The Martial Unity

His words caused a ripple to spread across Central Human Command as many of the strategists and analysts turned towards the Web Bringer mothership in the live footage. They stared at the ship with furrowed eyebrows, squinting as if trying to discern what it was that made the Emperor believe what he believed.

Of course, not a single one of them could sense it.

How could they?

Rui’s senses and intuitions were off the charts. Even without his Transcendent status, he had honed his Primordial Instinct for many, many years. He had also mastered prophecy, which also allowed him to make this realization. He could sense it. He could sense, ever so faintly, the fabric of reality bending under another Verse.

”Really?” Transcendent Dwight frowned, squinting his aged eyes at the footage. ”I don’t understand how you came to this conclusion. I don’t sense anything.”

Another Transcendent voicing his disagreement made the many officials in the CHC frown. Rui had made many intelligence claims over the past four months relating to the arakai, and people took him at his word because he was a Transcendent. And also because he was generally an extremely competent individual.

With another Transcendent voicing disagreement, they weren’t as confident and pliable as before.

Rui turned towards the old dwarf with a knowing expression. He wasn’t surprised that Dwight wasn’t able to sense the Divine Mother. His danger sense, environmental awareness, and threat cognition were simply nonexistent.

Dwarven senses had taken a different evolutionary trajectory than the other paths. Their senses were optimized for short-range resolution. They could sense even the microscopic mechanical imbalance in a mech with a single glance. They could detect a hairline fracture inside a sword just by holding it. They could sense disharmony in molecular structure in an instant.

But all of that came at the cost of passive, environmental threat cognition. And that applied even to Transcendent Craftsmen like Dwight. Rui knew this for a fact because even though it had been ten days since Transcendent Dwight broke through to the Transcendent Realm, he hadn’t once asked Rui about the Transcendent Fear.

Rui had sensed the fear even before he broke through to the Transcendent Realm. He knew that the Fear was one of the main reasons that the other Martial Transcendents of human civilization had remained passive after breaking through.

One didn’t even have to be a Transcendent pathwalker to sense it. Jormungandr was able to sense it. He knew that Ieyasu was also able to sense it. Mother Maeria was also able to sense it when she resonated with nature.

Yet, despite breaking through to the Transcendent Realm, Dwight didn’t seem to be aware of its existence.

It was enviable.

”There’s no doubt about it,” Rui remarked, turning back to the live footage with sharpened eyes. ”They actually deployed a Divine Mother to that ship. The sheer audacity to do that after I killed three of their sisters.”

Yet, Rui remained wary. He didn’t know how strong the Divine Mother on that ship was; he didn’t know her identity either. He didn’t even know if she was alone. And more importantly, he didn’t even entertain the notion of attacking her. It reeked of a trap. He wouldn’t be surprised if there were ten Divine Mothers standing in front of a gate to teleport to the ship the moment he went there.

He was certain that the ship had extremely powerful interdiction abilities; if he tried to attack her and ended up getting trapped by an interdiction field amplified by their Webverses, then he would almost certainly die.

”…Even if there is a Divine Mother aboard that mothership, it doesn’t change anything.”

Edward’s nonchalant voice drew everybody’s attention. His casual retired attire stood out from the crisp military, formal, and technosuits that most individuals at the table wore. His gaze turned towards Rui.

”Given that the Divine Mother is in a mothership rather than a carrier, it can be inferred that she’s playing a leadership role rather than a combat role,” he remarked. ”If that’s the case, then there’s virtually no chance that she would deploy her Webverse on the battlefield, because that would lead to her own erasure from reality. Which means that our forces do not have to worry about fighting a Transcendent.”

His words brought a lot of clarity. Indeed, that matched the profile of the Divine Mothers that they had built. They would not deploy their power lightly. It was not worth it for a Divine Mother to use her power to fight mortal forces, for she would simply disappear for having achieved very little, strategically speaking.

”The only question is whether Divine Mothers have Transcendent leadership qualities,” Edward snorted. ”Based on their response to Operation Lightfury, I don’t see anything Transcendent in whoever is doling the orders.”

Rui nodded slowly. The man’s analysis was sound. It was possible that Divine Mothers could use their Webverses to lead better, but that would be away too much of a waste to spend power that would lead to their disappearance.

He made a decision.

”Our enemies are wounded and disoriented,” Rui declared. ”They are vulnerable and have not consolidated their current situation. We must capitalize on this moment and hit them with everything they’ve got to make the most of this situation. I hereby command the deployment of the Strategic World Bridge Force to the Arima III System.”

Once the order was sent, the Strategic World Bridge Force shifted. The First Armada to the Tenth Armada had been on standby for immediate deployment, while the Eleventh to the Twentieth Armada rapidly prepared for deployment.

RUMBLE!!!

The titanic Greater World Bridge in the Solar System activated as an immense ocean of negatron matter bore a massive hole through reality from the center of human civilization to its very outskirts.

The damaged interdiction field of the Web of War heavily suppressed any and all space-time superluminal activity, but it was precisely because it was damaged that it could only strain the world bridge, not halt the wormhole.

RUMBLE!!!

The wormhole formed, spurring the mighty armadas of human civilization to charge through, preparing for what was bound to be the most destructive war human civilization had ever partaken in.