A few days earlier in the throne room of the prison fortress on Hadron, it was a cathedral of madness. Vast. Ancient. Pulsing with green light that seemed to breathe. Walls of fused black metal and stone, veined with raw majik crystals that throbbed like living hearts. At the center, dominating everything, a portal apparatus of terrifying scale; giant green crystals arranged in a circle, dormant but waiting. This was not built for small groups. This was built to send armies through.
Beyond the pillars behind the throne, a window into oblivion: Terra Primius hung in the void, a blue-green jewel against the black. Close enough to touch. Close enough to destroy.
Supremus sat on his throne, watching, waiting; as he's done for ages.
The great machine stirred on its own. Crystals hummed. Light gathered. A sphere of green energy materialized in the center of the apparatus, spinning, folding reality.
Supremus stood. This was unexpected. He doesn't have guardians in his throne room because he's never needed them; nobody comes here.
The sphere dissolved. And Zeyzey stepped through.
No guards. No weapons drawn. Just a mortal woman in her signature white cloak over white studded leather, white feathers accenting her armor. She walked into the heart of darkness as if she owned it.
Because in a way, she did. She carried the one thing Supremus needed.
Supremus did not move. Did not speak. He simply looked at her, and she felt the weight of ten thousand years of hatred pressing down like a physical force. His metal body gleamed dully in the green light. A throne of fused metal and bone behind him. Eyes that glowed with ancient malice.
Zeyzey held up the Nexus Key. "You need this," she said. "I have it. Let's talk."
He laughed. Not a warm sound. A dry, scraping noise like metal on stone. "A mortal," he said. "With petty ambitions, come to bargain with a god."
He circled her slowly, his movements fluid despite the metal. "You serve someone. Neri, I assume. I sensed her portal on the other side. The White Malatak Queen who sees futures but lacks the spine to shape them."
He was not threatened. He was entertained. How many visitors had he received in ten thousand years? How many mortals had walked into his throne room and lived to speak? He could crush her at any moment. But first, he wanted to understand.
Zeyzey played her part perfectly. Cold. Pragmatic. Seeking power. She let him see what he expected to see; a mortal playing games beyond her understanding. Because that much was true. But her eyes were always watching. Always calculating. Cataloging exits, guard positions, the way his metal body moved, the flicker of green in his eyes when he spoke of certain things.
She was not his servant. For now, she was Neri's agent. And Neri's plan was not yet complete.
Zeyzey remembers the events of weeks earlier on Sleeping Dragon. Neri's sanctum. The crystal sphere. The Matriarch, desperate, showing Zeyzey the vision.
Worlds burning. The Omniverse unraveling. Supremus enthroned on the Spires, his power bleeding into the Void. Koronos, broken, holding the line until everything collapsed; the probability field of reality folding in on itself, which was simply beyond her comprehension, but the implications were not. The end of everything.
Neri's voice, urgent: "He must be drawn out. Lured to a place where his power is diminished. That place is Terra Primius. But to lure him, you need his heart's desire. The Nexus Key. Ignatius will never give it up. So he must die. And the key must go to Supremus."
Zeyzey had accepted. Not for Neri. Not for the worlds.
For Koronos.
Because she saw him in that vision, standing alone against the tide, and she knew: he needed a path, even a vile one. Assassinating one arrogant Red Malatak to achieve it? By her reasoning, worth it.
The memory faded and Zeyzey snapped back to the moment. She stood before Supremus, the key in her hand, the weight of that choice pressing down.
Supremus stopped circling. Studied her. Longer this time. Deeper. "No," he said slowly. "That's not it. There's something else." He tilted his metal head. "You're different from the others who come here. No fear of death. No desire for glory. You don't want power, not really. You want..." He trailed off, searching. The question came finally: "What do you want, little mortal?"
Zeyzey met his glowing green eyes without flinching. "Nothing from you."
For a moment, something flickered in those cold metal eyes. Not warmth, Supremus had no warmth left. But recognition. He'd seen that look before. Long ago. In another face. "I see it now," he said softly. Almost to himself. "Your resolve reminds me of someone I was close to, from long ago..." He didn't say her name. Otepi. The woman he loved. The woman whose death broke him. He saw her ghost in this mortal assassin.
Zeyzey didn't know who he meant nor did she care. Her main concern is that he doesn't blast her with some foul warlock curse or something worse, and yet her face reveals nothing.
Supremus shook off the moment. The cold returned. He moved to the portal apparatus. He didn't insert the Nexus Key, it wasn't that kind of key. Instead, he used his power to lift it into the air, guiding it to the center of the giant green crystals, still slowing from Zeyzey's arrival.
Blue lightning arced from the key to the crystals.
The machine re-awakened. Green light surged. Energy crackled.
"And now," Supremus said, his voice echoing with triumph, "after eons and through the endless dunes of the sands of time, my victory is at hand!"
His metal generals gathered. The constructs of black stone and green light, lesser versions of himself. He spoke to them as the portal charged. "When my forces are fully assembled, I go through. Wait here until I return. This won't take long. I need to retrieve something important from Terra Primius. A thief stole what's mine. I will have it back shortly. But we are saving that forsaken world for last. First I must finish what I started with the Spires. Then I will burn Sleeping Dragon to ash. After this, our divine hammer will fall on Terra Primius."
He paused, pacing slowly in front of them, but Zeyzey felt this speech was more for her than it was for his automatons. "Then my work will be nearly complete. With the lifeforce cut off from them to feed upon, the Nightlands will fall. We will smash their realm into oblivion. Then we will finally have justice."
His voice changed and darkened, became something almost... wounded. "The gods will be severely weakened. They also feed on lifeforce, the hypocrites. So then we will destroy the Void and all the gods within it." A pause. When he spoke again, his voice cracked; the first hint of the man he used to be. "For doing nothing when... she fell!"
The last words were spit out with pure rage and vitriol. He straightened. The moment passed. The demigod returned. "Nothing can stop me now. Afterwards, I will be the new god. The only god. I will build a new Omniverse. A better Omniverse."
For the first time in years, perhaps ever, Zeyzey was genuinely shaken.
Her face revealed nothing. Her training held. But inside, behind those cold eyes, something shifted. His immense power is far beyond Koronos. He's not just planning to escape. He's planning to kill the gods. To remake reality. To become the only god.
The realization crashed over her like a wave. 'What have I done? What have I unleashed by giving him the Nexus Key? Queen Neri is a fool. She thought she could play a deadly game with this metal devil. She thought she could control the outcome. She has no idea what she's unleashed.'
But Zeyzey didn't run. Didn't panic. Didn't try to undo what she'd done. She was here now. She'd see this through. Whatever came next. Koronos. The thought was a prayer, a plea, a command. 'You better be as good as I think you are. Because if you're not... there won't be anything left to save. Gods help us.'
Back in the present. Inside Supremus's prison fortress, Koronos moved through the hallways, Shelove at his side, Corvannafax and Daggeroth following. They were fighting for survival, moment by moment, unaware of what Zeyzey had witnessed. Unaware of the true level of danger they are walking into.
In the heart of the enemy's power, Zeyzey stood watching Supremus prepare to end worlds.