The Martial Unity

“A moon created by one’s hands?” she raised an eyebrow. “That sounds absurd.”

“It’s true,” Rui shrugged. “It was also destroyed with a single step from a Martial Transcendent as he leaped from the moon back to the Panama Continent in a single step.”

“…And where are these so-called Martial Transcendents at the moment?”

“They ceased to exist temporarily,” Rui explained. “It’s the price of their power. They’ll come after a century, perhaps.”

“…” Mother Maeria fell into thought. “The power to tap into the very fabric of reality… such a thing cannot be achieved by raw power and force alone. It also cannot be achieved by technology, either, as technology relies on the laws and principles of reality to function. Thus, it can be deduced that something that allows one to alter reality itself would need to exceed the bounds of physicality and enter into the realm of metaphysicality at the very root of reality.”

Rui nodded. “That was my suspicion as well. But unfortunately, it is harder to understand it beyond that. I just know that I’ve already exhausted every source of power within me and every source of power materially, at least. There is nothing left in my physicality that can serve to boost me up to another Realm of power.”

That didn’t mean that he had fully utilized all the potential that was available, not at all. He still had a lot of mastery left with the exotic pluripotent matter and even Anthea’s physiology.

But none of them could source him with as much power as the source of Transcendence could.

“This so-called source of Transcendence,” she remarked. “What makes you think that it exists for elves as well? Perhaps it is something that is limited to you Martial Artists and humans. Perhaps no other race has it, making you, our evolutionary ancestors, the ultimate race.”

Unlike the other light elves, she didn’t have any qualms with speculating about the potential inferiority of her own species relative to humans.

“I have no proof.” Rui shook his head. “But I highly doubt that this is something unique to humans and Martial Artists. For one, I know that the other Realms of the Martial Path manifest and exist differently in the Nature Path. For example…”

He raised several fingers.

“Mind, body, heart, and soul. These are all probably harnessed differently in the Nature Path than they are in the Martial Path, but they are harnessed, undoubtedly. Thus, it is very likely that the Nature Path is also able to achieve Transcendence, although it would look very different from Martial Transcendents…

“That is a reasonable line of logic. Then, what does it take for a Martial Sage like you to become a Martial Transcendent?” She raised an eyebrow. “You are still our best hope with your incredible rate of growth. The fact that you’re still growing as if you’re new to your Path is truly an absurd accomplishment. It must be a result of your gifts as well as your physical youth.”

“…The condition to Transcendence is… tricky,” Rui admitted. “It’s not entirely clear. When asked about it, different Martial Transcendents have given different answers. Each answer appears dyed by their own Martial Path, making it seem as though the condition to Transcendence is unique for each Martial Artist, and that each of us needs to find our own path to the Transcendent Realm. However…”

He gazed at his palm balling into a fist, before closing his eyes.

“I have grown closer to the Transcendent Realm after becoming a Martial Sage. There is no doubt about that. Even during my battle with the Mothers of Nature of East Genora, I could feel myself reaching insights and enlightenment that took me deeper and deeper down my Martial Path. Individuality is the key to progressing down the Martial Path. It requires bringing out the very essence of who you are in your Martial Art and diverging from everybody else to an even greater degree.”

“Individuality…” Mother Maeria’s expression grew displeased. “Individuality may work for the Martial Path, but it is a sin in the Nature Path. Nature is collectivist. Nature is one. To grow stronger, you must choose not to diverge from the others, but instead converge with them. We don’t seek to become separate, we seek to become…”

Her eyes widened with shock.

“…one.”

Her tone trailed off as she grew immersed in thought. Her expression lit up with realization as enlightenment dawned upon her. “I see…”

The air grew heavy as her body language grew serious.

She froze where she stood as her elderly eyes lit up with amazement.

It wasn’t just her vessel that experienced a shock.

It was also her true body.

RUMBLE…

Quivers spread across the domain as her body shook, where it was fixed with the weight of what appeared to be the most trivial and elementary realization to Rui.

Rui tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“We must become one,” she realized. “There is more power in oneness than there is in separateness. How powerful would we become if the barrier between ourselves and everything else were to disappear? How powerful would we become if we allowed our collective power to flow freely as if we were one being?”

Rui scratched his head as he pondered the thought.

People becoming one to achieve more power was something that sounded absurd in the Martial Path. Not even the Martial Artists of the Hive would be able to achieve something like that.

That even if their collective power could elevate them by a whole Realm, it was not something that could that they could achieve because it was impossible to allow their power to flow freely across all of them as if they were one being.

But what about the Nature Path?

What about the Mothers of Nature?

They had already achieved a degree of convergence with nature.

The barriers between themselves were already lower than they were in a lot of other species. The Mothers of Nature were more intricately and deeply connected with each other than the elite warriors of other species.