The Martial Unity

Arastia stared at the Divine Mother in the frozen crystal with widened eyes. "…You preserved her corpse?"

"Corpse? Not quite." Rui walked around the crystal, studying intently with his ethereal eyes. "She's alive. Even if barely."

"What?!" Arastia turned towards the homoarachnoid frozen within the crystal. "She can survive under these conditions?!"

"It's Time Frost, an esoteric substance that can freeze time for anything it covers," Rui told her in a matter-of-fact tone. "She's a moment away from death, frozen in time."

Immediately, Arastia grew on edge at that explanation, feeling her nervousness rise. Her nerves began tingling with a faint hint of danger and uncertainty as she peered into the eyes of the Divine Mother within the Time Frost, trying to detect life from within her.

"Can that thing really hold her if she's alive?" She couldn't help but ask with a hint of wariness. "I mean, she's a Transcendent, right? Aren't Transcendents beyond the laws of physics?"

"In order to get out, she would have to deploy her Webverse," Rui explained. "In order to deploy her Webverse, she would have to deploy her consciousness. Which—"

He gestured to the crystal. "—she is unable to do. I froze her when she was on the verge of death, and she wasn't able to use her Webverse to resist the Time Frost. Once caught in it, there's no chance for her to escape."

Arastia managed to relax a little at the explanation; it seemed sound enough. Not to mention, she ultimately did trust Rui to handle the matter. He wouldn't be so relaxed if there was a realistic chance that she could escape from the crystal.

Instead, she shifted her attention towards Rui. The Transcendent seemed remarkably intent in his inspections into the Divine Mother. His translucent eyes bore deeply into the crystal, almost like they were laser beams honing in on a target.

His attire was that of an old-school Martial Art gi, one with several layers of fabric, with the crest of the Kandrian Empire, the Water Sect, and the Gaian Alliance embroidered on the chest of the fabric.

He walked around the crystal in slow circles, his gaze shifting all across the Divine Mother's frozen body.

"Gathering intelligence?" Arastia raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't be able to gather much with that crystal in the way and the body being frozen in time, right?"

She tried penetrating the crystal with her senses, but she couldn't so much peer into it. Except for the light that somehow reflected upon her body and emerged back, no energy or information seemed to be able to come in and out of the crystal.

"Information dimension," Rui replied in a composed manner, leaning against the wall of the laboratory with folded arms, never once taking his eyes off the frozen homoararchnoid. "Gives me all I need. I can conduct an absolute forensic analysis on her biology. I can even study her mind and her memories just by studying the frozen signals in her web brain."

Arastia's blood-red eyes lit up at those words. If that was true, then it meant that they had a source of extremely high-quality intel on their soon-to-be enemies. She had been worried that they would likely be at a disadvantage in the information war, but with this, they could very easily secure a powerful advantage.

"Don't get your hopes far too high, though," Rui replied. "Her mind is so extraordinarily vast that it will take even me a long time to untangle every bit of it. Still, I do believe that I will come across very useful information with just a little bit of analysis."

He turned towards her once more. "Now then, what can I do for you, dear sister?"

She turned towards him with a serious expression. "I came to make a report to you personally on all the events that transpired."

She transmitted a file to him with her neural inlay. Even though he didn't have such a device implanted into him, he simply nodded, receiving the data with his senses and his mind. "I am aware of everything that has transpired, but this is useful nonetheless."

"And the Blood Cult?" She raised her eyebrow. "They have betrayed the one commandment of human civilization, which is loyalty to humanity. I may have survived their assault. But only because I was strong enough."

"The Gaian Alliance has received the evidence that you have shared about the betrayal of the Blood Cult," Rui replied with a composed expression. "The Commission of Justice will file a case in the Interstellar Court of Justice tomorrow charging the Blood Cult of Treason against Humanity."

She frowned. "Are you really going to follow due process for this? They tried to kill me, you know. In order to seize the throne of the Kandrian Empire. Your throne."

An amused smile cracked at the edge of Rui's mouth. "Yeah, it's funny, isn't it?"

"No, it's not," Arastia drew closer, glaring at her elder brother. "I have been fighting against them every day for the past thirteen years. They have crossed the line, and they deserve to face the consequences."

"And they will," Rui remarked reassuringly. "Tomorrow, I will exercise my Chancellor's Authority to force the court to grant an expedited trial to the prosecution in the interest of human civilization. With the evidence at hand, the bench will rule prima facie that the severity of the crime and the threat it poses to human civilization is so great that it will grant a whole slew of preliminary injunctions, including an injunction on the motion of any and all goods, services, and people from any location to any other."

He directed a pointed gaze at her. "The Blood Cult will be frozen solid. Unable to move. Then, because they are irrational cultists, they will undoubtedly violate these injunctions. That on top of the expedited trial, and within a month, the court will rule them guilty and…"

He shrugged.

"It's game over. As the aggrieved party, your Blood Humanist Society will be granted the opportunity to absorb the resources of the Blood Cult and use them to grow stronger. We get rid of the 'threat' and human civilization grows stronger for it."