The Martial Unity

RUMBLE

The massive Gate of Conquest that spanned a thousand kilometers in diameter shook as it began to drill through the fabric of space and time. Despite the size of the rings, however, the portal it began to generate wasn’t nearly as large as the rings themselves.

The Gate of Conquest was capable of generating small wormholes if the transit force was not that large. There was no need to generate a thousand-kilometer-wide wormhole the way it had for the invasion of the Web of War, after all.

The wormhole it generated was modest.

And that was enough.

WHOOSH

The portal stabilized, allowing them to get a clear view of Gaia Prime through it. The circular visage of the planet overlapped perfectly with the edge of the wormhole, making it the only thing they saw. Around its midpoint, massive rings and a strange snake-like body revolved around it, preventing them from seeing it.

Gaia Prime had been heavily fortified in the past thirteen years. Not only was there the most developed space station system, but there was even the greatest planetary fortress that one could ever hope to find.

Jormungandr himself.

After being freed from his prison in Gaia, he had chosen to serve as a guardian, sleeping after he took a geostationary orbit around it. His body didn’t make a complete circle around the planet, of course; not even he was long enough for that, but he didn’t need to. Anybody who beheld the extraordinary power held by the serpent that revolved around Gaia lost any and all will to resist.

This was a Transcendent-grade beast. A being that only a Transcendent could fell. And yet, the Divine Mothers didn’t so much as even flicker at his presence. Any one of them would have been more than enough to take it on, and there were the six of them.

On top of that, it was too unwieldy against such opponents. It was not a threat to them. It performed better in a war circumstance against a large army. The fact that the humans didn’t deem the arakai worthy of his deployment was insulting to the Divine Mothers, but they were ultimately grateful. They would lose a Divine Mother or the entire Web of War.

Or both.

Yet, in this battle, it was of no consequence to them.

WHOOSH

They floated through the wormhole, and just like that, they were in the heart of human civilization. The most well-protected star system in human civilization.

WHOOSH...

For a moment, they simply floated in outer space, staring at Gaia Prime. They didn’t immediately attack to destroy it. The fate of the planet itself was not their primary goal. Destroying the planet too early would also rid them of the shackle that they planned to use to keep the Emperor of Water from running away.

Still, even they couldn’t help but pause as they beheld the massive planet.

”...A. Living. World. That. The. Virus. Failed. To. Conquer.” Divine Mother oooo—— couldn’t help but remark. ”Instead... The. Planet. Developed. The. Web. Of. Consciousness. And. Assimilated. The. Power. Of. The. Virus... It. Is. Truly. Titanic.”

The size of Gaia was unlike anything they had ever seen. In fact, when they reviewed their old archival data of Gaia Prime from countless light-years away, they realized that they had mistakenly assumed that this planet was a failed star. An inert ball of gas that didn’t have enough mass to trigger the spark of nuclear fusion within the heart of the planet.

That was why the system never flagged it as a planetary anomaly. It simply assumed it was a more mundane failed star rather than a solid planet that grew to the size of a small star. If they had known that this was a planet that had ballooned up to truly abnormal degrees because of the negatron core, and had assimilated the power of the virus at the final moment, they would have definitely investigated such a fantastical anomaly.

She wasn’t of the Virus Faction like her friend oo—, so she wasn’t offended by the existence of the planet. To her, the virus was merely a symbiote. A source of resources. That was all. She even felt it was a shame to destroy such a marvel of the cosmos. She felt that it would be better to conquer this planet and exterminate all humans on it, and make it a treasured personal abode.

But the planet, anomalous as it was, was not her main focus. Her six arachnid eyes sharpened with intensity and elation as her pincers clicked just twice.

”Found. You.”

The eyes of the Divine Mother saw all. She didn’t miss the manifolds on the planet. There was one on the Southern Continent of Genora. There was another in the Kandrian Empire. There was another in space. She could see right through them, allowing her to detect the very distinctive presence of an Administrator.

The very distinctive presence of the Emperor of Water.

He had sensed them too, having paused what appeared to be a sparring session with another Martial Artist.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK

”I. Can. Sense. The. Alarm. In. His. Mind,” the Mindstitch remarked with the arakai equivalent of a sneer. ”It. Seems. He. Truly. Wasn’t. Tipped. Off... It. Is. A. Good. Thing. That we. Kept. This. A. Secret. From. Those. Traitors. In. Pluralist. Faction.”

They had deliberately avoided informing the Council of their actions. Something that wasn’t entirely proper. Divine Mothers were expected to at the very least notify the Council of actions that affected their entire civilization, especially Administrative actions. But they had chosen to defy this rule.

If they succeeded, they would achieve Transcendent impunity. At that point, the rules and regulations would be irrelevant. They would be truly unresricted and unshackled goddesses with absolute power.

Divine Mother oooo—— felt relieved at her sister’s comment. If the Emperor of Water was truly caught off-guard, then the chances of this operation succeeding were much higher. She turned towards him within the manifold with a profoundly intense glare.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK

”We. Will. Be. Your. Battle. Partners.” She raised her hand in the direction of the manifold, leveraging the powerful Transcendent-grade esoteric biotechnology. In particular, she activated hyperdimensional graviton condensate, a form of matter that allowed her to generate powerful gravitational radiation.

RUMBLE!!!

The gravitational pulse unraveled the manifold, causing it to unfold with an intense gravitational wave that caused temporary earthquakes to spread across Kandria.