The Martial Unity

His voyage outside of a powerhouse was as perilous as always. It wasn’t safe traveling on foot across land ridden with beasts and monsters. It reduced his speed and had him exercising caution with each step he took.

And yet, he enjoyed his voyage away from the Kandrian Empire. Compared to everything that he had gone through, the Kandrian Empire was truly a sterile environment that could never give him the stimulation he needed.

This was especially true after he had created the Forge of Creation; he needed to sustain even greater pressure to stimulate his growth.

Additionally, he got to witness a more diverse set of sights and Martial philosophies outside of the more standard and generic one propagated by the Panamic Martial Federation. There was immense diversity amid human civilization.

The last time he had borne witness to all of it was when he had traveled to the West, running away from Chairman Deacon.

The very memory of it was nostalgic to him.

“That time feels like it was from an entirely different age.”

Technically, that was true.

And yet, while there were similarities in the journeys that he had taken then and the one he was undertaking now, they were entirely different.

The journey he had undertaken when he was merely a Squire was for himself.

While the journey he was undertaking now was not just for himself, it was also for the future of all of human civilization.

Humankind needed his power.

The many places he visited in transit that welcomed him with hope, devotion, and gratitude only continued to spread the cult-like adoration that he had come to garner from all the people he visited.

With each passing stop, people started treating him as if he was more than just a person.

They started treating him as though he was of the Divine.

This was particularly true for the weaker and more desperate nations that needed his power more than the rest.

He disliked this trend extremely, but there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it. He knew that this inorganic shift in their perception of him was not natural in its development. He also had strong ideas on who was responsible for it.

More importantly, he was starting to get a deeper understanding of why this trend was being purposely accelerated with propaganda.

In order to be able to unite humankind in a single initiative, it was best to make the face of it a person who had earned the devotion of the masses. This put immense pressure on all human polities to not position themselves strongly against the Dawnbringer.

This meant that they could not reject his deal very easily.

Essentially, the Beggar’s Sect was using him as a stone to kill multiple birds with. This was deeply unpleasant as well, but this too, was not something that he could stop. When it came to influence over the masses and the average person, the Beggar’s Sect was unrivaled across all of human civilization.

And thus, the legends and tales of the Dawnbringers spread across East Panama at a truly unnatural speed. The common folk reveled in them as they spoke about the wandering saint who imparted his endless Martial power to others, creating Martial Artists out of ordinary people, and elevating existing Martial power to extraordinary heights.

Only a god in human form could possibly perform such miracles everywhere he went.

With each nation he blessed, the more fervorous his blooming religion grew. It got so intense that it even began penetrating more powerful nations. Not even Rui could have imagined that even Sage-level nations would begin accepting the Gospels of Dawn as truth and genuine accountings of the truth.

It was deeply disturbing to Rui. He found that even if he acted stupid or said stupid things, people would mindlessly recontextualize and interpret his behavior in a way that simply bolstered their perception of his divinity.

“O Lord Dawnbringer, we humble mortals are truly grateful for your divine blessings upon our people.”

Before him, the people of the Duchy of Napla knelt in absolute devotion and subservience, with their heads laid at his feet.

“Er, yeah… don’t worry about it. Get up, the ground is dirty,’ Rui murmured with visible discomfort.

“What will you do now, Your Divinity?”

Rui heaved a sigh of resignation as his gaze swept across their sparkling adoration and devotion in their eyes. “Well, my next destination is the Republic of Gorteau since it isn’t too far from this nation, I believe.”

“Indeed, Your Divinity,” the Duke of Napla clasped his hands together. “May the world be graced by your blessings.”

“Well, that is the plan.” Rui turned to them with a pointed look. “Adhere to your

commitments, got it?”

“Most certainly, Lord Dawnbringer. We wouldn’t dare sully our souls with the taint of breaking our pact with Your Divinity.”

“…Uh huh. Well, my work is done here. I will be heading out. Goodbye and good luck.” He left the nation immediately with a hint of irritation. Today he realized that he hated being surrounded by sycophants. He couldn’t believe that the Britannian Empire had been the most palpable nation he had visited so far due to the fact that the people there did not mindlessly worship him and even disliked him.

He never thought in his entire life that he would end up missing the prime minister’s company amid his travels.

“Maybe I should go for a more covert approach where people don’t notice my presence even as I shower them with my gifts,” Rui wondered for a moment before shaking his head. “Nope, that’s not going to work.”

The Hellbringer model required active cooperation, even if the breakthroughs could be administered without his presence being made aware of directly. That meant that people would inevitably know that it was, as they liked to call it, his blessings.

“Besides, I don’t have the qualifications to covertly do anything against a Sage-level powerhouse.”

Down below from a mountain stretched the vast expanse of the Republic of Gorteau as far as the eye could see.