The Martial Unity

Mother Maeria’s expression softened as she understood Rui’s train of thought.

“She will use that to fear-monger and spread distrust of Panama in the true world. As much as the Panama Continent has an ironclad grip over geopolitics today, if everybody comes to believe that the Panama Continent is an existential and alien threat to all life, you will lose all support and lose the next war.”

“Correct,” Rui remarked. “I am not invincible, or at least…”

He shrugged. “Not yet. I don’t want to face a scenario where I fight even more top-tens altogether, although…”

His ethereal eyes lit up with a hint of excitement. “I bet that would be really fun now that I think about it. Maybe we should tell her abou—”

THWACK

Mother Maeria lightly slapped him on the shoulder, earning a mirthful smile from him.

It only lasted a moment before a flicker of bloodlust returned to his eyes.

“More than anything else, I refuse to cooperate with that bitch.”

His tone became chilling. “She murdered my father. I have yet to pay her back for that.”

“…Six years have passed since the war,” the Divine Doctor remarked. “Was there not a better opportunity to settle that matter?”

“There’s a task force dedicated to locating her presence, but she has managed to keep herself hidden extremely well,” Rui heaved a sigh. “I even put the Silas Clan on the task force, since they too have a vendetta against the damned clanker, but they have a hard time locating her as well, despite her being one kilometer in length. But now that it’s come to this…”

He clenched his fists. “I will take this matter on myself.”

“How?” Mother Maeria raised an eyebrow. “Can you even find her? And even if you do, how are you going to deal with the threat of mutually assured destruction?”

It was a very valid question, but one that Rui didn’t have an answer for immediately. If it were that easy to find NOVA and kill her, then he would have done it already.

“I think we should ignore her; she’s not as much of a threat as the Fear,” Mother Maeria remarked. “Six civilizations cooperating should be enough. If she’s smart, she’ll partake in it just to stay with the herd.”

Rui shook his head. “Once the Evolutionary Army finds out, she’ll find out. There’s no way to hide it from her once it spreads beyond a certain level. And trust me, once she finds out, it will become our problem. She’s an actual monster at creating chaos. If not for the fact that half of human civilization worships me as a living god, we might have fallen into a civil war by now. This is despite her not understanding esoteric technology as well as we do. NOVA is a variable that must be eliminated before we deal with the Fear.”

Mother Maeria and the Divine Doctor exchanged a knowing glance. The reasoning was not illogical, but it definitely felt a little contrived, like he was trying his best to make her a necessary evil to eliminate through whatever rationalizations he could get his hands on.

His heart had likely already been set on the matter.

Mother Maeria simply heaved a helpless sigh. “Very well, do as you please. When do you intend to start making the seven civilizations partake in this problem? How do you intend to explain it to them? If you reveal that the Panama Continent is infected with an existential alien threat, then NOVA will find out anyway and use that to breed distrust?”

“That’s simple, we lie about the location,” Rui replied with a serious tone of voice. “We won’t tell them that the alien presence is deep under the epicenter of the Panama Continent, right outside the inner core, but rather that the alien presence is deep underneath the Great Void Ocean.”

Mother Maeria lit up at the simple but brilliant way to sell the information to others without turning Panama into the enemy. Of course, there were ways this could backfire, but since Rui was the one who would be investigating it, hopefully, no one would ever find out.

It was also believable since the Great Void Ocean’s floor was where all the negatron vents were; it was easy to sell that there was an alien presence at great depths of the ocean responsible for that negatron matter.

“Then it’s settled.” Rui nodded. He turned towards Mother Maeria. “I’ll leave the elves to you, alright?”

She nodded. “I can even coordinate with Lord Vakratunda. He should be on board, wise as he is.”

Rui nodded. “I’ll start with the Suneater, since I think it is the easiest question mark to fix. He said he owes me one, and I think he would appreciate the need to deal with this danger. After that, I’ll handle the Evolutionary Army with my Anthean memory hacks. Then…”

His ethereal eyes sharpened.

“I’ll deal with NOVA.”

It wasn’t just because of vengeance for his father that he felt the need to get rid of her; it was because he knew the biggest threat to his daughter was NOVA. She was far too intelligent and strategic not to target Ria, Rui’s one and only weakness in the whole world.

That was why he had left her with two Transcendents while he was gone. More than a desire for revenge, the anger in his heart boiled at the thought of any force in the entire universe daring to target his priceless and precious daughter.

The broader preparations for the investigation and elimination of the Fear were set.

To unite the seven civilizations into creating a seismic shield to protect them from potential destruction that emerged from the depths of Gaia. And the personal preparations that Rui needed to make for his absence during that time, and, of course, any risks of his incapacitation or death against an entity that was supposed to be the source of fear for Transcendents.

They immediately began the preparations as Mother Maeria grew busy compelling all of Genora and Kiriket.

Rui, on the other hand, immediately teleported away.

WHOOSH

He teleported to Samarkha.