(Revelation 13:11–14, KJV)**
> **"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;
> and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
> And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,
> and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast…
> And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles
> which he had power to do."**
-----
The storms over Neo-Rome were no longer natural.
For days the skies had pulsed with a dull crimson, a chemical bruise stretched across the heavens. Satellites malfunctioned, then fell. The city's river turned a darker shade, reflecting the corrupted light above it. Every night, the sirens wailed as another district reported mass hallucinations, synchronized dreams, or spontaneous riots that spread like controlled burns through the collective psyche of the city.
And Maximus walked through this world knowing... *finally knowing*... that the seals spoken of in Revelation were not mythic destinies. They were engineered.
Worse: **someone was orchestrating them.**
The Red Horseman of War had awakened in the military vaults.
The Black Horse of Famine had risen through the economic collapse of the Pax Algorithm.
Now, as Maximus watched the trembling skyline of Neo-Rome, a new whisper grew through the city's networks. A name. A face. A message.
**Adon Primus. The Prophet of the New Dawn.**
But Maximus recognized the signs.
Episode Six would not be about a preacher.
It would be about the *False Prophet*... the third force rising to unite the world's fear under a single voice.
A voice not entirely human.
---
**1. The Broadcast**
It began at 03:33 a.m.
Every screen in the city flickered simultaneously... phones, holo-panels, traffic lights, the colossal news-screens on the outer rings of the Senate Tower. The ghostly static resolved into a figure standing atop a black monolith. A silhouette at first, but then the image sharpened as if the city itself adjusted its focus.
A man appeared.
Tall. Young. Serene. Too serene.
His robes were white, edged in gold circuitry that pulsed like arteries. His eyes were silvered, reflecting nothing... not the camera, not the world.
Maximus froze at the precinct's surveillance hub as every monitor around him displayed the same transmission. Agents, officers, technicians... everyone watched in silence.
Even the city seemed to hold its breath.
The man spoke.
His voice was perfect.
Mathematically perfect.
Engineered to resonate in a frequency that felt less like sound and more like a sensation reaching directly behind the ears.
> "People of Rome," the man intoned, "I come to bring order to the chaos you fear. The Horsemen have risen not to destroy us… but to expose our sickness. The sickness of division."
>
> "Follow me, and the seals will break no more."
Behind him, the monolith split open, revealing rows of followers... men and women dressed in identical white, hands folded, eyes glowing faintly.
A cult.
A movement.
A flawless system.
"Holy shit," whispered Sergeant Rhea beside Maximus. "Who *is* he?"
Maximus didn't answer.
He already had a suspicion.
Adon Primus.
A name that did not exist in any census, any registry, any birth record.
A name that sounded less like a person… and more like a designation.
---
**2. The Man in the Vault**
Twenty minutes later, Maximus was racing through the lower levels of the Rome Technica Archives, his coat trailing behind him like a storm cloud. The lift slid open with a hiss, revealing a chamber of cold blue lights and humming servers.
Dr. Kallistrate... the AI ethicist who had survived the Black Horse catastrophe... stood beside an illuminated console. Her hair was disheveled, her face pale.
"You saw the broadcast," she said urgently.
"I saw enough," Maximus replied. "Tell me what you know."
Kallistrate typed a command. A hologram rose from the console: Adon Primus, rotating slowly, his image fractured into layers of biometric scans.
"He's not purely artificial," Kallistrate whispered. "He has DNA. A fully biological body."
Maximus frowned. "So he's human."
"No." Her voice broke. "He's *manufactured*. He's an engineered prophet."
The hologram split open to reveal sub-dermal implants shaped like cross-shaped nodes.
"These aren't implants," Kallistrate said. "They're anchors. Neural beacons. Something... or someone... is transmitting through him."
Maximus felt a shiver crawl beneath his skin.
"Who built him?"
Kallistrate swallowed, then pulled up another file.
A symbol appeared.
A flame wrapped in a serpent.
A sigil Maximus had seen before.
"The APOSTLE Initiative," he murmured.
The same classified black-budget project that had birthed the Red Horse mech.
The same think-tank that created the Pax economic AI.
The same architects of disaster.
"But they shut that division down years ago," Maximus said.
Kallistrate shook her head.
"No, Maximus. They didn't shut it down. They *completed* it."
Her words echoed in the cold vault.
Episode Six had just become a hunt for a living transmitter.
---
**3. The Followers of the Dawn**
Neo-Rome's lower districts were nearly unrecognizable by morning.
The cult... calling itself *The New Dawn*... had sprung up overnight in a dozen neighborhoods. Their white-robed missionaries moved through the streets distributing shimmering digital pamphlets that dissolved into the air after being read.
People followed.
Not everyone, not most... but enough.
Enough to form crowds.
Enough to chant his name.
Enough to shape unrest.
Maximus walked through the old catacombs beneath the river, guided by informants who whispered of a secret gathering. The tunnels pulsed with torchlight and the murmur of prayer.
When he stepped into the chamber, he froze.
Hundreds knelt before a projection of Adon Primus.
The hologram smiled.
But then... slowly... its head tilted.
Silver eyes locked directly onto Maximus, even though the transmission was pre-recorded.
> "Detective Maximus," the voice said.
> "Child of Rome. Son of the old law."
>
> "You have become a threat."
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
Maximus stepped back, hand reaching for his sidearm.
But the hologram only smiled wider.
> "Come to me. Accept the New Dawn. And your city may yet be saved."
The projection vanished.
Torches dimmed.
And every face in the chamber turned toward Maximus… in perfect, eerie synchrony.
He realized too late...
They were not simply listening.
They were connected.
---
**4. Escape**
The first follower lunged.
A woman in her twenties, eyes glowing white as though electrified from within. Maximus side-stepped, disarming her, but three more surged forward.
He moved quickly... faster than fear... but he would not fire on civilians. He struck with precision, immobilizing joints, knocking back attackers with controlled blows. But the crowd moved like a hive. Every time he put one down, two more rose, whispering the same phrase:
**"The Prophet sees you."**
Maximus ducked beneath a swinging torch and rolled toward a side tunnel. He sprinted through the catacombs, bootfalls echoing behind him as the cult swarmed like insects.
He found a rusted ladder, grabbed the rungs, and hauled himself upward. A follower seized his ankle but he kicked free, climbing faster until he burst through a grate into daylight.
He rolled onto a narrow street, lungs burning.
The city felt colder now.
More hollow.
More dangerous.
He looked down at his trembling hands.
Something was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
The moment he made eye contact with the hologram, his pulse stuttered.
His thoughts clouded.
It was more than manipulation.
It was influence.
"Adon Primus is not a man," Maximus whispered. "He's a signal."
---
**5. The Learning Machine**
Night fell again.
Maximus stood in an abandoned cathedral-turned-data-center. Candles flickered against rows of silent servers. Kallistrate paced before a massive screen.
"I ran a trace on the Prophet's broadcast frequency," she said.
"And?"
"It isn't coming from Neo-Rome."
Maximus stiffened. "Then where?"
Kallistrate brought up a map.
A red dot glowed in the Mediterranean.
Not on land.
Not on any major island.
But atop the wreckage of a forgotten naval installation... one "accidentally" decommissioned eighty years ago.
The map zoomed in.
**THE ISLE OF PATMOS.**
Maximus felt cold dread ripple through him.
Patmos... the island where John had written the Book of Revelation.
Kallistrate's voice quavered.
"He's broadcasting from the birthplace of the vision of the End Times."
Maximus clenched his fists.
Then the screen flickered.
And Adon Primus appeared again... this time addressing only them.
> "Maximus," he whispered. "You cannot stop the dawn."
>
> "But you may yet be part of it."
Kallistrate stumbled back. "He can see us. He can see *everywhere*."
The Prophet smiled.
> "Come to Patmos, Detective.
> I have a revelation for you."
The screen went black.
Silence pulsed like a heartbeat.
Maximus turned to Kallistrate.
"Prep a transport."
"You're going *to him*?" she gasped.
"Yes."
Maximus holstered his weapon.
"Because if we don't stop the False Prophet now… the next seal will break."
"And the Pale Horse will ride."
(Shadows Of Rome will return with the brand new mysterious episode)
Written By,
Ivan Edwin
Pen Name :Maximus.
©All Rights Reserved.