January 1st, 2022. Happy new year. Although Professor Jori Blanchett was more than happy just because of a mere new year. Right below the France-Switzerland border, the scientists had made an important discovery. Jori stood up in the elevator after a phone call came for him right after the new year event.

LHC, shortened for Large Hadron Collider, had made an important discovery. They just created an unknown substance that had similar properties to a black hole without its hazardous properties. The mini black hole, probably only measured in femtometers, was relatively stable and had been sitting inside of the machine for around twelve minutes, an astounding feat.

Jori walked into the room where the LHC was monitored. From the computer, the substance could be seen and the properties of the substance were also analyzed. Some scientists took the conclusion that this was another anomaly from the readings, but no, this time, it was different.

Even after multiple tests from different testing devices, the results were still the same. The substance was indeed something real. Jori stood anxiously in the room but excited at the same time.

Jori took a glance at the computer. If this black hole actually could be used as an energy source, the continuous conflict caused by the energy needs would eventually be resolved. Russians wouldn't hold Europe because of its energy need. It would only need R&D, but a first step is a first step.

Jori was a scientist, but it didn't mean that he didn't have any worry about this new substance. Most importantly, this black hole-ish substance seemed to be connecting itself to another dimension or acting in a non-euclidean way. The light beam would go past the hole, but it didn't disappear, but instead only appeared on the other side.

All of a sudden, the object disappeared. Jori let out a sigh of disappointment. This could be a scientific breakthrough, but it suddenly disappeared. Oh well, at least, CERN had the data about the strange matter, they could make another sooner or later.

As Jori wanted to leave the lab, the strange matter appeared again. This time, the matter was bigger than before. The screen that measured its size started to tick. The matter size increased little by little.

The scientists started to sweat and they began to shut down the LHC. However, the matter kept growing and growing. Jori didn't know what was going on, but the alarm on that facility started blaring. The red strobe light on the ceiling started spinning.

"EVACUATE! ÉVACUER! EVACUATE! ÉVACUER!"

Jori ran towards the emergency stairs. The strange matter kept growing in size and started breaking the LHC. Now the particle was one millimeter big, and it started giving out energy to everything around it. The computer screen in that room exploded thanks to energy overload.

Explosions started appearing left and right. Even with bad backs and bad athletic abilities, Jori ran as fast as he could to the emergency stairs, even overtaking several security guards along the way. Pipes started to explode, injuring everyone in possibility.

Everyone was confused. No one knew what happened. The explosions around them could only be described as something that came out of Michael Bay's movie. LHC wasn't supposed to be exploding, and yet it exploded so violently.

The ceiling started to fall over his head. Several running scientists were immediately buried beneath the rubble. This shouldn't even be possible in the first place, CERN had a really tight safety drill, and this happened. Jori couldn't believe what he saw with his eyes with the explosions, crumbling roof, and the blaring siren.

He continued running away from the LHC. He then looked behind with his own eyes. What in the actual hell was going on? The ceiling behind him started falling from the ground. He ran even faster.

Eventually, Jori got out of the underground, and he looked at the ground the facility that just turned into a large sinkhole. He still wondered how he could get out of that place alive. Then, from the place where the substance was formed, a white pillar of light was erected. It was shining brightly, like a beacon shining its laser-like beam towards the sky in the middle of the rubble.

Jori just stood there, still out of breath and panting heavily while his back was giving up on him due to his old age. The pillar of light, just like a holy light, he thought as he saw that light erected from the ground. He still wondered what actually had happened.

Little did Jori know at the time, it was the revolution that he wanted. It was the limitless energy source that the world desperately needed in this time of conflict for the source of energy.

A lot of pillars of the same kind were erected in many places of the world, resulting in the same casualties. 9 of those pillars were erected in the American Continent, 10 were erected in the African Continent, Eurasia has 10 of those pillars, and Oceania has 2 pillars. All of the 31 pillars were erected at the same time.

This solved the energy issue of the whole world. Even one pillar was more than enough to provide energy to the entire world. Scientists even came as far to say that the whole earth was not even using a yocto of the whole energy output from a pillar alone. It was simply insane.

The pillar even outputted a lot of surplus energy to earth that humans could use. This surplus energy was known as magic. That was the beginning of the so-called superpower or anomaly on Earth. Some abilities were generic, some were specials. It was all based on their ability to capture magical energy from the air and manipulate it, ranging from those who could let out flames from their hands to those who could fly in the air.

For the first time in the world, geopolitics became radically different. No longer NATO and Russians were fighting each other. Ukraine and Russia were no longer in a conflict due to the lack of need for war between two nations with how situations were.

And for the first time in history, a peace that shouldn't even happen in the first place finally happened. Russian Federation and NATO signed a peace and non-aggression agreement, declaring that aggression between two pacts was no longer benefit both parties. And even more surprising, ten years later, Russian Federation joined the organization and thus changed the name of the organization to North Ocean Treaty Organization, or NOTO; OTON.

This was the beginning of the era called the "Great Peace." With the whole of Europe now united and the rest of the world followed shortly by declaring a non-aggression pact between each other, even those nations that hated each other signed it for the better future of humanity. An idea that used to be thought of as impossible, but eventually happened.

This era was used as the era of reconciliation. NOTO used this era to bolster society in the less fortunate regions of the world. This era was the era of welfare. Huge mega projects were built left and right. A highway and railway system that stretched from South Africa to the whole of Europe? Check. Space Elevator that stretched all the way to the moon to mine resources? Check. Asteroid mining? Check. Solving worlds hunger through a breakthrough in the agricultural sector? Check. Faster-than-light travel? Check. Bionic body parts that were significantly better than their organic counterparts? Check.

The whole world became a large union of all nations which diverse in cultures, but unite under their differences. The "Great Peace" era ended and was replaced with the era of "Great Union." Some might prefer to call this era "World Without Boundaries" due to how united the world was. Several other planets around the galaxy were also inhabited by humans in numbers that couldn't be said as small.

All in all, it was a great era with little development in the military sector whatsoever. All development was directed at things that would make life more convenient and efficient. This gave a huge toll later on humanity.

January 1st, 2122. Happy new year, but not so happy since an alien race invaded Earth. Menkaid race was its name. A race looking for resources to be mined and they stumbled upon Earth to fully rob its resources, especially the light beam that continuously emits energy for Earth. Appearance-wise, they didn't look that different from humans, except for the questionable anatomy with things such as horns and animal ears.

Without any mercy, Menkaid commenced massive genocide against the human race that hadn't been at war for a century. Catching them with their pants down was a massive understatement. Massacres were happening left and right thanks to the lack of military training in each country.

The human race was at a massive disadvantage against the Menkaid race due to the lack of military training and the lack of military technology. Menkaid race mercilessly bombed every major city on Earth with their spaceships, and with the lack of air defense against a massive scale invasion, casualties were in the number of thousands.

UN declared a planet-wide emergency and military industries were started to be rolling out again. War technology from the early 21st century was reproduced and modernized to fight against the Menkaid race. Fighter jets that were modernized to their best were flown to fight against the Menkaid invasion.

Anything that could be used to kill was thrown at them, nuclear-tipped missiles, explosive bullets, kamikaze attacks using F-22 "Raptor" filled with small antimatter beads, anything that could be used would be used against the Menkaid spaceship. Reinforcement from multiple different planets started bombing the shit out of the Menkaid spaceship with their retrofitted cargo ship carrying a nuclear warhead to be fired at them.

Eventually, the war against the Menkaid ended after twenty continuous years of skirmishes, and Earth was taken back albeit with massive casualties. 4 billion soldiers died alongside 14 billion civilians from the total population of 30 billion people from the entire galaxy.

Soldiers ranging from those who were flying while holding their M4 to soldiers who used fighter jets were used in the chaotic warfare against the Menkaid race. Eventually, it resulted in a very bitter victory for Earth after losing more than half of its population and it pushed the Menkaid away.

This really blew a massive blow to Earth and blew a massive hysteria against another invasion. Earth eventually bolstered its united military even more in fear of invasion against Menkaid. Anything was put on the table. Every single early 21st-century fighter jet was fitted with a new type of engine, airframe, shielding, and anything that would make them spaceworthy. New fighter planes were also developed in the massive paranoia.

Spaceships that used to have only consisted of cargo ships now had a new variant. Things vary from the dreadnought-supercarrier to a mere fighter plane were developed and deployed. Thanks to the engineering feat that Menkaid used and the much superior non-military technology that Earth used, Earth turned its military from a mere mall security guard to a galaxy, or even system, powerhouse.

UN thought of every single thing that might happen. Nanomachines and picomachines that were used to treat disease now developed into a preventive weapon against the biochemical attack and organic attack in case the Menkaid race would release a spore of disease that would decimate the human race. A theoretical scenario that had only happened in science fiction.

Magic was also developed in this time. Offensive magical spell started to be taught at children from young age, especially those who were orphaned in preparation against another invasion from Menkaid. Thanks to human population got cut in half, many children turned into orphans. The orphans were turned into military personnel by the UN as a mean to bolster earth defense due to their hateful nature to the Menkaid.

Then, the inevitable happened, the second Menkaid invasion started ten years after Earth begun bolstering its defense force. This time, the Menkaid came harder with several more combat ships, but Earth was far more than prepared against the Menkaid. The skirmishes against the Menkaid that used to be thought to last years only lasted for ten days after Earth Defense Force massacred their spaceships with improved weapons.

Earth celebrated that victory and put it as a holiday to mourn the soldiers that died in the first Menkaid invasion. However, it didn't entirely diminished the fear of Menkaid. Fear would turn into anger, and anger would detonate with violences. UN did its best to prevent it, but it eventually arrived, a proposal for an pre-emptive strike on Menkaid.

It was the war for survival. If human lost, they would lose. This was the once for all determination. Defeat them, or disappear entirely as a race. EDF proposed to attack Menkaid home planet. However, warfare was more intricate than it looked like. Before it even started, recon team from EDF deemed it unnecessary for a lot of reasons, mostly moral. However, no one could forgive them for the genocide they did.

This started the "Vengeance" era. Children, especially orphans, were taught to defend themselves and enrolled in the military school for three years after they finished high school. For most, it was a place that determine who would become a valuable member of the society, or those who would become a mere useless dead weight.

Dean Barnett, now cleaning his rifle and packing his bag, was now preparing to go to the military school.

Would he become something of himself?

Or would he just become a lowly member of society?