All Bow... [CD/Promo for Zenith 24 - 10-25-2026]
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2026 2:30 pm
Related posts:
Reply to Vito by Johnny Napalm: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y1P ... it?tab=t.0
Vito's reply to both Johnny and Spade:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XaO ... it?tab=t.0
And another reply thereafter by Johnny:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15XM ... it?tab=t.0
Once again, the SHOOT Project applications flickered to life.
Across countless screens, notifications illuminated the darkness. An unmistakable sensation swept through the audience. The anticipation. The uneasiness. The dreadful certainty that something was approaching.
The Black Circle had summoned them once more.
The transmission began without warning.
A succession of prolonged, distorted images emerged through waves of static. Disjointed figures appeared in unnatural positions.
Surreal, inanimate objects hovered in impossible spaces. Fragmented silhouettes flickered between frames, their identities obscured by shadows. Each image lingered just long enough to unsettle the viewer before dissolving into another.
Then came a sound.
THUMP.
A heartbeat.
THUMP.
Louder.
THUMP.
Deeper.
And then…….
BLACKNESS.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Deathly silence.
For several agonizing moments, nothing moved. Nothing stirred. Not even the faintest whisper disturbed the suffocating emptiness.
Until. A face began to emerge.
Not from the darkness, but seemingly carved from its very substance. Cold, lifeless features. An expression that carried the weight of countless atrocities and the unmistakable presence of something that should never have existed among the living.
The Unholy One……….The Darkspade.
His voice emerged slowly, deliberately, each word resonating as though spoken from the depths of an ancient tomb.
The Darkspade: “I have not summoned you here to be entertained. Nor have I come to indulge the incessant babbling of those whose words carry no significance within my dominion. No. I have summoned you here for clarification. Not because I owe any of you an explanation. Not because your accusations trouble me. But because, for the sake of my daughter’s voice of reason, there are certain truths that deserve to be spoken aloud.”
“And those truths, Vito… concern you.”
A faint, almost imperceptible smile stretched across his gray lips.
The Darkspade: “You have every right to wish for my death. Every right to despise the very ground upon which I stand. The embankment. The double homicide. Sarah… lying helplessly in that hospital bed, clinging to the final threads of life while the machines surrounding her struggled to preserve what remained And I…”
He paused.
The Darkspade: “…I laughed. From beneath the veil of The Void, I laughed at your suffering. I reveled in the devastation. I embraced the agony I had inflicted upon your existence. Do you hear me, Vito? I HAVE NEVER DENIED WHAT I DID.”
His expression hardened.
The Darkspade: “I do not seek your forgiveness. I do not beg for your mercy. And I certainly do not expect absolution from a man whose own hands are far from clean. What consumed me then was not merely hatred. It was something far more profound. A sickness that has infected every fiber of my existence. A disease that continues to course through my body, my spirit, and my soul. The very essence that sustains me. THE UNHOLY DARKNESS.”
The Darkspade slowly closed his eyes.
The surrounding void swallowed what little definition remained of his body. Only his pale, almost corpse-like face persisted against an infinite ocean of black.
The Darkspade: “And understand this, Vito… Had it not been for Charon, the likelihood of either you or Sarah surviving my wrath would have been virtually nonexistent. I would have hunted you. I would have dismantled everything you held sacred. And when there was nothing left to take, I would have extinguished you both. That was the creature I had become. And yes… I have changed.”
A long pause followed.
The Darkspade: “But change does not resurrect the dead. It does not erase the screams of yesterday. It does not undo the suffering already inflicted. And no transformation, however profound, can absolve the consequences of one’s past. So, I will grant you this much, Vito. Your hatred is justified. Your grief is justified. And the suffering you carry because of what happened to Sarah… That suffering is warranted.”
For a fleeting moment, something resembling genuine reflection crossed the face of The Unholy One.
Then it vanished.
His eyes snapped open.
Where his pupils should have been, two brilliant, unnatural lights burned against the darkness. His voice descended into something
considerably more venomous.
The Darkspade: “BUT DO NOT MISTAKE MY ACKNOWLEDGMENT FOR WEAKNESS!”
The sound reverberated violently through the transmission.
The Darkspade: “You see, Vito, therein lies the difference between acknowledging one’s sins and surrendering to the self-righteous indignation of a HYENA! Because that is precisely what you remain! A scavenger and an opportunist! A miserable son of a bitch who continues to bare his teeth at a predator simply because that predator has chosen, for the moment, not to devour him!”
The Darkspade leaned forward, his face occupying nearly the entire screen.
The Darkspade: “Do not flatter yourself into believing that my transformation has somehow elevated you beyond my reach. Of all the suffering that transpired, there is only ONE individual for whom I possess even the faintest droplet of remorse."
“SARAH.”
His voice suddenly thundered.
The Darkspade: “SHE DID NOT DESERVE THAT HOSPITAL BED! SHE DID NOT DESERVE TO HAVE HER LIFE SUSPENDED BETWEEN EXISTENCE AND OBLIVION! THAT COMA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE YOURS TO SUFFER, VITO! YOURS!”
The screen shuddered with a violent burst of static.
The Darkspade: “And yet, there you were. A bald-headed jackass who somehow believed he could continuously poke, provoke, and antagonize a monster without eventually being consumed by it! What did you expect?! That the beast would politely excuse itself?! That the darkness would exercise restraint simply because YOU demanded it?!”
“NO!…… Hell No. You awakened something you could neither comprehend nor control, and when the consequences came crashing down upon your existence, you discovered that monsters do not distinguish between the hands that provoke them and the loved ones standing too close to their jaws! You dragged Sarah into the path of that destruction. AND THAT, VITO, IS ON YOU!”
The Darkspade withdrew slightly into the shadows.
His voice became quieter, more deliberate. and sinister.
The Darkspade: “Now, I understand that your present conflict lies with Johnny Napalm. My brother in arms, and partner within The Black Circle. Johnny has already made the purpose of our alliance abundantly clear. But understand something, Vito… Your conflict with Johnny does not erase your history with me. It does not bury the embankment. It does not silence the ghosts, and it certainly does not extinguish the unfinished business that continues to exist between us.”
He tilted his head, allowing an unsettling grin to spread across his face.
The Darkspade: “Do you wish to know why our business remains unfinished? Why, after everything that has happened, I still regard your existence as an unresolved matter?”
Another pause.
The Darkspade: “BECAUSE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE.”
The grin disappeared.
The Darkspade: “And before you begin preaching about morality, spare me your sanctimonious hypocrisy. I have committed atrocities. I have made reprehensible decisions. I have embraced the most abominable aspects of my own existence. I make no excuses for them. But neither will I tolerate lectures from a man who has spent his own existence manipulating circumstances, exploiting opportunities, and weaseling his way toward whatever prize he believes himself entitled to possess! You condemn the monster while conveniently overlooking the corruption within yourself. How fascinating…. predictable. HOW UTTERLY PATHETIC.”
The darkness surrounding The Unholy One began to shift.
Faint, circular formations appeared behind him, rotating slowly like the mechanisms of some ancient, forbidden celestial machine.
The Darkspade: “You see, Vito, The Black Circle was not assembled to satisfy the petty ambitions of ordinary men. We are not another collection of opportunists scrambling for championship gold, recognition, or fleeting moments of glory. We are something far more consequential. Where others see chaos, we see the necessity for judgment. Where others see corruption, we see a disease that must be eradicated. And where others seek to preserve the very system that perpetuates their own decay… WE BRING THE CURE.”
PAUSES….
The Darkspade: “The Black Circle is not an apology, a negotiation, or an invitation to debate the moral complexities of our existence. THE BLACK CIRCLE IS THE CURE FOR ALL WHO HAVE BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF JUDGMENT.”
The Darkspade: “And should you fail to comprehend that necessity, should you continue stumbling blindly into the very darkness you claim to despise… Then you will have accomplished precisely what you did when you dragged Sarah into your personal crusade. You will have invited devastation upon yourself. And once again…THAT WILL BE ON YOU. Should you somehow crawl from the wreckage of Zenith believing that your suffering has finally reached its conclusion… realize that there will be no embankment to escape from.No hospital bed upon which to awaken, or Sarah to suffer in your place. You will realize that Johnny was there to unleash a final reckoning of a debt that has remained unpaid for far too long.”
The Darkspade spread his arms wide.
The darkness appeared to bend toward him, as though acknowledging its master.
The Darkspade: “At Zenith, you will be decimated. All hail… ALL HAIL THE BLACK CIRCLE! Amen.”
Reply to Vito by Johnny Napalm: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y1P ... it?tab=t.0
Vito's reply to both Johnny and Spade:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XaO ... it?tab=t.0
And another reply thereafter by Johnny:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15XM ... it?tab=t.0
Once again, the SHOOT Project applications flickered to life.
Across countless screens, notifications illuminated the darkness. An unmistakable sensation swept through the audience. The anticipation. The uneasiness. The dreadful certainty that something was approaching.
The Black Circle had summoned them once more.
The transmission began without warning.
A succession of prolonged, distorted images emerged through waves of static. Disjointed figures appeared in unnatural positions.
Surreal, inanimate objects hovered in impossible spaces. Fragmented silhouettes flickered between frames, their identities obscured by shadows. Each image lingered just long enough to unsettle the viewer before dissolving into another.
Then came a sound.
THUMP.
A heartbeat.
THUMP.
Louder.
THUMP.
Deeper.
And then…….
BLACKNESS.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Deathly silence.
For several agonizing moments, nothing moved. Nothing stirred. Not even the faintest whisper disturbed the suffocating emptiness.
Until. A face began to emerge.
Not from the darkness, but seemingly carved from its very substance. Cold, lifeless features. An expression that carried the weight of countless atrocities and the unmistakable presence of something that should never have existed among the living.
The Unholy One……….The Darkspade.
His voice emerged slowly, deliberately, each word resonating as though spoken from the depths of an ancient tomb.
The Darkspade: “I have not summoned you here to be entertained. Nor have I come to indulge the incessant babbling of those whose words carry no significance within my dominion. No. I have summoned you here for clarification. Not because I owe any of you an explanation. Not because your accusations trouble me. But because, for the sake of my daughter’s voice of reason, there are certain truths that deserve to be spoken aloud.”
“And those truths, Vito… concern you.”
A faint, almost imperceptible smile stretched across his gray lips.
The Darkspade: “You have every right to wish for my death. Every right to despise the very ground upon which I stand. The embankment. The double homicide. Sarah… lying helplessly in that hospital bed, clinging to the final threads of life while the machines surrounding her struggled to preserve what remained And I…”
He paused.
The Darkspade: “…I laughed. From beneath the veil of The Void, I laughed at your suffering. I reveled in the devastation. I embraced the agony I had inflicted upon your existence. Do you hear me, Vito? I HAVE NEVER DENIED WHAT I DID.”
His expression hardened.
The Darkspade: “I do not seek your forgiveness. I do not beg for your mercy. And I certainly do not expect absolution from a man whose own hands are far from clean. What consumed me then was not merely hatred. It was something far more profound. A sickness that has infected every fiber of my existence. A disease that continues to course through my body, my spirit, and my soul. The very essence that sustains me. THE UNHOLY DARKNESS.”
The Darkspade slowly closed his eyes.
The surrounding void swallowed what little definition remained of his body. Only his pale, almost corpse-like face persisted against an infinite ocean of black.
The Darkspade: “And understand this, Vito… Had it not been for Charon, the likelihood of either you or Sarah surviving my wrath would have been virtually nonexistent. I would have hunted you. I would have dismantled everything you held sacred. And when there was nothing left to take, I would have extinguished you both. That was the creature I had become. And yes… I have changed.”
A long pause followed.
The Darkspade: “But change does not resurrect the dead. It does not erase the screams of yesterday. It does not undo the suffering already inflicted. And no transformation, however profound, can absolve the consequences of one’s past. So, I will grant you this much, Vito. Your hatred is justified. Your grief is justified. And the suffering you carry because of what happened to Sarah… That suffering is warranted.”
For a fleeting moment, something resembling genuine reflection crossed the face of The Unholy One.
Then it vanished.
His eyes snapped open.
Where his pupils should have been, two brilliant, unnatural lights burned against the darkness. His voice descended into something
considerably more venomous.
The Darkspade: “BUT DO NOT MISTAKE MY ACKNOWLEDGMENT FOR WEAKNESS!”
The sound reverberated violently through the transmission.
The Darkspade: “You see, Vito, therein lies the difference between acknowledging one’s sins and surrendering to the self-righteous indignation of a HYENA! Because that is precisely what you remain! A scavenger and an opportunist! A miserable son of a bitch who continues to bare his teeth at a predator simply because that predator has chosen, for the moment, not to devour him!”
The Darkspade leaned forward, his face occupying nearly the entire screen.
The Darkspade: “Do not flatter yourself into believing that my transformation has somehow elevated you beyond my reach. Of all the suffering that transpired, there is only ONE individual for whom I possess even the faintest droplet of remorse."
“SARAH.”
His voice suddenly thundered.
The Darkspade: “SHE DID NOT DESERVE THAT HOSPITAL BED! SHE DID NOT DESERVE TO HAVE HER LIFE SUSPENDED BETWEEN EXISTENCE AND OBLIVION! THAT COMA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE YOURS TO SUFFER, VITO! YOURS!”
The screen shuddered with a violent burst of static.
The Darkspade: “And yet, there you were. A bald-headed jackass who somehow believed he could continuously poke, provoke, and antagonize a monster without eventually being consumed by it! What did you expect?! That the beast would politely excuse itself?! That the darkness would exercise restraint simply because YOU demanded it?!”
“NO!…… Hell No. You awakened something you could neither comprehend nor control, and when the consequences came crashing down upon your existence, you discovered that monsters do not distinguish between the hands that provoke them and the loved ones standing too close to their jaws! You dragged Sarah into the path of that destruction. AND THAT, VITO, IS ON YOU!”
The Darkspade withdrew slightly into the shadows.
His voice became quieter, more deliberate. and sinister.
The Darkspade: “Now, I understand that your present conflict lies with Johnny Napalm. My brother in arms, and partner within The Black Circle. Johnny has already made the purpose of our alliance abundantly clear. But understand something, Vito… Your conflict with Johnny does not erase your history with me. It does not bury the embankment. It does not silence the ghosts, and it certainly does not extinguish the unfinished business that continues to exist between us.”
He tilted his head, allowing an unsettling grin to spread across his face.
The Darkspade: “Do you wish to know why our business remains unfinished? Why, after everything that has happened, I still regard your existence as an unresolved matter?”
Another pause.
The Darkspade: “BECAUSE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE.”
The grin disappeared.
The Darkspade: “And before you begin preaching about morality, spare me your sanctimonious hypocrisy. I have committed atrocities. I have made reprehensible decisions. I have embraced the most abominable aspects of my own existence. I make no excuses for them. But neither will I tolerate lectures from a man who has spent his own existence manipulating circumstances, exploiting opportunities, and weaseling his way toward whatever prize he believes himself entitled to possess! You condemn the monster while conveniently overlooking the corruption within yourself. How fascinating…. predictable. HOW UTTERLY PATHETIC.”
The darkness surrounding The Unholy One began to shift.
Faint, circular formations appeared behind him, rotating slowly like the mechanisms of some ancient, forbidden celestial machine.
The Darkspade: “You see, Vito, The Black Circle was not assembled to satisfy the petty ambitions of ordinary men. We are not another collection of opportunists scrambling for championship gold, recognition, or fleeting moments of glory. We are something far more consequential. Where others see chaos, we see the necessity for judgment. Where others see corruption, we see a disease that must be eradicated. And where others seek to preserve the very system that perpetuates their own decay… WE BRING THE CURE.”
PAUSES….
The Darkspade: “The Black Circle is not an apology, a negotiation, or an invitation to debate the moral complexities of our existence. THE BLACK CIRCLE IS THE CURE FOR ALL WHO HAVE BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF JUDGMENT.”
The Darkspade: “And should you fail to comprehend that necessity, should you continue stumbling blindly into the very darkness you claim to despise… Then you will have accomplished precisely what you did when you dragged Sarah into your personal crusade. You will have invited devastation upon yourself. And once again…THAT WILL BE ON YOU. Should you somehow crawl from the wreckage of Zenith believing that your suffering has finally reached its conclusion… realize that there will be no embankment to escape from.No hospital bed upon which to awaken, or Sarah to suffer in your place. You will realize that Johnny was there to unleash a final reckoning of a debt that has remained unpaid for far too long.”
The Darkspade spread his arms wide.
The darkness appeared to bend toward him, as though acknowledging its master.
The Darkspade: “At Zenith, you will be decimated. All hail… ALL HAIL THE BLACK CIRCLE! Amen.”