Chapter 4638: The Path Forward

Of course, it wasn’t as though all one hundred would invade immediately. They weren’t united and were divided between factions. But the War Faction clearly had dozens who would bear a tremendous grudge against Gaian Transcendents for killing the Web Conqueror, their leader.

Dozens were still too many. Rui didn’t know how much time it would take for all of them to master the technique and make vessels for themselves, but once that was done and they made the decision to invade, it was over. It would be the beginning of the end for human civilization.

There were two variables, however, that came to mind that could impede the invading force.

The first was the Pluralist Faction and the other factions of the arakai. He and his friends had managed to kill the leader of the War Faction and had taken out five other high-tier Divine Mothers. With them gone, the War Faction was undoubtedly crippled, politically speaking. He was certain that ooo—o-, the leader of the Pluralist Faction would exploit this situation to gain a firm advantage against the War Faction.

Then there were the dessandrites and the aquadites. These two civilizations could indeed pressure the arakai enough for even the War Faction to delay the destruction of human civilization.

However, Transcendents could only really be pressured by Transcendents. There were exceptions to the rule, but generally, an Administrator could only be kept in check by another Administrator.

Unless the dessandrites and aquadites were willing to fully commit their own Administrators to battle, there was no way they would be able to keep the enraged War-Faction Divine Mothers in check.

And they wouldn’t be willing to commit their Administrators to war unless...

"...unless they can overcome the price of the Verse," Rui spoke with a grim but certain voice.

It was only logical. If Transcendents disappeared every time they fought, then civilizations would hoard and protect them like fragile vases. But if they could remain, only then would civilizations be willing to use them more proactively.

If Rui wanted these civilizations to commit Administrators, then he had no choice.

"I’ll have to share with the dessandrites and the aquadites the method to Transcendent impunity."

His words stunned his peers, who stared at him with an incredulous expression.

"Are you sure about that? You’ll be weakening us relative to other Transcendents!" Argenton gritted his teeth.

He was already at the very bottom of the totem pole; he knew that if Transcendent impunity became ubiquitous in their interstellar neighborhood, then he would be even more vulnerable. The tekvore’s pride had been extremely bruised in the recent battle. It was frustrating because he had just regained self-confidence as a pathwalker after breaking through to Transcendence, and now it had been shattered once more.

"We have no choice," Dwight had already made peace with the decision. He had already understood Rui’s line of thinking.

The arakai were too dangerous if they were the only other party who possessed Transcendent impunity. But if the dessandrites and the aquadites also gained Transcendent impunity, then the balance of power would return.

’...We approve... as well...’ the quiet whispers of the Transcendent Mother echoed through their minds.

Amare nodded. She seemed calmer than the others when it came to the crisis of the arakai achieving Transcendent impunity. Rui felt a strange relief in her despite the crisis. She had the attitude of someone who had managed to save their child from a fire, but had suffered a few burns in the process. The burns were painful, but it was a price that she was completely fine with.

Rui found her attitude to be strange. As expected, she had experienced things that gave her a different perspective on everything that had unfolded since her intervention.

"Amare, are you able to..." His voice trailed off. Her abilities were so shocking that he didn’t even want to say it loud.

She turned towards him with a knowing expression, her amber eyes filled with a deep sense of regret. She knew what he was asking her. He was asking her if she could go back in time to undo what had happened. Perhaps stop the pulse of information from reaching Arakai Web Civilization.

She shook her head. "I don’t have the power to do that, at least not by myself."

Her words were strange. Didn’t she travel back in time by herself? Even now, he could sense the ’current’ Amare inside the manifold, meditating in some profoundly deep mind-body meditative training, who had yet to break through to Transcendence.

The Amare in front of him was older. There was no question to him that she was from the future. And she had arrived by herself.

How did she do that?

More importantly, why had she done that?

When people time traveled, it was to change the past. Not that this ever actually happened, but the most common motivation in fiction was to change the past, rather than something as banal as sight-seeing.

What had she come to change in the past, if not to prevent the arakai learning the secret of Transcendent impunity? Why was this outcome, which was hellish as far as he was concerned, better than whatever she had come to prevent?

’What would the battle have looked like if she didn’t intervene?’

That was a good place to start. Before she intervened, the Divine Mothers had captured Argenton and had extracted the secret from his mind, and Rui was on the very verge of activating Gigabrain—

"Oh." His ethereal eyes widened.

He turned towards her with a stunned expression. "You..."

Her expression grew serious. "I don’t have much time left, Rui. We need to talk... alone."

She had promised that she would tell him everything when the battle ended. Her Verse was still active, but its consumption of her metaphysical stamina was minimized to the very limit to increase her stamina. Rui quickly ended the meeting as each of the Transcendents participating in it dispersed, gathering their own thoughts on what needed to be done from this point forth.

Rui and Amare, however, returned home.