"Hannes! Hannes, stop this!"
Hannes turned at the sound of the voice. It was Nox. Close behind him were Matin, Shamshir, Falo, Adhuk and L'erisia.
Hannes was still standing in front of a line of people and Zeta, but the Agiona members were nowhere to be seen.
"Nox?" Hannes said. "Matin? Shamshir—is that the Will of the planet?! What are you all doing here?"
"Hannes, you need to stop. Whatever—where's Agiona?!"
Adhuk was shaking his head.
"Oh no," he said. "This is very, very bad."
"What's bad?" Hannes asked with worry. "What's going on?"
"We need to get to the Flask Sea right now!" Falo said urgently. "Come on!"
Matin was horrorstruck at what she saw.
Suspended in the water were large upside-down flasks. In each of them a person appeared to be in a deep sleep.
"The souls contained…for the new empire…" she whispered.
"'New empire?'" Hannes asked. "Zalieri told me that this was the only way to purify people with sinful thoughts!"
"That was a lie," growled Shamshir. "We found this."
She thrusted the document into Hannes's hands.
Hannes's eyes widened.
"Ouroboros," Matin said, gesturing to the top left corner of the page. "Agiona's official seal. It's genuine."
"I'm sorry, Hannes," L'erisia said softly. "I didn't want to believe they would plot something sinister. I was wrong."
Just then, a tremor shook the room.
"Something's happening!" L'erisia shouted. "I have to make sure the planet is okay. You all go stop Agiona!"
With that, she disappeared.
"Look!" yelled Nox.
Everyone looked in the direction he was facing. A pulsing light was coming from the door to the center of power, where the microquasar was.
"We have to walk carefully," said Falo. "We better not fall into that water."
As they crept along the bridges in the still-shaking room, Matin turned to Hannes.
"What made you think someone was 'sinful?'" she asked.
"I used this sword L'erisia gave me. Apocalypse, she called it. It allowed me to see into people's hearts. Anyone who was full of anger was called a sinful person by Zalieri. And it was only ever a person who was angry, he said, not a Zeta."
"How could you be so foolish?!" Nox yelled. "We were angry too! You in particular were angry about the Agiona tax laws!"
"Nox, please don't call people fools," Matin replied. "But…yes. The new world is supposed to be a place where a suffering person can find a new life. We don't just assume them to be bad and send them away."
Hannes sighed. Yes, they were right. She should have seen Zalieri's scheme for what is was when he said anyone unhappy must be evil.
At last they reached the door.
"I'll stop this," Nox snarled as he banged the door open.
"Agiona!" he shouted, pointing his sword at the five Agiona members who stood in front of the microquasar.
"They found us," Rouven said without a hint of fear in his voice.
Sword still drawn, Nox walked into the room, followed by the others.
"Lien!" Matin shrieked.
Lien was standing to Agiona's left. His eyes were shut tight and his hands were on his head. His mouth was open as though he was screaming silently, and he seemed to be struggling against an invisible force.
Matin ran to his side.
"What are you doing to him?!" she shouted with tears beginning to form on her face.
Rouven smiled evilly as he held up a gray rod topped with a pulsing red sphere.
"We knew a perfect transcendental being existed, and being acquainted with his mother, we found out quickly that it was him. Quicker than you, who had to create an entire race just to find out," Rouven said with a sneer. "Our plan requires his power, so I invented this. As long as it's active, he has to obey our orders."
At these words, Shamshir, Adhuk and Falo also drew their blades.
"You are despicable!" Shamshir snarled. "Let him go!"
"Oh, but we can't," said Zalieri. All the kindness in his voice from when he'd talked with Hannes was gone.
"I see you found something we misplaced," Zalieri continued. "Unfortunately, you found it too late. The Zeta and the planet have been created, and we have enough souls in the Flask Sea."
Suddenly, Matin stepped toward Zalieri with Trisagion in her hand.
"As Empress of the Holy Kingdom of Noigllado, I order you to abandon this plan and release Lien Clewing and every person suspended in the Flask Sea!" she proclaimed through tears.
"No," Zalieri replied coldly. "Did you really think you had any authority? This empire belongs to Agiona, and it has been ever since we rid ourselves of two obstacles."
Matin gasped.
"What do you mean?" she asked in horror.
"You are unfit to rule the empire," Zalieri continued. "My colleagues and I are the only ones who know how to keep people obedient. The tax laws kept the citizens of Noigllado down, so they would never be able to rise against us. As for Azuelgatt, they would never think to come for us if they thought Noigllado's army was out to get them. So, I asked Carla to assassinate Queen Amira and plant a weapon of a Noigllado knight."
The look on Shamshir's face contorted into one of immense hatred for Zalieri.
"Unfortunately," he continued, "Emperor Rhineland—your father, Matin and Nox—was determined to find out who was behind the attack. I knew he was going to investigate us, so Rouven slipped poison in his wine before he could. And Prince Nox…his ability to wield the sword Tyrfing marked him as the suspicious type. We planned to kill him too, but he was gone before we could. Former captain Adhuk Neuendorf…you could have destroyed our ambitions by saving his life."
"You killed my father?!" Nox screamed.
"How could you do something like this?!" Matin cried.
"For the new empire," Zalieri replied. "And this is the beginning!"
Nox charged at Zalieri, but suddenly he staggered back. Everyone did, for Lien had begun to sing. The song was full of distortion and hatred, and Lien was still struggling while Rouven held his device triumphantly in the air. Everyone in the room could see that Lien was not in control of himself.
Falo, Shamshir and Adhuk began to scream and clutch their heads, feeling great pain. However, Matin, Nox and Hannes did not. They too felt pain, but nowhere near as intense. What's more, the pink gems within their swords were glowing, and they all had an aura of the same color.
"Is Trisagion…protecting me?" Matin whispered.
"Matin!" Nox yelled. "Look at that!"
The members of Agiona were rising up, and, to the horror of Matin, Nox, and Hannes, they seemed to merge into a dark shape, which twisted and writhed until it assumed a form.
Before the seven people in the room was a huge black snake with bat's wings and glowing red eyes. It spoke in the combined voices of Agiona.
"We are the Ouroboros Ark."