The Martial Unity

Her words shook a lot of leaders.

The notion that the ecology of the Beast Domain, its migration patterns, and the location of the source of the roar were all by design rather than by chance was truly terrifying. If it was true, it had bone-chilling and blood-curdling implications that very few had the courage to grapple with and face head-on.

Perhaps the only person who wasn’t moved by this insight was the Emperor of Harmony.

He had received this insight from none other than the Elder Tree itself, which was perhaps the one and only entity whose knowledge and understanding of the Beast Domain exceeded that of the Ecologer.

The fact that the two most knowledgeable experts on the Beast Domain had independently come to similar conclusions on the nature of the Beast Domain was extremely compelling and persuasive evidence to Emperor Rael.

As far as he was concerned, it was the truth.

“In addition to this circumstantial evidence, I have also recorded and recreated the strange  self-overlapping roar that emerged from the center of the Beast Domain and conducted several experiments with it to study its effects in consultation with none other than the Divine Doctor himself,” she continued. “The results of our study have been enlightening.”

She pressed another button on her device, causing the map of the Beast Domain to disappear as another slide featuring graphs, pie charts, and other statistical distributions appeared.

“We conducted an experiment on ten thousand beasts from ten thousand species, subjecting each of them to the recreated roar,” she began. “We accounted for genus, weight-class, esoteric content in their body by body mass, as well as threat-level classification, and other parameters relating to the brain and the mind. The results are…”

She turned back to the data. “Fascinating, to say the least. We discovered that the roar affects ‘weaker’ creatures more than it affects ‘stronger’ creatures. We also discovered that it affects creatures with more esoteric content in their bodies than those without and, finally, we noticed that it affects more intelligent creatures less than less intelligent creatures.”

She turned to the leaders of human civilization. “We have concluded that human beings were immune to being influenced due to our exaggerated intelligence compared to other species and the complete and total lack of esoteric matter in our bodies. According to the Divine Doctor, the influence of the roar on the species of the Beast Domain is entirely psychogenetic. In other words, all the creatures that are affected by the roar and have been set into a frenzy to destroy all of human civilization have genes in them that may have been engineered to respond to this particular roar, as opposed to them being influenced by virtue of external factors.”

Emperor Rael narrowed his eyes as he fell into thought.

He had no idea that the Divine Doctor worked on this project as a consultant, but, regardless, what troubled him more was that this had even deeper and dreadful revelations on the very nature of life itself. “And thus…” The Ecologer’s tone gained a glint of conclusion. “I can confidently conclude that the Beast Incursion is caused by some entity that deployed its genetic authority over the biosphere of the Beast Domain, most likely in retaliation over the territorial colonialism and annexation that human civilization has carelessly engaged in the past five centuries up until the inception of the Beast Incursion.”

Her words were sharp.

They were accusatory.

She was essentially blaming all the leaders before her for the Beast Incursion. The many years that these leaders simply pushed and pushed the beasts and monsters of the Beast Domain had eventually led to the culmination of the backlash for all their deeds in the past five centuries. She was informing them that the Beast Incursion was, in some ways, karma making them pay their dues for all that they had done to the Beast Domain.

It was an almost anti-human stance, one that expressed her distaste for the way that human civilization had treated the Beast Domain.

None of them took it well, but they also understood that now was not the time to express their dissatisfaction at her words.

“However, the information I have divulged up until now is merely in order to elucidate the nature of the threat that we face,” she explained. “It would not bode well for human civilization if its leaders were under the mistaken impression that the Beast Incursion was merely a natural calamity.”

Her message was clear.

“You must forever shift and alter your mindsets regarding not just the Beast Incursion, but also the Beast Domain and perhaps this entire world,” she warned them. “You are not dealing with a natural catastrophe, nor merely a stroke of horrible luck. No. You are dealing with one or more non-human entities within the Beast Domain that are most likely highly intelligent and are most likely the enemy of human civilization.”

This was an extremely heavy warning that none of them dared to dismiss. It sent chills across their skin at the very thought that, all this time, a threat and enemy unlike anything human civilization had ever faced in their entire lives lurked in the depths of the Beast Domain.

The fact that they somehow also knew its exact location made it feel even more terrifying. It was less vague and more real.

Regardless, they appreciated the insights of the Ecologer. She had very thoroughly eroded away the mindset that they had possessed up until now in the way that they approached this apocalypse.

It was not an apocalypse.

No.

It was a war.

A war that they were currently losing.

“Everything that I have covered up until now was merely to adjust your understanding of the past so that you can adopt the right approach and mindset from here on out,” she remarked. “Now, however, I will move on to the future. I will move on to elucidating exactly what the future of the Beast Incursion holds for us.”

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