The Martial Unity

The provisions of the Panamic Martial Defense Treaty were hardly new. Many alliances, unions, and confederations had a provision of sharing and partially collectivizing Martial capital.

However, it had never been done on a continental or civilizational scale largely due to the fact that, for most human history, human civilization had never needed to collectivize Martial capital.

The first time that it had needed to was during the Beast Incursion, however, due to the fact that each nation was too busy caring about its own safety, such efforts hadn’t reached a civilizational scale.

“However, in our current circumstance, I believe that we have no choice,” the Emperor of Harmony continued. “For one, the threat of the true world will not be distributed across human civilization the way that the Beast Incursion was.”

The Beast Incursion had not been universally distributed, and its distribution was based now how powerful a nation was. The Sage-level powerhouses experienced the most lethal and destructive beast tides while weaker nations experienced weaker tides.

There was no need to collectivize Martial power in such circumstances because the Beast Incursion matched the distribution of power across human civilization.

“An intelligent hostile civilization will not act like the Beast Incursion,” the Emperor of Harmony continued with a severe tone. “They will not distribute their military power across human civilization. That is not how colonization efforts are mounted. They will channel all their power into a handful of points across the Panama Continent and then expand their conquest from those sites. This is the history of human civilization.”

Human history was rife with imperialism and colonialism, and it provided a rather universal model for conquest that, while not absolutely unchanging, was quite constant. Imperialist nations did not try to colonize an entire nation’s territory all at once. By converging their military power on a handful of targets, they could mount powerful attacks on those limited targets.

This strategy served them better than launching diluted attacks across the entire nation that were easier to repel.

“Very likely, any imperialist or colonial power of the true world will do the same,” the Emperor of Harmony continued with an intense, yet knowing tone. “Just from the technologies that we have witnessed and the behavior of the prisoner of war that we have captured, we can be certain that there are imperialist and colonial powers of the true world that follow this model.”

His demeanor grew more serious.

“That is why we must collectivize our Martial power. We cannot allow the foreign civilizations of the true world to get their hands on our land. We cannot allow any of us to fall to a concentrated attack. The second they get their hands on a stronghold and set up a well-defended base of operations, the probability that human civilization will be overrun rises by almost seventy percent. These estimations are not random but are based on historical patterns. Allowing them to establish a presence on this continent will be the beginning of the end.”

His words bore heavily on all of them.

They had to admit that he had a point. While they didn’t have as much of a scholarly background in history as the Emperor of Harmony, they knew that his words were rooted in truth. Allowing any foreign imperialist power to establish a presence on the continent would make it an order of magnitude harder to resist being conquered and colonized.

And yet, the condition of surrendering all their Martial power, if necessary, was extremely scary.

What if their nation got invaded while their Martial Artists were off somewhere else?

In that case, they would have doomed their nation to protect another.

That was an extremely undesirable outcome for any leader, and with their national security at risk, the powers of human civilization were simply not inclined to take such a risk.

The Emperor of Harmony sensed that.

“And… what if I thought the same?”

His tone was laced with a hint of peril.

“What if I had refused to aid the Esocline Federation when they requested us for help?”

Chills crawled across the leaders of human civilization.

That would undoubtedly have led to a horrifying outcome.

Without the sacrifice of the Gatekeeper, the Esocline Federation and the Omni-Martial, who had yet to break through to the Sage Realm at that point, would have been annihilated. The Esocline Federation, despite being the weakest nation militarily, was actually one of the most important nations on the continent, second only to the Kandrian Empire.

With their destruction, humanity would have lost a wellspring of technological capital, innovation, and progress. They also would have lost access to nearly half of all satellites that contributed to modern communication systems.

It would have been catastrophic.

In a way, the Emperor of Harmony had put his money where his mouth was, to a certain extent that clearly benefited humanity. Emperor Rael had cleverly leveraged this very recent historic event to make his argument much more rhetorically convincing.

It was much harder for the leaders of human civilization to push back against his collectivist Martial proposal because they had greatly benefited from it.

And yet, that didn’t mean that they were entirely convinced.

And it certainly didn’t mean that it was a set deal.

“Your proposal is flawed.”

The sharp voice of Prime Minister Edward cleaved through the tense atmosphere.

The man comported himself with grace, and yet it didn’t hide the compunctions he had with the Emperor Rael’s Martial collectivit reforms.

Emperor Rael shifted his powerful gaze to the Prime Minister seated in the front row with the other leaders of Sage-level powerhouses.

The air tingled electrically as the two leaders exchanged intense eyes for several tense moments.

“For one,” Prime Minister Edward continued. “The only reason that you were able to help the Esocline Federation was because you were able to.”

His eyes sharpened.

“The World Bridge allows you to transfer Martial Artists across the entire continent instanly,” the Prime Minister pointed out keenly. “Not all nations have the World Bridge, in case you haven’t noticed. Other nations cannot transport Martial Artists fast, save for perhaps Martial Sages.”

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