Published at 24th of August 2026 9:36 am

Chapter 4434: A Source of Targets

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"Your Majesty," a military intelligence director drew Rui’s attention. "Even if they are preoccupied with a war, our net war potential is still less than one percent of theirs. It would not take them major effort in order to overrun our civilization. They would be able to spare the effort even if they had three opponents, as long as they deemed it worth it."

"Correct," Rui nodded at the man with a serious expression. "That’s why I don’t intend to simply bank on the fact that they have two other wars keeping them busy, that would be wishful thinking. I think we need to capitalize on this. According to Sage Sayfeel, who I recently deployed on a mission of espionage into arakaian territory, the dessandrites reached out to the aquadites and forged an alliance the second the arakai attacked the latter. I believe it would be possible for us to forge an alliance with the dessandrites and the aquadites as well."

"Doing so," Rui continued. "—would allow us to have more options at our table. The two civilizations have much to gain by keeping us, the true target of arakaian hostility, alive. We will serve as a constant distraction from the two major wars that the spiders are fighting, making the lives of the dessandrites and the aquadites much easier."

That was certainly a viable option that increased the odds of humanity’s survival. If humanity could come to some sort of arrangement with the two civilizations to increase the pressure once the war against human civilization commenced, then they would be able to temper the arakai’s aggression.

"However, what will we give them in return?" Edward asked with a raised eyebrow. "The reality is that if we want them to conduct such a major offensive on the arakai when the time comes, we will have to offer them something of equal value."

"The dessandrites will be much likelier to take up such an offer because the arakai are a constant, persistent pain in the ass to them," Rui explained. "Remember, the arakai have warred against the dessandrites for a decade continuously, and the two sides have a huge shared border with a very small gap between them. The dessandrites almost certainly view the arakai as a long-term problem. Thus, if we can offer them a long-term solution or at least a long-term treatment to the problem, then they would be inclined to accept an arrangement."

"And just what sort of ’treatment’ are you referring to?" Edward scoffed. "Do you pesticide that wipes out spiders—the arakai kind?"

"Yes, actually," Rui replied, before pointing to himself. "This here is the best arakai pesticide you have ever seen."

"I don’t understand, Your Majesty," one general frowned. "Are you saying that you’re going to be away from the front lines and instead attacking arakai colonies? Do you realize that that would lead to the destruction of human civilization? Your presence is the only reason that the probability of victory is 0.01% and not zero percent."

"I’m not going to be permanently away from human civilization, what I’m suggesting is undertaking operations to hunt down the largest sources of high-breed arakai," Rui remarked. "I will target the Divine Mothers themselves. As you all know, the Divine Mothers occupy the duty of breeding. They lay an enormous number of arakai eggs every single day. And the reason they do it is to improve the standards of their civilization over time and to increase the odds of new Divine Mothers being born. If they die, then the arakai civilization will lose its fertility and the quality of future generations of arakai."

His words caused the members of the central command to pause as they realized the merits of his offer. Indeed, the dessandrites probably viewed the arakai as an infestation that needed to be ridden. And if the Emperor of Water could offer a solution that entailed lowering fertility and caliber of their offspring, he would be able to drastically reduce their numbers.

"And you’re confident that you can pick off a hundred and ten Divine Mothers by yourself?" Edward asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not at once, certainly not, but I can take them off one by one," Rui replied. "The Divine Mothers don’t huddle up together, they have their own territories and spheres of influence within arakai civilization."

"You would need to know their exact location, how are you going to find that out from just one single spy?" Edward raised an eyebrow. "Prophecy?"

Rui shook his head. "Not even prophecy would be enough for this. The reality is that the Divine Mothers hide themselves extremely well. They know how much depends on them. They also know that if they are forced to use their Transcendent power due to an ambush, then they will disappear. That is why they hide themselves within a web of secrecy, anonymity, and deception. Not even their meetings occur physically or even digitally, it occurs through extremely profound mechanisms that ensure that they don’t betray their location."

Rui knew this by skimming through o-o-o-o’s memories, of course. That was why he knew that finding a Divine Mother in their homes was going to be very difficult. The fact that o-o-o-o didn’t know the location of even a single other Divine Mother told him just how secretive they were. They didn’t necessarily trust even their own sisters.

However, even though o-o-o-o didn’t know the location of her other sisters, she wasn’t as powerful or knowledgeable as her other sisters.

"So how do you plan to find them then?" Edward asked with a confused expression.

Rui smiled.

"It’s simple, I plan to ask somebody who does know."

The others stared at him with furrowed eyebrows and flummoxed expressions.

"You’ll have to leave that to me, I have a plan to find out the locations of several Divine Mothers and then start picking them off one by one by one," Rui informed them. "Continue developing strategic and tactical plans on our impending confrontation with the arakai, in the meantime, I have someone to contact. Tell my secretary if there’s something important that needs my attention."

WHOOSH

He disappeared just like that.

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