The Martial Unity

Even as Rui blasted his MECHA and his body through the MECHA over and over, Tokugawa Ieyasu found himself in a death spiral that he wasn’t able to stop. Rui’s words stung more than the permeated blows themselves, as Ieyasu couldn’t help but think about the decisions he had made with his Martial Path despite being in the middle of the battle.

There was a sharp contrast in the paths that Rui and Ieyasu had taken since their previous fight. Both of them had pursued radical changes in their Martial Art in some form for the other, with Rui’s most radical change being that he replaced half of his body with evosapien physiology.

That was to Rui what adopting MECHAs was to Ieyasu.

Yet, they couldn’t be more different in outcome

Rui had been careful to preserve his foundation. It was why he had chosen to replace only half of his body with Anthea’s stem cells, not all of it. Preserving the other half allowed him to preserve the Martial nature of his Path and all the techniques and power that Rui had developed over the span of close to a century now.

He had managed to elegantly preserve everything he had gotten his hands on before while smoothly integrating something radically new into his Martial Art and Path without disrupting the rest of his Martial Art. Even his inherited memories and muscle memory from Ieyasu had been broken down, rid of their incompatible alien philosophy, and integrated into his Martial Art.

He had assimilated it perfectly into his own power.

In comparison, Ieyasu had sacrificed the foundation that he had built over the span of a lifetime for the sake of MECHAs, which he needed to effectively start over with and build a new foundation with, abandoning everything he had assimilated before.

It was a blunder that squandered decades’ worth of effort in the pursuit of power, contrasting sharply with someone who had managed to preserve and even merge the two.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

…

With each blow Rui landed on him, the difference between them only grew more and more pronounced to everybody watching the battle.

Ieyasu gritted his teeth as his expression crumpled in an ugly manner.

The shame was more unbearable than the pain.

His rivalry with Rui was not his goal; it was just an informal competition that had sprung up since they had acknowledged that they were cut from the same cloth. Their first battle had ended in a draw as they broke through to the Senior Realm at the same time.

Their second battle even had Ieyasu take a lead as he managed to defeat Rui. Since then, however, Rui had reached truly extraordinary levels of power, having reached the Sage Realm a full eleven years before Ieyasu did. It was an astonishing and shocking level of power that Ieyasu could never have imagined that Rui would have achieved.

It felt like a level of power that was permanently out of Ieyasu’s reach.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

…

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook violently as Rui single-mindedly dedicated all of his power to attacking Tokugawa Ieyasu. The nightly heavens shook violently as the winds danced in a volatile manner. The surface of the dark ocean was tumultuous as the power emanating from the battle caused enormous waves to emerge, rocking the ocean waters violently.

Sentinel Prime’s expression was one of grim severity. NOVA had not imagined that Rui would be this powerful; she truly hadn’t. Even as Rui attacked Ieyasu, Sentinel Prime had been attacking Rui’s back with everything he had.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!!

And yet, it didn’t so much as put a scratch on Rui.

All blunt force was absorbed.

All plasma was siphoned.

It didn’t matter if he pulled a switcheroo, trying to trick Rui; it was simply rendered irrelevant.

Sentinel Prime had tried switching to lasers, but Rui simply created a domain of varying optical density around him, altering the DNA of his exterior flesh to produce an electromagnetic field to help do so. The domain simply curved the light and redirected it towards Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Even sharp blades, plasma blades, or otherwise, proved to be irrelevant. Rui simply detached the parts that were about to come into contact with the blade by manipulating his DNA, causing the blade to pass through harmlessly.

Sentinels were diverse and versatile. They did not commit to one technology the way that tekvores did, but despite that diversity, Sentinel Prime found himself at a loss.

Every attack that NOVA was able to output from the sentinel leader was made obsolete.

Not only was it made obsolete, it was made counter-productive, as Rui often didn’t merely negate it, but also absorbed its power and redirected it to the sole purpose of defeating Tokugawa Ieyasu.

RUMBLE!!!!!

“Water…” Suneater swung at Rui and Tokugawa Ieyasu. The latter wisely foresaw the attack and teleported away from both the giant and Rui. Only to find that Rui had foreseen the teleportation, teleporting along with him.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

CRACK CRACK CRACK

Ieyasu’s bones began breaking apart even as his body tried regenerating them sluggishly.

Rui had inflicted so much damage on him that his body was a gory mess. His flesh had ripped, his muscles had torn, his bones had broken, and even his internal organs had begun hemorrhaging faster than his healing factor could restore them.

Rui’s pitch-black ethereal eyes lit up with anticipation.

“Now.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

“Ack…!” Tokugawa Ieyasu coughed blood as he felt a sharp, piercing pain in his chest.

He slowly glanced down as his cybernetic eyes widened with horror.

A wormhole had opened up right in front of his chest, from which an ethereal hand with a dark tint emerged, impaling his chest. He coughed up more blood, vigorously vomiting it as the internal hemorrhaging escalated at an alarming rate, before taking a glance at Rui. “You…”

Rui’s ethereal eyes seemed to pierce through the MECHA, boring straight into Ieyasu’s as his thrust right arm passed through a wormhole outside the MECHA, projecting his jab straight into Ieyasu’s chest.