First Light of a New Age

Chapter 165: Goddess & Extinction-Class

Third Civilization Zone, Austronesia People's Empire, Imperial Majahapit, Jakarta, Grand Council of Revolutionary Advisors.

4th Year of God, Friday, 1st Week, 9th Month of John.

In the fortified heart of Jakarta in the Imperial Majapahit, one of the three administrative capitals besides Manila, the morning sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows of the Grand Council of Revolutionary Advisors, casting fractured beams of color across marble floors and polished obsidian walls.

Gilded banners fluttered from the upper balconies, proudly displaying the diverse heraldry of the Austronesian People's Empire.

At the central dais, beneath a grand mural depicting the Empire’s founding, was Emperor Juan Delroy Maximo, wearing an obsidian-black ceremonial uniform lined with crimson and gold, sharp as a blade and just as commanding.

His very presence seemed to dominate the chamber, appearing stoic, visionary, and composed, yet always with a spark of unyielding vision in his deep-set eyes.

Flanking him were the other two pillars of the Great Triumvirate.

President Sebastian Miles Oliver, the calm and diplomatic architect of the Empire’s vast bureaucratic machine, and Prime Minister Lucien Magnus Reny, cold-eyed and impeccably dressed, whose sweeping reforms in economy and security policies had unified scattered survivors into a functioning civilization.

Today’s assembly was not a routine meeting. It was a convergence of power, ideology, and faith, a crucible in which the fate of humanity would be debated, and possibly decided.

Seated around the circular chamber were dozens of the Empire’s top political thinkers and power brokers.

Moderates and radicals shared space, some exchanging wary glances.

They represent a spectrum of ideologies like the Capitalists, Socialists, Communists, Nationalists, Monarchists, and even fringe National Bolsheviks who advocated an iron blend of centralized planning and cultural pride.

At the far end of the chamber, observing with equal solemnity, were the twin pillars of faith and spiritual authority.

The Supreme Imam of Austronesian Islam, draped in flowing green and silver robes, held a staff with verses of divine protection. Opposite him, the Cardinal of the Imperial Roman Catholic Church wore imperial crimson, nodded in solemn accord.

Despite the different faiths they represented, both leaders had found common cause in the face of the apocalyptic event.

The Council had been in session for hours already.

It was President Oliver who first opened the topic.

“The geopolitical theatre, if it can still be called that, has become dangerously unstable,” he began. “We heard that entire regions have been reshaped and power dynamics are collapsing. The North American Empire, though they were our sworn enemy, has set aside hostilities with us in favor of survival and a working alliance has formed.”

He glanced at the others before continuing. “Sadly, most South American nations were overwhelmed in the early days by magical beast incursions and mana corruption reduced their cities to smoldering craters and wiped out entire populations.”

Prime Minister Reny leaned forward and clasped his arms behind his back.

“But not long after we deployed Project Pantheon,” he added grimly. “Our orbital strike neutralized what remained to contain the spread, but the price was massive as half the continent was vaporized. Australia and the rest of the countries that are mostly in the Southern Hemisphere back on earth met a similarly tragic end.”