The Martial Unity

Chapter 3599: Moving Dwarves

While the Emperor of Harmony made overtures with his old archenemy to harness his capabilities for the sake of the survival of human civilization, the true world had its own considerations over this historic moment. Despite the tremendous deterrence that NOVA created with her belligerent attack against the Kandrian Empire, many nations were still desperately eager to sign a military defense treaty with the Panamic Alliance to get their hands on negatron matter.

”We should accept this defense treaty, Your Majesty.”

In a small room no more than a few feet tall, several short and stout individuals gathered in a conference room, seated around a long table. The men stroked their long, flowing beards while the women twirled their thick hair.

The conference room was rather archaic, illuminated by fire rather than even elementary lighting technology.

The Bournvyrne Empire regarded the fire element as the source of their power and the source of creation, and thus honored it by having it serve as the source of their light, using it wherever they could.

Including illuminating a highly important meeting among the ruling regime of the Bournvyrne Empire.

The dwarves of the Bournvyrne Empire were split on the decision that they needed to make upon the offer of the Emperor of Harmony. They were desperately eager for the negatron matter offer after their forces had been routed by the tremendous army of sea monsters. The sheer power of the monsters and beasts of the Great Nam Ocean at the greatest depths of the ocean proved to be too much even for dwarven submarine artifacts.

A part of their competitive side had wanted to continue challenging the sea monsters with newer and newer models and designs just to prove that there was no challenge that their engineering and their artifacts couldn’t overcome.

However, the more pragmatic side of them had previously realized that the power gap was simply too great. Even if the dwarves had eventually managed to overcome the sea monsters of the Great Nam Ocean, it would take a lot of time, years at the very least, and the Panamic Civilization would have long extracted immense amounts of negatron matter and have already made a leap to the stars.

That was not an acceptable outcome.

That was why they had considered war against the Panamic Alliance by mounting an attack on the Panama Continent via sea. That was until the Emperor of Harmony held his press conference and revealed a list of candidates who were eligible to gain access to a large chunk of land at the bottom of the Great Void Ocean in exchange for essentially protecting the Panama Continent with all their power.

Many dwarves were inclined to accept this arrangement.

”We can’t allow any opportunity to get our hands on negatron matter, Your Majesty.” One older dwarf exclaimed with an urgent tone, gazing at the elderly emperor with an intense expression. ”Negatron matter is the key to the universe and will singlehandedly decide the winners and the losers of the future. It should be our highest priority, and thus accepting the offer of the Emperor of Harmony is the choice that we should make!”

”Nonsense,” another dwarf snapped, glaring at him. ”They attacked us, and now we just sign a defensive treaty with them? Have you heard of something that absurd? It doesn’t track with any reality whatsoever! We dwarves have spent much of our time in this world as a species struggling to protect ourselves from those who attacked us. It has not been easy deterring the world with our incredible works and creations; it has taken a long, long time to establish a powerful deterrence to those who look at our weak, diminutive bodies and simply scoff at our weakness.”

BANG

He slammed his fist on the table. ”And now we have been attacked by the Panamic Alliance, and you just want to let that slide?! If you do that, you will destroy any deterrence that other civilizations have towards us! The giants will turn their attention in our direction once more, while the Evolutionary Army might reconsider reigniting their conquest of our territory. NOVA herself might regard us as weak and try to seize control of our civilization the way she seized control of Acherialis!”

”Hea,r hear!”

”Indeed, he speaks wisely!”

Many dwarves nervously agreed with him, although there were plenty who also disagreed.

”That is the most absurd fear-mongering I have ever heard,” a dwarven woman snorted with a hint of derision. ”The world will regard us as weak if we agree to this offer from the Emperor of Harmony? Nonsense, the world has not forgotten that we have God’s Hammer. We have the most powerful energy technology in all of Gaian civilization. We are the most technologically advanced and the most intelligent species in existence. What we lack in innate combat prowess, we make up for with our capacity to create powerful creations and use them to protect ourselves and to overcome everybody around us!”

Another wave of agreements emerged at those words.

”Not to mention,” a distinct leader of another set of dwarves at the table added. ”They have agreed to make concessions and have acknowledged the harm that they have inflicted upon us. If they refused to do that, then I would have more sympathy for the Imperialist position, but given that they have done that, I see no reason to reject their offer and get our hands on plenty of negatron matter.”

It was a more pragmatic position that resonated the most with most dwarves in the room. The debate ensued for quite some time as the various distinct factions and sub-factions of the Bournvyrne Empire tried their best to poke holes into each other’s arguments and positions.

And yet, they knew that the decision was not up to them.

They merely served as counsel to the one who would make a decision.

They turned their attention to the elderly man who sat at the head of the table with closed eyes and steepled fingers.

As if sensing the attention converging on him, the old emperor opened his elderly eyes.

”I have made a decision.”

That day, the Bournvyrne Empire announced its acceptance of the proposal of the Emperor of Harmony.