“Have your new family been treating you well?” Clive’s calm voice resonated throughout the room.

“Of course. They’re very dear to me.”

“I see, I’m really glad that you were doing well,” His smile turned a little sad. “I’m sorry for what happened. I know that you have suffered immensely over the past two weeks.”

“I’m fine, in mind, at least.” She stared at her temporary robot body.

“Very well then, would you mind if I ask you a few things regarding the events that took place starting from the attack on the Armadillo?

“Before you start, I just want to let you know that it is completely within your rights not to reveal your hero abilities. This is part of your privacy as a hero in the United League.”

Ellowyn nodded and began her story, starting from the moment the invaders shook her school with high explosive warheads.

“...The first to barge into the classroom were wolves, at least a dozen students were still trying to escape down the escape tunnel…”

A shiver of terror brushed her skin as she recalled the fear of being attacked for real, the fear that Alice was in danger. Then she continued the frantic escape.

“...We ran desperately towards the bunker, fearing that its thick gate was about to close any moment. It was fortunate that we made it in, but the terrifying things were still out there, tearing down the last of the defenses…”

The storying telling continued until the part where she teleported outside the gate, Ellowyn was stumped. She didn’t know whether Carl would want her to disclose what happened.

“The moment you came outside that gate, it felt terrifying, wasn’t it? Even I couldn’t possibly figure out how terrifying it would feel, facing an entire hostile army on your own.”

“How?” Ellowyn could only gawk at him in surprise.

“It seemed the footage of your battle within the tunnel had been revealed to the general public through an unknown source. Everyone now knows that you’re the brave little hero that saved the school that day. Right now, you probably accumulated more fans than you can count.”

“This can’t be happening!” She hugged her head in her arms. They had seen through her moves, through all the hard work she had put in the past few days in order to put up even the tiniest resistance against her rather violent fate. Not to mention her identity was then being spread throughout the city without her consent. She somehow felt naked under all the unwanted attention.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you would be so frightened. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.” Clive’s forehead wrinkled in worry.

“It’s not your fault, I would have found out about it sooner or later. Let’s continue, I have more pressing matters to discuss.” She shook her head to clear the embarrassment.

“Go on.” He urged.

Ellowyn continued the story, describing her confusion upon waking up in an unfamiliar operating room with some very unfriendly folks who wanted to open her up. Then she recalled her frantic escape from the base and the chaotic chase that ensued.

Throughout the session, Clive dutifully typed everything down as Ellowyn spoke, but she could clearly see the facade that was his calmness as occasionally his indifferent expression would morph into one of shock and surprise. But the juicy part was yet to come.

She explained that in her mad venture in the hostile base’s vents, she was able to temporarily disable the base’s data server encryption and download some of the data stored in there. The gathered information was in bits and pieces, but it wasn’t hard to figure out the gist of their operations.

What astonished her the most was the source of the building material for the operation’s massive genetically modified army of beasts (and possibly within other hidden bases as well). It was food.

Compared to Earth, Varius was vastly superior in terms of technological development and infrastructure. But still, much of the inequality within society remained. Unequal distribution of wealth always meant that somewhere, someone wouldn’t have enough money to eat. That was especially true among the Harena Empire, with over 40% of their land being a dry desert.

Ellowyn knew that the severe food shortage was actually an economic problem in disguise. Yet numerous non-profit organizations still rose up to ‘combat’ it. While they had been very helpful in keeping the number of deaths from starvation to close to zero, everything had changed in the past three years.

The worldwide food demand in impoverished areas skyrocketed, leaving these organizations unable to keep up with the demand, despite the influx of more food supporters, or so the media reported. Ellowyn knew otherwise.

The reports she gathered indicated that not only was the illegal operation able to zap into the supply lines of the food drives, they could also falsify the reports generated from those food drives. So draining was the food leak that as much as 50 to 70 percent of all donated food were gone by the time they arrived at distribution. And even when that was taken into account, the official donations still rose. That meant the overall donation rate towards the Harena Empire rose by at least 150% in the past three years, giving those people more food than ever for their illegal army production.

To steal from even the poor to fund your acts of terror, you know no shame. Ellowyn grit her teeth and mentally glared at the still hidden enemy.

After her report was finished, she was free to ask away her curiosity.

“What happened to the base and my pursuers after I got knocked out?”

“From what I’ve heard, they were promptly obliterated by the flagship’s defenses within mere moments. The hostile base, however, had self-destructed before we could arrive and recover anything useful.”

“I see. Still, how did such a large airship make the jump here all the way from the United League’s territory?” Ellowyn was dying to know the answer. Her current location was thousands of miles away from the nearest border between the United League and the Harena Empire. Aside from the fact that current technologies still didn’t allow for teleportation, to jump across such large distances with a titanic object such as the flagship would probably cost more energy than the entire world could produce in a month.

Not to mention the clear hostility between the two worldly superpowers. To put the United League’s main combat powerhouse in the middle of the Empire’s territory was a clear declaration of war. Why would they risk such a dangerous move to rescue her?

The question burned within her mind, but she dared not to ask for fear of what he would answer. Did I start a major war? Am I to be responsible for the thousands, possibly millions of deaths that is to come? Terror gripped her heart.

“Are you alright? You look pale.”

“Will, will there be a war?” The yearning question escaped from the depths of her terror.

“No, Ellowyn, there will be no war.” Clive shook his head reassuringly. “In fact, all current major conflicts in Varius as of this moment is to be ceased, according to the Administrators’ order.”

“I don’t quite get what you’re saying.” Her eyes grew as wide as tennis balls as her mind tripped over itself trying to understand the meaning of his words. How can a ceasefire order be given to an entire world?

“Everyone was just as confused as you are. Alright, let’s start from the beginning.” Clive took a deep breath.

“Approximately 24 hours ago, shortly after the incident at the Armadillo, the entire world received a broadcast message. Okay, not the entire world, but all leaders of globally registered organizations have received a message from the Administrators. To be brief, the message stated that the Administrators have detected an unauthorized exploit of the World System and that they were currently working on finding the perpetrators. For the duration of at least 48 hours, all conflicts within Varius are to be on a forced ceasefire to prevent any foul play from the exploiters.”

“You mean, the entire world is banned from any conflicts?” She asked dazedly, still not comprehending.

“Yes, in a sense. This is not the first time something like this had happened. If history were to be believed, the Admins wouldn’t respond to small incidents such as minor crimes or skirmishes. But if any sizable groups were to violate their order, the retribution was swift and horrific. Their agents would quickly arrive and annihilate everything within a certain radius, so powerful and physics-defying were they that no amount of weaponry can even slow them down.” Clive stopped for a moment to catch his breath.

The Angels of Death. She nodded gravely, countless times had she come across the term while researching what she could about the System and the Administrators on the interweb.

“Here is the important part. The Admins then contacted the leaders of the United League and the Harena Empire, commanding them to respond immediately and attack a hostile base located within the Great Harenian Desert to rescue a key individual holding critical information.”

“That particular individual, was it me?” She asked the obvious.

“You betcha. Since you’re from the United League, the Admins deemed it unsafe for the Empire to perform the rescue operation due to the very hostile relationship between the two. So they requested that the United League prepare a rescue task force within the allotted time to be sent to your rescue. The teleportation procedure would be performed by them. And the rest is history. Any questions?”

Silence reigned the small room as Ellowyn was speechless still. She had read countless records of when the Admins had exercised their power in this world’s past, sure a few involved some kind of command that affected the world. But to experience one for real was entirely different.

The Administrators were like Gods in that world, reigning over everything with their set of rules which was the System.

“No,” She quickly shook her head. “Sorry for wasting your time with my trivial questions.”

Ellowyn’s desire to continue her interrupted reunion greatly overwhelmed the need to clarify the world-changing situation. She was going to get more details from Carl and Tom, but not now.

“I will send you all of the data I gathered on their operations. Is there anything else that you need?” She continued.

“Not for the moment. I have to go and report this asap. But we will probably meet again. Before I leave, I just want to say that you are one of the bravest people I’ve ever met. Not even the most hardened of veterans have experienced the things that you’ve been through. Now that you’ve made it back, please be completely at ease because you are safe with us. Everyone aboard this ship is giving their best to protect you.

“Also, you can always call me if you need anything. Well, at least after a few hours because I’ll be swamped with my report.” He chuckled and left.

A familiar figure swiftly entered right after.

“I wanted to brief you on the current situation. But it seems no longer necessary.” Alice pouted.

“Anyway, do you guys want to go shopping in the port city?” Sophie chimed in.

“How are you guys allowed to leave?”

“Wait, Ellowyn is still too weak to move around, even in that temporary body.” Alice protested.

“I should be fine. But isn’t it much more dangerous for you guys to leave? We are practically in enemy territory.” Ellowyn raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll show you how if you agree to come with us. It’s 100% safe since we won’t really be leaving after all.” Sophie winked.

Ellowyn slowly nodded.

Sophie and Alice left shortly before returning.

“Tada!” Sophie laughed.

“Oh, I should have seen that coming.” Ellowyn wanted to facepalm as she stared at the two’s robotic bodies.