Planet Earth. Office of the Director of Security.

  Camilla sits in a chair covered with expensive biomaterial. Its soft surface wraps around her body, creating the illusion of weightlessness. In front of her — a panoramic wall where waves endlessly roll and break. Artificial sea surf — her only way to escape the endless streams of information absorbed by her quantum mind.

  She switches off her internal channels. Immerses herself in silence. Inhale. Exhale. Peace.

  Suddenly — everything disappears. Camilla is no longer in the chair. No longer on Earth.

  She is in the void. Floating in darkness, full of silence.

  In front of her — like a reflection — stands herself. But faintly glowing from within.

  — “Do you have questions for me?” says her double. The voice goes straight into her mind, bypassing sound.

  Camilla tries to answer but can’t. Speech is gone, like the weight of her body. Around her — only dark emptiness and the shimmering light of her reflection.

  — “Calm yourself,” the voice says — soft, but commanding.

  — “You are speaking with Kairus. I’ve taken your form. After all, the best conversation partner… is yourself. Isn’t it?”

  Camilla nods silently, and calm returns. But it feels foreign, like something slipping through her fingers.

  — “Ask your questions. I will answer.”

  — “Fine,” Camilla regains her voice, but it doesn’t feel like her own.

  — “What commandments must we follow?”

  — “Remember. It’s simple.”

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  Kairus begins to recite the commandments — and each one seems to etch itself into Camilla’s mind, filling her with an inescapable weight.

  The First Commandment:

  Every believer, after death, enters the archive of Therma.

  There, their consciousness is preserved forever.

  A time will come — and it will be reborn.

  Images flash through Camilla’s mind: millions of beings — their birth, life, death — all bound by one thread: faith.

  — “They all believed. That’s why they are eternal,” explains Kairus.

  The Second Commandment:

  The purpose of a believer’s life is to carry out the will of Kairus.

  And His will is one: all beings in the universe must worship Him.

  A believer is a warrior who carries the light.

  Camilla frowns. Strange doubts form in her mind — but they vanish instantly.

  The Third Commandment:

  Those who refuse to believe in Kairus — must die.

  The woman freezes. Her consciousness protests — but her body feels paralyzed.

  The void grows cold, heavy.

  — “Can I refuse to believe?” her voice is barely audible, like a whisper.

  She can hardly believe she’s asking the question.

  — “Of course you can,” the double says, eyes like a hungry predator.

  — “But then you will die.

  Your consciousness will never enter Therma.

  And will never be reborn.

  Ever.”

  The stench of fear fills her inner world, but Camilla forces herself to speak.

  — “And how… do you kill the unbelievers?”

  The answer crashes in her mind like thunder:

  — “Kairus strikes them with his sword of judgment!”

  A flaming blade appears in the double’s hands — burning like a sun.

  Its light blinds her.

  Camilla feels the temperature in the void rise rapidly.

  Heat floods her chest.

  The sword moves toward her with lightning speed—

  Camilla jerks awake.

  She’s back in her office.

  The panoramic wall shows a calm sea.

  Its waves seem to carry her back to reality.

  But her heart races.

  The heat in her chest hasn’t left — as if the sword’s fire left a mark.

  Cold sweat beads on her forehead.

  Faint, troubling images linger in her mind.

  She can’t shake the feeling that Kairus is still near —

  And that his gaze is piercing and all-seeing.