The conflict brewing in Kiriket hadn't gone past just the higher-ups and had begun breaching the public. After all, it couldn't be kept hidden for too long; not something of this scale. There were too many therianthropes who were involved with logistics, the military, management, and the beast maintenance who were exposed to the war efforts of their respective groups, which allowed them to see exactly what was happening.

Word spread through the common folk of therianthropic civilization like wildfire as whispers of a civil war began rapidly rising within the people. Therianthropic civilization, like all civilizations of the true world, was connected to a powerful network of information thanks to their biotechnological satellites and even cerebral implants that allowed them to interface with the network directly.

It meant that the information couldn't possibly be kept hidden even if the leaders of these civilizations wanted it to be kept hidden. The Dragon Emperor couldn't care less about the matter, while Lord Vakratunda wanted them to know about what was going to happen so that they could better prepare for war.

And the people did.

Most therianthropes weren't combatants and pathwalkers, like most humans of the Panama Continent weren't Martial Artists, and that meant that a civil war was simply nothing short of a death camp.

On top of that, it all meant that the Dragon Emperor's Authority of Alpha didn't work on them, for they were effectively normal humans. Only the pathwalkers among the therianthropes were subject to the mind control of the Dragon Emperor, and since the pathwalkers were the highest leaders of their civilization, it meant handing over control of their states and territories to the Dragon Emperor.

The people of the states controlled by the Dragon Emperor indirectly were most terrified by the prospects of a war or a civil war; they didn't know which. One of the things that Lord Vakratunda was hoping for was to mobilize the common people to impede the last-minute mobilization of the War Coalition.

None of the Harmonist nations had any problem with getting approval from their people, for they were independent and truly acted in the interests of their people, creating civilizations that were favorable to them and minimizing suffering to whatever extent was possible.

This gave them the influence that they needed over the people, where many people sought to join the nations of the Harmonist Faction rather than the War Coalition. The Dragon Emperor had countered this with greed for exotic resources and the fear of the Dawnbringer, who could control them with his Authority of Alpha.

It was stupid, considering that the Dragon Emperor was already doing that to the maximum extent that he could get away with, but fear was a powerful motivator. This split populations in two different ways, including within the territory of the War Faction, while the people of the Gajanan Clan were much more united against the Dragon Emperor behind Lord Vakratunda.

As the Harmonist Faction entered its final hours of hasty five-day preparations, its therianthropes remained on standby within their territory to whatever extent had been possible within five days. They had hardly been able to mobilize everything within five days discreetly, but what they had done was just enough to give them a rather significant edge in mobilization over their enemies.

That was enough.

At this time, both Rui and Amare disconnected themselves from the affairs of the therianthropes and simply focused on maintaining a state of absolute focus and concentration. Particularly for Rui, it was important not to get bogged down by the affairs within Kiriket and focus exclusively on his task alone.

His goal was the Dragon Emperor.

A battle that he had prepared for months, ever since he saw the dragon in the battle with Amare and collected data on him, along with the information that he had gotten from the Whisperer. This allowed him to make the preparations and anti-Shenlong techniques and tactics that he had created specifically to defeat him.

The blob of negatrons within him was all but ready to cleave open wormholes further and further away and past the space anchors that protected the Dragon Emperor.

The air around Rui had become sharp.

Like an edge.

It felt like one could almost get cut by his mere presence alone.

The sheer amount of power that seemed to radiate from him may as well have been boundless, for they were unable to sense its depths. Many had been skeptical about whether he truly could fell the Dragon Emperor, and yet when they beheld him in his current state, they had to admit that he exuded a kind of power that they had only sensed from the Dragon Emperor.

"My Lord," an elephant man bowed to Lord Vakratunda. "The final preparations are complete. We are ready."

The air grew heavier than it already was, weighing down on all of them as they were there. The atmosphere crackled with tingling peril as Lord Vakratunda heaved a deep breath before turning to Rui.

"It's time."

Rui opened his pitch-black eyes that brimmed with unfathomable power in the dark oceans within them. His presence grew almost lethal to those around him while Amare's demeanor shifted, growing profoundly driven and determined.

Rui heaved a deep breath as he activated his power.

RUMBLE

His Martial Heart activated as bright red streaks emerged from his heart, spreading across his body. His Martial Heart had grown incredibly powerful in the past few years, growing brighter and brighter with each passing day, with the sheer amount of power that his body had come to possess. The blood evolution treatment that the Blood Cult had given him had made the largest difference.

His Mind and Soul followed next as each and every single person in the great tusk structure gasped while Rui protected them from his Martial Embodiment.

Then, it was time.

The atmosphere grew charged with anticipation as Rui began warping the very fabric of space to a grind, pushing it further and further within his body at the center of the negatron mass.

And then, he disappeared.

WHOOSH

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