The Martial Unity

The leaders of human civilization paid attention to his words with a serious expression.

As of this moment, he was the greatest expert they had at their disposal when it came to understanding the world around them. He was the one who had managed to capture the data of the true world in the first place, making all of them very inclined to put stock in the opinion that he had to offer, even if unsubstantiated.

“For one,” he began. “I don’t think this world was spontaneously created through some sort of geophysical process.”

His tone grew more serious.

“It isn’t my area of expertise, but I know that geological development is not neat or quick, certainly not instantaneous by any means,” he continued with a strong tone even as his eyes were fixed on the map of the true world. “If the world had expanded through geophysical development, we would all be extinct by now.”

The air tingled with tension.

The atmosphere grew electric.

“The surface area of the world has increased by roughly an order of magnitude,” he continued with a knowing expression. “There is simply no way for this to happen without destroying everything if it occurred geologically. Even the major shift of tectonic plate would destroy much of the biosphere around the world. Yet, in this case, nothing has been directly affected yet, though the long-term environmental and ecological impact of this anomaly will be damning, the immediate effects being almost nil is proof enough that this is not geological.”

He waved his hand as the projection of an elementary animation of the planet suddenly ballooning with mass appeared on the screen, portraying the complete destruction of the Panama Continent.

This was clearly not what had happened with the Panama Continent.

“I suspect that these continents…” he gestured to the true world. “…were already in existence.”

His eyes sharpened.

“Already in existence for a long, long time.”

The leaders of human civilization stirred with a lost expression as they struggled to process what the hell they had just heard.

“How…?” the Gorteaun President just barely managed to squeeze out. “Where could these continents have possibly been hiding? We have sailed the world and we have mapped the entire world and have never once seen any of these continents!”

He voiced the frustration and the bewildered shock that all of them felt not just at the Esoterist’s words but also the situation they were in.

Many of them wished they were simply in a nightmare that would end soon and they would wake up with relief.

Many of them were so utterly dumbfounded by this unfathomable anomaly that they wished they could go back to the Era of Darkness!

Things may have been dark, but at least things made sense!

The Beast Incursion was a horrible calamity, but it was one that they had a full grasp on. They understood what the threats were, and they even had a good idea of why they were there, even if there were many mysteries.

The world still made sense, even if it was an extreme epoch that destroyed human dominance. Reality made sense and didn’t defy causality in the most extreme manner they had ever seen.

“Hear me out…” the Esoterist raised his hands, trying to pacify the shaken leaders of human civilization. “I hear reasons for my hypothesis beyond just the geological impossibilities. For one…”

He waved his hand.

A projection of a map with a dark spot on a map featuring the core of the Beast Domain emerged before all of them.

“This is a projection of the core of the Beast Domain at any random time,” the Esoterist explained. “And this…”

Another projection emerged beside it in front of everybody.

It was the same image, but there were strange distortions to the image.

As though a lens has been put over a certain part of the image, distorting the light.

“…is a shot taken by the satellites of the Beast Domain at the moment the anomaly occurred, and a little after,” he explained. “The distortion effect you see is not artificial. It’s genuine, and it occurred not because of a lens but because of gravity. It’s a phenomenon we know as gravitational lensing.”

The leaders stared at him with a mystified expression at this revelation.

“During and after the anomaly, the Beast Domain radiated powerful gravitational radiation, detected by the gravitational lensing effect,” the Esoterist explained. “In other words, the anomaly was correlated with a phenomenon of space and time. My hypothesis, as unsubstantiated as it is, is that our continent and our ocean all existed within a large space-time manifold.”

His gaze slowly shifted towards the Emperor of Harmony.

“One that is very similar to the manifold in the possession of the Kandrian Empire.”

The leaders of human civilization grew aghast once.

The anomaly was unfathomable and mind-breaking in and of itself.

And yet, the explanation for the anomaly that the Esoterist provided was even insane!

“Proposterous!” the consul of Nest of Terra shrieked as he glared at the Esoterist with anger. “That would mean we have been connected from the true world this entire time! I refuse to accept that explanation!”

The air boiled with tension as the consul lost his composure.

The atmosphere tingled electrically.

The Estoterist shrugged with a wry smile. “As I said, I don’t have proof. It’s merely a conjecture, but one that seems more plausible to me than virtually any other explanation that I conceived of. It may or may not be true, but…”

His gaze returned to the map of the true world with uncertain excitement. “…The fact of the matter is that this is not what a new world looks like. A new world would be smoldering with lava, and the oceans would be turned to vapor, unable to even condense to water due to extraordinarily high temperatures. We would all be dead right now if this world had been spontaneously created through an organic process. If my hypothesis is true, it would mean that we are the ones who have been hidden away from the true world for a long, long time.”

The leadership of human civilization churned with aghast uncertainty as they gazed at the true world with wonder and fear.

–

Author note: True World Map available in the comment section down below.