The Martial Unity

“The Naraka Sect is also unwilling to deploy the remaining forty percent of its forces.”

Prime Minister Edward turned his gaze to the final new Sage-level powerhouse that had emerged in the Panama Continent. The projection of the female Martial Sage was covered in an ominous, deathly black cloak, with a hood covering most of her face.

He simply heaved a sigh.

The Naraka Sect was a Martial state that may as well have been created by Rui Quarrier.

It was situated in the void of North-West Panama. When Rui fought and defeated the Demon of Asmodeous alongside Bodhisattva Maitreyi, he had dispersed the Transcendent Candidate’s gu across much of the land that composed of what used to be the gu and its surroundings.

The land had become pitch-black and hostile to all life, including the minutest of microbial life. It was the most sterile and yet the most dangerous environment for life itself. Not even the rampaging Beast Incursion dared to set foot on that land, which showed just how dangerous it was.

And yet, there were many, many Martial Artists who only saw power where others saw danger. These Martial Artists traveled across the Beast Incursion-laden continent and headed to the void for two reasons.

First, to harness the power of death that existed within the land.

Secondly, to gain refuge from the Beast Incursion.

Both of these were powerful motivating factors that brought many Martial Artists to the land of the void in search of a haven and in search of power. Ordinarily, harnessing the power of the neutralized gu that was embedded across the land was impossible and dangerous, but with enough Martial Artists with Martial Paths tangentially related to death, they were able to eventually use the land to enhance their Martial Art with it.

Within each of them were small amounts of diluted gu.

Not just that, because the land was laden with gu, earth-bending became vastly more lethal than it ever was! These two powerful variables allowed the Martial Artists there to secure their own sovereignty and become their own nation!

The Naraka Sect had very recently gained its tenth Martial Sage, making it officially a Sage-level powerhouse eligible to enter into the ranks of the general assembly of the Panamic Alliance. Despite the fact that they owed their entire existence to Rui defeating the Demons of Asmodeous alongside the Boundless Light, they remained unwilling to deploy more of their forces for the sake of the Kandrian Empire.

“Fools, the lot of you.” Prime Minister Edward growled.

The delegates sharpened their eyes at the Grand General’s rough words.

“This is not a war to protect the Kandrian Empire.”

His tone was unyielding.

“This is a war to protect the entirety of the Panama Continent.” His steely gray eyes sharpened. “Do not think that you will be unaffected if the Kandrian Empire falls. This entire alliance will fall apart if the Kandrian Empire falls. With its defeat, we will lose not only the manifold, but also its many Martial Artists and its priceless resources. You guys are falling into the trap that NOVA has set up.”

NOVA was more shrewd than Prime Minister Edward had realized before. She had attacked the Kandrian Empire specifically to encourage the others to follow in her footsteps. She had correctly identified that the Panama Continent was not nearly as unified as previous enemies might have thought.

The reason that they had managed to put a highly unified defense before was that the true world had attacked them all uniformly. It had hidden the degree to which there was internal division in the Panama Continent since everybody faced the same threat.

NOVA had exposed the degree to which the Panama Continent was fragmented by choosing to attack the only one point in the entire continent.

Now, many forces were reluctant to go beyond the quotas mandated by the Panamic Alliance. There were internal considerations, strategic considerations, and other factors that prevented them from deploying all their forces to protect the Kandrian Empire.

Many forces had genuine national security concerns, like the Heaven Sect.

However, there were many of them who secretly wished to see the Kandrian Empire weaken a little. It would restore some balance of power between the states and would give them a greater degree of influence previously monopolized by the Kandrian Empire.

Thus, the entire continent as a whole was much weaker in this war than it had been in the past, just as NOVA had clearly aimed for. The reason that the Panama Continent still held off its invading forces was that the Emperor of Harmony had been forging allies in the true world at a shocking rate.

He had forged an alliance with the West Moridian Alliance, which was the enemy of the Evolutionary Army, and had them attack the latter to reduce how much power it could send against the Panama Continent. Just as NOVA exploited the internal division of the Panama Continent, so had Emperor Rael.

Prime Minister Edward, however, did not intend to allow NOVA to make a fool of the Panama Continent this easily.

“The Dawnbringer had made a statement on your reluctance to deploy all your forces to the protection of our continent.”

The delegates stiffened at those words.

The Dawnbringer was the one factor that they needed to be most wary of, even more than the Emperor of Harmony. His sheer raw personal power and influence among the masses through religion was unparalleled in the history of human civilization.

Prime Minister Edward pulled out a fancy, thick sheet of paper with a signature at the bottom.

[Rui Silas Quarrier Kandria.]

“He declares that any nation that dares to abandon its home when it needs help will forever lose all support from him in the future!” Prime Minister growled.

The change was faster than he could anticipate.

“The Heaven Sect has reconsidered its interests and is willing to deploy one hundred percent of all its forces,” Elder Diana declared with an urgent tone. “I will personally go to war within the day!”

“The Naraka Sect too has understood the error in its ways!”

“The Mallarkian Martial Collective has seen the light as well!”

Prime Minister Edward grinned like a shark as they all capitulated one after another like dominoes.

The statement, of course, was bullshit. He had forged the signature himself.

The ramifications of doing so were not as bad to him as these selfish nations not contributing, as far as he was concerned. If Rui truly cared about this misstep, he could confront the prime minister himself later on. But given that the geographical position of the Kandrian Empire served as a shield to the Britannian Empire, the Britannian Prime Minister had every incentive to ensure that the Kandrian Empire didn’t get so much as a scratch!