...Daredrick's PoV...

I can't believe what I've just seen.

It all makes sense now that I think about it. The wanton destruction without traces, the ruthless slaughters we had to endure were too quick, too clean, too efficient to be from those rebels. I never thought there was another unknown faction operating in the shadows, another hidden powerhouse who had their sights on our beautiful Empire.

This 'Prometheus' is a powerful man; his display was more than enough to prove that fact. I do not know what this 'Order' is, nor where did it come from, but I do know that they are a force to be taken into account. Their unexpected reveal to the world was shocking, to say the least. Dealing with these new weapons will require new strategies and new equipment, but I think it's nothing the Empire cannot achieve. Those mysterious projectiles are quick, almost invisible to the naked eyes, and detection spells can barely pick them up.

These are worrying, but what made my heart skip a beat was the lackluster performance of my own troops. We have procedures in case we are facing an unknown and overwhelming enemy. But the battle quickly devolved into a messy melee which caused our troops to get slaughtered. The powerful and efficient spells we spent so much time and resources to develop were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the weapons we developed were used like mere sticks against the powerful long-ranged weapons of the Order.

At least our new experimental units fired a couple of shots, but Prometheus didn't even react when the powerful beams slammed into his torso.

I grit my teeth, the Order's reveal will upset the fragile balance of power that was slowly developing. The overwhelming might of the Order made the Empire look like a paper tiger; this unexpected show of weakness will likely prompt our enemies to attack earlier than we anticipated. Our defenses are not yet perfect, and the sudden loss of such a large amount of soldiers in such a short time will also affect our logistics.

A sigh escapes my mouth as I lean back. This is a disaster, unlike anything we've seen before. And the worse thing is that those vultures in the media spread this story far and wide; this loss will shake the Empire to its core. The rebellions we put so much effort into suppressing will likely come back, and unrest will spread in the civilian population.

But I must steel my nerves; the Empire is going to come out of this disaster stronger than ever! We'll not buckle under external and internal threats!

I slam my fist onto my desk and take a deep breath. The Order is motivated by the hatred they have for the Enforcers, and they want to correct this perceived slight. It means that the Order seeks to reveal the Hidden World to humanity.

It would be a disaster of unprecedented significance. The human armies are nothing to really worry about since even their best rifles cannot do much damage to our own men. Their bombs are also not on the level of a Strategic Spell.

However, there's a lot of humans. Earning their ire would result in what they call a 'total war,' where almost the entirety of their populations would participate in armed conflict against us.

We can deal with thousands of humans without an issue.

But hundreds of thousands, if not millions?

Even the strongest Families would be hard-pressed to survive such a human wave.

And what would we do if the Order decides to give their powerful weapons to their brethren? The disaster would be unprecedented, and I'm afraid that the resulting war would destroy entire continents.

Of course, the Families will place the blame on me, on my Empire! It's not me who allowed those cockroaches to infect the planet!

I will never understand why our ancestors allowed humanity to exist and why do we have to hide from them. I say let's show them who the real masters of the planet are; let's end those antiquated practices and take our rightful birthright as the superior species!

...John's PoV...

The Order went into overdrive as soon as the initial cheering for our victory died down. Crates upon crates of ammunition are being shuffled around while the overworked Portal Station is pushing our cooling system to its limits. Large amounts of Legionaries are regrouping as they prepare to assault various locations belonging to the Empire. Our initial intelligence gathering allowed us to pinpoint a few semi-critical areas; their sudden disappearance will undoubtedly cripple the Empire enough to give us more breathing room to assault their headquarters.

At least when we find it. The Empire must not be stupid enough to have turned the old Stonecrusher base of operations into their central command, so we have to locate that damn building before the Empire can organize and find ways to defeat us.

Their headquarters are bound to be very-well defended; so nothing short of a massive push with the entirety of our forces will be enough to penetrate the heart of the Empire. At least teleportation makes conquest easier; there's no need to make our men move around in exposed terrain for days on end until we approach our objective.

Of course; there must be anti-teleportation measures all around the Imperial HQ. Not doing so would be incredibly stupid since it would open the Empire to all sorts of attacks from a lot of people.

Speaking of those other people; the Enforcers of the world must be panicking. Just imagining the faces those smug assholes made when they realized that a real threat to their authority is rising makes me chuckle.

This situation is their own damn fault; nothing would have happened if they didn't have their stupid anti-human Rules. I would have loved to live in a magic-filled world... Hell; I probably would have never made the Rewinder in the first place if something like magic was commonplace.

But here we are; where an ex-student is pretending to be an invincible god from ancient legends to lead a cult of insane fanatics against an army of magical creatures. Not to mention the group of brainwashed teenagers with superpowers who are lead by a guy who thinks that the entire universe works like a computer.

And I would have never been aware of such things if my phone app had worked properly.

But let's stop thinking about what-ifs; I will not stop no matter what. Some Enforcers are bound to band together, and the massive armies formed will be a force unlike any others. The involvement of nations will also have to be taken into account. The nuclear option will definitely be used at some point; especially if something like Beelzebub comes along.

This conflict will likely start World War 3. The nations of the world will want to get their hands on the new magical technology, and it will lead to an arms race that will keep escalating until the unthinkable happens. Nuclear annihilation was already a genuine possibility, so I shudder to think about what would happen when you give teleportation and demon-summoning capabilities to a terrorist organization or even the US government.

A sigh escapes my mouth as the first images of the war appear on the screen in front of me. The Hammer Of Prometheus is making the entire area rumble as ridiculous amounts of shells are fired to bombard dozens of locations at once while the results are shown on the screen.

Spreading this much death and destruction isn't something that I should allow anyone to deploy. Our enemies are numerous, and planetary threats like the Oracle are a problem that I need to tackle as soon as possible. And I may need to fight government forces to establish my authority.

But I'm not going to fight them so soon. I need to spread the truth to all the people of Earth, so they understand what I have done, and what threatens our very existence.