The Martial Unity

A month passed in the real world.

Unsurprisingly, not a lot happened during that time. The war for allies steadily continued to escalate as a few of the nations in question began signaling their intentions to favor one side over the other. Of course, these happened to be nations that were too deep in the domain of influence of one side to realistically side with the other. It was just too difficult for either side to be able to convince the enemy's neighbors to join them. Thus, the biggest focus was on the majority of nations that weren't so deeply connected with either side that they would be forced to go with that side regardless of what they wanted. While negotiations with undecided nations continued aggressively, the East Panamic Treaty Alliance continued to wage war on the allies of the Kandrian Empire.

Meanwhile, the Kandrian Empire rose to protect them. The only point of assault that the Kandrian Empire mounted was the joint military and Martial base in the closest enemy kingdom allied with the alliance. Unlike the alliance, the Kandrian Empire couldn't afford an extravagant strategy of attacking all its enemies' allies.

Nonetheless, the war escalated.

It had yet to escalate to the intensity of an all-out war, with both sides deploying all their Martial Sages. However, with each passing month, it intensified as one side or the other deployed more Martial capital than last time. And yet it was not a surprise that the East Panamic Treaty Alliance was unwilling to escalate the war to a full-blown Sage-level war. After all, the point of the war for allies was to borrow as much possible Martial capital from as many different forces as possible so that the gap between the alliance and the Kandrian Empire would only continue rising to the point where they could destroy the Kandrian Empire without suffering too many losses.

Until the alliance gained the ability to take down the Kandrian Empire without a pyrrhic victory, they could not afford a full-blown war in the war for allies.

This was an advantage that worked in the Kandrian Empire's favor, as Emperor Rael would rather not even give them the opportunity to wait until they gained all the power. Another advantage that he held was that the Kandrian Empire didn't need to win more allies than the alliance.

Just winning as many would be enough.

After all, the Kandrian Empire's goal in this war was merely to last without suffering too much damage in the long run. Thus, as long as they could gain as many allies as the alliance, they could ensure that the alliance would not be able to gain as many allies as they needed to overwhelm the Kandrian Empire without a devastating pyrrhic victory.

On the other hand, the alliance had the advantage of being on the offensive and utilizing the stick to deter potential allies from joining the Kandrian Empire. While the Emperor of Harmony had counteracted this move with immense benefits in the form of resources and breakthroughs, ultimately, there was too much at stake for nations to be easily moved by the carrot when an enormous stick threatened to annihilate them. Another advantage that the alliance had was the fact that they were just more often than not the favorite to win.

While nations were certainly moved by the carrot and the stick, they also looked at the prospects of victory for each side that they could potentially ally with. And more often than not, most people would give the edge to the alliance.

They just had more Martial Artists than the Kandrian Empire in total in almost all Realms. On top of that, though the Kandrian Empire soundly beat back the Sekigahara Confederate despite the pressure that they sustained, many people were just inherently inclined towards the commonly held wisdom that one powerhouse could not fight three powerhouses and come away victorious.

And when it became increasingly clear that the Esocline Federation was not an active participant in the war like the four main participants were, the Kandrian Empire seemed less secure in the eyes of many people. Of course, the only reason that it was a contest at all was that the Kandrian Empire did prove its superiority to the Sekigahara Confederate without even tiniest shred of a doubt.

Of course, both the Emperor of Harmony and the Britannian Prime Minister had long foreseen these dynamics and played their hand accordingly.

They each had prepared trump cards that were designed to push the long and grueling war in their favor. They had each prepared solutions for the deadlocks that occurred when it came to undecided Sage-level nations that seemed to have a particularly hard time choosing between the alliance and the Kandrian Empire.

One of them was the Shionel Confederation.

This was one of the largest chess pieces on the table, with a whopping two Martial Sages on retainer. Both the alliance and the Kandrian Empire were determined to claim this potential ally for themselves, and whoever succeeded would be much closer to achieving their goals than before.

Unbeknownst to others, however, Emperor Rael was quite confident that he could nail the Shionel Confederation as an ally. He just needed to be patient; he needed to be patient for Rui to be done with creating the foundations of his new sect.

He understood enough about the circumstances of his son's progress as a Martial Artist to know that the sect was also a means to help him progress to the Sage Realm. Only after his son had completed all his work would he be available. His progression to the Sage Realm was more important to him than anything else in the world. He would resent his father if he dared to force him to abandon his work for the sake of the Kandrian Empire after everything that he had already done.

Emperor Rael did not pressure him into finishing his work any sooner than he needed to. There was no point in doing so when they had the manifold. "…I just need to wait." Emperor Rael closed his eyes.

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