Eldrin fought the endless army of mindless ones tirelessly,his tall, majestic form danced around the sea of mindless ones, his scythe reaping their lives,yet they continued their advance, but this time to him.
Days passed, then weeks. Eldrin never stopped; he had lost count of the number of mindless ones that he had killed. It wasn't important anyway, since they were quite literally endless.
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Back in the invisible world,the construction of the steel wall was nearing its end,the atasrte's hadn't moved, still standing in front of the wall like statues,awaiting for any demon that may slip through The Darkling,but so far no such thing had happened.
Inside the walls, all the streets were crowded with people going on about their day,as if they weren't in a war that could cause their death at any time.
It wasn't arrogance nor ignorance that kept them from feeling fear,but a purpose that was engraved deep in their very being,Survival. Every single one of them carried the flame of humanity,tasked with keeping it from extinguishing; everybody had a task, everybody had a role, along with the desire to fulfil it.
They were afraid,but their determination and resolve overpowered fear,shaping it into something useful, something dangerous.
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light-years away on a planet known as Wolf 1069 b, thousands of arcs could be seen on its surface,and they were filled to the brim with humans. Countless automated construction machines were building a megacity enough to house billions, yet not enough to house everyone.
Inside one arc, Cecil was going back and forth, seemingly in deep thought. The burden and pressure that he was carrying were immense,but thankfully, he kept a full head of hair; he was no normal human after all, stress can't harm him.
He had already taken out certain figure's that that were a threat,of course, they were politicians,he couldn't afford to start a war with superpowered people,they were needed.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Cecil stopped and looked at the door, his voice firm.
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Nolan"
Cecil's eyes narrowed when he heard the familiar voice, but he still opened the door.
Nolan was standing there with a troubled expression and Cecil naturally noticed.
"What is it?"asked Cecil.
After hesitating for a while, Nolan signed and answered.
"My kind,they are searching for us,they are probably heading to earth as we speak. "his voice turned complicated"The stunt you guys pulled with the bodies has probably pissed them off"
But Cecil asked with suspicion, not convinced.
"How do you know that they are heading to Earth? Have you gotten in contact with them?!"
But Nolan shook his head, his voice deadpan.
"I worked under the empire for thousands of years; it's easy to predict their actions"
Cecil frowned with worry; that was not good. The people back there stood no chance against even a single Viltrumite.
Cecil looked at Nolan and asked in urgency.
"That Eldrin guy, how strong is he?! Can he beat a bunch of Viltrumites?"
Nolan thought for a while. In terms of physical strength,Eldrin was not much weaker than an average Viltrumite,but his attacks could harm someone as strong as Nolan and even kill him if he tried.
"Let's hope that he can"said Nolan helplessly. As long as Thragg himself doesn't show up, there will be hope.
Cecil grabbed his forehead, feeling a migraine coming.
"The Lord gives us his toughest battles"he said, already assuming that the people back on earth were done for.
Yet Cecil wasn't about to leave them to their fate; he can't afford to send many of his viltrumite hybrid's, but he can send two, and he will.
"Hopefully that will increase their chances of survival"thought Cecil.
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Back on planet LHS 1140 b,the human empire was already planning to expand further into the stars. The stones allowed for instant construction of megacities, which made it even easier to expand. The first target was LHS 1140 c; it was also a super-earth, though not as big as LHS 1140 b; it was still bigger than Earth.
But due to being closer to the solar system's star, it was way hotter, but not completely uninhabitable. Erskine had already gone there with the stones to construct megacities to host billions of humans,yet there was a problem: the number of humans wasn't that large, only around 15 billion.
But Erskine had accounted for this, which is why he had long since built artificial wombs meant to accelerate and increase the birth rates of the human race; it was a necessity if they wanted to rapidly expand to other planets and solar systems.
The process had already started a few days ago; in about 3 months, the population of the human empire will almost double,now you may ask, how? Normally, I would take 8 to 9 months for an embryo to fully grow into an infant. Well, the artificial wombs had a special function; they accelerated the growth rate of embryos into infants, reducing it to 3 months.
And no, they won't be orphans; the artificial womb's simply replaced women's wombs, so they won't have to go through the agonizing process of birth. Once the process is over, the family will come to retrieve their child.
Of course, people who hesitated about having children due to the rumoured agonising pain rushed over when they heard about the new artificial wombs.