The Martial Unity

Rui watched with horror as cracks emerged across the beautiful, turquoise planet, which shivered as glowing cracks emerged from within the depths of the ocean floor, before enlarging into full-blown fissures that expanded to the mantle.

The force of the negatron core caused the crust and the mantle to break as the pieces pushed apart from each other, separating from the negatron core, pushed away by the immense antigravity. The planet was destroyed in a cruel, slow process as its debris floated into the outer atmosphere.

From within the negatron core, countless shining meteorites exploded forth at blinding speeds, propelled by the same negatron matter that served as a powerful launchpad, spreading across the entire cosmos. The meteorites seemed to phase through the very fabric of reality itself, eventually disappearing off into thin air in a mode of transport that was inscrutable from the projection.

WHOOSH

The laminar integument halted the projection of its memory as the light within the depths of the translucent jellyfish-like body began to change across a variety of colors. He imagined it was how it experienced overwhelming emotion or whatever the photonic equivalent of it was. The memory of the destruction of its home world bore deeply on the laminar integument.

“This. Your. Destiny. Inevitable. Inescapable. Absolute. Destiny.”

The thoughts of the laminar integument bore deeply on Rui as his expression crumpled with grim severity. That was why the alien virus had poured all of its power into sending ripples through the very fabric of reality. That was why its final act chillingly resembled an SOS.

That was why the Fear in his heart had never once subsided, even after he destroyed the deep biosphere beneath the Panama Continent.

“Soon.”

That one word, composed of a sequence of light signals, sent chills across Rui’s skin.

“Soon. This. Solar. System. Invaded. Infested. War. Monsters. Unstoppable.”

The air grew heavy as the blood-red suns within the depths of Rui’s ethereal eyes flared with a profound intensity.

“Soon. World. Re-seeded. Re-infected. Restart. Expansion. Explosion. Destruction. Interstellar. Seeding.”

The light emerging from within the depths of the alien lifeform seemed to grow even more macabre. “Soon. World. Re-seeded. Re-infected. Restart. Expansion. Explosion. Destruction. Interstellar. Seeding.”

The light emerging from within the depths of the alien lifeform seemed to grow even more macabre. “Your. World. Same. Outcome. Our. World.”

It was a horrifying revelation.

And yet, it merely resonated with the Fear that he felt in his heart.

It was one of the most chilling truths that he had ever learned of.

To think after all the effort he went through to wipe out the alien virus from within Gaia.

To rid her of her ailment.

To free them from a fate of destruction.

And now, they had merely overcome the first layer of doom.

Now, they faced an approaching intergalactic siege of alien monsters that threatened to destroy their entire planet.

It was overwhelming.

And yet, he needed to remain in the present.

“We will overcome this impediment.” The blood-red suns in his eyes flickered on and off in a series of signals that the laminar integument could interpret. “We will overcome this challenge.”

In response, the laminar integument let out a flash of light, shining brightly for just a moment.

It was the laminar equivalent of a scoff.

“You. Overcome. Nothing.”

The laminar integument told him with a severely intense set of flashes of light. “You. Strong. Very. Strong. But. Not. Strong. Enough. Cannot. Fight. Forever. Cannot. Fight. Endless. Army. Cannot. Fight. Unending. Monsters.”

The final flashes of light were particularly pronounced, as if the alien jellyfish was trying to hammer the point into Rui. “Your. World. Will. Destruction. Information. Absorbed. Information. Weaponized. Strengthen. Virus. Strengthen. Future. Seed. Just. Like. ⏃⏁ ⍙. Was. Destroyed. Absorbed. Weaponized.”

There were some inscrutable signals that could not be converted into interpretable human language.

It was a name.

A name in light signals.

It was the name of a manifold tree in the language of light that the laminar integuments communicated with. He understood that the manifold tree was extremely precious to the laminar integuments, a tree that held great significance to the entity before him.

The manifold tree was native to their world, and its information has been absorbed by the virus because of how useful it was. And it was subsequently used in Gaia to enclose the Panama Continent.

That meant that the virus grew stronger and stronger with each world division and multiplication. It absorbed more information and created more powerful innovations and solutions to ensure that it spread around the cosmos more successfully.

More importantly, the full gravity of the situation had dawned on him.

They were going to be besieged by a vast interstellar army of alien monsters. Monsters so powerful that not even the laminar integuments could defeat them.

However, that was more than one hundred and eighty-seven thousand years ago, if not even longer, given that the virus seed that landed on Earth must have taken time to travel after the destruction of their world. That meant that it was possible that Gaian Civilization might be strong enough to resist the tide of interstellar alien monsters.

But if they had any hope of surviving that, they needed to survive the more immediate threat. He now understood why the laminar integument rushed to Gaia the moment they detected the ripples through the very fabric of reality.

They were trying to get here in time.

They were trying to get here in time before the alien monsters reached them. It must have even been protocol to do so right away, lest the alien monsters reach the target first. It would explain why they had poured that much power into creating a direct wormhole to the target solar system, even if they must have paid an unfathomable price in energy.

They had rushed to destroy the infected world, now disinfected, before it could be re-seeded and re-infected by the alien monsters.

Rui could not allow that to happen.

“Halt your assault on our world.” The blood-red suns within the depths of his eyes flared with blinding brightness as they flickered, conveying a profoundly intense will of power. “Help us survive the alien siege upon our world. Help us survive, and we will be of great aid to you in your desire to destroy the virus.”