The Martial Unity

WHOOSH

They arrived in the medical room with the Divine Doctor simply plopping to the ground as Rui turned to him frantically. “Save her!”

The Divine Doctor took one glance at Amare before heaving a soft sigh. “…You brought me all the way here for a delivery? Me?”

“There are irregularities,” Rui growled.

“That’s plainly obvious, with a single glance,” the Divine Doctor heaved a bored sigh as he got up.

His nonchalance contrasted with the heavy atmosphere in the medical room, the constant beeping of the machines monitoring her vitals, the smell of blood mixing in with the sterile smell that characterized hospitals. Rui wanted to almost throw the man at Amare, but he restricted himself as the Divine Doctor walked over, studying the vitals, as well as her condition, directing a glance at her face, studying her eyes.

The doctor and nurses were indeed stunned by the sudden appearance of the man, but not a single person failed to recognize the most knowledgeable and skilled doctor in the history of their continent. They were more than willing to defer to him.

The Divine Doctor pulled out several needles from a belt of tools that weaved around the waist of his trousers, before piercing several spots on Amare’s head lightly, causing her eyes to come into focus and the hazy unresponsiveness to go away.

“Ah…!” she gasped. “What just…?”

“Everything’s fine, Esil, you were just momentarily unresponsive due to blood loss, shock, and pain,” the Divine Doctor reassured her.

Her eyes widened at the man. “You’re here.”

“More importantly, your child is in danger, and I need your help to save her,” the Divine Doctor spoke to her calmly, earning her determination.

“What do I need to do?” Amare’s voice was one of determination.

“All of this happened because your Martial Body was far stronger than was anticipated,” the Divine Doctor explained. “Thankfully, you’re a Martial Sage, which means we can make use of that. Use your nascent Martial Soul to completely suppress your healing factor. Tell your cells to stop healing for a moment. She couldn’t activate her Martial Heart, but a part of her Martial Soul was constantly active even without it, just like with the Martial Mind. She closed her eyes, reaching deep into her body as she understood what was happening.

Even expected tissue damage from childbirth was being healed instantly before her baby could be delivered, impeding the process and causing her child to suffer from suffocation that threatened to deprive her of oxygen.

Her amber eyes flared with willpower as she resolved herself not to allow that, no matter what happened. She quickly did as the Divine Doctor, shutting her healing factor down.

The root cause of the problem was eliminated, but the problems it had caused had yet to be resolved. “Good.” The Divine Doctor nodded. “Now I’m going to need you to coordinate this with me to save your child. I’m going to attempt a manual adjustment of the position of your child within your body; you need to exert your Martial Soul to…”

Rui gritted his teeth as he found it difficult to simply stand there. But he ultimately trusted the Divine Doctor and Amare as the two of them worked together to solve the complications that had arisen. He wasn’t accustomed to circumstances where he wasn’t in complete control, and increasingly didn’t experience them ever. It took all of his willpower to crush his desire to try and take things into his own hands as he simply watched the Divine Doctor and Amare work together to try and slowly fix the problems that were impeding a smooth childbirth.

He knew that his trying to step forth and take control here would only increase the probability of a tragedy. His solutions were powerful, but they were unverified, untested on such delicate subjects, and, more importantly, functioned with trial and error. Ever since he integrated Anthean physiology into his body, he had broken out of the barriers of Martial Art that restricted his power to Martial Art.

It allowed him to feel like he was the best and the most fit at everything. Since even if somebody had more knowledge and experience than him, his vastly greater cognition and speed, along with trump cards like prophecy, allowed him to bring about a greater result, more often than not.

But in this particular case, he could only entrust everything to the Divine Doctor and Amare. He could not afford to use trial-and-error solutions on his partner while she was delivering. Even if he had prophecy, he simply couldn’t trust it to ensure that nothing bad would happen.

That was the best thing that he could do at the moment. To simply step back, that was the best way to adaptively evolve to the medical crisis. It was a humbling realization, but one that he needed to make. He had done everything he ought to have, giving support to her and bringing the best man for the problem to her. Now he needed to control himself and let them handle it.

It was easier said than done. He found that he couldn’t bear to watch, as it made his nerves tingle with nervousness. He shut down all of his senses, save for his hearing, as he listened to Amare and the Divine Doctor slowly work through the problems, and he encouraged her to push.

And soon enough, the moment arrived.

“Waaaah!” The boisterous crying of a newborn infant rang in the air. “Waaaah!”

Rui’s eyes flew wide open as his gaze fell upon his newborn daughter, who rested in the loving and affectionate arms of an exhausted Amare. The newborn baby had grown quiet in her mother’s embrace, having fallen asleep almost immediately. Her complexion was that of a light olive tone, while her head was covered in a light tuft of golden hair.

Her plump cheeks swayed while her little fingers curled reflexively.

In that moment, an explosion erupted inside Rui’s mind.

An explosion of greater magnitude than any other.