The Martial Unity

Her words were proven correct as not a single Terran Sage was able to hold their own against their respective opponents.

“Tsk, weak maggots.” Sage Damian spat.

The five Martial Sages before him were unconscious.

His own body was covered with mere wounds and bruises.

He had hoped they would be able to do more.

And yet, of all the battles that the Kandrian Empire experienced, the most underwhelming experienced had been Sage Sayfeel, who was the vanguard of the assault force.

Sage Sayfeel impassively gazed at the two cowering figures of Consul Notera and Consul Sergenilius.

They may have hated each other, yet they didn’t deny that the Citadel was the safest place in the Nest of Terra, and they didn’t refuse its refuge just to avoid being with each other. The Martial Sage simply gazed at them with cold disdain.

He didn’t hide the murderous bloodlust.

“I owe His Highness everything.”

This was the truth.

Words could not even begin to describe the feeling of gratitude he had towards the prince. Without his extraordinary achievements, the Emperor of Harmony would have never woken up ever again.

Without the Dawnbringer, he would have lost the purpose that drove him down his Martial Path.

His gratitude was beyond words, as was the hatred that he felt for those who attacked the Dawnbringer for their own greed and desire for power.

“His Majesty ordered me to execute you but…” a whisper escaped him, “…he didn’t say how. Nor did he specify the duration or the manner in which I thought to execute you.”

His eyes blazed with cold wrath and hatred.

“I will inflict upon the two of you the most horrifying death that this world has ever seen.”

Pure horror and despair emerged in the eyes of Consul Notera and Consul Sergenilius.

He lived up to his words.

A great distance away in the Kandrian Empire, the Emperor of Harmony found himself gazing out of the window in his Royal Office with profound eyes.

His table was scattered with documents of all kinds.

Many of which were intelligence reports on his son.

Among the documents was an active comms artifact.

“This is uncharacteristic of your modus operandi.”

The raspy voice of a beggar emerged from the artifact.

And yet, the Emperor of Harmony was not moved by it. “People seem to think harmony is synonymous with silence.” His voice was rich and deep, while his tone was melodically thoughtful. “There are those that seem to think that harmony is tolerance.”

His golden eyes narrowed.

“They are wrong.”

“Hehehe… so you attacked the Nest of Terra just to reassert your power and your willingness to use it?” The Beggar Sage mused with amusement. “But, if it was just sending a message to the Nest of Terra, then you have gone overboard. Your plan requires the cooperation of every Sage-level powerhouse without fail. Your aggression against the Nest of Terra is something that would obviously lead to irreparable harm and damage to your relationship with the nation, becoming enemies with it and ruining your plan of cooperation. But you don’t seem worried…”

The Beggar Sage’s powerful intellect arrived at the answer.

“…I see, you planned this. You planned all of this, didn’t you?” The Beggar Sage grinned. “You planned this with the two successors of the two former consuls. Forging pacts of absolute cooperation with their successors in exchange for killing the two consuls, allowing the successors to become the next consuls a lot sooner than before.”

The Emperor of Harmony shifted his powerful gaze at his active comms artifact.

“That was a rather spurious guess. Is this how the Beggar’s Sect operates?”

The air grew electric.

The tension in the air boiled tumultuously.

“No truth can escape my eyes.” The Beggar Sage grinned. “I see all truth within the Human Domain. And right now, I see that this is the truth. Very interesting indeed. You truly would have made a splendid Immortal Sage.”

Emperor Rael’s gaze returned to the vast city of Vargard that stretched out as far as the eye could see in the distance.

“Your words were correct.”

“Hah! I knew it!”

“But…” the Emperor continued. “The message I sent was not to the Nest of Terra, but instead to another Sage-level powerhouse that has been silently watching how I would react to what the Nest of Terra did, or tried to do, to my son.”

“…The Virodhabhasa Theocracy.”

Once more, the Beggar Sage had hit the nail on the head.

“As I’m sure you know, the political landscape of the theocratic Martialocracy has been concerning,” Emperor Rael remarked. “Hehehe, interesting, isn’t it?” the Beggar Sage cackled. “The Virodhabhasans believe that the Apocalypse is upon them. They believe that the Beast Incursion is indeed the very Apocalypse that the Transcendent Prophet foretold centuries ago. They believe that the Era of Darkness is the prophecy coming true. They believe that only their ‘Lord Virodhabhasa’ can save them from this apocalypse.”

Emperor Rael heaved a sigh. “The overwhelmingly powerful Fundamentalist Faction believes that they should focus on finding the Antithesis, as opposed to supporting my strategy. They believe that this is the prophesized apocalypse, and thus, human intervention of any kind is obsolete. They are dedicating all their energy to finding the Virodhabhasa and praying that the Antithesis will fix all their problems and save them from destruction.”

The frustration in his voice was not missed.

Nor was the concern.

“Of all the nations that my son will be visiting, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Virodhabhasa Theocracy might prove to be the most dangerous.”

“So that’s why you were so aggressive against the Nest of Terra after all,” the Beggar Sage remarked. “You want to deter the religious crazies with a fearsome punishment to the Nest of Terra, and simultaneously, the problem of the Virodhabhas Theocracy can only be solved by your son.”

The Emperor of Harmony closed his eyes.

“It’s the only option I have at my disposal.”

His eyes softened as he thought about his son.

What he had achieved in the past two years had truly made him proud.

“My son…” A whisper escaped him. “It’s all up to you now. The fate of this continent rests on your shoulders.”

On the other side of the continent, two Martial Masters descended upon a mountain peak, gazing down at the vast expanse of a massive nation.

A massive Sage-level powerhouse.

Rui narrowed his eyes.

“We have arrived.”

–