The Ouroboros Cycle

Step 001/04

BEFORE

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Thirteen chairs with thirteen occupants sat around a long, ovular table in a cavernous chamber deep beneath the earth. On the walls around them were screens, many of which were displaying vital statistical information of some relevance and others which were live feeds of hallways, courtyards, laboratories and holding cells. These screens were ignored, though, in favor of something lying in the center of the long table. Something long and sleek, with a dark wooden shaft and an etched steel spearhead.

“Well I’ll be damned,” the American said, leaning in to look at it closer. “You actually got it done.”

The Outsider stood from her seat and pulled out a packet of papers. “Yes, well, with no shortage of effort there are plenty of things you can accomplish.”

Blackbird smiled from his seat near the end of the table. “Plenty of things, yes. Great and terrible things. The Egyptians murdered thousands to build their pyramids.”

“I believe the Pyramids were actually built by Elvis and Tupac,” the Accountant said, “though I may be confusing that with Atlantis.”

They all laughed.

“W-what does it do?” the Lesser said.

An uncomfortable nothingness at the end of the table stirred, causing the air to chill suddenly. A voice came out of it, one quiet but intense and difficult to listen to.

“This is the Spear of the Non-Believer,” the Other Overseer said, “the godless lance of Old King Sarrus.” The spectral horror hummed softly. “Fascinating.”

The Outsider came around the table, handing each of them folders out of her packet of information. “To answer your question, the short answer is ‘probably a lot’. The longer answer is that we’re not sure. Ever since we contained the last of the four great demons and gained access to Apollyon’s tomb, we’ve been studying the texts found there to learn more about this spear. It obviously had some importance to the king, or else it wouldn’t have been where it was and it wouldn’t have cost so much blood to get to it.”

She pulled out a remote and flashed it at the largest monitor in the room, one that hung on the far wall. It showed the interior of a tomb, dusty and dark, with the spear hanging by silver chain over a large, stone sarcophagus. The next image was text from a book written in a language few of them recognized.

“Is that Daeva?” the Blackbird said bemusedly. “Written in shorthand, so not by a Daevite. Where was this?”

“In the tomb,” the Outsider said. “Based on information we’ve gathered from these books, it’s likely that these passages were written by either Daevite captives, or slaves, or were stolen from Daevite libraries. Why they were buried with Apollyon, I’m not sure. However, there are several tombs in this collection that speak about that spear directly, indicating that it predates that kingdom by centuries and may even predate the Daevites. A lack of written historical records beyond that point would make it difficult to narrow down, but we have reason to believe that even to these ancient civilizations, it was considered a legendary weapon.”

The Lesser rapped his knuckles on the table in frustration. “I understand all of that, but I want a short answer. Why is this important and why did we spend so many disposables on obtaining it?”