“I gather everyone has heard of the leak then?” A proud and young man with golden hair spoke to the room. His name was Alexander the Great, one of the greatest military generals to roam Earth.

“YES! So! How do you plan on explaining this to us? Hmm? This isn’t the first time that you have gone behind our backs and arranged something like this by yourself. Alexander, I respect you, but you are no longer the king here. So you can not be this selfish!” This voice of opposition came from another high ranking individual in the Greco-Roman community, Gaius Julius Caesar.

“Enough! He did not do this alone, many of the Macedonian Legends’ top brass knew of this, as did I.” Another commanding voice boomed from right next to Alexander. There were few people who would dare to be this disrespectful to Julius Caesar. Phillip III of Macedonia, aka Alexander’s father, was one who possessed such gall.

“I shouldn’t be surprised. Your entire faction has always been like this. Listen up you Macedonians! Your faction is decreasing in power by the day. It is true that you once ruled over your own community. However, those are times of the past. Your group needs to gain much more power if you wish to act as reckless as you have.” This time, it was someone from the faction of the Greek City-States, Leonidas of Sparta.

This room was the heart of the Greco-Roman community, it was the place of civil discussion, a meeting between powerful individuals of both Greek and Roman descent. However, as of late, that vision of unity had been more or less shattered. Arguments, accusations, shouting, profanities, racial slurs and everything in between were commonplace.

“Babbling about this will get us nowhere. It seems that we are pretty split on this matter. However, it would be good for us to remember that they were instated as one of us because we are all falling on hard times. Now is certainly not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves.” Finally, a voice of wisdom and reason rang out. Instantly hushing the entire room. Once Miltiades spoke, there were few who would disregard his words.

“But…” A weak and unimportant voice spoke out from the Caesarian Ambition factions’ side was instantly withdrawn when he realized that his compatriots were giving him dirty looks.

“But nothing,” Miltiades continued. “Look at our glorious past. Combined, we were the masters of our land, and then some for thousands of years. Now, look at our future. It is dim. Combining our different communities was a short-term solution to catch up with the rest of the other top communities, and we couldn’t even manage that. How far we’ve fallen.”

“Miltiades is right. Allow us to explain ourselves.” This time, Phillip III was willing to talk rationally. “To be honest. We really wanted this to be something that would benefit all of us. This mock deathmatch tournament was meant as a way for us to prepare for the real deal in just another century’s time. It wasn’t meant to be another point of conflict for this community.”

“It is understandable that you had good intentions for not revealing this topic sooner, however, not speaking to us about such an important matter is not how we should be going about it.” Julius Caesar tried to reason with the members of the Macedonian Legend faction.

“...We understand.” Alexander the Great grumbled but did not say anything else.

“How is Eumenes doing, Alexander? He is still within the Chinese community, is he not? What are the Chinese people’s reactions to such an event?” Miltiades asked.

“From the reports that I have seen, it seems like this event had only been recently announced in the Chinese community as well. No doubt the work of Sun Tzu and his group.”

“I see, does Eumenes plan on coming back soon or does he wish to stay there?”

“It doesn’t matter what he wishes. I have already sent for him to come back. His aerial prowess is not something we can afford to not participate in this upcoming battle. We have a serious lack of aerial strategists after all.”

“This new battlefield up in the air is such a wild concept to me. When I was alive, such magnificent contraptions would have been worshipped, and now, we fear their existence more and more each day.”

“Aerial warfare is the future, however, we just do not have the resources to invest in that field since we are still trying to catch up on our naval capabilities. Can you believe there was a time when we were the absolute peak of naval warfare? What a shame.”

“I miss the days where the biggest battles were fought on land.” Alexander sighed.

“It’s alright son, there is no point in mulling over our past glories. The only thing we can do now is adapt or perish.”

“Phillip, you are right. Should we finally give that matter another go?” Julius Caesar addressed the elephant in the room.

“The one where we get help from the other communities? At this point, I don’t think we have much of a choice. I mean, a few thousand years ago, us Greeks won second place in that deathmatch tournament, and the Romans were placed second one thousand years after that…” Miltiades started, but couldn’t finish since it was tragic.

“...And now, even with the three ex-superpowers of the world, we are losing grip of even the top ten positions.” Mark Antony finally decided to put in a word. Mark and Julius Caesar belonged to the same faction, Caesarian Ambition. However, they were at odds against each other behind closed doors.

“It is a sad reality, but it is our reality. Let’s discuss who will be participating in this mock deathmatch tournament. I will be the mediator for the rest of the voting period. Any objections?” Miltiades asked, and after confirming there were none, he began listing off a few names.

The first few names were of individuals who wielded great power and influence, many of whom were already in the room. Alexander, Phillip III, Miltiades, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Eumenes, and Leonidas were all listed and by majority vote were going to be participating. The next few were various individuals of relatively high positions within the 3 factions led by Alex, Julius, and Miltiades.

After they had decided upon 70 out of the 100 spots, they moved on to another group. The talented youth that needed to be cultivated. This was a perfect opportunity for them to gain experience far away from their comfort zones. Among this group included Alexandra, Jovan, and Lucius from the MGR Forever faction. As well as Maximilian Juventus of the Might is Right faction. Max was a one-man army. Being the single most prominent new talent for the Greco-Roman community.

The final 10 spots went to a select few individuals who were learning abroad in other communities, just as Eumenes had been doing. However, these people were not nearly as talented as Eumenes, and even a little worse off than the MGR faction in terms of waging war. However, their usefulness lay in their exposure to other fighting styles around the globe. Their importance could not be understated.

“Alright, now that that matter is dealt with, there will be one more article of importance before we break up for the month. It is a matter of the highest importance. Who should fill up the three coveted positions under the Emperor?” Miltiades announced solemnly to the group in front of him.

Alexander was the first to speak, “you mean the position of the 3 Triumvirs? Shouldn’t we try to fill the position of Emperor before we do that?”

“No Alexander, I agree with Miltiades on this matter. To fill up the most important post in our community will not bode well for the vast majority of the populace. For now, just filling up the 3 Triumvirs positions will be our best course of action. And, this step will allow one of the 3 to later ascend to the position of Emperor.”

“Thank you, Julius. I don’t agree with you much, but this is something we can agree on. Alexander dear boy, this matter is one of great importance. It will do us no good if we tried to rush it.”

“Humph, fine.”

“Then it’s settled? We let the populace decide on who will fill those 3 positions?”

“No objections.”

“I have nothing to add,” Leonidas confirmed.

“Good. Now that all the matters have been discussed. I shouldn’t need to tell all of you to prepare for war. Even if the mock tournament starts a century from now, we should not be slacking off now. I intend for us to show the other communities just how much fighting spirit we have left in our tired and weary bones.”

Many of the people present knew just how important this upcoming battle was going to be. If they could not unite and reach at least the top 5, then they would be set for the next millennia. However, if they finish even worse than they presently were, it would not only be a great disappointment, but it would financially, and economically destroy the Greco-Roman community.

The future of this community lay in the abilities of the 3 different groups to get along. They had to set aside their differences if they wanted to reclaim their past glory. If they could not manage such a simple task, then their community was doomed to fail.