Chapter 4645: What Needs To Be Done

He got up as he sensed the birth of two new Martialverses, looking in the direction of the manifold, through the very fabric of space and time. He saw two Amares. One seated in a meditative posture, her expression vibrant while her eyes were filled with light.

The other Amare had a darker expression and lackluster pupils, with darker bags beneath her eyes. Her hands were placed on the sides of the head of her current self. The two of them gazed at each other deeply before the latter began to fade, erasing her consciousness before she disappeared.

"I leave the future to you," she whispered, before ceasing to exist forever.

WHOOSH...

She was gone.

The current Amare wore a shocked, yet enlightened expression. Her eyes were joyful, yet also grim. Everything that her future self had thrust upon her had been so utterly stunning that she struggled to even process it.

Her future self had appeared in front of her, sharing her memories of a prevented future while also sharing with her the needed phenomenological uniformity to become Transcendence. Because they were almost absolutely identical, the transfer worked seamlessly; it appeared, leading to her breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm, twice.

WHOOSH

Rui teleported before her, bypassing the manifold through higher dimensions, without needing his Verse.

STEP

He stood before the Amare of the current era as the two locked eyes for the first time in a while. For Rui, it had been months, but for Amare it had been years. Rui’s ethereal eyes bore deep into hers as he searched for what kind of state of mind she was in.

"You’re worried I might not love you anymore," she judged accurately. Yet, her amber eyes were soft, and her expression was gentle, unlike her future self. There wasn’t the tint of fear or resentment that he sensed in her future self.

"...I am." He said despite his calm tone, sensing that even though she had inherited her future self’s memories, she had not inherited her emotions.

She had not lived through those memories the way her future self had. It was the difference between watching a documentary about war and actually partaking in it. Nobody got PTSD from watching the former.

It didn’t appear that she had mentally lived through those memories the way he did with Anthea’s memories when he absorbed Anthean physiology, either. Perhaps future Amare had taken mercy on him and had simply transferred the memories directly rather than phenomenologically.

She heaved a deep breath before pulling him into a hug. He could feel her care and affection in the warmth and softness.

"...My future self came to the past to prevent just that," she replied, tightening the grip of her arms around him. "I love you for helping that happen. It would not have been possible if the alternate you didn’t do your very best to send me to the past."

"...I think you’re quite generous to a man who destroyed human civilization in an erased future," Rui remarked quietly.

She smiled at him. "...He has his flaws, but he did his best."

Rui stared at her before pulling her deeper into an embrace.

"Thank you... and congratulations on your breakthrough."

Amare beamed at his words, clearly still riding the euphoric high from becoming Transcendent. And he couldn’t blame her for that. The power of Transcendence was the most euphoric and addictive power in the entire world.

He was happy that she got to enjoy it, for her future self didn’t have the basic right. She had broken through in the greatest catastrophe of her life; his Gigabrain self’s adaptive evolution rampage. There was no joy to be had.

This time, though, there was some cause for celebration. They had averted a horrible future and had preserved the foundation of their lives.

Still, that didn’t mean that they were out of the woods just yet.

"The arakai will attack if we do nothing."

Her expression grew serious.

Rui nodded, his thoughts coming back to the issues at hand. It was enough thinking about all of the exciting insights that he had gotten from her future self’s return to the past. It had been less than an hour since the arakai had undoubtedly gotten their hands on the method for Transcendent impunity.

He didn’t know how much time they had, but he suspected that they would need to adapt Argenton’s knowledge to their own circumstances. After all, the method was universal for humans because they were all of the same genus, but arakai belonged to a different tree of life entirely. They would need to spend some time customizing the method to their needs.

He didn’t know how long that would take. It could be anywhere between hours and days, maybe even weeks, but whenever they were done, he was confident that the War Faction would go on a war footing.

That was why he needed to act soon. The preparations for the inevitable needed to be made immediately.

"It’s time to speak with Divine Mother ooo—o- once more," he remarked with a knowing expression. "Tsk... it turns out she was right after all. I would indeed offer the method to Transcendent impunity to her."

The Divine Mother was a firm believer in mutually beneficial relationships. She believed that her faction would either get the secret sooner or for a much lower price than the other factions because of a rational win-win situation.

The only question was whether the Mindstitch had shared the knowledge with all Divine Mothers or her own faction. Considering that the leader of the pluralist faction didn’t know about the attack to warn him ahead of time, it was likely that she hadn’t gotten the message. The War Faction hated the Pluralist Faction, so he highly doubted that the Mindstitch would share it with them willingly.

If she already had acquired the secret somehow during transit... then he had already lost a lot of leverage. But if she didn’t know it, then... there was room for cooperation. Right now, he needed to use all his power to prevent his civilization from being overrun by dozens of angry Divine Mothers who were completely unshackled.