The Martial Unity

The onlooking spectators simply watched the battle with stunned expression as Rui continued pressuring the Sage psychologically earning violent backlashes from him. And yet, not a single time could he get even a single attack on Rui despite pouring all his speed and power into his attacks.

The onlooking Sages understood that this wasn’t due to his own shortcomings.

The fact that his swings were able to generate such a cleanly sharp shockwave that didn’t simply dissipate was proof that he had achieved truly impressive mastery. Such a feat would have been impossible if the blade was even a nano-degree off angle with the trajectory of the swing.

His swordsmanship was refined.

And yet—

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Rui weaved through blade swings with a buttery smoothness as he continued pressuring Sage Sekiei and draining his stamina.

Sage Himari and the Terrampager were most moved by this display of composed finesse.

Their battles with him had ended up being more flashy as Rui had pulled off crazy, risky stunts to even achieve parity. He had needed to pull off dangerous stunts because he simply had no chance of even maintaining the battle without them. This time, however, was different.

He didn’t try any flashy stunts in a desperate bid to maintain the battle.

No, he managed to tussle with a Martial Sage even without relying on such things.

“…He’s grown stronger,” a faint whisper escaped Sage Himari. “Strong enough to fight us without gimmicks and stunts.”

This realization struck the Sages heavily, leaving them stunned and speechless.

It was shocking enough that the Dawnbringer had grown strong enough to fight a Martial Sage. It was even more shocking to learn that he could now do so without any risks and dangers, or at least no more than one would expect in an intense battle.

The Blood of Solaris.

The Scriptures of Terra.

The blood evolution treatment.

These had comprehensively elevated him to a far greater echelon of combat power, and it was blatantly visible as they witnessed him battle Sage Sekiei.

The battle was mesmerizingly fascinating.

Despite the fact that Sage Sekiei was an order of magnitude faster than Rui, he still somehow smoothly evaded the man like the very world ordained that he shalt not be struck.

It was like watching someone narrowly avoid terrible accidents over and over again due to sheer luck. Accidents that would have otherwise killed them where they stood.

In another world, some would have accused Sage Sekiei of being a paid actor.

And yet, no amount of money would have ever convinced the increasingly frustrated Martial Sage to throw the match.

A horrifyingly powerful vertical sword attack swung down on Rui like a bolt of lightning.

And yet, it merely struck the land where Rui had been standing less than a microsecond prior, having evaded the attack narrowly.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!

The tremendous sword attack was so fiercely powerful that it uprooted an entire nation’s worth of land, carving a segment of the Valley of Gods from the surface.

And yet, he had missed.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!!!

Rui blasted his ribs with a flurry of sharp finger jabs armed with soul-retconned Yin-Yang Spear and Phantom Pain, the latter also being enhanced by Gigabrain as well, becoming an almost unavoidably powerful hypnosis.

“AAARRRGGHHH!!!” the Martial Sage howled with pain even as he swung land-splitting sword attacks at Rui.

And yet—

WHOOSH

He gritted his teeth as Rui evaded his blow once more, having wound his way to striking range once more.

BOOOOOOMMM!!!

Sage Sekiei’s body shivered with pain as Rui landed a fierce Yin-Yang Spear kick to the balls, amplifying the pain to the absolute maximum with a partially soul-retconned Phantom Pain.

“AARARRRRRGHGHRHRAGHHH!!!” Sage Sekiei’s expression grew maddened as his eyes grew red with bloodlust. “DIE! JUST DIE!”

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!!!

The pain was beyond anything he had experienced since the body evolution procedure for the Squire Realm.

It also caused his spacing security to stumble.

Just by a little.

And yet, that was more than enough to allow Rui to infiltrate, allowing him to land an even larger barrage of blows on his opponent, creating even more weaknesses and holes in his defense.

It was a negative feedback loop that ultimately favored Rui. Of course, he was still nowhere near actually bringing down the Sage in terms of damage inflicted, but it allowed him to get closer and closer.

With each passing moment, the amount of pain and suffering that Sage Sekiei sustained only grew larger and larger as his anger reached maddening levels.

And then he snapped.

“Blade of Heaven: Heavenly Bond of Karma.”

Rui’s eyes widened with shock as a profoundly perilous surge of danger sent chills down his spine as he instinctively leaped away.

But alas, he could not avoid what was to come.

In just a matter of nanoseconds, the entirety of heaven shifted as molecules aligned themselves with his blade, forming a myriad of channels of force that connected with all other things on the entirety of the battlefield.

His blade grew connected with all of heaven while all of heaven grew connected with everything else, forming an unbreakable bond between his blade and all things in the world around him. “Blade of Heaven…” A chilling whisper escaped him. “Omni-Heaven Rend.”

An attack that struck everything everywhere.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!

The world shook as Sage Sekiei swung his sword with tremendous power, rending all of heaven and earth along with Rui.

RUMBLE!!!!!

Gaia mourned as the Martial Sage ruthlessly scarred her body

The world shook for another minute before settling down.

As the dust settled, the outcome became clear.

His body was checkered with wounds, cuts, and bruises.

He has cracked a few bones and partially torn a muscle.

He had even sustained an internal injury.

He immediately deactivated the partial Godspeed, replacing it with a partial Weaving Blood that rushed to heal his body at a very rapid rate. Weaving Blood was a technique that had benefited from the most upgrades in the past two years, with the Blood of Solaris and blood evolution treatment greatly enhancing its limits and regeneration speed.

And yet, it was not fast enough.

For the second Rend had already arrived.