At the European Office of the Western Alliance President Antivon is meeting with Alliance staff members and military advisers. "It is time to bring more nations into our Alliance. We have been trying to negotiate with many of them, but that has proved fruitless. We have no option but to take them over by force." The next day the Western Alliance declares war on several neighboring countries which are not currently part of the Alliance.
President Antivon masses his coalition armies in preparation for a military offensive on multiple fronts. His 11 nation confederation has control of the military forces of the US and EU, making it the largest military force on earth, double the size of any other. Having already consolidated his control over the 11 nation confederation, he turns his focus to attacking nations on the borders of the Western Alliance. They fall quickly and easily, one after another until his empire includes all of North and South America, and all of Europe and parts of south Asia. It also expands to include nations which border Russia and the Middle East. He has his eyes on Africa next. The Russian and Chinese alliances, having been alarmed by the Western Alliance aggression, are worried -- and with good reason. President Antivon has made it clear that he will institute a New Worldwide Order with himself as Supreme Leader. His stature as a god has grown among the people along with his successes. After a successful invasion, the first thing which appears in that conquered country is a statue of President Antivon. A god must have a statue to be worshiped.
Over a period of months, country after country falls in rapid succession. The wars are bloody as nations resist. Millions of people are killed. In just eight months the Western Alliance has expanded to 9 more countries. The death toll stands at 28 million in just 18 months from these wars, and that number is still rising.
With his control over the Western Alliance established, the Vatican has refused to submit their own independent authority to President Antivon whose hatred for Christianity runs deep. President Antivon is present as his forces storm the Vatican with armed joint troops, which quickly overwhelm the Swiss Guards. President Antivon makes his way into the Vatican inner chamber and comes to where the former Pope's Chief of Staff, or Camerlengo, is sitting, acting as an interim Pope in certain respects due to the chaos after the Vanishment, the previous Pope and potential successors having gone in the Vanishment. Antivon knocks the Camerlengo's hat off and says "Get out." The chief aide tries to intervene and is shot dead.
Antivon: "Now Popey, or whatever you think you are, get out. This is not your place any more. I am the one who has come to save the world. I am the one they have been waiting for."
Camerlengo: "You blasphemer. You will die in hell." He is shot dead by President Antivon's security forces.
The Vatican staff members are rounded up and escorted out. President Antivon sits down on the Pope's Throne. "This fits me well. A god is now on this Throne, not a man in a funny hat. I am renaming Vatican City as "Babylon" in honor of that great ancient city. Now let's really change the world."
Before Antivon departs, he appoints a trusted "Ambassador to Rome" to run the world-wide religious system from Babylon with Antivon as its god. He tells his new man in Babylon: "You must ensure that I am seen as a god, and worshiped as a god. You must not fail me. This is very important to me, and I would take any failure personally. Understood?" The Ambassador replies, "Understood, I will not fail you." Antivon: "Good, see to it that the Christians pay dearly for refusing to worship me." Antivon departs, and the Vatican infrastructure is turned from Christian to promoting Antivon as a god. It seemed brilliant to take over an existing infrastructure rather than build one from scratch. The new system in Babylon was up and running within a week, dominating social media with Antivon's propaganda.
The remaining alliances of countries outside the Western Alliance have now consolidated into the Russian Alliance, the China Alliance, and the Southern Alliance made up of Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa. These Alliances all formed as a reaction to the expansion of the Western Alliance, and many former enemy nations are now in alliances in opposition to the Western Alliance. The stage is set for a full-scale world war.
For those nations not in alliances, regional conflicts which have been brewing for a long time erupt into open warfare. There is no world order on which they depend, so they proceed to engage their long-time enemies over age-old disputes in open warfare. The bloodshed is extreme as these long-held hatreds play out in barbaric ways. Without a system of law, order, and justice in these formerly Third World countries, their people are becoming little more than savages. Justice is no longer a term they understand. Gangs of armed thugs rule local regions as vengeance and domination become the primary goals. Murder becomes the primary reason for death, surpassing the famine. A new slave trade develops as these nations sell their enslaved enemies into the four world Alliances, which are eager to obtain them. The slave trade becomes one of the more lucrative businesses in the non-alliance countries.
At LANX Jill Steiner is reporting on the world on the brink of a world war. After discussing the Alliances which have been established in opposition to one another, she discusses the regional issues which have been going on for several months now:
Jill: "China has invaded Taiwan and taken it over. With no one to help them anymore, Taiwan was left defenseless. In south Asia, India and Pakistan have begun crossing into each other's territory and have engaged in several bloody conflicts. The numbers of dead are growing daily. The African continent is not immune, and food wars among a number of African nations are ongoing. Iran has invaded Iraq again -- how many times has that happened now? Terrorists have become emboldened and are attacking at will. The world is in turmoil." Jill ends her broadcast with a sense of desperation. Those who promised peace and stability have instead resorted to senseless wars and despicable inhumanity.
It is now 1 year after the Vanishment.