Director of Genesis...Ian would never have considered such a situation he had to admit, but with Jekyll dead, the organization had to have a new leader to lead them, as they and the SRDO were perhaps the only armies of humanity still able to do something to save the planet. The armies of the countries were mostly completely routed in the face of the chaos that was spreading like a virus. The armies of fanatical cultists multiplied, and so did the abominations that accompanied them.
Sitting behind Jekyll's desk that was now his, Ian was watching the latest news on the computer screen, and if the planetary situation was already dire, it was getting even worse: Much of the West Coast of the United States had been wiped out, Australia, Japan, China and much of Africa had been plunged into civil war, and contact had been lost with many of the capitals of Europe. The current number of deaths was not even verifiable any more as it had to be large. Many presidents and other heads of state had been able to flee to high security shelters, abandoning to their fate the populations that they had nevertheless governed. Cowardly behavior, thought Ian, he who had never really had politicians in his heart.
Tired of reading all the bad but real news, Ian plopped down in the leather chair and sighed heavily, massaging his eyelids. He was exhausted, both physically and nervously. He was constantly thinking of his wife and daughter, whom he had been unable to hear from since the beginning of the crisis. He prayed with all his heart that they were safe somewhere. His loving and protective instinct as a husband drove him to seek them out, but his duty as a soldier also compelled him to stay. All these men, these soldiers, needed him to guide him in the fight, for the survival of this world, he had no right to abandon them like this. But how could he help them? The SRDO and Genesis were struggling hardly to maintain balance in the growing refugee camps and the hate growing between humans and monsters. Ian felt totally overwhelmed by events. He felt like he was useless and that made him even angrier inside. Cursed be these Great Ancient Ones and their cycle. It was all their fault!
While he was deep in thought, a knock was heard and Sigma entered the office.
_"Are you all right, boss?" she asked seeing him like this. "Do you want me to come later?"
_"No, no, it's fine..." Ian breathed, beckoning her to approach, which she did, coming to sit on the chair in front of the desk.
_"I was thinking about Jill and Rose." Ian confessed thoughtfully.
_"I'm sure they're fine." Sigma replied supportively. "Jill is a fighter, like you, and little Rose, well... If she inherited the strength of both her parents, she will be unstoppable later... By the way, how old is she now?"
_"It was his birthday three days ago." replied Ian with a sad smile on his lips. "Six years already... She's growing up so fast... It's above all for her that I'm fighting, to be able to offer her a future, a better world than this."
Sigma smiled upon hearing that. Ian was a really good person and she felt lucky to have him as team leader.
Ian then looked at his teammate.
_"And you, Sigma? Ever wanted to get married, have children and all that?" he asked.
Sigma blushed at this question, having imagined for a moment marrying her girlfriend Enary.
_"I had a boyfriend when I was a teenager, it's true, but life as a couple and starting a family have never been in my priorities." she replied.
_"Really? And with Enary, then?" Ian asked with a smirk but not a mean one.
_"Well... how can I say... I love her yes, and I wouldn't mind living with her. Although for children, I doubt that a monster and a human are compatible. Anyway , she doesn't seem interested in an ordinary family life either... Can you stop looking at me with that smile, Commander, it's embarrassing."
Ian laughed a little, gently mocking his friend but also showing his full support.
_"Enjoy it, Sigma. We only live once after all. The important thing is to leave no regrets behind." Ian told her wisely.
Sigma smiled at those words and thanked him, but still blushing at the thought of living her whole life with Enary. But as the duo chatted, Kita rushed into the office and quickly walked over to the two humans.
_"Ian! Sigma!"
_"Kita? What's going on?" Sigma asked, getting up from the chair and seeing that the alien looked worried.
_"The satellites have spotted a very high concentration of anomalies appearing in one place!"
_"Where?!" Ian asked immediately, jumping up from his seat.
_"Paris." Kita revealed.
************
Meanwhile, in the Core of the Dimensions, Mr. Lordi, Emily, Mathias and Hella, along with the archangel Naaririel, now stood before the three oldest and most powerful monsters at the origin of the three primordial foundations not only of all their race, but also of the dimensions. The Boreal Spirit King, incarnation of Time. The Wolf Lord, incarnation of Death, and the Divine Dragon, incarnation of Life. The group did not know how to describe the sensation of being in the presence of such beings.
The Divine Dragon, the most imposing of them, leaned its huge serpentine body forward and approached its head to the two monsters and the two humans who stood in front of it. They took a small step back as they saw the dragon's huge snout now a few feet away from them and felt the strong, warm breath from its nostrils cover them. Its head was bigger than a house and covered almost their entire field of vision. His reptilian eyes expressing a strength but also an extraordinary wisdom stared at them one by one, as if he could read through them.
Naaririel stood further back but showed no concern, smiling and bowing her head respectfully to the dragon. Not wanting to risk offending the giant reptile, Mr. Lordi, Emily, Mathias and Hella imitated the archangel and bowed respectfully.
_"On your feet, young souls..." then said the powerful, ancient and serious voice of the dragon which made the air vibrate with each syllable so strong it was. "No kneeling can constrain the chosen ones and saviors of the worlds."
The dragon's mouth did not move and yet they all distinctly heard its voice echoing in their minds. His voice was both so overwhelming, so monstrous, but also imbued with benevolent warmth and great wisdom. Mr. Lordi, as the monster lords, took the first step forward to speak for all.
_"Mighty Kings of the foundations of the worlds, we stand humbly before you to ask for your help." said the Monsterman.
_"We know your torments." then said the Wolf Lord, whose voice was ghostly and ghoulishly cold. "We have followed your lives from their beginning."
_"At the birth of this universe, the Great Ancient Ones created us, thus establishing the cycle of life, death and time to the beings who would come to populate the worlds." explained the dragon. "We performed our duties, but eventually we realized the abominable fate that would befall this universe, like all others before it. So we rebelled against our former creators and created four exceptional races to help in our struggle: the Angels. The Demons. The Humans. The Monsters."
This revelation was a real shock for Mr. Lordi, Emily, Mathias, Hella, but also Naaririel who remained speechless but all ears while the Boreal Spirit King spoke in turn.
_"The universe is like an immense living organism, whose dimensions are the bodies, and you, the peoples, the blood that allows it to live. As long as there is life left, the universe cannot be extinguished. ."
_"However, not everything went as planned." added the dragon. "Angels turned away from us, demons betrayed us, and humans and monsters forgot us. Worse still, the four peoples we had created waged war among themselves, while the true enemy patiently waited for the fateful day. We wanted to intervene, but as a concept of Life, Death and Time, we could only let it happen... We had lost hope, until one day a desperate archangel brought us a young monster child..."
The gazes of the three Prime Monsters then landed on Mr. Lordi.
_"Yes, you, Mr. Lordi, lord of Lapland." said the dragon. "Naaririel had seen your destiny and showed it to us, rekindling in us the flame of hope that we thought was forever extinguished. Mr. Lordi. Emily. Hella. Mathias. You have become the chosen ones by the will of destiny, dedicated to unite the races under one banner to end the cycle of creation and destruction, once and for all."
Such words were the effect of vertigo for the group, which nevertheless listened before responding.
_"But... how can we do it?" Emily asked. "The peoples are more disunited than ever. Our power is no longer strong enough to bring them together."
_"It's true." Mathias added. "Me and Hella may have become the heirs of hell, but..."
_"But nothing says that the demons will agree to cooperate with the other races, or vice versa." Hella finished.
_"They are telling the truth." said Mr. Lordi gently taking Emily's hand. "Such an alliance has never seen the light of day. How to accomplish such a miracle?"
The three Prime Monsters shared looks, as if agreeing, then seemed resigned to revealing something.
_"There is a way..." said the dragon. "The oldest legends of monsters, very numerous and all different, speak of an artifact: The Icon of Dominance."
Mr. Lordi, Emily, Hella and Mathias exchanged wary glances. Mr. Lordi did remember this legend and Emily remembered hearing about it when Awa mentioned it shortly before she bonded with Mr. Lordi.
_"But... no... it's impossible. The Icon is only a myth, it has never been found." said Mr. Lordi, convinced of his words.
_"Indeed, and for a good reason..." the dragon replied wisely without judgment. "Your races were so obsessed with their wars among themselves that they forgot their true role and were therefore unworthy of being entrusted with the Icon."
Although he spoke without judgment, the dragon still let disappointment sound in his voice, which left the group feeling a little guilty. It is true that history was mainly marked by wars and conflicts, each as absurd as the other, disuniting people a little more each time. It was on this chaos that the Great Ancient Ones relied, that the races remain disunited and isolated. However, if the legends were true about the Icon of Dominance, he remained the only hope left.
_"And where can we find the Icon?" Emily asked.
_"Nowhere and everywhere at once, young Emily." replied the Divine Dragon. "The union is not an object that can be hidden, it is an idea that lies dormant in each being and it is up to their will to awaken it... The Icon cannot be found... it shows to those who deserve it."
This response was not what they had hoped for and unfortunately the disappointment can be read on their faces. No...they couldn't have done all this for nothing...they had done so much to keep the balance...was that the will of fate? That they fail here? No, they couldn't believe it. But while they were plunged into the disarray of such news, Hella heard something in her head... Telepathy... Awa's voice. Hella suddenly gasped in horror, which startled the others.
_"Hella? What's going on?" asked Mr. Lordi.
_"It's... Awa... I heard her in my head..." explained the scarbie, whose look let express all the concern. "Something is happening on Earth... It seems that the bulk of the forces of the Great Ancient Ones are converging on one specific point: Paris, in France."
The news couldn't have come at the worst time, but in the whole group it was Mathias who was the most affected, his eyes filling with an all-consuming fear.
_"Mathias..." said Emily, sorry for her friend.
_"My...my country...no..." he breathed, supported by Emily. "I...I have to go back there. I can't let them."
Mathias had trembling hands as fear was present in his mind and his heart for his native country which had already suffered greatly from the chaos of the Great Ancient Ones. Hella came to support her lover, feeling sorry for him. Emily shared the same sentiment, also knowing that her country had been threatened before by demons and now by cosmic deities, she sympathized with her French friend. Mr. Lordi also looked sorry, but with a more serious, darker, angry face...
_"Awa says that the whole brotherhood, the SRDO and Genesis are gathering to take part in the battle to come." Hella explained to the others.
_"In that case, we'll go too." asserted Mr. Lordi, summoning his axe, which he gripped firmly in his hand. "It's out of the question for us to leave our friends to cope on their own. I'll be honest, I have no idea what our chances of success are without the Icon's help..."
He couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence, the very thought of failing giving him a slight shiver of uncertainty. Him the lord of the monsters, the powerful Monsterman, had never had to face such an enemy as powerful as incomprehensible. Emily's soft hand came to take hers and the couple looked into each other's eyes lovingly.
_"You are not alone, my love. You have never been. I believe in you...in all of us." she said with love and determination.
Mathias and Hella were standing nearby and both gave the same conviction in their eyes to the Monsterman. To life, to death, until the end. Mr. Lordi smiled at them, thanking them all with a look. Archangel Naaririel came to them, beginning to spread his luminous angelic wings behind his back.
_"I'm going back to the heavens, to join my brother Michael." she says. "Heaven has suffered badly from the attacks of the Great Ancient Ones, but hopefully other angels will have managed to survive and hide somewhere. Then, I promise to return to help you."
_"Thank you." said Mr. Lordi with a nod.
Naaririel greeted the two monsters and the two humans before flying gracefully and swiftly upwards, only to disappear in a short, blinding flash of white light. However, the three Prime Monsters reacted differently now, all emitting deep grunts and thoughtful looks, as if they sensed something wrong.
_"That's it... He's coming..." growled the Divine Dragon, concerned.
_"Who?" Mathias asked.
The dragon seemed hesitant to say it at first, but couldn't hide such information. He then confirmed the worst fears the group could have foreseen.
_"The very origin of the cycle of creation and destruction that has ruled the cosmos from the beginning... The First of the Great Ancient Ones... Ragna'Cthulgoroth."
***********
Meanwhile, orbiting the earth on the International Space Station, alarms had gone off everywhere, causing widespread confusion as astronauts of multiple nationalities rushed to their posts, ensuring that all the systems hold, while others went to the screens of the satellite radars.
_"Something abnormal is happening!" said an astronaut with fear. "Satellites detect a distortion in the vacuum of space, even more powerful than that of a black hole!"
_"All the indicators are at maximum! Impossible to identify the thing, it's... it's of an impossible size to measure!" said another equally concerned.
Suddenly, the whole station was violently struck and shaken by a powerful shock wave which burst out of an incipient distortion in orbit around the earth, and more precisely above France, Paris. Across the planet, the skies were studded with dimensional rifts tearing apart the very veil of reality, but the biggest one was over Paris... Something from the other side was coming... A being who had created as many universes as he had destroyed in his insatiable cycle... A being so powerful that the whole universe was struggling to accept its existence without risking sinking into chaos.