CHAPTER 3: "THE COMING WAR" "VIKINGS WAR IN VALHALLA"

BY WILLIAM WARNER

"Vikings War In valhalla" Chapter 3: "The Coming War"

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The sound came first—a sharp crack that echoed off the cold metal walls of the pyramid. Then came the blood.

Ragnar staggered. A fine mist burst from his throat, catching the artificial sunlight like crimson vapor. His crown slipped from his head, clattered down the steps, and spun to a stop.

He collapsed in my arms before I could fully process what had happened.

“Get a sealant!” Emily yelled, already dropping to her knees beside us. Serenity was faster, slapping a glowing patch against his neck with a hiss of energy. Ragnar’s breath rattled through the broken edges of his windpipe. Still alive. But only barely.

My heart was pounding, every instinct screaming for retaliation. I scanned the high ridgelines of Cybrawl’s jungle-tech skyline—there was no sign of a shooter, no shimmer of movement, nothing but the eerie silence that followed violence.

Joseph’s voice broke it. He stepped away from the group, answering a call on his comm with clipped urgency. When he returned, his expression had turned to stone.

“It’s confirmed,” he said, eyes locked on mine. “Red Dragon Empire. They were behind it. They’ve been probing Cybrawl’s borders for weeks… waiting. This was a warning shot.”

I looked down at the blood soaking into Ragnar’s ceremonial armor. A warning shot? No. This was war.

The pyramid loomed behind us, black and monolithic, the ancient temple of the Demon Droids—normally a place of diplomacy and forbidden technology. Now it was stained with the blood of a king.

I turned to face Deathskull.

The warlord stood at the temple’s summit, silent, unreadable behind his titanium skull mask. The green glow from his optic lenses pulsed slowly, watching,

calculating. He didn’t move, not even as Ragnar bled at his doorstep.

“You know what this means,” I said quietly, voice sharp with restrained fury. “They didn’t just come for Ragnar. They came for your legacy. Your tech. Your world.”

Deathskull descended the stairs with deliberate weight, each footstep striking like a drumbeat against the hollow structure. He came to a stop before Ragnar’s body and knelt—not out of reverence, but recognition. His eyes flicked to the blood still pooling on the stone.

“This is sacrilege,” he murmured, more to himself than anyone.

Valrra stepped forward from the shadows of the archway. Her crimson skin glistened in the sun, a Crimseed woman marked by centuries of quiet wisdom. She said nothing at first—only looked at Deathskull with calm certainty.

“You always knew this day would come,” she said. “You just didn’t want to believe it.”

For a long moment, the only sounds were Ragnar’s ragged breathing and the distant thrum of Cybrawl’s automated defenses kicking into high alert.

Then Deathskull rose.

“They want the portal,” he said. “Then they will have to walk through it… in chains.”

The sky above began to shift. Tower-sized defense towers emerged from hidden panels in the landscape. Blue flame flared beneath the jungle canopies as Cybrawl’s warships ignited, rising like awakened beasts from slumber.

Deathskull turned toward me.

“I will summon the Demon Droids,” he said, voice hollow and thunderous. “And we will show the Red Dragon Empire what death really looks like.”

Emily glanced at me, her green eyes filled not with fear—but with knowing.

I nodded once. “Then it’s decided.”

Behind us, Ragnar was lifted onto a medical gurney, drifting toward the pyramid, barely clinging to life. Serenity followed close, her eyes locked on the horizon. Joseph already had a hand on his comm, issuing orders to Vikingnar’s fleet.

The lines had been drawn.

Cybrawl was no longer a neutral world. The Red Dragon Empire had broken the code. And now, from the steps of a bloodied pyramid, a war was beginning that would burn across the stars.

Valrra's hands moved with quiet precision, her crimson fingers slick with nanogel as she sealed the final tear in Ragnar’s throat. Subi, a veteran field medic from Cybrawl's central ward, monitored his vitals with a fixed stare. The king still breathed—barely—but every breath was borrowed time.

“Go,” Valrra said without looking up. “We’ll keep him alive. If the Red Dragons want this world, they’ll have to claw through us first.”

I nodded once and turned to follow Deathskull.

He moved like a monolith, his long cloak trailing behind him, black and frayed at the edges from centuries of war. The closer we came to the capital, the louder the world became. Defense turrets rotated into position, vehicles rumbled beneath the jungle floor, and above us, the fleet began its descent—a formation of longships casting shadows like metal angels over Cybrawl’s fractured skyline.

It should have been a moment of strength.

Instead, the sky exploded.

One of our ships—our ship, the one Ragnar’s family had boarded for extraction—burst apart mid-air in a chain of violent shockwaves. The fire bloomed outwards like a dying sun, sending debris spiraling through the clouds.

Emily screamed. Joseph’s eyes widened in disbelief.

I couldn’t move.

“No... no...” I whispered. “That was his—”

“Family,” Serenity muttered. “They’re gone.”

The force of the blast punched through the clouds and sent a ripple through the air. Our comms lit up with static and shouting.

Joseph grabbed my shoulder, his jaw clenched. “That wasn’t the Red Dragons. They don’t fire on ships at that range. That… that was from inside.”

A coup. A betrayal. Someone had sabotaged the longship before it ever left orbit.

I stared at the fading trails of smoke overhead, the shock cutting deeper than fear. Someone among us had flipped. Someone had sold us out.

But I didn’t have time to think about who. Not yet.

“We protect the wormhole tech,” I said firmly. “Everything else can wait.”

Deathskull didn’t need the reminder. He already had his orders in motion.

“Hide the source. Deep under the capital,” he barked into a command channel. “Send it below the lowest level. Into the vault. The Immortals stay under triple-lock. No one accesses them. Not even Valrra.”

His Demon Droids obeyed without a word—golden, skeletal machines that glinted like polished death in the rising sun. They moved in silence, carrying the portal core in segments, their steps perfectly in sync like a hive mind cast in alloy. Doors opened beneath the temple itself, revealing a descending shaft choked in blue vapor. The tech vanished below the surface.

I watched as the vault sealed shut with a deep, seismic thud. It felt final—like we were locking away not just a weapon, but a secret too volatile for any of us to hold.

“Joseph,” I said, pulling him close. “Get Serenity on the sniper. I want the shooter found before sunset.”

Joseph didn’t hesitate. “Serenity,” he barked through his comm. “Track the trajectory. Filter for electromagnetic discharge. Cross-reference with our own sniper positions. I want the shooter’s spine in a jar.”

“Already on it,” Serenity replied from a nearby hilltop, her visor glowing green. “I’m picking up residual heat patterns on the south rim. Too steady to be local fauna. Could be our guy.”

“Do not engage until I say so,” I warned.

“Copy.”

Emily stood beside me, her face pale, eyes fixed on the smoke curling across the horizon.

“They weren’t supposed to die,” she whispered. “They were innocent.”

“No one’s innocent anymore,” I muttered.

Joseph looked at me. “We’re not ready for this war. Not yet. And if there’s a traitor...”

“There is a traitor,” I said coldly. “I just don’t know who yet.”

As the wind rolled in from the edge of the jungle and the embers from the burning sky continued to fall like rain, I turned back to the pyramid—now more fortress than relic.

We were standing on a powder keg.

And someone had already lit the fuse.

The sky above Cybrawl had turned the color of flame-kissed iron.

Fleets of dark Red Dragon Empire vessels breached the upper atmosphere like spears hurled from the heavens, their engines screaming like ancient warhorns. Lightning crackled along their hulls as they broke the sky open—fire trailing behind them as they thundered toward the surface.

We stood at the edge of Cybrawl’s capital: an alloy-wrapped citadel encased in reinforced obsidian walls, ringed with plasma-tipped battlements and drone silos. The air shimmered with the heat of activity—our ships landing in synchronized arcs while sleek hover-tanks deployed from underground lifts.

And standing among us, towering and silent, were the Demon Droids—Deathskull’s warriors. They looked like golden skeletons forged in a furnace of war, every inch of them carved with burn marks and ancient battle etchings. As our Vikingnar soldiers—men and women clad in kinetic furs and smart-metal armor—marched into formation, the Demon Droids completed the last of their barricades, sealing off factories, data vaults, and wormhole labs with monolithic slabs of steel.

Deathskull stood motionless in the center of it all, like a storm waiting for a direction. His eye-lenses burned red, scanning the skies.

“They’re coming,” he said, voice deep and serrated. “And they’ll want blood first, diplomacy second.”

He was right.

The Red Dragon fleet descended with thunder and hate. As they touched down on the outer ridges of the capital, you could see them—troops disembarking in symmetrical waves, each battalion led by knights in crimson and onyx armor. Their aesthetic was medieval, like warlords pulled from an alternate past and encased in high-tech plating: broad pauldrons, energy swords strapped to their backs, and magnetic shields glowing in rune-like patterns.

Then silence.

A brief moment before the clash.

One of their lead generals emerged from the center line. His armor gleamed blood-red and polished like a gemstone, crowned by a jagged black helm that left only his golden, arrogant eyes visible. He approached alone, walking forward with the ease of someone who thought the entire planet already belonged to him.

He raised a gauntleted hand. “I am General Kael of the Red Dragon Vanguard. You know why we’ve come.”

I stepped forward, with Emily and Joseph flanking me. Deathskull stood a few paces behind, silent as a reaper.

“You want the wormhole tech,” I said.

Kael nodded. “Hand it over. No blood needs to be spilled. In return…” —he turned his gaze toward me with a cruel smile— “I will tell you the name of the traitor within your ranks. And I assure you… it’s someone close. Someone who’s already handed over more than you realize.”

There was a beat of stillness. Soldiers on both sides held their breath.

Emily tensed beside me, her fingers inching toward her plasma sidearm. Joseph narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t make deals with tyrants,” I said, my voice cold. “Especially not ones who lie to stall for time.”

Kael’s smile faltered. “So be it.”

He turned his back and walked away, unhurried.

I waited until he was out of range, then leaned toward Joseph.

“I already know who the traitor is,” I said.

Joseph’s eyes flicked toward me.

“Subi,” I whispered. “The bastard. He’s the only one who wasn’t at the capital when the sabotage happened. He stayed behind with Valrra. Said he was tending Ragnar’s wounds.”

Joseph's face went still, hardening like iron. “It fits. He always had a hand in diagnostics and ship access codes. He could’ve tampered with Ragnar’s family's vessel without raising suspicion.”

“I need you to find him. Now. If he hands anything over to the Red Dragons, this war’s already lost.”

Joseph nodded grimly. “You stay here. Lead our people. Hold the line.”

He turned without another word and vanished into the commotion, blending into the streaming ranks of Vikingnar and droids preparing for battle.

I stood in the silence that followed—watching the horizon split open with flashes of cannon fire and the growing hum of a thousand armored enemies forming in unison.

Beside me, Emily spoke low.

“If he is the traitor, and Joseph doesn’t make it back—what then?”

I stared at the rising smoke. “Then I burn everything between us and the truth.”

The air grew heavy. The distant wail of sirens echoed off the metal buildings. The war for Cybrawl was about to begin.

And somewhere beneath all the fire and steel… was a traitor running out of time.

The moment General Kael returned to his formation, the skies lit up like the breath of gods.

A shriek of incoming plasma shells rained across the barricades, exploding into molten fire just meters from where we stood. The first shot was theirs—but the last would be ours.

I reached behind my back and drew Justice—my chain sword, humming with a low, hungry growl as the blade's internal links sparked to life with red electricity. The moment my grip tightened, the weapon responded like an extension of my own wrath. The ground under me cracked from the force of the activation.

Beside me, Emily stepped forward. Her armor hissed and locked into place—pink leather shifting into a tactical shell of glowing plates and kinetic weaves, hugging her figure with both elegance and lethal precision. She unsheathed her own blade, its edge lined with a white-hot pulse. Her eyes burned like emerald fire beneath her silver helmet.

The first wave of Red Dragon Knights surged over the barricades, energy lances raised, shields braced. They screamed a war cry that sounded like ancient Latin twisted through a mechanical filter.

“Valkyrie!” Emily shouted as she launched forward, her armor absorbing the impact of an incoming bolt. She met the first knight head-on, their blades clashing with a blast of pressure that sent dust into the air. Sparks flew as her blade sliced through a knight’s cauldron and sent him crashing to the ground.

I didn’t hesitate.

With a roar, I charged straight into their line, Justice revving in my grip like a saw from hell. I cleaved through the first knight—his armor cracking open like a tin can. The chain links bit deep, red energy crackling from the blade as it tore through steel and circuitry alike. His scream was brief.

More came.

They swarmed like hornets, each knight uniquely shaped, their weapons glowing with plasma edges and ancient glyphs. Some wielded twin axes, others long spears with electrified tips. All of them moved with eerie precision, a unity that spoke of brutal training or something worse—mind control.

Behind me, our Vikingnar forces crashed into their ranks like a tidal wave. You could hear the thrum of tech-infused battle axes, the snap of railguns, and the sharp hiss of frost-forged blades cutting through plated joints. Our warriors wore helms and cloaks that shimmered with tactical shielding, making them look like something straight out of a forgotten myth reprogrammed for war.

The Demon Droids joined Deathskull's elite.

Golden skeletons, fast and surgical—moving with terrifying grace. They struck down knights with cold efficiency, targeting weak points and disarming enemy tech with stunning bursts of energy from their palms. One droid even activated a pulse from its chest, frying the circuits of five knights in a single blinding flash.

Overhead, the sky turned to chaos.

Cybrawl’s defense cannons launched plasma bolts into the enemy dropships. Two exploded mid-air—black blossoms of fire raining debris onto the battlefield. A Vikingnar hover-craft, powered by a living AI, tackled a Red Dragon tank off a cliffside, sending both machines into the abyss below.

I fought through the chaos, never losing sight of Emily beside me. Every time one of us fell back, the other surged forward. We were a rhythm—like thunder followed by lightning.

At one point, a knight nearly impaled me. His plasma spear grazed my ribs—but before he could finish the thrust, Emily drove her sword through his back, lifting him off his feet. She didn’t say anything. Just nodded.

More knights poured in from the eastern corridor, but Deathskull cut them off with a squad of drones rigged with cluster mines. The resulting explosion tore open a crater in the ground, sending a shockwave rippling through the ranks. The battlefield trembled beneath our boots.

We were holding. Barely.

But this wasn’t just about survival anymore.

Somewhere out there—Doctor Subi was moving through the shadows, and Joseph was hunting him alone. The wormhole tech was still buried beneath the pyramid vault. And Valrra, unaware of Subi’s betrayal, was still inside with Ragnar.

The Red Dragons didn’t care who got caught in the fire.

And as more ships darkened the sky, I realized we were far from winning. This was just the beginning.

And I was done holding back.

Back at the pyramid, a deep silence hovered inside the medical chamber, broken only by the soft beeping of monitors and the strained, rasping breath of King Ragnar.

Valrra stood over him, her four-fingered hand hovering above his chest, channeling what little regenerative serum she had into the King's bloodstream. Her luminescent Crimseed skin flickered with pale blue veins, a sign she was using her own bio-energy to stabilize him. Sweat streaked her forehead, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t.

Beside her, Doctor Subi moved with cold efficiency, checking readings, injecting stabilizers, adjusting IV lines—but there was no empathy in his eyes. Just calculation.

Ragnar's breathing slowed. His pale hand weakly reached up, fingers curling around Valrra’s wrist.

He turned his head slightly, eyes locking with hers. “Tell William... he must lead now.”

Valrra froze, her throat tightening.

“I’ve seen enough war... enough blood. This fight... it needs a new kind of king.”

Subi stepped back, blinking once—slow, measured.

Valrra knelt closer. “I’ll tell him. I swear it.”

Ragnar managed a faint, broken smile—then his body gave one last breath and fell still.

The silence that followed was heavier than steel.

Valrra lowered her head, brushing her forehead against Ragnar’s cold fingers, whispering a Crimseed blessing for the dead. “May your stars burn forever.”

Then she stood up—and only then did she notice Subi hadn’t moved.

His face was blank. Almost too blank.

“Doctor?” she asked.

He blinked again.

Without a word, Subi turned, picked up a metallic injector from the tray—and swung it hard against the back of Valrra’s skull.

CRACK.

Her body dropped instantly to the ground, unconscious. No cry, no resistance. Just silence.

Subi straightened, tossing the injector aside like garbage. He wiped the sweat from his brow, and then reached into his coat, pulling out a small obsidian device. Its surface rippled with purple light.

A hidden control unit.

He activated it with a single press. A sharp, high-frequency pulse echoed through the vault walls, inaudible to humans—but deadly to Cybrawl’s droids. The golden Demon Droids outside the chamber stiffened, their optics flickering. One by one, they collapsed like broken statues, deactivated.

The path was open.

Subi stepped into the corridor beyond the medical wing and descended the black stone staircase toward the Vault. Each step echoed like a death knell through the hollow pyramid. Red emergency lights blinked above as if the structure itself knew what was happening but could do nothing to stop it.

He approached the Vault's towering doors—adamantine slabs laced with protective runes, coded DNA locks, and Immortal containment fields.

And just as Subi raised his hand to activate the override—

A voice rang out like a blade unsheathing in the dark.

“Don’t move.”

Doctor Subi turned slowly.

Joseph stood at the top of the stairs, blaster drawn and pointed directly at him. His eyes, usually calm and calculating, now burned with quiet fury.

“You’re behind this,” Joseph said. “Ragnar, the sniper, the ship explosion. All of it.”

Subi’s shoulders tensed. Then… he smiled.

His face twisted slowly into something inhuman.

“You always were the clever one,” he said softly, letting the words linger. “But too late.”

His eyes shifted. The whites turned black. Entirely black—like oil swallowing his soul.

Joseph’s breath caught. “You’re not just a traitor... what are you?”

Subi exhaled slowly, voice layered with something ancient. “Something you couldn’t possibly understand.”

With that, he lunged.

Joseph fired. Subi moved faster than any human should. The blaster bolt clipped his shoulder but didn’t even faze him. They collided at the foot of the stairs, fists slamming into ribs, arms grappling for control.

Subi swung with the strength of a beast, slamming Joseph against the wall, cracking the stone. Joseph retaliated with a knee to the gut and a follow-up elbow that broke Subi’s nose—but there was no blood. Only black fluid oozed out.

Subi grabbed Joseph’s throat with both hands, lifting him off the ground.

“I’ve been patient long enough,” Subi snarled. “The Immortals were meant for us. Not him. Not William.”

Joseph choked, eyes bulging—but he wasn’t done yet.

With one last effort, Joseph kicked upward, a hidden blade ejecting from his boot and driving deep into Subi’s side.

Subi screamed, staggering back, the wound hissing with smoke. Joseph collapsed, coughing, then rolled to his knees and pulled a backup pistol.

He aimed.

“I don't care what you are. You're not getting into that Vault.”

Subi's smile faded. He looked at the massive doors—so close. Then back at Joseph. The black in his eyes began to recede. But the malice never left his voice.

“This isn’t over.”

The battlefield roared with chaos.

Blasts of plasma fire lit the sky like meteor storms while the clash of swords and screams echoed through the scorched streets of Cybrawl’s capital. Buildings cracked, flames danced on metallic rooftops, and the bodies of fallen soldiers—both ours and theirs—were strewn across the war-torn city like shattered relics.

I was in the thick of it, hacking through another Red Dragon Knight with my chainsword, Justice. The weapon's rune-etched links hummed with blue energy as I dragged it through the knight's golden helm, sparks and blood arcing into the air. These bastards were strong—futuristic warriors in crimson-plated exosuits that looked like medieval knights with an alien twist. But I was stronger. And I wasn’t alone.

Emily fought beside me, her blade slashing through the armored enemy ranks like lightning through steel. Her movements were precise, brutal, elegant. Every swing held a surgeon’s skill and a warrior’s fury. Then—

CRACK!

A blunt strike from a Red Dragon halberd slammed into her side. She screamed, her armor sparking violently before collapsing into shards of red light. The impact flung her across the plaza, crashing through a pile of debris and steel.

“EMILY!”

I ran through the storm of bullets and blades, carving a path with Justice until I skidded to her side. She clutched her ribs, blood leaking between her fingers.

Her sword lay nearby, broken—snapped at the halfway point, its tip missing.

“I’ve got you,” I whispered, sliding next to her. I reached into my satchel and slammed a stim-shot into her thigh. Her breath hitched. Her muscles tensed. Then something... changed.

A strange pulse rippled through her.

Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her broken blade. Suddenly, the shattered metal began to glow—a vivid, pulsing red—like it had been ignited from within. The broken tip reformed, not in metal, but in crackling crimson energy. The sword had transformed, half-forged of steel, half-bound in raw force.

The glow spread to her suit.

Where her armor had failed, the bodysuit beneath darkened—blackening from its original color, becoming sleek, shadow-like, almost symbiotic in how it adhered to her form. Steam hissed off her body like fire and ice colliding.

She rose—slowly, powerfully.

“I don’t know what this is,” she said, her voice hoarse. “But I’m not done.”

I nodded. “Good. Because we’re setting a trap.”

She narrowed her glowing eyes at me. “Let’s make them pay.”

We regrouped behind a toppled dreadnought tank, used its remains as cover, and set the trap. We broadcast a false retreat signal through Joseph’s hacked comms, pulling the Red Dragon troops forward. They took the bait.

When the Knights surged into the blast corridor we’d planned, I activated the mines.

BOOM!

A wave of fire and concussive force swallowed the front ranks of their formation. Emily leapt from the smoke like a specter of war, her crimson blade cleaving two knights in half before landing at my side.

The enemy hesitated.

That’s when he stepped forward—The General.

The same bastard from earlier who had offered us the name of the traitor in exchange for our surrender.

His armor was darker than the others, trimmed with blackened gold. His helmet bore the crest of a dragon with glowing red eyes. He said nothing. Just pointed his blade at me.

A challenge.

I stepped forward. “You want the wormhole tech? Come take it.”

We charged.

His sword met mine in a violent clash of sparks. The ground shook beneath our strikes. He fought like a machine, every movement calculated, cruel, and relentless. But I fought with something more—rage, purpose... clarity.

Our blades locked.

He leaned in. “You have no idea what you're protecting. That tech will end all of you.”

I growled through clenched teeth. “Then it dies with us.”

I shoved him back, spun, and struck low. He dodged—but not fast enough. My chainblade tore through his thigh. He screamed, stumbled—and I didn’t hesitate.

I rammed Justice through his chest. The chains ground into his armor, shredding it like paper. He collapsed with a metallic groan and a dying gasp.

His troops faltered.

Some dropped their weapons. Others froze in fear. The tide had turned.

Deathskull’s Demon Droids stormed through the breach at our signal, golden skeletons unleashing a storm of plasma fire. The Red Dragon Knights finally surrendered—falling to their knees, casting swords aside, the battle over at last.

But we didn’t cheer.

Emily dropped beside me, her glowing blade humming as it cooled. Her breaths were shallow but steady. Her blackened suit flickered, still bonded to her like a second skin.

Deathskull emerged from the smoke, his molten-red eyes scanning the battlefield.

“We won,” he said in his deep, mechanical rasp.

“No,” I replied. “Not yet.”

There was no time to celebrate. No time to count the dead.

I looked at Emily. She gave a silent nod.

Deathskull turned back toward the horizon.

We all knew what had to happen.

The Pyramid.

The Vault.

The traitor.

We ran.

The walls of the Pyramid trembled from the aftermath of battle outside, but deep within its cold, metallic corridors, a different war was taking place.

Joseph stumbled back, blood trailing from a cut on his lip. Doctor Subi advanced without hesitation, his hands balled into fists, his eyes wild. Their fight had spilled through several chambers by now—knocking over lab tables, shattering consoles, scattering vials of glowing blue fluid across the floor.

Joseph had never seen Subi fight like this. The man moved with inhuman strength—fluid and ruthless, like something that had been trained for one purpose: destruction.

“You were a doctor,” Joseph growled, ducking a strike that cratered the wall beside him. “A scientist, not a soldier!”

Subi didn’t answer. His breathing had turned ragged, almost beast-like.

As Joseph lunged forward with a powered elbow strike, Subi caught him mid-air and hurled him across the lab. Joseph hit the ground hard, metal scraping his back as he skidded against the floor. He groaned, trying to get to his feet.

Subi stood over him, trembling—not from exhaustion, but from something else. A change. His expression began to twist, almost as if his skin didn’t fit anymore.

Then Joseph saw it.

Blood leaked from Subi’s mouth as his front teeth clattered to the floor.

But what replaced them was not human.

They were rows of serrated, bone-white fangs—jagged like broken glass. His gums split open, jaw elongating. His skin began to gray, stretch, and harden. Gills slit open across the sides of his neck. Veins blackened. The whites of his eyes faded to pitch, his pupils narrowing into dark pinpoints.

Subi wasn’t just a traitor.

He wasn’t even fully human.

Joseph stared in horror as the man he once called colleague morphed into something ancient, something wrong. His arms cracked, growing longer. His nails twisted into claws. His torso bulked with unnatural muscle, bones shifting under skin like a creature trying to crawl its way out from inside him.

A monster was being born.

Suddenly—CRACK!

The door slammed open.

I stood there, sword in hand, breath still heavy from the battlefield, Emily not far behind me. My boots skidded across the floor as I took in the scene: Joseph bloodied, Subi mid-transformation.

My heart stopped.

“What the hell…” I whispered.

Subi turned his head toward me—his jaw now split wider than any human’s should, filled with those nightmare teeth. His voice, though still faintly his, came out distorted—wet, layered, alien.

“You weren’t… supposed to… see this yet.”

Emily stepped beside me, blade glowing faintly red. “What is he?”

“A Shark Hybrid,” Joseph choked. “Some kind of… experiment.”

I stepped forward. “Why, Subi? Why betray us? You were with us from the beginning.”

Subi grinned with that mangled jaw, voice growing darker, deeper. “Because I was there at the beginning. Long before you ever woke up in that village. Before the Wulvers. Before Deathskull’s first forge. I’ve watched this galaxy rise and fall… over and over again. But this time, we are going to reshape it.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” I asked, tightening my grip.

“The Immortals,” he whispered, and his eyes pulsed with unnatural light. “They’re not just creatures… they’re gods in gestation. And I can't let you have that power.”

Before I could strike, Subi reached behind him and slammed a button on the panel.

The nearby wall split open, revealing the swirling surface of the wormhole portal. The air distorted around it—blinking in and out of existence like a heartbeat of reality itself.

“No!” I shouted.

But it was too late.

Subi sprinted forward, now fully in his monstrous form—half-man, half-shark, his claws trailing sparks against the metal floor. He turned to glance back at me just before leaping into the portal.

“See you in the beginning… King William,” he snarled.

And then he was gone.

The portal slammed shut behind him, leaving only silence and the stench of blood and ozone.

I stood frozen, my sword humming, my heart pounding.

Joseph finally sat up, clutching his side. “He got away…”

Emily helped him to his feet. “What did he mean by the beginning?”

“I don’t know,” I muttered. “But I don’t think this war is just about wormholes anymore.”

Joseph looked at me grimly. “No. It’s about the survival of the universe.”

We all turned to the Vault door. The droids inside had been deactivated—but by some miracle, Subi hadn’t gotten in.

But now we knew something far worse:

He would be back.

The sun over Cybrawl’s scarred skyline barely pierced through the thick clouds of smoke from the recent battle. Ash floated through the air like black snow as the battered remnants of our combined army—Vikingnar warriors, Deathskull’s golden Demon Droids, and our core companions—regrouped amidst the smoldering remains of the battlefield. But there was no time for grief or triumph. Too many questions remained. Too many threats still loomed.

Back at the pyramid, Valrra finally stirred from her unconscious state. I knelt beside her, helping her sit up. Her expression was dazed, her long tendrils twitching slightly as she winced at the pain in her head.

“What happened?” she groaned.

“Subi,” I muttered. “He’s not who we thought he was.”

Joseph, standing nearby with his armor scratched and his blade still wet with battle, crossed his arms. “He’s not even human anymore. The bastard transformed into some kind of shark hybrid.”

Valrra’s expression darkened. “The Immortals…”

“No,” I cut in. “This wasn't an Immortal influence. At least, I don’t think so. I’ve suspected Subi was hiding something deep. Something old. Something primal.”

Valrra narrowed her eyes and rubbed her temples. “You believe he’s connected to the Shark Hive?”

“I don’t just believe it,” I said. “I’m damn sure of it. The assassin that killed Ragnar, the coup, the corrupted knights… I think the Hive has infiltrated multiple factions by posing as people. They can disguise themselves. I need you to run diagnostics, genetic scans—whatever you can manage. We need biological proof they’re not human. Or Demon. Or anything we know.”

Valrra nodded, already processing, her mind clicking into scientific precision.

Just then, Deathskull’s sharp mechanical voice buzzed through the open comms. “All available units—return to the battlefield immediately. Droid L-84 has found something.”

Without hesitation, we boarded the nearest skimmer and returned to the place where we had crushed the Knights of the Red Dragon Empire. Now, the bodies were being collected, stripped of weapons and armor for analysis. Droid L-84 stood over one of the fallen generals—the same man I’d killed in a brutal duel. His golden skeletal frame loomed over the corpse, arms folded.

“You may want to see this, William,” L-84 said, his voice calm but grave.

I knelt and removed the general’s helmet. At first, nothing. Just a bloodied man’s face. Then, I opened his eyes.

They were pitch black. Not bruised. Not dilated. Solid black—like a great white’s. I pried open his mouth, and the teeth sent a chill down my spine: jagged, triangular, serrated. Shark teeth.

“Damn it,” I muttered. “They’re in the Empire, too.”

Emily stepped beside me. “He was wearing human armor. Fighting like a knight. And the King had no idea.”

Deathskull’s optic sensors zoomed in on the general’s face. “This was not a Knight loyal to the Red Dragon Empire’s true King. This was a Hive agent.”

Joseph clenched his jaw. “Then it's a bigger problem than we thought.”

We sent word to the Red Dragon King. Not long after, he arrived personally—cautious, flanked by his elite guard in dragon-emblazoned black and crimson armor. We met in a temporary command tent erected just outside the ruins of Cybrawl’s capital.

“We discovered this after the battle,” I explained, showing him the general’s corpse. “This man was not human. His DNA might match, but biologically he was something else. You can run your own tests.”

The King’s sharp gaze never wavered. “And you say this Subi—he transformed before your eyes?”

Joseph confirmed it. “His mouth broke apart. His bones shifted. Shark teeth, black eyes. He’s not with us anymore. If he ever was.”

The King crossed his arms. “My general acted without orders. A coup, clearly. But I’ll need more than one corpse to act against my own inner circle. I want proof. You will find the sniper who killed Ragnar. You will bring Subi back alive. And, as agreed, you will share the wormhole technology. In return, I offer full support in rooting out the Hive and cleansing this infection.”

We all nodded. It was the only path forward.

After the King left, I requested a private word with him. Once alone, I looked him in the eye. “Do you know a woman named Madeline Scoggin? She would’ve claimed to be a princess. Maybe visited your Empire years ago?”

He frowned. “No such name has ever crossed my court.”

My stomach turned. “Then Subi was lying… about everything.”

He placed a hand on my shoulder. “Perhaps. But you’ve proven yourself. Lead your people well, and everything will fall into place.”

With that, he departed.

Later, beneath the shadow of the pyramid where Ragnar once stood tall, I gathered Emily, Joseph, Deathskull, Valrra, and Droid L-84.

“We need a plan,” I said. “Subi could be anywhere.”

“I want to check Earth,” I added. “If these Hive creatures found a way to infiltrate us, it could’ve started there.”

Emily’s face twisted with conflict. “What about Serenity? She’s still missing. She’s my friend, and I’m not leaving her behind.”

Valrra stepped in, her voice calm but firm. “Ragnar made his final wish clear. He named you King, William. His vision depended on unity. We must finish what he started.”

I sighed, torn between duty and instinct. “Then we split our efforts. We’ll stay. We’ll find Serenity. We’ll track Subi. We’ll destroy the Hive.”

I looked to the stars, knowing somewhere in the shadows, Subi was watching.

This war wasn’t over.

It had just begun.

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"Vikings War In valhalla" Chapter 3: "The Coming War"