Our journey to the train yard was uneventful as far as demons were concerned. The revelation that humans had involved with the system for a longer period of time was a bombshell that we were all still reconciling ourselves with. Natalie was messaging someone and her frown was deepening as we went.

  “What’s wrong Nat?” I finally asked.

  “My father won’t tell me how long the United States has known about the system. He used classified, for your eyes only, and restricted information in our texts. I’ve never been completely shut out like this before.”

  I hadn’t bothered messaging my dad. I would have gotten even less information. “Did you tell him that we recognized they had all enchanted gear and impossible to reach levels in 6 days?”

  “Yes. I was pretty up front about my knowledge. There was no reason to hide it from my father. The only thing he gave me was that there would be a presidential address much later today.”

  “We must not be the only ones to have figured it out. I really hope we didn’t cause the apocalypse. That would be monumentally bad.”

  Mo, our Arabic Special forces guide, finally said something. “We didn’t.”

  The Sergeant broke in, “Mo, classified means classified.”

  “Sarge, they have a right to know that we didn’t cause this. If we don’t let them know we didn’t, then a lot of people will just assume we did.”

  The sergeant sighed, “I’ll tell them, so it won’t fall to you. Mind you, I’m only telling them what they actually need to know, not what they would like to know.”

  “Yes, Sarge.” Mo forced his facial expression into one of total neutrality that didn’t quite make it to his eyes. His eyes were full of mischief.

  “Cassland, have you ever heard of the World Dungeon?”

  I drew a blank, “Nope, can’t say that I have.”

  “Have any of you heard of the World Dungeon?”

  To no one’s surprise, Nora spoke, “I have. I thought it was some sort of ancient Native American myth.”

  “It was a Native American myth, but it wasn’t just a myth.” The sergeant sighed. He paused for a moment, “Sorry, trying to figure out how to explain any of this without violating classified.”

  “It’s fine, Sergeant. I imagine that there is a lot of information. You need to figure out what you think we have pieced together on our own, and what keeps you on the right side of the law.” No harm in putting him at ease.

  The sergeant set his jaw, and looked like he was in thought for a long moment. “The World Dungeon exists across our planet. It connects all parts of the world. It also connects us to other places. Imagine a dimension that space is replaced with matter: thick solid rock. That is what the World Dungeon is a part of. If you tunnel through this dimension you can often find spots where it intersects with other large bodies, out there.” He pointed to the sky.”

  “Do you mean to tell us that we have off world bases.”

  “That is classified, and I won’t tell you about anything off world.” He flinched. He just realized that he said off world as if in confirmation of some sort of moon base. He frowned deeply at that. “Fuck.” Was his next statement.

  Natalie spoke up, “You can tell us more about the World Dungeon though. We don’t need to know about any off planet military bases.”

  Sarge nodded, “The World Dungeon spans under our world. There are only 9 known locations that intersect with it around the planet.” After a brief pause he continued, “The oldest known entrances to the World Dungeon are in the Middle East. There is one near Jerusalem and one under the Great Pyramid at Giza. There is also one in Europe, in the catacombs underneath the Vatican.” He spoke like he was reading from a list in his mind. I bet he knew where all 9 of those dungeon entrances were at. He might have even been to all of them.

  Frank surprised us be speaking up, “We have one or two in the good old U.S. of A.”

  Both special forces guys looked at Frank. The Sergeant spoke up, “Yes, but how did you know?”

  “I took a guess. It reminded me of that show you were watching, Neal. Stargate I think it was. They had this thing on one episode called “Wormhole Xtreme.” It sort of struck me that Stargate show could sort of be the same kind of thing.”

  “Plausible deniability!” I finished the thought. I laughed. “Please don’t tell me, that is what that show was really for?”

  The sergeant replied with the angriest, “Classified” so far. I started laughing, and really wanted Billy here for this.

  “Billy would get a kick out of all of this,” I blurted.

  Nora laughed, which then led to Frank laughing as well. The two special ops guys looked at us while walking, before looking at each other and shaking their heads. Mo cut in, “I loved the Wormhole Xtreme episodes. I guess I will never quite see them the same way ever again.” He chuckled a bit as well.

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  The sergeant finally spoke, “Stargate references aside, The USA does indeed have two entrances. One of them is in Colorado.”

  Nora said, “Is the other one in either Alaska, Puerto Rico, Guam, or Hawaii? My gut says Alaska.”

  The sergeant threw his hands up, “I give up. Natalie text your father Sasquatch Ripcord.”

  Natalie laughed. “That is the silliest code phrase I have ever heard. Now I have to. I want to see what happens.” She looked eager as she typed the message to her father.

  In less than 10 seconds she got a reply, “Dad says You are released to read us in.”

  The sergeant put out a hand to silently ask for the phone. Natalie grinned and handed it over. The sergeant looked at the screen. He shrugged after looking and handed the phone back.

  “Most of this will be slowly revealed over the next few weeks. Consider this a preview.”

  We all quieted down. No one wanted to interrupt him now. “Alaska is our other entrance. We think there was one in Hawaii, but it was obliterated by an active volcano.”

  He continued, “There is one in Peru, another in the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine, one in Tibet, and one in China. There may be a few others, but none of them have been confirmed.”

  I didn’t want to interrupt, but I couldn’t help myself, “Do all of these entrances connect?”

  “Yes. All nations involved have a separate peace treaty. Us and China are the only ones actively working the entrances. Russia never knew about the one in the Carpathian Mountains. Otherwise, they would never let Ukraine break away.”

  “Are all of the entrances active?”

  “No. The one in Egypt is sealed with a magic that we don’t understand. The same goes for the one in Israel. The Swiss Guard manage and defend the Vatican entrance. It is why they exist in the first place. Tibetan Monks monitor their entrance and use it as a training ground to help them with their ‘spiritual cultivation and enlightenment.’”

  “So there really are monks out there that are as bad ass as we see in the movies?”

  “There are several who are far more frightening than you would find in Asian cinema.”

  “Oh.” Was my only response.

  “We also monitor the one in Peru. It is mostly sealed off, but it was sealed by someone less than a hundred years ago.”

  “What does the World Dungeon have to do with demons?”

  “I’m getting there.” He growled back. “The World Dungeon is connected to the multiverse. It is what initiated all of us when we got in proximity to it. It is why we have specialized units that are all above level 15.”

  “What about your classes. How did you get those?”

  “I can’t reveal the exact source, but there are ways to craft classes up through uncommon.”

  Nora jumped in, “And your gear?”

  “We’ve been slowly manufacturing enhanced equipment for anyone who delves into the World Dungeon. China has actually been helpful for that. That goes back to the 70’s though.”

  I was confused. I was flabbergasted, “How have you all been able to keep this secret all this time?”

  “That’s easy; without mana in the environment most of our advanced abilities and equipment won’t function. We would still have heightened stats, and some of the passives function partially, but we wouldn’t be nearly as powerful in a mana free environment. So, all the cool stuff we do on mission would be impossible away from the dungeons. Also, once you get those heightened stats, and improved abilities, you want to always have them.”

  That much made sense. No one would believe anyone if they couldn’t prove it outside of those special spots. The government wouldn’t reveal those spots. It was all starting to make sense. “Demons?” I repeated. I really wanted to know now. I felt a little like the kid at a comic bookstore when the new issues are displayed.

  “you’re pretty damn impatient. I’m getting there. I figured some background would help you with all of this.” He got silent. He looked like he was trying to figure out how to say something absurd. As if anything else could be considered absurd at this point.

  “I told you the World Dungeon is sealed in Israel. A quick history lesson: the crusades were about Jews, Christians, and Muslims fighting a demon incursion through that gate in 1006 AD.”    Never mind, now I have reached absurdity. “What the Fuck, Sergeant Hamm!”

  He laughed. “I didn’t believe it either, but that is the truth. The Vatican has extensive records in a hidden archive underground. I’ve never been there myself, but I’m told they are quite extensive.”

  “How the Fuck could anyone cover all this up?”

  “You’ve heard of the Knights Templar?” Hamm asked. Which felt like a dumb question. There are all sorts of references to the Knights Templar.

  “Sure.”

  “Those are the guys that were responsible with covering it all up. The fought in that war, and their order was responsible for destroying any traces of said war. The did a lot of cold dark shit in service of keeping the secret buried.”

  “But weren’t the Knights Templar destroyed?” I responded.

  “By order of the Pope at that time. Kill the guys who destroyed the evidence, so the only people left were a handful of guys in the Vatican. It is why they accused the Knights Templar of witchcraft, sorcery, and all sorts of other shit. Those knights were all system integrated. They didn’t have a ton of levels, but they were evidence in and of themselves.”

  “Demons invaded a little over a thousand years ago. Was this just round two?”

  “More like round 202.” Sergeant Hamm seemed to be enjoying himself now. “Sorry, I haven’t discussed this with anyone outside the program ever, not even my wife. It feels good to talk about all of this.”

  “What!”

  “Doomsday predictions happen all the time. There is more truth to each of them than you can imagine.”

  “I don’t know, we’re in an apocalypse, and we can use fireball. I can imagine a lot.” I was a little annoyed. He was happy, and just Blasé about it. He was enjoying himself a lot.

  “Wait, one of you has fireball?” Hamm and Mo looked at one another after Mo Blurted that out.

  Nora Raised her hand. “Yeah. I have arcane affinity.”

  “Just straight arcane affinity?”

  “Yeah?” She was a little confused.

  “That’s amazing.” Sergeant Hamm responded. “We only have one of those currently on a team. I really see why Grant wanted you. Also, that’s probably why Kent wanted you. You could help tip the war.” Those words made us nervous. “Anyways, we caught wind of some major campaign by a major power. We didn’t know which one. We were told it was going to be December 12th, 2012. Apparently our intel was four years, four months, and 4 days off. We were already working with China to help induct more forces, but we were a few years away from any meaningful preparation.”

  “So, you’re saying you didn’t cause it, but you didn’t exactly do anything to prevent it either?”

  “We got intel a few months ago. The timing was way off. We thought we had 4 years to prep. The Abyss tricked us on the date. Fucking Demons!”