Present
"Jake, what year is it?"
"Does it matter? Hell is eternal."
"This isn't Hell. I trained in Hell and fought demons as warmups."
Jake was clearly confused, but Will explained it was a joke. Jake chuckled. "Hadn't heard one of those in a while."
"We need to put an end to this regime, said Will. "Humanity deserves freedom, happiness, and the right to live as men and women, not as slaves to a cruel master."
"Easier said than done. It's two versus the world."
"Not entirely. The Emperor may have drones, reformed cyborgs, and an army of martial art clones, but the people of this world are only loyal to him out of fear. Let's make them not fear him anymore."
"Okay. I'll bite. How?"
"The Emperor uses the chains to communicate with the world or select channels, correct? So why can't we hack into it and send our own message discreetly?"
"But what good would that do? His drones would just as soon be on us as we uttered the first word."
"I have a feeling they won't."
And so Will did that, and no drones came. All he asked for was the emperor's location. And he got it.
(Austria)
When James returned to Sweden, he raised an army of nobles, but none of the peasant soldiers joined. James was shocked and received word from the prime minister that the country had elected to revolt against the monarch. And James was quickly driven out to England and Sweden had created a new government. It may have been that James didn't notice, but before he returned, Will had taken to horseback and arrived days before his carriage and proposed a new union between Austria and Sweden. With a champion such as Will proposing a union, who could say no? It was either that or fight an army led by this Italian. And Will repeated this for all the countries that dare opposed Austria, which was none, surprisingly. The empress had also been very productive. She visited all of their neighbors and built strong alliances. She impressed the delegates with her mind and all were eager to join her. While some nations were more difficult, she only had to mention her champion once to them for them to come to their senses and accept the empress' offer.
Will had been kept busy with his other duties. Austria's military had been in poor state and if they wanted to stay in shape, they would need a well-oiled machine that would work without Will, for Will hoped that one day he and Valentina could just settle down. But she was the empress. What could he do? Well these troubles weighed on his mind, he built the military. It was a strong well-disciplined unit with three major levels. At the top was the white guard, personally commanded by Will. They were 1,000 hand selected knights personally trained by Will and loyal to him and the empress. They would protect the royal family and were all prepared to take a bullet for the empress. Beneath that was the Red Guard, the civilian guard. This protected the countryside and secured the borders. And then, there was the blue guard. This was the massive army that would march over Europe at the empress' command. This scared nations. With 30,000 horses strong and more than 100,000 infantry, it dwarfed all others. Austria was set to take the world by storm. But thankfully, winds of peace filled Europe and all welcomed Austria as a respected ally and showered it in tribute.