Chapter 220
KAI (2)
As IAM ate, slowly working through his sliders with increasing satisfaction, Thor seemed to finally recover from earlier and leaned back in his seat. He looked at IAM with a relaxed, curious expression.
"So, how is it?" he asked, sipping again from his cup. "Are you getting along with your peers alright?"
IAM glanced over at him, chewed thoughtfully, and replied between bites, "It's alright... and... sure I am. For the most part."
Thor shook his head, a tsk escaping his lips like an older brother who'd seen this story one too many times. "Tut tut. I received a report about how things were going for you, and let me tell you—I've never seen anything like it. And I've seen many, many things. Getting into that much deep shit within your first week? That's almost impressive."
"You get reports about me?" IAM asked, pausing mid-chew to give Thor a suspicious side-eye.
"Of course I do," Thor said, grinning without shame. "I have to make sure you're settling in. But it turns out I already failed at that... especially considering the... let's say... unsavoury reasons behind the chaos."
IAM's smile dropped a little as he looked down at his plate. "I did what I could," he said quietly. "I tried my best to minimise the damage."
Thor didn't reply at first. He just watched IAM, his gaze sharpening, as if trying to figure out a piece of him that still didn't fit the puzzle. Eventually, he sighed.
"I'm not your father, so I won't sit here and lecture you all day... but I think you know where I stand on this," he said softly.
IAM didn't answer.
After a brief silence, Thor changed the topic. "I've been meaning to ask—why aren't you using your Avien? It's... very unusual."
IAM shrugged. "It's private."
Kai, who had been quietly sipping her drink, suddenly cut in with a raised brow that looked sculpted to perfection. "Why? Are you hiding something?"
IAM looked unbothered. "Like I said—private business. Don't worry about it." He punctuated his response by taking a particularly large bite from a slider, chewing with finality.
Kai stared at him for a long moment, her eyes narrowing. Then, with no warning, she pointed at the food on his plate and said flatly, "Give those back. I've changed my mind again—I'm actually starving."
Thor nearly choked laughing.
IAM looked up mid-chew, cheeks slightly puffed from the massive bite he'd just taken. He slowly blinked at her, as if trying to decide whether she was serious or bluffing. She wasn't smiling.
He looked at her, then at the plate, then back at her again.
Thor burst into laughter, slapping the table. "You should've known better," he said between laughs. "That's how she gets you."
IAM glanced down at the sliders and Caesar salads in front of him like they were endangered relics. He sighed and slid the plates back toward her.
"Fair enough," he mumbled. "But I'm keeping at least two of the sliders."
Kai smirked, she seemed satisfied. "Fine."
...
After leaving the two men at her table in silent despair while she devoured what was supposed to be IAM's second meal, Kai finally sat back and wiped her hands on a napkin like someone who clearly had no regrets.
It was time to get to the real reason they were here.
IAM leaned forward slightly, brushing a crumb from his hoodie. "So how has it been? What have you found?"
Thor, who had finally reclaimed his cup and was swirling the last of his drink, also grew serious. He gave a short nod, then gestured toward Kai. "Well, it's better to hear it from the expert than me."
Kai took the final sip from her glass, placed it gently to the side, and locked eyes with IAM.
"First," she said, her tone becoming cold and analytical, "let's start with what we already know about the Circle of the Accursed."
She rested both elbows on the table. "They were highly active in the years right after the Blackout. But... some scattered reports suggest they existed even before then—just under different names. Their methods were brutal. And they didn't just kill. Wherever they passed, people just...disappeared—it was entire places. Towns. Cities. Slums. Gone. Like they were erased off the map."
IAM's brow furrowed slightly as she continued.
"They left behind ruin. Ghost towns, overrun by deadline creatures not long after. Over time, their name faded into obscurity— thier records lost, and stories buried. Most assumed they were wiped out, or splintered into smaller cults. But now... they've resurfaced. And clearly, they have a purpose."
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "We just don't know what that purpose is. Not yet."
IAM was the first to speak. "I was actually thinking about that. Doesn't it sound… familiar?"
Both Kai and Thor looked at him, silently waiting for him to elaborate.
He leaned forward slightly, his eyes narrowed in thought. "Them erasing people—entire populations—and trapping them in their so-called 'divine orb'… then leaving behind ruins where humans once lived, which just so happen to get overrun by deadline creatures shortly after… It sounds like the Dwarf extinction. Right after the Blackout."
He paused, letting the thought settle before continuing.
"Back then, the entire race—or more accurately, the whole nation—just vanished. Gone. All that was left were their cities, hollow and dead, crawling with deadline creatures not long after. Everyone assumed it was some disaster we couldn't explain. But what if it wasn't? What if the Circle of the Accursed were the ones behind it all?"
Kai blinked once, then gave a slow, approving smile. "You didn't tell me he had a brain," she said to Thor. "He's actually pretty smart. That's exactly the conclusion I came to. We can't prove it yet, but the pattern fits—almost too well."
Thor, however, looked grim. "If they really are tied to Durnark's fall… then we're in far more trouble than we thought. If they had the power to wipe out a country without anyone noticing until it was too late... what's stopping them from doing it again? Maybe they've been in some kind of hibernation—or cooldown—waiting. And now… they're active again."
"Exactly," Kai said. "That's why we need to track them down—find out where they operate, who leads them, what their next move is. Before it's too late."
IAM sat back in his seat, a sense of unease spreading through his chest. The more he learned about the Circle of the Accursed… the smaller his chances felt...
Kai shifted the conversation. "Now, let's talk about the symbol on the flag they hung you to."
IAM blinked, confused. "They hung me to a flag?" This was clearly the first he was hearing of it—he'd been unconscious through most of that ordeal, and no one had mentioned this detail until now.
"Well…" Thor said, his tone was far too casual for the topic. "Stabbed through would be more accurate."
IAM stared at him. "They stabbed me...With a flag?"
Thor nodded without a hint of irony. "Yup."
Before IAM could say anything else, Kai reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone, and tapped it a few times. "Here," she said, handing it to him. "This was the symbol on the flag. Don't worry—it's not a picture of you on the pole."
IAM looked down at the image on the screen.
It was a tall, ominous flag, planted into broken stone like a monument. And emblazoned on it was a strange, alien-looking emblem: a single eye, perfectly centered, pierced through by a razor-thin stripe that ran vertically down the fabric. Surrounding it were countless hands, all reaching up in unison—some open, some clawed, some closed in fists. All of them seemed to be holding up the eye, or perhaps trying to pull it down.
There was something… wrong about the image. IAM couldn't look at it for long without feeling unsettled, as if it was watching him instead.