91Welcome to The Ultimate Reality!
This was the very first fanfiction I have ever written on any site. I got the original idea for this story back in 2018, but did not put it into words until March 2020. Then I spent two months writing before I finally posted the original Prologue. It was similar to the one you're about to read, with mostly minor differences.
However, the story originally stopped in August 2020, as I lost my motivation to write. A month later, I began my rewrites, which were very slow. That was, until April-May 2021, when I regained some motivation. Before April, I only had the Prologue - Chapters 6 rewritten. Then I got serious and rewrote Chapter 7-10, 17, and 24-26, before I finally published 27.
After 27, I didn't touch the story again (aside from another minor rewrite of 24-27 to fix characterization issues). That is, until March 2022.
See, my plan was to rewrite every chapter and finish the story at that time. However, the rewrites quickly became boring. I got to chapter 7 before I stopped again.
It is now November 2022 and I can tell you that this story will likely not reach its ending. Refer to the final chapter of this story for more information. Just a disclaimer. But, if you still want to read what exists, then go ahead!
Before you continue, you should know the following:
At the time this story was published, Book 13 / Dragonslayer were the newest books in WOF. Therefore, anything that happened in Book 14 is ignored. That means that animus magic is still around.
In addition: The prologue and first chapter do not contain any WOF content. That doesn't begin until Chapter 2.
Final note: This story takes place in an AU starting after Darkness of Dragons. You'll quickly see what the divergence point was.
[POV: General Graham]
Earth. One of the eight planets in the solar system. It has an orbital period of 365 days. Of course, days are relative to the planet one is on. For Earth, one day is 24 hours. For other planets, it might be 8 hours, or 116 earth days.
As all planets do, Earth has gone through many sufferings throughout its history. The unique thing about Earth, however, was that it had life. Living creatures with their own mind and dreams. However, life did not last forever.
After all, it was the cycle of life. Live for 15 years, then die of old age. Or perhaps die an early death to a predator. Maybe you'll get lucky and live for 30 years. Get really lucky and you'll reach 40. Or get extremely unlucky and experience a mass extinction. That was how Earth operated for 3.77 billion years.
And then along came the humans.
Initially, they were just like any other living creature. Fending for themselves, trying to live in a new world. They experienced many failures, as all living things did.
But they had something no other living creature had: The urge to go past these failures. The urge to explore their world and grow.
They managed to escape their native land and expand their reaches across the world. Eventually, they became smart enough to establish societies, where humans would work together. Using technology, they were able to grow their societies and expand their influence.
By the 17th century, they accomplished something that no other species had accomplished: They explored the entire world.
However, it seemed that there was nowhere else to go. Humans were stuck on Earth, after all. Nothing had ever been able to escape Earth's grasp, and it seemed it would stay this way.
Or so they thought.
Then the humans suddenly discovered electricity. Things changed very rapidly after that. They built trains, cars, planes, super powered boats, everything in order to get around faster. This left one final frontier to reach for, the biggest one of all.
Space.
It seemed impossible to reach, however. The strength of Earth kept all species confined and bound to it. It remained a dream for years. A mere little dream in the minds of some humans.
As time went on, however, the humans learned that Earth's grasp wasn't as strong as originally thought. They built engines that could escape Earth, and escape they did. Eventually, they finally escaped the confines of Earth, and entered the new frontier.
Unlike the other frontiers, however, Space was huge. So huge, that it took them 100 years to leave their own Solar System, particularly due to the reluctance of certain societies. Regardless of these setbacks, however, they quickly expanded beyond the planet. Colonies were established and people began moving off Earth. However, many wanted to explore space, not to colonize it-
Clap Clap
"-Well done Graham," A man spoke sarcastically. "Not only did you fail to mention your company name, you also failed to explain what your company does." He chuckled. "Hell, that doesn't even count as the history of the company! It's just the history of humanity at that point. Not a very good one either." The man stood up and packed his belongings. "You probably should go back to college and be an Anthropologist."
It was the month of April, which meant it was that time of the year: the yearly speech at the Orbital Space Convention. Giving the speech this year would be no other than General Graham (who's last name is unknown). Since he wasn't quite the best at public speaking, he hired some reviewers to help him out.
Unfortunately, this one was an asshole.
"Whoa whoa, relax your nerves," replied a slightly pissed off Graham. "What was the point of interrupting me? Have you not seen the previous speeches?" He sighed. "There's always a little introduction at the start. I'll explain more about my company later in the speech."
This reviewer, being the asshole that he was, was unreasonable.
"Well it was an incredibly boring one." The reviewer approached the exit. Before he walked out, he had one final sentence. "Your times up, General. I think it's time for you to step down from your role." Before Graham could retort, the reviewer was already gone.
General Graham was peeved. The reviewer just walked out on him without listening to the entire thing. And his only meaningful comment was that "it was boring."
He sighed, before standing up and walking over to the large window in the back of his office. Outside, he could see the Earth, with the sun illuminating the surface. He hasn't been down there in 15 years.
His space agency had been taking up all of his time. Known as the Galactic Space Agency, he was selected to lead it after expressing his interest in the exploration of space. At the time, he was enthusiastic about it. But now?
He wasn't feeling the spark anymore. Sure, the news that a planet with alien lifeforms was found seemed awesome. That is, if you ignore the fact that there's already been about 54 found to date. Probably gonna be 60 by the end of the year at this rate.
In addition, his time during World War 3 had really weighed down on his mind. Graham knew what he did had helped save the individuality of humanity. Unfortunately, many sleepless nights were spent wondering if what he did was the only choice he could have taken. Many other veterans felt the same as he did.
The reviewer's advice was becoming very tempting. At this point, he was just… done. Oh how he wished he had done this years earlier, when there was a mad rush for space. At this point, nearly every major space goal had been accomplished.
Except for one: finding a sentient alien species. Every alien life form discovered so far were, frankly, really dumb. Even the smartest one discovered so far can't even "play", the universal indicator for intelligence.
Therefore, the only reason Graham had yet to retire was to find the sentient alien species. That was his final goal.
And yet, Graham was losing hope in that goal. It has been years since the search began and everyday was starting to feel like the same.
KNOCK KNOCK
Graham turned to the door in mild surprise. Who in the world needs me now? He wandered to the door and opened it. He half expected it to be the reviewer. Maybe he forgot something in the room.
However, it was someone else: Gordon Fairfield. He was in his typical black suit, accompanied with a black tie and a tablet. For some strange reason, Gordon really liked wearing suits. Graham personally found them too stuffy, but to each their own.
"Hello Gordon. Please, come in," Graham gestured inside.
"Thank you, general." Graham sat back in his own chair, while Gordon sat in the same chair the reviewer was sitting in. "I had noticed the reviewer you called earlier appears to have departed. Did it not go well?"
Graham sighed and shook his head. "Nope. Didn't even get to finish my introduction before the guy up and left. And I paid for it too."
"That's a shame. Now we'll need to hire another one." Gordon sighed. "Well, unless you decide to dump the whole thing."
Graham raised an eyebrow. "Why would I do that?"
To Graham's surprise, he saw Gordon… smile? That was pretty rare. "As you are well aware, our scopes search deep space for any signs of life. Well, a month ago, a new system was discovered."
"Okay…"
"Our people have been combing through the data, and, well they discovered something magnificent?"
Graham felt his heart skip a beat. No, gotta stay calm. "What did they find?"
Gordon's smile somehow became larger. "Let's just say, you've been waiting for this day for a long time."
Graham's eyes widened. "N-No… you don't mean…?"
"I'm serious, Graham. We finally found it."