The cosmic chess game is more complex.

Kúr'Gal, Enlil's Command Center, Ki'Gal, Hollow Earth -

While the small group on the surface continued to assimilate the chilling logic of Enlil's "Protocols" for the control of Terra, Enki, with a mixture of bitter resignation and the cold appreciation of one strategist for another, mentally flipped through the other manuscripts and data records that complemented his brother's master plan.

"My brother Enlil," Enki was saying, his voice ringing with the echoes of eons of rivalry and grudging admiration, "was a born strategist, who foresaw everything. He was not content with a single plan, no matter how comprehensive. His 'Protocols' were the backbone, yes, but here..." He gestured to other data crystals that glowed with an internal light. "...there are the contingencies, the adaptations, the countermeasures for every possible deviation, for every era of your civilization. Rules that could adapt and evolve, always maintaining the ultimate goal: absolute Anunnaki order on Terra."

Just as he was about to activate the display of one of these adaptive manuscripts, the imposing holographic screens that dominated Enlil's command center—the spectacular three-dimensional map of Earth with its energy flows, the tactical analyses of the cosmic factions, Ki'Gal's internal communiqués—began to flicker violently. A high-pitched whine, like tortured metal, emanated from the Anunnaki control crystals. Alien symbols and incomprehensible data swept across the screens before they faded to momentary blackness.

"Impossible!" Enki exclaimed, his golden eyes widening with an alarm he rarely displayed. He turned to the consoles, his hands moving over interfaces of light. "The Kúr'Gal's systems are being overridden! Security is at Alpha-Prime level! From where...?"

Before he could finish his sentence, the screens came back to life. But they no longer displayed the Anunnaki data. Instead, with perfect and disturbing digital clarity, a gallery of portraits appeared. Thirteen figures, men and women, peered out from the screens with cold, calculating gazes.

Some were elderly, their faces like maps of ancient power, deep wrinkles etched by decades, perhaps centuries, of manipulations and decisions that had shaped nations. They were the Von Hesses, the Ashworths, the Rothschilds of this era, the unseen faces at the apex of the oldest dynasties. Beside them, other portraits showed younger individuals, though "young" was a relative term; Men and women of impeccable appearance, in the prime of their 50s and 70s, radiating the cold, polished confidence of those who have inherited and multiplied immense power: the Tanakas, the Herreras, the new and old barons of industry, technology, and global finance.

Aria gasped. Although she had never seen them before, she recognized the energy, the same aura of cold, ruthless control she had sensed in the machinations of the Thirteen Families, which Merlin and Enki had already told them about as an elite human force. "Son... it's them," she whispered. "The ones pulling the strings on the surface. But... completely unknown to mainstream society. The true faces of Earth's hidden power."

Merlin and Quetzal watched with grave understanding. These were humanity's puppet masters, whose existence they had suspected or learned about through fragments of forbidden history.

But it was Enki's reaction that chilled everyone's blood. The Anunnaki, normally a paragon of scientific control and detachment, took a step back, an expression of disbelief and horror dawning in his golden eyes. It wasn't just the fact that these human images had supplanted his brother's systems.

"No... it can't be," Enki murmured, his voice barely a whisper, as he approached one of the screens, the image of an elderly Von Hess staring at him with his cold blue eyes. He recognized something in the posture, in the way the light caught a particular ring, in the imperceptible tilt of the head. "The patterns of loyalty... the Anunnaki blood oaths... the seals of generational servitude..."

He turned to the group, and his face, for the first time since he had met him, reflected a shock bordering on panic. "These are not just the leaders of the Thirteen Families manipulating your world from the shadows," he said, his voice cracking with a terrible realization. "They are... were..." He paused, as if the words themselves were poisonous. "His faithful servants. The viceroys. The testamentary executors of my brother's will. They are Enlil's directing servants on Earth!"

A deafening silence filled the command center. The revelation was of a magnitude that eclipsed almost everything that had come before. The Thirteen Families, the human elite who believed themselves to be

The pinnacle of Earthly power, who had dared to awaken Cthulhu for their own purposes, were in fact... Enlil's vassals.

"So," Merlin said slowly, each word falling like a stone into a bottomless pit, "the 'Order' that Enlil sought to impose through his 'Protocols'... already had a human command structure, deeply rooted and absolutely loyal to him, established for centuries, perhaps millennia."

Kael'Thara, the Lyrean, who had seen the fall of countless civilizations, simply economized with his head. "The web of control is always deeper, older, than the rebels can imagine."

The initial shock gave way to a flurry of questions. If the Thirteen Families were Enlil's servants, why had the Elder faction resorted to awakening Cthulhu? Was it an act of desperation because Enlil's control was weakening, perhaps due to his own current condition after the battle with Nyx and Cthulhu? Or was it a betrayal within Enlil's own servants, an attempt to supplant their Anunnaki master with an even more terrible god?

And who, or what, was projecting these images now, into the very heart of Enlil's power? Was it Enlil himself, from his healing chamber, attempting to communicate a crucial truth to them? Or was it an external force—Amitiel, the true All-Seeing Eye (if distinct from Enlil), or even Gaia—exposing the true hierarchy of power on Terra?

The images of the Thirteen Families remained on the screens, their cold, impassive gazes judging the intruders into the sanctuary of their Anunnaki master. The cosmic chess game had become infinitely more complex, and the pieces they thought they knew concealed loyalties and betrayals that spanned eons and stars.