The Martial Unity

Rui’s expression was one of euphoric exhaustion as he simply floated in outer space. His hair swayed weightlessly, his damaged Martial attire gently floating about his body. The Strehegeld Star System was a mess, of course. It had suffered the fate of bearing not one, but two Transcendent battles. The entire star system was filled with smoldering matter and energy.

The star at the core of the star system rumbled and flared thanks to the mass that the Divine Mother had unsteadily skimmed from the star to attack Rui. The black hole that had formed several months ago in his prior battle with the Divine Mother o-o-o-o seemed unfazed in comparison.

The rest of the star system was a mess, but Rui couldn’t be bothered with the environmental damage.

He was reveling in the victories that he had achieved. Not just against the two Divine Mothers, which were undoubtedly massive victories as well. But also the victories that he had made with finally progressing as a Martial Transcendent. The two battles he had were infinitely more useful for progressing as a Martial Transcendent than the thirteen years he had spent trying to figure out what the best way to use his power was.

’Experience truly is priceless. I need more of it so that I can progress as a Martial Transcendent.’ He was more determined to proactively go out and get it from then on. At the start of the Era of Expansion, Rui knew it would take time before he had an opportunity to fight an equal.

And the only reason that he knew even that was simply due to the fact that the laminars had told him that there did exist other Transcendents out there in the galaxy. He didn’t know how long it would take for human civilization to run into one, so he was content with simply waiting.

But now that he knew that there weren’t just one or two, but many. He didn’t have to be as patient as he was up until then.

”Still, fighting the other Transcendents isn’t going to be easy,” Rui muttered. ”They conceal their locations because they know what the price of using their power is. They don’t ever want to be put in a place where they’re forced to use their Verses.”

And with the Divine Mothers in particular, they were also in charge of reproduction. Every death meant a lowered fertility, or at least a reduction in the quality of the next generation of arakai.

That meant that even with the intel that he had gotten from Divine Mother o-o-o-o’s mind, he was still not going to have an easy time finding and fighting other Transcendents.

’Oh well, they should be aware of my existence now,’ Rui turned about, scanning the star system. He spotted the corpses of the two Divine Mothers he had killed, opening a wormhole with what remained of his stamina, sending them to a secure location in the Kandrian Empire.

He sensed the ruins of many spaceships belonging to the arakai, but he also sensed that the absence of some that had been present during when he teleported to ambush the two Divine Mothers.

’They managed to get away, probably already back to arakai civilization or will reach their very soon.’

Arakai Web Civilization would learn about human civilization and of him, the Emperor of Water. He was unsure whether they had the information to realize that there was only one Emperor of Water, or whether they had come to understandable but erroneous conclusion that there were multiple Divine Mothers.

’I’ll have to be prepared for anything.’

WHOOSH…

He glanced at his own body as it began fading out of existence. His Martialverse had finally given out, deactivating. He executed the consciousness transfer protocol, before completely fading out of existence.

Far away in a stasis chamber in a secret laboratory in the Kandrian Empire, Rui opened his ethereal eyes, dispelling the stasis field, gazing at his own hands, ensuring that it was completely identical to his body.

He walked out of the stasis field, towards a wardrobe, quickly pulling out and wearing a set of his Martial attire, before immediately teleporting back to the Vargard Royal Palace, straight into his office.

WHOOSH

The office had been well-maintained in his absence in the week that he had spent away from human territory, scouting his enemies, painstakingly gathering intelligence and general reconnaissance of the arakai to ensure that it was a success.

”Welcome back, Your Majesty.” Claris got up from her chair and table in his office. ”There are seventy-nine important matters that require your personal attention. I have prepared a stack, arranging them in descending order of importance. One thousand three hundred and forty-eight individuals have requested the opportunity to make an appointment to speak with you, including Minister Ru, the Reverend of Reckoning, the Beggar Sage.”

Rui paused, turning towards her with interest. ”The Beggar Sage? He actually got into contact?”

”Yes, Your Majesty. I flagged the meeting as most important,” Secretary Claris replied thoughtfully. ”Since he hasn’t made a single move in the past thirteen years. The Beggar’s Sect has been operational. It sells information and intelligence. But it has not been as proactive in pursuing projects beyond standard intelligence brokerage ops.”

Rui paused, considering the matter, before nodding. ”Set up the meeting immediately. I have something important to discuss with the man anyway.”

”Very well, Your Majesty.”

Rui walked over to his desk, taking a seat, before activating the document projector, creating synthetic, and even tangible sheets of paper that he could skim through. His mind surged with light-driven thought as he quickly began addressing the stack of high-importance matters that had been waiting for him.

While the Emperor of Kandria, the Supreme Commander of the Panamic Alliance, and the Chancellor of Gaia normally had more than just a few dozen issues, Secretary Claris took care of most of the low-level issues in his stead, having obtained a very firm grasp on his thoughts.

The issues that he had been thrust with were too important for her to handle at all. A proposal from the Evolutionary Army, seeking to establish a mutual defense pact. The establishment of some sort of R&D merger with the Esocline Federation to pool their resource together into one joint endeavor. A draft proposal from the General Assembly Legislative Committee for an expansion of international humanitarian law across human civilization.

Each of them were matters that could alter the trajectory of human civilization, forcing even Rui to take his mind away from Martial matters and focus on his duties as the Emperor and Chancellor.

But there was an issue even more important than all of these.

He turned towards his secretary with a grim expression.

”Prepare for war.”