Deago Prime Chess Master

The story follows Prime and his team, the Deagos, as they investigate a crisis on an alternate Earth ruled by secret societies that function as permanent governments. Loyalty is lifelong; defection erases all former ties. Prime detects dimensional distress signals and leads part of his team to the source, leaving others to train new defenders. They arrive to find the entire society's people, buildings, and landscapes vanishing without a trace, the erasures accelerating as if by design. Investigating U.S. sites, the team discovers chess pieces at each disappearance, inscribed with cryptic song-lyric messages. The clues point to a mastermind orchestrating a multi-dimensional chess game. The Deagos are soon ensnared by the Chess Master himself.
He reveals his past: once one of the Unwanted outcasts rejected by the societies, he acquired godlike power from interdimensional entities. His vengeance: wipe out every secret society and banish their members to a reality of permanent exile, mirroring his own suffering. The Chess Master strands the team on a remote island, forcing them into literal chess matches where defeat means exile to the Unwanted's dimension. One by one, the Deagos lose and vanish until Prime secretly frees them and confronts the Chess Master in a final game and brutal fight.
Prime exploits strategy and terrain to prevail physically. When water touches enough of the Chess Master's form, his powers dissolve, unmasking him as Ari Gonzelburg. With the defeat, displaced societies, people, and structures return to reality. Victory is short-lived: a shadowy external force abducts Ari and warns Prime the larger war has only begun.