Chapter 23

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After Ethan left, Sarah Cole began her own dictatorship.

The council elders feared her power and had no choice but to submit.

At the same time, the people of Eldoria supported Sarah's decisions, and neighboring nations couldn't resist. The people of Eldoria were blessed, not only strong but their descendants inherited some of their powers, earning them the title of the Golden People by future generations.

Among them, Sarah was honored as the Golden Empress.

Once Sarah took control of the empire, there were fewer than two million survivors worldwide, one million of whom lived in Eldoria. The others were brought into the nation.

Sarah enforced strict rule, implementing a fertility law that forced marriageable individuals to pair up. Both polygamy and polyandry were allowed, with the sole aim of producing children. Families with newborns were rewarded by the empire.

New laws also required everyone to receive secondary education, focusing on scientific and technological knowledge, alongside tight control over resources.

Despite Ethan's warnings against leaving the church, Sarah and others decided to leave behind formal religious institutions. However, they adopted aspects of past teachings, establishing a symbolic system without formal priests or popes. Statues of Ethan were created for the people to honor him.

Foreign survivors, struggling to understand Sarah's high-pressure rule, were often reported and suppressed by the Golden People. They knew humanity couldn't relax; the first alien invasion wouldn't be the last, and there may never be another Ethan. Mankind had to forge its own future, expanding its population, developing education, and advancing technology. Only as an interstellar race could humanity survive.

After thirty years, the population reached ten million, and technology returned to pre-apocalyptic levels. Some foreigners who couldn't tolerate Sarah's rule left Eldoria, returning to their homelands. Unbeknownst to them, their actions regressed them into primitive states, living according to instinct.

Fifty years after the apocalypse, the population exceeded one hundred million, and Eldoria began testing interstellar navigation technologies left behind by the aliens.

Seventy years later, the population hit five hundred million, and the first spacecraft successfully reached a planet five light years away.

By the centennial anniversary of the apocalypse, humanity had grown to 1.5 billion and freely navigated the stars, officially registering with the Interstellar Race Alliance. Humanity, once vulnerable, had now secured its place among the stars.

In the imperial palace, a young boy in Sarah's arms cheered alongside the crowd. "Mother, we've finally done it. Now it's time for me to step down as emperor," Sarah declared, reminiscing about Ethan.

"Mom, I will lead our people and make the human race known across the universe!" young Noah, her son, said confidently.

"Mom believes in you, but first, you need to study hard and stop fighting," she responded lovingly.

Noah sighed. "They say Father isn't real, that he disappeared a hundred years ago."

Sarah's gaze hardened, but she kept her calm. "Don't listen to them. You are a child of Ethan's blood and mine."

After Ethan's departure, Sarah found a lock of his hair. Combining their cells, she used advanced technology to create Noah. The council supported this, needing an emperor to guide humanity's development. Noah, with the combined legacy of Ethan and Sarah, was their answer.

One hundred and twenty years after the apocalypse, humanity's expansion was halted when brain-eating creatures invaded Earth, seeking to farm humans for food. Although the empire resisted, the creatures demanded a yearly tribute of one million humans. The Golden People vowed to die fighting before signing an unequal treaty.

The empire found no support from the Interstellar Alliance and faced the alien threat alone. But then, Noah, inheriting Ethan's power and having mastered the universal energy, annihilated the brain-eater fleet with a single blow, cementing the Golden People's legendary status across the universe.

While many alien races sought to ally with the Golden People to gain their strength, they were disappointed to find the power was not fully inheritable by future generations.

Speculations grew about the origin of this power, tied to the mysterious messenger of destruction, Ethan. Earth became a destination for races searching for clues about him, but nothing concrete was found.

After the war, Sarah left Earth to search the stars for the angelic race, convinced that if immortality were possible, Ethan must have achieved it. Her quest became a lifelong mission, not for love, but to meet Ethan one last time and tell him that humanity was thriving.

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