Caleb remained treading in the water a while. It wasn’t silent, the sound of sirens in the distance, helicopters and military jets flying overhead almost deafening. But in between the sounds he found a quiet peace. A comfort in his own relief. As the water washed over him, soothing the burns on his skin, he breathed in and out.

  In a strange way it reminded him of that beach, once again. He closed his eyes, basking in it. He’d forgotten what it was like to have hope like this. To feel suddenly opportunities for the future instead of dread and despair.

  But slowly his thoughts drifted away from the hope, returning to his friends. With an effort he pulled his head upwards from the water, looking forward to Liberty Island, as helicopters circled it from overhead. Without a second though he moved to swim forward, but his arms flopped splashing uselessly as he tried to lift his limbs beyond the water, instantly gasping.

  The relief had distracted him from the effort of simply treading, but now as it faded it was obvious. He was far too tired

  “Crap” he gasped, his body suddenly heavy.

  What a stupid way to die this would be, he thought. I hope the others don’t drown too. They deserve to live.

  He winced at the iciness of the water on his exposed burns as he kicked, half desperate now to stay above the water. He could hear more and more sirens, more and the beating of propellers louder and louder as more jets soared above.

  Stars as flit across his vision as he breathed harder feeling the tug of water beneath his feet. Slowly his desperation grew as he kicked at the water, thrashing around now.

  “H-help” he wheezed uselessly, closing his eyes. “Somebody h-help.”

  Then he felt it. Magic from above. Warm hands pulled him from the water, lifting him into the air. A light force – fuelled by magic – pressed against his body, lifting him. He recognised it.

  “Layla?” he said.

  “It’s ok” she replied.

  “Are the others-”

  “They’re ok. They’re all ok.”

  He nodded, his shoulders sagging as they slowly dipped back towards the broken shores of Liberty. He looked over the island, seeing the chaos, and hurt, the still smoking remnants of the statue of Liberty, but also the relief. All throughout the island the people left were hugging each other, celebrating the victory or at least the end of the battle. Still just as others cradled loved ones, the number of dead far outnumbering the living.

  And from above helicopters descending landing in spots cleared of bodies and water by those below, before soldiers emerged, making for the injured in the mess of kids and corpses. Caleb and Layla descended out of the sky, slowing before they finally landed amongst the others who’d helped slay the beast.

  His feet met the floor and he slumped, instantly, half falling out of Layla’s grasp as He slumped to the floor breathing heavily. He’d never been so tired in his life.

  “You alright?” a voice asked him.

  “Yeah” he mumbled. “I’m- yeah.”

  Slowly Caleb sat up, looking to the others. Avana sat still, breathing heavily as some kind of healer attempted to mend her very broken legs with what little reserves they still had. Then his eyes moved to Elliot, who sat with a t-shirt wrapped around the now burned stump on his right arm, and finally to Iris, who lay on the ground, holding the massive bruise that covered the left side of her body.

  “We did it” Elliot said before wincing “We fucking did it.”

  “Yeah” Caleb said, unable to hide his smile, “We did.”

  He looked around, to the soldiers as more helicopters landed, medics rushing around as Aleka stood on the platform still directing the healers. Then there was a sudden rush of air and Sierra was hugging him tightly.

  “Ow” he said, wincing. “Ow.”

  “Sorry, I- sorry” she muttered pulling away. They looked over quickly, Caleb noticing Sierra’s cuts and Sierra noticing Caleb’s burns, both equally concerned.

  “You’re injured” he said.

  “It’s fine. Harrison healed the worst of it” she said, before reaching tenderly for his damaged skin. “A-are you ok?”

  “I’m fine”, he said, looking to the lightning like burn scars that ran along his body.

  “I’ll get Harrison” she said.

  [Get another healer as well] Iris muttered, her breaths still shallow. [Feels like I’m dying over here]

  Sierra nodded, before speeding off. Caleb watched her blur vanish amongst the mess of others atop the museum roof, then looked again to all the helicopters circling above. Most were military, but some of them looked like news helicopters.

  “Cool, right?” Elliot said.

  “Yeah” Caleb replied. “It’s like a movie.”

  “Seriously” the teen laughed. “This is like the biggest thing that’s ever happened. I mean we’re probably going to be seriously famous now”

  [Oh god. Don’t say that] Iris muttered. Caleb chuckled, before a swirl of mana suddenly appeared in front of him.

  -

  Second Phase Statistics

  1,696 survived the Second Phase

  Of the 76,961 (97.84%) that died during the second phase, 75,894 were killed by The Sevens Sin Salaar

  and 1067 were killed by players.

  -

  [The Chainic Foundations were agreed to by Earth’s representatives]

  [Thank you for accepting the Chanic Foundations]

  [This agreement has been sent to all selected of Earth and is accessible via your record]

  [Unfortunately, the official terms of your War Right and Council Membership are still being negotiated by your representatives]

  [We must wait until the terms have finalised before taking any Council affiliated action, aid or service to your planet]

  [We thank you for your patience]

  Caleb stared at the stats his heart sinking. They'd won, but they'd paid a heavy price.

  “Uh… so what does that mean?” Elliot said. Caleb frowned, then quickly re-read the message.

  Representatives. Were those the people who’d visited him, the ones the others had talked about?

  What exactly did they agreed to?

  He didn't know. And he definitely didn’t have the brain power to think about it all right now.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “No clue" he said, resting against the broken log of a tree. "We’re just as lost as you.”

  “Right” Elliot said, looking down to his stump, then up at the helicopters clearly unnerved. “Uh… so what now? Is it just over? Or is there stuff we find out about this war right and stuff?”

  [Who knows?] Iris muttered. [Who know?]

  “Home” Avana muttered, through her pain. “Now we get to go home.”

  -

  Akyren (A2-C1-C)

  Yun Evryd Dys

  House of Council

  Palace of Earth

  One Hour after the Battle for Earth

  Samuel’s head was starting to hurt.

  He didn’t think he’d ever read this much in his life, let alone in the span of twenty minutes. And he definitely didn’t think he’d ever be under this much pressure. It seemed so obvious though. When the messages had started getting more frequent, and he and the others had been whisked off into space, questioned and then, revered for their "discovery".

  He really should’ve realised just how much power he'd had, when they’d offered them a planet. Each. It probably would’ve been clearer if he'd taken the time to learn the context in more depth. But that time had passed now. If's were only for idiots and those living in the past.

  “Idiots” Divine muttered. “I mean- come on! Who the hell wants to fight more?”

  Us, Samuel thought, staring at all the data in front of him.

  “Don’t call them idiots” Nigel said. “They fought well, and this is great for Earth. It was a good decision.”

  “A good decision. I don’t think it was exactly a collective effort. Half the people got blindsided by the idiots. They were lucky to come out alive. The number that did at least.”

  “They still fought well.”

  “Like that fucking matters.”

  “Of course it matters, Earth would’ve fallen if they hadn’t.”

  “They shouldn’t have risked it in the first place. They had no fucking idea what they were going up against!”

  “Yeah, but they won anyway. See, this is why I said you wouldn’t have been able to hack it in the trial. You’re way to conservative and all you do is complain abo-”

  “Fuck you! You’re the one who nearly killed us by backtalking to the fucking Empresses.”

  “Fuck off! And that has literally nothing to do with anything”

  “Sure” Divine muttered. “All I do is complain? Fuck you”

  “I mean am I wrong? You forget what happened when we visited the Waste? I bet we’d be able to make a deal with Hallon if you’d just kept your mouth shut”

  “Really?!” Divine said enraged. “You’re bringing that up now?!”

  “What?! You started it!”

  Samuel felt the magical energy of the room build to a crescendo, in tandem with his anger.

  “Stop!” Samuel roared. “I- Can you two stop?! I can’t hear myself think!”

  “S-sorry” Nigel mumbled.

  “I mean- now? You’re seriously arguing now?”

  “Yeah, sorry” Divine said, sitting down as her mana died down. The room was silent again as Samuel continued to think. He hated this. This uncertainty, and the weight of knowing billions of lives rested in the palm of his hand. He was deciding the fate of the Earth here. And there weren’t any good options. But what scared him the most wasn’t that he couldn’t make up his mind, it was the fact that he already had.

  There has to be another way, he thought. There has to be.

  And if there was, he’d have to find it. The other two couldn’t be trusted to take this seriously. He clicked on another of the agreements and offers made by the systems and other planets within the federation, skimming over the words as he sighed.

  He should’ve spent more time learning. Journeying through the federation had just been fun, but now he’d gotten to the stuff that mattered, the reason he’d been given so much wealth and freedom and he wasn’t prepared. He doubted anyone could be prepared for this responsibility, but there were definitely ways to be better prepared than he was now.

  “Sam I- look I know you want to think things through properly, but we can’t keep stalling” Divine said. “We’ll have to sign a set of terms eventually.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?!” Samuel said angrily.

  “Don’t fucking shout at me.”

  “I- sorry. Sorry” he said. Divine glared at him and he sighed, bringing his hand to his face. There wasn't another way. There was no point stalling anymore.

  “You’re right. We’ll get started with option fifty-two then. It’s the best one”

  “W-what?” Nigel sputtered. “B-but-”

  “It’s the right one”

  “I- I don’t- I-”

  “If you’ve got something to say, spit it out” Samuel said annoyed.

  “Are you serious?” Nigel said. “It’s- we’ll become a fucking work camp. It’s basically slavery. It’s- I’ve got the right one, right?”

  Samuel kissed his teeth. Now, out of all times was when Nigel was choosing to disagree with him.

  What great luck.

  “Not if we have individuals bear the weight of the burdens” Samuel muttered, rubbing at his eyes as he yawned

  “You want to sell them out to the fucking orders? Now?” Nigel said astounded. “I mean, that’s crazy right? That’s usually that’s third generation at least.”

  “There’s already interest”

  “Don’t say that. Caleb’s not a commodity”

  “In this, everything is, even us.”

  “I- Divine help me out here. I mean this insane right?” Nigel said. Divine glanced between the two, uncharacteristically silent. “Uh- hello? Come on I know he’s smart bu-”

  “Nigel if we do it right, we can make Earth a hub of trade, growth, and invaluable in the war. An indispensable part of the Federation. We’ve already got the infrastructure for tech so we can lessen the burden by and focusing on magical development. We build up favour, and slowly take control of the hybrid tech market and we could be the strongest planet in the Federation. I mean, think about the position our discovery gives us. Sure, we rejected it at first, but we might even be able to reconvince Yuniea to expand our dominion”

  “Oh my god” Nigel muttered. “This is about power isn’t it? You want to control a planet. You want to be a fucking god emperor or something to people outside the federation”

  “No” Samuel said through gritted teeth. “This is about our own survival. Earth’s. If we each take control of a planet in the solar system, develop terraforming tech, maybe even figure out how to make some sci-fi shit real with the hybrid tech we could literally become the strongest planet there is. I mean we’ve seen how many years behind everyone else is, the lack of growth or expansion because of the church’s power and focus on the war. We don’t need the church. I mean they already think we’re divine and all that other bullshit If we take something else, a shittier deal, then Etimos could gather enough favour and do all this.”

  “That would take too long.”

  “The wars not ending any time soon, and once they get their hands on the higher secrets no one would be able to stop them. I- come on, do you want fucking corporations running the universe? This is it. We can do this.”

  “So what? You want to take control of the Federation” Nigel said, astounded.

  “Eventually”

  “Why?” Divine said suddenly.

  “Because nobody’s ever going to win the war at this rate. I mean you saw things. It’s not- the culture been stuck in its ways for too long. But we can shake it up. We’re in the perfect position to change things. Given our standing, the prophecy with Caleb, and our tech we can become a superpower, build up and then ask Yuniea to maybe consider change things up.”

  He saw the realisation come to Divine’s face.

  “You want her to make everyone powerful” she said. “Give everyone under her dominion a record?”

  “I mean not exactly, but yeah. Maybe it’s how we win the war? Instead of one super powerful being we have hundreds of slightly weaker ones, supported by billions of super humans.”

  “And if it goes wrong, you shackle us with a burden we can’t withstand and enslave humanity in a dying system in a forever war” Nigel muttered shaking his head. “Right, I’m just being silly. It’s no biggie.”

  “He’s right Nigel” Divine said.

  “What?!”

  “I mean… if we do this, we can end things. I don’t want my grandkids or their grandkids, or any of my descendants to have to fight in a war like this”

  “But it won’t be your grandkids or descendants! It won’t be any of our descendants!!” Nigel shouted. “It’ll the descendants of the people back home right now. People who don’t get a say in any of this!”

  “W-we could use the favour we build to change the agreement without the council’s permission anyway” Divine stuttered.

  “That could take literally hundreds of years.”

  “We’ll still be around” Samuel said.

  “And lots of other people won’t be!” Nigel said the desperation in his voice clear. “I mean we’d be enslaving maybe five, six generations of people to an agreement they for what? A maybe at ending a war that a literal child of God or whatever couldn’t.”

  “And what if they’re right about Caleb?” Samuel said.

  Nigel kissed his teeth, pulling his chair back from the table.

  “Nigel I’m serious.”

  “So, let me get this right. One second the religion is bullshit and the next their prophesised chosen one is real? Oh wow. Real convenient”

  “Nigel, what if they’re right? What if I’m wrong and this religion and divinity stuff is actually real?”

  “It’s not.”

  “What if it is?”

  “I-it’s not!”

  “Just… just humour me”

  “I- well- I don’t know. Then we do this, put Caleb out there under the Yildar, and while you pull all your shenanigans the war ends and none of the burdens matter anymore anyway. But who know how long that could be till. It could be now, it could be a hundred years from now. It could be ten thousand years from now. There’s no way to know.”

  “That’s the point” Divine said. “The longer it goes on for then the stronger we become?”

  “And if it’s not successful.”

  “Then Caleb frees us anyway” Samuel said, leaning back in his chair.

  “And if Caleb’s not the one?”

  “Someone else will eventually.”

  “And if the religion is bullshit?”

  “We’ll get enough favour eventually to break readjust the arrangement.”

  “Yeah. In a million fucking years.”

  “The reward outweighs the risk”

  “I- even if it does do you not see the flaw in this plan?” Nigel said. “I mean, what if we die before it ends? If the plan does work, then we’ve built a system to end the war that literally only benefits from the war continuing and everyone staying starry eyed and stagnant to Yuniea?! I- don’t you see how that could go wrong?”

  “It’s the best option” Samuel said.

  “For who?”

  Samuel clenched his jaw, glancing to Diivne.

  “I-I don’t want to agree with him but he’s right” Divine said. “It’s the best option.”

  “For who?!” Nigel said, throwing up his hands.

  “Humanity.” Divine said. “Everyone.”

  Nigel let loose a laugh,

  “You can’t even be honest with me” Nigel said. “I- look at you. You can’t even be honest with yourself. I know what Sam wants but you? I thought you were better than this.”

  “Fuck off. It’s the right thing for everyone.” Divine repeated, more for herself than Nigel.

  “No,” Nigel said. “It’s the right thing for you. Cause whatever way this goes, it’ll be fine for us and our families.”

  “Nigel it’s the righ-”

  “Save it Divine” Nigel said, styanding suddenly. “You’re not going to convince me. You don’t need my vote anyway. Go on, enslave humanity for”

  “That’s not what we’re doing!” Divine shouted.

  “It is” Nigel replied, solemn.

  “It’s not! I- quit acting like we have a better option!” Divine shouted. But Nigel wasn’t listening anymore, walking towards the door. “Nigel! Nigel!”

  The door closed with a soft thud.

  “Leave him Divine” Samuel said, looking over the data again. “We need to get started on signing stuff.”

  His cousin stared back at him silently, then spared a quick glance to the door.

  “I- alright.”