In a fraction of a second, Orion's shock dissipated, replaced a completely different emotion.
"What kind of game are the five of you playing?" Orion demanded, his voice sharp with suspicion, his narrowed eyes reflecting the same unease tightening in his chest.
"Game?" Martha echoed as she redirected everyone's attention toward herself. Her tone was clipped, edged with the offended sharpness of someone who could not believe she was being questioned. "Do we appear to be the sort who would engage in childish games?"
As she spoke, a faint tremor of irritation slipped into her voice — subtle, but unmistakably present. However, Orion was unperturbed.
"My point exactly," Orion replied dryly. "You all carry yourselves like an extremely serious and prideful group of people, which only makes this whole situation even harder to understand."
He leaned forward slightly, his brows knitting together. "Why would five individuals who have been at the very top for so long suddenly decide not only to add me to their ranks, but then make me the head of their newly formed organization? And all the while knowing that, unlike themselves, I actually am the age I physically appear to be — twenty-five."
He raised a confused eyebrow, the weight of his skepticism hanging in the air.
"What sense does it make," he continued, "to let a less wise and experienced twenty-five-year-old lead an organization filled with centuries-old Revenants?"
The silence that followed was heavy — thick enough that even the candles seemed to flicker with tension.
"Because," Simon finally answered, his voice calm but carrying a gravity that drew every eye toward him, "despite refusing to admit it for the longest time… you are more powerful than all of us and in life absolute power thrums wisdom and experience"
Orion groaned softly at that, his eyebrows sinking lower. Praise did not soothe him — it sharpened his suspicions.
"We may not know the source of your strength," Simon continued, "but that does nothing to change the truth. Whatever it is, it made you many times more powerful than the five of us individually and maybe even combined. And because of that, we decided that there is no one more fitting to lead us as we usher in a new age than you."
He gestured toward Orion.
Orion shifted his gaze from one Revenant to another. Regardless of how composed they tried to appear, he could sense a strange mixture of anticipation, hope, and unease swirling beneath their expressions.
"S-simon has already expressed our collective sentiment," Emory said, stumbling over the first word but recovering quickly. "So what do you say?"
Orion's attention snapped toward him. The man was powerful—arguably the weakest of the six seated around the table, yet formidable nonetheless—which made his earlier stutter somewhat surprising. Why would someone like him— a Revenant— struggle to find his voice? Was it nerves? Fear? Reverence? Orion did not know them well enough to read the subtle shifts in their behavior, and he certainly was not in the mood to psychoanalyze an ancient being whose mere presence bent the air with authority.
Instead, he let it go.
"Hmmm… I don't know." Orion leaned back, crossing his arms and allowing the chair to tilt with his weight. His posture relaxed, almost insolently so.
"What do you mean you don't know'?" Anna Louise interjected, her voice sharpened with condescension. "Simon explained everything as clearly as possible. There is no room for confusion."
With an exaggerated sigh, Orion swung his legs up and rested them carelessly on the table, fully embodying a relaxed, almost provocative indifference—an attitude that immediately grated on Anna Louise, the very one who had conjured the table into existence.
She found it very disrespectful.
"I'm sure Simon has perfectly explained your collective reasoning and I understand exactly what is being asked of me," he replied. "The issue is simply that I can't shake this suspicious feeling I have about all of this. Something is definitely not right, I just don't know what"
"Suspicious?" Henry repeated, his brow arching.
"We extended a special invitation to you," Anna Louise pressed, clearly growing irritated again. "We make a once-in-a-millennium offer to someone who is essentially a stranger within our ranks, and you—"
"—and you still doubt us," Simon finished for her, raising his hand to silence her before she could escalate further. "In that case, why don't we prove that we truly intend to earn your trust — and silence your suspicions?"
A faint, knowing smile spread slowly across his lips as he lowered his hand and laced his fingers together, the gesture calm yet deliberate.
Orion's interest sharpened instantly.
"People who wish to earn trust," Simon continued, "often begin by offering something of immense value. So how about this — the five of us will share with you our strongest abilities."
Orion sat upright so abruptly that the chair creaked beneath him, his eyebrows furrowing as he processed those words.
"Before you question it," Simon added, "know that this was already part of our original plan. But given your hesitation — your rightful mistrust — it is even more appropriate now to proceed."
Orion swept his gaze around the table again, taking in the expressions of each Revenant. Martha's face was set in determination. Henry's sharp eyes held a flicker of excitement. Emory shifted in his seat, somewhere between nervous and hopeful. Anna Louise stared at him with a mixture of disdain and reluctant acceptance.
"All five of you agreed to this?" he asked, genuinely taken aback.
"It was Simon's idea," Martha admitted. "But he didn't have to do much convincing. Sharing our most powerful abilities with you — making you even stronger — only benefits us if you accept the leadership of IMPACT."
"And what if," Orion said slowly, his eyes narrowing, "I decided to use those new powers to attack you? It would be… rather easy to kill you all at that point, wouldn't it?"
Simon smiled softly — too calmly.
"You could," he admitted. "But the question is… why would you? You already outmatch each of us individually. And for the past three years since your appearance, you have never been hostile toward us — even though we certainly have not treated you with kindness."
He paused.
"So why would you suddenly change now?"
Orion exhaled through his nose. As irritating as it was, Simon had a point. These five must have weighed the risk thoroughly. The fact that they were still sitting here, still willing to go through with this, said something.
Maybe… just maybe… he could trust them.
"You're right," Orion said finally, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Betraying those on my side isn't something I'd do."
He dropped his feet from the table, sitting upright with renewed seriousness.
"Alright then," he said. "Let's do this."
"Good," Simon replied, mirroring his smirk. "As an olive branch— seeing as how you two have been at odds since you arrived— we shall begin the sharing process with Anna Louise."
Orion's gaze immediately shifted to the elegant, middle-aged-looking woman. He already knew what her strongest ability was — after all, he and everyone else were sitting inside it.
The power of creation. A force so potent that she had shaped this entire realm with it.
Anna Louise did not hesitate. She pressed her hand to her chest, closed her eyes, and a radiant glow burst through the gaps between her fingers. The air hummed with the vibration of raw, divine energy.
As she extended her hand toward Orion, Simon spoke again.
"One detail I failed to mention earlier," he said. "Sharing our abilities with you reduces the quality of the power — for both you and us. We will lose a portion of its original scale, just as you will receive only a weaker version of it."
His gaze was serious now.
"This means as much to us as it does to you. I hope you understand that."
Anna Louise opened her palm, revealing a shimmering orb of light that glowed brighter than a miniature sun. It drifted through the air, slowly, steadily, stopping before Orion like it was waiting to be acknowledged.
He scanned it with caution — testing its energy, reading its intent. When he sensed no hidden danger, he allowed the orb to enter him.
The moment it touched his chest, a pulse of luminous warmth shot through his body. His eyes widened as the ability fused with him, its essence settling like newly awakened instincts.
Within seconds, the integration was complete.
"Now that you have my power," Anna Louise began, "it will take a little practice to learn how to—"
She froze.
Orion raised his hand. Between his fingers danced a small poppet — a tiny creation he crafted effortlessly from thin air.
"I think I've got the hang of it," he said smugly as he shaped the poppet into a miniature replica of the building they were in — the very structure Anna Louise herself had created.
"I'm a quick learner," he added, smirking. "But thanks for offering to teach me."
Anna Louise scoffed and looked away, cheeks twitching with restrained annoyance.
"Next," Simon said, smoothly steering the atmosphere back to the main purpose. "If you would, Henry."
Henry inhaled deeply and repeated the same process Anna Louise had performed. His orb was sharp and cutting, humming like a blade forged from pure light. Emory followed, offering an orb that radiated with the raw force of elemental command. Martha shared hers next — heavy, ancient, as though it carried the depth of time itself.
Then, finally, it was Simon's turn.
The moment his hand lit up, the atmosphere in the room shifted. The tension thickened — not out of fear, but out of unspoken anticipation.
Being the second most powerful presence in the room after Orion, Simon's orb was larger, denser, and more impossibly layered than the others. It floated toward Orion like a drifting star, swirling with countless threads of unseen knowledge.
The other Revenants leaned forward instinctively. Something about this transfer mattered more to them than the others.
Orion felt it too.
He didn't understand why — not yet.
That answer arrived the moment he absorbed Simon's power.
His breath hitched.
His eyes widened.
Because instantly — violently — a premonition struck him, revealing the actual truth of the meeting.
"You conniving bast—!" Orion shouted, but he never finished. Before he could react—before he could even lift a finger—the floor beneath his chair erupted.
Multiple jagged spikes of earth shot upward in crisscrossing formations, piercing through his seat and into his vital organs with ruthless precision.
The Revenants had planned this part, waiting for the right moment to strike and Simon's ability had allowed Orion to see it — but only a fraction of a second before it actually happened.
A trap.
A betrayal.
A perfect execution.