The Martial Unity

Rui and Amare followed the man into the City of Ceraph while maintaining their stealth as they passed through the gates, taking in the exotic sights of a new civilization unlike anything they had ever seen.

What struck them the most was the fact that the paths within their nation were wide and expansive, able to accommodate a rather large amount of public transport in the form of bio-engineered elephants that could accommodate not just a large load, but also transport the load at high speeds despite their size.

Elephants walked the streets on either side in specialized tracks meant to ensure that nobody got in their way and potentially hurt themselves, carrying with them goods and people.

On the surface, the use of animal labor for transport would strike one as primitive, but the sheer speed at which these bio-engineered beasts were able to engage in labor could easily exceed the industrial trains or other means of transport for goods and services. What surprised Rui was that despite their barreling momentum, they didn’t leave any tremors on the ground that could disrupt the rest of the city.

This meant that they were absorbing their own kinetic energy efficiently with each step and ensuring that they didn’t disperse their energy into the environment that they were in, making it safe for pedestrians to walk right beside powerful elephants that served as a means of transport.

The rest of the city was built around their connection with elephants, too. The buildings made of wood and leaves were able to accommodate elephants within them, allowing them to be with people while also not entirely destroying everything around them. Everything from the size of buildings to even the size of doors was made elephant-friendly in ways that couldn’t have even been imagined possible.

What was even more impressive was that under the city was another layer of infrastructure that housed a seemingly endless number of elephants within a naturalistic environment with perfectly mimicked sunlight and artificial sky biotechnology, creating a biome for them to remain within when they weren’t at work or with their bonded therianthropes.

Rui was ambiguous on the treatment of elephants. On the one hand, they were clearly very happy; he could sense it with his mind sense, and the people of the Gajanan Clan took care of them quite well. However, he pondered the ethics of bioengineering elephants to their needs and ensuring that they were perfectly happy the way they were.

Then again, it was probably better than if they weren’t happy.

Regardless, he hadn’t come to a different continent with a different race and a different civilization to try to apply his own meta-ethics to them. He could overlook almost anything as long as they could work together to defeat the Dragon Emperor and make the therianthropes an ally from a threat once they destroyed the War Coalition.

He studied the people of the city with a close eye, observing their mannerisms. On the surface, it was clear that they were no different from humans in most ways, but their connection to nature was much deeper than that of humans as well.

In particular, they possessed a deep bond with fauna, as opposed to what the elves had with flora. He spotted them communicating with all manner of critters and little pets that walked with them and sat on their bodies. Unlike humans, whose communication with animals was highly limited, he could sense that they were truly communicating with the animals around them.

From what he could tell of their diets, they were largely vegetarians, which made sense considering that this was a clan that was centered around elephants.

What interested him, in addition to the people, was the city itself as a whole; it was clearly not a residential area. From what he could tell, there was plenty of industry in the city with large factories with technological machines that chugged away producing products whose purpose Rui couldn’t even decipher.

“Your Highness, it will take some time before we reach the capital of our nation,” the leader of that squadron, turned guide, communicated with them discreetly as they followed him with their stealth active. “I’m certain that you are exhausted from your travels from the Hlakaschken Trade Empire. We have prepared for you the finest luxury quarters that we are able to offer to you for you to recover from before we can proceed with business.”

“Thank you,” Rui heaved a sigh of relief. “It is true that we are exhausted from everything that has happened. Being chased by many clans in Kiriket has not been anything short of draining.”

“I need to crash immediately.” Amare groaned.

“It is truly impressive that you managed to suceed nonetheless, Your Highness. We therianthropes take great pride in the powerful senses of the beasts and monsters that occupy our lands. They make it impossible for anybody to infiltrate our continent, and yet you have proven us wrong. Frankly, it is a relief that it takes someone as powerful as yourself to achieve such a feat. If it was anybody short of somebody like you to achieve such a feat, then it would have been truly terrifying!”

They were soon guided to a luxurious set of quarters in some of the better parts of the city, where they were smoothly guided to the room that they were assigned.

“Please get some good rest, Your Excellencies.”

The room they were in was highly spacious and relaxing with many amenities and facilities to partake in. Amare’s eyes lit up as the extravagant luxury bed that look like it was meant for royalty. “I’m going first!”

WHOOSH

She dove into the bed, burying herself under the blankets before immediately falling asleep. Rui simply chuckled, before heaving a sigh and inspecting the rest of their room.

Like all buildings, it was made from flora biotechnology. Rui immediately used his Nature Interfacer and his Tapestry of Nature to make sure that there weren’t any elements of espionage to it that were spying on them while they were recovered.

He hadn’t forgotten that the Gajanan Clan was not an ally, at least, not yet.

It helped to exercise caution.

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