The Martial Unity

The therianthropes were among the messiest and most diverse group of people, for all their power. They weren’t able to organize their people as efficiently, but more or less managed to pull off the civilizational shut down.

The giants were surprisingly simple. Having inherited the organic biotechnological seismic energy absorption system of the elves, the minority of their people who retained their rationality merely needed to press a button to cause the systems to become activated to their fullest.

The evolutionaries, both halves of the continent, also got through it relatively smoothly. The tekvores, under the control of the Panamic Alliance for now, had also managed to enter such an energy state, even if it was more difficult. The tekvores consumed energy like machines, and thus needed it. Large reservoirs of energy had to be prepared in storage for the duration of the shutdown to ensure that none of them died because of running out of energy.

The dwarves were so good that they could achieve the same results as all other civilizations without having to redirect power. Their energy technology was so powerful that they could get away without having to redirect it.

The countless smaller polities in islands in and about the seven continents also followed through with the protocols. Whether it was the Hlakaschken Trade Empire or the Alfina Kingdom of seafolks, each and every single one of them followed the directive that had spread throughout human civilization.

Most of them did it simply because of the negatron matter that the Emperor of Kandria had thrown into the deal. Even if they understood the threat, they wouldn’t have easily agreed to a shutdown if not for the carrot that Rui had offered. The media, to whatever extent they could, went explosive with the reporting while the interweb continued functioning as it did, allowing the citizens of the world to speak to each other even if there was a shutdown.

[All seven civilization orchestrated a shutdown!]

[The Panama Continent has become silent!]

[Just why has the entire world shut down to such an extent?!]

[—Tsk, it must be because they’re doing something crazy.]

[—Right? Why else would every power in the world feel the need to shutdown?]

[—It’s a conspiracy! They’re trying to shut down the energy grid so that they can control us even better! Wake up, sheeple!]

Activity on the interweb notwithstanding, the process was surprisingly smooth. Over the past six years since the end of the true world war, the world had been relatively peaceful, allowing things to calm down and take place more smoothly than when tensions were high.

Soon enough, everything was ready.

“Now it is all up to him…” Mother Maeria remarked, heaving a deep breath. “The culmination of years of effort, all in the blink of an eye. I can’t help but feel nervous.”

In the depths of true body, the vessel of the Mother sat within their little task force workshop, covered in computer terminals and screens, as well as the prominent Ieyasu machine situated at the very center of the little cavity, illuminated by glowing flowers.

“We’ll be fine,” the Divine Doctor remarked with a knowing expression. “He is a trustworthy executor.”

Mother Maeria turned towards the Divine Doctor with a knowing expression. “You once entrusted him to help you find the source of the illness plaguing Gaia, as I recall.”

The Divine Doctor nodded lightly. “Many years have passed since then, but he has kept his promise. Now, I can potentially cure the most challenging patient I have ever taken on.”

She heaved a deep breath. “I’m more worried about Rui.”

“Don’t worry, he’s prepared a clone in case he dies.”

She directed a pointed gaze at him with a stern expression on her elderly face. “People aren’t disposable. And clones are entirely different people.”

The Divine Doctor shrugged. He didn’t care to hash out a philosophical disagreement between them. He had long grow accustomed to the notion that information was identity. It was the basis of the reason that he referred to himself as the Divine Doctor. ‘Rui has already been reincarnated once too,’ he thought to himself inwardly.

“Soon, it will be time. We need to be prepared here when he’s ready.”

And soon enough, it was time.

When Rui emerged from the meditation chamber back in the Kandrian Empire, he may as well have been a different man.

CLACK

The doors to the meditation chamber, unveiling his intense figure.

STEP

With just a single foot forward, those gathered waiting for him outside could feel the difference in him. Their nerves tingled, as if someone had propped up a blade just an inch away from their throat.

The air grew heavy with the sheer weight of the tension that hung in the atmosphere. The atmosphere grew electric with peril, prickling at their nerves like a needle.

His presence had grown unfathomably heavy, bending the very fabric of reality itself around him, as if he had his own gravitational field.

“…Welcome back, Your Majesty,” Secretary Claris managed to squeeze out. “All the preparations have been complete. We have managed to coordinate a global energy redirection toward seismic absorption systems.”

He simply nodded curtly, his ethereal eyes containing boundless intensity.

“It is time. I shall go.”

WHOOSH!

He disappeared, arriving at the very epicenter of the continent.

The epicenter of the Beast Domain.

He arrived at the destroyed ruins of the Lost Civilization. He directed a sweeping gaze with his ethereal eyes, taking a deep impression of the ruins he was within. The auburn skies of the evening sun illuminated them in sombre light, making the air about them feel heavier.

The last time he had been here was to recruit the Shepherd. She had told him about how these ruins had achieved a much more perfect civilization than their own.

This time, however, he could only feel a hint of sorrow.

“If that was the case…” the faintest of whispers escaped him. “Then this ancestral civilization that thrived long ago was… undone by the alien entity that came to Gaia 187,000 years ago.”

Just how many lives had the alien entity killed?

Just how much destruction had it spread?

Just much of their ancestry had it erased?