Chapter 4648: An Unnatural Existence

Rui groaned as he realized that the brilliant tactic at the time was coming back to bite him after the battle was over. It appeared that even on the verge of death, the Mindstitch had been careful enough not to forget any information. The Divine Mother was too damned careful to possibly forget something that important.

Soon, the Arakai Web Civilization would learn that the Emperor of Water had captured one of their leaders and sisters this entire time. He could tell that even the Divine Mother seated before him wasn’t very pleased by this revelation, though she stayed her recriminations.

In his defense, he had absolutely no idea what kind of a powerhouse of a civilization he had been dealing with until after he skimmed o-o-o-o’s memories. But by then, he had obviously already captured her.

"You will have to return her, alive and able," Divine Mother ooo—o- insisted. "If you do not want this to turn into the reason that all Divine Mothers decide to attack the humans. Do you understand how humiliating it is for one of our sisters to be kept as your object or possession? Don’t even bother trying to avoid this, if you still wish for your civilization to survive. Killing Divine Mothers in battle is one thing; capturing and imprisoning them as an object of your possession is something else entirely."

Rui’s expression grew severe. In truth, he had absolutely no problem with returning the Divine Mother if it would protect his civilization, except for one tiny issue.

The Divine Mother knew Ria’s secret.

She knew that Ria was the Key.

That meant that if he returned her alive and well, the arakai would learn this secret as well. And once they did, his daughter was in a ton of danger.

That was unacceptable.

He would rather wage war with the arakai than allow Ria to become the most wanted individual in the entire star strand or the entire galaxy.

His mind surged as he searched for a solution. A solution where he could return her and Ria be safe nonetheless. The only thing that came to mind, unfortunately, was erasing her memories.

However, in order to erase her memories, he would have to prepare a vessel for her to transfer her consciousness to first, because her body was on the verge of disappearing. Only the Transcendent esoteric substance prevented the deactivation of her Webverse, even if it was functionally inactive because of being frozen in time.

He would need to find a way to subtly erase her memories without leaving even the slightest trace of them, otherwise the arakai would definitely grow suspicious. He would probably need to entail the help of the Psyker, just to be sure. But the stakes were too high for him to be certain even with that.

He also considered lying. Saying that he had already killed her before the battle, and that the data that he had shown the Divine Mothers was something he had acquired before she had died.

Unfortunately, they would not believe him. And if they didn’t believe him, then they would move to a more violent solution, which was what he was trying to avoid in the first place.

"Fine," he heaved a deep breath. "I’ll return her, but only in exchange for an official pact of peace and other concessions. I’m not just going to hand her for free."

Divine Mother ooo—o- nodded in an amenable manner. "We can accommodate that. The details can be negotiated later. I’m more interested in finalizing a deal for Administrative impunity. The vice-leader of the War Faction is even more belligerent than the leader. I can assure that the second that every Divine Mother in that faction has mastered the method for Administrative impunity, they will attack. You have done a shockingly incredible job killing six high-tier Divine Mothers with your many trump cards, but can you handle dozens of Divine Mothers?"

Rui shook his head. "Not without self-destructive solutions, no."

"Then I would advise you to try and convert your temporary leverage of Administrative impunity into something that can protect you from the arakai."

"That was why I requested for a civil war."

"That was an absurd demand, and you know it. There are other ways to convert Administrative impunity into security."

"Such as?"

"Offering it to us in exchange for a mutual security pact," the Divine Mother replied calmly. "We will defend you if the War Faction chooses to attack you."

"Then isn’t that the same as a civil war?" Rui raised an eyebrow.

"The War Faction will not attack if you sign this pact," Divine Mother ooo—o- replied.

Rui’s eyes sharpened. "And I’m just supposed to believe that the involved Divine Mothers will faithfully to words on a piece of paper? Do you think I’m stupid?"

The Orion Community was connected, but not centralized. There was no major authority to enforce pacts and contracts. This was also true for the international community within human civilization. States routinely violated agreements, causing it to collapse. The Gaian Alliance had several core duties, but enforcing private agreements between states was not one of them.

There was no way Rui was willing to simply give away Transcendent impunity for a piece of paper with words on it.

Divine Mother ooo—o- understood his compunctions, of course. "Many cells in our civilization have an extremely credible track record of adhering to our pacts."

"Do those pacts include pacts to fight their own kin, should the need arise?"

"...No."

"Then I don’t care about tracker record or reputation," Rui retorted.

In truth, he didn’t care about such things even in general when it came to interstellar engagements. He needed more concrete things in return.

"...Then, what about hard returns?" Divine Mother ooo—o- raised an eyebrow. "We can offer you large sums of esoteric matter and high technology such as the process of creating prothanite and stably accessing higher dimensions."

It appeared that she wasn’t up to date on the cutting edge of hyperdimensional research in human civilization. The best research teams inside the manifold had already begun to crack the boundary between dimensions, and their progress with some input from Rui and Dwight had been very encouraging.

As for esoteric matter, they didn’t need it. They had a trump card whose name was Ria. The thought of how his daughter helped human civilization caused a proud smile to emerge on his face for just a moment.

"We don’t need either," he told her with a shrug. "What else do you have to offer?"

The Divine Mother seemed surprised that he rejected esoteric matter and technology, but fell into thought for a moment. She seemed to debating with herself on a decision, before quickly making up her mind. Her expression grew serious and intense, signifying the importance of what she was about to disclose.

"...If agreements, resources, and technology are not enough, then what if I share with you the method to create an Administrator?"

Rui’s ethereal eyes flew wide open. "...What?"

The Divine Mother smiled.

"Did you truly believe that Divine Mothers are natural existences?"