The Martial Unity

Divine Mother ——oooo stared at her little sister with a hint of disapproval in her expression, but did not voice her compunctions. The truth was she would rather an older and more experienced Divine Mother take the reins for the Web of War, but none of her peers accepted this duty.

After all, most of them were wary of the Emperor of Water. The Martial Transcendent was not only extremely powerful, but was extremely resourceful and tricky. And on top of that, he fought with abandon, because there were no consequences to be paid.

None of them objected when —o-o—o enthusiastically volunteered for the duty of eradicating human civilization.

What they hadn’t informed her was that destroying human civilization was not the highest priority for the elder Divine Mothers. It was actually a distraction. It was bait. The true goal of this operation was to create the opportunity for several Divine Mothers to jump the Emperor of Water at once and, using their Webverse, extract the knowledge of overcoming the price of Administration from the web of his mind.

Then, they would use that knowledge to overcome the price that they would have to pay for having used the Webverse to fight him and extract that knowledge.

It was a risky operation with extraordinarily high stakes, but equally priceless rewards for success. If they failed, they would, at minimum, fade away. It was also possible that some of them would die. Nobody understood how the emergence of Transcendent Craftsman impacted the Emperor of Water’s power.

Of course, they all desired the destruction of humanity nonetheless, but that was a secondary goal and one that they were confident they would achieve no matter what. Perhaps it was better to use this opportunity to give some experience for their younger sister.

”Do. Not. Forget. My. Advice,” ——oooo wisely reminded her sister. ”Do. Not. Underestimate. Him. I. Wish. You. The. Best. Of. Luck.”

BZZZT

The communication ended, leaving —o-o—o frustrated. Her elder sister’s words only made her want to crush humanity and its leader with even greater force. She monitored her War of Webs as it came together.

Bit by bit, every final preparation was rapidly completed. Things were checked and double-checked. Verifications flew about as everything was confirmed to be ready. The Web of War slowly moved as it gathered at one point.

They gathered at a massive ring that stretched nearly a thousand kilometers in diameter. The ring, in classic arakai style, was covered in webs that had numerous components and countless intricacies along every inch of its length. The massive technological structure was operated by nearly ten million arakai operators.

It was formally known as the Nexus Bridge.

But informally, it had another name among the arakai.

CLICK CLICK CLICK…

”The. Gate. Of. Conquest. Is. Ready. Your. Excellency,” a male operator in the command center of the Web Bringer drew —o-o—o’s attention.

She turned towards him with great delight. ”Brilliant. Then. It. Is. Time.”

She turned back to the command center that oversaw ten thousand arakai crew who operated the tremendously massive mothership, before inhaling deeply, before her pincers slammed together with great force.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK!

”THE. TIME. HAS. COME!” Her pincers clicked with the equivalent of a roar. ”THE. TIME. TO. PUNISH. THE. HUMANS. HAS. COME!!!”

A wave of heavy clicks washed across the entire command room as the arakai under her command roared back with approval. Each of them wore expressions that burned with hatred and anger, their six eyes fierce with intensity.

Divine Mothers, even of other cells, held extraordinary significance in arakai society. They were the ultimate mothers who birthed all of them, and their power was an extraordinary source of deterrence against their many enemies.

The death of three Divine Mothers had caused tremendous agony to all arakai. The impacts of those tragedies reverberated across the web of arakaian civilization. When the war to destroy human civilization was announced, many arakai volunteered for the relatively small-scale military operation.

Compared to the wars with the dessandrites and the aquadites, this war proved to be on a much smaller scale.

There was only one mothership involved, which spoke to how limited the scale was. When they learned that human civilization was only ten-thousand-star strong in its territorial holdings, they couldn’t help but click with glee.

—o-o—o grew satisfied at the morale among her people, she charged with momentum, unwilling to let go of this moment.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK…!!!

”COMMENCE. THE. ACTIVATION. OF. THE GATE. OF. CONQUEST!” She roared with clicks. ”COMMENCE. THE. RETRIBUTION. OF. ARAKAI. CIVILIZATION!!!”

RUMBLE

That command caused the Nexus Bridge to shake, sending ripples that spread across space and time at the speed of light. The fabric of reality between the rings began to bend with an overwhelming amount of force as an entire infected world’s worth of negatron matter was activated, causing a profoundly deep tunnel to burrow into reality.

The tunnel deepened and deepened for several minutes, crossing many, many light years. The shortest distance between human civilization and Arakai Web Civilization was four hundred and eighty-six light years. Creating a wormhole across this distance was generally effortless for a civilization like arakai, but creating a sustained wormhole that was a thousand kilometers wide was a little harder.

The sheer area of the wormhole cross-section was meant to ensure that the entirety of the massive Web of War could enter the destination system in just a single minute, for a smaller throughput would reduce their entrance rate and thus their invasion rate.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook violently as the space-time bridge finally reached its destination in the Arima III System. And then, it tore through, creating a hole through the very fabric of reality connecting Arakai Web Civilization to human civilization.

”C̵̣̳̪̬̯͚̥͈̦̥̊͋̎̌̓H̶̙̩̗̳̄͐̿̔A̵͔͉̝̓͊̋R̵̻͖̯̬̞̈̈̀͆̏́̏͛͑̚̚Ǵ̶̢̜͈̞͔̞̞͙̜̣̥͊͂̕͝ͅE̸̖̝̪̳̤͌͑̂̑̌̋͘!̶̩̤̖̖͍͓͓̀͆͝!̶͓̔̈́̓!̷̘̯̤̰̤͒̔̓̾̀͆̈̾̈́͘͝ ̸̹̘͇̟̬͔̘̫̗̹̫̅̇̾͗̾͌͐͋̋͜I̷̮͎͈̜͈̤̯͉̠̱͍͆Ņ̵̢͙͙̭̼̓̈͛͂̄̌͗̾͛͒̌̚̕V̶̻̐̀͒͗͂̈̅͒̌͊͑̚A̵̛͙̰̥͌̄͊̇̄͋́̋̅̈́͘Ḑ̷̪̏̑̓̾E̶̲̦͇̊͆̋̎̂̅̃͋.̸̞̰̪̠̋̍̐̽̂̃̎́͊͗͝ ̴̛̮̟̰͈̺͈̥̭͚̻̖̈́͆͗̾̍͛͐͌͘̚̕T̴̨̺͚͙̝̞̠͙̹̦̓̏͝H̵̠͎͚͒̋͑̅̀͝E̴̡̬̰̬̪͛͑̈́̅̂͛̍̈́̍͘̕͝͠I̶̟̪͚̼̗̰̹̕R̶̡̬̺͔̲̥̟͔͋́͑̽̍̈́́ͅ.̷̧̡̞̗̻̗͓͙̦̟͙̰̻͇̼͂̀͑̇́̑̈̏̓̚͝ ̸̠̱́T̷̢͉͙̯̝͕̜͑̅̿͑͋͘͝ͅȨ̵̨͎̘̻̹̫̤̹̝̜̽̇̒͑̋̈́̎̉͒̊̉̚͜͜͝R̵̳̝͖̪̘͆͆͐͑͝Ȓ̴̭̿̂͛̀͘͠Ḯ̶̬͍̝̩̫̟̮̤̥̫T̷̨͔̄͂͗͋̑͊̋͗́͗O̶͈̻̜̥̞͙̟̿͜ͅR̸̢̢͎̪̲̟̭͉͇̟̀̔͑̄͑̃͂̃̎̂̓́̔͘͝Y̵͓̳̺̖̗̖͓̻̺̏̆̅̓͊̉ͅ!̴̢͇͇̱̟̤̙̯͓̝͚̼̄̀̇̊̇͗̎͊ͅͅ”

—o-o—o roared with violent clicks that reverberated through the flow of time in future, present, and past, defying causality. The mighty Web of War that the arakai had mobilized pushed through the wormhole and emerged into the territory of human civilization.

The invasion had begun.