The Martial Unity

Ieyasu found himself standing on the border fort wall of the Kandrian Empire, gazing out at the Beast Incursion in the distance with stoic eyes. He was due to partake in the next shift that would be dealing with the first wave of the Beast Domain. He did not expect to be thrown into recurring combat the moment he joined the Kandrian Empire, having expected that he would be able to leverage his own breakthrough ability to secure a very favorable deal with the Kandrian Empire.

Unfortunately, he was unable to get out of agreeing to fight for the Kandrian Empire in battle when he signed an agreement with the Martial Union and the Kandrian government. The only good part was that he gained access to all of the treasures of the Kandrian Empire, many of which far exceeded his greatest expectations.

Ultimately, joining the Kandrian Empire had been an extremely good decision in hindsight, especially when they were doing so well dealing with the beast tide that had caused countless losses in less than two days since its inception. He had reached a stage of power where it wasn’t easy to make qualitative gains without extremely powerful resources that would help him grow stronger.

He was scheduled to have his Martial Body enhanced by the Divine Doctor once he contributed to the Kandrian Empire enough. He also looked forward to assimilating the Eye of Prophecy from the Silas Clan, if he ever got the chance.

And, more importantly, the source of his greatest greed was present in the Kandrian Empire. That was reason enough to join the Kandrian Empire.

STEP

“Hey.”

Ieyasu turned slightly as he spotted Rui behind him from the edge of his eye. “I have a proposition for you.” A hint of excitement could be heard in Rui’s voice. “One that will serve us both extremely well. A mutually beneficial win-win.”

Ieyasu didn’t respond, simply staring at him with stoic eyes.

“You want my power, right?” Rui continued. “I can help you with that. In return, I need your help with a training project of mine.”

“…What do you seek?”

“It’s simple.” A smile cracked at the edge of Rui’s mouth. “I need you to help me gain a fraction of your foundational mastery in a diverse variety of principles, techniques, and fields of Martial Art. I don’t necessarily need it to be as vast as yours, although that would be ideal.”

Ieyasu stirred at his words.

He was not accustomed to giving, not when he had spent his entire life taking. He wasn’t sure if he could even do it considering how antithetical it was to his Martial Path.

Yet, he didn’t outright refuse Rui’s offer.

“…And what do you offer in return?” “I’ll let you use your Mirror of Logos on a system of thought of mine,” Rui calmly replied. “I’ll lower my anti-Ieyasu measures and allow you to copy it, if you are qualified to.”

A hint of greed flashed in Ieyasu’s eyes. He wanted Rui’s Martial Mind very, very much. “…Which system of thought?” “I call it the Tree of Life,” Rui answered with a patient tone. “It’s a predictive model created from the application of the pattern recognition model to an unfathomably enormous amount of data surrounding the correlation between each species of this world and the most suited and antithetical environment to said species.”

“…What is the utility of this system of thought?”

“It is ideal for dealing with beasts and monsters by recreating their most antithetical environments using domains.” Rui smirked. “Perfect for this circumstance. The Beast Incursion is not going away any time soon, you know?”

This was classified intelligence, but Rui didn’t see the harm of sharing it with one of the Kandrian Empire’s best assets.

Ieyasu’s gaze shifted towards the beast tide in the distance. It was not easy dealing with the beast tide, even for him. He could not assimilate beasts and monsters, thus, his Martial Path was obsolete against them. It was not necessarily bad to gain access to this particular system of thought.

As for what he had to give in return…

“I’m inept as a teacher.” His tone was stoic. “My growth is unlike that of anybody else’s, thus I’m unable to aid others in their growth. Everything I see simply becomes mine.”

“You don’t need to be a good teacher,” Rui remarked. “I can see your SOUL. So, I know your intentions at their very inception. You just need to do your best, and my system of thought will do the rest.”

In some ways, it was not unlike what Ieyasu himself did.

Although, Rui still didn’t entirely understand how reading one’s mind allowed him to copy their Martial Art. Rui was not able to copy others with the SOUL System, for one. He figured it must be the difference in raw Martial talent.

“The Tree of Life system of thought of yours…” Ieyasu remarked. “Is it something I can use without the Megamind technique?”

A smirk cracked at the edge of Rui’s mouth. “No.”

Ieyasu stirred at his words with displeasure.

Yet, that was not enough for it to be a dealbreaker. He still wanted Rui’s system of thought no matter what.

“Tsk, you should be happy that you are getting it this easily,” Rui tutted with a hint of envy. “You have no idea what horrors I went through to create this system of thought. Life is not as easy for everyone as it is for you, you know?”

Rui smirked even further when he felt even greater displeasure from Ieyasu at his words before turning towards the beast tide. “I’ll join you in the next battle.”

Ieyasu narrowed his eyes. “…Join me?”

“Yeah, the best way to pass on the Tree of Life is by showing it to you over time,” Rui explained. “After that, we’re spending two weeks in the manifold working on my project, got it?”

Ieyasu stared at him silently, before closing his eyes.

“I accept your offer.”

And thus, the two most extraordinary Martial Artists of their generation set out on a new venture.

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