The Martial Unity

”There. Has. Been. Another. Informational. Anomaly.” Divine Mother —-oo commenced a meeting with a severe tone of voice. ”Within. Days. Of. The. First. Informational. Anomaly. We. Have. Now. Found. Yet. Another. One.”

She spoke with an elderly, authoritative voice that was sharp, commanding the attention of her fellow sisters over the web of the Divine Mother Council.

Divine Mother —-oo, the Infecter, had commenced the meeting as the leader of the Virus Faction, a faction that believed in deepening and expanding the symbiosis between the arakai and the cosmic virus.

”This. Time. However. The. Anomaly. Is. Recognizable…” Divine Mother —-oo continued with a serious tone of voice. ”It. Is. An. Anomalous. SOS. Call. Based. On. My. Interactions. And. Conversations. With. Virus. Branches. Within. Our. Civilization. A. Corrupted. Signal. That. Cannot. Be. Traced.”

”—-oo, what. Can. Your. Faction. Tell. Us. About. The. Contents. Of. The. Message? Tell. Us. Everything.” A domineering female voice demanded to know with a gruff tone of voice.

She was ——oooo, the leader of the War Faction. The faction that most supported both conflicts that the arakai had undertaken against the dessandrites and the aquadites. To her, it didn’t even matter who had killed Divine Mother O-o-o-o.

It had been the perfect excuse to start a new war. She couldn’t be more delighted when her sister -o- the Deathweaver had told her that the aquadites were responsible for it, leading to the arakai invading aquadite territory.

”Based. On. Our. Decryption. Of. The. Corrupted. Message. We. Have. Been. Able. To. Deduce. A. Single. Word. From. The. Virus’s. Message,” the Infecter replied to her sister and ally.

”A. Single. Word?”

”Yes. We. Have. Found. The. Word. ”Key”. In. Its. Otherwise. Incomprehensible. Message.”

The air in the meeting between Divine Mothers grew more tense as every Divine Mother remained silent. The atmosphere tingled with nervous energy as the stakes involved with this particular anomaly spiked all of a sudden.

”’Key.’ As. In…” A third Divine Mother spoke. ”…The. Key. To. The. Universal. Web?”

Her voice was certainly mature, but lacked the luster of age of the other two Divine Mothers. Unlike them, she didn’t project aggression or domineering power in her voice, but rather a sense of harmony with a pleasant tone of voice.

She was Divine Mother ooo—o-, the Web Binder.

The leader of the Pluralist Faction, a faction that believed that the boundaries of the web of civilization didn’t need to overlap with the boundaries of species. She was the leader of a faction that believed it was better for the arakai to form webs with other species and other civilizations, nothing to tear them down.

She had been dismayed by the decision of her civilization to wage war against not just the dessandrites, but recently even the aquadites. She had done her best to avoid pulling her civilization down a path of war, but unfortunately the imperialistic culture of the War Faction and the Virus Faction had overwhelmed her efforts and those of her like-minded colleagues.

With the appearance of two anomalies in rapid succession, however, she saw the opportunity to potentially find something important enough to detract from the cause of vain wars.

The key of the universal web was one of them.

The existence of the mind of the universe was one that had long been known by the arakai, but none of them knew how to access it.

Despite the fact that the mind of the universe was omnipresent.

It was so unfathomably massive that they couldn’t hope to ever communicate it or access it, or, better yet, wield it. But it was hypothesized, among the highest experts of metaphysics in their civilization, that it was possible for the Universalis Mensis to be accessed through the unfathomable mechanics of information dynamics.

Through the entanglement of quantum information systems, perhaps.

If there existed such a system, it would serve as a key to the single greatest power in the entire universe.

That was why the word ’key’ made even the Divine Mothers hold their breath.

Was it possible that a branch of the virus had run into the key? If it did, then was the anomaly that had occurred some days prior?

A shift across the information dimension.

In hindsight, was there anything that could cause that aside from a key to the Universalis Mensis?

”…If. That’s. True. Then,” Divine Mother —-oo spoke with a serious voice. ”Then. That. Means. That. There. Exists. A. Key. Somewhere In. The. Orion. Star. Strand.”

Of course, even though she said that, it didn’t necessarily make their job easy. The Orion Star Strand has billions of stars in it, for it composed a very small but visible chunk of the entire Milky Way. There were so many stars in the Orion Star Strand that even with so many major and minor civilizations that spanned across millions if not hundreds of millions of stars, there were still many millions more that were uninhabited, unexplored, and untouched.

The speed of light was extremely slow at this scale, making darkness a much deeper abyss and a much more powerful veil that could hide all kinds of mysteries. It was possible for a highly advanced civilization to develop without anybody ever noticing because of how slow light and the speed of causality was.

Even if there was a key in the Orion Star Strand, how in the world would they ever find it?

”For. Now… Investigate. All. Anomalies. Of any. Kind,” The Infecter, the leader of the Virus Faction told her sisters with a decisive tone. ”Monitor. The. Behavior. Of. Civilizations. If. They. Do. Obtain. A. Key. Then. There’s. A. Good. Chance. We. Will. Notice. Changes. In. Their. Behavior. If. Any. Of. You. Have. Any. Intelligence. To. Report. Then. Please. Share. It.”

There was silence for a moment, before one particular Divine Mother spoke up.

”Esteemed. Sisters… I. Did. Not. Intend. To. Reveal. This. Right. Away. Since. I. Wanted. To. Confirm. My. Conclusions. With. Absolute. Proof. But… We. Have. Identified. An. Anomaly.”

It was none other than the Webhunter, Divine Mother —oo-oo—, one of two Divine Mothers who had been sent to the Strehegeld Star System to investigate the death of Divine Mother o-o-o-o.

”We. Have. Identified. An. Anomaly. Of. An. Unknown. Advanced. Civilization. That. Is. Unlike. Anything. I. Have. Ever. Seen. In. My. Entire. Life,” Divine Mother —oo-oo— spoke with a grave tone in the network. ”I. Believe. That. This. Civilization. Is. Responsible. For. The. Death. Of. Divine. Mother. O-o-o-o.”

Her declaration sent a shockwave across the network.

”What…?” Divine Mother ——oooo, the leader of the War Faction, coldly retorted. ”A. Sovereign. From. The. Aquadite. Ocean. Civilization. Killed. O-o-o-o.”

”Unfortunately. That. Conclusion. Was. Hastily. Drawn. And. Ultimately. Erroneous,” Divine Mother -o- grimly backed her sister with a grave, guilty tone. ”The. Aquadites. Had. Nothing. To. Do. With. O-o-o-o’s. Death… It. Was. An. Emperor. Of. Water.”

”An. Emperor. Of. Water?”

”What. Is. That?”

”An. Emperor. Of. Water. Is. A. New. Form. Of. Administrator,” Divine Mother —oo-oo— continued. ”An. Administrator. Belonging. To. Human. Civilization.”

Her words made the air tingle with a chilling tension as the Divine Mothers were stunned into silence.

She transmitted the information that she had gathered to her sisters. ”Listen. Well. Sisters. This. Civilization. Is. Extraordinary. An. Anomaly. That. We. Must—”

BZZZT

BZZZT

The sensation of two strands of the communication web being suddenly cut rippled across the network.

Two Divine Mothers had been forcefully disconnected from the Web.

Far away in the Strehegeld Star System, the two Divine Mothers opened their six eyes each, finding themselves face to face with a being of unfathomable power.

One they recognized.

A smile of anticipation emerged on his face as a single remark escaped him.

”H̵̢̧̩̞̹̼̗̥̭͖͎̱̓̏́̆̒͌ͅe̴̡̨̨̛̫̲̻̤̩̩̠̭͛̿͗̓͌̉͌̇͗̍̊̈́͝ĺ̸̝͕̊͊̾̈́̓̈́̆̑̈́̍̒͆͒̀l̷͉̞͍̫̬̪̥̗̝̽͆̕ḥ̸͛̏̈́e̴̡̠̼̱̪͚̜̜͋̌͆̽i̷̧̥̟̣̬̻̜̎͝m̶̛̲̅̅̑̇͒̓͗͝.”

RUMBLE!!!!!