The Martial Unity

It would lead to a horrifying outcome where his father would be reduced to an incoherent shell of himself. Thus, not only was it profoundly immoral, but it would not yield the outcome that Rui sought.

’What if I preserve his corpse and this entire room in a stasis field until I become a Martial Transcendent?’

That way, he could have his father avoid the torture and potentially return smoothly.

But… how long would that take?

He didn’t think he was going to break through to the Transcendent Realm tomorrow or the day after. It would take years, even if he had gotten closer to the Transcendent Realm than ever before.

’By then… the cause for returning my father… would become selfish.’

If he could magically restore his father perfectly right now, he would do it.

It would be beneficial to Panamic Civilization, to the Kandrian Empire, and to their entire species.

His father would want it to.

But… once they moved on from the tragedy and the continent stabilized once more, his father’s return would only disrupt civilization once more. The Kandrian Empire would gain a new ruler and a new political establishment, meaning his father would not be able to return to his old role.

It was not plausible to keep the throne empty until Rui broke through to Transcendence, either.

Resurrecting him would thus, put him put his father through even more tribulations and suffering upon life without his role.

Without the throne, without his burdens, without his duties, he would need to painstakingly find purpose once more. In a world that had already moved on to the future, he would need to find his place once more.

He who had already lived for four long centuries.

Would his father appreciate that?

His expression darkened.

He knew him well enough to know that this man existed to serve Kandria.

Even his leadership of human civilization was ultimately done in the interest of serving the Kandrian Empire. He had ascended the throne in his twenties, and since then, his duty as emperor was everything to him.

Even before he ascended the throne, he had long resolved to dedicate everything to the Kandrian Empire as the next emperor.

It was not an exaggeration to say that the Emperor of Kandria was the essence of who he was as a person.

Without the throne.

Without the crown, he didn’t know who he was.

Rui couldn’t imagine what kind of void would form in his heart as he would undoubtedly struggle to change to try desperately to reach out to some other identity to sustain his will to live and his perception of life.

His father was not a man desperate for life in the absence of his will to live.

Hell, he knew that his father was truly getting exhausted of… everything.

The world had changed too much.

Centuries of life had left him weary.

He had spoken about abdication more than once.

Would he truly appreciate being resurrected years into the future?

Rui heaved a deep, shaky breath as he opened his eyes.

Time unfroze as the blood continued dripping.

DRIP

DRIP

DRIP

Not a single person could move.

“What are you standing around for?”

Rui’s ethereal voice was grim.

His expression crumpled with severity.

“Do not indignify my father by beholding him in his death any longer.”

His voice was one of anger.

“He is… was… our Emperor. Collect his honored body with the grace and respect it deserves and transfer him to the Vargard Royal Palace.”

His words shattered the frozen inertia that had seized the gathered men and women as time seemed to flow once more. They remembered to breathe as their despair and misery seemed to grow alive once the initial brunt of the shock faded.

The medical professionals quickly gathered around him as they carefully and gently lifted his corpse, and several more returned with a medical stretcher before carefully and attentively placing his body.

They closed his eyes and mouth, before covering the corpse and binding it down meticulously, before quickly transferring it.

Rui watched from start to finish.

He watched as they carried his father away, before finally teleporting away.

WHOOSH

He found himself surrounded by trees as the warm light of dawn shone down on him, illuminating the forest around him.

He had no idea where he was.

He didn’t care.

He sat down on a rock as he heaved a deep, shaky breath, closing his eyes.

His fists clenched.

His teeth gritted.

His expression crumpled with reckoning as the full weight of this new reality bore down on him.

His father was dead.

“No…” A whisper escaped him. “He was murdered…”

A hint of wrath entered his voice.

“Murdered by NOVA.”

Rage boiled in his whisper of a voice.

Not just at NOVA, but also at himself.

“If… I had been quicker. If I had been stronger… I could have… protected him.”

If he had emerged from his little cocoon before his father felt the need to try and diplomatically negotiate a ceasefire with NOVA.

If he had managed to complete his procedure just a little sooner.

If he had just been better.

“No… If I had been a little less selfish… it might not have come to this.”

He had promised to partake in the war, but after speaking to the Divine Doctor, he had been so seduced by the possibilities and the promises of power that he simply couldn’t control himself in his excitement to achieve new power.

In that moment, an immense amount of frustration, self-loathing, grief, and anger boiled up from deep within his heart.

“DAMN IT!” His voice shook the very world around him. “DAMN IT ALL!”

RUMBLE

The panicked chirps and squeaks of little critters and birds in the surrounding forests hung in the air along with the rumble of the land beneath his feet and the dancing winds that brushed past him.

A shaky breath escaped him as he opened his eyes. “NOVA…”

He uttered her name like it was a curse.

His ethereal eyes flared with bloodlust.

“I will kill you.”

It was an oath.

“I will kill you with my own two hands.”