The Martial Unity

A large number of people were gathered around a crackling bonfire, surrounded by a large, dense forest of a myriad array of exotic colors amid the lush greenery. The fresh air of the forest and the smoke from the fire wafted through the silent, heavy atmosphere.

Their Martial attires were worn and torn.

Not even the quasi-Transcendent fabrics they were woven from could endure a decade of onslaught from all manner quasi-Transcendent monsters. Their expressions were hardened with grim severity, their eyes alert.

Their body language was heavy.

It bore down on the atmosphere.

As did their very presence and being.

They bore down on the very fabric of the world around them. Among them were countless new faces, fresh into the Sage Realm. Their presences contrasted against the grizzled veterans among the Martial Sages who first entered the Beast Domain.

Their was a different air of severity to those among the Martial Sages who had been in the Beast Domain for a decade. One that their younger peers didn’t quite understand.

Despite their many different affiliations and origins, they had an air of familiarity among them. Despite the different ethnic attires, the different nations they hailed from, the differences in their Martial Art and philosophies, those among them who had fought together in the depths of the Beast Domain who had fought amid each other for a decade possessed a gravitic bond that transcended the divisions between them. They were the half of those amid the past who had survived.

In the past ten years, almost half of all the Martial Sages who had entered the Beast Domain for the initial Siege of Sages had perished.

Their numbers has fallen greatly.

In the Central Highlands of the Beast Domain, even Martial Sages were reduced to ordinary soldiers on the battlefield.

Soldiers who could die at any moment.

And many of them did.

It impacted those who had survived.

Even within their own makeshift camp in the culled territories of the Beast Domain, they were unable to lower their guard.

The air tingled with tension.

The faint anticipation of peril colored the atmosphere.

Their bodies brimmed with power and energy.

Their eyes flared with darkened vigor.

The time was nigh.

STEP

Their attention shifted towards to the anticipated arrival.

STEP

Each step he took seemed to displace the very world.

STEP

His gait was calm and composed.

STEP…

He arrived before the gathered group of Martial Sages, directing a sweeping gaze across each and every single one of them with pitch-black eyes. The Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire regarded him the most friendlily as Damian grinned with approval while Sage Sayfeel nodded with respect and loyalty. Matriarch Nephi simply gazed at him with profound eyes while Kane mustered a smile despite the heavy atmosphere.

There wasn’t even the slightest hint of dispute over his leadership among the Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire. Despite a whopping thirty-six Martial Sages as the only Sage-level powerhouse along with the Gen Temple to have replenished the Martial Sages they had lost, none of the Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire had even the slightest ounce of doubt over his leadership over them. Whether it was the older Martial Sages or the younger Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire like the Sage Aronian, Sage Ceeran, and Sage Vericita, they didn’t so much as display even the slightest bit of doubt in his leadership over them. What was even more surprising was the fact that this sentiment extended to all the other Martial Sages from across human civilization.

The Martial Sages of the three former enemies of the Kandrian Empire in East Panama each acknowledged his leadership over the Sage-level task force over a span of ten years. Sage Shinken and Sage Vermilion gazed at him with grudging respect while the others had long dropped any pretence of rivalry any more.

The nine other powerhouses too gazed at him with anticipation.

Over the past ten years, he had earned their deference.

His strategic and tactical insights into war.

His nigh-infinite knowledge on beasts and monsters with the Enlightenment of the Tree of Life.

His ability to prophesize the future.

They made him the undisputed candidate for the leader of the Sage-level task force.

Even as they gazed at him, at his long, flowing black hair and the ephemeral deathly tint that lingered across his skin and his suspiciously young visage, they couldn’t sense the depths of his power.

It was unfathomable.

Unlike anything they had ever seen in their entire life.

His demeanor and body language were profoundly calm and composed.

Even amid the sheer tension that hung in the air in anticipation of what was to come, he couldn’t be moved.

“My friends…” his tone was rich with tranquil certainty. “The time has come.”

The many gathered Martial Sages grew even more severe and solemn.

“Over the past ten years…” Rui continued with a profound tone, “we have warred against the Central Highlands of the Beast Domain.”

The pitch-black darkness in his eyes intensified.

“We have fought the native quasi-Transcendent beasts and monsters of the Central Highlands.”

The atmosphere grew heavier.

“We have fought…” his tone grew stronger, “and we have won.”

A glint of melancholy flickered in the depths of his eyes.

“We have lost a great number of friends along the way.”

The atmosphere grew heavier as the gathered Martial Sages grew grim.

Nothing reminded them of their mortality like their fallen peers.

“We have conquered most of the Central Highlands,” he continued, “we have exterminated most of the beasts and monsters that posed a threat to human civilization. And now…”

A sweeping gaze swept across all of them. “We have arrived at their final bastion.”

His eyes sharpened.

“Their final stand.”

A growing sense of determination emerged from the Martial Sages.

Over the past ten years, the Central Highands of the Beast Domain had united against the Siege of Sages. Not just because the psychological command from the Beast That Roared, but also because of self-preservation.

They were intelligent enough to recognize that no species individually could possibly defeat all the Martial Sages of human civilization. Thus, the survivors of conquered territories in the Central Highlands retreated deeper and deeper, as was in their instinct. It was essentially what they normally did, in accordance with the phenomenon known as the Beast Convergence.

They banded together in one final ring of territory revolving outside of the epicenter of the Beast Domain.

It was the final line of defense against the Martial Sages of humanity.

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