The Martial Unity

RUMBLE!!!

A wave of malevolent poison of chaos and death erupted forth in a violent manner, consuming the entire world around it. The entire planet began changing color as the poison exploded forth, guided by the Antithesis Hive.

It was the same old routine all over again.

The virus tried to resist, to struggle, to fight back.

And yet, it failed.

Most of the tactics it has used were already adaptively evolved from the experience with previous infected worlds. The Tide of Samsara effortlessly crushed the virus with the ease of a gamer playing a game that they had cleared more than a hundred times, almost preempting counters even before the tactics commonly used by the virus were activated.

It was an overwhelming wave of dominance that changed the color of the planet as it swept through the entire world.

RUMBLE!!!

On the verge of death, the virus infecting Planet X-167 pulled off the same old final trump card that it normally did.

It sent out an SOS.

Or at least, tried to.

It was hampered by the Tide of Samsara that was clearly very prepared for it, completely crushing its final action even as the virus completely erased it from existence.

And then, there was silence.

The Esoterist, the Psyker, and Ria watched with stunned silence as things finally settled down.

Ria’s mouth hung open, her eyes wide with shock.

Just like that, the Esoterist disinfected an infected world with his proprietary Samsara Tide technology. In less than half an hour after she told him about the infected world, he had already destroyed the virus infecting the planet.

It was an unfathomable feat. She couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t done this with Planet Sarantel if he was capable of it.

”Haha…” A faint laugh escaped him before it erupted into the diabolical guffaw of the maniac that he was deep down inside. ”HAHAHAHAHAAAAA! Aha Ahaha HAHAHAHAAAAAAA…!”

The Psyker simply heaved an exasperated sigh while Ria stared at him with a deeply disturbed expression, regretting that she had decided to approach the freak. She wished her father had told her how weird this highly esteemed technologist, inventor, and head of state was. She wanted nothing more to do with the trigger-happy maniac!

”Princess.”

He turned towards her with an intent expression and a wide smile, walking up to her, peering down into her face.

”Oh, you precious angel sent by the heavens themselves.” he stared into her eyes. ”You and I, we’re going to have a looot of fun together.”

She gulped. ”So you believe me.”

”Believe you?” he scoffed in disbelief at the very question. ”Believe you? I believe in your very existence. I believe nothing else in this goddamn world except for you! All hail Princess Ria Quarrier Silas Kandria, the Harbinger of esoteric matter!”

She wasn’t particularly appealed by that nickname, but she let it slide. The important part was that she had managed to get him to calm down a little and take her seriously, perhaps a bit too seriously.

”One hundred billion credits.”

He spoke with an intense tone of voice, sitting back down.

She tilted her head with askance.

”That’s how much I’ll pay you for every infected world you point me to,” he told her with a dead-serious tone.

Her eyes widened at those words. ”You’re willing to pay that much?”

”Compared to the gains?” He scoffed. ”A planet full of esoteric matter? I’m probably underselling you; I don’t mind going even higher. But in return, you can’t tell anybody else. That price only makes sense if I get to monopolize the infected matter, or have my hands on most of it.”

She frowned. ”You plan to mine each and every single planet I inform you about.

He leaned forward in his seat, staring at her with bloodshot eyes.

”Every. Single. One.”

He stressed each word, pressing the air with his finger with his finger, as if to emphasize how committed he was.

Her expression tightened. ”I can find a confirm a new one every two weeks quite comfortably, you know? Can you handle that?”

”Absolutely.”

”You’re telling me…” Her expression became one of skepticism. ”That you have the necessary exo-mining infrastructure, the necessary transportation infrastructure and means to ship them to the frontier and beyond to mine an ENTIRE planet, and to keep doing that for new infected worlds that will keep coming every two weeks?”

”Absolutely!”

”He’s lying,” the Psycher remarked, sipping his tea.

”You know nothing about exo-mining logistics or the exo-mining capacity of the Esocline Federation, you spooky psyche doctor.” The Esoterist glared at him.

”Correct, but deceit is transparent to me; I don’t even have to look at you to see that you’re lying through your teeth,” the Psycher calmly replied.

Ria raised an eyebrow, turning towards the Esoterist with a raised eyebrow. ”You do realize I was being very conservative with the two-week delay, right? If you provide me with a solution that can identify even the most well-hidden infected worlds and confirm their presence, then I can find multiple new infected worlds every week. You’re telling me you have enough mining capacity to undertake all those planets’ worth of mining, through space across dozens and dozens of light-years outside the frontier, and farther away every time, where there are no Dyson Spheres supplying you large amounts of energy? While handling the risks of aliens? The risks of competitors? The risks of security and safety from cosmic hazards?”

This time, he didn’t answer. His expression simply tightened.

She wasn’t the most knowledgeable person on the details of the exo-mining industry, but even she knew that what she was describing was a workload that was far, far beyond the limits of any single nation, and that included the Kandrian Empire, unless her father was willing to pick a mining drill himself and get to work with his Transcendent power.

”I can’t sell it to you exclusively.” Ria shook her head. ”I don’t care for the money; I’m the princess of the Kandrian Empire, as much as I dislike it. Money is meaningless to me, frankly. I have two goals with this initiative.”

She raised two fingers. ”I want as many infected worlds to be cleansed, for the greater good and my own good. And secondly, I want all of humanity, not just any one nation or even my own nation for that matter, to have all the esoteric matter it needs to fight off a war that could begin as soon as tomorrow.”

”Then what do I gain from helping you?” He sharpened his eyes. ”Yes, I want human civilization to thrive with esoteric matter as well. But you said you wanted my technological solutions to be able to credibly prove to a third party that an infected world is actually infected. So what do I gain in return?”

She thought about it deeply, considering the question, before arriving at a compromise.

”For every one out of ten infected worlds I run into, I’ll share that information with you and only you,” she offered. ”That way, you get some monopolistic power. But humanity will still benefit, and you won’t undertake an exo-mining load way out of your capacity.”

He pondered that offer for several moments before heaving a deep breath.

”Fine. You have a deal.”