Valkyrie Smash

Though she seemed to have more to say, Melissa chose to move on from the first reporter and gave the next one on the list permission to speak. A well-dressed man in his late forties stood from his seat. He gazed at the Council for a few seconds before moving his sights to the paper in his hands.

"Recently, as more truths are being uncovered, we learned that the enemy we have been fighting came from a different dimension than ours. Though that erased the misconception of Calamities, and subsequently the Nephilim, being aliens from outer space, does it change the implication of different life forms being out there?"

'What is the difference, huh?'

"The implications do not change," Sam replied, still smiling. "Though it might appear much more convoluted, the truth is that nothing has changed since ancient times. We started as tribes and villages, some of which chose to be enemies while others formed alliances and lived among each other. Throughout the ages, the scale kept increasing from villages to cities to kingdoms then to nations.

After thousands of years, we're finally moving toward an age where entire worlds are involved, but whether it's space or other dimensions, those ancient concepts will never change." Pausing for a moment, Sam looked at the middle-aged man and smiled. "We will befriend those who seek our friendship, and we will crush those who come to us with ill intent.

If there is anything that will change, it would be that we can no longer afford to be as divided as we were in the old world. Going forward, there will be no more borders separating the people of our world. We will unite under a single banner and seek to cement our position in the new age."

When Sam finished delivering his answer, a chilling silence overtook the conference hall. Several seconds passed with no one doing as much as taking a single breath, and once the idea finally settled in, the hall ignited as if set on fire.

It was an expected reaction and for an obvious reason. The odds being against them didn't stop the humans from trying to predict how the world would turn out once the war was over.

The vast majority of humans were wiped out in the decade-long war; some nations don't even have a single survivor. Trying to redraw the borders of the old world was a meaningless idea. Because of that, there were two popular predictions as to how the world would turn out.

The first was a future where each of the human settlements declared their independence and eventually turned into their own nations. Going by the political climate and the movements made by the Six Generals, it was expected that the world would be divided into six nations headed by each of the Generals.

To avoid any single nation from getting its hand on the Valkyries, a seventh region will be created with the other six managing it. The Resistance would be allocated to said region and would be responsible for defending their world against external threats.

The second prediction was that the Human Resistance would expand from a military organization to encompass a political branch as well, uniting the world under a single banner.

One could say that this prediction has already come true. The Resistance managed to gain a foothold because there was no single nation left that could effectively organize the survivors.

The Settlements started as refugee camps that were expanded and connected with its help, and though they had their own internal governing bodies, in the end, it was the military organization that ran everything as nothing could be done without the protection it provided.

The only thing that made people doubt that such a status quo would continue was the same that convinced them they were heading for the first prediction; the leaders of the Resistance were making moves to divide the world amongst themselves.

It was easier to see them having a fallout than working together, and even if it didn't turn out like that right away, one could still expect things to proceed in that direction over time.

In the end, just like how the war was over suddenly and without a warning, the world shifted in the least expected direction, and most people could already tell it was all that one man's doing. Sam Sanderson.

"If that answers your question then may we move on to the next one?"

When his voice resounded through the conference hall, silence took over once more. All eyes turned toward the man sitting in the middle, like a king surrounded by his loyal ministers.

The six Generals had no choice but to hide their true feelings and accept that they had lost. That man had the Valkyries at his beck and call, not to mention the Nephilim's support. No one could hope to match his backing, and unless they somehow found other worlds to ally with, their hope of competing for the throne was practically none existent.

The next reporter in line received permission to stand up. She had questions of her own prepared beforehand, but those clearly had to take a backseat considering their current topic of discussion.

"Head General Sanderson, seeing the position our world is in right now, it is understandable that we need to stay united. However, do you believe it is possible to achieve such a thing? Though history shows that humans are capable of working together toward a common goal, it is also littered with examples of division and strife.

Would the Resistance truly be capable of leading our world to such an idealistic future?"

That was the only way to phrase the questions without outright insulting the man at the top. The reporter wanted to cast doubt on the Resistance and its new leader. She wanted to stand in his face and tell him he was nothing more than a delusional dictator wannabe. But that would never happen.

"I think you're mistaken here." When he spoke, every last person watching the conference opened their minds and listened carefully. Each word he spoke was a signal that marked the start of a new world. The authority it held left no room for arguments, and though many would've liked to protest, nothing they said could ever hope of countering him. "We do not have any choice.

To face the threats that lurk in our path, to ensure we survive the trials that lie ahead, we must not allow division to weaken our stand. Anyone who rejects to unity is a fool who'll bring nothing but death and destruction to our world. We will not fall for the same mistakes our ancestors made. We will remain a united monolith, and together we will ascend to the pinnacle of this endless multiverse."