Chapter 4017  Reaffirmed Promise

Soon enough, the meeting came to an end. The moment the declaration was made, the Kandrian and the Panamic Alliance led an effort to unify Gaia and come together to form an initial formal declaration of the Gaian Alliance.

A round of negotiations and deliberation led by none other than Minister Ru, the Minister of Harmony, commenced behind closed doors. They began talking about the scope of the alliance, its mandate, and its purpose, as well as haggling about the exact wording of what the charter and the declaration would look like.

They didn't need to create a collectivized international structure just yet; that could wait and take its time, and it certainly would need time. However, as long as they could create a Gaian Alliance with the full support of every polity in the world, then negotiating with the Laminar Civilization would be easier.

That was the goal for the hasty declaration of unification.

A unified civilization was stronger.

A unified civilization could negotiate harder and demand more.

A unified civilization could deter better.

For these reasons, they sought an immediate on-paper unification to bestow a mandate upon Rui to represent all of Gaia when he revisited the laminar world ship.

They were being quiet and minding their own business at the edge of the solar system, sorting their own matters for now, but eventually the laminars would likely make contact with Gaia once more.

For that, unification was deemed necessary not just by Rui but by every power in the world.

While the negotiations intensely progressed behind closed doors, Rui found himself free once more. "Leave it to me," his little sister Ru had told him with a determined expression.

Her determination to achieve harmony within human civilization in pursuit of the unification of Gaia reminded him of their father. Indeed, he, too, would have approved of what Rui was doing. He would have pursued it himself, but unfortunately, the absence of an external threat made it difficult to pull everybody together.

He entrusted the process to her before teleporting away.

He had addressed human civilization.

Now, he needed to address the other stakeholders of Gaia.

WHOOSH

He arrived deep within the depths of the Great Nam Ocean. A world-shattering amount of water pressure crushed down on him from all directions, threatening to crumple his flesh.

RUMBLE

He was surrounded by a near pitch-black darkness while the water roared in his ears. His ethereal eyes bore deep upon a titanic figure looming in the distance.

It was the head of a serpent.

"I̷t̷'̵s̷ ̷b̷e̵e̵n̵ ̷a̵ ̷w̶h̶i̵l̸e̴ ̵s̵i̵n̷c̷e̷ ̷w̴e̵ ̶s̵p̷o̵k̴e̴ ̴f̷a̷c̷e̷ ̸t̶o̸ ̵f̸a̶c̴e̸." Rui's voice shattered through the shackles of reality as his words reverberated through the very fabric of space and time, permeating through present, past, and future.

Jormungandr studied his existence with its serpentine eyes. The serpent found himself pleased with what he saw.

"You have finally broken through to become a Martial Transcendent."

A hint of satisfaction could be detected in its tone of voice. "Excellent. This is exactly what our world requires right now. A new Martial Transcendent. Your continued existence in our reality is even more surprising."

Rui smiled at the serpent's words. "I managed to hack the system a little. But more importantly…"

His eyes sharpened. "I'm sure you heard, but I have discovered the identity of the source of the Fear."

The air, or water, rather, tingled with a hint of peril as they spoke about the Fear that plagued their hearts. Indeed, they both experienced the Fear as it was, and Rui was the first one to truly uncover its source.

"Universalis Mensis."

The voice of the serpent slithered through the waters at the bottom of the Great Nam Ocean. "To think the universe is alive, conscious, and is being infected by a hostile alien virus. Just the thought of it is truly horrifying."

"We need to do everything in our power to fight back and annihilate it," Rui declared with a strong tone of voice. "We cannot allow the alien virus to take control of our universe for whatever it intends to do."

Jormungandr agreed with the goal, but he wasn't sure if there was anything that they could even do with the puny scale of Gaian Civilization. What were they going to do about the entire universe?

"We aren't alone," Rui remarked, reading the serpent's thoughts. "There is a cosmos with powerful alien civilizations. If we are able to create a united front against the virus, we may be able to emerge victorious eventually."

It was hard to imagine what victory would even look like against something this universal and abstract. But that didn't mean that they were willing to give up.

"I need your help in that regard," Rui remarked. "Now that we have the aid of advanced civilizations, it might be possible to extract you from Gaia. However, now that I have become a Transcendent, I believe that there are other paths that can be taken as well."

The serpent's pupils dilated at those words. Finally, the freedom that it sought was within reach. The serpent had spent so many years in a completely stationary position that it wasn't even sure what moving felt like anymore.

It hadn't forgotten the promise that Rui had made to it regarding its personal freedom. That he would one day help free the serpent from its prison within Gaia. And indeed, Rui intended to remain true to his words. Not only would it build more goodwill with an extremely powerful entity, but it would also give them a powerful combat asset in war.

It would increase their bargaining power. "I have a plan, but it will take some time to get the preparations done," Rui told the serpent. "For now, you'll have to stay put for just a little while longer."

"I have been this way for more than a millennium," the serpent remarked. "A little bit more time is hardly untenable."

"Good to hear," Rui nodded, taking off from the depths of the Great Nam Ocean. "I'll be in touch. Goodbye."

WHOOSH

He teleported away from the Great Nam Ocean, teleporting to East Genora this time to Mother Maeria's true body. He found himself hovering above a land of endless green, staring at a titanic tree before him.