The Martial Unity

"We still have our world bridges on standby to deploy warships from afar, but they will not be as comprehensive as if we had a proper defensive perimeter and battle lines set up in advance," Deputy Commander Wiles offered. "The world bridges of human civilization can only transfer a small part of the total astro-naval power of human civilization. It will likely not be enough to prevent the complete conquest of Arima III System."

"If she does fail, it will be after the ships have already committed to the invasion through the Arima III System," Edward remarked knowingly. "Beyond that point, there is no threat of them shifting targets because they have committed. Which means we can freely deploy human civilization's naval and pathwalker power to the star system without fearing that they might go elsewhere. As long as we are prepared enough, her potential failure will only lead to the destruction of the Arima III star system. Though that is bound to happen no matter what."

Nobody felt bad about condemning the Arima III System to great damage if not complete destruction. It would become a war zone no matter what. And war zones had but one fate no matter which side one was on: complete destruction.

Rui was not under the delusion that they could fight this war without undertaking great damage to a certain amount of territory. He and others in the central command operated with the goal of minimizing the amount of territory damaged rather than preventing it.

"Of course, there is one way we can prevent any damage at all," Edward remarked aloud with a pointed tone, before explicitly pointing towards Rui.

"You have the power to crush this invasion yourself," the man remarked knowingly. "You are a Martial Transcendent; I understand what that means more than most. You can crush the invading force yourself, could you not?"

The other members of the central command turned towards Rui with eying gazes. He had merely voiced what all of them knew. The Emperor of Water was enough to take on the invading force himself, if he really wanted to. He could probably prevent even a single person from dying.

They merely didn't bring it up, because none of them were crazy enough to command the Emperor of what to do.

The air shifted as Rui was put on the spot by a brazen Edward. He understood what the man was doing; he was forcing a confrontation to clear the air on the elephant in the room. If Rui didn't give a satisfactory answer, it would affect morale.

"If I go all out at the very start of the war, it would avert the invasion, but it would escalate the war to the most dangerous phase of the conflict," Rui began with a serious tone of voice. "It would escalate the conflict to the highest level. It would escalate the conflict to a battle between myself and the Divine Mothers. If I wage war so aggressively, the Divine Mothers will have no choice but to intervene, even if they know that their intervention will cause them to disappear. So ask yourself…"

He leaned forward. "If they intervene knowing that they have one shot, would they intervene with only one or two Divine Mothers knowing that I have killed two Divine Mothers at once in the past?"

The others realized what he was hinting at.

"No, if they decide to personally intervene, they will send at least five, maybe even ten Divine Mothers to gang up on me," Rui remarked with a serious expression. "As strong as I am, I don't think I can fight ten Divine Mothers at once."

The reason they weren't immediately jumping to that option was precisely because of the fact that there was a price to be paid for Transcendence. In other words, Rui merely needed to make it not worth it.

Of course, he also was quite confident that the Divine Mothers were plotting to attack him anyway. There was no way they didn't have something in mind. After all, the ability to overcome the price of the Transcendent Realm was simply too juicy. How could anyone possibly resist it?

The risks were high. If they failed, they would disappear for nothing or worse; get killed. That was why they wouldn't rashly jump in to hunt him, especially when they knew he was responsible for the death of three of their sisters.

"Do not forget what the goal is," Rui remarked. "The goal is to get the arakai to back off. We do that by making war unsustainable. And I am pursuing diplomatic and strategic measures to accomplish this goal."

That was the whole point of his deal with Divine Mother ooo—o-. Establish a trade deal so that there was a 'web of trade' between human civilization and the Pluralist Faction so that she could trade information without it being treason. Then, using information from her, Rui could find and kill the Divine Mothers of the War Faction.

Once the Divine Mothers of the War Faction were reduced to an extent, the Divine Mother Council would vote increasingly against war, increasingly against expanding it, and eventually to end it.

That was the path to victory that Rui was charting.

It sucked that there was no chance of truly 'defeating' their enemy in the sense of a conventional dominant victory, but one played with the cards one was dealt.

"We understand, Your Majesty; it is indeed better if you don't immediately go out guns blazing," one analyst agreed.

"We can't have the Divine Mothers personally participating."

"It is wise of you to withhold your power, even if it feels like you yourself can solve the hello problem."

With the council on board, Rui nodded. "Immediately begin implementing this plan. Send me regular updates."

He got up, teleporting away to tend to the many other matters he was busy with. The Central Human Command had received approval to go ahead with the plan, and they did. A little under ten days were left before the invasion commenced, and human civilization had no intention of losing.

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