Travel to the Enclave territories would have taken us less than a day if we had been traveling on well maintained highways through cities and landscapes that hadn't been destroyed by nuclear war, overgrown by unmaintained plant life, or had small settlements built in the way. While I could mold the ground to make wide, smooth roads for the ground troops and their vehicles, the biggest problem between us and the Enclave was the Southern Rocky Mountains.

The Enclave's headquarters was in the Wyoming Basin, just south of Grand Teton Peak. The problem with moving such a large convoy through uncharted territory was coordinating so many vehicles on land and air. There were also creatures of the wasteland, gangs, minor factions, and more to contend with. I could easily create smooth roads with my stone manipulation, and could try to keep the beasts bay, but gangs and other nuisances would make process slow going. What should have been a single day trip would take nearly a month with only a couple of hours of actual travel being accomplished in a day.

I wasn't worried, however. In my mind, the delay only favored me. I could stop the Enclave from scattering, and I had already taken steps to do that any time I sensed a large engine starting and destroying that machine. But while the Legion had to travel and fight to get to the Enclave, the Enclave would be dealing with something much worse than the anxiety of an approaching army. I was ready to put all of my resources to work to wipe them out.

"Caesar, you can't be serious," Eric protested as the vertibird took us down to the ground. "We can't do our duty and protect you if you go somewhere on your own. Not to mention taking T'Preea with you. That will leave the Legion without it's Caesar and its church leadership."

I shook my head in response to Eric's plea, "It has to be done. This will give us an edge against the Enclave and make it easier for us to take them down."

Eric sighed and looked at me desperately, "Caesar, without your leadership-"

"The Legion will be able to handle things for a day without me," I said with a tone of finality. "Everyone knows where we're headed, and they know how to handle any threats that might pop up. If they can't manage without me for a single day, then the Legion doesn't deserve to be an organization."

"Caesar-"

"Enough, Eric," T'Preea barked. "Caesar has made her decision and we will all abide by it. I'm not useless, you know. I was helping to protect her before you showed up. You can trust me to keep her safe."

Eric looked between us and sighed, realizing his protestrations weren't going to change our minds. He shook his head in disbelief, but eventually bowed to my decision, "Are you certain you don't want us to at least wait here for you to return?"

I smiled and shook my head, "No. I need you to watch after Serena. Templeton will be able to bring us back faster than the vertibird can anyway."

Eric seemed frustrated but he didn't protest.

"As you command, Caesar," Eric said dutifully.

The rest of the trip to the ground was silent. When the vertibird settled on the ground, we disembarked and were greeted with the sight of Templeton waiting for us nearby. The scorchbeast had been saddled and made ready. I walked over to Templeton and the beast lowered its massive head down so that I could pet it.

"There's a good boy!" I cooed at the monster as it nuzzled its muzzle against me. "Are you ready to go for a ride?"

Templeton rumbled in approval and let out a happy burst of radiation which I had to quickly absorb so that it wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Alright, Templeton. Down," I commanded. The scorchbeast moved flat to the ground. "Good boy."

I turned to T'Preea and motioned to her, "Climb on."

T'Preea climbed up onto Templeton, sitting in one of the saddles that had been strapped to its back. I followed after her, sitting in the front saddle and taking Templeton's reigns.

I looked back at Eric and waved, "We'll return in a day or so. Don't wait for us. Keep moving forward."

Eric saluted, "As you command, Caesar." He and the other Praetoreans got back onto the vertibird.

I kicked my heels softly against Templeton and it stood up, moved forward for several steps before taking off into the air. At the same time, the vertibird we'd come here on took off. I guided Templeton to circle the vertibird a few times before turning the scorchbeast southwest. We flew for several hours, heading to New Mexico. Our destination was at the top of a mesa where a small community of earthen huts sat quietly. The small community was called Acoma and had been long deserted thanks to the Great War.

Templeton landed in an open area on top of the mesa, careful not to disturb the longstanding relics of a lost culture. This had, at one time, been the longest inhabited community in the United States. Now, it was what it had always been; a facade to hide what was deep below. The natives who had lived in the land before America had overcome them worshipped spirits who whispered to them. They called this area 'the place that was prepared' because that is what the whispers had told them it was.

And so it was true. This small community, unbeknownst to any who had lived here, had been prepared for them. It was made to be defensible and attractive, to keep mortals there so that what was below could feed on their dreams and emotions. What they didn't know was that these spirits were a single entity, and that it had its influence all over the world.

T'Preea and I climbed off of Templeton. I looked up at the scorchbeast and smiled, "You go hunt."

Templeton rumbled and climbed back into the air to go look for food. I knew I didn't have to worry about it hunting humans since I had trained that out of it. Anything else, however, was fair game.

As Templeton flew off, I willed the ground to open before me into a stairwell.

"I thought you said the closest city was close," T'Preea sighed as she followed me down into the darkness.

I smiled as I lit the way with green nuclear light, "Close is relative. These cities are so massive they make New York look like a no-light town in the middle of nowhere." I turned and looked back at T'Preea with a cheshire grin, "We're American. Since when do we measure distance in anything but time? I said it was close but it would take a few hours to get here."

"Oh, now you're just splitting hairs," T'Preea rolled her eyes as she continued to follow me down the ever forming stairway.

"I'm the Caesar," I replied with a playful huff, "I can do what I want."

We continued down for nearly an hour straight, occasionally chatting but staying mostly silent. Each time we'd encroached on the entity's domain, strange things occurred. Once I sensed we were level with the city, I opened a path that would bring us there. Eventually, the tunnel opened up to titanic cavern lit with lyrium light. The veins of the magical mineral were etched into the cavern walls, ceiling, and floor. The stone that made up the twisted architecture of the buildings were sketched with its light and cast shadows against the air itself. The buildings, if they could even be classified as such, twisted and clawed at the air with impossible geometry, forced the mind to linger, rebuke them, but futilely try to rationalize their existence.

Oily tentacles began to appear as we walked through the preternatural landscape. The deeper shadows bowed to me out of the corner of my eye. We were watched as we passed through the dead city, and a congregation of specters began to follow us; always just out of sight, always at the edge of our thoughts. Every step closer to the center echoed against reality, sending a drum beat into eternity to announce our arrival. As if it didn't already know we were here.

The concentration of buildings grew sparse as the number of tentacles and pulsing veigns of lyrium grew ever greater. The parade of apparitions began to spread out around an abyssal gulf that appeared at the center of the city. As with the last city, a shrine stood at the center of the expansive abyssal pit like a monolith that threatened to break the mind of any who gazed upon it for very long. And it demanded you gaze upon it simply by its very nature.

I moved to the edge of the abyss and stepped out without pausing. My foot threatened to catch on nothing but air until colossal tendril leapt up to give me purchase. I smiled to myself. It wanted me to come closer. This time, however, it also allowed T'Preea to come with me. We walked across the gulf, the traversal of which took us nearly half an hour. As we reached the monolithic shrine, I stood there waiting for it to make contact.

"Back so soon, child."

Its voice echoed within our minds and I could sense T'Preea fall to her knees. This was the first time it had spoken to her and she hadn't been prepared for the intensity of what it could do to a mortal mind. I couldn't take the time to check on her. I had to have faith that she would be able to manage.

"It's been over a decade," I replied, understanding that it understood time in a much different way than I did. I was over six hundred years old at this point, and I saw time differently from other people that were only experiencing their first lifetime, so I could only imagine how it must be perceived by a being which existed before time was even a concept.

"A pointless word to describe such a minute heartbeat of oblivion. Why have you returned?"

I opened my mind to it, showing it the area where the Enclave was scurrying to prepare for our arrival.

"We are moving with intent to eradicate these enemies who would stand in our way of spreading your influence," I explained. "We have the numbers and the technological advantage, but I don't want to need them."

"Speak your desire, then."

"I want you to reach out to them," I smirked. "Worm your way into their minds, make them paranoid. I would prefer to hear screams of maniacle fear. I want them shackled by terror and made captive to relentless suspicion."

"You wish for me to do your bidding."

"I wish for you to aid me in doing your bidding," I clarified. "I have multiple organizations who serve you thanks to your show of power. Now I need an example of how that power can be used to cripple those who stand against it."

"How will this benefit me?"

"I have zealots who will charge into battle without a second thought because they believe in you," I replied. "But if my entire army believes that your power goes before us, it will convert more of them to believe in you. And they will never see a foe that they will shy away from for even a moment in their fervor. It will expedite the process and empower you with even more believers."

The void went so silent that I could hear the echoes of T'Preea's boots scrape against the stone as she moved back to her feet. I still didn't turn back to look at her. I had to show focus.

"Very well. I will touch their minds, but you must finish the work."

"How will I do that?" I asked, unsure of what it wanted me to do.

It didn't answer. It didn't answer for I don't know how long.

"It seems you'll just have to hope for divine inspiration," T'Preea said from behind me.

I turned and looked at her and nodded, "I suppose you're right… We should probably go."

We remained silent as we walked over the expanse and back through the city. I was considering what I could do to finish the work the entity would begin. T'Preea's was dealing with the experience of touching the mind of something so ancient for the first time. To say she was having something of an existential crisis was an understatement. She had been reincarnated twice, wielded magic, fought literal monsters, encountered and battle an individual who separated that world's reality into two separate pieces… but she'd never touched the mind of an actual god before. I remembered the first time I had to endure its voice and the agony I'd felt nearly broke me.

We climbed the stairwell I had created back to the surface. Each step further from the monolith was a life-saving relief. As we stepped into the light of the setting sun, I finally looked at T'Preea.

"Are you alright?" I asked tactfully.

She stared at me, her expression one of disbelief, of a shattered reality as she dealt with having to accept this new perspective on life that she never imagined was possible. She had been changed by the entity touching her mind and now she dealt with the dawning horror of our purpose, where her mind reeled in the wake of the forbidden truth and grappled with the unfathomable abyss of the entity's existence that yawned before her.

"It's real…" she muttered as she stared at me, the experience still overwhelming her.

I nodded, "It is."

"All this time I thought…" She paused, shaking her head to either deny the truth or fling the thoughts from her head. "I mean, I knew something had been down there. But I didn't know… And we're helping it?"

"It's helping us," I clarified.

She looked at me as if I had lost my mind, "Merida… You just promised that the Legion would worship it and fight in its name. I've been preaching to the church about how Atom is benevolent and wants what's best for us. But that… thing… That's not Atom! And it doesn't want-"

"Yes it is," I said quickly and firmly, brooking no debate. "When I speak about Atom, that is what I'm referring to. It gave me control over radiation. It allowed me to control the beasts in the wastes. It is what has been guiding us. It is what's affecting the world around churches and protecting our people. It wants us alive so that we can worship it and give it power. And I want what's best for us. Its influence allows me to do what I can do to heal this world. It is literally the reason we're doing as well as we are."

"And you think giving it the prayers of everyone in the country is worth that help?" T'Preea asked increduously.

"Yes," I nodded confidently. "It needs our prayers to thrive. It doesn't need our blood or our lives. So long as people don't know the truth when the refer to Atom, what does it matter? It will watch over our people so that it can grow. Our people will be safe no matter what happens."

"And what happens when it grows strong enough?" T'Preea asked, a feverish paranoia beginning to overcome her.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and smiled at her, infusing my gaze with calming magic to help her settle down, "It does not want to hurt us. It needs us to thrive."

"Then what happened to the people who lived in those cities?" she asked as the paranoia was replaced with a chilling fear.

"How old do you think those cities were?" I asked.

She stared at me for a time before shrugging.

"Exactly," I said. "Humans didn't live in those cities. Civilizations beyond count have come and gone from this world, but it hasn't consumed any of them. It needs them and helps them thrive so they can worship it. Thanks to us, humanity may survive long enough to escape this planet with its help simply because we've built an entire religion around worshiping it by proxy."

"You think so?" T'Preea asked, desperate to hold onto anything that would justify the worship of something to eldritch.

"If I didn't, I wouldn't be working with it," I assured her.

"Alright…" she sighed and looked back at the stairwell that I was willing to seal itself up. "Then what did you just ask it to do to the Enclave?"

I smirked mischievously at her, "Just a little psychological warfare."