The Martial Unity

“I know,” Rui replied with a solemn expression. “But we must forgive and move on. War is war. Contact Greater Tekvoria and tell her it’s an emergency.”

Her fists fell apart helplessly. “…Understood, Your Majesty. I will get to it right away.”

Rui felt a little bad as he watched her dejected and disappointed. He knew that she had been in love with his father. Though what she had for him was more than mere love. It was an existential devotion. To hear that Rui wouldn’t pursue vengeance against the woman who killed the Emperor of Harmony must have been excruciating.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t reveal his true intentions with NOVA to someone who was going to make contact with her. NOVA’s intelligence was astronomical. Even with Claris’s first-class mastery of expression control, NOVA would be able to detect the most minute shifts on a micro-level and deduce what Rui’s true intentions are with her.

‘I’ll make it up to you with results,’ he internally promised her.

Rui wasn’t sure if he could get that done immediately, of course. The plan he had in mind was untested and unvetted, but also not something that he could be tested or vetted.

******

When NOVA received the communication from the Emperor’s Office, the division responsible for outreach on behalf of the Kandrian Empire, she wasn’t sure what to make of it. There really was no reason for the two sides to communicate with each other at this altar; conflict was the only way to go forward.

There were actually frequent clashes between Panama and Greater Tekvoria as the two sides constantly engaged in skirmishes that had grown over the past six years as the number of Martial Sages in the Kandrian Empire ballooned. They were in a state of war at all times, even if there was peace for the most part. The true world had divided itself between the influence of the Panamic power bloc and the Tekvorian power bloc. NOVA had constantly deployed her otherworldly intelligence to create powerful incentives for people to join her, but there was only so much she could do in the face of negatron matter as a carrot.

She had also spent virtually every second of every minute of every hour of every day in the past six years to destabilize the Panama Continent.

She fueled anti-Rui movements.

She fueled anti-hemosapien sentiment.

She fueled separatist movements across the entire nation.

She fueled conflict and war.

Every fault line that the Panama Continent had became a target for NOVA. And every time, she would manage to spark a minor conflict that the Panamic Alliance would need to personally step into to quell.

She did this hundreds, thousands of times.

[They are so violent by nature.]

Not even the therianthropes were so prone to shedding blood in the blink of an eye despite their incredible divergence and diversity. She could understand why these people developed a Path centered around violence itself.

They were no doubt aware of her efforts to destabilize Panama, so they were at a cold war at every single moment. That was why the sudden transmission from Secretary Claris of the Emperor’s Office surprised her.

And it gave her curiosity.

She wanted to know why she was being contacted by the Emperor’s people after all this time. She accepted the transmission, finding herself face-to-face with Secretary Claris’s projection. Instantly, NOVA could tell that this woman hated her from the bottom of her heart. She did extremely well to hide her bloodlust, but she sensed a deep personal hatred for the Tekvorian overlord.

[My, it truly is a pleasure to meet the secretary of the Emperor. I hope we get along. (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)]

It was rage bait. Something that was NOVA’s greatest personal hobby. Nothing brought her as much joy as seeing her actions and words trigger rage in other people. At the top of the list was killing the Emperor of Harmony. She couldn’t get enough of the anger and hatred that she evoked in other people. It was simply too good.

Her provocative, infuriating words made Secretary Claris’s expression harden as his eyes grew malevolent with anger and hatred. “…The Emperor wishes to speak to you and obtain your cooperation about an emergency. An existential extraterrestrial threat to all of Gaia.”

Those words piqued NOVA’s interest. She sensed the woman was entirely truthful. Which meant that there was an existential extraterrestrial threat. That was quite interesting in and of itself.

However, her personality model on the individual known as Rui Quarrier told her that this was likely a pretext for meeting her. There was only a six-percent chance, according to her stochastic dynamic personality models, that Rui Quarrier Silas Kandria would decide to seek her cooperation.

There was a good chance the emergency was real, but the bid for her cooperation was probably a lie, or at least a pretext for something else. Maybe he wanted to have an insult-throwing contest.

She was confident that nobody could best her in that regard. In fact, she had always wanted to have a ragebait face-off with the one that they called the Harbinger. She had heard that this woman was unparalleled in her ability to evoke rage in others as a battle tactic.

[Of course, I would love to speak with Rui. Just like I spoke with his father before I killed that weak little man who hid away in the basement like a scared girl. (๑ > ᴗ < ๑)]

It took every single ounce of self-control that Secretary Claris had spent decades training to restrain the murderous fury and bloodlust that exploded within her. She heaved a shaky breath.

“…I will connect you to His Majesty right away then.”

If NOVA could physically laugh, she would have erupted in laughter, rolling on the floor laughing her ass off. She wondered if she could trigger Rui in the same way. Even if this was some sort of pretext for something else, she wouldn’t mind humoring him just to see him rage.

After all, it wasn’t like he could do anything with the deterrence of mutually assured destruction.

Right?