The Martial Unity

Chapter 3665: Unexpected Hurdles

The difference in the contribution of the constituents of the Panamic Alliance was starkly noticeable within a matter of days; the various fronts of the battlefield grew increasingly reinforced by a larger and larger number of Martial Artists from across the continent. The Panamic Alliance took steps to ensure that they could squeeze out the full power of the Martial Artists of human civilization, as Prime Minister Edward managed to rally the others into instating incentive structures.

The largest difference, of course, was the sudden flush of Martial Sages and Martial Masters from across the entire continent that had decided to partake in the new war. The various war fronts grew more solid on the Panamic end as the Martial Artists that were added to the triple shift that maintained the war effort were able to relieve pressure from their peers, stabilizing the situation and preventing their enemies from making too many gains.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

Transentia gritted her teeth as she found herself facing off against none other than Bodhisattva Maitreyi and Matriarch Nephi combined. The two of them worked together to keep the female ascendant tekvore in check. Ordinarily, the former alone would have been enough to deal with tekvores of this caliber, but Transentia herself was not alone.

[Light beam incoming from your right in three milliseconds. (_)]

Transentia sharpened her crystalline eyes as she swiftly summersaulted away, evading a lethal attack from Bodhisattva Maitreyi, before continuing her battle.

If not for the continuous supply of predictions from NOVA, Transentia would have never been able to survive against such a powerful duo. On the other hand, it was precisely because NOVA’s assistance was so powerful that Bodhisattva Maitreyi needed the help of Matriarch Nephi. The latter had prophecy, which she could pass on to those around her through her Martial Embodiment, allowing Bodhisattva Maitreyi to counter the advantage that NOVA gave Transentia.

This, along with the information that she had gotten from her daughter regarding the methods by which Transentia could be defeated, was enough for her to pressure the female tekvore.

It wasn’t just Transentia, however.

The entire battlefield, previously in favor of Greater Tekvoria, had managed to stabilize thanks to the rest of the Panama Continent pulling its weight to the fullest extent.

[This development has exceeded my expectations. It appears that the Emperor of Harmony is not the only shrewd leader in the Panamic Alliance.]

It was to be expected that she did not have that deep an understanding of the internal political dynamics of the Panamic Alliance, especially since all of the tekvores she had managed to remotely hack had been captured before they could learn truly crucial intelligence.

Still, she hadn’t expected such a diverse continent to be able to rally so well to defend just one nation, the decline from which they stood to see some gain. It appeared that there were parties who understood her strategy and had managed to implement some strategy that was designed to counter hers, which was to rely on the projected internal division that the Panama Continent was bound to have.

It was the second-most diverse continent in the true world, second only to the Continent of Kiriket, which was also rapidly mobilizing under the leadership of Lord Vakratunda, who was consolidating his power within the continent after the death of Lord Shenlong.

Seeing two of her enemies rapidly unify was not pleasant to NOVA; however, they weren’t the true thorn in her side.

The true problem was the fact that the Emperor of Harmony had managed to forge ally after ally, like stealing candy from a baby. NOVA had truly put up the best diplomatic war that she could, and she certainly had done an extremely good job herself. But she had lost more often than she had expected.

The Emperor of Harmony displayed a truly erudite ability to construct relationships with other nations, going far to honor them and earn their appreciation. She learned, through other channels, that he even went as far as to pay them respects in their own language and culture, which was something that even she hadn’t thought to do.

Of course, she could easily replicate that because she was a supercomputer. Learning new languages was effortless. Culture was a bit more complicated since it was difficult to measure, but she could do that as well. But she discovered that it simply didn’t have the same effect.

In other words, there was more to it than just the gesture. The Emperor of Harmony was doing the equivalent of snake-charming for heads of state and civilization.

He had managed to win over the sentinels to his side in just the span of days, even if she had lured the skinwalkers over to her side, creating yet another battlefront. His success in forging allies was one of the reasons that her plan to storm the Kandrian Empire and quickly overwhelm them, which would force them to pull back their army of sea monsters, had failed partly because the Emperor of Harmony weaved together alliances at a rate that exceeded her expectations.

Even if she was better at maneuvering, understanding the polities of the true world that she had known for a longer time, and had greater intelligence, in both meanings of the word, she was not able to gain much of an advantage against him.

Part of it was that she underestimated how many people were wary of her because of her nature as a quantum supercomputer. People simply couldn’t bring themselves to trust an inhuman, cold computing device.

Then there was also the fact that she had already displayed a level of tyranny that was perhaps unprecedented in the true world. While there were plenty of people who sought to rule their races and civilizations with an iron fist, none of them achieved it. Most gave up because it was simply implausible.

Perhaps the closest to achieving this was the Dragon Emperor himself, but even he had failed to achieve the kind of complete control over the therianthropes that NOVA had achieved.