The Martial Unity

“Oh, speaking of them, please arrange a meeting between me and the most advanced pathwalkers of your race,” Rui remarked, directing a sweeping gaze across the other races. “The same goes for all of you as well. Except for the elves, of course. I have already shared with them what needs to be shared. Now…”

He turned back towards a projection of Garg.

“Back to planning out a Planetary Heist. Will the Darthourne Engine be enough to capture Garg?”

“It’s hard to say,” General Brigant studied the data that the dwarf had produced for him. “We would need to do a more thorough analysis, but my preliminary assessment is that it is unlikely. The reality is that this planet’s output is very high. Even if the Darthourne Engine is as powerful as Commander Nornen says, it will not withstand the catastrophically destructive lasers that the planet is capable of releasing for too long. The biggest issue is, without a doubt, the esoteric matter, Your Majesty.”

The man brought up a three-dimensional spectrograph scan of the planet. “It possesses a large amount of esoteric matter within its body, about as much as there is in all of Panama.”

He directed a knowing gaze towards Rui. “Your Majesty, we Panamans know better than anybody exactly what that esoteric matter is capable of. If the planet has truly mastered all of the esoteric matter within its depths, then even this engine, as impressive as it is, will not imprison the planet for too long.”

Commander Nornen looked like he wanted to protest, but suppressed himself, understanding that the General Brigant was merely being objective about the matter. The reality was that the planet had proven itself to exist in a whole other tier of destructive power than Gaian Civilization as a whole. The amount of energy it had at its disposal was comparable to the net energy that all of Gaian Civilization had at its disposal, based on the spectrographic and infrared thermal scans of the planet.

That was a truly astronomical sum of energy, and it humbled all of them. And this was just one specimen, just one member of the Gargantian Hive that dominated the Mariv Star Strand, according to intelligence provided by the Laminar Civilization.

This was the gap between civilizations. A quasi-Type-Three Civilization, like the Gargantian Hive or even the Laminar Civilization, simply existed on a whole other realm of power and scale. Just one of the units of their civilization was able to match all of Gaia.

The only exception to this is the sole Martial Transcendent of their civilization.

All eyes turned towards Rui even as he grew absorbed with processing all the intelligence gathered and the analyses and assessments provided by the central command committee. His very presence seemed to dye reality with Water. As if the fundamental axioms of material reality were suddenly subject to his will and fancies. As if his perception of reality was heavier reality itself.

And it was.

They could feel it.

Mother Alicia had never felt nearly as helpless as she did then, sitting near him at the conference table. She sensed that all the power in the world was meaningless before the might of the Emperor of Water.

Reality itself bent to his will.

It was a quiet power, compared to the pathwalkers around him. They could make the air tremble with their power, yes. They could make the lands quiver. They could shake heaven and earth and even warp the fabric of space and time. And yet, it was mere noise.

It was mere noise before the authority over the very nature of reality.

They couldn’t help but notice that Rui participated in this meeting as a leader, but not as a participant in the operation. It became increasingly clear that he intended to entrust them with this operation, without participating in it himself. They couldn’t help but grow a little sore at that, of course. They knew that he had the power to drown an entire solar system in a tsunami of literal water at his strongest.

Shouldn’t he be the one to partake in this operation if it was so important to Gaian Civilization?

“N̷͇̠͍͛̋͑́̈́̎̏̎̾́͐́̅͝͝ǫ̷͎̪̥̪̮̖̗͓̖͕͚̥͇̣̓̋͐̽͂̚,̸̡̦͚͍̖̹̓̔͜ ̷̨̧̥͓̬͎̝̭̪̮̖̰̣͖̐̋̉͒͋̍͋͐͐͊͒͘Į̷̺̺͕̥̝̗͚́̈́͗̓͋͆̈̏̓ͅͅ ̷͙̽͂̑̍̂̏̾́̾̾̕͠w̶̮̜̝̝̤̣̫͔̩̹͎̜̫͍̋̓̔̿̑̌͗͂͒̊̕͝ï̸̛̞̯͈͉̦̰̫̝̳͍͊̑̐̋̈́̋͒́̅̒̿̔͜͝l̸̩̭̹̱̒̐͂̈́̾̓͗͊l̷̡͍͔̯̝̙͓͕̦̅͛͛̋̑̐̓̋͋͑̕͝͝ ̴̡̡̻̫̠͍̇͌̃̄̾̕͠͠ņ̵̧̢̛̪̭̼̤̟͔̞̹̙̈́͌͌̏̓ơ̸͎͍̓̇̈́̄́͒̈̇͘t̵̨̢̮̯̼̳͙͗̋́́̇̐.”

His voice broke through the shackles of causality itself, permeating the future, present, and the past in a profoundly intense trans-temporal resonance.

His ethereal eyes swept across the gathered high-ranking officials and pathwalkers. “That kind of thinking is precisely why I will not partake in this operation. At least, not directly.”

His eyes sharpened. “Shed the psychology of reliance. It will not do you good. The more you rely on me, the weaker you will become. The weaker our civilization will become.”

His tone grew stricter. “I am not going to do something just because I can.”

His expression grew more serious.

“Otherwise, I could conquer all ten thousand stars in ten years myself.”

Their eyes widened with shock at those words.

They knew he was strong, but to conquer everything with his own personal Martial power? Was that even possible? Then they thought back to the fact that he wiped out an invading army of nebulars, allegedly controlled by the virus, to essentially destroy Gaia. They thought about the fact that he somehow opened a portal to distant star systems even when they were completely out of the needed energy reserves.

They realized that he wasn’t exaggerating.

“I want Gaian Civilization to become strong,” he replied with a serious tone of voice. “Because when our enemies arrive, I will not be able to protect all of you.”

He got up from his chair, turning away. “I will be distancing myself from the planning. Figure this out yourselves.”

WHOOSH

He teleported away in the blink of an eye, leaving the high-ranking officials and pathwalkers with a hint of shame. Of course, they knew he was entirely right. In fact, they themselves applied this approach to their underlings and pathwalkers of lower ranks.

It was just a tad bit humbling to realize that they had returned to the same position themselves now that human civilization had gained a new Martial Transcendent.

They immediately got to work, planning out the operation to capture Garg.