“I have a question.” Violet raises her hand. “What the actual fuck?”

  All of us, even Lucien and Bellaris, burst into a fit of laughter that lasts several seconds. Lucien clears his throat. “It is as I said, a new branch of the military, with you five as the first members. Assuming you accept.”

  “Yes, what the actual fuck? Do you know how many problems that would cause? Have you even gotten approval from the empress and imperial court?”

  Lucien considers Violet’s words for a moment. “Ha, of course there will be issues and problems. Messing with the balance of power in such a way is not an easy thing to do. But, we have been given a directive from the Empress, in fact, it was her eminence that suggested this course of action.” Violet goes quiet when he mentions that the Empress ordered it. Lucien and Bellaris may be the pinnacle of hard power, but the Empress is the pinnacle of soft power, that being, money and influence. If she orders something, it is done, no questions asked.

  “I have no clue what sort of issues you are talking about.” I interject. “But assuming we ignore that part, what would this entail?”

  Bellaris steps closer to the table and lays out a prism. It displays a map of the empire, and the area beyond it. It is almost all red, and at the top it says: 76% of human territory under occupation. “This is the current state of the war. To put it bluntly, we are losing. Our efforts are slowing the monsters’ advance, yet they are still overwhelming us. For every planet we restore, they simply invade another.”

  The room goes silent as she declares it. Tension fills the air as the reality sinks in.

  Lucien clears his throat, preparing for something big. “The goal of this new branch will be to end the war. Our first objective will be to take you five, and break you.”

  No one speaks for several moments. The map of the empire hovers menacingly, red lights flashing as troops are engaged and fighting.

  At last, Moxie speaks. “Break us?”

  Lucien laughs in a truly scary way. “Yes. We will take you five, and put you through so much pain and suffering that you become the strongest weapons this empire has seen since the age of heroes.”

  Finally.

  “Where do I sign up?” I say with absolute conviction. The others turn to look at me, and I can see a fire blazing in their eyes.

  Lucien and Bellaris burst out into laughter and Bellaris composes herself first. “Damn, we thought it would take a bit more than that. But, this must be a unanimous decision. If even one of you has any shred of doubt, or lack of conviction, this will fail and humanity will die.”

  I look at each of the others, and they nod and give their assent. Stephen speaks for all of us. “We will do it. Though, what exactly will we be doing?”

  Bellaris changes the projector and it displays our five portraits as well as a bunch of metrics. They are our entrance exam scores, each of us has one score with a #1 next to it, and the others are quite high too. “Each and every one of you have immense potential in at least one area. Not even considering the dragonkin that we have here, your squadron has been put together for this from the start.”

  Lucien pulls out five badges, a double helix with stars at either end. “These badges mark you as special operations units. They will grant you increased security clearance, so we won't have to fiddle around with paperwork constantly.” He pauses and floats one of each badge over to us, and it affixes itself right on our chestplates. “Also, you will all be exempt from normal classes, yet not exams and the mocks. Instead, you will be personally trained by myself, Bellaris and two others who you will meet later.”

  Bellaris slaps Lucien on the shoulder. “Geez, don't forget the most important part.” She turns towards us and smiles. “You will not return to the academy, in fact, you will spend as long as it takes moving between different conquests. We will hone you into weapons to end this war. Now, are there any questions?”

  I have no fucking clue what exactly is going on. But, it sounds like we are going to make those monsters regret ever invading humanity. Which is a plan I can get behind.

  All of us have big grins plastered on our faces. Even Violet is smiling. It seems they are all thinking similar things. “When do we start?” I ask, which causes Lucien to start laughing hysterically.

  - A bit of explaining later -

  I collapse into the bed of my provided quarters. One of the new perks of being a part of the special operations unit is that we each get some really fancy quarters in the Spire. It seems they managed to move all of our stuff from the academy here already. Either they are really fast, or they knew we wouldn't refuse. They even brought the flower, and it seems it has been upgraded into a fancier vase.

  We all ended up asking a lot more questions, and they clarified a lot of things. In summary, we are exempt from schooling aside from exams and The Mocks. But they assured us that we would have absolutely no issues with them. After all, we are going to be personally guided by four of the strongest humans alive.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Wasting no time, tomorrow we are going to be shipped out back to Volea, where we will stay and take on hive after hive. All the while, we will be mentored. Then, we will move on to a harder conquest. So on and so forth. They really aren’t wasting any time.

  Naturally, this entire operation is not just nine of us. There is a whole team of researchers and other staff that will be supporting us. Bellaris also mentioned that part of this will be testing Violet and my dragonkin related aspects, and finally get answers about what we are truly capable of.

  Maka, I am going to grow up super fast, and then I will be able to fight alongside you finally. I want to chomp monsters too. Lemon says from beside me. I look into her eyes, and I can see the familiar blaze of determination in them.

  Of course you are. We will get stronger together. Then we will show those monsters who the real monsters are. I pat her on the head a whole bunch, and she even lets me give her some bellyrubs.

  We were also told that we are being trained for one specific mission. But no matter how much we pushed, they refused to tell us what it is. Something about not wanting us to get scared and run away or something.

  On another note, Violet asked a lot of political questions. She was really concerned about how this is going to go over. Especially in political spheres, after all, a new branch of the military is sure to shift power around. People in power don't like shifts in power, because it can be bad for their status. To that I say, damn nobles can burn at a stake. Aside from Violet of course, she is too cute to burn at a stake.

  It sounds like we might not get many vacations though. Which would be sad, if it didn't mean we get to slay more monsters. I wonder how fast I am going to level, I bet I reach at least rank 5 by the time the mocks roll around. Well, assuming Violet and I don't destroy reality with our abilities first.

  A knock sounds at my door. Much to Lemon’s dismay, I get up and answer it.

  Bellaris is standing at my door, and Violet is leaning against the wall behind her. “Come with me.” is all she says, and then walks away. I take a look back at Lemon, who has already fallen asleep and I follow behind Bellaris. We take a quick ride on the tubes and come out somewhere in the central spire.

  We enter a room that says ‘Vice-Director’s Accomodations’ on it. Guess this must be where Bellaris lives. I should probably be freaking out or something right now, but honestly so much shit has happened in the past month that I think I've gone numb to it.

  “Take a seat, if you want.” Bellaris says as we walk inside. The place is gigantic, the living space is easily the size of all our quarters at the academy combined. The entire place has a faint floral smell, which somehow aligns perfectly with my perception of her. There is a large glass wall that is showing off a greenhouse with a lot of crazy plants that must be super rare. Alongside it is a large fish tank, though I don't know if they can really be called ‘fish.’ One of the creatures is a giant blue squid, about 20 meters long, and it is just lazily floating about.

  The furnishings are quite bare, just two three-person couches, with a table. There are also lots of trophies and such hung on the walls. Bellaris heads into a full kitchen and returns carrying a few plates of biscuits and a large cake. I should avoid the cake, I can thank Lucien for the warning later.

  I sit down on one of the couches and Bellaris sits on the other one. Violet hangs by the door for a moment and I can see the calculations running in her head. It is a hard choice, to sit next to the annoyance or the totally not intimidating swordswoman of legends.

  She eventually decides to sit next to me, keeping as much distance as she physically can. I can’t complain, even if she insists on ignoring me, she is still really beautiful. Even just a chance at getting a brief whiff of her perfume is more than enough for me.

  “So,” Bellaris looks between us, “what’s the deal between you two?”

  “Absolutely nothing.” Violet says immediately. Damn, that's harsh, can't she at least say we are frenemies or something?

  “She threw me on my ass and left me alone on a tropical island.” I quip back. Bellaris stares at the two of us for a moment, and then starts cackling.

  “I see. So it is that type of thing then. Quite interesting indeed.” She grabs a biscuit and takes her time eating it. We just watch her, unsure what she called us here for. She notices our awkwardness. “Relax, I am not testing you or something. You see, I merely like to bake for people, much as that might seem unlikely. Plus, it's not every day that I get to talk to a dragonkin, let alone two at once.”

  I grab a biscuit and quickly scarf it down, they are truly delicious. “So, there are other dragonkin out there somewhere?”

  “They drift here and there. I don't think a single one is signed to any house. They tend to just appear and ask to fight in a conquest every once in a while. We can't really refuse them, cause they often end up wiping entire hives alone and save us tons of effort.”

  “So, what exactly are we anyways?” Violet asks. “You probably know something, right?

  “From what I have been told, dragonkin are those chosen by elder dragons and ‘improved.’ Being part dragon, you naturally are closer to the system, which yields interesting effects. Like the title that Maka has gained.”

  “Wait, what's this about a title?” Violet asks.

  “Oh yeah, I guess I never did tell you guys the specifics. I had a conversation with Vixelos and he gave me a set of challenges or whatever to complete, and a fancy title to accompany it.”

  “No fair, I want one too.” Violet pouts super cutely.

  “I am sure you will get one at some point, every dragonkin gets at least one from what I understand.” Bellaris explains. “Anyways, how about we talk about some more fun things?”

  “Ooo, will you tell us some stories of your battles?” I ask.

  Bellaris then spends several hours telling us grand – and clearly dramatized – stories of her adventures. She mentions Lucien a lot, I guess they have always fought pretty closely together, even when the rest of their squadron was around.

  Afterwards, Violet and I leave and head back to our quarters in only mildly awkward silence. When we part ways, I wish her a good night. To my surprise, she actually looks at me for a few seconds, but doesn't say anything.

  I think that is progress, at least she didn't ignore me completely.

  Lemon is hogging the bed completely, so I have to push her out of the way so I can lay down. I do a bit of thinking, but eventually the allure of sleep drags me down into the bliss of unconsciousness.

  Next Chapter: Back For More

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