Chương 105: Chapter 100: The Final Fight that Never Was [End of Book 1]

LANCE could not believe how fast time flew. The year had come and gone; Lance took a break from school and focused all his effort on grinding the Oldest Complex with the team. Although they had not discovered its control room when the Horror descended upon their world, they got what they came for out of the Complex — levels. So many levels. So many Boon Points. And so many destructive weapons forged from the Complex's advanced remains. Would they overcome the Horror? It would not be easy.

Likely, if they were able to overcome it, it would only be after years of brutal guerilla warfare and non-stop launching of magically infused rockets into the tentacles as they descended to the world. Millions would die. The answer, though? Yes, Lance thought they would overcome. They had to, after all. The Fate of everyone was on the line.

"Okay. Do we all know the battleplan," Frank said, face more grave than Lance had ever before seen it.

"Yes!" Lance and everyone else said at the same time.

"We know!" Frank had lectured them nonstop for the last month on the battleplan and how each of them was to react on the day of the fight. Outlet and Horn were to act as fast transport on the local battlefield. Frank and Lance were to be the tanks which took out the heaviest threats as the team fought their way onto the tentacles to home in for the kill. Penn Vic was to monitor the international condition while offering long-range support.

There was more to the plan — the magic space bombs they had deployed by the thousands; the vast armies of volunteers who were ready to fight the waves of monsters unleashed by the Horror, and more besides. Yet the biggest part of the plan was clear: enter the Horror, fight their way to its brain, and kill it once and for all. Lance knew, as did everyone else, that the plan was lacking. It was the best they could come up with considering the circumstances. So, it would have to work. It had to work.

Frank spoke again: "Everyone. No matter what happens," in the sky, a tentacle grew closer to the world, breaking through the cloud cover like an enormous floating mountain ridge.

"I am damn proud to fight and die alongside you all! We began as a lackluster team, I'll admit it. But we've grown more than I ever thought we would or could. Thank you for being such a grand group of gents to fight beside as we meet our makers!" Everyone returned Frank's sentiment.

"Let's save the goodbyes until all hope has really gone, okay?" Lance said, trying to break the tension.

"Let's not doom ourselves to lethargy when the battle has yet to start." Beep: in their ears, Penn Vic spoke via their communication stones: "Lance makes a good point. Tentacle ETA, five minutes..." And so, they waited. They waited for the huge and growing bigger mass of spikes and flesh in the sky to descend and grab hold of their world, initiating the final battle. Lance wondered what it would feel like when the tentacle grabbed hold of the world. Would the earth shake? Would it feel as if nothing changed?

Would the tentacle 'land' upon the city they were in and snuff them all out before they even had a chance to fight back? He was about to find out. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. But then, the tentacle stopped. Not daring to hope for good news, Lance and the rest of his party waited for the hammer to drop, for the tentacle to move and claim them. It never did. Another beep in their ears: "Guys," Penn Vic said.

"I am receiving reports from all around the world. Tentacles have stopped moving mid-air. Regional commanders are asking for orders. What do I tell them?" He and Frank exchanged significant glares. Lance was about to say, 'The plan is still greenlit: tell the commanders to activate their localized space bombs.' But then, everything changed. A booming voice came from the tentacles, as if each of the tentacles were somehow augmented to behave as gigantic speakers. The voice was imperious, familiar...

"To every one of the world I so love," the voice began.

"It is I, the man formerly known as the Omni-Wizard." Lance's eyes went wider than they ever had gone. His dad?! What was going on?! The tentacle continued: "I have good news: the tentacles as you see them are my puppets. In a final, pitched battle, I subdued the entity you know as 'the Horror' and made it into my slave. These tentacles, this thing, will mean you no harm." Monumental cheers erupted far and wide, from the city to the countryside.

So loud was everyone's jubilation, Lance, in fact, had to shut his hands over his ears to block out some of the noise for his own sanity. The cheers continued until Warhol-as-Tentacle called for quiet.

"Your cheers are valid," Warhol praised.

"But do not settle for a peace you are unsure of..." What did that mean?

"For, there might be no peace for a long time yet." Lance's team looked at him, as if he knew something about this when he did not, obviously. What nonsensical bit was his father doing now?

"People of the world: I have become a God. And as a God, I will be in need of a domain to call home. That domain? After long consideration, I have decided to be none other than our wonderful world. Ladies and gentlemen, King and Peasant, monster and spirit, I call upon you all to submit." To... submit?! If Lance was right, his dad was — essentially — asking everyone on the planet to allow Warhol to rule over them. He was trying to take over the world!

"Yes, you have heard me right: submit," Warhol continued.

"Cast aside your kingly chains and fetid dependency on democracy. Place your trust with me and let me usher in a new era which will turn to dust all previous epochs to dust." Lance stumbled backwards, no longer able to stand on his feet. He couldn't believe it; his father was trying to, again, annex the planet but this time without the Mind Slop parasite as the excuse!

So many things ran through his mind in that moment: was it really his father; had the Mind Slop parasite re-infected him or perhaps never lost its grip on him from the start; perhaps his father was being threatened or blackmailed into this hostile act; or, heck, maybe the Horror had colonized his body and was using him as a puppet? Anything was better than his father turning himself on the world!

"What shall you receive for refusing your current masters? A role in the new empire that precedes all prior class and social situations. Genuine equality is what will be yours when all lords and power exploiters are thrown from their thrones; an active role in the shaping of your world will be yours. I promise you this upon pain of my instant contractual death should I fail to achieve as much!"

He pondered these possibilities for Warhol's turn, knowing full well that the likelihood of any of them being true was low, if not outright impossible. He had felt the energies wafting from his father's body the last time they had been in the same room together and that had been before any additional mutations since then. Lance doubted anything in this reality could fight him, let alone 'colonize' him.

Meanwhile, his father's words continued to shatter their sense of peace: "I have made my palace in the heart of the Magma Lands. If you accept my terms, send an envoy to my territory and anticipate incorporation into my glorious new world order. If you oppose me, then I will see you on the battlefield. All honor, all glory, to those who seek their fate!" And then, the communication ended, and the tentacles withdrew from the sky, vanishing into space from whence they had come.

Lance and the team retreated into Headquarters while outside, the city turned on itself and became a violent delight as the citizenry settled their differences the only way they knew how. Locked behind magically sealed doors, a different kind of violent delight began, the one where he, Frank, Outlet, Horn, and Penn Vic, had to decide what to do to save the world.