The Martial Unity

Everything that had happened had shaken human civilization to its very core. The residents of the solar system, whether they were living on Gaia Prime, other planets in the solar system, or the Constellation of Cities in outer space, each of them had had their lives terribly disrupted by the ensuing battle between Transcendents.

The people living in the solar system had the highest sense of security. They lived in the most fortified and well-defended solar system in all of human civilization. They were untouchable, or so they thought. That even if there was a war occurring at the very outskirts of human civilization, the flames of war would never ever touch them, even if its economic ripples had already washed over them.

That was why the battle between Transcendents in the solar system had shaken them, not just physically, but also in their psyche. The realization that not even they were safe was a realization that overwhelmed many.

Countless people had already died.

Not on Gaia Prime; the planet had just managed to escape the destruction that came with battle thanks to Jormungandr and Mother Maeria. However, the rest of the solar system didn’t experience such benefits.

Countless spaceships had already been destroyed from the reverberating impacts of the battle through space and time alone. The stellar infrastructure and its many layers at the very epicenter of the solar system had experienced great strain and strings of component and system failures across its vast bodies. Their size alone meant that they couldn’t escape exposure.

The Constellation of Cities had experienced a lot of damage as well. Small, broadly distributed interconnected cities that hovered around the sun at a distance, able to serve as astro real estate; many of them had been sundered by the impacts of the battle, causing millions of them to die in battle.

Thankfully, however, the damage was more limited beyond that. The Divine Mothers wanted to use the solar system, and particularly Gaia Prime, as a hostage, after all. That meant that they couldn’t run around inflicting grave damage to everything willy-nilly. That would simply compel the Emperor of Water to run away if he felt like it was hopeless to try and protect the people.

That one strategic consideration made entirely for the purpose of their goal was the reason that the death toll hadn’t crossed into the eight-figure territory.

News of the battle had already spread across human civilization through the interweb despite their limited interstellar bandwidth.

[Holy shit! I thought the Solar System was the safest place in the entire star system. I even managed to get a rare ticket to the place. Was I wrong?]

[Earlier, I was mourning the fact that all the tickets had been sold out, but now... I think I’m good where I am.]

[Huh, to think the protection would become a source of danger. I don’t know why these alien monsters came to wreak havoc on our central solar system, but it seems clear they chose this spot because of how important it is.]

[Woah, look, the entire planet is covered in nature! It looks fully green!]

[All said and done, they were able to protect Gaia Prime, so... I’m still going when this is done.]

News of this assault also reached the Web of War and its Divine Mother —o-o—o, who rejoiced with vindictive excitement at the news.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK...!

”My. Sisters. Have. Moved! With. This. We. Will. Crush. Human. Civilization!” She exclaimed with joy, increasing the intensity of her attempt at consolidating the entirety of the star system. She only regretted that she could not directly participate in the battle, but she knew that she wasn’t combat-oriented nor strong enough to partake in the battle.

However, news of this invasion hadn’t just spread within human civilization; it had very quickly spread to Arakai Web Civilization, where it was no longer possible to hide.

”Why. Did. They. Act. Unilaterally?!” Divine Mother ooo—o- demanded from the vice-leader of the War Faction. ”They. Were. Supposed. To. Act. In. Accordance. With. Protocol. All. Operations. Involving. A. Conflict. With. A. Common. Enemy. Need. To. Be. Notified. To. The. Council!”

The vice-leader of the War Faction, o——o-, was a younger leader. The equivalent of a middle-aged woman. She had a strong militant atmosphere that reflected in her stiff body language and the fact that she chose to stand on all six of her insectile legs rather than relax in a web hammock like the arakai normally did.

Divine Mother simply stared at the projection of the leader of the Pluralist Faction with an expression of disdain. ”The. War. Faction... rejects. The. Council.”

Divine Mother ooo—o-’s eyes widened at those words. ”What...?”

”In. The. First. Place... the. Reason. We. Who. Are. Goddesses. Of. War. Even. Deigned. To. Subject. Ourselves. To. It. Despite. Our. Administrative. Power. Is. That. That. Power. Had. Always. Been. Temporal... That. Has. Always. Been. The. Great. Limitation. Of. Our. Power... It. Is. The. Reason. We. Were. Forced. To. Respect. Institutions.”

Her six eyes sharpened.

”But. Once. We. Obtain. Administrative. Impunity... We. Won’t. Have. To. Bow. Down. To. Institutions. Such. As. The. Council... We. Can. Do. Whatever. We. Want... with. Impunity.”

”You...” Divine Mother ooo—o-’s grim voice faltered.

She knew that there was no reasoning with her sisters in the War Faction. They had always yearned to be completely unfettered, much like their sisters in the Federalist Society, which always pushed for cell independence and getting rid of centralized institutions like the central government and the Divine Mother Council.

They had decided to go all out with the one thing that could help them achieve their dreams of war: administrative impunity. The War Faction had judged that this was worth betting everything on.

The Vice Leader of the War Faction looked impatient. She had desperately wanted to partake in the assault upon the Emperor of Water, but the leader of the War Faction had told her to stay in order to stabilize their faction if they failed in their operation. She didn’t want the Pluralists to simply have their way just because that one failure.

Divine Mother ooo—o- ended the call immediately, realizing that there was no point in wasting time negotiating with a muscle-brain warmonger. She immediately contacted her Divine Mother’s allies, urging them to get ready to head to the solar system. Hopefully, if she wasn’t too late, she could provide reinforcements and protect the life of the Emperor of Water and the heart of human civilization.