The Martial Unity

2863  Noticed Oddities

Rui hadn’t had time to consider this fact when the Demon had told him about it. After all, the man had poisoned Rui and was about to kill him, only to be intercepted by Amare, who he did kill.

So much had happened in the brief timespan from then till he lost consciousness that he wouldn’t have even thought about what the Demon had told him if not for the Divine Doctor.

“…Marked,” the Divine Doctor murmured with an impassive tone devoid of warmth. “Indeed, the black hair and eyes are not genetic mutations. No. They are extra hereditary genetic traits.”

Rui’s impassive eyes flickered with a hint of confusion. “…Meaning?”

“Meaning that these genes do not appear in the ancestry of those who possess it and do not pass on to their offspring,” the Divine Doctor replied with a clinical tone. “Should you breed, your children will not inherit your features. Neither will any of your descendants. It is an atypical genetic mutation. Furthermore, my cursory interest into it reveals that these features do not have any environmental or biochemical causes. It simply randomly appears in certain human beings. I never thought much of it but…”

His eyes lit up with a hint of clinical interest, “it is interesting, this Marked business. I wonder if there is any scientific merit to the late Sage’s hypothesis. The samples that I have are certainly consistent with the proposition. With yourself, the other lad, the late Demon, and, of course, Esil.”

Rui narrowed his eyes. “By Esil, you mean…”

“The Martial, of course,” the Divine Doctor absentmindedly replied as his eyes wandered about immersed in thought. “I shall reserve this as an area of research to conduct with the Beggar Sage.”

His clinical gaze shifted to Rui. “Anything else?”

Rui fell into thought as he stirred where he stood.

There was something else.

“The Martial Transcendents are…” Rui’s eyes sharpened, “hiding something important from us.”

The Divine Doctor was unimpressed as his frosty gaze bore heavy. “That is not new.”

“I have gained some insights into what it is in my conversation with the Astral Sovereign,” Rui remarked. “First, this world will experience something known as the ‘Unfolding.’”

The Divine Doctor’s eyes lit up with a hint of scientific interest. “…Unfolding?”

Rui nodded. “I haven’t the faintest fathoming what it could possibly be. I am unable to come up with a viable interpretation as to what the hell it could potentially mean. But, he told me that the Unfolding would happen. It didn’t strike me as some insignificant event limited in scope.”

Both men deployed their extraordinary cognition to decode what it could possibly mean. But with merely the single clue of the name, there was no way they could possibly narrow it down from the endless possibilities that existed.

“…We lack the needed data points.” “I concur.”

And thus, they put the matter aside for the time being.

“Secondly, Martial Transcendents are… afraid,” Rui’s impassive expression grew tinted with a hint of severity. “They are afraid of something. Something so extraordinarily astronomical in its scope that one needs to enter the Transcendent Realm just to experience it.”

Just uttering those words inspired a hint of fear within Rui’s mind.

Even after he had gained the Martial Soul and had gained an unprecedented an extraordinary level of awareness in resolution and scope, he still couldn’t fathom what the hell the Martial Transcendent was talking about. That fact was truly chilling.

“…I have heard whispers of the Transcendent Fear from the Beggar Sage,” the Divine Doctor mused with clinical curiosity. “Fascinating. Fascinating indeed.”

“One last thing,” Rui remarked with an impassive tone. “He slipped up. The Astral Sovereign.”

Rui’s sharpened. “He told me he had eleven colleagues.”

The Divine Doctor’s eyes lit up with an intrigued expression. “…Eleven?”

Rui nodded. “I don’t know what it means but… I’m inclined to believe that in that moment, he did indeed only have eleven colleagues.”

“…I see. This has been… revealing.”

“That’s all I got,” Rui’s tone was calm and composed. “Now, do not delay me any further. Can you heal her?”

The intensity of his body language grew.

The Divine Doctor simply shook his head. “I’m afraid not. You have restored her from death with absolute perfection on a physiological level. This issue is neuro-psychological. It is outside of my field of expertise. You will need to visit a specialist in this field.”

Rui’s eyes sharpened. “The Psycher.”

The Divine Doctor nodded. “He is the only one who can possibly restore her mind from the soul that has imprisoned her.”

Rui closed his eyes slowly. “…Then my original plan doesn’t change. I will take Amare with me and visit him in the Esocline Federation immediately and…”

His eyes opened, brimming with an intense determination, “and have him fix her no matter what.”

RUMBLE…

The world quivered under the weight of his will.

His emotions themselves seemed to ripple through heaven and earth.

“Before you do that, I will have you tell me everything that has transpired…”

STEP

Rui and the Divine Doctor shifted their gazes to the new presences that had arrived at the medical facility as soon as possible.

The powerful golden eyes of the Emperor of Harmony softened as they beheld his son, “…my son.”

Behind him were two Martial Sages, Sage Sayfeel and Sage Farana, who regarded him silently.

Rui stared at his father with a heavy gaze.

He wanted to depart for the Esocline Federation immediately, for each delayed second was a second of Amare suffering, but he knew that he owed his father an explanation. Additionally, he, too, needed an explanation for everything that he had missed since he had surely been asleep for several months with how much he had abused Gigabrain.

He was sure that much had happened at that time, and it was probably best to be caught up with everything that he had missed before he departed from the Kandrian Empire.

“…Very well, father,” Rui relented as he heaved a soft resigned sigh.

–