The Martial Unity

From the very moment Rui had laid eyes on his opponent with Gigabrain, he knew that he would be unable to take him down with anything less than a Sage-level attack.

And yet, he wasn’t capable of generating a Sage-level attack of his own merit. Even his most powerful attacks were merely quasi-Sage-level in raw power. Given how powerful the Terrampager’s body was, Rui didn’t think the Sun was able to do anything to someone of his defensive caliber.

Thus, he needed a source of energy outside his own self.

With the Scriptures of Gaia, he had gained the ability to harness seismic potential energy in his own attacks, but that was far from enough, as all Terran Martial Artists could surely do the same.

He needed a much greater force.

One that was powerful enough to take down a Martial Sage.

And there was only one such source in his environment when the fight began.

The Nest of Terra itself.

They were under an enormous amount of land, after all.

If he could harness the weight of all the land above them, he should be able to generate an attack that was able to defeat a Martial Sage. Ordinarily, this was impossible.

However, Rui had the Scriptures of Terra.

And a cognition that was enhanced by Gigabrain.

Thus, from the very moment the battle had begun, Rui’s mind was most consumed with a single task.

Finding the optimal path of action to displace the supporting bedrock and replace it with the Terrampager.

Doing so would ensure that he would be caught off-guard with an astronomical amount of weight.

The only difficulty was finding the optimal path of action over such a tremendously enormous distance. Without Gigabrain, it would have taken him far longer than just three minutes. And yet, three minutes in battle with a Martial Sage felt like an eternity.

In fact, if not for the fact that Rui had just barely managed to find the optimal path of action in time, he would have surely died then and there.

And though he had managed to find it in time. It didn’t mean he was able to get away without any consequences.

The same could be said for the Nest of Terra as well.

No matter how smooth the replacement of the supporting bedrock with the body of the Terrampager was, such a drastic shift in the supporting foundations of the subterranean empire would be felt.

And it was.

RUMBLE!!!

“Arrrghh!”

“What is happening?!”

“Did the beasts and monsters make it into the Nest?!”

Violent earthquakes spread across the entirety of the Nest of Terra, spreading mass panic and hysteria. If not for the proprietary earthquake suppression esoteric technology of the Nest of Terra and the Martial Sages of both factions exerting their power to peacefully disperse, countless people would have died.

The crisis was so acutely grave that both consuls momentarily put aside their hatred and enmity for each other and began working together side by side for the first time in a decade.

“Have the Subterranean Seismic Activity Monitoring Department send me a report on this matter right away!” Consul Sergenilius ordered with grave urgency.

“Have the Martial Corps execute emergency protocols A-36!” Consul Notera gritted her teeth.

Both leaders of the subterranean nation were shaken by such an anomaly just minutes after Consul Sergenilius’ ploy was revealed.

RUMBLE…

It was not until several minutes passed that the tremors finally subsided, leaving everyone grave and severe.

None of them had understood what had happened.

CRACK CRACK CRACK

The walls of one of the deepest tunnels in the Nest of Terra broke open as a wounded and bloody figure fell into the open space. Rui gasped for air desperately as he just barely managed to dig his way out of the walls of the tunnel in time to avoid dying as a result of suffocation. If not for the Scriptures of Terra, there was no way he would have been able to extricate himself in the condition that he was in.

Not with only one remaining limb.

His left arm was entirely ripped off.

Both his legs had been torn off at the knee by the sheer force of his final attack.

He had even lost an eyeball.

His skin and flesh were ripped apart while his muscles were torn.

It was truly not an exaggeration to say that he had just barely survived by the skin of his teeth despite only being exposed to a fraction of the full power of a Sage-level attack.

And yet, a triumphant grin emerged on his face.

He had managed to emerge victorious.

“Hehehe…” A pained chuckle escaped him. “I wo—”

“No, you didn’t.”

Rui’s eyes widened with shock as he heard the chilling voice of the Terrampager from within the land around him. CRACK CRACK CRACK!

The wall of the tunnel began cracking ominously.

RUMBLE

The land shook as Rui could sense the suffocating aura of the Terrampager.

BOOM

The wall blasted open as a bloody, gory figure of the Terrampager appeared in front of Rui.

“You little shit…!” his voice choked with pain and unfathomable fury. “Look at what you did to me…!”

He had not managed to escape the attack unscathed. His defense was largely active, which meant that being caught so thoroughly off-guard had caused him tremendous damage.

His skin had been sheared off.

As had his outer flesh.

All that was left was a bloody figure of muscles and bone.

And yet, that was enough.

He surged forth, mustering what little power he had to kill the immobile Rui.

“This is the end, Dawnbri—!”

BANG!!!

The attack came out of nowhere.

A pillar of earth surged from within the depths of the land, blasting the Martial Sage on his jaw with a thundering impact.

After all the damage that the critically wounded Martial Sage had suffered, that blow crossed the critical threshold.

His bloody eyes rolled over as he fell down over there, unconscious.

And yet, before Rui could even begin to parse what had happened, he too lost consciousness.

And thus, the battle had finally come to an end. –