The Martial Unity

The laminar integument’s ominous words bore heavily on the atmosphere within the central chamber of the Laminar Embassy. He stared at the laminar with a serious expression. ”What do you mean by that? What exactly is happening in the Milky Way?”

”Two. Anomalies. Recently. Shifted. The. Focus. Of. Advanced. Civilizations,” the laminar offered clarifications. ”First. Universalis. Mensis. Experienced. Shift. Second. Botched. SOS. Message. With. Significant. News.”

Rui’s expression tightened. Indeed, that was what this was about. He had hoped that this would be about the war or something more or less important, but the laminar leader would not have come all this way to personally talk to Rui about small matters.

Rui’s reaction, however, betrayed his awareness of the matters that the laminar integument was speaking about.

”You. Know.” The Tendril of Light realized. ”You. Know. Anomalies.”

Its light grew more intense with this message, making it clear that this was a matter of extremely high significance to Rui.

Rui heaved a sigh. ”Yes, I have my sources. I was informed about this by a certain Transcendent being that I will not disclose.”

Rui had no intention of revealing that his daughter was responsible for both anomalies and that she was the key to the Universalis Mensis. Although he didn’t necessarily distrust the Tendril of Light specifically, the jellyfish-like alien was just one of many leaders in his civilization. He was obligated to pass on what he learned, and Rui had no doubt that they would do everything in their power to get their hands on Ria.

This was at least as valuable, if not even more, as his ability to use Transcendence without paying the price. Though the reason the laminars didn’t jump all over him for that was that they didn’t have any Transcendents, so they wouldn’t have benefited by such power in the first place.

Ria, on the other hand, was very different. His daughter could materially affect the universe through the profound state of quantum information entanglement between her integrated information and that of the universe. She had already proven that when she caused the very shift in the universe that had alarmed the most advanced civilizations of the Milky Way.

”If. Already. Know. Then. Conversation. Simplified,” the laminar integument flashed. ”We. Seek. Help. With. Searching. For. Clues. For. Key…. In. Exchange. Laminars. Support. Humans. In. War.”

Rui didn’t like where this was going. The laminar integuments appeared to have already decided that the anomalies were related to the key of the Universalis Mensis. And if they had decided that, they were undoubtedly going to begin searching for the key aggressively. Hell, from the way that the laminar integument spoke, it was clear that the laminars weren’t the only civilization that was interested in finding the key.

The other advanced civilizations of the Milky Way were also clearly aware of the anomalies and their significance.

This was bad for Ria.

Very, very bad.

He knew that his daughter would not change her mind even if he shared this news with her. He was truly tempted to simply force her to stop, but he knew that would make her hate him, even if he did it for her safety. She had chosen this path of great risk and danger knowing what she was getting herself into.

”Don’t you think that’s a bit of an overreaction?” Rui asked calmly, hiding his internal alarm. ”After all, all we have is one botched SOS message from the virus with one word. Key could mean anything; it could be referring to having found the key to, I dunno, spreading across the universe faster. Or maybe some other phenomenon that would have helped it if it could assimilate it. The virus constantly evolves through assimilation. It could easily be referring to a hundred other things.”

Unfortunately, a handful of sentences alone were almost certainly not going to change the mind of the laminar integument. It would not have come all the way to Gaia Prime in person, across countless light years, only to be persuaded this easily.

”Am. Aware. Of. False-positive. Possibility,” the laminar responded with a sequence of light flashes. ”However. Too. Much. At. Stake… If. Even. One-percent. Chance. Then. Worth. Acting.”

This obviously had to do with the fact that the laminar integuments were the most vocal opponents of the virus that Rui had ever met. They hated the virus for destroying their homeworld and making use of their miraculous manifold trees to be extremely well-protected and well.

And there was no chance that they were going to go easy on it.

This made Rui very concerned about the other civilizations. Even if they didn’t hate the virus, the key possessed tremendous potential for power, so much so that other civilizations would undoubtedly also be very dogged in their decision to search for it.

After all, if they got control of the key, they could control the Universalis Mensis. Even if they wouldn’t use it in such a manner, due to the destruction of the universe, they would still be able to extract priceless benefits from it. Any civilization that fully controlled the key would undoubtedly become the most powerful civilization in the universe.

However, if they were so desperate to get it, it begged a very straightforward question.

”Why don’t you guys come here and search for it yourself instead of asking me?” Rui raised an eyebrow.

Human civilization had only conquered ten thousand stars. A mere ten thousand in the billion stars that existed in the Orion Star Strand. There was no way anybody could realistically believe that human civilization could find the key even if it was somewhere in the Orion Star Strand, even if human civilization was very extraordinary in its own ways.

There was only one reason a high and mighty civilization would ask the help of such a small civilization.

”…Mobilizing. Large-Scale. Tracking. Party. Takes. Too. Much. Time,” the laminar integument finally offered with a hint of displeasure in its darkening light. ”Laminar. Civilization. Is. Currently. In. A. Large-Scale. War. With. The. Nebulars. At. The. Galactic. Core… No. Room. For. Other. Large-Scale. Operations.”