Three days later.
Gotham City, the One God Temple.
The dark spire vanished into the thunderclouds.
Ten-meter-high metal doors slid apart.
Wind swept across the ruins, lifting black ash from the ground and blowing it down the passage into the hall.
Seventeen delegations formed two lines and walked along the marble passage.
There was no red carpet, no honor guard, no flowers or military band.
The leaders of seventeen nations wore rumpled dark suits.
Each held a black, hardbound folder.
A Bio-Tyrant stood every five meters on either side. Red light glowed in each mechanical eye, and hydraulic bearings hummed low.
Russia's foreign minister led the way.
The old man stared at his toes. Cold sweat ran down his temples and dripped onto his handmade leather shoes.
The procession stopped ten meters from the steps.
The Russian foreign minister halted.
He gasped for breath, and his knees buckled.
His kneecaps struck the hard marble. The sharp crack echoed through the cavernous hall.
The sixteen people behind him dropped to their knees one after another, like puppets whose strings had been cut.
Dust coated the knees of their suit trousers.
The seventeen knelt in a straight line.
The Russian foreign minister leaned forward and pressed his forehead to the cold floor.
He gripped the letter of surrender bearing his nation's emblem and raised it high above his head.
The paper trembled in his hands.
"Great God."
The old man's voice sounded scraped raw, its words broken by tremors.
"The Russian Federation begs your forgiveness."
He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"We are willing to surrender all our military assets."
"That includes the control codes for every nuclear arsenal within our borders, the highest-level access to our Orbital Weapon platforms, and seventy-two biochemical research facilities in Siberia."
After forcing it all