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The CEOs of the six big companies were gathered in the same conference room, one with a large rectangular table much longer than it was wide. As such, there were plenty of empty seats separating the six individuals, but no one minded the distance. They didn’t feel comfortable sitting close to one another in case of sudden attacks; a little bit of space was needed as a buffer for defensive actions to take place. Although they all knew each other, with the stressful situation they were in, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for a few tempers to flare.
“I don’t like this arrangement,” Mr. Park said, folding his hands in front of himself on the table.
“That’s a given,” Big Chief said and glanced around the table. “None of us are here of our own volition.”
“But for Sam to keep us waiting like this, isn’t he a bit too rude?” Mr. Hoffman asked. “After publicly humiliating us, he’s making us wait, treating us like we’re rank and file employees.” The man’s eyes narrowed. “Shall we work together to bring him down? If the six of us joins forces—”
“You can count me out,” Queen Annabeth said, interrupting Mr. Hoffman. “I’m not going to go against Sam.”
“You’re fine with losing everything you’ve built up to this point?” Mr. Park asked, turning to look at the queen. “Three hundred years of blood, sweat, and tears, and you’re willing to offer it all to someone like Sam?”
“My decisions are not for you to question,” Queen Annabeth said and closed her eyes, looking much like an old lady taking a nap.
Mr. Park’s gaze lingered on the queen before turning to the two other people at the table who hadn’t spoken: Zahir Gupta, CEO of Saamoohik, and Dr. Zhou, the woman CEO of Dynasty. “And what are your opinions?”
“We’ve yet to hear Sam’s offer,” Zahir said. “If it’s favorable enough, Saamoohik will give him our full support.”
“I agree with Mr. Gupta,” Dr. Zhou said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose with her finger. “The right course of action can’t be determined until we have more information. If Sam can truly uphold the claims he made earlier, then I don’t see why we shouldn’t follow him. I, for one, do not enjoy living at the bottom of the food chain.”
Mr. Park frowned, and his face became sullen as he recalled the Sam’s display of strength. It was very much like a blue avians, and Mr. Park’s thoughts turned to the assassin who had attacked him at the restaurant while Big Chief and Mr. Hoffman were present. Was it just a coincidence Sam and the assassin could both use telekinesis so proficiently? If the three of them hadn’t been attacked by a blue avian that day and instead had been challenged by Sam….
The door to the conference room opened, cutting off Mr. Park’s train of thought. A grayling walked into the room and took a look around before nodding. Then, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed illusion of Sam appeared at the head of the table, seated as if he had always been there. The grayling went to the corner of the room and pulled out an electronic tablet and electronic pen from thin air, ready to record everything being said.
“Hello,” Vercedei said as the Venusian illusion of Sam swept its gaze across the people sitting at the table, making eye contact with each of them—except for Queen Annabeth, who had her eyes closed. “I’m glad you all decided to come to this meeting. It means I won’t have to destroy any of the existing companies; I was really worried I’d have to hurt my own conscience if any of you decided to ignore my invitation.”
“Of course,” Mr. Park said and glared daggers at Sam. “We would have to be real villains to decline your invitation since you said you’d kill everyone in our companies if we didn’t show up.” He stared at Sam’s unchanging expression. “Imagine all that blood on our hands.”
“Yes, it would’ve been quite tragic, and you would’ve been such an awful person,” Vercedei said as the illusion nodded.
“You know, we’ve established laws for a reason,” Big Chief said.
“To limit your competition, I know,” Vercedei said. “You set laws, and you sneakily break them behind each other’s backs. I have dirt on all of you and the illegal things your companies have done. The laws you’ve set prevent other people from reaching the same positions as yourselves, so I don’t feel as if anything is holding me back when I resort to coercion to get what I want.”
Big Chief, Mister Hoffman, and Mr. Park exchanged glances with one another. They were in a tentative alliance with each other, only needing to unite if the other three CEOs decided to work together against them—or if an external threat showed up that one of them couldn’t handle alone. Mister Hoffman leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest before letting out a sigh. He looked at Sam and said, “Well, what exactly do you want us to do for you? You’re confident in beating all six of us even if we joined forces, right? Just tell us what shit you want us to swallow.”
“Although a bit vulgar, you do get the point,” Vercedei said, the illusion of Sam giving Mister Hoffman a smile. Then, the illusion swept its gaze over the other CEOs. “How about the rest of you? Are you willing to pledge your loyalty to me? No matter what kind of absurd order I give, I expect it to be followed. Of course, you can persuade me otherwise, but my mind is already set on the actions I’ll take, so I’ll likely ignore your advice.”
“So, we’re switching to a dictatorship?” Dr. Zhou asked.
“It’s not too different from the current oligarchy,” Vercedei said. “Instead of the six of you being in charge of humanity, all of you will work for me, and I’ll be in charge. The populace won’t even notice a change in leadership.” The illusion of Sam folded his hands in front of himself, resting them on the table. “Usually, when there’s a shift in power, blood is spilled; I hope we can avoid getting the floor dirty this time around.”
“Monarch is willing to follow Ark,” Queen Annabeth said, her eyes opening. “Whatever order you give us, we’ll do our best to fulfill it.”
Dr. Zhou and Zahir Gupta turned to look at Queen Annabeth, judging the expression on the old lady’s face. “In that case, Dynasty will also do whatever Ark asks of us,” Dr. Zhou said, nodding her head at the illusion at the head of the table. “I just hope you’re not asking us to die.”
“Of course not,” Vercedei said. “Why would you be incentivized to join Ark if you’re going to die if you do? The purpose of Ark is to spread humanity throughout Oterra, putting us on top of the food chain. Some humans will die during the process, but the casualties of those working beneath me will be minimal.”
“As long as you stay true to your words, Saamoohik is willing to follow you,” Zahir Gupta said.
A sigh escaped from Big Chief’s mouth. “Before, there were only three of you in an alliance, and that was enough to stop us from doing what we wanted, and now, there are four of you,” he said and shook his head. “Weston will also follow Ark’s lead.”
“Excellent,” Vercedei said, the illusion of Sam turning towards the two remaining CEOs. They capitulated not long after, pledging to do their best for Ark. Once Vercedei received confirmation of everyone’s participation, the illusion of Sam smiled. “The first order of business is to completely remodel the city to make it more efficient. Tear it all down to build it back up but in a better way.”
“Saamoohik will prepare the necessary tools right away,” Zahir Gupta said. “Which building shall we start with? SAT Group’s buildings are a bit of an eyesore, so—as you’ve given me the freedom to do—I suggest we demolish their headquarters first.”
“What is wrong with you?” Mister Hoffman asked, staring at Zahir Gupta. The CEO of SAT Group turned towards Sam. “I assume we’ll be given something to look over to see what needs to be done? You stated you already knew what you wished to do.”
“That’s right,” Vercedei said and clapped his hands. The grayling in the corner of the room flickered as it walked around the table. Folders appeared in front of the six CEOs; the folders were thick, filled with paper. “You each have your own assignments to take care of, and the tasks I expect you to complete along with when they should be completed are in your respective folders.” The illusion of Sam gestured towards the grayling that had returned to the corner of the room. “If you have any questions, you can direct them to my assistant.”
The six CEOs opened the folders, and as they read through the papers, frowns appeared on all of their faces except Queen Annabeth, who remained impassive. Although Sam wasn’t telling them to die, he was telling them to destroy everything they had dedicated their lives to, and to some of them, that was much worse.
“Do you really expect us to follow these orders?” Mr. Park asked, turning to look the illusion of Sam in the eyes. “Or did you create them just to frustrate us to give you an excuse to get rid of us?”
A chuckled escaped from the illusion’s lips. “If I wanted to get rid of you, do you really think I’d need an excuse?” Vercedei asked. The illusion of Sam pointed at Mr. Park. “I’d just do something like this.”
Mr. Park let out a scream as every nerve within him flared, shooting pain throughout his whole body. It felt as if fire ants were biting his innards, a technique Sam had learned during his time spent with the three blue avians back in Big Fish’s mouth. By forming a connection with his target, he didn’t have to physically touch them to influence the vibrations their bodies gave off, allowing him to use his root chakra techniques on them at a distance. In this case, Burning Hands had turned into Burning Body.
After a few seconds, Mr. Park stopped screaming and gasped for breath, sweat covering his forehead. It wasn’t a surprise to him no one offered any assistance, but he was still a bit disappointed in Big Chief and Mister Hoffman. “I was just asking a question,” Mr. Park said after taking in a deep breath. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“But I did,” Vercedei said. “If I didn’t do that, you wouldn’t have known I could.”
Mr. Park grimaced. “You want to create temples of worship?” he asked. “I know all I have to do is follow this packet, but I’d like to know the consequences of my actions. I’m curious as to the purpose of these temples and why our headquarters have to be demolished to build them.”
“It’s good that you know what you have to do,” Vercedei said. “As for the purpose of the temples, I’ll enlighten you. When people are truly devout in their prayers, they enter a different state of mind and emit vibrations of certain wavelengths. These vibrations are directed at the entity the people are praying towards, and if the entity knows how to harness the energy being emitted by its followers, then, the prayers are beneficial for both parties—if the entity chooses to respond to the prayers, of course.”
Mr. Park’s brows furrowed. “That doesn’t explain why you’re demolishing our buildings,” he said. “We’ve spent billions to create them, and it seems wasteful to remove them if we’re going to be building temples over them that can be erected elsewhere.”
The illusion of Sam shrugged. “Who told you to build your headquarters in such prime locations?” Vercedei asked. “The temples must be built atop Oterra’s ley lines, and your buildings are in the way. Also, you seem to be mistaken; nothing in the packet said we’re demolishing anything.”
“But you said we’re going to tear it all down,” Zahir Gupta said, his voice tinged with a bit of disappointment. Saamoohik was the company with the best construction tools and engineers, and when those were the readily available assets at his disposal, he couldn’t help but be sad when he couldn’t put them to use; after all, when one had a hammer, every problem looked like a nail.
“It was a figure of speech,” Vercedei said. “We’re simply going to shift some buildings around without damaging them, and in the space left behind, we’ll build the temples required.”
“We’ll need a tremendous amount of manpower,” Zahir Gupta said as wrinkles appeared on his forehead while he frowned. “Our most talented awakened who was capable of moving the earth hasn’t been seen ever since the wave of missing persons. Whatever got them got him as well, so I hope your plan wasn’t hinging on Saamoohik.”
“It isn’t,” Vercedei said. “There’s no need for you to worry about that. All any of you have to do is make sure everyone is inside of a building during the time specified in the packet, so no unfortunate accidents occur during the reconstruction process.”
The CEOs exchanged glances with each other, save for Queen Annabeth, who was looking over the packet a second time. The queen’s bracelet buzzed, and not long after, the other CEOs received alerts as well. The grayling in the corner of the room went up to the illusion of Sam and said, “It appears a higher-dimensional creature has appeared on the horizon.”
“Is this part of your plan too?” Mr. Park asked, looking at the illusion of Sam. Although his nerves had been fried for speaking his mind previously, he didn’t take the lesson to heart; after all, no permanent damage was caused to his body…, right? “The beast on the horizon, did you summon it?”
“No,” Vercedei said. “The blue avians’ calamity detector was destroyed, so they can’t track the appearances of higher-dimensional entities any longer.” The illusion of Sam stroked his chin. “If I had to take a guess, the mantids have made a move.” They had requested Sam to destroy the blue avians’ calamity detector a while ago, and they must’ve discovered something was amiss with the blue avians’ movements.
“You know what that thing is?” Mr. Park asked as he stood up and walked over to the window. The other CEOs looked in his direction, staring outside at the mountain-sized lump in the distance.
“Yes,” Vercedei said. “It’s a higher-dimensional being, a calamity that normally would’ve been taken down by the blue avians before it had time to cause trouble. It has many names, but all of them relate to eating: the Devourer, Consumer of All, World Eater.”
“Why would the mantids summon something like that?” Dr. Zhou asked, standing up and walking over to the window to get a better look at the creature outside.
“The same reason anyone would take out a weapon of mass destruction,” Vercedei said. “The mantids have enemies, and they summoned the Devourer to get rid of them.”
“So…, why is it heading towards us?” Big Chief asked.
“That’s a good question,” Vercedei said. Perhaps it had something to do with Sam taking the mantids’ heritage pillar and turning it into a whale. Then again, it could be because of some other reason. “I don’t know, but if we don’t want our capital to relocate to the insides of that creature’s stomach, then we have to do something about it.”
“Higher-dimensional beings are usually dealt with by blue avians, right?” Mr. Park asked and turned to look at the illusion of Sam. “In that case, aren’t you the only one who’s strong enough to defeat that thing?”
“Humanity should mount a defense without me,” Vercedei said. “If I defeat it with all of you watching on the sidelines, you won’t be able to appreciate just how strong I am. If you fight it first and suffer a crushing defeat, you’ll realize my greatness once I step in to save humanity.”
Mr. Park fell silent. After a bit, he nodded at the illusion. “It’s hard to like you,” Mr. Park said before looking at his fellow CEOs. “What are we waiting for? Let’s prepare for the worst.”