The Martial Unity

”…but rather, we lay the blame entirely at the feet of the arakai, and specifically the War Faction,” the S’rrigin continued. ”It would be unreasonable to hold you, the leader of an entirely different species and civilization, responsible for the crimes of the arakai.”

Rui heaved a sigh of relief. He was glad that the aquadites were reasonable. He was afraid that they would try to use this to demand reparations. In particular, he half-expected them to demand that he surrender the method to avoiding the price of the Transcendent Realm.

”I’m glad to hear that, Your Majesty,” Rui smiled at the leader of the aquadites. ”Indeed, the War Faction of Arakai Web Civilization is the source of much of our immediate misery, one way or another. That is the purpose of this meeting.”

He directed a sweeping gaze across the three parties. ”Each of us has a common enemy in the War Faction that we would like to subdue or disenfranchise. At the very least, we would like to reduce them to the point that they cannot attack us or impede our political goals. And that is exactly what I’m offering to each of you.”

He leaned forward, taking hold of the flow of the conversation. ”I have killed three Divine Mothers and disappeared another three. That’s six War Faction Divine Mothers in a matter of months, at the very most. As you can see, I’m still here. As you know, that’s because I can avoid the price of the Verse. With the intelligence provided by Divine Mother ooo—o-, I can ambush them and make them disappear.”

He paused, leaning back slightly. He had restated the offer, waiting for one of the three parties to respond.

”About that, Emperor Rui,” Lord Sheshank leaned forward, his three eye-like organs boring into Rui. ”I wish to inquire why you didn’t kill the three Divine Mothers in your most recent ambush in the Colton Star System within arakai territory. From what I understand, you could have killed them, but you chose not to, instead opting to temporarily remove them from the situation.”

This time, Divine Mother ooo—o- chimed in. ”That. Was. At. My. Request. Lord. Sheshank.”

Her clicks were translated into the hums of the dessandrite people. Although she could speak all of their languages, she chose to speak in her own tongue, or pincers rather, than to defer to the other parties. She was still the leader of a civilization, after all.

Lord Sheshank directed a brief glance at her, but didn’t respond. He would obviously have liked that Rui eliminate the Divine Mothers, as that would form more of a deterrent. But his Divine Mother ally was unwilling to see the permanent loss of a Divine Mother. She only wanted them gone long enough to completely reshape arakai civilization in her vision.

”I agree with the proposal that you have put forth, Emperor Rui,” the S’rrigin replied. ”However…”

He proceeded to utter a saying that Rui didn’t recognize, but roughly matched the meaning of ’the devil lies in the details.’

”Indeed, the details are what matter the most in this case,” Rui said, smiling. ”Unfortunately, I cannot promise a certain rate of elimination of Divine Mothers. The constraint here is the intelligence I get from the Divine Mother.”

Everybody turned towards her. Without her intel on the location of Divine Mothers, ambushes were impossible.

She remained calm and unfazed, clarifying her position. ”I can provide information on ambushes at a steady rate. My intel network within Arakai Web Civilization is vast. Even if the other Divine Mothers try obscuring their location, I’m confident that I can still find them with time. I estimate that we can eliminate a Divine Mother every few months; however, because of reinforcements, each operation is of much greater risk and also much greater reward, so it’s more like a few Divine Mothers every month, as long as the operation is successful.”

”You can leave that to me,” Rui replied with a more confident tone of voice. ”I am confident that I can emerge alive from each encounter, and that would mean that the Divine Mothers will have disappeared.”

”Are you certain about that, Emperor Rui?” Lord Sheshank raised an eyebrow. ”You will face stronger and stronger Divine Mothers as time passes. Do not think that all Divine Mothers are as weak as the ones you have defeated thus far. People like o-ooooo are low-grade Divine Mothers with a minimal voice among their peers because of their limited power.”

”I’m aware of that,” Rui remarked. ”However, I am confident. I think you should trust me based on the fact that I have eliminated multiple Divine Mothers at once. I’m extremely difficult to kill or trap. And that’s good enough.”

That was difficult to argue against.

”Now, enough about me,” Rui remarked, leaning forward. ”I wish to understand how much you are willing to commit on paper to increasing pressure on the Divine Mothers.”

He was not willing to let them get off with an ambiguous ’we swear to put pressure on the arakai.’ He would iron out the details, right down to the number of warships, the number of weapon systems active and partaking in the conflict at any given moment. Otherwise, he had no doubt that these civilizations would not respect him enough, given that his civilization was tiny and minuscule in comparison to theirs.

Thankfully, their responses highlighted their sincerity. From large numbers of warships and superweapons to commitments to inflict a certain amount of damage upon the arakai amid war.

What surprised him was that the aquadites were willing even to commit their Sea Sovereigns.

These were the Administrators of their civilization.

Rui found it interesting that they were willing to go that far, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t happy. Administrators were the highest form of pressure that these civilizations could put on each other. Once they joined a battlefield, if there weren’t opposing Administrators, then every ship and fortress within that star system was as good as destroyed.