COVENANT BASE — JOSEPH'S ROOM — SAME TIME
The room was still.
Joseph sat in his chair, his body no longer unraveling. The white light had faded. The seal was gone. He was just a man again — broken, weeping, staring at the bone tree that had been his wife.
Jaron sat across from him, his shield dismissed, his hands resting on his knees. He had tried to move Joseph twice. Both times, the bell had rung, and Joseph had been back in the chair. The Lord's geometry held him here.
Aslam sat by the window — not a window, a space where a window used to be — ringing his bell. Calm. Rhythmic. The base shifted with every chime.
"What do you really want?" Jaron asked.
Aslam didn't look up.
"Nothing, really."
His phone beeped.
He pulled it out. A video. Uploaded by a user called itzsophie. Ten million views in one minute. He watched it, smiled, and turned the screen toward Jaron.
Eloghosa. Being sealed. White light swallowing him. Gone.
"Well," Aslam said. "There's one."
Jaron's face went pale.
"DAMN YOU, YOU TRAITOR!"
"That's a strong word Jaron."
Jaron stood. Ran for the door.
Aslam rang his bell.
The floor dropped. The ceiling became a wall. The door became a corridor that stretched into darkness. Jaron was somewhere else now — lost in the labyrinth of the shifting base.
Aslam looked at Joseph.
"That wasn't too hard, was it? Just needed a little emotion for you to open the seal. Just for one minute."
Joseph's hands trembled.
"I remember the binding vow. Your life. If Kanuel gets out and there's no body stronger than him to replace him —"
"He'll return," Aslam finished. "You never thought someone stronger than Kanuel would exist, did you?"
Joseph raised his head. His eyes were red, but something hard was forming behind them.
"I'll kill myself. Now. Release Eloghosa."
Aslam laughed — soft, genuine, almost kind.
"You wish. Your daughter is still alive, Joseph. You don't have the strength to do that."
Joseph's face crumbled.
"Forever making yourself the worst thing to ever happen to her."
Aslam stood. Walked to the door.
"What about your family?" Joseph called after him. "Are they proud of you?"
Aslam paused.
"My family have served their purposes."
"You killed them."
"I sacrificed them."
He stepped through the door and was gone.
---
KANUEL'S BARRIER ROOM — SAME TIME
The room was wreckage.
Jeremiah lay against a pillar, his body smoking, his holy light extinguished. Angel was on the floor beside her melted megaphone, barely conscious.
Fiss pushed herself up, silver skin cracked, red slice marks flickering. Scotto braced against a pillar, his third eye half-closed, his sashes torn. Hero stood in the center, his Countdown timers flickering — damaged, but alive. He recovered from his own Crusade.
Sonia stood apart, smiling at her phone. The video was still playing. Ten million views. Twelve million. Fifteen.
"Are you going to absorb me?" Fiss asked.
Sonia didn't look up.
"No."
Scotto was already moving toward the door.
"I'm going to find David."
He left.
Fiss watched him go. Then she looked at Sonia. Sonia waved her hand — a gentle dismissal. Go. Be free.
Fiss walked toward the broken barrier.
"I'm free finally," she said. "I despise humans. Even hosts. Even hybrids. They're a stain on pure Phobias like me. Like Scotto."
She stepped through the broken wall and disappeared.
Hero said nothing. He just walked toward the door, his timers still ticking, his eyes set on a distant target.
I'm going to find my siblings' murderers.
Sonia continued whistling, scrolling through her phone.
---
BENIN ROAD — THE SUV — SAME TIME
Olise drove — low cut hair, lean and athletic, his black suit conspicuous against the grey city. Behind him, Ivie sat shotgun, her arms crossed, her face blank. Ezra was in the back, silent, massive, his eyes fixed on nothing.
David sat beside Ezra. Marcel was pressed against the other window, still pale from his wound.
In the cargo space behind them: Wisdom's dead body. Chi Chi's barely alive form. Ade's battered frame. All tied. All silent.
Desire sat in the middle, his hands bound, Goliath cracked, his eyes open. He wasn't fighting. He was just watching.
David checked his phone.
The video. Eloghosa. Being sealed.
"No," David whispered.
He watched it again.
"No — Eloghosa — "
"Wait what happened to Eloghosa."Desire asked with a glint in his eyes
David just looks at him strangely.
Something snapped in Ezra.
The car stopped.
Ivie got out. Walked to the back. Opened the cargo door.
"Hospital. Now."
Marcel. Chi Chi. Ade. She pulled them out one by one, carried them to the entrance, and laid them on stretchers that nurses had rushed out to meet her.
Marcel tried to stand. Ivie pushed him back down.
"You're not coming."
"I can still —"
"You're not coming."
She turned and walked back to the car.
At the entrance, an old woman in a wheelchair watched her pass. She reached out and touched Ivie's arm.
"You're hurting, child."
Ivie stopped.
The old woman didn't say anything else. She just sat there, her hand on Ivie's sleeve, waiting.
Ivie's face didn't change. But her shoulders dropped — just slightly — and she let the old woman hold her there for a moment.
Then she pulled away and walked back to the car.
Kamsi drove again. Ezra was still silent. David still held his phone.
The base was waiting.
---
THE ROAD — HOPE'S CAR — SAME TIME
Hope drove through the busy market street, Rachel unconscious in the passenger seat. The crowds parted for her car — not because they saw her, because they sensed something wrong.
Rachel dreamed.
The bone field.
Her doppelganger sat on a throne of skulls, legs crossed, smiling.
"Give me control you brat," the doppelganger said.
"No."
"You're so uninteresting I can't believe I'm bound to you."
"Who are you?"
The doppelganger leaned forward.
"I am Err. The sorcerer supreme."
Rachel closed her eyes.
Err opened her eyes.
In the car, Rachel's eyes snapped open. Wrong. Different. The pupils had split — two irises, one bleeding into the other.
Hope reached for her dagger.
Err looked at her.
Hope flew out of the car.
Not thrown. Pushed. A telekinetic force erupted from Err's body, slamming Hope through the windshield, across the market street, into a fruit stall. Melons burst. Oranges scattered. Hope lay in the wreckage, bleeding, her daggers gone.
The car stopped.
Err stepped out. She walked toward Hope, her bare feet stepping over shattered fruit, shattered wood, shattered glass.
"Is this the sorcerer who took you out?" She looked at Hope's crumpled form. "Disappointing."
Hope pushed herself up. Her daggers were gone. Her body was broken. But she raised her hands.
Err kept walking.
"You raise your head too high." Err said.
Hope instantly falls to her knees.
"What is it Aslam asked you to do?"
"I was just asked to take you to a casino and keep you there." Hope replied, trembling.
What is Aslam planning? Err thought
"Ok you have your chance, if you can land just one hit on me I'll oblige."Err replied, smiling mockingly.
Is this how I die? This Phobia is a different breed. It has full control over its host. Could Destiny even take it out. Hope thought as she got up manifested her dual daggers –Azure stingers– and lunged.