Chef in the Apocalypse

Jayce sat in the main building, his head in his hands. He was surrounded by a couple of dozen people who were also either sitting or standing in silence.

His main party members were all present, besides Colin who was busy resting at home after being healed by Lianna. Despite being fully healed, his body was exhausted. Jackie had also requested to be with her husband to watch over him.

Therefore, Ben, Amber, Zane and Lianna were standing not far away, their heads bowed in defeat. Zane in particular seemed destitute, still mourning the loss of his lover.

Jayce let out a sigh, feeling the weight of responsibility press down on his shoulders. This Summit was his idea, yet he had let such a thing happen despite being confident about the security.

Of course he could never have known that those beings would use other humans to do their bidding and commit such an atrocity.

"First of all, let me start by apologizing to you all." Jayce said with a stern expression. He promptly stood up and bowed in apology to all of those in the room.

Lianna moved in an attempt to stop him and raise his head, however Amber managed to pull her back at once, shaking her head. While it made them feel uncomfortable to see their Leader apologize for something that was not his fault, Amber knew that this was something that needed to happen to appease the others.

"What the f*ck is an apology gonna do ay?" A bearded man with bushy eyebrows yelled out in response, his eyes still red and puffy from crying earlier.

"I’m sorry." Jayce stated, his head still bowed.

"Pete, don’t go overboard. You know it wasn’t his fault." A woman in her early thirties spoke up, causing the man to turn in her direction.

"Not his fault? Isn’t he meant to be the strongest bastard in the world? I never saw him in the battle once!" Pete retorted, spitting on the ground with disgust.

Jayce did not move throughout the whole ordeal, keeping his head bowed in respect to their feelings. Although he could not be fully blamed for the attack, his overconfidence in his security measures was ultimately what led to the damage they took.

"Say one more word and I’ll cut out your tongue and shove it up your ass."

The words were soft, yet the icy undertone was enough to cause the bearded man to shiver involuntarily. Feeling the murderous intent directed his way, Pete cleared his throat and proceeded to keep his mouth shut.

Zane’s gaze stayed locked onto the bearded man for a few moments, causing a cold sweat to form on the latter’s back in response.

"Despite the ineloquent way he put it, Pete has a point." A large man with a huge greatsword strapped to his back and blond spiky hair spoke out, grabbing everyone’s attention.

"Jayce. Where were you when we were being attacked?"

Only now did Jayce raise his head, looking towards Cloud, the faction leader from his previous life. While he did not have many interactions with the man, he knew from Heath that he was a reasonable man.

"I was trapped inside of something. It was something like a space prison." He answered, realizing how ridiculous it sounded.

"A prison huh? And you couldn’t get out of it?" Cloud asked, trying to gauge Jayce’s reaction.

"Yeah, the guy who lured me away from the feast was masquerading as Voidwalker. I don’t know the man well enough to pick up on such a disguise. However, he did mention something interesting." Jayce replied, his gaze turning to his party members.

"He mentioned that the prison was a gift from ’them’."

"Them?" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The people around the room asked in confusion, not understanding who or what could have gifted such a thing.

"Aliens?" Cloud asked seriously, placing his hand to his large bare chin in contemplation.

Amber, Ben and Zane’s eyes widened at those words. Amber even gripped her chest, as if she remembered the black hole which had almost consumed and erased her from reality.

"Those three beings on the thrones?" She asked hesitantly, feeling her stomach sink after saying those words out loud.

Jayce nodded, "That’s the only thing I could think of."

The others in the room looked between the two with confusion, feeling as if they were missing a crucial piece of information.

"Okay, how about you get us all up to speed before we get more lost in this conversation." Cloud raised his hands to get their attention.

Jayce let out a sigh. He was right, they all needed to be on the same page if they didn’t want to have a repeat of tonights attack. So he decided to tell them everything that had happened during the Beast Tide.

The people within the room were silent throughout the story, however their expressions changed after Jayce described the hydra. While his voice lacked dramatic flair, they could tell that the experience of fighting such a monster would be harrowing.

They listened patiently as he narrated the story, hanging on his every word. There was the chance that he was lying, yet the story sounded to fantastical to be made up. There was also the fact that his party members kept a neutral face, as if they had also experienced the tale.

Then, Jayce described the three beings upon the throne and celestial dais who tore open a rift in space to appear on Earth. He revealed that they were like higher life forms who had come to judge them.

One effeminate and sing-song like voice, one husky and one monotone. Their figures seemed as if they were veiled by the void itself, giving them a divine and unfathomable aura.

At the mention of these beings, the people within the room felt a cold sweat run down their back. This only increased when Jayce had spoke of their words to him and his party, as well as the black hole which had tried to erase their existence.

Before the group could fully digest this information, Jayce continued.

"The man who was left behind died from this black hole. He was consumed by it before I could get any more information out of him."

"This is why I believe that the assailants are somehow related to those three beings."