The Martial Unity

An apocalypse of water emerged from Rui, threatening to destroy the Gen Temple and all sentient souls within it and beyond.

Bodhisattva Maitreyi was the first to react; she calmly activated her Martial Heart and Mind, deploying the extraordinary power she possessed as a peak Martial Sage. With a single breath, she created a powerful domain.

One that protected the entirety of the world from the extraordinarily lethal domain of the Dawnbringer.

RUMBLE!!!

The apocalypse of Water raged with calamitous fury.

And yet, before the supreme might of a peak Sage, its attempts were all naught.

The other Bodhisattvas shook where they stood as they bore witness to the extraordinary power of the Dawnbringer with an aghast expression. His mind had become a universe unto itself.

A singularity of thought exerted a tremendous pressure on them that surely would have rendered them unconscious if not for their Martial Souls.

At that moment, they understood.

They understood how Rui could have fought a Martial Sage, a weak and inexperienced one, and managed to gain the upper hand.

And yet, Rui didn’t care.

His eyes, the blood-red Suns in his eyes, were fixed on one and only one person.

Amare.

At that moment, he didn’t see anyone else.

He only saw Amare.

Her hazel eyes reflected his.

The world may as well not exist.

And yet, their battle continued.

She leaped at him with a devastatingly furious onslaught of catastrophic power.

And yet, none of them could so much as reach him. The slightest of shifts was all it took.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!

She missed by the smallest of hairs.

No matter how great her speed was.

No matter how great her power was. It couldn’t reach Rui.

And yet, the battle was in her favor.

Gigabrain was extremely mentally taxing, and he has already exhausted a fair bit of his mental stamina from Soul Retcon.

He didn’t have much time. If it continued on for much longer, then…

‘No.’ Defiance flared in his blood-red Suns in his eyes.

He refused to lose this battle.

He would win, no matter what. ‘Think…’ the astronomical singularity of thought furiously leaped into action. ‘How do I win?’

He could tell that the source of the astronomical power was beyond his ability to match, especially in his current state, where his physical output was extremely weak, having deteriorated to that of the Senior Realm.

He couldn’t use Sun, not only because there would be no counter-balancing cold to protect him but also he didn’t have Himari’s shockwaves to fuel the technique in the absence of Hypertrophic Surge.

In other words, there was no path to victory with physical power.

‘I must leverage my mind. That is the only way.’

It was always the only way.

And thus, spontaneously, he created a new technique then and there with the Forge of Creation.

“Sermon of Sleep.”

With the extraordinary misdirection of his Gigabrain, he left her subconscious mind entirely vulnerable to hypnotic suggestion.

“If everything is Martial Art…” A whisper escaped him. “Then it must include sleep.”

A good portion of one’s entire life was filled with sleep, after all. He weaponized her own experiences against her, calling upon a portion of her entire life as he applied powerful hypnotic suggestions in her subconscious mind to fall asleep.

He could feel a spell of drowsiness overtaking her as her movements grew unsteady and her mind felt drowsy.

Her eyelids felt heavy.

An extraordinary urge to lie down and fall asleep overcame her as she struggled to resist and continue her fight. And yet, the urge grew stronger and stronger.

“Sleep.”

Try as she might, she was unable to stop the comforting sensation of sleep from overtaking her. “Sleep.”

She didn’t have the hypnotic resistance to resist something of the caliber of what Rui was leveraging against her. “Sleep.”

Despite gaining memories that served as a powerful fuel for her mastery, they didn’t give her anything that could protect her mind from his continuous hypnotic barrage.

“Sleep.”

And thus, she succumbed.

“Sleep.”

Her eyes closed as she went limp, falling to the ground.

And yet, he didn’t let her.

He gently caught her in his arms, cradling her head gently.

The victor was decided in what was one of the most gentle conclusions to a battle in his entire life.

And yet, he didn’t mind.

For some reason, he didn’t feel the same fighting drive he felt against Ieyasu when he gazed at her. He felt something else.

“Prince Rui is the victor of this battle.” Bodhisattva Maitreyi announced with a tone that betrayed her shock.

She truly did not think Rui would be able to emerge victorious against the immense power hidden away deep within Amare. She had merely deemed him as a powerful opponent that could draw out all the full potential of Amare.

And yet, he had far surpassed her, obtaining victory.

Rui didn’t care about the match.

The blood-red Suns in his eye flickered unsteadily as he set aside her body gently and carefully.

And then, they disappeared as he reached the end of his mental stamina, falling unconscious beside her. THUD

The two extraordinary Martial Masters lay beside each other in a deep slumber. “Bodhisattva Maitreyi…” the other Bodhisattvas glared at the Abbot of the Gen Temple. “We demand an explanation. We demand to know what is happening!”

“About what?” She raised an eyebrow with an amused smile. “Amare put up a wonderful fight and ultimately failed to overcome the Dawnbringer, is there anything this one has missed?”

“You missed the part where her Martial Embodiment showed memories that weren’t her own,” Bodhisattva Pinaka snorted. “You missed the part where she somehow tapped into materia prima despite only being a Martial Master.”

Bodhisattva Maitreyi’s amused smile grew. “Amitabha, you’re right. I did miss that. I might have forgotten it. My memory is not quite what it used to be, you see.”

“Quit playing games, Abbot. We have the right to know the truth.”

She heaved a sigh. “I suppose you do. But I’m afraid I don’t know much myself. I myself discovered this truth very recently.”

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