The Martial Unity

2387  Holy Seed

In the halls of an enormous Virodabhasa Cathedral, several Cardinal Sages had gathered around a single round table.

Normally, they would be out and about in the world, fulfilling their duties to the Theocracy. However, for once, almost all of them had gathered together to discuss an important matter that they had perhaps been avoiding.

“Where is Sariawar?” a burly, masculine Sage among them asked with a stern expression. “I have no doubt that all Cardinal Sages received the message to partake in the meeting.”

The air grew a little perilous.

“She said that she was unable to make time for it,” a woman calmly informed him. “Unable to make time…?” he growled. “For a meeting as important as this? What is she doing?”

“Currently, she is on retainer in the Shionel Confederation. There is a contract, I believe. In exchange for a floor in a dungeon in the nation, she remains on retainer in the Shionel Confederation and fights to protect it,” another Cardinal Sage replied.

“Shionel Confederation…?” The man frowned. “What the hell is she doing way over on the other side of the continent?”

“Promulgating the ideas of the Virodabhasa Faith, of course.”

“…Still, it’s rather strange that she went all the way over to East Panama just for that.” His eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Is there something in East Panama that we don’t know about?”

The others stirred at his words.

“Coincidentally, our intelligence reports show that the nation that she is residing in is the same nation harboring the agenda of this meeting.”

The air in the room grew a bit colder.

“The Void Prince.” The man closed his eyes. “To think that we’d be gathering for a mere Master.”

His words drew the disapproval of the others. “If you think that he’s merely a Master, you’re a fool, Melwin.”

Cardinal Sage Melwin snorted. “I don’t care that he’s the youngest Master in history. Someone was bound to break the record due to how much Martial Art has progressed since it was set.”

“Your ignorance comes from the fact that you’ve spent the past five years in the Beast Domain,” another Cardinal Sage remarked. “Let me give you a brief breakdown.”

As stubborn and hard-headed as Cardinal Sage Melwin was, not even he could maintain his composure when they informed him about the truth.

“Triggering mass breakthroughs?” His eyes widened with shock. “And you’re telling me that he actually defeated a hundred Masters in battle?”

“We have confirmed these pieces of information very thoroughly. I wouldn’t have called for this meeting if I hadn’t been absolutely certain that this was the truth,” another woman calmly replied. “And that brings us to the agenda of this meeting.”

“…Senthil, you think… he might be the one?” Sage Melwin’s eyes grew severe. “Out of all the seeds that we have been able to follow thus far, he is undoubtedly the most compelling possibility,” Cardinal Sage Senthil answered him with a measured tone. “Remember what the scriptures say. Lord Virodabhasa is a being with the power to raise and raze Martial Paths.”

“I see. His mass breakthrough-triggering ability does indeed satisfy the prior condition,” one Cardinal Sage calmly analyzed. “However, what about razing Martial Paths?”

“We haven’t been able to confirm this, but there is some intelligence in the past suggesting that the Void Prince has the ability to cripple Martial Artists through esoteric means that we have not been able to dissect,” Cardinal Sage Senthil replied. “Additionally, he’s one of the strongest Masters in the Master Realm. Probably the strongest in East Panama. He reached that level of power rather rapidly after breaking through to the Master Realm relative to how long it normally takes for Masters to reach the peak of their Realm. Of course, in his case, he started off at an extremely high level in the Master Realm to begin with, which reduced his path to the peak of the Realm significantly.”

One Cardinal Sage gasped. “To think… to think that we may have found Lord Virodabhasa. After all these centuries!”

The other Cardinal Sages stirred at her words.

They felt the same way. Many promising seeds had shown up in the past, riling their hopes up.

Yet, almost all of them had turned out to be duds.

After getting their hopes up only to be crushed so many times over the centuries, the Cardinal Sages had learned to temper their expectations.

They learned not to get their hopes up easily.

They learned to maintain strict skepticism.

This wasn’t the first time they had ever conducted a meeting on a promising seed, but it certainly was the first time that they had felt their hope rising in a century. They had come across a seed that was truly promising in every sense of the word.

He was revolutionary.

“Not only that, but he is also unfortunately a member of the Silas Clan. It is a shame that he’s subject to the heresy of those prophetants, but it also means that he bears faint blood ties with the Transcendent Prophet.”

That only increased the likelihood that he was the Antithesis that they were looking for.

“Do not get carried away, Della.” Cardinal Sage Melwin shook his head with disapproval at the sight of some Sages treating the Void Prince as if he were already the Antithesis. “Remember our mission. Our mission is to find the Antithesis, which also entails knowing with certainty that he is the Antithesis. As of right now, based on the information you have given me, we do not know for certain whether he is the Antithesis. He has met a few conditions, admittedly. But to be the Antithesis is an almost impossibly demanding task. It remains to be seen whether he truly is the Antithesis or not.”

The others nodded, tempering their religious fervor.

It was too early for any of them to be certain of whether they had finally come across the Antithesis fledgling.

All they could do was keep watching and hope that he was. Each of them truly felt like they had waited long enough for the emergence of Lord Virodabhasa.

“Our role is to simply spread our faith.”

They were not there to judge the Antithesis if he truly was the Antithesis. Mere Sages were not qualified to judge Lord Virodabhasa.

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