‘How did WDF sneak in hundreds of Dumots into Iladistan anyway?’ Sukola asked.

It was Captain Sugo who answered. ‘I checked on the Iladistani Department of Transportation data base. Several Maestro CEOs of the WDF-controlled Bugu Consortium attended a conference on Bugu coin minting two days after the Buhi Port bombing. They landed by charter planes and brought with them several hundred avatars to Higop City. Ten of the WDF Maestros later went to Dulonan City by chartered bus, ostensibly as a stop-over on their way to some business in Central Antigua. They brought two hundred avatars with them. Another ten have gone to Ngit-Ngit City, also with about two hundred avatars.’

‘All those avatars have turned out to be the ones whose masters had died in the bombing and that were donated to the WDF. So it seems that someone in the WDF, more likely in the Veiled Commission itself, readied this operative option in case Protocol 999 pushed through. I suspect the decision and orders came from Commissioner Duwa, judging by how fast the Dumot avatars were deployed. No one questions a Veiled Commissioner’s direct orders; it’s just immediately carried out. As you know Duwa is buddy-buddy with Alogostani officials, like Minister Kusgan, that wanted to see Protocol 999 implemented.’

‘I always thought it peculiar that Duwa actually deigned to accompany Kusgan right here in the Shield,’ Tahum mused.

‘OK, but that’s now past,’ Koryen interjected. ‘I want to see what’s happening now. Captain Sugo, could you give us more live feeds from the WDF aero drones and the Dumot’s tabcoms?’

(View of Convoy 1)

Dulonan River was only 5 kilometers away from the airbase. Convoy 1 arrived in 10 minutes. There was a small border guard building by the bridge. The platoon commander in the building inquired by a loudspeaker who the avatars were. Amok 1001 decided on direct action and no negotiation. The lone Bramsa tank and APCs fired incendiary and explosive rounds and anti-tank missiles until the building was reduced into a giant smoldering stove containing 15 cooked border guards in it.

On the bridge itself was a small guard tower that looked like a miniature lighthouse. Three avatars led by Amok 1001 charged it. Two guards in the ground floor and one more on the tower top, fired at them, thus showing their faces through the windows. The avatars were running laterally and forward by rapid increments like supercharged crabs. It was impossible to target them with the human eye. Each of them fired an AK 470 rifle on the run, fatally hitting the guards in the middle of their faces from a distance of a hundred meters.

Amok 1001 parked his tank in the middle of the highway before the bridge, completely blocking it to any traffic. He called up Amok 1000.

Buwag Mountain range was located 50 kilometers to the North of Dulonan City. Traveling at 80 kilometers per hour, the top speed of the Bramsa tanks on a highway, the convoy reached it in half an hour. Any vehicle or pedestrian that got in their way in the highway was brutally run over by the tanks and APCs. The convoy ascended up the Buwag Mountains. Slowing down only slightly, they began careening around the winding cliff roads at speeds that would terrify any human driver. Vehicles in front of them were perfunctorily bumped off and sent flying down the cliffs.

The Buwag army base sat on the northern foothills of the mountain range. As the convoy descended down the mountain roads, all available artillery from the base fired at them.

One shell landed beside an APC. Its explosion sent the vehicle tottering over the edge of the mountain road. Before it tumbled down the cliff, avatars inside it jumped off with preternatural quickness, avoiding the fate of the APC which burst into flames upon impacting the ground at the bottom of the ravine.

The convoy stopped. Ahead of them the massive barrage of artillery shells had caused a landslide. Thereafter, there was nothing left of the mountain road but the rough side of the mountain.

Amok 1006 contacted Amok 1000 back in Dulonan airbase by a WDF channel. ‘Sir Amok 1000, artillery from the army base has destroyed the main Buwag mountain road. We will take up guard positions in this mountain range.’

‘Just leave a squad, Amok 1006. The rest of you, return to Dulonan airbase. With the road destroyed, the hostiles have accomplished our mission for us. They’ve blocked the Buwag Mountain pass.’

(View of Convoy 3)

Convoy 3 travelled on the border highway down the side of Dulonan River at 80 kilometers per hour. As they passed the boundary of Dulonan and Linaw provinces, the scenery transformed from woodland to delta swampland.

Linaw naval base was located in Linaw City itself, adjacent to the civilian Linaw Port, with multiple roads leading to the complex. The tanks and APCs converged on the base from five roads, and busted their way in though fences and concrete walls.

It was a repeat of the Dulonan airbase massacre. Avatars leaped of APCs and attacked with AK 470s at speeds impossible for the human eye to follow. Upon entry into the base, the tanks and APCs promptly unloaded incendiary and explosive shells and missiles at all standing infrastructure, killing everyone inside and denying the survivors secure positions from where they could ambush the avatars. The naval base, like the airbase, lacked artillery and fortifications.

The unleashed Dumot avatars moved like the wind in a storm. All over the base, personnel fell to single head or chest shots fired by what seemed to be fuzzy red and blue ghosts.

In less than half an hour, after thoroughly scouring the port complex for survivors, Amok 1050 called up his superior. ‘Sir Amok 1000, we’ve accomplished our mission.’

‘Good. Go to the civilian port adjacent to the base, and order all civilians out. Execute any one that fails to do so. I’ve received word from Amok 1 that President Tagas of Alogostan is sending over materiel and troops.’

‘Human troops? Sir, if I may ask, doesn’t the WDF trust us Dumot combat avatars to carry out our orders successfully?’

(Viewing Events in the West side of Ngit-ngit City: )

Four hundred avatars in a motley of trucks, APCs, and tanks were moving in a salient toward Higop City, on two multilane concrete national highways.

‘Those are Alogostani Tigdala T-17 tanks and Sagang APCs, the same kind of advanced armored vehicles of the Presidential Aide,’ Tukib noted. ‘How the hell did they get them so fast?’

Sugo answered. ‘They’re from the inventories of the Alogostani Presidential Aide Group and the Presidential Security Guard. Two hours ago, the WDF took control of the Sanag to Ngit-ngit transportation route and ferried those vehicles across Sanag river from Alogostan into the hands of waiting Dumot avatars that were left in Ngit-ngit city by the Consortium Maestros. Presidential Tagas had previously ordered them to standby in Sanag City, in anticipation of Protocol 999. With typical avatar efficiency they’ve already begun heading toward Higop City. From the radio chatter I can deduce that the aim is to cut Eastern Iladistan in the middle into a north and south compartments, and from there take both compartments.’

The first town directly west of Ngit-ngit City was Ingod. The convoy proceeded immediately to the town’s conspicuously large police station, which resembled a small military camp. The tanks promptly fired their guns into the various buildings inside the complex until they collapsed. Avatars leaped off buses and APCs terminating all survivors.

Some of the APCs proceeded to various government facilities including the Municipal Hall. Avatars debarked and did a repeat of the massacre in the military camps in Dulonan and Linaw provinces.

‘What are they doing?’ Elam blurted out.

‘Yes,’ Sukola added. ‘Those policemen and government employees were not attacking them!’

Captain Sugo, pressed slightly with a finger on the interphase pad on his table computer. ‘This was recorded earlier,’ he told Sukola.

A female avatar’s voice spoke out in the speakers.

‘This is Amok 1 to the Ngit-ngit battalion. You are to proceed to Higop City from Ngit-ngit City. Leave a token 5 man squad in each town you pass. Each occupying squad shall form provisional governments. I recommend that you choose from previously appointed officials by the central government in Higop City, for convenience’s sake. Uncooperative officials are to be neutralized.

Once you have accomplished this task, we Dumots would have gained military and political control of a large corridor from Ngit-Ngit City to Higop City, dividing Eastern Iladistan in two. This corridor can be used to transport more supplies from Alogosotan. From this corridor send all available Dumots to all areas of Eastern Iladistan to do the same thing.

The Department of Mass Communications in Higop City, which we have already take over, has been announcing to all of Iladistan that a regime change from the previous government to direct WDF control has been implemented. You should not have any serious problems given that intel from Alogostani DATA agents indicates that most Eastern Iladistanis are actually welcoming the news. They will mostly accept the regime change coup, and will abandon Unitemplism. They apparently dislike Western Iladistanis, and many still seem to be closet Polytemplists.

In a few recalcitrant places as indicated by our intel such as Ingod town, you are to neutralize all armed and government institutions of the Iladistani State before forming a provisional government. If the people resist, neutralize them. I’ll give you an updated list of these towns later.’

Tukib was raising his eyebrows. ‘What’s Amok 1 saying- Intel from Alogostani DATA agents?’

Lili was looking at her tabcom and punching in keys. ‘Minister Kusgan has been contacting the DATA intelligence assets I have placed inside Iladistan via quantum encrypted communication and telling them to contact the Dumots.’

‘Is just killing them all what she means by neutralize?’ Elam inquired indignantly. ‘What happens in big cities like Ngit-ngit?’

It was a bird’s eye view of Promenade Hotel in Ngit-ngit City and five blocks around it at late afternoon, taken from a WDF aero drone. The streets were crowded with pedestrians and commuters. Four Sagang APCs, a T-17 Tank, and a bus stopped in front of the Hotel. Two dozen figures got out. They approached people at random.

The view zoomed in to the perfect features of a handsome male avatar with blue hair and a slightly reddish complexion. His voice in Esperanto could be heard in the video, querying a young woman in an office uniform that had just come out of the hotel. ‘I am Amok 501, a Dumot avatar of the WDF. Are you a member of the Unitemple?’ The woman nodded. The avatar promptly pulled out a sword from a sheath on his back and beheaded her.

People began to run. More swords flashed and more heads rolled. Amok 501 shouted at the panicky people.

‘Stay put. We are going to question you on your membership with the Unitemple and examine your IDs. We are commanded to terminate all members of the Unitemple. You can avoid neutralization by disavowing the Unitemple. We will assume that all who run and have no IDs to be members and will slay them.’

A score of people kept on running. The avatars kept on slaying. They moved like pouncing cats on a killing spree. In a minute the streets were strewn with decapitated, slashed, and skewered corpses.

The rest of the pedestrians had stopped moving, and were standing still. Amok 501 approached one of them, a delivery boy, still carrying a box of pizza on one hand, and questioned him.

‘Are you a member of the Unitemple?’

The delivery boy answered in a trembling voice, ‘Not anymore.’

‘Take out your Unitemple I.D. and tear it up.’

The young man complied.

Amok 501 nodded. ‘You are required to register into another religious organization within four days. After we finish the purge in Ngit-Ngit City, estimated by tomorrow, internet services will be restored. You may write on-line to any temple or pagoda outside Iladistan, applying for membership.’

Amok 501 bowed and went on to question the next person beside him, a young traffic policewoman who had been checking on an illegally parked car.

‘Oh sh_t, that’s Hatag, one of my informants in the Ngit-ngit city police,’ Lili was looking worried. ‘I hope she received the signal codes identifying her as an asset.’

‘Are you a member of the Unitemple?’ Amok 501 asked.

The policewoman had already taken out her Unitemple I.D. She tore it in two and spat on the pieces.

Amok 501 did a double take. ‘You’re an Iladistani police officer? Yet you hate the Unitemple? I thought the job came with orders to enforce Unitemple laws and directives.’

‘Yes. You were an Autumn Sea combat avatar from Alogostan weren’t you? Well, I provided intel to the Alogostani DATA. I am a closet Polytemplist, as are many of us Easterners. Listen up. The fire ant stings the big fly.’

Amok 501 seemed to go into flat mode. He answered in a monotone, ‘The small fly beheads the fire ant.’

‘A robot’s foot crushes them flat,’ Hatag stated.

Amok 501 bowed. ‘Do you have any recommendations for us Dumots?’

‘Yes Amok 501. You don’t have to go about killing Eastern Iladistanis without giving them a chance to explain themselves,’ she told the avatar. ‘You’ll find out that most Easterners resent the Westerners, except in towns like Ingod which used to be a military garrison town of soldiers from Western Iladistan during WW3. My grandparents were massacred by Westerners operating out of these garrison towns, and my parents as children were forcibly converted to Unitemplism. On the other hand you may have to do a lot of killing in these towns and Western Iladistan.’

A bespectacled middle aged man refused to cooperate. He wore a cleric’s robes and spoke in a firm and determined voice. ‘I am a teacher at the Higop Seminary for One Tome Studies, and an Amo. What you are doing is wrong. Who programmed you? I would speak with them.’

The avatar in front of him answered. ‘I am Amok 509, programmed to execute all members of the Iladistani Unitemple.’ The Dumot promptly slashed his sword across the Amo’s head, transversely transecting his skull and brain. Blood and brains splattered onto the sidewalk. Elam and Sukola averted their eyes.

More action flashed on the screens. A WDF drone cam was now zooming in on a T-17 moving along a road, with a squad of avatars trailing behind it. It stopped 50 meters in front of a temple a block away from Promenade Hotel. The tank fired 10 mixed incendiary and high explosive rounds into the building, which promptly collapsed into a smoldering pile of rubble.

A man managed to crawl out alive from behind the destroyed temple, relatively unharmed. He wore the robes of a Unitemple cleric. He ran away from the Dumots. One of the avatars accompanying the tank shot him with a single bullet precisely through the head with a 7.62mm Dragun rifle from a hundred meters away. The Dumot squad proceeded to scour the rubble, slaying wounded survivors of the Unitemple with their swords.

The scene shifted again. It was on the top floor of a small four story building with a dish antenna at the top, as seen from hacked CCTVs.

‘I remember that building. We passed it on our way to Promenade Hotel when we rescued Pana and Tahum,’ Tukib noted.

‘Well, it so happens that it’s the Ngit Ngit City headquarters and broadcast station of the cable and TV network One Path,’ Tahum noted. ‘I think I know what’s about to happen.’

The elevator door opened. Five avatars came out. They marched for the TV network suite offices. The entrance door was locked. The point man shot the door knob with his AK 470. The squad went in, swords and rifles in their hands. The avatar on point shot two security guards that were in the process of standing up behind their desk by the entrance.

‘I am Amok 600, a Dumot avatar of the WDF. The One path TV network and people associated with it have engaged in double talk, half-truths, falsehoods, and lies of omission, in order to propagandize the illegal government of Iladistan, which has been proven guilty of the crime of demon summoning. You are hereby sentenced to death.’

The avatars went after every human being in the suite, methodically slaughtering them room by room by the sword- network personnel, journalists, and guests. The green rugs that lined the floors turned scarlet.

Ihap nodded. ‘Classic coup tactics. Are they going for bridges, main highways, uncooperative police stations and military camps, and all mass communication centers?’

(Happenings in the Shield, the Balanghay House Boat: )

Captain Sugo shifted to an aero drone’s view, back to Dulonan City. Everywhere, corpses could be seen littering the mains roads. ‘It’s even worse in Dulonan and Linaw Provinces in Western Iladistan. From Dumot chatter and the feeds I’ve been receiving, it seems that they’ve terminated nearly the entire populations of some towns and cities.’

Noting that both Elam and Sukola had collapsed into chairs by a computer table and were making retching movements, Lili signaled to Sugo to turn off the screens.

Sukola finally squeaked out, ‘Why do they use swords anyway? They used it on my friends back at the district hospital.’

It was Tukib that replied. ‘Dumot avatars have the WDF-given right to acquisition any government owned weapon or vehicle in Tera, and the ones you see have all sorts of guns, RPGs, and ATGMs that they have confiscated from police stations and military camps, but using swords saves on bullets. The people they are executing are not armed soldiers that can shoot at them. They’re programmed to save on materiel and costs.’

‘Those things make the Unitemple terrorists look like wimps.’

‘There’s no terrorism like state terrorism, and the WDF is the biggest and most ruthless state of all. The avatars are using explosives in all-kill areas such as the Iladistani Government Building, military weapons and equipment against soldiers, and swords in public places where they’re programmed to discriminate and select targets,’ Luto observed professionally. ‘Most of the Dumot avatars are also members of the Autumn Sea, probably the ones donated by Minister Kusgan to the WDF after the Buhi Port bombing.’

‘You mean donated by President Tagas himself,’ Lili corrected. ‘It’s obvious that Minister Kusgan passed the combat avatars over to President Tagas, and he forwarded them to the WDF. That’s how secondary targets were programmed into them by the Presidential Office.’

Sukola persisted. ‘How can they do that? Just kill anyone that answers wrongly or belong to a certain government or organization?’

Tahum shook her head. ‘Dumot avatars get upgraded with esoteric programs from the Veiled Commission itself, that make them act almost like us Veterans, that is to say akin to humans. However, they’re not human, Sukola. Consider them as robots executing a programmed directive. Or a ten ton bomb that selectively obliterates specific targets in a set area.’

Lupad had a thoughtful look on his face. ‘Now you get an idea how it was in the Dark War. Humans that cooperated with darklings were terminated by avatars as ruthless as these Dumots. I remember bits of it. There was a whole country that hard-headedly sided with the darklings. When the Anachronistas retook it, avatars killed everyone there, tens of millions of its inhabitants.’

‘They look so much like you,’ Elam interrupted, ‘but you’re nice and kind. You just don’t go around chopping off peoples’ heads.’

Lupad shrugged. ‘We too are avatars. You’ve seen videos of the Battle of the Trench. Nice and kind me did the same thing as these Dumots, but only to the Maranhig, the Possessed. Nerdy academic Bodhi slaughtered thousands of darklings in the Mission to the Dark Realm, mighty beings that pre-Shift religions deemed as near indestructible supernatural demons. That’s expected; no humans were slain. However, turn an Arch Wing and you’ll get something like a Possessed Aya, whom we saw slaying hundreds of humans in the Battle of Dakobalud Resort. Tamper with our programming, and unexpected results may follow.’

Seeing Elam suddenly pale, Lupad hastily added, ‘We can never do that to humans in our normal Aspects or Disguises. Father wrote the laws that govern our behavior into the Tela itself. An Arch Wing has the capacity to terminate the entire human species in this world and in other worlds in the Multiverse as well, but that’s like asking the ocean to rise and flood all the continents. The ocean won’t do that because its intrinsic nature is to follow the law of gravity and stay in its basin.’

‘What you saw in Dakobalud was not really me. I can’t defend myself against a murderer if such action means injuring or slaying him. You’ll have to rescue me if that happens. Father told us that the rules by which we were made are as timeless as the Tela itself.’ Elam felt her flossy corn colored hair brush against his face, and he caught a whiff of its calming perfumed scent. Suddenly everything felt right as day again.

After a few seconds of silence, Elam spoke up. ‘There must be millions of peaceful Unitemplists, like Sayloha. What happens to them?’

Aya offered a suggestion. ‘They have to do an official reinterpretation of the Unitemplist mainline doctrines and One Tome, so that the passages on demon summoning are regarded as merely metaphorical; or were only applicable during the Dark War and not today; or create a new set of sacred scriptures that take precedence over the One Tome in the matter of demon summoning and doctrinal violence.’

Bodhi sighed. ‘The Tome asserts that the one sure way to get to hell is to stop taking its passages literally, in which case you are automatically regarded as excommunicated and a target for execution, after which you drop into the valleys of fire. I’m guessing there will be a lot of resistance to your suggestion, Aya.’

Luto shook his head. ‘The Veiled Commission isn’t interested in theology, only in political power. The Unitemple in Alogostan, Dalokistan, and Cephalia will be wiped out; all members who don’t officially join other religions or go agnostic will get terminated in a month. I would assign about 500 Dumots for each of those Nations, approximately 1500 in all, working 24 hours a day. They scour all the cities and towns methodically, hitting active temples first, getting a list of members, and then visiting each one in their homes. I don’t know what exactly they’ll do in Iladistan, whose entire citizenry is defined by membership in the Unitemple, especially in the Western regions where the people are committed devotees. More of that sh_t we saw in the screens, maybe.’

Bodhi disagreed. ‘It will be different in Iladistan. The WDF smartly hit the central leadership first. It’s lucky such coups are more effective against a Unitarian system. I recall countries that were federated in the Dark War, where it was more difficult to stage a coup in one go because you have to coopt all the local states too. However, given that there are probably less than a thousand Dumot avatars available to carry out the purge there, armed state institutions will probably be able to put up some kind of a resistance.’

‘Yes, I think there will be some resistance,’ Lili was punching a few keys in her tabcom.

The speakers in one of the computer tables began spouting out broadcasts in Iladistani.

‘What does that mean, Lili,’ Ihap asked. ‘We understand the Dumots’ Esperanto, but you know we don’t understand Iladistani.’

‘Those are intercepted communications from the Iladistani military cable landlines that the WDF has managed to bug. They’re from military camps and provincial governments in the provinces of Iladistan. Already, they’re designating the highest ranking generals that survived as provisional commanders of the Iladistani military, as replacement for those killed in the Dumot attack on the Central Government Building in Higop City. A military junta has just declared martial law and a Lieutenant General Nabilin is apparently now the head of the Iladistani state. From the chatter, it’s clear that they have already decided on a command structure. Provincial military commands in north, west, and central Iladistan are already drafting civilians and preparing aircraft and artillery.’

‘Their plan is to fall back with their best divisions and equipment to the North Western and Northern regions; and to the North Eastern Trough mines for its dark energy resource. They’ve given up on Higop City and Eastern Iladistan as lost to the WDF. They’ll defend and maintain their relatively secure military cable-based communication systems within a continuous territory, since all satellite and internet communication systems have been coopted by the WDF. They’ve already contacted ideologically friendly Unitemplist Central Antigua Nations on the border, asking for aid.’

‘Dumot combat avatars move so fast as to foil the aim of any single human armed with a gun, but they are quite vulnerable to air bombs, artillery shells, mines, IEDs, and other explosives, to saturation small arms fire, and to ambushes. I’m predicting Dumots will die in significant numbers. We saw one killed in the High Council Conference Hall in Higop City and two more in Dulonan airbase.

Ihap answered him. ‘If the WDF creates more Dumot avatars by the thousands, it will still be a short conflict. Dumots are like an upgraded version of combat avatars. I know you saw combat avatars slain by the dozens in South Continent, but they were up against darklings. Against humans, even the most highly trained special forces commandos, it will be a repeat of the Dulonan and Linaw massacres. Even a non Dumot combat avatar is at least ten times faster and stronger than any human.’

‘If no more Dumots are produced, then I would predict that it’s going to be WW4. Troops and materiel can pour in from Central Antigua, thus creating a broad front. Conventional weapons will be used on a large scale by National armies. No nuclear ones; thanks to the WDF ban on nuclear weapons since the Dark War, they don’t exist nowadays. The Nationalistic Nations will side with the WDF, as with the few non Unitemplist Theocracies. The Unitemplist Nations will side with Iladistan. The WDF with the resources of the entire world and an unlimited supply of Bugu money should eventually win.’

An alarm sounded.

‘Air intrusion alarm; one of the Cleaner avatars on the top deck has spotted an approaching aircraft,’ Bantay explained. He pointed toward Dakobalud Resort. An attack helicopter was fast approaching their Balanghay House Boat from the shore. The copter stopped and hovered a hundred meters away from the Tower Command Room. There was a pilot and a weapons officer in its cockpit. Their tabcoms activated on several public bands. A friendly female voice spoke.

‘Hi there, ladies and gentlemen in the cruise ship. I am Amok 10, a Dumot avatar of the WDF, in an attack helicopter that I have acquisitioned from the Tubo Provincial Police. My primary objective programmed by the WDF is to terminate Unitemple members. My secondary objective programmed by my donor, the Presidential Office of Alogostan, is to terminate all Alogostani secessionists. I come to execute the secessionist Sukola, now seeking sanctuary among you. May I remind any combat avatar among you that my pilot is human, and therefore your programming prevents you from killing him.’

Oisa, Bodhi, Aya, and Alwana swooshed through an eletrain entrance at near the speed of sound and appeared outside, floating between the Tower and the helicopter. The copter fired all its rockets and missiles into the air. The angel-like avatars, wings completely enfolding their bodies in order to protect their combustible clothes from burning up, momentarily disappeared in a twinkling ball of flame. When they reappeared Aya was holding a piece of shrapnel in her hands. She threw it back at the helicopter, taking off its rotors. The aircraft fell into the sea. Amok 10 and the human pilot ejected into the air. Bodhi caught the pilot before he could fall down into the sea.

Amok 10 had a jetpack strapped to her posterior thorax. She flew toward the open eletrain entrance where the Wings had come out.

‘Lili what the hell do we do?’ Oisa shouted into her tabcom. ‘She’s a WDF avatar. Do we have the authority to stop her?’

Amok 10 flew right inside the Tower Command Room. She landed on a computer table, produced a 7mm pistol from her waist, and aimed it at the astonished Sukola who was standing near the Room’s center.

Alwana flew in even faster. She interposed herself between Amok 10 and Sukola.

‘Amok 10, you don’t have to..’ Alwana began. She was interrupted by 8 bullets from Amok 10’s gun smashing into her face. Seven of them bounced off her skin. One of them entered her open mouth.

‘Ouch,’ Alwana said.

‘My apologies, Arch Wing. You know I admire and idolize you, but I have a job to do. Please get out of my way,’ Amok 10 politely requested.

‘She's a Dumot avatar and the only way to stop her is to destroy her or reprogram her. Knock her unconscious,’ Lili ordered.

Alwana spat the metal slug in her mouth back at Amok 10 at the speed of sound. It hit the Dumot’s right frontal bone tangentially, entering and exiting the scalp. Amok 10 collapsed on the table, blood oozing out of her forehead.

‘Don’t worry; she just got the equivalent of a KO punch. The bullet did not penetrate her skull. She should survive,’ Alwana explained.

Lili sighed. ‘First day of the war and we’re already in it.’

I liked the less black-and-white depictions of the other non-standard-human folk, and following different protagonists in this book. Some writers' workshops regularly caution against "excessive head-hopping", but I think you pulled it off just fine. :)

I would still like to get more of a handle on the psychology of the pure darkling; mostly, why are they so hung up on invading Tera, what's in it for them? For instance, why would a Demon Empress like Lima find it rewarding to masquerade as a human for 400+ years?

And some more threads I would like to see continued:

Pana - can she be retrieved?
Oisa - what exactly is she First of? Her title is clearly more than a random honorific.
Oh, and that recording the Professor left... ;)

Pana - can she be retrieved?
Oisa - what exactly is she First of? Her title is clearly more than a random honorific. Oh, and that recording the Professor left... ;)>

Thanks. A Prosperous New Year to you and all the visitors to this forum.

Lima- The more appropriate question is: Is Lima the only Demon Empress that's in Disguise in Tera? I'm planning on more of these cryptid darklings to show up. Meanwhile they have good reasons to stay hidden. (Which I can't divulge yet.)

Darkling invasion- It's just in their nature to expand and control, and it's their basic instinct to get addicted to eating humans. Gives them a high no drug can substitute for. (I think I mentioned this in Book 1.)

Pana- I don't know yet. However, I'm planning for her to eventually come back, as she's just too interesting a character to kill off.

Oisa- You got it; she's first of something, but it would spoil all the fun if I just let it out now.