“Should we summon a moderator now?” Wyn asks David.

  “Uh? You can summon moderators now?” Damien interrupts. “We didn’t have that privilege back then! BUT! Please, don’t bring them here. There’s nothing for you to fight!”

  The army follows Damien, with David pointing his sword at the back of his head while Wyn keeps his aimed at Damien’s back.

  The walk is long, and Damien takes the opportunity to tell the army about the guardians his army faced. First was Huītzilōpōchtli on the first level, then Amaterasu on the second, and finally, Ra on the third, where his army was defeated.

  “You wouldn’t believe the contrast between the first floor, sorry – level guardian and the second,” Damien says.

  Damien recounts how horrified he was to witness the cruelty of Huītzilōpōchtli and his gods. They loved sacrifices of blood and hearts, but since souls don’t possess either, they still cut and ate different body parts, leaving only the heads so the souls could regrow. The gods were strong, reducing his army to less than half. He contrasts that with his experience with Amaterasu, whom the souls loved and adored. When the army defeated her, the souls mourned her death. Despite her kindness, she was strong. His army was down to just nine by the end of the fight.

  “I feel sorry for the souls on her level,” Damien says. “They were sent to Ra as a reward for defeating us, and her level was repurposed into a training ground for the Heaven army – which you’re on now.”

  “You train on the third level?” Wyn asks.

  “Wait, how did you survive Ra? The reporter cats said you were all goners,” David interrupts.

  During Damien’s fight with Ra, although the saucer was present, it didn’t get involved as the battle took place outside the city. The army couldn’t take on all the gods at once, especially with Ra’s overwhelming power. When the army was reduced to just four, they decided to surrender, despite Damien’s desire to fight to the bitter end. Seeing the desperation in their eyes, Damien relented, bargaining with the gods to release his army in exchange for his service. However, Ra began to kill them one by one, burning their heads to a crisp while forcing him to watch. Just when Ra grabbed onto Damien’s neck, Ra shooed the reporter cats away, claiming that the battle was already over. Fearing for their lives, the cats fled.

  With the cats gone, Ra called upon his fellow gods to summon a group of archangels, who then reported back to Light Force about Damien’s army.

  “The cats must’ve felt sorry for us. They didn’t tell Hell about how we actually surrendered,” Damien says.

  “Amaterasu’s level souls were a reward for capturing you, not for defeating the army,” Wyn says.

  “And why did you decide to help Heaven?” David presses.

  “He struck a deal with me – he was willing to spare my life if I helped train the Heaven army. But it wasn’t my life I cared about. It was how I could help end the war,” Damien replies, stopping in front of a door that leads into the warship.

  The army steps into an elevator, and after a brief descent, they find themselves in a vast space designed for training. There are human-sized mannequins, obstacle courses, trenches, bunkers, and much more.

  “Why would you need bunkers and trenches? If you’ve been to Hell, then you should know better,” David remarks.

  “Exactly the idea,” Damien responds, continuing to walk. He leads the army to a special room.

  Along the way, Mira’s attention is caught by a set of unusual equipment.

  “What are those for?” Mira asks, her gaze fixed on a set of nice, round chinchilla butts.

  “Those? They’re “Butts But A Relief?”…for stress relief,” Damien answers. “We have all sorts – different sizes, shapes, colors, creatures, even humans. Though most of the army wasn’t really training.”

  Damien then opens a door, revealing a small girl tied to giant cylinders across the room with thick ropes. She appears to be unconscious.

  “This is Luce. Heaven’s attempt at a hybrid who possesses the power of a divine being while still being human,” Damien explains.

  Luce is a young girl with long, soft blue hair and glowing blue eyes. She wears a yellow hood over a simple white tee, paired with green boots that have brown dirt stains at the bottom. A necklace rests around her neck, and despite being unconscious, she holds a stick tightly in her hand, resembling a staff.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “She is supposedly this level’s guardian…,” Damien says as he cyclones toward Luce. With a swift motion, he spins, slicing her head into pieces with a large cleaver. The army watches in shock from below.

  “And now she’s no more. You can proceed to the next level,” Damien continues.

  “What’s going on? Why did you do that?” David exclaims, with Wyn voicing his confusion as well.

  “Being half-human, she needed to absorb essence to become stronger. While she's powerful compared to regular souls, she's no match for you, having defeated Ra and the first level’s guardian,” Damien explains.

  As Damien gazes up at the ceiling, his eyes gleam with sorrow. From a distance, Wyn notices how difficult it is for Damien to hold back his tears. Damien crouches down, takes a deep breath, and then begins to share his side of the story with the army.

  “I am indeed a traitor,” Damien admits, his voice heavy with regret.

  After accepting Light Force’s offer to train the Heaven army in exchange for his life, Damien’s primary focus shifted to avenging his fallen friends. It was during the transformation of Amaterasu’s level that he conceived the idea of turning it into a training ground, hoping the lack of a proper guardian would make it easier for the next Hell army to ascend.

  Inspired by Noah’s Ark, the warship is named Nowhere Ark. Its purpose is to endure a flood that would drown the entire level during an attack, with animals stationed outside as scouts, sacrificing themselves to buy time for the flood to take effect. Damien knew, however, that it would be completely useless against a well-trained force.

  Damien also devised a two-tiered system, where souls with potential would be trained in combat, while others would absorb essence from creatures to become the "tanks" for the trained warriors in battle. The latter group was kept in the lowest deck, hooked up to machines that distributed essence through tubes into their palms.

  As for the former group, they were free to roam any part of the ship, with no set requirement or goal like the Hell army. Only a handful of diligent souls trained hard and grew stronger, though none came close to the strength of Damien’s former army.

  With numbers growing significantly, Damien proposed Heaven invade Hell. Communicated through a group of archangels, Light Force ordered him to lead the invasion. However, he refused, unable to face anyone in Hell after his betrayal. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Light Force assigned Zeus and Poseidon to carry out the task instead. What the duo did – taking along the other gods, invading different levels simultaneously, separating the army, and deploying battlebots in the fight – was completely out of Damien’s control.

  “That was our entire force. There’s no one left now,” Damien says. “They really believed they could succeed this time.”

  “So, you didn’t betray Hell,” David mentions.

  “Regardless of my true intentions, I still did. I trained them, though not very well, I still did train them. I chose my own agenda over Hell's, and now, I'm also a traitor to Heaven,” Damien laments.

  “If you could go back to Hell, would you do it?” Wyn asks.

  “I can’t face anyone in Hell. From what you told me, they hail me as their hero…but I’m just a traitor.”

  “Then be a hero! Help us reach the top! You can be a comeback hero!” Wyn presses.

  “You see, throughout my time here, I’ve come to realize that I only wanted to avenge my army, not fighting for Hell or anyone. And since I no longer belong to Hell, I can’t pass through Hell’s portals anymore,” Damien says as he stands and looks at the army intently. “So there’s only one thing I can do to achieve my goal.”

  The army stands tensely, awaiting what Damien is about to say.

  “I want you to take Luce’s essence…and mine too,” he says.

  The proposal is met with confused murmurs.

  “You mean, we have to…?” Wyn asks.

  “Yes. With the essence from me and Luce, you’ll be even stronger, and thus, have better chances at defeating the remaining guardians above this level, which I never learned who they are.”

  David and Wyn feel uneasy with the thought of eliminating Damien. As the army debates, Damien speaks up. “No matter how strong you are, remember you’re still human, and your weakness is still the brain. Protect it at all costs.” Without another word, he thrusts his cleaver toward his own head, aided by a cyclone.

  The army stands in stunned silence, unable to react to Damien’s death. Despite the gruesome sight, none can bring themselves to scream. They’ve grown numb to such horrors, and somehow, Damien’s end seems the least painful of them all.

  Wyn swallows hard before pulling David to the center of the army to make an important announcement.

  “David and I talked it over back on the previous level,” Wyn begins, his voice wavering slightly. “Whenever we find a safe place, we’ll leave you all there, and the two of us will keep going from here. This place seems safe enough to me.”

  “No! You can’t do that!” Mira shouts, her voice cutting through the murmurs.

  “Please, don’t leave us, Mister Wyn, Mister David,” Lisa pleads, her eyes wide with worry.

  “Hey now! We’ve been together since the gate. I’m not letting you ditch me now,” Yu adds adamantly.

  “You can carry Damien’s dream if you want, but I have to honor Anish and James,” Mira says, her voice breaking as tears soon follow.

  As the rest of the army continues debating their next move, Wyn’s team relentlessly bombards him with pleas to join them.

  “This isn’t getting anywhere,” David mutters. “If you want to come along, then do it. If not, stay here. If we win, we’ll come for you. If we lose, you’ll have to figure out how to convince Heaven to spare you.”

  David pulls Wyn aside, then turns to the rest of the group. “Anyone who wants to keep going, come join us,” he says.

  As expected, only his team – Yu, Mira, and Lisa – steps forward. With a grin, David announces, “Then it’s settled. The five of us will continue forward!”

  David decides against informing the nerds about this development and instead calls his team to absorb the essence. The rest of the army agrees to let those moving forward take all of it. Forming a circle with their heads touching, they begin absorbing Damien’s essence, before moving on to Luce’s.