The Martial Unity

“Don’t be ridiculous, these resources are priceless.” The Astromind glared at the Esoterist. “I know you have no care for non-esoteric resources, but we need iron and other metals for our civilization, too. Our civilization relies more on non-essoteric matter on a day-to-day basis for many of the most basic tasks that we engage in. We can’t allow our civilization to be denied its rightful share of our solar system.”

The Esoterist had to admit that the man had a point. “…The Emperor of Harmony and the other leaders of human civilization will definitely have to make a decision on the matter.”

“Other?” the Astromind glared at him. “You are a leader of human civilization as well, you know? You can’t just ignore the matter and delegate to the morons that are the ruling class of our civilization.”

The Esoterist shrugged. “The power is just a means to an end. I’m agnostic on this issue. I am amenable to any decision on the matter that is productive. I think it is practical for us to skip this phase of the race to space and focus on interstellar space travel and conquest. If we try to catch up on the solar system phase, then we will forever be behind our enemies and allies. But on the other hand…”

He shrugged. “If we allow everybody else to control this solar system, then we will be imprisoned and boxed. They will gain immense leverage over us. So I understand if the Emperor of Harmony chooses to focus on our solar system first and carve out our own little space before moving on to interstellar space.”

This was where civilizations such as the Evolutionary Army and the Imperial Tekvorian Federation were planning to attack the Panama Continent, since the sea monsters of the Great Nam Ocean made it impossible to attack the continent while remaining within the continent, as did the Beast Excursion. That was why ensuring that human civilization gained a powerful presence in outer space within the solar system was crucial to its survival and prosperity.

“Regardless, what we must do hasn’t changed,” the Esoterist remarked. “We need to develop an entire slew of outer space technology. From outer space travel, to outer space sustenance, to reaching exoplanets, to extracting their resources and sending them back. We need to develop the outer space equivalent of every sector and industry.”

This was the task that a joint research group led by the Esoterist Astromind, along with some of the best scientists and engineers on the entire continent from all the Sage-level powerhouses, had gotten together to commence Project Spacefare.

It was the project to get human civilization from a space-dwelling sub-Type-one civilization on the Kardashev Scale to at least a quasi-Type-two civilization. Human civilization hadn’t even harnessed the full power of their continent or Gaia, so they weren’t even a Type-One, but they got to cheat thanks to their exotic matter reserves.

Tangentially, Emperor Rael had commenced a commission for some of the most brilliant Martial Artists on the continent to develop a new branch of Martial Arts.

Extraterrestrial Martial Art.

If outer space were bound to become the new medium of Martial Art, then it made sense that Martial Artists needed to adaptively evolve to this new challenge. This was actually the perfect thing to have Rui work on since this was right up his alley, but the Emperor of Harmony had decided to let him focus on more immediate and pressing issues, which were gaining more allies and dealing with their immediate enemies.

“It is very likely that Martial Artists will have to adapt by adopting weapons or, ideally, MECHAs,” the Esoterist remarked. “I had never anticipated that my MECHAs would be used in such a fashion, but I must confess that it is most sensible. Google seaʀᴄh n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net

Martial Art was largely obsolete in an environment without leverage to throw punches and strikes. Martial Sages could still deal with it with space manipulation, but it was not optimal.

“Good decision to develop those in hindsight. Unfortunately, human civilization is still going to need a lot of time before MECHAs become ubiquitous.”

Thankfully, the race to space was not something that could happen overnight.

Or even in five years.

In order to wage a full-fledged battle in space, the Evolutionary Army and the Imperial Tekvorian Federation would need to shift their forces to outer space, which, considering how absolutely gigantic their army was, would take time.

It wasn’t easy to develop the housing, the systems of sustenance, and defense that were needed to wage a proper extraterrestrial war in outer space.

“I will have to accelerate the spread of MECHAs as much as possible and hope for the best,” the Esoterist muttered. “Otherwise, we’re screwed when they do bombard and invade our continent from outer space. This might be an era where… where Martial Art becomes weaker than technology.”

His eyes lit up with delight.

He had always yearned for technology to overtake Martial Art, and MECHAs has been one way to undermine Martial Art even if it was helpful on paper. However, he hadn’t expected that it would help in going to outer space, where Martial Art as it existed was truly useless.

In fact, the Esoterist would have been certain that Martial Art would be completely undermined by outer space if not for the existence of one man.

“That damned Dawnbringer…” the Esoterist muttered with a hint of dissatisfaction. “As long as he exists…”

As he existed, it was difficult to imagine Martial Art not thriving. His contributions to Martial Art were unfathomable, and with his rate of growth and growing contributions, it was almost impossible for Martial Art to exist.

For the Esoterist to get what he wanted, Rui would have to die.

He huffed lightly. “There is no way that that can possibly happen.”

Rui had survived the most extraordinary of tribulations in the entire world. There was no way that he could possibly die, for nothing in the world appeared to be strong enough to kill him.