The Martial Unity

Chapter 3705: Foreboding Darkness

”Evacuate to the west!”

”Do not panic in your transit!”

”If you are unable to get a spot on public transportation, then endeavor to find any kind of private or personal transportation to depart from the east as soon as possible!”

Martial Apprentices and Martial Squires of the government, the national guard, and the Martial Union traveled the streets, floating in the air as they called for evacuations to the citizens.

The darkness of the night sky seemed to come alive, consuming the world around them as a chill breeze swept through the eastern side of the nation. The peril and the fear of the evacuating citizens hung in the air, tingling at the nerves.

”Leave the toys behind! We need to evacuate immediately!”

”But daddy, I don’t want to take all my toys!”

”Quick, just take whatever you can and get into the carriage!”

A dark dread hung in the air as people abandoned everything they had ever built on the eastern side of the nation, packing up what little they were able to before they were ushered and urged to evacuate by the Martial Artists.

”You need to go now, sir!” One Martial Squire growled. ”You cannot remain in this side of the country for much longer! Do you want to die?”

”Hah! I’m already eighty-nine years old!” The old man barked back at a young Martial Squire. ”If I have to die, then I will, but I will not abandon my home!”

The Martial Artists evacuated people by force, as they were given the mandate to. People were sent west, whether they liked it or not, where large underground shelters meant to withstand a tremendous amount of seismic radiation and tumult.

Within hours, the eastern side of the nation grew increasingly quiet and dim, devoid of much activity. Martial Artists who were previously off-shift had been summoned anyway for battle, whether they were willing or not.

”I just got out of the manifold after sleeping and resting!” One Martial Senior cursed as she tightened her belt. ”Why the hell am I being sent to fight again?”

”Just do as the Emperor of Harmony says,” another Martial Senior calmly retorted. ”We are in an existential war with enemies of the true world. We can’t afford to live peacefully. We are Martial Artists.”

”Yes, but why me?” she growled. ”Why not others?!”

”Everybody is already participating in the war.”

”Not everybody,” she huffed. ”Call me crazy, but I haven’t seen the Void Prince one time in the past year! No Martial Artist has ever seen him participating in any of the battle fronts in the true world! He just started a major world war on the surface and then up and disappeared!”

Her companion turned to direct a pointed look at her. ”Careful. His Highness is one of the most selfless Martial Artists in the world. I’m sure that he has some good reason for not partaking in this war.”

”Bullshit!” She snapped. ”There is nothing more important than an existential war where the other side wants to fucking destroy us! He shouldn’t have done what he did if he had no intention of participating. We have the Suneater, and the tekvores, the sentinels, and now a portion of the beasts of Kiriket, all reaching to try and destroy us. He’s nowhere to be seen, even though we are squeezing every single drop of power just to survive!”

Her companion’s expression darkened.

As did the Martial Artists around the,m who were listening in on her rant while they prepared for battle.

Normally, insulting the Dawnbringer was a very good way to destroy one’s reputation in the Kandrian Empire. Nobody tolerated insults against their resident prince and the most powerful Martial Artist in the world, especially when many of the Martial Seniors had been personally broken through to the Senior Realm by His Highness. These Martial Artists tended to be the most viscerally dogmatic about their defense of the Dawnbringer.

Yet, nobody could bring themselves to push back this time. Many even resonated with her words to a reluctant extent. The war was unnecessary, as far as they were concerned.

Yes, they got more negatron matter, but so what? Negatron matter did not benefit them personally in any direct or indirect way. It was something that could be used to unlock the universe and bring it within reach, but ultimately, it was a deeply distant resource that did not improve the lives of Martial Artists in any way.

If anything, it threatened them, along with all technological progression. Negatron matter was likely to be more of a threat to their occupations and their dominance.

It was not pleasant, thus, to know that the Dawnbringer had waged war for the resource, dragging them all into an intense world war. But if he had at least led them to victory, then they would have had much more of a positive impression of the conflict.

But he had abandoned them, essentially.

Even if they still had a generally positive view of the Dawnbringer, they couldn’t bring themselves to think well of him right before participating in a war that threatened to destroy the Kandrian Empire and would inflict grave damage across all of East Kandria regardless.

RUMBLE...

They glanced outside the window as tremors swept across their dispatch facility, spotting large beasts walking through the streets towards the coast in an obedient manner. ”At least we have them as well.”

”Don’t be too happy. You know how destructive they are. Unlike us, they don’t have perfect efficiency and perfect control,” another Martial Senior grimly reminded his peers. ”These were not meant to be deployed in urban areas. We’ll just have to pray that the seismic absorption technology of the elves and our esoteric negation technology can prevent the destruction from spreading too far inland.”

The darkness of the night grew deeper as the Martial Seniors completed their preparations, heading off to join the front lines, aiming to stall and defend against their enemies, drawing closer and closer to the Kandrian Empire with each passing minute.