At the Outpost of Fate

EPILOGUE — A PLACE OF SKULLS

Deep beneath the Udayagiri caves, sealed away for all eternity, Nathan Hobbs wrestled with demons.

He lived now only in a dream — his or theirs, he could not say — and he knew not to trust anything that he saw or heard. Yet, for all their schemes, they did not lie to him.

You should have let the Skull Child fulfill his destiny, they whispered. You have denied your world a merciful fate, in favor of great suffering.

And then, they showed him the darkness to come.

The Skull's agents, deprived of their mastermind's guidance, free to execute their own depraved and insane desires, would bring about the death of millions. A second Great War, more terrible than the first, would kill tens of millions and end with a weapon more terrible than anything Hobbs would have thought men capable of creating. From the ashes of that war, a time of false prosperity, in which millions more would die — some victims of malevolent intention, but most sacrificed on the altar of greed. And then… something unspeakable.

You are God's instrument to end this suffering, they whispered and he knew that this too, was not a lie. Will you release us?

Or will you make the world a place of Skulls?

They already knew the answer, of course. They knew the exact moment when he would fail and set them free. They knew exactly how many years he would endure the suffering of humanity before finally surrendering to the inevitable.

They knew, but he did not.

He recalled his promise to Dodge. I will hold the line until such time as it no longer matters.

"A little while longer," he whispered. "A little while longer."