The Martial Unity

From the perspective of Bob, the aliens were utterly terrifying. It regretted that it had chosen to attack the aliens right off the bat when they were actually peaceful and good entities with no intention of harm.

Especially when they were so absurdly powerful. When Bob saw Ria effortlessly controlling their flames and wielding them against them to overwhelm them as dominantly as she did, he realized how much of a mistake he had made to antagonize these alien beings.

Another terrifying reality was that one of the aliens managed to learn to speak their language at an alarming rate despite being an alien with an entirely different physiology. The aliens were capable of producing sound, but it was a much lower frequency with much lower density than the means of communication of the macrobes.

It should have been impossible for them to be able to communicate with Bob as quickly as they did, but the fact that they did showed just how extraordinarily intelligent they were on top of being extremely powerful.

Thankfully, these alien beings were very friendly and generous. Even though they attacked first, the aliens still spared them. That showed that they had struck luck by having these kind-hearted aliens come to their world.

If they simply wanted to explore the world and learn more, then Bob was completely fine with them being here. There was nothing to lose, anyway. It was even possible that they could get some invaluable help from these creatures against their enemies in other colonies.

Bob even considered how it could manipulate these aliens into helping it emerge victorious in factional strife. For now, however, it could earn their goodwill by answering some benign questions.

It told them everything it knew about the world within the firestorm.

”Since ancient times,” Bob told them. ”Our ancestors have known that there was a world within the firestorm. They knew that there was a world within which the life that can only be described as Divine existed. Within the Ser Colony, and other colonies, it is known as the Divine World.”

This was the truth. Many macrobes had entered the firestorm in history, and only a few of them had ever managed to return in history.

”Each time a macrobe has ever returned, however, they have brought back with them a piece of the power of the divine world,” Bob told them. ”They brought us the iron forest surveillance system that we have used to track you. They have brought with them the method to purify iron ore into iron and to shape it into useful objects. They have brought with them celestial knowledge about the universe and its structure. They have brought with us an understanding of life itself. Indeed, the Divine World is a source of power and prosperity unlike anything we have ever known.”

Bob’s explanations conveyed to the outsider aliens exactly why the Divine World was so important to all of them.

”Whoever controls the Divine World can control the entire world,” Bob told them with a serious voice. ”That is why we fight and wage war against other colonies in this world in order to maintain a claim upon the entry to the Divine World. If we let our enemies, our opponents, and our rivals lay sole claim upon the Divine World, then we would be surrendering the source of our power!”

Bob studied the aliens speaking with themselves. Unfortunately, Bob knew nothing about the aliens, so it was virtually impossible for him to try to gauge information from their body language or from the sounds that they exchanged with each other.

Bob could even faintly tell that they were hiding underneath some kind of external layer. After all, they all looked way too different from them, those exoskeletons to be a part of their body and for them to be a part of the same species. Although Bob did suppose it was theoretically possible that each of them was a member of an entirely different tree of life.

It didn’t seem that way based on everything it could observe of the five of them.

Eventually, the one at the center, the one who could communicate with it, turned back towards it.

”Tell me more about this Divine World,” Ria said. ”Is there any specific information you can give me? What kind of environment? What kind of lifeforms? What kind of ecology?”

Some of that alien’s language was hard to understand. They clearly had very different conceptualizations of the meanings of the sounds, even if there was enough overlap to facilitate communication.

Bob tried sharing everything it knew. It had information that went back eons from its ancestors, describing their time in the Divine World. They spoke of an elevated form of life, A Divine Unity in life that allowed for greater power.

It had become a goal of the macrobes, even if they didn’t quite understand what it meant, in order to eventually reach this Divine Unity. Unfortunately, none of the recent macrobes who had entered the Divine World had made it back. The past one thousand years had been a long streak of failures, with not a single macrobe being able to return to the lesser world.

The aliens asked Bob what it thought the Divine World actually was, to which Bob could only honestly reply that it did not know, beyond knowing that there was another world.

Bob watched the aliens discuss among themselves for some time more, before turning back to Bob.

”Thank you for your help, Bob,” Ria told him with an appreciative and bittersweet tone. ”We will go explore the Divine World now.”

”If you succeed in exploring it and returning, we would like to request you to bring back with you as much as you can and as much as you are willing to share with us,” Bob replied with a genuine tone. ”We appreciate your consideration and your kindness, peaceful alien visitors. We shall treat you like heroes if you are able to fulfill this selfish request.”

”…Thank you for everything and goodbye.”

Bob watched them head towards the firestorm, unaware of what was to ensue.