The Martial Unity

In the depths of the Virodhabhasa Theocracy, atop a mountain at the very epicenter of the theocratic nation, was a little shrine. It lacked the ostentatious embellishment of the theistic architecture that otherwise characterized the vividly beautiful nation.

It was a small, unremarkable shrine.

A sight that would move no one.

And yet, it housed an extraordinary Transcendent force.

He meditated at the very center of the shrine, entirely content sitting cross-legged atop the marble tiles of the shrine.

His eyes opened slowly as he directed a knowing glance at the Central Highlands of the Beast Domain.

His mouth never moved.

And yet, a faint murmur escaped him nonetheless.

“Soon.”

He had waited for what was to come for a long, long time. He had waited ever since he became a Martial Transcendent and saw beyond the veil.

“Prepare yourselves, my friends,” a faint whisper escaped him. “For the time is but nigh. The time for us to act.”

His voice didn’t get past the shrine.

And yet, it reached his other eleven colleagues.

“Finally,” the Conqueror of Chaos stretched her limbs within the depths of the Great Nam Ocean. “I have been so bored in the past hundred years.”

A crooked grin emerged on her messy visage. “I can’t wait. They should hurry up.”

“No.” The voice of the Shield of Gaia joined them. “They should take their time. Even the slightest of mistakes will prove to be fatal. Their opponent is an extraordinary lifeform, after all. It will not hold back against them. They will need to be extremely careful in every step they take.”

“I concur with the Shield of Gaia,” the Empress of End spoke with a domineering tone. “The End is nigh. A new dawn shall illuminate this world when their task, and ours, is complete.”

“Hmmm… I don’t know about that,” The Materealtor remarked with an amused tone. “I’m just eager to deal with the slander, y’know? All this shit-talk about how we are useless and all that. I can’t wait for these fellows to understand everything we have done for them. Everything we will do for them and the price we pay for it. Tsk tsk.”

His tone was light and playful, disrupting the otherwise intense atmosphere that had come to weigh down on the conversation.

“I care not for the approval of mortals.”

The sharp voice of the Demon of Darkness cut past the Materealtor.

“I agree with that sentiment,” the Breathless Beauty spoke with an exquisite voice. “They cannot even fathom the reality we live in. They cannot even fathom what is to come. Their perspective on us is simply irrelevant. We should focus on our plan. On our strategy. The one that the Primordial Martial himself has come up with.”

Silence overcame the conversation.

They each spoke of the Primordial Martial as though he weren’t there.

“He would have been better off borrowing the manifold of the Kandrian Empire to achieve the task he set for himself.” The Deity of Divergence remarked. “He had already begun his mission by then,” the Fists of Fury snorted. “Do not bother trying to wake him up. He told us not to interrupt him at any cost.”

“Yes, but he doesn’t even have that much time left.” The Moonforger remarked. “The Martial Sages are almost ready. What can he possibly achieve in the next twenty-four hours that he has failed to achieve since breaking through to the Transcendent Realm?”

“…”

They had to admit, he was right.

“It is unlikely,” Transcendent Raizel admitted. “And yet, he has always been at the very forefront, treading the path to the future. If he is unable to tread any further, then it shows just how difficult it is to progress at our stage of power. Not to mention, when the Unfolding happens, he won’t be able to train until we all return. Speaking of which…”

Transcendent Raizel sharpened his gaze. “We also no longer have Arthur with us.”

The Conqueror of Chaos smiled messily. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. He had the highest control and precision out of all of us. He might have been able to time it just right. A baby singularity doesn’t require that much power.”

They spoke strange words and strange sentences with meanings that only they knew.

“I don’t care about the Unfolding,” the Blood God growled. “If human civilization perishes, so be it. I only care about the fear that plagues us all. In two hundred years, we have yet to find the source of the fear that plagues our hearts. My heart.”

His blood-red eyes sharpened with intensity.

“I did not become a Transcendent to live in fear.”

“I second that sentiment,” the Fists of Fury’s tone was laced with anger. “We need to forget about the Unfolding and focus on that.”

The Shield of Gaia narrowed his eyes even as he balanced the Nest of Terra above his head. “We have an obligation to Gaia. We must protect her from the Unfolding and pay back our debt. Besides…”

His tone grew profoundly intense. “Our vision of the universe is constrained until the Unfolding happens. If you wish to understand what drives us to fear, then you must wait until the Unfolding happens and until after we return.”

The two Martial Transcendents were deeply displeased by this option, but they didn’t have much of a choice. Besides, they would be lying if they said human civilization was not worth keeping around, if only to produce more Martial Transcendents to help them deal with the fear that plagued their hearts. There were already three who were viable candidates who could break through to the Transcendent Realm, those three were perhaps the only reason to keep human civilization around.

“It’s not just them,” Transcendent Raizel read their minds. “It’s all of them. Each Martial Sage possesses the faint probability of breaking through to the Transcendent Realm, after all. Additionally…”

A confident smile of certainty appeared on his face.

“They have Him.”

The Martial Transcendents stirred at those words.

None of them could deny that.

“He will lead them,” the Astral Sovereign promised. “He will lead all of them. Who knows? Perhaps he will succeed where even the Martial Primordial failed when we are gone.”

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