The Martial Unity

They froze.

It didn’t matter what they were doing.

It didn’t matter how close their attacks were.

It didn’t matter what their Martial Art or Path was.

They simply froze.

As though someone just tossed a mountain on their shoulders, forcing them to bear the burden, pushing down on them, and refusing to let them move.

That was exactly what Rui did.

The smile on his face widened as the eerie blood-red glow in his eyes brightened.

“I must say…” A faint whisper of glee escaped him as he inspected his work. “The results have exceeded my expectations.”

His eyes lit up with ecstasy.

“Over half of you are paralyzed…” he mused as he inspected his handiwork. “The other half are partially incapacitated. And…”

His gaze shifted to the furious Convergence, who glared at him with deep hatred. “…Only one of you is entirely unfazed.”

It was at that moment that the Martial Masters understood a deep truth that would go on to stay with them for the rest of their lives.

They were no match for Rui.

He was in a realm of his own.

Master Stephen’s expression contorted with rage.

RUMBLE!!

Chills ran across the skin of the Martial Masters as the lands shook with the weight of the Convergence’s fury.

Yet, where the others felt fear, Rui could only feel a single emotion.

Ecstasy.

Gazing at the supremely powerful Martial Master, surrounded by enemy Martial Masters, made his blood boil.

He felt more alive than he had in the past two months.

It was unshackling.

Cathartic.

“This…” A single whisper escaped him as he placed his hand on his roaring heart. “This is why I came here.”

He lived for this.

He lived to push the limits of his Adaptive Evolution.

“Those of you who can move…” The Convergence’s faint voice quivered with rage. “… Continue forth with the mission in the Shionel Confederation. Spread destruction to the very limits that you are able to get away with. Show the world the price of antagonizing the Britannian Empire.”

More than a dozen high-grade Masters gritted their teeth as they pushed forward with sheer willpower despite the mental strain that those very actions caused them.

Rui didn’t bother stopping them.

There were reasons why he had instructed the Shionel Masters to stay behind.

One was because many were too mentally weak to fight in his presence and the other was so that they could intercept the Masters that managed to withstand his greatly increased flood of information.

This was the plan that Rui had cooked up and implemented on the spot before he headed to the battlefield.

He simply met the Convergence’s vengeful gaze with intense bloodlust as the able Masters moved past him unimpeded.

He couldn’t afford to finish them off.

He couldn’t afford to waste his energy dealing with them.

If he wasted any of his precious stamina trying to kill them off…

“…I’d lose against you,” he concluded as he stared at the Convergence. “You’re not weak enough for me to fight in anything less than my absolute strongest.”

His words seemed to evoke even more rage from the enemy.

“Boy.”

RUMBLE…

He possessed such tremendous power that the sheer weight of his words sent shudders across heaven and earth.

“Your defeat at my hands is destined.” The Convergence’s eyes flared with raw force. “When I’m done with you, no one will ever dare impeach my prestige as the greatest Martial Master of all of Martial kind!”

The bloody darkness in Rui’s red eyes stirred at his words.

A single question escaped him.

“Is that why I sense boundless hatred towards me from deep within your mind?”

It was a question that didn’t belong in the middle of a battlefield.

In the middle of a war.

Yet, it struck the Convergence with a heavy impact.

“…Hatred?” The storm of emotions cleared in his eyes as a hint of clarity bloomed in them.

“My Martial Mind is much superior to yours,” Rui replied with a profound tone. “Your hatred towards me is pure and unadulterated. Yet, it is hidden deep within your mind. The kind of hatred that has entrenched itself deep in your heart, festering for long but surely.”

A pining curiosity lit up in Rui’s eyes.

“Tell me, why do you hate me?”

The Convergence gazed at his hands as realization dawned on him.

“I see…” the old man whispered.

For the first time in many years, he took another step to the Sage Realm.

It was closer than it had ever been before.

“You have my gratitude.” His voice softened. “I shall make your death painless, rest

assured.”

“I mean, I would rather you didn’t kill me.”

“No, your death must happen,” the Convergence declared. “I cannot allow a Master with even

greater prestige than myself to exist in this world.”

Rui’s eyebrow rose as he frowned. “That’s it?”

The Convergence stared at him with a hateful glare. “I have spent more than five hundred years cultivating the prestige, glory, and renown that I have today. I’m one of the only two grade-thirty Martial Masters in all of East Panama! I am the most influential Master Knight in the entirety of the Britannian Empire! I was the undisputed greatest Master in our domain for centuries!”

Rui understood why he sensed profound hatred for him in the man’s mind. “You were the greatest Master in East Panama… until I broke through to the Master Realm at half the age of the previous record.”

“It was the beginning of the collapse of everything that I had ever built across my entire life.” The Convergence’s voice grew scathing as his eyes flared with rage. “Bit by bit, you stole everything that was once mine. Youngest Master. Crown Prince of the Kandrian Empire. Golden boy of the Martial Union. Dawnbringer. Rui the Ruinous. Jewel of the Master Realm.

And, of course…”

His eyes grew bloodshot. “The Bestower of Apotheosis was the final straw. Nobody even speaks of me when they talk about the greatest Martial Master. Nobody even thinks of me when they think of the Master Realm.”

The air grew perilous as his power boiled to extraordinary levels.

“But now…” His voice quaked with bloodlust. “I have a chance. A chance to take it all back. Come dusk, the only thing people will remember of you… is that you died at my hands!”

RUMBLE!!

All hell broke loose as the two titans of the Master Realm erupted in battle.