The Martial Unity

“Wait—!” Rui froze as he felt the Elder Tree’s presence disappear from within the mangrove. It was gone.

“…I wish it had at least elaborated on each of those points thoroughly.” Emperor Rael heaved a sigh, shaking his head. “No, even this is priceless intelligence.”

“It must have been in a rapidly deteriorating condition if it cut the connection this quickly,” Rui heaved a sigh. “I keep forgetting, but Martial Artists are truly convenient compared to the power of beasts and siege weapons.”

The latter two required immense sustenance in resources. Siege weapons required not only high-grade esoteric resources but also required them to be processed in exactly the right way in order to be viable. An unfathomable amount of labor and capital went into just maintaining and sustaining them. Beasts and monsters, on the other hand, all required extravagant and massive diets with high-quality esoteric content to sustain themselves.

Martial Artists did not have ostentatious requirements or needs to sustain themselves despite being superior to both siege weapons and beasts. Martial Sages could consume relatively large amounts of all food and still be in perfect condition to fight any siege weapon and or Sage-level beast that consumed countless times more resources to sustain themselves.

Martial Artists were just superior. They were stronger, faster, less taxing, less draining, and more convenient to house. While powerful entities like the Elder Tree spent its entire life struggling to fulfill its enormous requirements, Martial Artists had never experienced such a struggle.

“I don’t understand why the Elder Tree said that the Kandrian Empire would be facing the toughest battle.” Emperor Rael’s grave and dark tone broke Rui out of his self-congratulatory thoughts. “I don’t understand. We are the furthest away from the Beast Domain compared to any other nation in the entire world. How does it make sense for us to experience the worst and harshest battle?”

The frustration in his tone was clear.

He has hoped to get at least a little bit of a break upon the conclusion of the third Great East Panamic War. Even if the apocalypse was horrific, the threat of forty-two Martial Sages was worse, as far as the Emperor of Harmony was concerned.

Now however, it appeared that for reasons unknown, the Kandrian Empire would not be catching a break after all.

Rui stirred at his father’s words. He didn’t understand why the Elder Tree had said that. “But… I don’t think it was lying.” Rui’s tone grew soft and severe. “Most likely it was not blatantly incorrect either. So far, in all the times that we have cooperated with it, we have not received a single piece of incorrect intelligence.”

His father had clearly made that same consideration as well. Despite the fact that he didn’t understand why the Elder Tree had said what it had, he still took it seriously given the extreme credibility that the Elder Tree possessed when it came to the Beast Domain.

“I wonder why it said that it was not an acute crisis,” Rui pondered aloud. “Normally, beast stampedes and rampages do not continue for extensive periods. In all my years in the Beast Domain with Kane, I don’t think we once saw a beast rampage last for more than even an hour.”

Then there was also the matter regarding the creature that commanded the Beast Domain. Rui couldn’t even imagine how devastatingly powerful such a creature was. Considering that the Elder Tree had said that the Beast Incursion would continue for as long as the spell remained unbroken, it was possible that they would have to confront and fight this horrifying beast all by themselves to win the battle.

“Rid yourself of all these long-term considerations for now, Rui,” Emperor Rael broke him out of his reverie with a grim tone. “We have a battle to fight in less than a day. We need to focus ourselves on overcoming the most urgent short-term threats before we think about the long-term future of human civilization.”

Rui nodded, shaking his head clear of superfluous thoughts.

“I understand.”

If the Elder Tree’s words were true, then the Kandrian Empire could potentially face a truly grim battle.

It was entirely possible that they could get wiped out by the battle if they didn’t pay attention.

Of course, it was also entirely possible that the Kandrian Empire would breeze through it. A hope that Emperor Rael didn’t discount even if he prepared for the worst. The Kandrian Empire had a whopping twenty-four Sages and, among them, particularly powerful Sages like the Devil.

It would take an astronomical amount of beasts and animals to overcome all of them. It was questionable whether even a single beast and monster that had emerged out of the Beast Domain in the Beast Incursion could last even a few seconds against the destruction of the Devil, let alone the remaining twenty-three other Sages.

The Kandrian Empire was extremely secure in other Realms too, with the Master Realm being led by the two most powerful Martial Masters in all of East Panama followed by a whopping two hundred and forty-eight Martial Masters, many of whom had been broken through by Rui or had migrated to the Kandrian Empire for opportunities for growth.

The other Realms were also flushed with members, having grown to twice as large in their populations than over the war.

In other words, the Kandrian Empire was the most solid defending force in all of human civilization.

And even then, neither the Void Prince nor the Emperor of Harmony took victory for granted.

They had chosen to learn from the blunders of the Britannian Empire that had suffered catastrophic casualties from what had been just a moment of oversight from the Masters.

Neither of them were willing to allow any harm to befall the Kandrian Empire. They would not allow so much as a hair on any Kandrian to suffer harm.

“Come, my son.” Emperor Rael’s voice was strong. “We have much work to do in preparation for what is to come. We don’t have much time.”

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