The Martial Unity

“There’s no point in making the decision to attack me after the alliance is made,” Rui muttered inwardly. “It was well known that the dark elves were getting along with us humans and that we have been in negotiations ever since we met. That should have made them want to decide to attack me before the alliance was settled, not after.”

As far as he was concerned, it didn’t make sense for the Evolutionary Army to move this early against him.

They had suffered significant losses in their failed conquest of the Panama Continent. On top of that, they had lost Anthea, their Supreme Commander.

Rui hadn’t bothered on following up on whoever it was that chose to succeed him, however, he was certain that that individual was not at a level where they could possibly threaten him yet.

Considering that they were still recouping from their losses, he couldn’t help but think it was unlikely for them to attack him while they were on the Genoran Continent. The dark elves were nigh-invincible within the borders of Genora. He was basically in the very epicenter of an impregnable fortress of flora manned by the dark elves. It made no sense for any outsider to attack him while he was in West Genora.

That was true not just for the evolutionaries but also the tekvores, the therianthropes, and the giants.

The tekvores were also on the other side of the planet, it was really impractical for them to attack him at this point in time.

The therianthropes were also allies of the dark elves due to their paths also being centered around nature. Dark elves and therianthropes were two sides of the same coin of nature, and thus it was highly unlikely that they would be willing to destroy this relationship just to kill Rui.

They were also extremely weak and vulnerable to his Authority of Alpha, it made zero sense for them to attack him. As for the giants, they were too primal to even hatch such a complex plan, so he didn’t even bother considering them.

Then that left only one possible option for who could be targeting him.

“A force within this continent.”

However, he didn’t sense bloodlust from any of the dark elves that he had met. The dark elves still did not know that Rui could sense their SOUL and read their minds. Even when he met with the Mothers of Nature, he still did not sense any hostility.

This was a powerful litmus test because hiding anything from him was almost impossible. His senses were on a whole other level entirely, and not even stealth specialist Martial Sages could hide the truth from him.

“If not the dark elves then…” his eyes lit up with realization. “Ah… I see, that makes sense.”

A smile emerged on his face.

“Sounds fun.”

He had no idea how they were going to do it, given how territorially bound their power was, but he welcomed it nonetheless.

The political ramifications of their attacking him were, well, interesting. They were never going to befriend the Panama Continent in the first place, thus he truly couldn’t see the loss of an opportunity. On top of that, their hostility was limited towards him, not to human civilization, thus it was almost impossible that this would spill over to a threat to human civilization.

On top of that, it would likely make the dark elves less secure.

As ruthless as it sounded, this was good for human civilization.

The dark elves were a little too secure and invincible in their paradise of a continent. The more insecure and endangered they grew, the more they would be forced to rely on human civilization.

This would deepen their relationship and give human civilization more leverage over their new long-eared friends.

Of course, he highly doubted that the two halves of elven civilization would break up over such a thing, considering how tight their history was and how similar they were in the most important matters.

“The good thing is that now that they have signed the alliance treaty, they cannot possibly allow such a thing to get them to renege on it.”

If they violated an alliance immediately after forming it just because their sisters threw a tantrum, then nobody would ever trust them on anything. All the other civilizations that depended on them for food imports or other strategic goods and services would undoubtedly begin looking for more stable alternatives.

Credibility and reputation was everything in geopolitics. An unstable, fickle polity with a history of reneging on deals and promises would not be able to forge any treaty and alliance. And given that dark elves grew much weaker the moment they left their continent, they needed strong allies if they were to continue interacting the world.

On top of that, because the alliance treaty would require an attack on him would mean an attack on West Genora and would have human civilization mobilize its forces to come to the rescue of the dark elves, he could use this as an excuse to have the dark elves owe the humans a big favor.

On top of that, it would show to the world that human civilization kept its promises and did not violate its agreements, no matter how new.

The increased trust and credibility of human civilization to protect its treaties would likely earn them even more allies from the fence-sitters who were uncertain about whether to pursue trade or war with human civilization.

“Grandmother will eventually learn of this threat herself,” Rui realized. “And when she tells my father, he will likely deduced everything that I have deduced now. And he will likely deduce that I also deduced it. Which means that we can coordinate which each other without any communication to make the absolute best of this opportunity.”

It was a sophisticated application of game theory to be able to wordless coordinate with each other purely through deduction and prediction, and it only worked when both parties were extremely intelligent.

“For now…” Rui’s excitement continued rising. “Time to master the Nature Path before the attack commences.”