The Martial Unity

The leaders grew more interested in what was to come next. While learning about the past event that led to the Beast Incursion and adjusting how they viewed the Beast Incursion was worth attending the Summit, it was not the reason that they had come. Instead, the reason that they had come was to learn about what the future held for them. That was more important than understanding the nature of events that had already unfolded and could not be changed anymore.

The future, however, could be changed.

“I’m sure that all of you have done your best to glean what the future of the Beast Incursion holds for you,” the Ecologer continued with a knowing tone. “I’m sure that many of you have formed projections on how long it would take for the Beast Incursion to end based on the data you have collected in the past thirty days.”

This was exactly what all of them had done. By comparing how many monsters and beasts fell relative to the proportion of Martial Artists, they were able to come up with elementary projections of how long it would take for them to wipe out all the beasts and monsters that invaded human civilization.

“Unfortunately, your projections are all but elementary and over-simplistic,” she replied. “For one, it assumes that the number of beasts and monsters of the Beast Domain will remain constant for the most part. This is, unfortunately, a flawed assumption.”

Her words caused a grim wave of reckoning to spread through the people of the Kandrian Empire.

“In my studies in how the roar from the center of the Beast Domain affected beasts and monsters, I have discovered a rather stunning truth. The truth is that the roar does more than just send them into a frenzy of aggression,” she informed them. “It also sends them into a frenzy of heat and mating.”

None of them could contain the surprise that her revelations caused them. “This is less noticeable, in the span of one month at least. You would not have noticed due to the fact that when they see a human, the command issued in the roar would have compelled them to abandon all other actions and tasks and attack said human,” she continued in an erudite tone. “Thus, you would not have been able to observe the increase in the aggression in mating. However, I have measured it across different species and even orders. It is a universal phenomenon across all beasts and monsters. I shall pass over the data to each of you through the Beggar’s Sect and I would encourage all of you to verify the results for yourselves.”

There was no real need for that, of course.

Hardly anyone doubted her in her own field of expertise of which she was by far the greatest expert in.

Very few of them could contain the grave expressions that naturally lit up on their faces at this revelation.

She was right.

All their prior estimates for how long this would continue were completely invalid. They had worked with a constant population count with, at most, a few changes at the margin, but they had not accounted for drastic increases in population or drastic reproduction rates.

According to the information that the Ecologer had just shared, this was an erroneous estimate.

“My estimates on the timeline when factoring aggressive and induced reproduction of all kinds is…” She turned to the screen featuring all the data spread on the screen. “Anywhere from ten years to a hundred.”

Immediately, the atmosphere darkened.

That was an order of magnitude of a range.

It was far too wide of an estimate to make any hyper-detailed plans for.

However, the worst part was that her best estimates were still much longer than their worst estimates. A decade was truly on the worse end of the estimates for how long the active invasion of the beasts and monsters would last.

They all knew that it would take decades for human civilization to recover its former glory even after the Beast Incursion ended. However, none of them could have expected that the Beast Incursion could possibly last a decade.

A decade of active invasions into human civilization and territory.

Just the thought of it sent shivers down the spines of many who had dared to hope that the Beast Domain would only last months.

Even the leaders of the fourteen Sage-level powerhouses stiffened at the mention of the best-case scenario lasting a whopping decade.

And what of the worst-case scenario?

A Beast Incursion lasting a century?

Just the sheer horror of such an outcome manifesting sent all of them into despair.

They threw a grim glance at the Ecologer who patiently waited for all the leaders in the summit to process and digest this despair-inducing piece of intel.

They needed it.

Many wanted to rip their hair out at this morale-shattering news.

Many were on the brink of being overrun already. They could not last for even a year, let alone a decade or a century.

Many were fully ready to break down then and there, but they gritted their teeth and schooled their expression.

Prime Minister Edward looked like he was ready to lose his mind then and there. The Britannian Empire had suffered an astronomical amount of pressure since the dawn of the Beast Incursion epoch. The notion of suffering that same amount of pressure for the next hundred years made him feel like he was going to go crazy on the spot.

Several minutes passed as the leaders of human civilization processed the horrifying news as well as they could, trying their best to digest it as well as possible. Regardless of how horrifying the news of how long the Beast Incursion was going to last was, the fact of the matter was that they were the leaders of human civilization.

They bore a heavy responsibility.

Certainly, there were many incompetent and cowardly leaders among them at all levels. However, for their own sakes and the sake of their people, they needed to pull themselves together.

–