Gargoyle Supremacy

Meanwhile, Wong and Gwen watched the live news on TV. As soon as the drones showed the scene of the moving Liberty Statue, they dropped their jaws.

Minutes later, every news station concluded the reports as the fight ended with the local military's victory. Critics and self-proclaimed experts started taking the scenes and monopolized the attention as usual, annoying both Gwen and Wong in the process. They wanted to see more footage of the fight, not the smart mouths and self-inserted experts.

Wong turned off the TV and scoffed, "Let's watch YouTube. These news channels are getting annoying, lah."

"Agreed," Gwen laughed. She handed Wong a tablet, which she had kept as a spare. She then used her phone to browse the news from social media.

The clips and self-recorded videos on the internet provided a better cover than the news stations, especially the ones that came from military personnel at the battle site. It only took a few minutes before a leaked video from a hunter's hidden camera went viral.

The video was only a minute long, but it captured the aftermath of the divine meteor barrage. The cameraman was still standing on the New Jersey shore, gazing at the smoking ground from afar. Everything in Manhattan was razed to the ground.

However, the cameraman suddenly leaped across the river, landing on the other side in seconds. Several men nearby started sprinting, and the cameraman followed after them, rushing toward the Central Park or what remained of it.

Upon arrival, they found a suspicious stone statue of Carn, standing menacingly. He glared at the military men, who trained their guns at him.

"That's ECD-0173, Carn Yunho! All units, be advised! That ECD entity is classified as HOSTILE, and it can teleport! Keep your distance! DO NOT SHOOT FIRST! WAIT FOR REINFORCEMENT!"

The camera briefly captured the words of their colleague, who seemed to be in charge.

Gwen was startled. She called Wong over and showed the clip to her. They then watched it together.

Wong replayed the clip five times. At the last loop, she slowed the video down and increased the resolution. She then zoomed to the face of the statue.

Seeing Carn's statue appearance, she proudly smiled.

"Yup. That's our Carn."

Gwen raised an eyebrow, "ECD-0173? I mean, what kind of code is that?"

"Dunno. You need to ask ECD employees for those."

Gwen pursed her lips and browsed the comment section. Strangely, the top comments all mentioned something about SCP entities and the code name 173. Curious, Gwen researched further and found a creepy-pasta myth related to the SCP Foundation.

"A peanut." Gwen giggled.

Wong misunderstood Gwen's remark and laughed. She thought of granting Carn a new nickname.

"Yeah, we should start calling him Peanut."

"He's gonna be mad."

"It will be funny!"

Gwen chuckled. She started to feel bad for Carn.

.

.

Meanwhile, Carn hurried to Atlanta. He was worried that his father might have started his mission and do something stupid without his consent. In half an hour, Carn arrived in front of the hotel that Han had booked, but he took another precaution by teleporting directly into an empty hotel room.

Carn canceled his transformation. But instead of getting out of the room and getting himself caught on CCTV, he pulled out his phone and called his father, using the messenger app.

Seconds passed by, but the call didn't connect. His father didn't pick up the call.

As Carn was about to go out and ask the receptionist about Han, the messenger app flickered. A new message from Han arrived.

[You overdid it.]

"…"

It seemed his father knew about what Carn had done, which confused him. A few seconds later, his father called back, and Carn happily picked pressed the accept button.

"Dad."

"Was you the stone gargoyle that appeared in Central Park?"

"Wha-?" Carn was surprised as the news got here so fast. But when he thought of the social media and the news, he laughed and confessed. "Yes, I did."

"You shouldn't have done that. You should have let the undead army do whatever they want."

"Wait a second," Carn frowned. "Why is that?"

"Carn. God has finalized his judgment. Humans have to be purged, starting from the top down. Civilizations will be reset to the stone age, and we'll start over… with Aether as the primary energy source and divine power as the primary science system."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! What the hell, Dad? Where are you? We need to talk!"

"FSHA Hotel. Room 1404."

Carn looked up, scanning the floor with his Aether. Identifying his location on the fifth floor, he teleported into a room on the 14th floor, which only one customer occupied.

Instantly, Carn appeared in front of Han.

Han froze as Carn surprised him. A second later, Han smiled and put away Ferdinand's phone.

However, Carn's expression turned dark. Behind Han was an angel knight in gold armor, whom Carn had met several days ago when he prayed to the holy spirits of this world for the first time.

Although Han already explained his situation on the phone a couple days ago, seeing the angel again foiled Carn's mood. He also put his phone away and stared at his father, who seemed like a stranger now.

"I don't know if I should still be calling you King Ban or father anymore," Carn complained.

"Let's continue being a family, Carn."

"But you know that I hate… that." Carn pointed at the angel knight behind Han.

Han looked back and bitterly smiled at his sponsor. He sighed, "It can't be helped. Without him, I wouldn't have recovered my previous life's memory and power."

"Let's talk about the past another day. For now, let's clarify something else."

Carn looked around the room and noticed that it was a suite with a clear view of the city. The TV was also on, and the new channel continued replaying the Statue of Liberty's scenes. But soon, the scene changed, showing the leaked footage on the internet and showing Carn's gargoyle appearance at a distance.

Han glanced at the TV and pointed toward it, "Yeah, we need to talk about that. Let's take a seat."

The father picked a couch in the suite's lounge and sat down. He glanced at the fridge, which he opened with his telekineses. With a wave of his finger, a can of beer shot toward Han, and he caught it. He then looked up and noticed Carn's weird expression.

Han smirked and wiggled his finger, sending a can of soda to Carn, and he caught it without looking. Silently, Carn sat on another couch on the opposite side. Opening the tin can, he took a sip while he stared at the knight.

Putting the can down, Carn leaned forward and rested his shoulders on his knees. He started.

"What did the holy spirit order you to do?"

Han gulped and hesitated for a moment. He downed half of the beer and sighed. Without thinking of the repercussions, Han confessed.

"The holy spirits want 90% of humans wiped from the planet so that they can fill the world with Aether."

Carn raised an eyebrow and glanced at the holy spirit, talking to him directly, "If you want Earth to cultivate Aether, just pool your energy and create another Mother Tree. Why killing humans?"

The knight finally decided to join the conversation. He scoffed.

"Humans and their cities are on the way. To create a home for a new Mother Tree, we need to terraform half of the available land into Aether Forest."

Carn refuted, "Go plant trees in the Sahara Desert, you lazy f-ck. There are plenty of empty wastelands here. Why human cities?"

The angel then stated some facts, "Before Aether can fill the world, humans will quickly monopolize the resources and create weapons of mass destruction. They will even use it as a catalyst to pursue immortality. We cannot allow them to exploit the resources, otherwise, the entire planet will be destroyed before we can build a new utopia!"

"…"

It sounded somewhat reasonable since humans were already aware of the energy. They managed to utilize Aether even though they didn't know the true essence of the power. However, something felt off about the knight as he seemed too enthusiastic, unlike their aloof and lazy nature.

Thinking back on the Lich King's encounter, Carn had a suspicion. He asked the angel.

"Were you and Lich King Kaim plotting that invasion?"

The knight crossed his arms and replied without fear or shame.

"Yes."

Carn deeply inhaled as this matter started to get absurd. If the undead army and the holy spirits organized this apocalypse and invasion, they would soon become enemies.

As Carn didn't wish to fight his father, he tried asking the angel knight.

"So, with me stopping the invasion, are your plans still ongoing?"

"It's a slight setback since the North America Continent will get an opportunity to react, but the overall picture is still the same. The fall of civilization has already started."

Carn then tested the angel knight, "And, what if I stop the invasion before the civilization collapses?"

The knight glared into Carn's eyes, "We will kill you, your family, your friends, and your soulmates. Whoever you hold dear, we will murder them right in front of you!"

"Including your own incarnation, King Ban?"

The knight paused and looked at Han. The latter also looked back at his sponsor, frowning.

Han finally commented, "Though I'm half-supporting your cause, you leave my family alone. Also, leave half of the population alone."

The knight looked back and forth between Han and Carn. He wanted to argue, but then, he compromised. Instead of demanding the destruction of humanity, he proposed a condition.

"I have a condition. If you agree, I'll tell the other spirits to leave your family and half of the world."

"I'm listening," Carn was interested in whatever the angel knight was scheming.

The knight revealed his hidden motive, "Make Han Yunho one of the saints in the new era. Let the survivors worship him as a new prophet!"