The Martial Unity

Amare relished in his presence as she squeezed him tight with every ounce of energy she could muster, feeling relief suffuse through her own body.

“Don’t ever disappear like that ever again.” Her voice was ever so slightly shaky.

“I won’t,” Rui promised her, wincing. “I feel like my ribs are going to break.”

She eased up on the pressure before stepping away to take a look at his face.

“You were gone three months.”

Rui heaved a sigh. “You know what the consequences of Gigabrain are. I can’t help it. It would at least partly constitute a forbidden technique with all the consequences.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Were the light elves that strong that even you had to use that?”

“They were,” Rui confirmed. “It took me everything I had just to survive the assault and kill the ringleader.”

“This… Mother Maeria that they talk about,” Amare asked with a curious tone. “Why did she help you?”

“I’ll tell you all about it when we have time, but more importantly, we need to talk about the future.”

Rui’s pitch-black eyes bore deep in Amare’s with a serious gaze.

“We need to go to Kiriket soon.”

“…You’re going for the Beast Path next, then,” she murmured.

Rui nodded. “Not just that, in this particular case, the fate of human civilization is at stake, so I will probably try to handle that matter first before fixing Kiriket’s growing hostility with human civilization.”

Amare’s expression nodded. “…I trained hard in the past three months with nature manipulation. I have learned enough of the Nature Path.”

Her amber eyes sharpened as she clenched her fists.

“I need more power.”

Her desire for power appeared to have grown even more intense.

He didn’t blame her, of course.

Her death and their separation the first time around were the reasons that she had developed a deep drive for power. She recognized that her weakness was responsible for her death and her suffering.

And just when she thought she had perhaps gained enough power, she lost Rui again, only to feel utterly helpless despite all the power that she had. The light elves were too powerful in their territory for even a Transcendent Candidate-level Martial Artist to wade through their territory.

She had certainly tried running towards East Genora, but the Mothers of Nature had to stop her to ensure that nothing happened to the other human ambassador.

One of the reasons that she had thought that she was weak was that she realized just how much the scales of power had inflated, to the point where even Transcendent Candidates couldn’t tip the scales of power too much.

What she needed was power that exceeded even that.

The kind of power that Rui and the Supreme Commander of the Evolutionary Army possessed.

That was why she was eager to gain new power with the Beast Path of Kiriket. She listened as Rui told her everything that he knew about Kiriket and its growing hostility with human civilization, and what their goal in the continent was.

“…It’s a shame not everybody is as friendly as the dark elves,” Amare murmured. “It’s been so fun living on this continent among the elves…”

She heaved a sigh as she directed a sweeping gaze across the lush, green forests that spread as far as the eye could see, even from the point in the skies at which they were standing, illuminated by the afternoon Sun. She had imagined a future for the two of them on the continent, one where they were settled and perhaps even starting a family.

Rui sensed her emotions with his mind sense, leaning in closer as he pulled her in.

“I think you’ll enjoy Kiriket,” Rui remarked, trying to raise her mood. “You were always with good animals. Maybe we can get you a cute squirrel or something.”

“I’m not looking for a pet, I’m looking for power,” she huffed.

Rui scratched his head with a wry smile. “Then a cute squirrel that also has an antimatter core in its body, along with an arsenal of nuclear weapons or something.”

“Cuteness is not as important as the power, I’m sure you’re going to get a beast that is going to be monstrously destructive.”

Rui pondered her statement. “You know, I’m not entirely sure what kind of beast I’m going to go for. I think the Beast Path might actually be harder for me than the Nature Path.”

Nature was limited outside of Genora, but it didn’t limit him.

The Beast Path, on the other hand, felt as limiting as a weapon.

He wasn’t sure how on Earth he was going to properly integrate a beast into his Martial Art, he feared that he might have run into a much harder limit in his ambition of integrating the six paths into his Martial Path.

“I’m sure I can figure something out.”

Still, the logistical issues couldn’t help but keep popping up in his mind. He wasn’t sure if he could handle all of the limitations that came with being a beast and therianthrope.

The most important question was whether he was psychologically prepared to integrate animal flesh into his body.

He winced.

“…I’m kinda hoping I can bypass the flesh part somehow.”

He had managed to do it with nature, after all.

“Really?” Amare’s amber eyes lit up. “I wouldn’t mind some animal features. Like maybe cat ears, wouldn’t that look cute?”

“…”

Rui stared at her, hoping to detect some signs of humor, before shaking his head.

“We’ll put the matter aside for now. We’re not going to have time to train in leisure when we get there. We will have to solve the Kiriket Crisis first, and only then will we have the time to learn the Beast Path.”

She nodded. “So when are we leaving?”

“Not in the next few days,” Rui remarked as he pulled her in closer. “I think I can afford to spend some personal time with you in our time apart, but also…”

His eyes sharpened.

“I will need to spend some time researching Kiriket.”