The Martial Unity

Rui stared at the dwarf in shock as a new revelation stunned him. If what the dwarf was saying was true, then it meant that different verses had different scopes of perception within the information dimension.

Rui remembered how the dwarf was unable to sense the Transcendent Fear. He figured it had to do with how significantly different dwarven senses worked from other pathwalkers. However, if that created shortcomings in the Creationverse pertaining to areas where the dwarves were deficient, then it made sense that the dwarves would be strengthened in domains where their senses were proficient.

When it came to resolution, precision, and accuracy, the elder sages were leagues beyond the Martial Sages. It was their domain of proficiency. To be able to pay attention to the finest of details and engineer them to produce mechano-kinetic harmony to increase their durability.

If his hypothesis was correct, then it meant that dwarven Transcendents were innately specialized towards a scale-limited but high-resolution form of Verse that could understand the full depth of reality within a small scale, but be unable to sense things that occurred on a vaster scale or a more abstract level, like the Fear.

”Wait, that means that the reality I thought I could fully comprehend has only been a slice of reality as I understand it.” Rui’s ethereal eyes widened with surprise.

All this time he had been operating with the assumption that there was nothing more to the information dimension, at least in the layers that he could access, beyond what he could see. But perhaps that had been a deeply limited and biased view. For most of his life, the only Transcendents he had known of were the Martial Transcendents, and if his theory was right, then they likely suffered from the same shortcomings and strengths that he did.

Since then, he had come into contact with three other kinds of Transcendents. The Divine Mothers were one, and the Transcendent Craftsmen were another. While he had managed to peer into Divine Mother o-o-o-o’s mind, he wasn’t able to detect a difference in what they could perceive, but he didn’t trust such a limited method.

Dwight was the first Transcendent he had been able to truly compare notes with and it made him realize how shallow his understanding of Transcendence was despite his experience with it.

”I’m glad I made this realization in such an innocuous way rather than in a much more dangerous manner.”

He would have to adjust the way he planned about other Transcendents now that he was aware of this. Specifically, he was worried about what the Divine Mother aboard the Web of War could see about human civilization that he couldn’t.

Had she gained access to intelligence through her senses in a way that eluded him? If that was the case, then it might explain why she was willing to simply raze the planets in Arima III without trying to gather intelligence.

Had she gained access to intelligence through her senses in a way that eluded him? If that was the case, then it might explain why she was willing to simply raze the planets in Arima III without trying to gather intelligence.

’Wait, that may have something to do with why the Divine Mothers are so pro-virus,’ Rui realized. ’Now that I think about it, I don’t recall sensing anything resembling the Fear in o-o-o-o’s memories. Maybe the Webverse is, for some reason, not able to sense the fear similar to Dwight?’

If that was the case, it would explain so much. It would explain why the arakai were devoted to the virus. If they didn’t fear Fear, then they would have no reason to think that the virus was a threat to the universe. They probably just thought of the virus as a highly useful cosmic organism that they could build a symbiotic growth with.

It was no wonder. Perhaps they were aware of the Fear from other sources, but it was too difficult to take those sources seriously if one couldn’t experience the Fear directly. The arakai likely simply scoffed at them and chalked it up to cowardice.

”This could have blown up in my face in a horrible manner if I hadn’t realized this ahead of time.” He turned towards Dwight with respect. ”Thanks. You have helped me and humanity a lot.”

Dwight simply raised an eyebrow, stroking his white beard with curiosity, before shrugging. He wasn’t aware of the Fear, nor was he aware that he wasn’t aware, so he didn’t realize the impetus of what Rui was conveying to him.

”Coming back to the point,” he turned to the prothanite. ”I think I can create this substance once I investigate it thoroughly, although that will take time. But you should know that this will be taxing. I cannot possibly create enough to plate entire hulls the way the arakai have. Their development industries are vastly more advanced than even ours if they seem to have an ocean of this substance. Their mastery of science is undoubtedly leaps and bounds beyond ours. Hyperdimensional physics is the next frontier of science and engineering that likely separates civilizations like ours from the arakai and the laminars.”

Rui heaved a sigh. In the past twenty-four hours alone, they had been shown so many ways in which the arakai completely surpassed humans. This was yet another.

”We don’t need to replicate it.” Rui shook his head. ”That’s probably a long-term endeavor at best. What we need are weapons systems that are simply effective. I don’t dare demand more. I just don’t want our attacks to get completely negated. Laser beams and antimatter are simply too primitive at this level; that much is clear.”

Dwight nodded in agreement. ”That, you are correct. I believe I, along with my dwarves and the best researchers of our civilization, can come up with something if we work together.”

That was all Rui could realistically ask. Although he would have loved an arsenal of diverse options, each able to harm the arakai effectively, that was just too unreasonable. One weapon system that they could mount on all their warships against the arakai that could harm their webships from afar was enough, along with a slew of dwarven-grade carrier ships.

”You get on that,” Rui remarked. ”I have some important business to get to. The manifold will have to wait until I get back.”

”…this business is more important than the manifold?” the dwarf raised a bushy eyebrow.

”Yeah.” Rui’s eyes sharpened. ”I have to talk to a certain laminar integument and to a certain Divine Mother right away.”