"There are so survivors alive beneath the rubble!"
"Quick! Rescue them as quickly as possible!"
"There is a large forest fire in the Irahara Forest of South-West Sekigahara!"
"A squad of Martial Seniors has been deployed to douse the fires."
"Preliminary estimated death toll… seventy million people!"
In a special conference room in the depths of the Sekigahara Citadel, fourteen clan leaders had gathered, seated on a mat upon the ground with their legs folded under them. They donned ostentatious loose yukatas that draped over their bodies, with the crest of their respective clans embroidered atop their chests.
The air was macabre.
Grave.
Not even they could hide the sheer gravity and severity of the catastrophe that had struck their nation. The chilling preliminary death count was so horrifying that it beggared the mind. So of them couldn't help but wonder if this was all just a horrible nightmare from which they would awaken soon enough.
And yet, it was all real.
It was the realest experience of their entire life.
One that would engrave itself in their minds and souls and scar them for the rest of their lives.
"The southern Martial tropolis is extrely damaged!"
"The Oni Clan's Martial Pavilion is completely destroyed! Seven hundred Martial Apprentices have also perished!"
"The South-Western border has experienced a breach stretching ten kiloters!"
"The seismic radiation from the battle had ravaged the infrastructure of the remaining half of the Sekigahara Confederate!"
"We are running out of dical infrastructure to house the injured!"
Not a single clan leader could bring themselves to even utter a word amid the endless flurry of tragic reports, one after another. This single catastrophe had ruined the nation so thoroughly that the sheer number of problems directly erging from it was unlike anything.
It was difficult to even get a word in, for fear of interrupting sothing that could be especially important to tackle.
They were in sharp contrast to a leader like the Emperor of Harmony, who single-handedly digested and processed intelligence reports from not just the Kandrian Empire but from across the entire world.
Not all of them, however, were incompetent. "Have a team of Martial Masters man the southern border and ensure that nothing breaches our territory," Patriarch Shinken gritted his teeth. "Have the Nindo Clan identify the safest parts of our territory, presumably near our north-east edge, and have the Martial Artists of the nations evacuate all citizens regardless of their status to safety. Seize all dostic housing and transform them into makeshift dical housing facilities for the ti being and focus on simply stabilizing and sustaining their condition until they can be transferred into an actual dical facility."
All civil liberties were suspended now that the Sekigahara Confederate had declared a state of Martial Law and a State of Ergency for obvious reasons. The leadership of the country needed to do everything in its power to salvage what was left of the country.
The other clan leaders watched with a stunned expression as the Patriarch of the Shinken Clan directed the nation to survive this apocalypse of a calamity. He took his role as the appointed head of governnt seriously.
In the past, the fourteen clan leaders ruled the Sekigahara Confederate equally, as ssy and chaotic as that was. It worked in tis of peace, but the deep flaws of such a thodology showed when the third Great East Panamic War began.
They were slow, inefficient, and ineffective.
This problem had been exacerbated when the Beast Incursion began, and the Sekigahara Confederate really needed quick, decisive, and consistent leadership.
Thus, despite their reluctance, they anded the Sekigahara Covenant, their equivalent of the constitution, to concentrate the power of the head of state and head of governnt into one of the fourteen clan leaders elected by among themselves.
Patriarch Shinken has been the clear favorite.
And for good reason. It wasn't an hour until the Shinken Patriarch had dispatched enough orders and delegated enough issues for him to finally sit down and convene with his fellow clan leaders.
He heaved a deep, shaky breath.
His face was pale and gaunt.
And yet, his eyes had a faint conviction to them. He faced the hateful eyes of the clan leaders around them. He faced their agonized rage.
They were in pain from the apocalypse that had ravaged everything that they had ever lived for. And yet, their wrath at the decision that he had taken was palpable.
It made the air boil.
It made the atmosphere tingle electrically with a profound peril.
"You fucking bastard…" the Matriarch of the Oni Clan growled with a ferocious expression.
Her body was highly muscular and well-built, giving her a domineering physique. She limited herself to a thick sarashi wrapped around her chest under her loose yukata, giving her a wild presence.
Her orange eyes flared with anger and wrath as she glared at the Shinken Patriarch.
"How dare you promise to give away Sekigahara to that Harmony bastard?!"
It was a sentint that was reflected by many other clan leaders seated around the conference room.
"If you think I will suffer the humiliation of surrendering to the Kandrian Empire, you are deeply mistaken," the Patriarch of the Tanaka Clan remarked with a frosty tone. "We may be allies, but I have not forgotten how much we have suffered because of them."
"The Ken Clan will not yield," another matriarch snorted. "I would rather kill myself than submit."
"You have no right to promise everything to the Emperor of Harmony." The cold, chilling voice of the Patriarch of the Kaze Clan was tinted with bloodlust. "You have no right to give away what belongs to all of us collectively, all by yourself unilaterally."
"Actually, he does," the Patriarch of the Nindo Clan remarked. "We have invested him with the power of the head of state and governnt. So he actually technically has the right to submit to the Kandrian Empire as a vassal state."
Many of the other clan leaders of the Sekigahara Confederate glared at the Nindo Patriarch, who simply closed his eyes.
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