Chapter 3504: Changing World
The Continent of Kiriket broke out into a full-scale civil war as the forces of the War Coalition struggled to break free from the shackles that the Harmonist Faction had prepared for them. The Harmonist Faction had more therianthropes who were prepared for battle from the very moment the conflict incepted, while the warriors of the War Coalition were caught completely off-guard, forced to scramble from whatever they were involved in, desperately trying to reach their beasts in time.
The Harmonist Faction had more beast tanks, siege weapons, and aerial forces that were already active, having waited for the right moment to strike, allowing them to gain an advantage to neutralize the greater power that their enemies had in totality.
Perhaps the only saving grace was that the conflict was kept out of population bases, ensuring minimal civilian casualties. The forces of the War Coalition moved north, trying to head towards the epicenter of the Great Void Ocean, while the forces of the Harmonist Faction relentlessly attacked and intercepted each and every attempt to head to the Great Void Ocean. The Harmonist Faction had focused all its resources on stopping powerful assets rather than trying to stop every single therianthrope or bogey that escaped the continent.
The fact of the matter was that the battle between the Dawnbringer and the Dragon Emperor was so powerful and in such extreme environments that only the most powerful therianthropes could possibly hope to intervene in any meaningful way. That was why Lord Vakratunda focused all his attention on Lord Narsimha and the other converged beasts, for they could fight at a level that could threaten the Dawnbringer, who was undoubtedly preoccupied with dealing with the Dragon Emperor.
Thus, a conflagration of conflict spread throughout the continent as various clans and forces within the continent began pushing for their own side.
The world watched as Kiriket grew embroiled in a civil war that seemed to come out of nowhere. The many powers in the world watched with shock as a continent that was peaceful just a day prior grew to be rapidly consumed by a civil war between two factions.
It was incredibly unusual for a civil war to escalate out of a single event such as this within such a short period. It was not really possible unless one side actively sought a conflict or did something knowing that a conflict was inevitable.
What had shaken them even more were the tsunamis and the hints of irradiated waters emerging from the Great Void Ocean, threatening to ravage their coasts and land, along with their people. It didn’t take too long for many parties in the true world to realize that the sparking civil war was directly correlated with the not-so-natural disasters that emerged from the Great Void Ocean in the distance.
Their satellite systems were able to detect the radioactive signature of the Dragon Emperor, creating a ruckus deep within the ocean. What they couldn’t understand, however, was what the hell he was doing in the depths of the ocean that was causing such a maelstrom of energy to course through the waters of the world.
Rui’s raw energy output was nowhere near that of the Dragon Emperor, leaving him undetectable to outer space satellite systems. From the perspective of other nations around the world, it was as though the Dragon Emperor was singlehandedly fighting all by himself, creating a mess all by himself.
The biggest hint of suspicion was that the question of how the Dragon Emperor even got to the Great Void Ocean. It was well known that the Dragon Emperor shunned teleportation and had permanent space anchors on him that prevented the technology from even working on him.
He couldn’t have gotten to the ocean through a simple fight; his energy signature was too loud, and he made too much noise while traveling anywhere, even if it was within the Continent of Kiriket.
This fact, along with the fact that he was clearly in a struggle while the War Coalition was trying to reach him and the Harmonist Faction was trying to stop them, indicated that he had been teleported against his will.
That was, of course, terrifying. It meant that somebody had cracked space anchor technology, and teleportation was now a real threat to the stability and order once more.
This single realization caused a lot of changes.
Leaders and people of power, the world began tightening their personal security, increasing surveillance, while making plans to upgrade their satellite systems to gain more information on this new technology. Many of them remembered that just a century ago, before space anchor technology was invented and widespread, the sheer chaos that teleportation technology, in the context of offensive military operations, had caused.
Not a single person wished to return to that era of uncertainty and the paranoia of being ambushed by a teleported assassin. The dwarves, in particular, immediately commenced a new research project to strengthen space anchor technology.
They were most weak to teleportation, for they had no personal power outside of the great big machines that protected them. The sheer national security threat that teleportation, which could bypass space anchors, represented to them was much greater than it was for any other race in the true world.
Perhaps the only leader that was not deterred by this development was the Emperor of Harmony of human civilization, since he knew that they were the ones who had a grasp on this technology.
To him, this represented a strategic advantage that would not only give them a leg up into interstellar space but also allow them to take down enemies with much greater ease and secure the survival and future of human civilization.
Of course, this only worked if Rui defeated and killed the Dragon Emperor and returned alive so that he could fully transcribe the technology from his Martial Art technique.
"Survive, Rui..." The Emperor of Harmony narrowed his eyes even as the Martial Sages of the Marinaera Kingdom prepared for a potential rescue operation near the Great Void Ocean. "We’re going to need you."