The Martial Unity

Master Sera took a passive role in the battle as she seemed content focusing on evading the attacks of her opponent. “Buzzing around like a little insect,” Master Satva’s aged voice remarked with a hint of derision. “No matter, you’ll get caught sooner or later.”

He stepped hard on the land, causing an enormous amount of land to displace as it flew up at incredible speeds, threatening to crash into her.

Master Sera didn’t even bother trying to waste her energy with destroying the land that was flung her way. After all, there was too much. There was no way that she could deal with everything with brute force.

She would run out of energy far sooner than he did if she chose to go that route.

Instead, she maneuvered through the air, employing the entirety of her speed and agility to evade the attacks that flew in her direction.

The battle quickly settled into a bit of a monotony as Master Satva calmly focused his vast energy reserves to take her down as soon as possible. He manipulated earth with a degree of proficiency that beggared the imagination.

Yet, his output was so great that it affected the rest of the battleground harboring the other Martial Masters.

RUMBLE!!

The very battlefield became unstable and dangerous as mountains erupted from the ground, shooting into the sky like the projectiles of a weapon, threatening to strike the nimble and swift Harbinger.

Yet, what happened when they missed and returned back to the battleground?

The answer was obvious.

BOOOM!!! BOOOM!!! BOOOM!!!

“Rgh…!”

“Master Satva’s power is too destructive!”

“We need to get out of here as soon as possible!”

The sheer amount of power that he outputted altered the terrain of the vast region over which the Masters fought. It was so great that the warring Masters were focused on migrating away before they could resume their battles.

RUMBLE!!

They witnessed with awe as the strongest Martial Masters fought with each other.

Or, to be more accurate, one of them aggressively chased the other around while the latter did everything in her power to avoid getting hit by his immense power.

“Is that all you can do?” Master Satva huffed with a hint of disappointment. “To think the Kandrian Empire would dare call someone as weak as yourself a grade-thirty. The nerve of you lot. Though…”

His eyes narrowed as he eyed the other Kandrian Martial Masters. ‘They’re stronger than I imagined.’

It was not easy to notice in the chaos of battle, but Master Satva had managed to spot a truth that had eluded many of his colleagues.

‘Their Martial Bodies are stronger than ours.’

He didn’t understand how. How did all of them gain stronger Martial Bodies than the Martial Bodies of the Sekigaharan Martial Masters?

“No matter…” he murmured as his attention was on the Harbinger. “When I’m done with you, this battle is as good as won by the grace of Mother Gaia.”

His eyes narrowed as he intensified his efforts.

RUMBLE!!!

Master Sera’s eyes grew steely as the entirety of the region shifted, elevating to the sky.

“If you seek to run away from Gaia, then she will follow you,” he remarked. “You have nowhere to escape.”

The elevation of the entire region continued to rise as a whole, taking all Martial Masters with it, forcing Master Sera to skywalk even higher to stay away. However, they both knew that this could not go on forever.

“You still seek to run away?” Master Satva narrowed his eyes. “The heavens will only grow thinner, slowing you down by Gaia. Eventually, you will be caught, and you will die.”

This was one of the strategies of his systems of thought. The standard response to evading his attacks was taking to the air to avoid the hostile ground. He had developed a rigorous and systematic set of counters to adaptively evolve to these tactics.

She didn’t respond to his words, evading the increasing barrage of land and rock attacks as she flew around the skies, evading everything that Master Satva threw at her. WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!

She weaved through the air as she evaded not only the enormous mountains but also the individual barrage of boulders and rocks that were flung at her at extremely high speeds. She correctly estimated how much distance she needed to move to evade barrages of rocks and earth based on their speed, size, and distance.

As long as she could handle his offense long enough, she knew that she had a good chance of winning the battle. She seldom met someone who could pressure her as much as the Apostle of Gaia did.

He was forcing her to delay the activation of her greatest trump card.

“Enough.” Master Satva grew irritated by her extremely refined evasive ability. “Dodge this.”

His expression steeled with effort as his eyes flared with power.

BOOOM!!!

Land parted as it made way for enormous amounts of molten rock and lava drawn from deep under the crust of Gaia. In an instant, an enormous tsunami, potent and wide, surged upward as it blocked off all exits and threatened to envelop her in its powerful grip. Master Satva’s bloodlust surged as he heightened his power, hoping to get rid of her already. Once he caught her in the grip of Gaia, he could bury her so far down that she would never have any hope of surviving and returning.

Everything was going perfectly.

Then, it all disappeared.

All of it.

One moment, he was on the verge of catching her in the grip of his earth.

The very next, the world disappeared into darkness.

The only thing he could see was himself in the reflection of a cracked mirror.

Fear flashed in his eyes as he gazed at his broken and shattered image in the mirror before him.

His heart was shattered in the reflection as the cracks of the mirror overlapped it. His eyes widened as he saw a woman.

“Mother…?” His eyes widened as a whisper escaped him.

She looked exactly like how he remembered her, right down to her mannerisms and body language. She smiled at him warmly.

His hand reached out to the image of her. Yet, just as he reached for it—

CRACK!

The mirror broke, and he returned to reality.

“I see…” The sinister voice of the Harbinger rang in his ears. “So you’re a mommy’s boy.”

She sneered at him.

“How cute.”

–