The Martial Unity

Six hours had passed since the Panamic Manifold Unfolded.

The world was in more disarray than it had ever been in the history of mankind, perhaps.

Most leaders across human civilization were consumed with the task of pacifying their hysterical citizens despite the Martial Artists they had at their disposal.

For one, they couldn’t harm their citizens in the process of pacifying them, nor could they be overwhelmingly domineering.

They also couldn’t allow the citizens to get hurt in their hysteria, for that would merely exacerbate the situation.

And thus, the state slowly and gently began pacifying their citizens, even as Martial Artists rolled with the attacks of their citizens, lest their arm shatter in the attempt to hurt them.

Six hours after the anomaly had ended, the upheavels and riots had ended.

The sleep-deprived citizens of half the continent, whose sleep has been interrupted by night turning to day, succumbed to their own exhaustion as they returned home and finally gave rest to their exhausted bodies and spirits.

It was only after the people finally calmed down from the initial wave of panic that the states could finally begin mobilizing to commence the preliminary preparations for the operations and the direction that they had decided to go with in the emergency Sage-level conference.

Environmental and ecological experts and organizations began a process of diagnosis.

They began identifying disruptions to environmental order and estimated both their severity and their urgency, ranking them as such.

What was bound to be a long, long process of environmental stabilization had begun.

A process that would take years and perhaps even decades.

The Beast Incursion had also rapidly destabilized the environment of the Panama Continent and the Unfolding had radically exacerbated the problem.

Simultaneously, the border countries of the Panama Continent had entered into a state of absolute alertness and national emergency.

Any attempt from any foreign power to target and attack the Panama Continent would first be targeted at the outermost regions of the nation, making them an instant target for any force that was out there.

The Kandrian Empire rapidly began redirecting its Martial Masters from the western borders, where they faced the Beast Incursion, to its eastern borders by the sea, where they faced the true world a great distance away.

Nations around the world did not lower their guards just because the Beast Incursion appeared to have truly ended.

No, they prepared for war.

It didn’t matter if they had no idea what was out there in the true world.

It didn’t matter if they had no idea what they were facing.

Or rather, it was precisely because they didn’t have any information that they had to assume the worst.

Human civilization was not friendly.

It was characterized by war.

Imperialism.

Colonialism.

With that model in mind, not a single leader could afford to not prepare for the worst. Faced with six continents in all directions, there was not a single polity that was safe from what could potentially come.

They did this all while keeping the existence of six continents a secret from their citizens and even their Martial Artists. They couldn’t afford another upheavel upon the release of the true world.

The fabric of human civilization was already weakened with the chaos that had ensued very recently, they needed to spend time building it back up before they could handle the truth. The betrayal of the Chosen One was proof that in these vulnerable times, anything could go wrong, exploiting their limited ability to enforce order.

At the very least, they needed to wait for the Martial Sages in order to regain the primacy of the power. Not a single one of them had forgotten that they still had no idea if the Beast That Roared was still alive or not.

“The next twenty-four hours will decide everything.”

In the depths of the Esocline Federation, the Esoterist smiled as his fingers flicked about a three-dimensional satellite blueprint, comprised of a lot of esoteric nanotechnology, allowing him to modularize and manipulate the satellite as he pleased.

His lab was infested with all manner of technological innovations and prototypes of a variety of technologies, many of which were geared towards MECHAs.

However, he had put all of them on hold once the anomaly occurred.

Gathering intelligence on the anomaly was the most important priority.

He had dedicated almost all his available time to upgrading the satellite to allow him to collect better data on the true world. Specifically, he was most interested in setting up surveillance to gather data on the energy signatures that the true world was giving off across the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation.

Based on the data, he would be able to have a much better understanding of whether the true world was barren land and waters, or whether it was covered in a rich biosphere, producing compounds that were otherwise only produced by life, such as methane and dimethyl sulphide.

Or, the most significant possibility, whether it gave off the energy signature of a technologically advanced civilization.

High radiation intensity, particularly of the visible light spectrum and radio waves.

A lot of infrared radiation across non-volcanic topographies would imply the existence of industry that deployed heat in manufacturing processes.

Typical signs of esoteric technology and other signatures that would imply sophistication.

This was what the Esoterist was most excited about: the true world.

While the other nations were fearful of the possibility of powerful civilizations, he looked forward to the existence of technologically advanced civilizations.

It was lonely being the sole technologically sophisticated civilization, even though the Kandrian Empire, the Blood Cult, and the Nest of Terra, to an extent, existed, they could not compare to the sheer depth of technological power that the Esocline Federation possessed.

He was convinced that his nation would eventually become the most powerful nation in the world, exceeding even the Kandrian Empire.

That was why he dedicated all his time to improving upgrade his satellites remotely to locate technologically advanced civilizations by tracking their technological signatures.

And yet, that was a game that two could play.

A lesson that he would learn the painful way.

RUMBLE

He froze.

The world shivered as chills crawled across his skin.

BZZZT!

An ominous feeling of dread and danger washed over him as a satellite feed alert emerged in front of him in his augmented reality headset.

It featured a single unknown entity emerging from the unknown depths of the true world at astronomical speeds.

Its trajectory was aimed straight at the Esocline Federation on the northern coast of the Panama Continent.

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