Published at 11th of May 2026 6:20 am

Chapter 4117 Models of Expansion

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Human civilization had not been unaware of everything that had unfolded in their solar system. The battle between Jormungandr and the gargantian had been too large for the amateur astronomy community and even normal people, who could see it in the sky in certain parts of the world, to miss.

Countless people bore witness to Jormungandr crushing the gargantian, allowing them to understand just how powerful this otherwise mythical creature was. The Panama Continent, especially, had countless people record how Jormungandr crushed the battle, while the media went absolutely bonkers with the coverage.

[Mighty Snake versus Giant Planet!]

[Watch the divine world serpent crush the evil planet!]

[Behold the battle between gods in our very solar system!]

Jormungandr had a bit of a fan following in traditional Panamic lore. Many cultures had discovered his existence over the centuries and had formed mythologies of their own surrounding the world serpent.

Now, they beheld the mighty serpent in its entirety, fighting against a powerful foe and emerging victorious.

It fueled the popularity and the faith in those mythologies.

Some regarded the creature as a harbinger of destruction.

Others regarded it as a protector of the world.

There were even interesting intersections between other faiths, such as the Virodhabhasa Faith, that interpreted the existence of the serpent in their own mythology in specific ways.

Regardless, all of them witnessed the battle and victory in amazement. The professional powerscaling community in Gaia immediately began scaling its power relative to Martial Sages and Martial Transcendents, trying to catalogue its power. Because superhumans were a real thing, scaling and quantifying their power was an important subfield within intel analytics. Organizations like the Martial Union had their own divisions dedicated to powerscaling and even made use of third-party services to accurately evaluate the power levels of different entities.

Once the pathwalkers returned to civilization after the completion of the operation, there were even greater leaks of exactly what had happened during Operation Gargle, and what they had faced as news about the gargantian specimen, its capture, and its teleportation away offered context for exactly what had led to the bewildering event of a planet randomly teleporting to their solar system and rushing towards Gaia.

When Rui woke up several minutes later in an isolated chamber in the manifold, he found himself swamped with a lot of work the moment he got back to his office.

"Sir, the other civilizations are demanding that you open a wormhole to Sirius once more so that they can acquire their share of the spoils of war," Secretary Claris informed him the moment he returned to the Royal Office, wearing fresh Martial attire. "After all, they cannot claim the spoils of war of the main body of Garg that is lying around in space, since that was destroyed by Jormungandr, but they can claim a large chunk of the esoteric matter from the golem corpses. They fear that you will not live up to your promises of giving them their share. I believe you should open the wormhole as soon as possible to allow them to salvage it to show that you are committed to the principle of fairness. But…"

Secretary Claris's expression grew a little serious. "…the reality is that we will lose our exclusive claim on esoteric matter."

Rui shrugged dismissively. "I don't care about exclusivity anymore. They will get their hands on the esoteric matter within forty-eight hours. In fact, tell them that I will allow them an additional two percent each as a gesture of appreciation."

Secretary Claris raised an eyebrow. "Do you not want to claim a higher portion? After all, the wormhole couldn't be opened without you."

"It doesn't matter anymore, Claris," Rui remarked with a nonchalant tone of voice. "The reality is that we have discovered the key to producing endless esoteric matter, with only scale as a limit. Now that we have gotten our hands on that, it is only a matter of time before all civilizations get their hands on esoteric matter. The reality is that…"

His ethereal eyes sharpened. "…esoteric matter exclusivity was a crutch. A crutch that we don't need anymore. It is better for everybody that the other civilizations get their hands on esoteric matter as well."

The reality was that Panama had grown too powerful within Gaia. The imbalance could be extremely dangerous for unity. With esoteric matter, however, the other civilizations were bound to astronomically more powerful, allowing them to close the gap and, at least collectively, serve as a good counter-balance to Rui and Panama.

That was good for Gaian unity.

"Most importantly, get the best scientists in the entire world to drop what they are doing and focus on the seed globule that I collected." He directed a pointed glance at her. "That was the point of this entire operation. I presume it has been secured safe and sound, right?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, it has been secured by the Panamic Space Organization and Panamic Space Force."

"Good, make sure we crack the secrets of that seed," Rui remarked with a serious expression. "Give them the entirety of the manifold if they need, and all the computing power in the world. That is our highest priority right now. Is there anything else urgent on the docket?"

"The people are demanding an answer for everything that has happened, Your Majesty."

Rui waved that off dismissively. "Ru and Raul can handle that. What else relating to the matter of Gaian interstellar conquest?"

"The Shepherd has just notified that she has completed the proposals for the systems of expansion that can allow for ten thousand stars to be conquered in ten years," Secretary Claris noted. His ethereal eyes lit up. "Finally! Arrange for a presentation right away."

Rui was looking forward to what his resident civilizational expert had to say. He had her serve as the head of a committee that fleshed out different models for how Gaian Civilization could expand across the cosmos at the rate that Rui wanted it to. One of the proposals she had made would undoubtedly go on to become the future of human civilization itself.

"She says she's ready to present them right away, Your Majesty."

Rui got up.

"Let's get going then."

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