't take the job," an enforcer suddenly said.

Rohanna's face didn't light up anymore. "You have your order. You will have the rest of the money when it's done. Discreet and simple. I hope you don't push your boundaries, Bethelom. If the university ever found out, we can give your boy more than four years in a dirty institution. We can give him real titles. But at the very least, accept this job. You don't want your eyes landing on your boy's name written on a tombstone."

At that, Judas charged towards the big DC commander. He slammed her hard against the wall, pinning her with one hand and choking her with another. Two of her escorts levelled their guns, their aims steady at Judas while Cara grabbed her pistol and pointed it at the escorts.

"You dare threaten my boy? I don't fear you. I don't fear your government or your fucking politics."

"Yes, you do," Rohanna replied in a senseless voice. She breathed disrespectfully at Judas, her face showing no regard for the man currently strangling her. "You fear me. You fear the DCs, and you fear for your son and family. Fear protects people, Bethelom. It keeps them safe. Understand that."

Judas growled and backed off. Rohanna sighed, her arm stroking her neck.

"Two days," Rohanna implied as she walked back towards her patrol truck. "Get the terrorist rector and we'll pay you off. Clear and simple."

"That bitch," Cara responded by pursing her lips, mimicking the way Judas talked most of the time.

Judas rubbed the back of his head while closing his eyes. There was so much to process, so much to comprehend. "Don't you ever talk like that again. I'll do the business. You haul back and keep your shitty mouth shut. Understand?"

"Alright, Grandpa."

"You ain't causing me problems no more from here on out. You're a big pain in the ass already."

"Okay..." Cara snatched her backpack. "Coral Terra here we come."

Rumbling smoothly above the black asphalt, Judas' four-wheeler veered to the highway at an astounding speed. The sun setting directly afront of them gave them an exclusive light show with some beautiful arrangements. Cara lifted her feet on the dashboard, her face reeling into the open window, breathing pure metal served by the polluted air.

"So... how old is your boy?"

Judas didn't answer. His mind was occupied by the consequences if the university ever figured out that the one killing their current rector was a student's parent.

"He some bright boy? Got one hundred percent tuition scholarship so I heard."

"Can you shut the hell up?"

"Gonna be a pretty boring ride if I do," she teased.

"I prefer silence."

"Broody," Cara sneered. "Is your boy like this too? Or does his mother's genes get the better of him?"

"Nothing that you need to know. He's off-limits."

Cara sneered. "You no fun. He's like what, two years younger than me?"

"One," Judas fixed. "He's eighteen and he's got a bright future ahead. He's focused, willed, and also perfectly kind. He never tried to murder his own parents, alright? Something you perhaps don't relate to?"

"Some soft boy?"

"Maybe that's a good thing," Judas argued. "Definitely everything you're not."

"Ouch, old man."

"That's true, though." Judas scrubbed his head. He pitied the girl once, but now she was a needle stabbing him constantly in the ears. Nothing would be more toxic than Cara de Staav's mouth.

"Why are you raising him this way?"

"None of your business."

"Clearly it is. He's like... so different than you. You know how cliché and stupid that sounds? Because, like it or not, your boy's gonna be intertwined in this mercenary shit no matter what."

"A lot of people died because of me." Judas exhaled, his eyelids lowering down in tired commotion, then his throat choked and he coughed hard. "That's why my boy ain't gonna be like his father. No one knows he's my son but you and Rohanna. I'm a disgrace and a danger to him, so any information about my boy your cheeky ears capture goes nowhere else, understand?"

Silence filled in right after that, accompanied by the murmur of dampened music somewhere beneath the highway. They were passing the Clambers, and soon, the Wall appeared wide and hedged.

Such a sight, that. Judas thought as he stared into the silver, metallic wall with rows and rows of air filters.

Passing Balla Cita's city limits, they plunged deeper into the elevated highway and turned on the Wall. The tunnel was bright and echoey, with holographic advertisements filling any empty space with dancing AI girls and cinematic soda commercials. Dilating unto the SUV would be purple neon lights.

The tattoos drawn on Cara's skin glowed. Blue and red played around in the shadowy darkness.

"Somethin' I wonder about you, old man," Cara started. "Why are you still a mercenary? I understand Rohanna threaten your boy and all that shit, but why are you still accepting clients unrelated to the government? Don't cash pour from your store?"

Judas threw his face away. "Need extra money."

"For what? Your boy's got a scholarship."

"For something that you don't need knowing."

Cara rested her head on the headrest now, her eyes stalking Judas' every movement. "You're hiding a dirty little secret, aren't you?"

"Everyone's got a secret to hide. I expect the same from you."

"True!" Cara perked. "I once made a Molotov cocktail and burned down my junior high school's chemical laboratory and no one knew it was me. The perks of being a de Staav, I suppose. Gods, the look on Mrs Harbour's face was fucking wild, though. There. That's my secret. Now spill yours."

"No."

"Why not? Come now, old man."

"Stop calling me old man!"

They came out from the tunnel and entered the intercontinental road. Cylindrical glass surrounded the thin hallway full of self-driving trucks, and Judas navigated expertly to throttle faster. Outside the glass would be nothing but grey soothe and the unending display of dust. The dark green valleys and fields abandoned by the massive natural downfall a decade ago really took a toll on the beauty.

The Outsides. The Orange Zone.

What an ugly shithole. And I'm trapped in this stupid environment with this little rat.

"You are old, though, are you not?"

"Cara, I know you're a precious noble girl whom Commander Rohanna just told me to not let you be killed. But I can still beat you down and hurt you. Knock your teeth off, that kind of jazz."

Cara giggled playfully, then blew her hair from covering her face.

But she laughed no more as they entered another tunnel which led them to the city of Coral Terra. The auburn sky was a tad thicker in pollution. The city had always been an industrial error, a tarnishing complex of more pollution and more waste. Chimneys upon chimneys layered the city's skyline, and despite many government projects trying to cleanse the city, it still did no effect whatsoever.

Many skyscrapers layered the skyline. One of them was Corral Terra's Engineering Academy where Argo, his son, and his nephew, Vi, studied. He imagined Argo typing down on his Immersivepad, his eyes skimming through the lesson given by his physics lecturer, his head bowing as he calculated the solution to a given problem.

"What's that?" Cara pointed upwards towards the dusty sky, and it appeared that thousands of white flecks had fallen upon the city.

Papers. Thousands of them. An invincible jet had spread down the sheets, and now many cars decided to pull over to read.

As Judas pulled over the shoulder, Cara reached out and grabbed one of the falling sheets. She read aloud what was written.

"'The greatest purge is one to be expected since sinner has no right in the promised lands of the gods. Retaken, shall it be, lest bloodshed is to be spilt in the kingdom of messiahs.'"

"What?"

Judas snatched the paper from her hand and swam through the words. The font was simple, big, and readable, and they could not have made it clearer.

"What does it mean?" Cara asked.

Judas frowned. "I don't know." But something didn't feel right.

The words are familiar.

"Fuck!" Cara's eyes grew wild with realization. "The Book of Exodus!"

"Say what?"

"From the Maraism Scripture!" Cara defined. "Don't you read religious texts?"

"Never been religious."

"Oh yeah fuck that too. No, I mean... the Book of Exodus is pretty fucked up though."

"What that about?"

"Vengeance. Exod, the Chaos god, is mad knowing that his wife, Mar, had planted her seed in a mortal's womb. Mother Mara was then born, and Exod couldn't accept this. He then decided to transform into a mortal and kill baby Mara himself. But when that didn't work...." Cara glanced towards the city. A sudden realization hit her.

"When that didn't work what?"

"When that didn't work... he brought down an endless storm. The biggest volcano in the world at that time erupted, killing thousands of people and..."

There was a rupture in the distance.

A flicker of purple light enthralled the midpoint of the city.

Suddenly, all grew bright. Cara and Judas shrank back and covered their eyes in reflex. The overwhelming light stilled everyone into shock.

A great fire gulped the city whole, swallowing buildings upon buildings. Cara and Judas saw the shockwave materialise in front of them.

The shockwave burst and flung all vehicles backwards. Both of them had no time to scream as they were thrown weightlessly.

Before they made sense of it all, blackness overtook their consciousness.

The beginning of the end had happened.

That was the last stage.

END OF PART I

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Cover Art: https://id.pinterest.com/pin/908953137421264736/