The Martial Unity

“Your vengeance will destroy not just the Kandrian Empire but also your own nation, you fool!” Emperor Rael cursed Prime Minister Edward. “Why do you insist on a bloody, self-destructive victory that is more horrifying than any loss could be?! All so that you can finally claim a victory from me?!”

“You’re goddamn right I am,” he growled. “Once I beat you, it will be possible to survive in the short term and even return to our former days of glory. However, if I let you live…”

His eyes narrowed with a fierce vengeance. “Then I will never ever win ever again.”

The air boiled turmoil as the two men exchanged fierce, piercing gazes with each other.

Emperor Rael gritted his teeth as he clenched his fists. He knew that it was hopeless, but he needed to do everything in his power to stop the Kandrian Empire from impending destruction. The Martial Sages had undoubtedly begun the final battle, so he didn’t have much time left.

And that was when they heard it.

It sent chills crawling across their skin.

A sense of dread unlike anything they had ever experienced in their entire lives gripped their hearts, squeezing them with vices. Not even the impending destruction of the Kandrian Empire had inspired such horror in the Emperor of Harmony. Not even the tribulations and devastation of the pyrrhic victory inspired such terror in the Britannian Prime Minister.

Emperor Rael looked away from the man before him, gazing out the window with a horrified expression, while the Britannian Prime Minister received an emergency message on his comms artifact.

And that was when the full horror of the situation sunk into his bones.

“No…!” He gritted his teeth as grave reckoning appeared on his face. “How can this be?!”

“Edward…?” Emperor Rael gazed at him with severe expression.

Normally, the woes of the prime minister were boons of Emperor Rael.

And yet, in that moment, Emperor Rael didn’t feel like what was unfolding was a boon.

To him or to anybody.

Edward’s expression crumbled with grave severity as he clenched his fists. He directed one last glance of vengeful hatred towards the Emperor of Harmony, before ending the virtual meeting.

Emperor Rael was beyond dumbfounded.

“Your Majesty!” the director of the Kandrian Intelligence Bureau called with an urgent voice. “We have just received word of an enormous tide of beasts emerging from the depths of the Beast Domain! A seemingly endless wave of monsters and beasts has emerged from the depths of the Beast Domain in a frenzied rampage, Your Majesty! We are currently still in the process of gathering and documenting intel on this calamity, Your Majesty!”

Not a minute after the roar had passed, Emperor Rael received the first intelligence report on the beast tide.

Emperor Rael immediately understood—in both relief and horrorthat his rival and enemy had undoubtedly received this very intel that had thrown a wrench in all his plans. The Britannian Empire was stripped of all its Sages against seemingly endless beasts that were extremely close to completely overrunning the empire. By deploying each and every Martial Sages from the Britannian Empire to destroy the Kandrian Empire, he might very well have doomed the Britannian Empire to partial or complete destruction if his fortune took a turn for the worse.

“Your Majesty!” another urgent intelligence report chimed in. “The Martial Sages of the Kandrian Alliance have reported the retreat of all of the hostile enemy Sages! The former are returning to the Kandrian Empire and their respective nations as we speak! The war has been averted!”

Never before in his entire life had Emperor Rael ever felt such a gush of euphoric relief. It was even more life-bringing than being healed by the Divine Doctor. Instantly, a deep breath of relief exited him as he felt the knots in his shoulder and back releasing and relaxing.

A part of him felt guilt for feeling this way when countless humans had undoubtedly already perished. Yet, his dominant mindset was clear about the fact that he was the Emperor of the Kandrian Empire. To him, the life of even a single Kandrian citizen was more important than the rest of human civilization in a vacuum.

If countless humans had to die for the Kandrian Empire to emerge victorious in the third Great East Panamic Treaty War, then so be it. He would gladly take that deal in a heartbeat.

That was what it meant to be the ruler of a nation.

“We won…” A whisper escaped him as he closed his eyes, allowing himself to relish his victory at least one time before he returned back to work. With an apocalypse of this scale, the Britannian Empire was too endangered to spend even one minute thinking about the war. That was the reason, as maddened as Edward was in his desire to destroy the Kandrian Empire, he would not even think about continuing the war, lest his entire nation be overrun by beasts that the Masters alone couldn’t handle.

It was a victory that was far beyond anything that Emperor Rael had imagined in the past four years.

But, it was a victory nonetheless.

He didn’t care about how it came to be. The timing of the horrifying Beast Tide could not have been more perfect for the Kandrian Empire. He didn’t care that it was a victory that undoubtedly was, in part, due to luck.

Unlike his egotistical opponent, Rael had no ego that drove him to win the political chess battle that he played with Edward. He had no ego that drove him to prove his superiority as a strategist. He had no domineering pride that was rankled by winning partially due to luck.

“Your Majesty, we have compiled an urgent report on the status of the beast tide! We will provide you with frequent updates on the progress and status of the beast tied that the intelligence community has already dubbed the ‘Beast Incursion.’”

The Beast Incursion.

Emperor Rael opened his eyes with newfound drive and determination after allowing himself just a minute of relishing the victorious conclusion of the third Great East Panamic War.

It was time to get back to work.

A new apocalypse had already wounded human civilization minutes after its inception. If he didn’t exert himself to the limit as the leader of the Kandrian Empire, then he would not be able to protect the Kandrian Empire from what was to come.