The Martial Unity

It was a truly astonishing thing to witness the flora of a planet become a shield for it. Especially when the planet was as large as Gaia was. Every single Divine Mother watched with a dumbfounded expression as Nature itself rose to the protection of the vessel of the planet it was on.

In a manner that clearly defied the laws of physics. They could even faintly sense the distributed Verse that was enhancing the power of nature. Flora lifeforms were growing and being strengthened at a rate that was physically impossible. And yet, it unfolded right before them.

Gaia, previously a largely blue planet with patches of land on one half of the planet, was now fully green. But what was perhaps most stunning was the fact that the shield of nature had managed to actually protect the planet from the attack of the Shredder. Despite the fact that most of the tissue came from flora on other parts of the planet that weren’t nearly as strong as elven flora.

Yet, with the power of the Natureverse, they were able to withstand an attack that would have destroyed all of Gaia.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The sharp strings did dig into the shield of vegetative tissue, but the shield of nature healed and regenerated as fast as the sharp web dug into them. The Shredder’s six eyes widened with shock as her attack was completely neutralized head-on.

Her Web slicer techniques had been perfected over eons, and her Verse had matured and grown over an equally long period of time, both of which propelled her to the upper echelons of Divine Mothers within her civilization.

And yet, she had been firmly stopped. So much so that it could not be regarded as a clash of equal forces.

For a defense to so perfectly snuff an attack, that was the sign of superiority, not inferiority. The very thought of it made the Divine Mother go mad with anger and shock.

It wasn’t just her, of course. The Divine Mothers were truly bewildered at the presence of a Verse they hadn’t detected before. A Verse unlike anything they had ever sensed before. The consciousness was not discretely located in one tree or location, but was rather spread across the entire forest. Furthermore, it was not a consciousness, but rather a subconsciousness that didn’t possess a sense of self.

A mind that had obtained phenomenological uniformity at the cost of Ego.

A mind that had melded with Nature itself.

”A. Fourth. Administrator...” Divine Mother oooo—— clicked with a shaky voice.

Her confidence and resolve had been shaken by the intervention of the unconscious Administrator. The appearance of Argenton had been shocking. They had never seen this Administrator before. This alone had thrown their calculations for the prospects of success. However, it hadn’t been too bad. They still had a solid advantage in terms of both quantity and quality.

The awakening of Jormungandr hadn’t fundamentally changed the power dynamics. It merely delayed the inevitable, as far as Divine Mother oooo—— had been concerned. But the appearance of the fourth Administrator was what finally shook the composure that she had maintained since the start of the battle.

Not just because the quantity advantage was almost completely gone, but also because this Administrator was extremely strong! Protecting a planet against another Transcendent was much harder than simply fighting that Transcendent; it was a very heavy burden. And yet, this new Administrator had managed to protect and firmly halt the offensive assault of the Shredder, a high-tier Divine Mother.

How could a young Administrator be this strong?

She turned towards the Emperor of Water, whose ethereal eyes bore deep into hers. Although her goal was simply to keep him occupied, he was still very much holding his own against her on an equal basis. This was despite the fact that he was extremely young as an Administrator as well.

Rui himself was moved by the power that his old friend was displaying. Although Mother Maeria’s Verse was quite standard for a Transcendent as old as she was, her actual battle power was already on par with high-tier Administrators.

And unlike the Divine Mothers, Rui understood why.

’Elves are invincible in their home court.’

He had experienced this many times. Everybody had learned the hard way that elves were simply not to be fought with when they were at home. Rui remembered how Mother Maeria had easily routed the entire Giant invasion into Genora many years ago with her mastery over the power of Nature.

Elven power was infrastructural. Their strength came from the innate economies of scale that Nature leveraged. A network of botanical biotechnology that spread across the crust that Genora occupied, leveraging the resources of the entire planet, all of which was multiplied by the power of a Verse that allowed it to violate the laws of Physics.

It allowed her to protect all people in the world from a fate of destruction.

”Woah! What is this?!”

”The elves have gone crazy! How did they spread branches and leaves across the entire sky?!”

”But we can still see the Sun and the sky...! This is a miracle!”

The citizens of Gaia couldn’t help but marvel at the warm embrace of nature protecting them. Although the shield was opaque from the outside, it actually allowed light to pass through it on purpose to ensure that the world wasn’t more disrupted than it already was. The flow of energy from the Dyson sphere to the planet sustained a lot of important and key technological systems, after all.

With that, Gaia was safe.

Momentarily.

The Shredder could no longer redirect the world serpent’s attention to the planet and the Mindstitch could no longer focus on infiltrating Argenton’s mind.

RUMBLE!!!!!

An extremely tense stalemate achieved equilibrium upon the battlefield. With the combination of self-destructive resistance and what could only be called miracles, the defenders of Gaia managed to hold out against six Divine Mothers, only five of whom were active on the battlefield.

”Enough.” Divine Mother oooo——’s voice was filled with reckoning and finality.

Her six eyes flared with ferocious anger and hatred.

They bore deep into Rui’s eyes.

”It. Was. Foolish. Of. Me. To. Place. My. Trust. In. My. Incompetent. Little. Sisters.”

Shame flashed in the eyes of the other five Divine Mothers at those words. The leader of their faction had openly expressed her disdain for their performance.

”From. This. Point. Forth... I. Shall. No. Longer. Preserve. My. Stamina.”

Chills crawled across Rui’s skin as the sense of danger he experienced from the Divine Mother skyrocketed.

A final remark escaped her before she exploded at him with a horrifying surge of violence.

”From. This. Point. Forth. I. Shall. Hunt. You. Myself.”