I felt the pulse from across the sea, an exercise of Imperial-tier magic focused in one Element. That Element was bent and infected with an Axiomatic base that effectively rendered it very unnatural... but the touch of it would resonate and touch anyone in the world using that style of magic, letting them know that this was the source of it.

I turned to look towards Rome. At the same time, I could feel the High Emperors all extending their Awareness that way, and the Wills on my Staff pulsing as I fed them what I was sensing, those not close enough to do so themselves... or not attuned to Light.

A beam of Light had seemingly descended from the sun, and a loyal and honorable man, if not a Good man, was being sacrificed, his mortal shell being remade into the home for a lie that meant the beginning of the end, the first domino falling in a row that would lead to devastation for the Human Race.

Already the news was going out around the world, that the Messiah was coming/had come, the time of deliverance was at hand, soon the Rapture would take place, the enemies of God would all be slaughtered, etc.

They were a little late to the party.

-------

“The final slavemaster has just arrived, here to leash those with the Light Element and bind them into obedience. We told you what they were, we told you approximately when they’d be coming, and now they are here.”

Sama’s brutally truthful words were actually going out ahead of the Synod’s press releases, her searing charisma and snarling disdain the exact opposite of the polished zeal of the Synod’s claimers.

“We’ve felt it already, the mind-warping touch trying to get into the heads of our people through the Light Element. You’re going to find a lot of people acting wrong soon. They’ll start exclaiming belief in the Light, turning into zealots and fanatics who will kill, betray, and steal in the name of the Light, particularly if they are weak-willed to begin with, or belonged to the Church of Light.

“This Avatar the Lords of Light sent down isn’t even Michael the Archangel. They just burned his soul away to give this servant of theirs a home in his body, otherwise the world’s magic would just reject it as the dead thing it is, just like the undead. How would you like that, being a loyal and faithful symbol of your Church, and then they burn your goddamn soul away to send a pet slavemaster down to our mortal world?

“The funniest thing about all this? Their control of the hapless with the Light Element isn’t going to help their Faith at all. It’s just goddamn mind control, there’s no free will in it. Puppets on strings, dancing to your tune, aren’t loyal and faithful underlings. They are still puppets, still slaves, and give you nothing.

“Given they chose Archangel Michael as the sacrifice, I presume they’ll identify the Messiah as the return of Adayam, the First Prophet, which is a total lie. Adayam’s soul is safe in Heaven, the Lords of Light never got to claim it, and this twat totally isn’t him. As a matter of fact, I bet it’s Evai, Adayam’s treacherous second wife, who betrayed the tribes of the Kabbal to the Lords of Light. After all, their original intention was to sacrifice Archangel Gabriel to become the Avatar, a noble and beautiful young woman of great promise and originally great faith... until she realized she was to be burnt up and disposed of like cheap incense to help enslave the world!

“We’ll see. Now that the Avatar is here, they’re going to be trying to make moves on the resident powers, and the closest one that’s a challenge is the Acropolis. Watch them come and try to intimidate the Goddess, and see what happens to twats who don’t know the world has changed, and that we’re ready to fight those who would enslave the world and corrupt its destiny!

“Be ready to fight! Nirvana and the Netherlords are winding up their fists, and WE are the ones who are going to pay the price for it! It’s time to make them pay the price right back!”

------

The Synod tried really hard to get those videos of Sama taken down, but they were soon running everywhere, all over the world, spoken in the Human tongue and understandable to everyone. She didn’t need Truth, as soon enough the changed behavior of Light-users quickly became apparent, people who’d never set foot in the Church proclaiming they were born again and we all must repent and be saved, quickly turning radical as those around them denied them to their face, and there was violence everywhere around the world.

The pious and enthusiastic videos of the Church of Light were juxtaposed right next to the violent and fanatical demonstrations by their mind-fucked converts of Light, and the reaction to the coming of the Messiah was not a sweeping revolution and rebirth of the Church. The fact they did indeed call the Avatar the return of Adayam with great enthusiasm, AFTER Sama predicted the same lie, instead fell flat on the world stage with incredible apathy.

No, no, the stage had been set too well. The counter-whispers and stories and warnings told to everyone had been far too accurate and precise, and this final reckoning, this start of the Apocalypse, was not a time of rebirth, renewal, and new hope and faith in the Light.

It was to be a time of slaughter between two uncaring forces that didn’t gave a damn about Humans or Beasts caught in the middle.

---

Sama’s next video was out within literally minutes of the first.

“Well, the Avatar is here. That means this is now a publicity battle, and the Dark Curia’s survivors, driven by all those with Dark Magic, is going to start spewing their own brainwashing shit.

“Yeah, we already checked. Anyone with Dark Magic who looks on those vids? They can feel a primal fear and abhorrence for everything that Avatar is. They absolutely know that thing will kill them with less regret than stepping on an ant, and will not tolerate them to live. If you know anyone with Dark Magic who hasn’t managed to clear their Element, go ask them. They’ll tell you the same damn thing!

“So, there’s going to be a lot of drivel spouted about how the Dark Elements and Netherworld are on your side. Don’t believe a fucking word of it. This is what the Netherworld wants from you.”

Images of walking corpses, zombies and skeletons and mummies and shadows and ghouls and revenants and liches of all shapes and sizes and forms, all of them horrifying, and many of them in chains, with multiple heads screaming in hate at their enslavement, paraded before them.

“This is the destiny of the living to the Netherworld, and all you people with Dark Elements, this means you, too! This is your destiny, along with everyone else! As undead, you are stronger, tougher than mere humans, and you have no choice but to obey! This is what they will make of you, and they will kill you to do so the instant you are no longer of use alive!

“The Light will control your minds and souls while alive, and then enslave you when dead. The Netherworld will do it when you are dead, and you will live in dread and horror and fear, waiting for the moment they claim you!

“The bastards are going to fight. Realm Lords, beings who make the Ice Emperor who started The Great Flood look like pet lizards, are going to come here and fight, and when they do, just about everything on this planet is going to die in the fallout from their tussle. They won’t save you, as they’ve more important things to do, and their opposites will definitely kill you out of hand!

“If you want to live, then you will have to fight! You can’t hide unless you can leave this planet. You can’t beg one side without making yourself a target of the other!

“If you want to see your children live free, and save your soul and that of everyone you love, then this is the time you fight!

“And don’t think you are alone. Right now, this very instant, every single Beast intrusion, scuffle, and conflict on the planet has stopped. They are all turning to look at Rome. They all know what is coming, and they all know that all other fights mean nothing. There will be nothing to fight over, and nobody left to fight, when the Realm Lords come!

“All of them. Everywhere. They are staring, and they are waiting for the fighting to start, for the Beasts corrupted by secret Pacts with the Light and Dark to turn on them!

“We, Humanity, are one of the Great Tribes of the Beasts. We proved it when we broke The Great Flood of Ice Emperor. It is time for us to help lead in this fight, to prove we earned that name, to acknowledge our obligations to our world, our Tribe, and everything that lives and breathes on this, our fair Terra.

“Take a deep breath, people. As they spawned one disaster for us to pay the price, the Synod and the Church of Light have pulled the trigger on the final one, and this time, the price will be even higher!

“Get ready, gather your strength, and be ready to fight!”

------

Therein followed literal blizzards of what to do to prepare. Topics ranged from what to prepare for and how, to how to act if you had Dark Elements and people tried to persecute you, to how to treat Light mages falling under the control of the Avatar’s arrival. It was pointed out quite handily that simply entering the area around a Church of Heaven interrupted that mind control immediately, which created a whole movement of new converts and ranting Light Adepts bound up by their friends evacuated to Heavenly Church grounds to be freed.

It also came out that every Kabbalist temple and synagogue that had rejected the Light’s twisting of their history and embraced the truth of their ancestry also qualified as a Church of Heaven for this effect!

Of course there were panic pogroms and discrimination, but also people who were told that they would be held to account for their madness, power-grabbing, settling of scores, and whatnot, and would not be excused for the sins they committed!

Many didn’t care, as they saw the end of days coming, but a very, very surprising amount of people were gathered up, waiting and ready, cold and hostile eyes on the Church of Light and its precious Avatar.

-------

“That was a nice ‘welcome to our world’ gift you gave the Avatar,” I complimented Sama, looking down on the Undead Hunters as they continued their pummeling of the undead. The Pharaonic armies seemed to have a hint of desperation about them today, as Briggs led the fight without any reluctance or care about what was happening in the greater world.

The Avatar had made their appearance, and the world had kind of... meh, you asshole?

“I thought it particularly apt,” Sama agreed, also watching the activity below, probably giving little nibbles of advice to commanders here and there.

The three Sages in thrall to the Light of Souls had been offed within an hour of the Avatar’s descent to the Mortal Realm. The Synod had enough Sages to call on with their Archangels, the enslaved Sages didn’t need to stick around to be used.

“You’ve heard about the purge, right?” I continued.

“It started as I was there, yeah. Any Dark mages exposed to the Light of the Avatar just ignited and died screaming, it didn’t matter if they were loyal to the Church or not. A lot of the old things beneath the city fled as fast as they could, as well as any Dark mage with some sense. Some made it out before the Avatar found them, many did not.”

Estimates were at least thirty thousand people in Rome, and a number of Dark species there, like the Blood Clans, had been summarily wiped out by the Avatar. There had been no mercy, delays, or recourse!

And it was all on film and the rest of the world got to watch the heartless display, too!