The Martial Unity

Amare’s eyes widened at those words. “So that’s what happened after I passed away…”

Rui nodded. “Your grandmother intervened that day, and that is perhaps the only reason I’m not dead. I broke through,h and together we killed Asmodeous.”

She smiled bittersweetly.

“It was my mistake…” she murmured. “I shouldn’t have formed a bond with him as a child if I intended to abandon him, but…”

She heaved a sigh. “I was desperate for a solution for Enlightenment of Self back then. I had completed my mission to spread Martial Art across Panama and had headed desperately to the Psycher for a solution to my curse.”

The Psycher stirred at those words as his attention returned to his immediate surroundings.

He gazed at her with respect and guilt.

“It took me seven hundred years, but I have fulfilled my promise to you.”

She smiled at him with gratitude. “I am grateful that you never forgot. After I originally died, you could have easily ignored your promise to me, but you kept trying for another seven hundred years when you didn’t need to.”

The Psycher shook his head. “You paint me far too noble, dear Esil. I only pursued this because it is relevant to my goals. My goal is to overcome the curse that bound all three of us. And now…”

He gazed at Rui with intense red eyes.

“I have found the perfect solution.”

Rui huffed, shaking his head. “Seven hundred years. I forget how ancient you two are. Grandma Amare and Grandpa Psycher. You’re like living zombies.”

BAM

Rui chuckled as he blocked a blow from an upset Amare.

“You aren’t that different from us,” the Psycher remarked. “You have already overcome death. You are a zombie yourself. Although in your case…”

The Psycher sharpened his red eyes.

“It was involuntary.”

Rui heaved a deep breath.

To this day, he didn’t know who was responsible for his soul transference ritual.

He had some clues.

He knew that it likely wasn’t Transcendent Raizel.

He knew that not even a Martial Sage would have been capable of what was done to him.

He knew that his mother had suspiciously named him something that translated to ’reincarnated’ in the Silas dialect.

He didn’t understand.

Despite reaching the highest echelon of power on the continent, he wasn’t able to learn the truth about his past.

“…Ah, well,” Rui heaved a sigh. “It doesn’t matter all that much.”

He was who he was, and he would do what he would do, regardless.

He turned to the Psycher with a knowing gaze. “I will give you a blueprint of the Large Soul Model. After that, we have completed our business.”

The Psycher nodded with a serious expression.

“With this, I will be able to unlock the secrets of consciousness.”

Amare’s eyes lit up with curiosity. “That was the same goal you had back then.”

He nodded solemnly. “I have tried empirically and scientifically understanding the secrets of consciousness, but…”

He shook his head. “It is a dead-end. The truth about consciousness is not something that can be unlocked from the outside; it can only be understood from the inside.”

Rui gazed at him with mild interest.

He was hardly interested in such high-minded philosophical matters.

His interests and thoughts had always been grounded in the material world.

In martial arts and Martial Art.

The Psycher smiled at him, amused. “Do not believe that this matter is irrelevant to you. I will have you know that the Transcendent Prophet was once my apprentice. My knowledge of the mind helped him reach the Transcendent Realm.”

Rui’s eyes flew wide open. “…What?!”

“It’s not very well known, of course,” he remarked. “But I spent more time passing my knowledge on to him, more so than the Harbinger, Sage Sera.”

“…I would imagine that that’s because his Martial Path is related to the soul, no?” Rui raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying that the nature of consciousness has something to do with the Transcendent Realm? I have already maxed out all the potential in my mind and soul, I will have you know.”

“I am aware of that,” the Psycher replied. “What I am trying to convey is that the very metaphysical nature of consciousness may be tied to a higher Realm of Martial Art. Think about it…”

He directed a knowing gaze at Rui. “What is consciousness? Why does it exist? Why aren’t human beings as unalive as, say, computers? They, too, process information and can, to an extent, autonomously act on it. And yet…”

He paused, directed a meaningful gaze at Rui. “They do not have consciousness. They do not have consciousness at all. This phenomenon, conscious experience, does appear to be connected in the brain, but it is simultaneously a truly immaterial phenomenon. It exists in… pure information. An information phenomenon that adheres to causality and is yet immaterial. To me, that suggests that…”

He gazed at Rui with a pointed gaze.

“There is likely more to the fundamental structure of reality itself than we understand. I suspect that there exists a profound and unfathomable connection between the very ontology of reality and our consciousness. One that we know absolutely nothing of.”

Rui remained silent.

He was out of his depth.

He wasn’t accustomed to spending his time pondering the fundamental metaphysics of the universe.

The Psycher’s guess that this was somehow connected to the Transcendent Realm was something that exceeded his capacity to grapple with.

And yet, it stirred his interest.

The Martial Transcendents were able to blatantly violate the laws of reality.

They were able to blatantly violate the laws of causality itself.

These laws, which were otherwise absolutely absolute, seemed to melt away in their presence.

That begged the question as to how much they understood about the very foundations of reality.

Were the laws of Physics truly absolute in the first place?

What connection could this possibly have to the phenomenon of consciousness and its ties to reality?

How could this possibly be harnessed in one’s Martial Art?

He didn’t know.

He had absolutely no clue whatsoever.