The Martial Unity

The Esoterist was having the worst day of his life.

He was also having the best day of his life.

Or lives.

“Shit, don’t lose against that amazing and incredibly refined cyborg entity! Gatekeeper!” the Esoterist screamed at the screen as he watched a feed of the battle. “Break past that ingenious plating technology and defend against that supreme plasma canon technology!”

He sat at his table within his lab, at the edge of his seat, as he bore witness to a battle that would affect the destiny of the Esocline Federation through his headset. It was very rare that the leader of the Esocline Federation would feel so excited and afraid at the same time.

“Whose side are you on?”

The tranquil voice of a young man emerged from behind the Esoterist.

A young man with blood-red hair and eyes.

“I’m on the side of technology,” the Esoterist declared. “MY technology, of course.”

“That’s hard to believe, looking at your reactions to the alien entity,” the young man said with a disapproving tone. “I would rather we won this battle. I have just found a new and splendid vessel that I would rather not have to lose.”

The young man gazed at his hands with an amazed expression, clenching his fists with enough force to crush steel.

The Esoterist turned to gaze at him.

“You chose to get that body at the wrong time, I say. The Emperor of Harmony will not be pleased to know what you have done with one of his precious blood humans, Psycher.”

From the very moment the Psycher learned that the blood humans were more intelligent genetically than baseline humanity, he had immediately procured a blood human baby and had conducted the soul transfer ritual on the infant.

By the time he had woken up in the new body, already having turned into an adult body, he found that his cognition had reached new heights.

The Psycher’s attention returned to the screen where he watched the Gatekeeper breaking through to the Sage Realm, serving as the only barrier between the Esocline Federation and the alient cyborg entity.

“What is your evaluation of the foreign entity?” the Psycher observed with careful eyes, making his own inferences. “It is hard for me to tell with the cybernetic eyes, but its body language and non-verbal communication are humanesque in many ways. And yet, it has integrated technology into every nook and cranny of its entire body. Is this the path that the human species in the True World has taken? Or is this a different species entirely? I am unable to judge. And yet…”

His blood-red eyes sharpened. “I can tell that it possesses a very powerful innate predatory instinct. One that rivals that of a predatory beast while also possessing the clear intelligence of our species. What stuns me is that…”

He gazed at the nude entity’s groin. “…it appears to possess no visible reproductive anatomy despite the rest of its anatomy being very similar to that of the human species. I do not understand, unfortunately. If it is similar to the human species, then we undoubtedly share an evolutionary origin, which implies that the true world and our continent were surely one together in the past. We would be able to learn more if the Divine Doctor and the Ecologer were here, but alas, they are busy with their own problem.”

“I don’t know or care if we share DNA with this species,” the Esoterist’s eyes sparkled with amazement at the technologies of the foreign entity. “I do care about their technology. It’s clearly more advanced than even Esocline’s technology, despite the fact that this state is blessed with my technological development and some of the other brightest minds in human civilization. I also care about their technological paradigms and their technological trajectory.”

The Esoterist’s eyes brimmed with concern and excitement alike.

“Integrating technology into the human body is very difficult. The paradigms are radically different from ordinary technology. I know this because we have a department dedicated to R&D in man-machine integration. Even something as simple as a wheel, screw, and nut need to be reinvented to suit human physiology human biochemistry. It requires its own technological branch and clearly…”

His eyes sharpened as he studied the fighting of the foreign entity. “…this is something that a particular species or faction or polity specializes in. To reach this degree of mastery of man-machine integration means that they have undoubtedly dedicated all their research and capital to it for an extended period of time.”

The Psycher nodded. “That stands to reason. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the sheer comfort and synergy that the entity seems to be displaying with the technology integrated into its very being is actually extremely high. To me, it seems as though…”

His expression grew serious.

“As though this entity is cultivating technology.”

The Esoterist stirred at those words as he nodded. “You’re right. You have articulated a strange sensation that I have had gazing upon this entity. It’s not just technological development or progress. This entity appears to have been cultivating technology in a path that is very similar to how Martial Artists cultivate human potential.”

The implication of this hypothesis and the tentative observation was huge.

“…It’s possible that there are fundamentally different ‘paths’ out there.” The Psycher realized. “It’s possible that the Martial Path as we know it is exclusively a human thing as opposed to a product of intelligence, agency, and rationality that is unique to our species.”

One of the many things that the Psycher had studied in his long life was the phenomena of Martial Paths.

It was arguably the greatest mystery of the human experience.

What was the Martial Path?

It was an answer that not even Martial Sages were able to provide.

If the Martial Transcendents had an answer, then they had not shared it with human civilization. However, the possibility of different paths existing out there in the True World was truly shocking, even to fathom.

“I don’t know, but for now…” The Esoterist watched with a grave eye as the Gatekeeper unleashed his Ragnarok. “…let’s get through this battle for now.”

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