[The Latelian Cycle 04] • Dark Iron King Volume I · Thy King's Will Be Done

Other than a delicious root beer float and access to proper pizza, all Garth ‘Nickels’ N’Chalez wants is to see the creation of reality 2.0 happen. He already knows it's going to be bloody, rough and extremely trying, but when you sign up to be the Engineer of that new birth, you have very few choices regarding how it goes down. And when you've got the ancient, venerable and godlike Kith Antal leading an army of unstoppable Harmony soldiers coming at you with the express purposes of being the Victor....

You just can't help but feel it's gonna be even worse.

But before Garth can even think about dealing with dear old dad, he's got to get inside Arcade City and deal with the so-called mad Goth king Blake.

No one really knows what's under the gigantic clockwork dome that's lasted for thirty thousand years and Garth -not for a lack of trying to get proper Intel- finds himself doing what he does best.

Which is basically charging in without thinking to see what happens next; forced to kill an innocent man in order to be sentenced to Arcade City for crimes against a King’s Son, Garth’s only information concerning the Domed, ancient city is that it is thirty thousand years old and filled to the brim with madness and chaos.

The moment our hero steps through the Geared Doors leading into the fabled and storied Arcade City, Garth finds himself in –as usual- so far in over his head that his only choice is to push forward, ever forward.

Inflicted with a terrible case of nanotech derived-Kingsblood poisoning, assaulted by fear, hunted by Gearmen, surrounded by hideously mutated gearheads and wardogs, saddled with an itinerant –and crankier than thou- blacksmith named Barnabas and balked at every turn, Garth begins the trek to Arcadia, wherein the Dark Iron King waits. Along the way, he and his reluctant companion seek to find a cure for Garth’s maladies, all while skirting dark resurgences of that thing the Engineer fears more than anything:

Specter.

Outside The Dome, the war for Trinity and It’s Armies does not go well; led by SpecSer Commander Aleksander Politoyov, his forces cannot get through the systemic shield created by Huey, and so he turns his attentions outwards. Employing the resourceful –and uncannily insightful- Tendreel Salingh to discover Garth N’Chalez’ true plans, Aleksander unwittingly sets into motion a series of events that will spiral wildly out of control.

Herrig, now Chairman of the renamed Latelyspace Commonwealth, is assaulted on all sides. When Garth escaped the confines of Hospitalis aboard Bravo, the shield protecting Latelyspace from invasion dropped just long enough for him to escape, but also for a handful of Trinity’s forces to sneak in. His system is plagued by Heavy Elites, Specter Techs, and regular Army, and the original Horsemen are chomping at the bit to rain wrack and ruin upon everyone and everything that stands in their way.

All this and more awaits. The Unreal Universe gears up for the end and everything is quite literally going to Hell in a hand basket.

Will Garth survive Arcade City? Against the mighty Dark Iron King and his even mightier King’s Will … well.

Garth will need to bring his ‘A’ Game…

Won’t he just?