The next day, Jake shows many people from The Six Guns crew around the shelter. Eventually, he takes them outside to the back of the castle, and shows them a firing range where Ryan was busy trying to teach any civilians who were interested how to use magic weapons. Eventually, Ryan begins to walk towards the crew, now consisting of just Siran, Zia, Alex and Vivi. "I'll leave you guys to it then" Jake says as he begins to step aside. "I'm sure you have much to discuss with Ryan about the work you'll be doing".
"... Indeed" Siran says in a tired tone.
"Right" Ryan says as he approaches, "I hope you guys have planned something overnight, or at least have something to contribute".
Siran looks around at the castle for a moment, then says "Well, we've heard about there being a rebellion and that the East here is pretty... well, safe from certain perspectives. What's the situation on that?".
"The situation" Ryan answers, "is that this isn't even really much of a rebellion. This is war, plain and simple. A full scale invasion followed by a civil war. A war, mind you, that we're losing".
"Civil war..." Alex says to himself. "I didn't think it was this bad already".
"Well, it is" Ryan says. "And it is what it is. No point on dwelling on that for now. We can worry about how we got here after our asses get handed to us".
"That's another thing I wanted to ask about" Siran says. "What are their resources like?".
"Their resources" Ryan explains, "is that they're all a freak of nature. These people have a certain strength of magic that I've never seen, personally. As well as, have mobilized our military in full against us".
"And how'd they swing that?" Alex asks. "From what I understand, Omnia after that war many years ago, while leaderless, still stood together. The remaining of the military that was left were on the side of the people. How'd they get persuaded to kill their own?".
"Power changes people" Ryan says calmly. "As well as most of them aren't even the old Ly'Lum anymore. They've almost all been replaced by Americans. Anyone left from Omnia that opposes that gets... well, you can guess the rest".
"Death?" Zia asks.
"Or worse" Ryan says. "Correction camps, torture, beaten to death in front of their families. It's all sorts of fucked out there".
"How much territory do we have?" Vivi asks.
"We?" Ryan asks. "There isn't much of we going on here. This is a refugee camp. Other small civilizations are spread out here and there, but there's effectively no unity anymore. That's why I said until we inevitably get our asses handed to us".
"Well, how much territory do they have?" Siran asks.
"Recently, from what I've heard" Ryan says, "they only just pushed into Farnhardt. So, about three-fourths of the entire country".
"Then we're missing many major cities and there's likely many camps between them too".
"I told you, there's no we" Ryan says.
"Not yet" Siran says as he looks Ryan in the eyes. "We're going to mobilize soon. Reach out to the nearest refugees and build ups arms. Have new refugees become security and stay here while we have a mobile force push the Ly'Lum back. Claim at least half of this nation, maybe more, and get our unity. Then we'll have a we. They're currently working on a divide and conquer plan of attack. They have the divide down, but haven't finished the conquer. Let's make them backtrack before they do. Any oppositions?".
Ryan raised a finger as if about to object to Siran's proposal, but remained silent. Eventually, he put his hand back down, then said "Where do we start?".
"We" Siran says, "will scout first. You gather some strong arms that are capable or carpentry first. This place looks like hell. Expand it a little too, let's start making improvised housing and gather people to expand our numbers. This will become our base of operations until this civil war is put to rest. Start with nonviolence, until we're prepared for a counter attack. We'll discuss this further before we begin to push the Ly'Lum back towards Omnium Guild".
Meanwhile many countries, Britain especially, have been hiring packs of hunters to track down and kill The Six Guns. However, one particular group of self proclaimed hunters emerge in Giga Desert. This group is never hired by any country. They're often times rumored of between packs of hunters, but almost nothing is known of them. As the rumor goes, they're called the X-Hunters. They're unofficial and unlicensed killers, that take down who they want when they want it. Most hunters follow orders given directly by governments, but this group was about to show up uninvited in a very unwarranted place. The secret underground research facility that once held the remains of Naris under Giga Desert. "This is where the magic happens" their leader, a female, wearing a torn cloak as a hood over their shoulders and head says. "The research facility: Echo Point Zero-Six".
"You think Naris might still be inside?" One of the hunters ask.
"From what I heard" another says, "Siran already ransacked the place".
"Focus" their leader says calmly. "We're not here for that. If there's anything down there, it's Magi-Tech. And I want it".
They expected an easy in and out job. After all, the facility was still mostly destroyed. While it looked like someone has been trying to fix up the once destroyed facility, it still seemed like nobody would be dumb enough to actually stay in a place like this. However, they were wrong. When they got in there, they carefully avoided a large crew of mechanics frantically repairing the facility, only to run into the MTRU shortly after passing through the first floor. "Shit, I thought this place was abandoned!" The leader shouts.
"Hold it right there!" An MTRU soldier shouts. "You're trespassing on government property. Surrender, and be detained, or leave in a body bag".
"No time for negotiations" the leader of the X-Hunters says as she grabs the shoulder of her cloak. "Let's just take their equipment and bail. If there's a squad here, there's bound to be more in the lower floors".
"Yes, ma'am!" The men faithfully reply.
Their leader throws the cloak off her back and prepares for a fight. One of the MTRU soldiers looks at her in horror as she whispers to herself "This should be good enough for my revenge".
While The Six Guns we're in America before running to Vega for shelter, Zeus and his group opened up an Endo-Stream in Australia. Now, while they were focused on the civil war, they opened up their last stream in Brazil. The effects of the streams have started to me come much more visible around the world. The areas around these streams grew visibly blackened, as all plant and animal life around it ceased. The streams were now getting so out of hand that the streams have even started to become visible to the naked eye, without the use of digital magic. The world was quickly being thrown into panic, as the earlier streams in places such as Russia, Japan and Egypt all seemed to grow out of control one by one. The militaries of the countries where the streams resided tried to contain the streams, but now the best they could hope for is evacuating any nearby civilians. Panic spread around the globe as leaders from all over the world discussed how to put an end to the streams, and who's really to blame. Many countries agreed that The Six Guns were the most likely suspects behind this pandemic, but none could come to an agreement on how to fix it. Meanwhile, Zeus and his crew discussed their plan. "The world will soon become as close to the realm of the gods as the mortal world can get. From there, we'll have an easy connection to each other individual universe".
"Our previous process was rather boring and meticulous" Eris says. "Still can believe you sent me to that universe with the humans that harvested the power of rebirth from Chronos's shards. Respawn- or whatever they called their magic. It was unsightly. Watching men kill other men, only to come back and repeat the process. It really shows that humans just don't ever learn".
"That's part of their beauty" Ares says. "Their numbers, their strength... their tenacity. I love it".
"No, you love pointless and endless battles" Eris replies. "I prefer for my goals to be achieved the first time, thank you".
"I have to hand it to those humans though" Dolos says. "Albeit, by accident, they managed to mix their own mortality with the very essence of the many scattered remains of Chronos. Through that, they gained the ability to return to life by simply correcting the time they died, all unconsciously. Fascinating".
"And disgusting" Eris says. "You know what happens every time you adjust time, right? That's what made that job so hard. Every time that ability was used, their own souls broke apart and scattered into alternating dimensions. The same human began to exist in both a dimension where they were dead, and one where they lived. Because of that, the shards of Chronos was basically smashed to tiny pieces. It made my job very complex".
"Yeah yeah, we heard your complaints about it before" Ares says. "You even had to organize a family reunion and bring your kids into it".
"And now that universe is effectively gone" Zeus says. "When the shards were removed, their time stopped and now they no longer exist. A heavy weight, but a small price".
"Heavy weight?" Ares asks. "Since when did you care about humans?".
"It's not about care or the lack thereof, child" Zeus replies. "Without life, we don't serve a purpose. It was unfortunate that we didn't know at the time that removing the shards also ceases the existence of the other universes. To adjust, we will be leaving just one piece of time itself for each universe. We need something to rule over, after all".
"Speaking of universes, links and existing in multiple universes at the same time" Eris says, "there's still Ishmael".
"Oh, don't worry about that" Ares says. "He's only good at running away. He's just a human now, even if he exists in all universes at the same time. What can he do to stop us?".
"As long as you're sure about that one" Eris says.
"Ares" Zeus says. "How many mor portals must be set until we're ready?".
"That's the last one" Ares says. "Then again, I'm not the expert here. I got this information from Aether".
"You didn't get it from him. We tortured it out of him".
"Yes, by attacking his family" Ares says. "Potato puh-tah-toe. Whatever. We just need this place to be connected well to Valhalla, then use the shards we've collected thus far as a guide that connects to the inner soul of Chronos, which still resides in Valhalla, and it'll desperately try to reconnect to his missing parts, guiding us to each universe until we've collected the rest that we need".
"When will we know when it's done?" Zeus asks.
"When the world drowns in Endo and all life is ended" Ares says. Zeus looks skeptically at Ares, as disappointment becomes more visible from his eyes. "Argh, fine" Ares says. "I'll take this seriously. We'll know when it's ready when we can use our little keys here to go straight to the timeless void of Gaia's cell in Valhalla. I've told you, Gaia's body is still missing and she's still locked up with the last piece of Chronos. It'll totally work out, there's nothing they can do to stop us! I mean, what'll she do? She's not much of a primeval god anymore. All she can do is yell and maybe heal mortal bodies".
"So, we just take one of the shards... and put it in the portal like this?" Eris asks as she slowly moves her hand inside the stream with a glowing glass-like shard in her hand. The portal suddenly turns white and what looks like a tear in reality itself opens up and exposes a white void. "This... is it?".
"It's a timeless void" Ares says. "What were you expecting? Trees, mountains and a buffet?".
"Where's Gaia?" Eris asks.
"This is Gaia" Zeus says. "It's a space inside her essence, where she desperately tried to save her brother by sealing what was left of him inside this little pocket dimension. Though time technically exists here, it never moves. Thus the name, timeless void. Now, move aside if you aren't going to come along".
"I'm going, I'm going" Eris complains as she begins to walk into the void.
"Let's make this fast" Zeus says. "Don't stick around to sight see, there's literally nothing to see. Go to the other universes, grab the shards, come back here, and bring Valhalla back to the mortal realm by combining it with this universe".
As The Six Guns crew begins to leave in order to find more refugees, Siran heard a familiar voice call to him from the forest. "Hey" Loki says while leaning up against the tree. "You look like you have your hands full". Siran prepares for a fight, but Loki put his hands up in surrender. "Look" he says, "we never left this world. We're not allowed to. We can't come back to Valhalla without finishing our business here".
"I fail to see how that's my problem" Siran says as he puts his gun away.
Loki sighs, then says "I know we're not on the best terms. However, our offer to help does still stand".
Siran takes a deep breath, then hesitantly says "What's the plan?".
"Corner Zeus" Loki says promptly. "We'll try to end it in one fell swoop".
Siran groans in irritation, then shakes his head. "We have other things".
"You can worry about your silly little wars later, Ishma-... I mean, Siran" Loki says. "We'll make this quick, and then you can worry about... whatever this is without having to worry about us being in the way after that. There's too much to handle at once, and you need to properly prioritize your missions. You know that. Carefully think of which ones are more dire without letting your emotions get in the way, and handle those first. Think you can handle that?".
"Sure... but what's so urgent about Zeus right now?" Siran asks.
"The planet" Thor says. "It's dying. We can feel Valhalla drawing near. The realm of the gods is slowly becoming one with your world".
"And that means... what exactly?" Siran asks.
"It means you're all going to die, this planet won't have life on it, and Valhalla will take over".
"Sounds like you benefit from that though" Siran says. "You're from there, so why do you want to stop it?".
"You idiot, we want to keep our home away from yours!" Loki says.
"The gods used to share a world with mortals once" Yngvi says. "But we agreed it would be better if we separate. The Great Creator agrees as well".
"Right, so, Armageddon bad" Siran says. "And Zeus is causing it. So, stop Zeus, stop the end of the world. Got it. What do we do from here?".
Loki pauses for a moment then says "I actually didn't think we'd get this far... I mean, you agreeing with us? It seemed impossible. A-anyways, Athena is tracking him down as we speak. When she gets back, we'll know our next step".
"Run in blindly and go down swinging?" Siran asks.
"You underestimate the god of trickery" Loki says with a smile. "Trust us, we'll have this set up so that, with your help, we'll have him taken down with zero casualties. I look forward to working with you, Siran".