Sighing in lament, David teleported from the battlefield and reappeared outside a blue barrier thousands of miles away.

The barrier stopped all Jumpers from entering Jumper City without permission.

The blue barrier slowly flickered and created an opening that David quickly entered. The city was not as much built as it was re-discovered with almost everything intact.

The city was constructed like Victorian Era Europe with a huge palace at the center of everything.

The further David walked into the city, the more Jumpers and humans fell into step behind him. Their faces showing utmost reverence and joy at his return from battle.

Without David, all the citizens of the city knew they wouldn't survive. The city had grown through the years, the population now bordered a billion people.

The kids ran across the streets hoping to get a glimpse at the hero who was still fighting for peace.

Throughout all the battles that raged, David was amongst the few who always made it back in one piece.

Every day the battle inched closer and closer to the city, and every day people of the city had to wonder if it would be their last day to live.

David glanced at the many statues that surrounding the palace in the distance. There were statues of David, Griffin, Millie, and even Zeel, Alice, and Elizabeth.

For some reason, David could not carve the face onto Zeel's, Alice's, and Elizabeth's statues. It was as if he had forgotten their faces entirely.

The palace was home to his wife, Millie, and their daughter, Millicent Rice.

David was never one to care about formalities but he knew that his status as a leader demanded that he carry himself as such.

It had been ten years since Zeel left this Universe, and David had grown both thankful and bitter for Zeel's help.

David didn't know why, but he always felt that Zeel knew that this war would happen and did nothing to stop it.

Sometimes, David could even imagine Zeel in his mind saying 'Such is the nature of pitiful humans,'

Sadly, David knew that he absolutely had to fight no matter what. Millie was an Artificial Jumper created by Zeel using unknown means.

David knew that Zeel even anchored Millie's abilities to his own.

That meant that Millie's powers were dependent on David's state at all times.

Artificial Jumpers were severely weaker than natural Jumpers, but Millie was an exception since she was created by Zeel.

Millie was able to grow her power alongside David's, and that earned the ire of many Jumpers who could not give their loved ones similar abilities.

Of course, Artificial Jumpers could be created, but their lifespans would be months at best, so everyone wanted Millie as much as they wanted the Blood Crystal.

As a man fighting for the safety of his family, David had to make the hard decisions and even considered heading over to Travelers' City to kill Griffin himself.

Such were the thoughts of a desperate man during an even more desperate war.

Ignoring the people following him, David Jumped directly to the palace gates, and even before he could push it open, he felt a thug that pulled him through the gates and into the arms of a smaller version of Millie, his daughter Millicent Rice.

Unlike most Jumpers, Millicent was born with an unparalleled talent for Jumping, and could even apply her Jumping abilities in different ways such as the Telekinesis she just used to pull David, her father, into her childish arms.

Millicent giggled happily as she held her father within her grasp.

"Hehehe, see father? I can control it better now," She said, bragging with her head held high with innocents that knew not of the terror outside the city's barriers.

"Haha," David laughed, grabbing his daughter and spinning her around happily "Now you can steal cookies for daddy when mommy isn't looking,"

David and Millicent laughed maniacally together until they both felt their bodies automatically Jumping into the arms of a fearsome beast – Millie.

Millie also had her unique strengths when it came to Jumping, she could control, to a certain extent, the Jumps of anyone with who she was familiar.

Millie could always force Millicent and David to Jump into her arms before they had time to react. She would often use such a move to frighten them both when they plotted to steal her cookies.

The father and daughter duo were mischievous without Millie's observation.

"Who wants to steal my cookies?" Millie asked threateningly but also jokingly.

Millicent didn't wait a heartbeat before pointing to David and crying up a storm with the passion of a world-renowned actress.

"Papa wanted to force me to steal cookies but I am a good girl," She said, crying some more to sell the act completely.

Being the doting mother she was, Millie immediately directed a death stare towards David who muttered 'Traitor' under his breath.

Millicent simply smiled, turned around in her mother's embrace, and whispered back "Every man for himself,"

Later that evening after David and Millie had nursed Millicent to bed, they walked into the conference room of the palace.

The room was filled with people that had glum looks on their faces.

David and Millie sat in the first and second largest seats respectively and the mood in the room instantly turned heavier than previously.

"Reports?" David asked the others on the conference table reluctantly.

Several eyes darted around the room until one person stood up from amongst the Council Members.

"We heard that the human faction has perfected their black hole technology to the west and successfully destroyed Travelers City," The man explained while squinting his eyes to stop the tears from falling.

David and Millie's breathing stopped for a moment and resumed the next, the pain of losing a once dear friend, Griffin, had already been pushed from their minds.

How many people have they already lost to the war? Now, only one thing mattered most of all.

A woman stood from her chair and said the words that everyone was thinking but none dared to say.

"Sir, with Griffin dead in the attack, you now have total authority over Herme's Dimension. You now have two options before you: One, you can alter the laws to eject all non-Jumpers from the Herme's Dimension, or Two, you can consume the Blood Crystal and most people would lose the will to continue the fight," The woman said, hoping for an easy resolution.

Millie held David's hand firmly, digging her nails into his skin as if to convey that she would agree with whatever decision he made, but also pleading him to choose their family.

As heartless as it was, Millie was leaning towards ejecting all non-Jumpers from Herme's Dimension and ending the war before their city became the next casualty.

However, Millie also knew that David couldn't do that, it would be murdering billions of humans, even the families of some Jumpers.

After all, Jumpers were on the human sides, and humans were on the Jumper's sides as well.

Nobody was at fault, and the majority of the humans were fighting only because they were angry for what they lost in the war.

How can you fault a man for picking up a gun to kill the people that killed his daughter even if he is fighting for the wrong side?

David took a deep breath and glanced at everyone within the Conference room.

"I know what you are all thinking. How easy it would be to eject all humans and stop the war before all of us die as a consequence.

But I can't do that with good conscience… how many children would die? Hundreds of thousands… millions?

How many people refuse to fight the war and just want to live in peace? I have said this more times than I care to admit, but I don't believe immortality is so easy to gain.

I once had a conversation with Zeel, or as you know him – The God of Speed and Dimensions. He told me that nobody is truly immortal, if death doesn't claim you, madness and power will instead.

I don't believe that a crystal that absorbs the blood of our brothers and sisters to provide immortality is not worth the price.

Nobody should be immortal if even one person has to die for it," David said, the grimace on his face showing his pain and his helplessness.

"But that could end the war!" A person stood, shouting angrily but nobody stopped him "The humans already re-created that black hole technology. How long until it destroys this world too?"

Millie patted David on the back gently and responded in his stead "Perhaps we don't deserve to live… we are already calling them 'humans' like we're not also humans,"

Everyone fell silent when such a plain flaw was pointed out. They were all humans, even Jumpers, but somewhere along the lines of the war, it became a matter of 'us' and 'them'.

The meeting was dismissed, Millie and David went to their chambers for a night's rest.

On the way to their room, David stopped and stared towards the Eastern Mountains with a confused look on his face.

For the briefest of moments, David felt as if he was being watched by that 'God'… that person… her – Adallindis of The Akasha Race.

Millie's face went pale and she quickly pulled David towards their chambers quicker. Millie obviously knew something that David did not and Millie knew exactly what was happening.

But how far would a mother go to protect the life of her child, in Millie's case the answer was obvious – there were no limits.