The Martial Unity

The leadership of the true world stirred at his words as they exchanged glances. “Our world is currently infiltrated by a foreign alien presence,” Rui continued with a serious expression. “We have retained an alien specimen in the Kandrian Empire, and we shared some data on it with all of you. I’m going out of my way to reveal classified information that the entirety of the Panama Continent and the surrounding oceans were trapped in what we call a manifold, created by an alien flora lifeform, the data of which we have shared with all of you. The elves have taken a closer look at the alien lifeform and will corroborate all of my words on it.”

Both the elder Mothers of the dark and the light elves nodded confidently. “We have examined the so-called manifold tree, which is undoubtedly an alien species. It is fundamentally different in its anatomy and biochemistry, making it clear that it is not part of the Gaian tree of life. It possesses laminar layers instead of cells, where its metabolism is osmosis. There is no doubt that it is of alien origin. Such a lifeform is not of Gaian seed.”

Rui nodded appreciatively. “As such, we have concluded reasonably well that the events that have led to drastic changes in Gaia in the past one hundred and eighty-seven thousand years are all of alien causes.”

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “Right now, we still don’t have a good understanding of the ‘intention,’ if it truly came to Gaia by intention, or what its goals and long-term impacts on our world will be. But given that it has warped our world to such an extent, destroying primordial human civilization, we can safely assume that whatever it is doing to our planet, intentional or not, is not compatible with our mutual interests, such as survival.”

His tone grew increasingly grim as his ethereal eyes sharpened. “We have been relatively fine for now, but we can’t tolerate this any longer. We must, if nothing else, investigate this alien entity. And will most likely need to destroy it. I am personally willing to do at least the former and even the latter if push comes to shove. All I ask of all of you is that you aid me by constructing the civilizational seismic shield to protect civilization from any catastrophic geological activity that could potentially be triggered. Divert all your power to your geological absorption and stabilization systems and remain on high alert to protect all of us.”

Naturally, they had all wholeheartedly or tentatively agreed when individually approached by Rui or by Mother Maeria. They weren’t inclined to reject, but that didn’t mean that they were entirely bought in.

“Emperor Rui, when I was briefed on this so-called alien entity, I found it a little hard to believe, admittedly,” Emperor Ranoua of the Bournvyrne Empire began with a cordial tone. “But it appears that it is indeed the truth. In which case, I do have some questions that I hope you are willing to humor.”

“Of course.” Rui nodded.

“Your accounts of this alien entity have hinted that esoteric matter in your continent is potentially a part of this problem,” the emperor remarked with a careful tone. “Is it possible that the esoteric matter in the Panama Continent may be part of the designs that this alien entity might have on our world?”

Rui was actually quite confident, at this point, that esoteric matter played an important role in whatever the alien entity’s intentions were. “It certainly is possible.”

“And if it turns out that the existence of esoteric matter in the Panama Continent is indeed a threat to this world, what exactly is the Panamic Alliance going to do about it?” the dwarven emperor continued pressing. “After all, no longer is esoteric matter merely a resource that belongs to your civilization. It would become a matter of existential importance to all of us, would it not?”

Rui knew that he had to be careful when answering this painful but important question. “A threat to Gaia is a threat to Panama. We will do everything in our power, in cooperation with the true world, to neutralize the threat.”

Those words seemed to bring about some relief in the elderly dwarf. He was probably worried that Rui would be too headstrong about esoteric matters. Rui knew that his father certainly was, having spent four centuries in a world where esoteric matter was the norm. He probably had had a hard time fathoming what a life without esoteric matter would even be like.

Rui didn’t have such an attachment to esoteric matter.

Especially since he had assimilated the most powerful forms in Kandria’s inventory into his body, making it a part of his power, over the past five years. He didn’t think it would be necessary to get rid of esoteric matter to secure Gaia’s well-being and their survival, but he was willing to go that far if it was necessary.

“And what will you do if this alien threat proves to be beyond your abilities, Emperor Rui?” The President of the West Moridian Alliance leaned forward with a serious expression. “What I must,” Rui replied without a beat of hesitation as his ethereal eyes narrowed. “I will fight to protect Kandria, Panama, and the true world if I must, and I will win.”

“Can you?” Lord Vakratunda asked with a solemn expression.

“I do not know. I am unable to foretell the future, unfortunately.”

That alone was telling. Whatever he was dealing with was beyond his prophetic power; he was likely going to have to go all out if he had any chances of winning.

Of course, he hadn’t forgotten that his goal was initially only to investigate. He was not going to let his hot-blooded instincts overrule prudence when the stakes were everything ever, including his daughter.

The meeting continued as the leaders of the true world continued peppering him with questions about difficult hypotheticals, testing the young emperor.

He managed to give the right answer, ultimately earning their approval. He also promised all of them some negatron matter in return for accepting the deal. They didn’t need to hear more.

In that very meeting, the seven civilizations of Gaia forged an agreement.

The True World Shield Agreement.