The Headmaster’s final words hung in the air. A world war.
General Ironwood was the first to move. He had been a soldier all his life, and he knew what a declaration of war meant. He quickly pointed a finger at the main console, his face looking serious. "Get me a secure channel to the Silver Phoenix Empire," he commanded, his voice a low, angry sound. "Now."
An operator quickly moved to follow the order, his fingers moving fast across the glowing keyboard. The team - Jonah, Vanessa, Seraph, and Draven - could only watch. They had been fighting a secret war in the dark for months. Now, it felt like the whole world had kicked the door down and turned on the lights.
A loud BING sound announced that the secure communication line was ready.
The air in the War Room shimmered. Two figures appeared suddenly in a column of bright, silver light. One was Princess Ariana, her face showing cold rage. Beside her sat an older woman on a throne. Her hair was braided into a complex crown. She had to be the Empress of the Silver Phoenix Empire.
The Empress looked around the room, ignoring the soldiers and operators before stopping on General Ironwood and the Headmaster, the two men in charge.
"Your nation’s internal sickness," she started, her voice showing clear dislike, "now threatens to become a global disaster."
General Ironwood’s jaw tightened. The General was a proud man, the leader of his nation’s military, and he did not take insults lightly, even from an empress. "Your Highness," he said, his voice tight, "this is an attack on us all."
"An attack born from your soil," the Empress shot back at him, her voice dangerously soft. "From your reckless pursuit of power you do not understand and cannot control."
The Headmaster stepped forward, looking calm but tired. He knew arguing was pointless. The Empress was right. "What you are saying is true," he agreed, the admission feeling awful as he said it. "Our nation has made mistakes. But we are not the ones who built this weapon."
He and the General had no choice. The secret war was over. It was time to tell the truth.
They explained everything. They spoke of Dr. Thorne, the mad scientist who believed creation was a thing to be forced. They spoke of Julian Sterling, the businessman who saw a person’s soul as just another product to be made. They described the Sterling Syndicate, the ghost-like assassin Silas, and the terrible Genesis War that had been fought in the dark corners of their nation.
Jonah stood beside Vanessa, feeling the eyes of the Empress and Ariana on him the entire time. When the Headmaster spoke of a "true Weaver," a boy who could create life through a bond of respect rather than a cold formula, Ariana’s eyes focused. This was not just a political report for her. It was personal. He could see it in the way her posture straightened, in the way her focus changed from the generals to him.
When they finished, the silence was heavy. The Empress looked completely unimpressed. "A story about crazy people and monsters," she said coldly. "And you have no way to stop them."
It was a simple statement, not a question. It was her final decision.
This was the moment. The Headmaster looked at General Ironwood, who gave a short, sharp nod. They had to use their last, most important secret.
"We believe we have a counter," the Headmaster said, his voice steady. He gestured to Vanessa. "Show them."
Vanessa stepped forward, her face serious and determined. She typed a command into her console. The image of the world map vanished, and a complex, spinning diagram of golden energy took its place. It was beautiful and scary, a design of impossible power and balance.
"A Grade-6 Progeny," Vanessa explained, her voice clear and strong. "Codename: Nomad. A creature designed for survival and combat in the void of space." The rightful source is novel·fiɾe·net
On the other side of the hologram, the Empress’s royal engineers, who had been standing quietly in the background, moved closer to the screen, their calm expressions breaking into open shock. A Grade-6? That was a level of creation that only existed in theory. A myth. Something one would only read about in old books.
"The theory is sound," one of the Phoenix engineers said, his voice showing a mix of shock and awe. "The energy matrix... it’s stable. Impossible, but stable."
The feeling in the meeting started to change. The raw anger was still there, but now it was mixed with a new, intense curiosity. The accusation had turned into a tense calculation. They were not just looking at a failed nation begging for help anymore. They were looking at the blueprints for a miracle.
The Empress looked at the spinning, golden diagram. Then she looked back at the Headmaster. "You have designed a god," she stated, and her voice was flat and unimpressed. "But you have no way to deliver it to the sky. You have a bullet, but no gun. You cannot win this war."
It was Princess Ariana who spoke after that. She had not said a single word the whole time. Her eyes had been studying the data, but mostly, they had been studying Jonah. She saw the evil of Thorne and Sterling, the cold thinking she had warned him about. And now, she saw how he had answered it.
She stood up, her silver robes glowing.
"You have created a miracle," she said, her voice clear and strong. Her eyes locked with Jonah, despite the huge distance between them.
She turned to her mother, the Empress. "They may not be able to fly," she said, her voice sounding with a sudden confidence that made everyone in the room pay attention.
Then she looked back at Jonah, with a challenge and promise in her eyes. The fate of the world rested on that stare, on the impossible choice they were about to make.
"We, however... we have the ability to reach the sky."