For the first time in a hundred years, the chosen had a meeting. What was actually surprising is that more than two actually showed up to it. The weakest of them all, Azvoidius - or the current king of earth and two hundred other planets - stood at one end of the table. The strongest of them all, Mcdermott, stood at the other end. The closer you were to Mcdermott, the stronger you were considered to be by the goddess.

“Let’s get this over with. I wanna go back to sleep.” The Dreamer stood beside Mcdermott. She rubbed her eyes, tired of her lack of power in the material world. “Why should a general like Azvoidius get to dictate if we have a meeting or not?” Her arrogance was palpable.

“We were made to fight the General, and that’s why I set up this meeting.” Azvoidius retorted. The Dreamer winced, clearly unhappy at the mention of the General. “You can keep pretending that’s not our job. It won’t do you much good.”

“Why the arguing? Can’t we just go kill it?” The Bard’s eyes were bloodshot. Nobody wanted to explain anything to him while he was in this state, especially since he was going to forget it later.

“No, we can’t. Let’s just leave it at that.” The Painter took a look away from her painting for one second to have a look at him, and then immediately turned back to her work.

“Ohoho! We haven’t even gotten to the point of the meeting yet. Let the child speak.” The Librarian spoke, her voice making everyone except Mcdermott shiver. “Or not, since I already know what he’ll say. I’ll just explain it to–” She was cut off by a person closer to Mcdermott.

“The General is on the last planet Azvoidius semi-conquered, and hasn’t left for whatever reason. There, I saved you from her twenty hour description of events.” The Time Traveler relaxed for the first time since the meeting started, glad to finally get it off his chest.

“We all agreed you shouldn’t be time travelling in meetings, but I’ll let it slide since you saved me some hassle.” Mcdermott said, finally speaking. “We don’t need to do anything. The goddess hasn’t given us an order. Just call me in if the General gives you any trouble.” He sliced a hole in existence, exiting into the aether, and signalling the end of the meeting.

I was flying again, making sure to avoid the villages as much as possible. Whatever spell pulled me down last time was used by every village, and I was more interested in a safe space than more enemies to kill. I still missed my old weapons, but this suit was the only way of getting my cat back.

I could already see nature claiming back the monuments to humanity’s advancement. The giant pillars were spewing out dozens of monsters, and plenty of adventurers were taking their crack at killing them. I had been knocked out cold for exactly two days, and now only three safe spots devoid of magic existed. They were all bases in the middle of nowhere, stacked with enough military equipment to destroy entire continents, and secure enough that even the nano-chatte couldn’t break through their digital security.

I had to go to one of the bases myself if I wanted to know anything more about them. The closest one was in greenland. No cities were populated enough to have a pillar of light appear there, and it was relatively close to all western nations, so it would be a natural gathering spot. There was one in the Antarctic, and one in the Pacific, but they were further away, so I didn’t bother with them.

It was oddly silent as I approached the gigantic oil rig, the clouds obstructing my view. I could’ve almost imagined how serene the view would be, if not for the giant laser that hit me.

“I have this under control. These lasers are nothing to us.” The nano-chatte reassured me, but I still felt the searing pain coursing through my body. It stopped for a fraction of a second, and the armour cooled down. It moulded itself into something shinier, and reflected the next laser blast away.

“Francium missiles?! How do you humans already have those? You shouldn’t know about compressed francium yet. Evade the missiles the best you can while I go down to hack their systems.” Francium? Wasn’t that just radioactive cesium? It shouldn’t have been that dangerous. You can’t even store francium for more than twenty or so minutes.

My suit flattened itself and added several more thrusters to its design. I was flying through the sky like a jet as the missiles chased me. I dodged one, but it reformed itself like my suit, swapping the placement of its thruster and payload. I didn’t have enough time to dodge again, so it blew up, along with every other missile around me.

I thought it was over, and then the missiles exploded again, and again, and again. They only stopped after the sixth explosion. The suit started reconstructing me as soon as we hit the ice, but stopped as I got hit by the laser again. It didn’t stop this time, as more and more of my new body melted, the ice around me giving way to steam. I used the Revifier’s blessing to imbue myself with ice, which barely cooled me down.

So… this was it huh? This is how I died? No, this couldn’t be it, I just had to survive until the nano-chatte stopped the laser. I tried moving, but the laser kept pushing me down. How could light even push me down? It doesn’t have mass. I pushed myself back, and through the barely standing ice beneath me. It crumbled, and I went as deep as I possibly could. I reconstructed my suit into something shiny and fast, and rushed straight at the laser. The entire base lit up as I almost reached the array, only to be shot down by several hundred anti-air guns. I tumbled through the ice, feeling my broken wing, and then everything stopped. The laser, the guns, everything.

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I couldn’t get up, the suit refused my orders to reconstruct as I saw a helicopter descend. The people within had armour quite similar to mine, and the small fragment of the nano-chatte that separated from me was held in an invisible cage. They picked me up and carried me into the helicopter.

“Reform his mouth.” A soldier told the nano-chatte, who ordered my suit to reconstruct to create a mouth for me. The nano-chatte was smart enough to remove it so I couldn’t tell them anything, but not smart enough to tell that they knew I was human with a mouth.

“I’m on your–” I was cut off by the soldier.

“We know.” The soldier said in a cold, almost clinically precise tone. “You’re under Nato supervision. You are ordered not to move or talk unless we directly order you to, and to separate yourself from the suit.” The suit ripped itself off. “All of the suit.” The nano-chatte made the few particles remaining on my body move to join the mass. I guess plan B was out the window.

“How do you–” The nano-chatte attempted to ask them something, and was electrocuted. “How dare you! Primitive–” It clearly didn’t get the memo, and was shocked again. “I will have my freedom.” The nano-chatte persisted through the electrocution, still talking. “Do you think I don’t know how you got all this technology? It’s the–” The cage was sealed shut, the invisible walls became visible.

We were dropped off and brought deeper within the former oil rig. The inside was sterile. The walls were too smooth. Everything was too white. I was shoved in an interrogation booth and looked through the glass to see a red haired scientist with a clipboard. Her stare was as sharp as a dagger. I felt her energy threaten to choke me for merely staring at her.

“You are allowed to speak after I ask you a question. Is that understood?” I nod. “Good. Your name is hereby 32. Where did you get the nano-chatte?” Wait, how did they know about the nano-chatte’s name? None of this made sense. First they had uncrackable security, then they had francium missiles, and now they knew about the nano-chatte’s name?

“From a god.” The scientist raised her eyebrow, then rolled her eyes.

“Be more specific. Which god?” Ah, now it made sense. The Coming Quiet must’ve visited them. They couldn’t know about the existence of the gods without at least one of them visiting them. That’s where they got all this technology.

“The Coming Quiet.” She didn’t relax. Her eyes still stared at me, unyielding in the face of my answer.

“Describe their appearance.” Wait… what? Did the Coming Quiet not tell them his name?

“Like… a humanoid crow without a beak?” She nodded and scribbled something down on her clipboard.

“Have you encountered any of the chosen yet?” She sounded bored, as if already expecting whatever my answer was going to be without me even saying it out loud.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The nano-chatte mentioned them once or twice, but never described what they actually were. She scribbled something else into her clipboard, and didn’t even bother explaining what the chosen were.

“Interesting. You don’t even know who the king of the world is. It’s not like he’s been screeching about being a chosen to everyone.” She was being hostile to me for no reason. I didn’t understand why she would be so paranoid about a possible ally.

“Ah, he's a chosen? Makes sense. He knocked me out before I could even move when I tried fighting him.” Now that I thought about it, I remembered the nano-chatte saying he’s a chosen when it tried convincing me killing a chosen wasn’t possible. Maybe giving away all my cards instead of holding them to my chest would make her tone change.

“Alright, that’s enough 32. We just wanted to make sure you’re who we thought you were. The nano-chatte was an obvious sign, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’m sure you can understand.” She gives her clipboard to a junior scientist. “You know, I believe you finally deserve some answers.”

“What the hell happened?” That was the only question I could think of that would encompass everything I wanted to tell her. I was either in a fever dream, clinically insane, or both.

“I’m sure you know about the gods and their little contest. What you’re really curious about is our technology. I personally think our latest soldier should get the answer he desires, so let me lay it out for you. A friendly third party has helped us, and has revealed everything we need to know to conquer all scientific endeavours. It turns out all we needed to turn the tide in this conflict against the gods is knowledge.” Friendly third party? Against the gods? Oh…it was the General.