The Martial Unity

The frigate was extremely well hidden with stealth functions that were even better than those of his daughter's Stellarch. Clearly, Divine Mother ooo—o- didn't want anybody else to find out what she was up to, because it was treason technically.

The frigate was shaped like a three dimensional web, with a structure that resembled the fusion of a sphere and a cylinder, with sections that were cordoned off with strands of a spider web. He could sense the presence of powerful esoteric matter, as well as structural engineering that was very different from the ships of human civilization, but he was more interested in what was inside the spaceship.

It slowed down before stopping when it reached him. Then it opened up a hatch, gesturing an entrance into the ship.

Rui stared at the frigate hatch before heaving a sigh.

It was unwise to enter the spaceship of a force that you weren't sure wasn't hostile to you, but Rui did it anyway, keeping his Realms of power, especially his Martialverse, on edge, ready to lash out if he was ambushed in some manner.

When he entered the spaceship, he found himself face to face with a compartment with two seats.

One was a seat shaped like that of a human chair made from webs, clearly intended to seat him. The other was some sort of hammock that hung from the ceiling and the walls of the entire compartment.

And on it was not a Divine Mother, but rather the projection of one.

She was distinctly older than any of the Divine Mothers that he had fought, her body was larger and even through a holographic projection, he could sense more danger from than from all three Divine Mothers he had defeated.

Her six eyes were calm and collected, even relaxed as they sized him up from head to toe, while her golden fur contained a deep accent of white, signifying her age.

"I was hoping to get to meet you in person," Rui remarked, walking towards his seat, before sitting opposite the projection. "I had the courtesy to come in person, did I not?"

He wasn't surprised when she replied in the common human language with perfect fluency.

"I did not kill three of your kin in ambushes, so I'm afraid you will have to pardon the rudeness, Emperor Rui," she replied with a distinctly human voice.

She had taken the effort of being able to communicate with him in his language precisely because she thought Rui didn't know their language, which was not true, but Rui didn't mind letting her think so. After all, the less the arakai thought that the humans understood, the more of an informational advantage that the humans had against them.

He also didn't want them to ever realize that one of the Divine Mothers they thought was dead was still alive.

"Well, I'm glad you agreed to this meeting, Divine Mother ooo—o-," Rui moved on with an appreciative tone. "The reality was that I was partly expecting an ambush, so I'm glad you're even accepting this meeting."

"You seem rather unmoved for someone who was expecting an ambush from a civilization that is far mightier than your own," she pointed out with a hint of confusion. "The reality is that I considered ambushing you, but ultimately I would like to hear what you have to say first."

Rui smiled. "As I said in the letter, I think we have the basis to form a mutually beneficial relationship."

"What kind of mutually beneficial relationship do you mean, exactly? Your letter didn't go into detail."

"It was too sensitive for me to leave a record of," Rui replied with a more serious tone of voice. "But what I seek from you…"

His ethereal eyes narrowed. "…are the locations of Divine Mothers."

Her expression tightened a little. Although arakai body language didn't adhere to the rules of humans or even the tree of life of Gaia, Rui could tell that she didn't like his answer.

"And why would you like to know that?" she inquired straightforwardly.

"So that I can ambush them and remove them from the equation," Rui calmly replied.

"I take it you're not jesting."

"Nope, dead serious. But I should mention that the Divine Mothers that I seek to kill…" He leaned forward. "Are from the War and Virus factions, respectively."

She stirred at those words, directing a wary gaze at him. "You know more than I expected."

"Yes, I do." Rui nodded. "And I know enough to know that the War and the Virus factions are not only your political opponents, but they're also driving your civilization towards destruction."

"Destruction? You underestimate us. The Arakai Web Civilization is one of the most powerful civilizations in this entire star strand," she spoke with more certainty than he had expected.

"Not immediate destruction, but long-term decline. I know that your civilization is more fragile than you're letting on. That if you Divine Mothers die, then it would hurt you more than if any of the other major civilizations lost their Transcendents," Rui replied. "I know that you believe that war is the worst decision for your civilization at this juncture and that those who keep pushing to embroil all of you in more and more wars are an existential threat to all of you."

"And if you understand how precious Divine Mothers are, then you would know that asking me for the location to find and kill them is something that I cannot do," she spoke with a powerful rejection of his offer. "That would do more damage to our civilization than the wars that they embroil us. If that's all you have to offer, Emperor, then I'm afraid I'm disappointed and will have to end this meeting."

Rui smiled at her.

"I didn't say I would kill the Divine Mothers."

She frowned. "What?"

"I said I would 'remove them from the equation.'"

"I am not a fool, Emperor Rui. My translation software tells me that that is a metaphor for killing them in the common language of your civilization."

"It can mean that, but I don't need to kill them to remove them from the equation. All I need to do is—" He shrugged. "—force them to go all out with their power, and the consequences of the Administrator power would naturally eliminate them from the equation temporarily."

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