Alex spent the rest of the evening in a trance, constantly cultivating. Despite his best efforts, he only managed to fill half of a rib with essence, as he decided to call it. It felt like the right term. The energy had a way of seeming like the essence of the universe itself. Energy with the potential to be anything.

When his alarm went off, Alex was surprised. It hadn't felt like a full night had gone by and he was feeling completely energized and ready for the day, contrary to how he should feel without having slept at all.

He was greeted by the sight if both his roommates sitting at the kitchen table, nursing cups of coffee.

Casper looked up when Alex walked in on them and smiled weakly, "Well if it isn't Mr. Zen himself."

Alex looked at Casper in confusion, but it was Diane that explained.

"We checked in on you after you didn't come out to the party, and found you meditating. We check a few more times throughout the party, but you didn't move the whole night."

Alex felt his face flush. He scratched the back of his neck, "Oh, that. Yeah, I've started meditating to deal with stress."

It was a lie, but he figured it was a white lie.

"Whatever, just please stop talking," Casper whispered as he clutched his head. Diane shot him a grin, then winced herself.

"Definitely glad I didn't party with you two then," Alex replied, slightly louder than necessary. He dodged the spoon that was thrown at him.

---

Luckily for Alex, it was Saturday so he didn't have to work for the next two days. That saved him from having to call in sick from work so he could cultivate.

A few hours into his first cultivation session that morning, he managed to completely fill the one rib with essence. It was rather anticlimactic, so he just continued on with his other ribs.

The two days passed in a blur, and the next thing he knew it was Monday. Alex had managed to completely transform all the marrow in the left side of his ribs, and moved onto the right. He found the more he practiced trapping essence in his body, the easier he could do it. He also figured out how to draw more essence in with every breath. If he focused his breathing properly, he was able to pull in almost a dozen specs of essence with every breath, rather than the initial one or two he was getting.

As he exited his room to grab some breakfast, he found Diane sitting on the couch in their living room, drinking coffee and staring at the TV.

"Did something happen?" Alex asked.

"The UN is broadcasting first contact with the Empire of the Golden Roc," Diane replied, not looking away from the TV.

"Oh, this doesn't seem like something I want to miss."

Alex flopped down on the couch next to Diane and focused on the TV.

Skaya, the emissary, was walking down towards a podium facing the UN wearing the same robes from the broadcast. She was flanked by two very large men in golden scale armor. They wore helmets which were shaped like a diving Roc, wings spread behind their heads, talons flanking their chins and the bird's head covering their foreheads.

"Greetings," Skaya began as she reached the front of the room, "I stand before you today, once again, representing the Golden Roc Emperor. I have chosen this assembly of leaders to be our direct point of contact with the people of Earth, as well as the de facto organization in charge of this world. All other world governments are now, at best, subservient to these ‘United Nations.’

“I have been told that, historically, this organization has been largely toothless. That will no longer be the case. A detachment of Imperial Troops has been allocated to support them. Imperial laws will be shared with all citizens of this world, and this organization will be responsible for enforcing them.

“Resistance to Imperial Rule is a capital offense. Corruption is a capital offense. Murder is a capital offense. The Empire of the Golden Roc is a harsh, but just Empire. In the spirit of justice, these leaders,” Skaya snapped her fingers and six men and women appeared behind her in six brilliant flashes of lightning. Alex immediately recognized the leaders of the United States, Russia, and China. Behind each leader stood a figure in golden armor, with a featureless golden mask. “Along with fifty seven other leaders and individuals, are hereby sentenced to death for conspiracy to resist Imperial Rule.”

Alex watched in horror as the three golden blades flashed and three heads fell to the ground. Screams echoed out from the TV and Diane as well.

“What the fuck!” she shouted, “Did that seriously just happen? They can’t do that!”

Skaya continued to speak as if she hadn’t just condemned sixty people to death.

“Approximately three days have elapsed since my first announcement. In a few moments, a list of fifty million names will be published and available to all. I have been told we have a ‘website’ that will host this information. All individuals on the list will also be personally contacted and given a location they must report to within the next three days.

“This is the first of many drafts. Each draft will occur once a month, each with 50 million conscripted. Tours of duty will last for one of your Earth years. Survivors, should they choose, will be returned to this planet upon completion of their tour.

“Make no mistake, this is a war for the survival of your people. We may appear to be tyrants, but we are in actuality your saviors.”

Skaya’s eyes flared with golden light and the broadcast ended.

Alex and Diane sat in silence for several minutes, neither willing to move or talk. He couldn’t help but wonder at the timing of the invasion of the Empire and the appearance of the wish granting cloud. Were they connected? And if so, how? He couldn’t believe he was in any way special, at least not before the wishes.

“What now?” Diane’s voice caused Alex to jump. “How do we… do we just continue with our lives like we didn’t just watch the President get executed on live television?”

Alex didn’t know what to say, was he even going to go into work? He pulled out his phone to do some quick math. Approximately eight billion people called earth home, assume half of those wouldn’t be eligible for the draft, so that divided by fifty million, divided by twelve months in a year, was just shy of seven years for all of the current population of the world to be conscripted, not accounting for population growth and people aging in and out of the eligible bracket. Sometime in the next seven years, Alex was going to be sent to war, but in the meantime, six sevenths of the world population would have to live like nothing had changed.

“Fuck, I still have to go to work,” Alex moaned. Diane stared at him like he had 2 heads. He quickly explained the conclusion he came to. If they wanted to eat and live, they had to move on like nothing had changed.

“How can you even…” Diane trailed up, unable to finish the sentence.

“I don’t know,” Alex replied, “The world is going to go to shit, but the more people that keep moving on with their lives, the less messed up everything will be. So I’m going to go to work, sit in my stupid comfy chair, and keep an eye on people entering the building. I’m also going to be internally panicking because in the next seven years I’m going to be sent off to war.”

Alex’s phone beeped and he glanced down to see he’d received a text.

Conscript Alex Weisman, you are hereby ordered to report to the coordinates listed below….

He didn’t bother reading the rest of it.

“Or I suppose I’m just going to head out now.”

---

The conscription center was surprisingly close to his apartment. What had once been a public park had been replaced by a massive stone building that rose thirty stories into the air. Its edifice was carved to show scenes of birds fighting all manner of mythical creatures. Alex didn’t pay much mind to it though. He was a bit too focused on the interstellar war he was about to join.

He’d spent the past two days in a cultivation frenzy, doing everything he could to advance as quickly as possible. He’d managed to fully saturate the rest of his ribs, and was currently working on his skull. The rate at which he could cultivate had appeared to hit a limit, so he wasn’t doing it any faster, but he felt he made decent progress all the same. Already he was noticing massive benefits from his efforts. His mind felt clearer, he had more energy, and it seemed like he was stronger than before, though he hadn’t had a chance to test that out.

Alex continued to walk toward the building as he thought about his cultivation. Once he finished saturating his marrow, he would move onto his internal organs. He was most excited to see what improvements to his brain would bring. He imagined he’d have a massive jump in cognitive abilities as well as reaction times, but only time would tell.

As he stepped up to the front door of the building, which was carved with another gaudy bas relief of an angry looking thunderbird, he felt a wave of energy pass over him before the door slid sideways, allowing him entrance.

He stepped through the doorway into a massive room filled with a winding line of other conscripts. His eyes traced the route the people were following, and spotted at the far end of the room some sort of device people were stepping into. He watched as a man stepped into it, and a blue light traced down from his head to his toes. Alex didn’t get a chance to see what happened after that because he was roughly pushed into the line by a man wearing golden robes.

“Move along, conscript,” the man said in a bored tone. Alex looked back and saw a short line of people had formed behind him in the brief moment he’d paused. He thought it was odd as he hadn’t seen many people around him when he approached the building, but quickly stepped into the line.

After half an hour of waiting, Alex made it to the front of the line. He was quickly guided into the scanner.

“Wow, you guys are efficient,” Alex commented.

“Be quiet and face forward,” he was brusquely told. Alex shrugged and did as he was told.

He felt the essence in the air shift, something he didn’t even know he was aware of until that moment. A massive amount of essence congealed around his head, then flowed down his body. Immediately a siren flared and the machine began to emit a red light.

“Cultivator!” Shouted the man that had directed him into the machine.

Alex turned around in confusion to find himself facing down the barrel of a futuristic looking rifle. Half a dozen soldiers quickly formed up around him, some holding rifles, others swords. He raised his hands.

“What sect or clan are you from?” Shouted a man in golden armor, the only fully armored person in the building.

“What do you mean? I’m not-” the man punched Alex in the gut, and Alex collapsed to the ground.

“What sect or clan are you from?” The man asked again, this time more quietly, and with a hint of violence in his tone. “I won’t ask again.”

Alex clutched his stomach, fire racing through his gut. He had to fight against a wave of nausea. Before he recovered and had a chance to speak, another voice chimed in.

“Arbiter, lower your weapon,” the voice was commanding and feminine. Alex wasn’t sure from where, but he recognized it.

“As you command, Emissary,” the man responded immediately.

Alex opened his eyes to see all of the soldiers prostrated before Skaya, emissary of the Golden Roc Emperor. He had a bad feeling about this.