It’s been a good year, hasn’t it? A message window appeared in front of me, causing me to sigh. We were only an hour or so out from the elven homeworld, and soon it would be time to disembark. What is it, Malthan? You want something? What, can’t a guy celebrate his birthday? Sure, go have fun with a goddess. I bet they’d be more than happy to help you celebrate. In all the time that I had been speaking with Malthan, he had never mentioned any birthdays to me. Then again, time seemed to work differently for where the gods lived, so it might really have only been a year or two since this whole mess started. Way ahead of you, man! You wouldn’t believe how competitive the Goddesses of Beauty and Breasts get in the sack! And I really don’t want to know. If you can’t keep it in your pants, at least keep it to yourself. I was currently sitting in my room, writing out a report on the events that happened in the New Human Empire base. Although written reports were a bit outdated, and I didn’t technically have a boss that I needed to deliver them to, I figured that a report would be useful to deliver to the alliance representatives. As much as I hated what happened, this was our first real strike at our enemy. Sure, the first base that we attacked could count to, but we didn’t actually inconvenience them much with it. With this, though, we foiled one of their plans. It may have only been a side plan, but they had to invest a large amount of effort to pull it off. Aside from that, though, we also had locations for some of their other bases. We were no longer guessing at a starmap and hoping to get lucky. For the first time in this bloody war, we have a plan. Don’t forget about threesomes with the most attractive divine beings in the cosmos! Would really like to forget about that, though. Once I finished my report, I organized it and saved it to my computer. After that, I took a quick glance at my grove, and saw that there was barely more than two months left before I hit the final stage. By now, almost all of my planets had been eaten up by the black hole, with only the outermost ones still hanging on the precipice. At the center of the black hole, I could feel a densely packed ball of mass, containing every type of mana I could recognize and then some. This was likely to become the seed of my new grove, the embryo to the new universe. I still didn’t really know what kind of changes would happen once my grove hit the final stage, and Malthan was being entirely tight-lipped about it. I wanted to try to buy the information from the market, but the price was too expensive for me without my planets of gold. As I walked through the halls of the ship, wandering aimlessly to pass the time, I couldn’t help but remember everything that had happened until now. From my very first day in NeoLife, cursing Aria for making my life miserable, everything had led up to this. There were times that I wasn’t sure how I had survived, or what I was going to do next, but somehow I always made it. Throughout my entire adventure, there had been people helping me. People like Sharon, Celeste, Yin and Yang. Whenever I was in trouble, they were there for me. I might not always be able to say the same about myself, but they have been the best friends I could ever ask for. Hell, even Malthan has been a big help, in his own way. I’m sure that half of my ability to survive somehow was thanks to him. Especially after I got involved with the Qu’Lopti, and he advanced their civilization to help with this war. As much as I hate to admit it, I’d probably have been dead a long time ago if not for him. It was almost funny, how an unemployed gamer ended up becoming a fighter on the frontlines to protect the universe. Looking back at my life, I could barely recognize who I used to be. Even without being trapped in a time bubble for a century, it felt like the old me was someone completely different. Someone I could almost pity for always being alone, and never having the power to do anything for himself. As I got to the bridge, I looked at each of the crew members on duty. Almost all of them were those taken from Sharon’s grove. If my own growth could be called an achievement, than theirs was nothing short of a miracle. They had literally gone from being mindless animals to starship crew members. I don’t think there could be a more exaggerated growth in a single lifetime no matter where you looked. “Captain, we’re approaching the Gerin system.” One of them, a cat-eared woman, said. “Alright. Tell everyone to prepare to exit subspace.” I nodded as I sat down in the chair. Now more than ever, I could feel the weight of my responsibilities. I did not belong to any single power, but I was fighting for the freedom of all the races. And as it stands, I was the only one able to do so. From what Maeve had told me, their doppelganger plan kicked in at the very beginning of this war. It might be that the reason why none of the other races had been willing to send reinforcements was because they had already been replaced at the time. Once the chaos settles from their plan being revealed, we might finally be able to get some help in our fight. That seemed like an entirely possible theory. After all, the only races that answered the call were those that had not been infiltrated, with the exception of the Ha’vosh who don’t have much interest in space travel in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even have a single ship that could possibly be contributed to this fight for their own defense, let alone to help us strike back. “John?” A female voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked to the left to find Maeve standing there. She was wearing a blue and white dress that had been made for her after she arrived. “Everything okay?” I nodded my head to her. “Just thinking about everything that’s happened until now. Everyone has come a long way, haven’t they?” Maeve smiled gently, nodding her head. “They have. My people had almost given up on exploring other stars before you arrived. Now, we have begun to terraform new worlds, wielding powers spoken only in legend. Had someone told me ten years ago that I would be working with aliens to save my people from certain doom, I would have had them confined for their own safety.” She thought about something, and then laughed. “Cycle, we have even changed our way of life on a global scale. Because you arrived, we were able to learn what the Cycle really is. It may have just been the passed-down delusions of our ancestors’ beliefs, but to us it was as real as the sun in the sky. There are many among us who feel that these new gods are an affront to what we have always known, but at the same time, there is no way to fight it. Most simply accepted the gods as part of the Cycle.” “And you?” I asked curiously, looking to the high queen, who smiled mysteriously. “I believe in my faith. Faith without reason is ignorance, but reason without faith is cruelty. These gods you introduced to us do not contradict the Cycle. All it means is that we were thinking too small. We glimpsed the nature of the universe, like a word on a single page, and thought we knew the whole book. Now that we have seen the rest of the page, why should we reject it? The page has always been there, waiting to be read, but we were simply too blind in our faith.” Maeve then turned her head to look forward, as if she could directly see the passing stars as we flew by them. “Just imagine what we will learn when we turn the page again. What new wonders will we see, what long-held truths will be rewritten, all because we learn more of the universe’s truths?” I couldn’t help but laugh lightly when she finished, earning me an annoyed look from the elf. “I never took you for a philosopher, Maeve.” She grinned wryly at that, shaking her head. “You forget, John, I have ruled over the elves longer than you have been alive. Don’t underestimate what one can understand when given that time. Especially when one has little to do but think. Compared to the other races we have found, the elves are exceptionally long-lived. Although we are few in number, we still have those centuries of wisdom.” I nodded my head slightly at that. “I guess you’re right. How are the talks with the other queens, now that everyone knows you haven’t been yourself lately?” A look of sorrow flashed by, before Maeve collected herself. “I had many things to apologize for, but they were understanding. My only regret is that the enemy discovered my recovery too soon, and removed themselves from my friends list. There are items that can be bought from the market to track friends, but since they removed themselves from the list, that is no longer possible.” They must have been using the friends list to send orders to the doppelgangers. Probably the best method, since the system messages are undetectable and untraceable. As far as I know, at least. “Well, we still have plenty to go on, so it’s not like we have to stay on the defensive anymore.” It was at this time that the ship lightly shook, a sign of it exiting subspace. Maeve gave a small smile when she saw her homeworld displayed on the monitor ahead, her body relaxing. “I know, John. But, for right now, I just feel like it is good to be back home.” With that, Maeve turned to leave the bridge, while I began the procedures to have us docked with one of the stations that had been constructed in the system. We could theoretically just teleport everyone to the surface, but it always felt more natural to dock the ship and set off on foot. Besides, rules are rules. Being the ‘hero’ of the galaxy won’t change that. Soon after Maeve left, Sharon and Yin walked out onto the bridge, standing on either side of me. “Well, ready to go?” Sharon asked with a mischievous smile. For a moment, I searched through my memory to make sure that I hadn’t made any other promises that she could be referring to. She must have understood from my expression, because she giggled. “You’ve got your report to hand in, don’t you? I haven’t actually been with you to any of these meetings before, but this seems like one I don’t want to miss.” On the other side of me, I could catch Yin nodding slightly. It seemed she shared the sentiment of wanting to watch me embarrass myself in front of the representatives to every world. Well, too bad! “I had Celeste email it to them once we dropped out of subspace.” Sharon’s face showed clear disappointment, but she could only sigh and shake her head. “You can take the fun out of everything, can’t you?” “I try my best.” I answered with a smile, reaching up and grabbing her hand gently. You can’t take the fun out of a holy threesome! Shut up, Malthan, you’re ruining the moment. I did my best to ignore the horny god, refusing to imagine whatever escapades he could be currently up to.