The Martial Unity

“And with that, I have come to an end of my presentation,” the Esoterist informed them amicably. “I sincerely hope that my solutions, along with those of my colleague, will be able to aid all of you in dealing with the crises that the Ecologer has enlightened all of us about. Good luck to all of us, and goodbye.”

BZZZT

His projection disappeared, leaving the participants of the Human Summit to their own devices. Each of the leaders fell into deep thought at the extraordinary knowledge that they had gained from the summit.

They were indeed very grateful to the Adventurer’s Guild for putting together a taskforce that had been of such great utility. Without the Ecologer’s warnings of what had already come to pass and of what was yet to come, they would have been operating with a limited scope of awareness.

Her intel and analysis had lifted up the veil of ignorance and mystery and shed light on matters that they would have otherwise learned the hard way. And thanks to the Emperor of Harmony, they even had a path forward in mind.

They were grateful to the Dawnbringer and the Esoterist for their powerful solutions to handling the Beast Incursion even if both of them tried to exploit it for personal gain. It was still very much worth the price to not have half of human civilization wiped out by the battle between Martial Sages and quasi-Transcendent-level beasts.

All in all, the Human Summit had been an incredibly worthwhile gathering for all of them. They had gained clarity and the hope that they would be able to overcome this apocalypse. “Leaders of human civilization,” Guildmaster Vaughn addressed the entire summit. “The Human Summit has concluded. I thank all of you for participating in it and thereby giving us the mandate to offer solutions to all of human civilization. I would like to offer my deepest gratitude to the Ecologer for sharing and lending us her extraordinary mind and knowledge to shed light on the true depth of the crisis we find ourselves in. I would like to offer my deepest gratitude to the Dawnbringer for his priceless contributions to humanity’s power against the beasts and monsters. I would like to thank the Esoterist for his revolutionary solutions to the apocalypse that plagues us all. And last but certainly not least, I would like to thank the Beggar Sage, without whom this summit and taskforce would not have been possible. May we overcome the Era of Darkness with the power that we have gained in this summit. Good luck and farewell.”

His concluding speech was uncharacteristically short for an event of this magnitude, but no one minded. In peaceful times, it would have been considered rude, but when each nation was being bombarded with waves of beasts and monsters, nobody had time to be lounging around in a summit.

All of them had urgent problems to return to.

And they did as all the projections disappeared all at once, putting an end to the virtual event.

Rui immediately got up from the conference room he was in inside the Royal Palace, immediately heading to his father’s office. He knew that they most certainly needed to have a word about the summit the moment it ended.

CLACK The door to his father’s office opened, revealing an expectant Emperor Rael who stared right at him with steepled fingers.

“I can explain.” Rui raised his hands in resignation.

“Oh, can you now?” the Emperor of Harmony mused as his sharp gaze pierced into Rui’s eyes. “Well, go right ahead. I am truly curious about what explanation could possibly justify keeping hidden for an entire month, for nine months in the manifold, the fact that you were approached to be the fourth member of the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“…I was too busy.”

“Too busy. Too busy?” the Emperor of Harmony retorted with incredulity in his rich voice. “I am the emperor of the most powerful and influential nation in the world dealing with the largest apocalypse in the world and you’re telling me that it was you who was too busy?”

“I knew that if I told you about it, you would pester me for all the details in an agonizingly long interrogation.” Rui smiled wryly. “Each minute is fourteen minutes in the manifold, which is far too much time wasted. So, I decided to keep you out of the loop. Especially when you would be hearing everything anyway.”

His father stared at him wordlessly, before shaking his head lightly. “What’s happened has happened. Next time, at least send me a memo.”

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

The Emperor of Harmony gazed at him with steely eyes. “Is there any chance that you held back anything that you have reserved exclusively for the Kandrian Empire?”

Rui stirred at the question. “No, actually. I considered doing that, especially considering that our enemies in the third Great East Panamic War are also in the group that will be benefiting but ultimately decided not to do that in the fear of dooming human civilization.”

“You made the right choice.” Emperor Rael nodded with calm approval. “They may be our enemies. But the fact of the matter is that we all need each other during the Beast Incursion. If they fall, we will be the one to suffer. This is especially true for the Britannian Empire which is serving as a shield for the entirety of the Kandrian Empire geographically.”

The Britannian Empire was directly between the Kandrian Empire and the Beast Domain, serving as a powerful meatshield that lessened the pressure on the Kandrian Empire.

A fact that no doubt drove Prime Minister Edward to madness.

Regardless, if the Britannian Empire fell, then the Kandrian Empire would definitely experience twice as much pressure as before.

“You must also go to the three Sage-level powerhouses of East Panama in your pilgrimages around the world,” Emperor Rael informed him. Rui narrowed his eyes. “You want me to help our enemies? The Britannian Empire that tried to destroy us? If not for the Beast Incursion, the Kandrian Empire would have been destroyed by the Britannian Empire.”

–