The Martial Unity

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”The. Results. Of. Our. Investigation. And. Surveillance. Indicate. That. Human. Civilization. Is. Indeed. Stronger. Than. We. Had. Preliminary. Investigations. Had. Suggested,” an arakai said with a serious tone. ”Particularly. Their. Infantry. Is. Several. Orders. Of. Magnitude. Stronger. Than. What. We. Would. Expect. From. A. Civilization. This. Small.”

The holograms of several Divine Mothers hovered above the webbed floor of a meeting room as they paid attention to the intelligence briefing from an intelligence director. Leaders from the most prominent factions, as well as prominent Divine Mothers unaffiliated with any faction, were present in the meeting.

”Had. We. Invaded. Human. Civilization. Without. Prior. Investigation… We. Would. Suffered. Unexpected. Resistance. And. Failures,” the intelligence director continued with a matter-of-fact tone. ”The. Espionage. And. Reconnaissance. That. We. Have. Committed. In. The. Past. Ten. Days. Have. Revealed. Much. About. Human. Civilization. That. Would. Have. Otherwise. Would. Have. Cost. Us. In. War.”

Divine Mother ooo—o- smiled smugly, turning towards her sisters. ”See?. This. Is. Why. I. Told. You. It. Was. A. Bad. Idea. To. Attack. Without. Doing. Your. Research.”

She had been the one to sway the council into doing their due diligence before the arakai invaded human civilization, and it had paid off for all of them. Divine Mother ——oooo of the War Faction and —oo of the Virus Faction glared at her hologram.

They had been most insistent on invading human civilization right away, claiming that they would have been able to annihilate human civilization very quickly. In hindsight, though, the results of the investigation made it clear that humanity was much more powerful than a minor advanced civilization with only a meager ten thousand stars of territory would be.

”The. Biggest. Anomaly. In. Their. War. Potential. Would. Undoubtedly. Be. Their. So-called. Pathwalkers,” the intelligence director remarked with serious eyes. With a wave of his hand, his web projector displayed several images of the eight kinds of pathwalkers that existed within human civilization.

”They. Possess. The. Ability. To. Naturally. And. Progressively. Develop. Their. Personal. Combat. Power. To. Extraordinary. Levels. Without. Needing. Extremely. Resource-intensive. Infected. Matter. Upgrades,” the intelligence director continued. ”A price-per-output Estimate. Shows. That. Their. Combat. Power. Is. Orders. Of. Magnitude. Less. Resource. Intensive. Than. Our. Infantry.”

Two graphs displayed the cost of a certain amount of infantry combat power adjusted for purchasing power parity. It showed that the ranks of power that were common across pathwalkers in human civilization, like Martial Master or Martial Sage, were nearly a thousand times less resource intensive than it was in Arakai Web Civilization.

In order for the arakai to produce a Sage-level combatant, they needed titanic bioengineering laboratories that were the size of planets. The amount of computing, the amount of power, the amount of infrastructure that was needed to be able to have an apparatus that could take a regular lifeform and upgrade them to Sage-level power was tremendous.

The reality was that human civilization made reaching Sage Realm of power look easy, but it wasn’t.

Without Paths, having infantry reach that level of power was extremely taxing. For one, it couldn’t be done through biological upgrades alone. The arakai, like most lifeforms, was a carbon-based lifeform that would explode with even the slightest amount of materia prima in its body.

In order for infantry to reach such combat power, they would need specialized combat suits that could produce enough power to destroy entire landmasses. These combat suits not only needed to be extremely powerful, but they also needed to keep the arakai inside safe, which usually required even more power or highly powerful infected matter, or both.

In other words, producing even a single Sage-level infantry unit was exhausting in all regards; energy-wise, time-wise, and resource-wise.

”Yet. Human. Civilization. Has. Almost. As. Many. High-level. Infantry. Assets. As. We. Do,” the intelligence director continued with a very serious tone of voice. ”Despite. Being. Thousands. Of. Time. Smaller. Than. Us.”

That was indeed a shock to all of them, even Divine Mother ooo—o- of the Pluralist Faction. How could such a puny and tiny advanced civilization produce so many high-level combat units?

”Do. They. Have. An. Excess. Of. Infected. Matter?” Divine Mother —oo, the Infecter asked with an impatient expression. ”What. About. Their. Technological. Prowess?”

She was the leader of the Virus Faction, and was most shocked by the disparity in average infantry power. Strong infantry was one of the benefits of being a civilization that had a strong relationship with the virus, for a civilization to vastly surpass them without submitting to the cosmic virus was a shock to the faction leader.

”They. Have. Less. Infected. Matter. Per. Capita. Than. We. Do,” the intelligence director clarified. ”And. Only. 0.1%. Of. The. Infected. Matter. Is. Used for. Infantry. Compared. To. 10%. In. Our. Civilization.”

They were as strong despite abusing esoterics for combat power to a much lesser extent. None of the Divine Mothers could comprehend what they were looking at. While the ——oooo and —oo of the War and Virus Factions gritted their teeth in anger, Divine Mother ooo—o- of the Pluralist Faction looked positively fascinated.

She knew that there was much to gain from establishing a trade pact with human civilization, but this exceeded even her expectations. If they could get their hands on this ’Path’ business, then they could become significantly more powerful. More than that, Divine Mother ooo—o- saw paths as a way to unite members of different species.

Through experience, she knew that the stronger two beings of different species were, the less the difference in species mattered. Powerful beings were often intelligent and could often communicate despite the barrier of species and web of life between them. This, she believed, could become the basis of cooperation and peace between multiple different civilizations in the Orion Star Strand.

’Next. Time. I. Speak. With. Him. I. Must. Insist. On. Trading. For. The. Power. Of. Paths,’ the leader of the Pluralist Faction secretly mused. ”And. How. Does. This. Impact. Our. War. Plans. Would. The. Strategic. Division. Insist. On. Mobilizing. More. Infantry?”