The Martial Unity

All three treasures were in place.

The Divine Doctor had been ready to discharge all his duties from the very start, obligated to spend half his time on providing medical and biotechnological services. He had already upgraded the Martial Bodies of all the Martial Sages, making them substantially stronger.

In just a year, the Kandrian Empire’s raw Martial power had increased by fifteen percent.

He had also further upgraded the Squire Evolution process of the Martial Union by a whopping one hundred percent, allowing new Martial Squires to emerge far stronger than their predecessors, although Rael had limited its use for the time being. Upgrading the Squire Evolution procedure would provide massive gains in the long run; however, it would put them under tremendous stress in the short run.

The Elder Tree Connection was put in place and in the span of a year, Emperor Rael had made sure to develop a robust and sophisticated mapping system that would allow the Elder Tree to communicate its intelligence in an objective and documentable format that could be shared with others in the form of intelligence reports.

This was important because even if the Elder Tree could directly implant the intelligence of the Beast Domain into the minds of the task force officers dedicated to it, it was impossible to seamlessly convert thought into data.

Thus, a special coordinate system for the Beast Domain was developed specifically for this purpose, allowing the Elder Tree to seamlessly convey the exact location that it sought to communicate.

Furthermore, the veracity of its intelligence had been verified, and the results of Rael’s investigation had already proven that the Elder Tree was the real deal. From the moment they began relying on it, it had increased their Beast Domain yields by more than an order of magnitude. It was utterly astounding how the Elder Tree nonchalantly informed them of the locations of countless Master-level and even Sage-level resources.

It made the process of finding and procuring them a lot easier, quicker, and less dangerous. The Beast Domain was a difficult place to survive in, and extended periods of time in the region exponentially increased the probability of death.

It allowed Rael to quickly and secretly bolster the weapons arsenal of the Kandrian Royal Army. He made sure that there were no overt applications or utility of these extra resources. It was not time to commence the meat of his grand plan, not until his son returned.

The Manifold was undoubtedly the hardest to plan for.

It was extremely difficult to keep hidden. While Emperor Rael had done his best to keep it hidden, nothing could possibly conceal such an enormous training area appearing and disappearing from time to time. That was why it would undoubtedly be the trigger for war.

It was the most prominent and alarming of the three super treasures.

In addition to preparing the treasures themselves, Rael had made many preparations in accordance with his grand plan to elevate Kandria above the rest. Not only had he been able to flesh out all the details after gaining more certainty about what kind of variables the three treasures were, but he had also gained greater certainty and foresight into how they would act out.

He knew exactly what was necessary, and it had played an enormous role in shaping his foreign policy in the past three years.

He had deepened his bonds with all twelve Sage-level nations in East Panama, nations with only one or sometimes two Martial Sages, such as the Shionel Confederation. He had also deepened his bond with the sole technocratic Sage-level powerhouse in North Panama, the Esocline Confederation.

He had strengthened his connections with the Gen Temple in South Panama.

No one knew why he had gone through the effort of establishing such powerful bonds and alliances with nations when there was no strategic merit to doing so in the first place. No one had expected him to be so aggressive in his bridge-building.

Thankfully, he had been able to get away with it under the guise of harmony, which was an excuse that worked well when one considered his past.

Unbeknownst to everybody, it was all part of his grand plan.

In the past three years, all chess pieces had been put in place.

Everything was ready.

Everything except…

“Your Majesty, your son has just exited training,” his Royal Secretary told him. “He seeks an audience with you.”

A smile cracked at the edge of his mouth. “Send him in.”

He had been waiting for this day for a long time.

STEP

Eventually, Rui found himself standing before his father in a throne room that was empty save for them and Sage Sayfeel, who stood behind the Emperor, faithfully protecting him at all moments.

“My son.” Emperor Rael’s rich voice softened as he smiled at the Void Prince. “You seem to have grown stronger.”

“…I have,” Rui replied, furrowing his eyebrows. “I didn’t think you would meet me the very moment I left training.”

“Why would I not want to meet my own son after three long years?”

Rui stirred at those words, frowning. “Aren’t you super busy? You have an impending war to inevitably trigger in an attempt to realize your grand ambition. Unless you’ve decided to abandon that ambition or something.”

Emperor Rael grew amused at his son’s words.

“Much has happened in the time that you have spent training in solitude,” he continued. “However, now that you have returned, the time to commence my grand plan has arrived.”

Rui’s eyes widened with surprise. “Wait, you delayed your plan just for me? You didn’t have to, you know.”

“I didn’t delay it for you.” Emperor Rael’s tone was calm. “I delayed it because my plan needs you. I told you the last time we spoke, did I not? You are the fifth treasure of Kandria. You are necessary for Kandria’s ascent to greatness.”

Rui frowned, tilting his head in confusion. “I’m pretty sure that I have given everything I have to offe—!”

His eyes widened as he understood what his father was referring to.

“That’s right.” Emperor Rael smiled knowingly. “I will have you trigger every breakthrough you are able to, across all Realms, inside the Manifold.”

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