No-one spoke up.

  “Let’s take it down a notch,” said D’Angelo, giving Jason a dry look. But he was smiling. “We're on the same side.”

  “I get the concern,” said Zane, standing.

  The room quieted when he spoke.

  For the most part he got the sense folks knew what he could do. Reina was only confident suggesting 50% because of his record.

  He put a hand on her arm, and just looked at her; they shared a look. She nodded to him, took a breath.

  It’d give her a chance to gather herself.

  In the meantime—

  “I’m not unbreakable,” said Zane, brow furrowing. “That’s true. You’ve all seen me hurt. But I want to do right by my home, and that means taking on my fair share. I’ve cleared the S-ranks and the Superdungeon. When Earth has called on me, I’ve come through every time.”

  He looked around the room, and could see folks nodding slowly, murmuring.

  “Let me do it again.”

  Folks were looking at each other.

  Eze smiled.

  “I see no issue with the proposal. What I saw in that Ragnos run is more than sufficient proof… and I know Zane’s character.”

  There was a general murmur of agreement.

  “Agreed!” said Jian Shi Ming. He took a swig of his canteen.

  “He hasn’t let us down yet…” said Yuki the Sky-Painter softly.

  Vanessa shrugged.

  “Would we like to take a vote?” said Reina.

  Each World Ranker submitted a blind ballot; they were rounded and counted up—and over 85% agreed that they’d stick to Reina’s plan, with minor adjustments.

  Jason just grinned, resigned; somehow he didn't seem too upset about it. Then again—Jason was the type to enjoy hearing boos.

  He got the feeling over the years, folks had built up some trust in Reina too.

  She smiled, relieved. “Then it’s settled.”

  It was like the tension had been cut in the room. Somehow the showdown had changed the atmosphere; folks’ mood seemed lighter, all of a sudden.

  Zane and the rest of the top Rankers would defend the Frontier Zone. Everyone else would help clear broken dungeons on Earth and nearby space.

  Reina gave them a final briefing on how the Waves would progress.

  At first, the Monster Waves would be giant hordes. Each fighter would hold their sector. There would be fewer True God Monsters then. They would put down a lure so the bulk of them would come for only Zane; he was the only one who’d shown he could handle that kind of power.

  The Waves were huge growth opportunities. By the end of it she felt most top-Ranker teams could take on True Gods.

  They finished off on that.

  By the time that came out it was nearly noon. Far above, out in low orbit, you could see giant space-stations—hulking goliaths of stone and steel—slowly circling. Sparks flew over them. They were battle-stations that Eze was setting up; he’d brought in some of the Deep Earth Hall’s finest artificers to carve in extra wards.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “You can feel it in the air, folks,” said Tyler. “War’s coming… but from what we’ve heard today, Earth will by ready, and then some!”

  ***

  “High-five!” said Avery.

  Reina still looked faintly embarrassed. “I don’t think I should’ve said that…”

  Behind her Avery hopped up and down attempting to high-five her.

  “He deserved it,” said Zane. He was a little amused how much she was wrestling with it.

  He’d quite enjoyed that.

  He was pretty sure now that Jason just wanted to make sure the woman leading them was a fighter. And he did that the only way he knew how—by giving her a verbal sucker-punch.

  If anything he seemed pleased she’d hit him right back.

  ***

  Zane still didn’t know what to make of Chomper.

  Evan spent a lot of time running after the giant dog, cleaning up whenever he broke stuff and trying to get him not to break more stuff.

  Evan decided it’d be best to try to train him.

  He started with baked treats as a reward. But Chomper would give Evan big puppy dog eyes, which would deal a critical hit to the Evan. Zane watched it firsthand—Evan tried to get Chomper to let go of Avery’s hoodie, and promptly got one-hit-KO’d. Chomper trotted off with a hoodie and a cookie.

  Reina did some digging.

  “Heaven-Devouring Dogs are almost extinct in the galaxy,” she said. “It’s one of the few Godbeasts with strong potential to hit True God—maybe even Empyrean—if it lives long enough.”

  They both looked at Chomper, who sat there panting happily.

  ***

  Not long before Zane was set to break through, he got a message from Noughtfire.

  “I should mention, before you begin,” said the old Sage. “Guard your heart. You will be exposed as you attempt that breakthrough. It’s simply the nature of it. So keep vigilant—always.”

  Zane nodded.

  “It’s a grueling test of the soul, but in truth it’s a test of the heart. A test of three parts,” he said. “It aims to expose you. The extremely talented and weakest of mind, have it worst. Talent invites a more severe trial… and that weakness of mind manifests in hideous form. Those poor souls are scraped bare. Turned to living ghouls, then and there. To pass that test is to face your heart-demons and conquer them.”

  Zane was curious what his heart-demons were.

  Reina wasn’t sure he had any. But he had a feeling he knew what he’d find.

  “The conventional wisdom is that the body will not help you there. But in truth, there is no shining line between mind and body,” said Noughtfire. “A truly strong body can only exist with a truly strong mind. So I have confidence in you, disciple.”

  He was pretty confident too.

  “It is, in the end, against the will of the heavens to become a God. May Fate be with you, disciple. Oh—and do let me know when you’re about to attempt it.”

  ***

  “Roll over,” said Zane. Fluffy shrieked, rolled over, and crushed a mountain range in her path. She came back up, shaking off a few boulders.

  He scratched her behind the ears. “Good girl.”

  Then he threw a Heavenly Elephant bone. She leaped majestically, shredding it mid-air.

  “I’d say she’s nearly battle-ready,” said the Barbarian Sage proudly.

  Fluffy had her harness on. They’d been running training camp these past few months, prepping for when they’d ride into battle. “Few more months to shake off the rust… then, who knows?”

  They were both sitting, watching the sunset, eating legs of giant roast chicken.

  The Barbarian Sage had been assigned to solo-clear some of the Galaxy’s most brutal Tier-1 dungeons. Only top-tier hegemons had a chance at them.

  “It’ll be a busy wave, alright,” the Sage said, scratching his chin. “Might run into the old worm himself.”

  He chuckled. “Now there’s a thought, eh?”

  “Can you kill him?” said Zane. He was still curious what the Sage looked like at full power.

  “Well, he’s a tough bastard,” said the Sage. He grinned. “But hells—I could never forgive myself if I didn’t give it a damned good shot.”

  The Sage tossed his bone—“Fluffy, fetch!”

  Fluffy dove after.

  The Sage ruffled Zane’s head. “In the meantime… You give those bastards hell, you hear?”

  “I will.”

  ***

  These days, Zane spent his days making a few last-minute preparations for his breakthrough. That mostly involved pounding as much dreamsteel as he could manage.

  Skill up!

  Asura Titan’s Body, Second Form IV -> V

  An odd tingling started up in his gut every now and again—it felt like a strange energy was building up. It seemed to make his notification-boxes flicker. But that was all that he could tell.

  Reina was busy prepping the World Tree for war. She’d just met with Matriarch Kaili of the Thousand Seas Tribe.

  She was a little worried they wouldn’t take her seriously, since she was so new. But she hit it off with Kaili, he was pleased to hear.

  Once war broke out she’d be busy with the World Tree and breaking through her new Concept.

  Zane would likely be taking on the first Monster hordes alone.

  She was hoping to join him closer to the end, when the true Bosses started coming out.

  “I asked Kaili if I could take a look in her archives,” she said. “Zane, you’ve got to see this.”

  She showed him some prints depicting treasures.

  “The reason System Store credits are so coveted is because they often come with System exclusives,” she said. “For instance—there’s the Philosopher’s Stone, which lets you break through a Law bottleneck just by absorbing it—no need for years of meditation. As far as I’m aware, there’s not a single one in all of Dragonspire… it could come in useful in the war.”

  She showed him another.

  “Then there’s the Sacred Bones.”