"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Queen Mackenzie"

Sobek stared at the woman in front of him. She was apparently a normal person, she was even dressed like an ordinary woman... but after all, the era in which kings and queens wore sumptuous clothes and made themselves known in public had long since ended up on Eden as well. It was normal for an important character to dress normally in the modern era, even if she was a queen.

Besides, he felt like he had already seen her somewhere... that she was also a reincarnate, like the characters of Jurassic Park and Zoo? After all, God seemed to enjoy always playing strange tricks on him...

Pauline was paralyzed in front of him. For a few moments she refused to believe that all the parts of the body her eyes saw belonged to a single creature. She mistook a part of the tail for the whole tail; she took a small piece of a tooth that protruded from the lips for a complete tooth; and he thought that the tangle of legs the spinosaurus lay on was a bunch of animals huddled together. Only when he looked up and saw the huge dorsal sail, higher than a house, did he actually realize which giant he found himself in front of.

It seemed impossible that such a creature could exist. Pauline was not an expert, but she was pretty sure that if Sobek never became intelligent then she would trigger an ecological collapse, as entire ecosystems would be torn apart every day to satisfy the appetite of such a behemoth.

However, Pauline could not be intimidated. And she could not remain silent for too long, or the other part of her could have received it as an offense. "The pleasure is all mine, Lord Sobek" she said with a perfect half bow.

"Please, just call me Sobek. For us dinosaurs, the titles are not important"

"Then you can call me Pauline"

"Wait a minute… so she would be Pauline Mackenzie !? One of the protagonists of Salvation, that series that I nevertheless liked was bastardly canceled after only two seasons !?" Sobek gasped in his mind, finally realizing who reminded him of the woman in front of him. Indeed, it looked like her!

He tried to compose himself: "Okay, Pauline. Under normal circumstances I would be happy to meet you, but I must confess that I am quite confused by the urgency with which you wanted to have an interview with me. May I know what happens if I'm not too hasty?"

Pauline did not seem to be waiting for more: "Please, you must help me save the world!"

"Uh? I've actually been trying to do it for four years..."

"This time it's different! You do not understand! They..." Pauline bit her lip, "... WE have created a weapon that will destroy us all!"

Sobek's eyes widened as if they had just been electrocuted. 'A weapon that will destroy us all... could it be...?'. "Tell me, is this weapon capable of transforming the sky into flames and the rock into vapor, and takes the shape of a mushroom?"

Pauline seemed to have just received a blow to the head: "You… you know? How…?"

'So it's really the nuclear bomb!' Sobek thought, risking panic, but luckily he managed to keep a cool head. 'If such a bomb has indeed made its appearance here on Eden, then I have to thank that there are conscientious human leaders like Pauline... even if she doesn't know it yet, she could be the only chance to save the world. Even so, however, atomic warfare looms over our heads... with [Supreme instinct] and [Teleportation] the dinosaurs are safe, and in turn the dinosaurs can protect human civilians, but not even I will be able to restore the planet after a nuclear holocaust'

Sobek knew that the war was now even more difficult. If he wanted to keep Eden from turning into a desert, his every next move would be delicate and crucial. 'Pauline is the leader of one of the five superpowers, which means that if she agrees to help me I should be able to buy some time... but as much as I mind, I fear that the explosion of the bombs is inevitable. Even if you manage to wage a blitzkrieg, the other human leaders will prefer to kill us all rather than let us win, even if they lose too. The only hope I see of surviving the fallout is to evolve one last time; the System is designed by God himself to help me, so maybe you will give me a way to at least contain the disaster'

He looked down and noticed that Pauline was still waiting for an answer. She called herself stupid: now that she answered? She could have invented that she had spies, but in that case all the questions he would ask the queen would have been useless, besides the fact that her reaction testified that she knew nothing about them. Pauline was not stupid, she would have sensed that something was wrong, and she could not afford doubts if she wanted to gain her trust in her. She was starting to sweat when Buck came to his aid: "Your vision, pack leader! It came true!"

'What vision? What is he talking about?' Sobek wondered, then suddenly remembered when he had given his speech to the dinosaurs to reveal to them that he wanted to go to war and had pretended he could see the future, and all the times he had talked about a weapon capable of burning the sky and melting the stone. Apparently, the dinosaurs ended up putting the pieces together believing it was all a vision of him. 'Thank you, Buck!' He exclaimed in his mind as he caught the ball: "Apparently. I knew it would happen, but I hoped to the last to be able to avoid it..."

"May I know what you are talking about?" Pauline asked.

"Forgive me" Sobek said, pretending to remember only then that she existed. "He must know that long ago I developed the ability to see things that have not yet happened"

"Things that haven't happened yet…? Can you predict the future?"

"Just fragments. Small glimpses of what is to come. And many times in my visions a weapon of unimaginable power has appeared, destined to transform this world into a gray desert where neither humans nor animals will be able to live anymore"

Sobek hoped that her melodramatic tone would convince the Queen of Prettania and that she would avoid asking too many questions about her presumed foresight.

Pauline was confused and curious, but given the situation she preferred to return to the main topic: "If you have seen what that weapon can do, then you must help me stop it!" she pleaded with her. "Come with me, on Laurentia. I will get you to speak before the NMWA. Maybe we can find a way to..."

Sobek stopped her right away: "We both know it's not going to work. He could have if you or someone else had come first to offer peace proposals. But now, the other member states of the NMWA are convinced that they have the means to defeat me and my people. None of them will listen to us"

Unfortunately, humans were only open to peace proposals when the situation was stalled. But now, humans had the illusion that the scales were tipping in their favor.

Incredibly, however, Pauline shook her head: "The other nations know nothing about atomic bombs. Only the elites of the five world superpowers are aware of it"

Sobek's eyes widened. This changed everything. If only five nations knew of the existence of nuclear weapons, then all the others still did not have the illusion of being able to win. And with their peoples now exhausted by the war of attrition they were subjected to, it was likely that they would let themselves be persuaded. "If so, then we have a chance"

Pauline smiled: "So will you come with me?"

"No. I'm not going to appear before the NMWA"

Pauline's smile faded. "Why?"

"Don't you understand it by yourself?"

"No. Explain me"

Sobek let out a sigh. "Do you know what the NMWA's weakness is? Which was created only to avoid wars"

Pauline was surprised: "And that's not a good thing? You yourself have said several times that you hate war"

"And so it is. There is no evil worse than war. But that's the point… there is no worse evil, but that doesn't mean there aren't other evils on the same level. Iniquity, for example" Sobek replied. "When the NMWA was created centuries ago, humanity only wanted to put a stop to the wars that had plagued it, so it accepted all the nations of the world without any distinction. He did not impose conditions on HOW to join the NMWA. It was enough to be a nation that did not want war, and you were immediately inside. Because of this, however, all that is written about the order of the NMWA is that member states cannot go to war. End. No legal, legislative or governmental proceedings are described, it is not specified how nations can make their decisions. And as a result, the more powerful nations end up oppressing the weaker ones, since nothing prevents them from preventing trade if the small countries do not do as they say. Do you understand what I mean?"

Pauline understood. "In practice, you argue that certain nations have preferential treatment over others, because they are economically and politically stronger"

"Exactly. And this causes these nations to dictate the law, because there is no way to curb their excessive power. In particular, the five superpowers dictate the law" Sobek explained. "The very concept of superpower is wrong, Pauline, because if a nation gains too much power, then the moment it makes a mistake everyone pays the consequences. And in fact, despite the fact that everyone in the Commission votes and debates, in the end it is always the same five nations who direct the game, all the others are just puppets"

Pauline nodded. "I understand what you want to say. Since the various nations all obey the superpowers, then it would be useless for me to take your side, because the other four superpowers would be our opponents and would therefore have more votes in the final decision"

"Exactly"

"But I'm not the only one. The Meilong Republic is also opposed to the use of nuclear power..."

"The mere fact that you are here, while the Meilong representatives are not, shows that they are not as sure of their choice as you are. And even if you could finally convince them, we would still be at a disadvantage. Going to the NMWA we will only waste time, time that we cannot afford to waste: every minute we lose accelerates the outbreak of nuclear war"

Pauline fell silent, trying to find a way to argue, but she couldn't. It really felt like a dead end street. "So what do you want to do? I appeal to your wisdom" she said, putting her tone on the last word, hoping that Sobek did not decide to carry out a preemptive strike now that the construction of the nuclear arsenals was still underway.

Sobek snorted deeply. "It depends on you. How much are you willing to do to avoid the destruction of the world?"

The woman swallowed and cringed under Sobek's deep gaze; it seemed that those huge eyes of her were probing her soul. "A queen's job is to protect her people, regardless of her consequences for herself. I will do anything to avoid atomic war"

Sobek's eyes narrowed: "Then you'll have to help me destroy the NMWA"