The Martial Unity

RUMBLE!!!!!

The afternoon skies darkened to that of dusk as Lightfeeder pushed itself to the very limits, activating all of its systems to the very limit, drawing tremendous amounts of power from its engine-core as well as from the environment around it.

Master Ninda Sorlun gritted her teeth as she pushed her machine to the very limit, consuming all the light that Argenton generated, struggling to dismantle his solid light avatar to strip him of his defenses and light.

“Rgh!” Argenton snarled with frustration as his light began to grow stolen from him in a manner that defied his own understanding of light. None of the principles of electromagnetism and quantum electrodynamics functioned in this situation as the effects of exotic matter that played with its own set of rules and its own interactions with the four fundamental forces.

Bodhisattva Maitreyi took a step back as she panted, trying to catch her breath. She gazed at Lightfeeder with a truly amazed expression as she studied the power that the MECHA unleashed and how well it worked against Argenton.

“She’s just a Martial Master…”

Bodhisattva Maitreyi could sense that. The Martial Artist inhabiting the machine was a mid-grade Martial Master at best, and yet she was fighting against a Transcendent Candidate-level opponent.

It was unfathomable.

Not even Rui had ever crossed the gap between Realms to such a flagrant and astronomical degree, only ever having neutralized a low-grade Martial Sage in combat.

However, Lightfeeder went well, well beyond that.

She was overcoming one of the most powerful tekvores in the world.

Bodhisattva Maitreyi could simply watch with a dumbfounded expression as she bore witness to the full potential of the MECHA being realized right before her very eyes.

She had been agnostic to MECHAs as a platform when the Esoterist first introduced them to the world. She didn’t mind them and thought it was fine for Martial Arts to try out a new revolutionary paradigm evolution for the first time since the invention of the Body Evolution process, but she felt an attraction or affinity to MECHAs as a concept.

She had been impressed with the power they displayed, of course, and with how nations rushed to invest in MECHAs as the next new revolutionary weapons technology; she was certain that it would carve out a huge market and sect within the Martial World.

And it certainly had over the past eighteen years.

The MECHA Sect had proven to be the fastest rising sect in the Martial World, along with Rui’s Water Sect. Both of them had taken the storm, and the fact that the former had been able to match the latter’s rate of growth despite all the religious fanaticism around Rui showed just how revolutionary it was.

Even the Gen Temple that Bodhisattva Maitreyi oversaw had decided to adopt MECHAs, even if to a modest degree. However, now Bodhisattva Maitreyi feared that she may not have invested in it as much as she should have.

She could believe the fact that a MECHA Martial Artist was overwhelming Argenton.

Of course, she understood that this wasn’t just a merit of the MECHA, but also the merit of the fact that this particular MECHA was highly antithetical by design against Argenton.

Rui had shown the world just how powerful antitheticality could be. One didn’t need to have a lot of power to become dominant, as long as one used even meager power antithetically, one could overwhelm anybody.

MECHAs did not have meager power. They gave Martial Artists tremendous amounts of power, allowing them to output more raw destruction than they ever could before.

And the Lightfeeder’s design had been optimized to completely destroy Argenton, who was regarded as having a high threat profile in the true world. Even if Argenton was not one of the top ten, he was still one that the Panama Continent needed to worry about.

Bodhisattva Maitreyi felt a little useless just watching, but she couldn’t even intervene due to the fact that her own light would get absorbed. If she hastily activated Heavenly Step of Boundless Light, she could potentially even get killed.

That was a shocking realization.

MECHAs had been slated to make old Martial Artists useless and obsolete, but only now did she realize that that possibility was genuinely plausible and even likely at this rate. Only the strongest of the strongest Martial Artists would be worth having as Martial Artists instead of MECHA Artists.

There were even more variables that played in favor of Lightfeeder than even Bodhisattva Maitreyi had realized due to her limited knowledge on MECHAs.

Because speed of information transfer and bandwidth mattered so much and because it varied across people so much, talent for MECHAs was an extremely real thing.

Neuroconductivity was the variable that decided how well one could interface with a MECHA. It was a variable that measured just how well one’s brain was equipped with the ability to have information implanted into it through electromagnetic pulse stimulation technology.

Some people were just born for MECHAs.

Master Ninda Sorlun was among them, possessing a neuroconductivity factor of A+, close to the very limit of what was possible. It allowed her to become almost one with her MECHA, treating it like her own body, as if she were a giant with the efficiency of a Martial Artist and the antitheticality of Rui Quarrier.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

The giant avatar of solid light broke as Master Ninda Sorlun lit up with delight. “Yes!”

Argenton’s expression was one of horror as he watched his most prized technological system break down into pieces, causing him tremendous distress.

The Lightfeeder’s eyes flared with power as she surged forth, eager to destroy the person that she had been trained to destroy. Her MECHA burned with power from all the light she had absorbed, gathering so much energy that even Martial Sages gaped with awe.

VMMM!!!

The powerful MECHA charged at Argenton, shaking with power as it unleashed a tremendous blast of light at the falling tekvore.

[Alright, that’s enough.]

Master Nina’s eyes widened as a hole through the very fabric of reality sucked Argenton in just before the attack could annihilate him.

WHOOSH

Just like that, he disappeared.

[If you think Rui Quarrier is the only one capable of using teleportation in combat, you’re sorely mistaken. ദ്ദി ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ )]

Bodhisattva Maitreyi’s expression grew grim as a profound sense of helplessness hung in the air, hitting particularly hard after the triumphant expectations.