The Martial Unity

The arrival of the six Divine Mothers had triggered a lot of alarms. The wormhole was not authorized, causing it to be flagged as an extremely high-priority and likely threat by the artificial intelligence of the Astro-Security Surveillance System. The chain of protocols and actions triggered by their arrival was like the sequences of dominoes pushing each other over. A squad of mechs, a fleet of cruisers, and even a squad of Martial Sages were deployed to investigate the anomaly and subjugate any threat.

The gravitational wave from the popped manifold also caused considerable alarm across the Kandrian Empire.

RUMBLE

”Gah!”

”An earthquake?! This is impossible!”

”We’re under attack!”

The Kandrian Empire had some of the best seismic energy absorbers. So natural earthquakes were a thing of the past. Thus, even tremors in such a highly engineered nation were anomalous.

Almost nobody understood what was actually happening.

Except for the target himself.

”You have come for me.”

Rui’s voice reached the six Divine Mothers who hovered in outer space. Even though the distance between them was considerable by normal standards, to each of them, they may as well have been standing ten meters away from each other. The absence of air. The language barrier, such things didn’t matter for beings of their caliber.

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”Correct. Emperor. Of. Water,” It was Divine Mother oooo——, who replied with a calm but intense voice. ”We. Have. Come. For. You.”

Rui’s ethereal eyes sharpened with severity. It wasn’t that he hadn’t fathomed such a thing was possible. But what did surprise him was the identities of those they had deployed, the willingness to take such an exaggerated risk, for if he even managed to barely survive and escape, they would disappear for centuries.

It appeared that they were more greedy than they were fearful.

A mistake.

Unfortunately, not even the Eye of Prophecy foretold this attack. Probably because the distance between him and the arakai was too great- about four hundred light-years and his attackers were also Transcendents.

He also noted that despite half a minute having passed since their arrival, they had yet to begin attacking him.

His expression tightened.

They understood him well.

He would not run away from Gaia and Earth. It was his home. Twice. He was willing to risk his life to protect it. Not to mention, even if he tried running away at this point, they would be able to stop him. He could tell how strong each of them was with just a single glance in the direction of the sky.

The fact that they had yet to attack could only mean one thing.

”...What are you going to do, Rui?” Kane’s tone was very grim. He could also see the Divine Mothers, so he knew just how dire the situation was. His tension spread to the atmosphere, making the air feel electric with peril.

”Don’t interfere. Go protect your family. Protect this planet. It will need every ounce of protection it can get.”

Rui’s voice was calm, but undoubtedly contained an edge of graveness. He couldn’t hide how horrible this situation was for all of them.

Kane clenched his fists, gritting his teeth. It was in this moment that the weight of his helplessness fully crushed him. It was a horrible feeling to be this helpless in the face of a threat that could hurt his family.

He had been hesitating about Transcendence before.

But no more.

If he had to sacrifice sanity to keep his family safe, to be more than a useless friend, then he would gladly sacrifice it.

Sanity in an insane world was a luxury he could not afford.

Before Kane could even utter a word of reassurance, Rui simply teleported away, leaving him alone.

WHOOSH

Rui emerged in outer space before the six Divine Mothers, hovering weightlessly as his hair and clothes floated about him. The two sides sized each other up as Rui studied each of the six of them with sharp eyes. They were of different ages and inclinations, but each of them had tremendous power within them. They were on a different level compared to the Divine Mothers that they had fought. Moreover, he could tell from the intricacy of the web armor they had woven ahead of time that they had truly prepared for this fight.

”I suppose I should be honored by such extravagant caution.”

His voice was calmer than the Divine Mothers would have preferred. It meant that, even if he didn’t predict this, it was not beyond his ability to reckon with, at least mentally. The more panicked he was, the more leverage they definitely would have.

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”Honored. You. Should. Be,” Divine Mother oooo—— spoke with a calm voice that didn’t befit someone who had come for a destructive battle with great stakes. ”In. All. My. Time... We. Have. Never. Taken. Such. Efforts. For. A. Lone. Administrator. Of. A. Puny. Civilization. Such. As. Yours... However...”

Her six arachnid eyes narrowed to slits.

”...You. Should. Understand. That. You. Cannot. Defeat. The. Six. Of. Us. By. Yourself,” she continued. ”You. Should. Understand. That. Even. Running. Away. Will. Be. Impossible. And... you. Should. Understand. What. Will. Happen. If. You. Some. Do. Succeed. In. Escaping.”

Their words revealed that they had yet to realize the effects of Legislation on his body. Rui had done his best to try and return his hyperdimensional components to the dimensions that they belonged in. They lacked the quantum vision of the Calabi-Yau manifolds, just like him in his prior state, so they couldn’t tell that the boundary conditions had been altered.

He could escape right now with hyperdimensional maneuvering.

But they would undoubtedly wipe out all life in the Solar System if he dared to do that.

”...What do you want?” he asked a question whose answer he already knew.

The fact that they had yet to attack showed that they wanted to exchange a word with him. Most likely to do this the easy way rather than the hard and risky way.

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”Our. Demand. Is. Simple,” the Divine Mother spoke. ”Give. Us. Method. To. Achieve. Administrative. Impunity... If. You. Do. That... We. Will. Depart. From. This. Solar. System. Peacefully. And. End. This. War.”