The silence that followed Siddik's declaration was louder than any explosion the world had heard during the apocalypse.
After Siddik's speech, headlines screamed across every screen:
"Spiral Decides One World Order. Siddik, A Hero or A Villain?"
"Sign or Suffer: The Accord Ultimatum."
"Savior or Tyrant? Siddik Demands Global Obedience."
Nations trembled. Presidents and Prime Ministers returned to their countries with shaken hearts. Some signed the Spiral Accords in secret, their signatures driven not by belief – but by fear. Others hesitated, searching for answers in a world that had just started healing.
Inside Spiral HQ, silence ruled. Fakhrul stood alone on the observation deck, watching the ocean below churn under the weight of his thoughts. He remembered Siddik's eyes – not of madness, but of something colder. Absolute certainty.
Doors hissed open behind him.
"Is this your vision?" Fakhrul asked without turning.
Siddik stepped beside him, hands behind his back. "This world begged for help. I gave it everything. Now I ask for structure. Obedience."
"You're not asking," Fakhrul said. "You're threatening."
Siddik's voice remained level. "Obedience prevents bloodshed. Do you want another apocalypse?"
Fakhrul clenched his fists, "You're not saving the world anymore, Siddik. You're trying to own it."
Siddik smiled, "You're just an army officer, Brother Fakhrul. That's why you see lines. I see kingdoms. I am not a soldier. I am a king."
"You gave them an ultimatum. That's not leadership – that's rule by fear," Fakhrul roared.
Siddik's eyes narrowed, hands still clasped behind his back. "Fear maintains peace longer than hope ever could."
Fakhrul keeps one hand on Siddik's shoulder, "You're not the only one to lose, Siddik. We all did. You're the smartest man I have ever met. But how can you do this selfishness?"
Siddik stepped forward, gaze distant. "You lost when the apocalypse began, I started losing long before that. Since childhood, I've watched people I cared about disappear – to war, to sickness, to chaos.
His voice lowered.
"You lost everything in one blow. I've been losing one piece at a time."
Fakhrul looked at him, speechless. The man beside him wasn't the same one who once dreamed of rebuilding hope. This was someone hardened by pain – and fueled by it.
Behind the tinted glass, Rasel and Hridoy watched the confrontation.
"He's crossed a line," Rasel muttered. "He's not saving the world anymore… he's rewriting it."
Hridoy remained silent, fingers dancing across a tablet. Drone deployments were already active – Spiral tech was in the skies of twenty nations. Cities were being watched. Controlled. A digital leash wrapped around every population.
In the war room, Zara and Nafisa reviewed live feeds showing Spiral patrol units entering military bases worldwide.
"This isn't what we fought for," Zara whispered.
Nafisa looked conflicted. Her voice was soft. "Siddik still believes this is right. That scares me more than if he didn't."
Meanwhile, Rafi entered the underground lab, where a glass pod flickered with pale blue light. Tayeb floated inside, wires running through his body. A sudden spike. Movement.
Eyes snapped open.
"Welcome back, brother," Rafi whispered. "You've missed a lot."
In the main strategy room, tension snapped like brittle wire.
Rafiq stepped forward in front of Spiral's core leadership – Zara, Nafisa, Rasel, Hridoy, and Fakhrul. His voice was grave.
"Siddik," he said in front of them all, "a number of Spiral soldiers have fled. I believe they'll regroup and eventually march against us."
The room fell into silence.
Zara leaned in. "They're defecting?"
Rafiq nodded. "Some are already halfway off the island."
Siddik didn't flinch. Instead, he gave the room a small, chilling smile. "Let them," he said.
Nafisa blinked. "You're not going to stop them?"
"No," Siddik said. "I won't stop them. I want to see what's stronger – Obedience or Ego. And when they come back with their pride, I'll show them who commands the world now."
Elsewhere, in Spiral's operations lab, Hridoy sat in front of an encrypted comms console, watching dozens of active drone feeds – hovering above global capitals. His eyes locked on the newest directive flashing across the system:
>ALL MILITARY UNITS NOW REPORT TO: SUPREME COMMAND – SIDDIK.
He didn't even finish reading it. He stood up, yanked out his ID chip, and threw it onto the desk. Rasel stormed in seconds later. "Tell me that message was fake."
Hridoy looked him in the eyes. "No, it's real. We've all been bypassed."
Rasel crushed the directive in his fist. "He's not our leader anymore. He's a dictator in disguise."
By dusk, Spiral Island's western docks were alive with movement. Rasel stood at the pier, dressed in tactical black, one hand on the sheath of his blade, the other clutching a duffle of supplies.
Fakhrul arrived too late.
"You're leaving." he said.
"I came here to fight the monsters, not build empires," rasel replied. "I believed in Siddik. But now he's more dangerous than the dead."
Behind him, a group of Spiral soldiers emerged from the shadows – not under orders, but by choice. They stood behind Rasel silently, waiting.
Fakhrul's eyes widened. "They're following you?"
Rasel nodded once. "They don't want to be part of dictorship. If we wait, we'll become tools – or targets."
"Be careful, Rasel," he said. "He won't forget this."
"I will come back with more power. He doesn't know about my ego and anger. I'll show him what fear is!" Rasel gives Fakhrul a hug.
As the engines roared to life, and the defectors disappeared into the night mist, Fakhrul whispered to himself:
"This is the beginning of a civil war."
Fakhrul came back to Siddk's castle. He directly goes to Siddik's personal chamber where Siddik was working with maps of the world and his tech. Fakhrul saw Siddik was working and Rafiq was standing still behind Siddik. Fakhrul told Rafiq to go out of the room. Siddik nodded and told Fakhrul to take a sit. Fakhrul asked, "You really meant that, Siddik?"
"Why don't you guys understand? What I am doing is for humanity, for people." Siddik replied.
"You gave them an ultimatum, Siddik. That's not leadership – that's rule by fear." Fakhrul said.
Siddik smiled and turned off his laptop. "Fear maintains peace longer than hope ever could."
Fakhrul said calmly, "You're becoming what we swore to destroy."
"No," Siddik said softly. "I'm becoming what this world needs – a spine. Imagine, if there were no order in your mission, your friends, buddies, and partners could have saved. You remember? On your last mission, you called for a backup, but they didn't send it? Because they wanted you to be martyred, they wanted you dead. Did the government honor everyone who lost in the apocalypse? You can see there are always wars and fights between countries. They fight for dominance over each other. But in these wars, the poor, the army, the civilians lose their lives."
Siddik pauses for some seconds.
"With this accord, there will be no more wars and fights. There will be just peace."
Fakhrul asked, "And what about the people who will die?"
"Every war and peace requires blood. Without blood, you can never win. And by the way, people died before, it's not a big deal. Look Brother Fakhrul, I personally advise you not to interfere in this. It'll be better for you."
"Don't forget, Siddik. I am a soldier, I never flee away from battlefield. If you don't stop this disturbance, I will not hesitate to go against you. I'll call a war against you." Fakhrul was going out.
Siddik stopped Fakhrul, "Call your war, Fakhrul Brother. But don't forget—while you trained in war, I was forged by it."