The Martial Unity

He gave his clone a little bit of his gu.

He gave his clone some primordial seed and some negatron matter.

He patched the clone up from head to toe.

By the time he stepped away, even he couldn’t tell that the clone was a clone.

“This is me.”

Rui’s tone was one of great certainty.

When he looked at the clone, he could only see himself. If the clone was just a vessel before, it had truly become Rui Quarrier.

…STEP

Rui stepped away from the pod, landing on the ground as he gazed at his clone with a satisfied expression. “This is good. If I die, he will be able to take over smoothly. Ria probably won’t even be able to notice a difference once he integrates Anthean physiology into his body.”

“It certainly is the most existentially accurate clone ever created. Far superior to those that the immortal sages were blessed with,” the Divine Doctor remarked. “Now then, I’ll keep him in stasis in a highly secure facility—”

“No.”

Rui’s voice cut through the Divine Doctor’s words.

The Divine Doctor raised an eyebrow. “No?”

A smile of pure anticipation emerged on Rui’s face.

Excitement crackled in his ethereal eyes. “Wake him up.”

The Divine Doctor’s eyes flew wide open. “What?”

“I said…” Rui turned to him with a glint of impatience. “Wake him up.”

“That is a very, very bad idea,” the Divine Doctor remarked with an uncharacteristically serious tone. “You have no idea what the consequences of doing so are.”

“I do, trust me.”

“No,” the Divine Doctor firmly denied. “You do not. Clones who inherit memories inherit identity as well.”

“And?”

“It means that there is a conflict of identity,” the Divine Doctor remarked. “Are you familiar with what the most intense desire that humans have?”

“Self-preservation?”

“Close, but not quite,” the Divine Doctor shook his head. “The most intense desire that clones have is not self-preservation, but identity-preservation. People don’t realize this because situations where one’s identity is threatened are extremely rare. But you have experienced the horrors of having your sense of identity threatened, have you not?”

Rui’s ethereal eyes grew hazy as he thought back to when the man standing before him had told him about the truth of his reincarnation. Indeed, the desperation it had created was more intense than his desire to live.

“Clones experience tremendous drives for identity preservation,” the Divine Doctor remarked with a serious expression. “They do everything in their power to preserve their identity. And the only way they can do that is…”

His tone grew intense.

“…is if they kill the original and take the original’s place.”

The atmosphere grew heavier.

The air darkened as a faint tension tingled at the nerves electrically.

His eyes sharpened as they bore deep into Rui’s. “Do you understand? If you wake him up… this clone will do everything in his power to destroy you.”

He had expected his warning to dissuade Rui.

But instead, a wild, fierce smile of excitement emerged on his face.

“That is exactly what I want.”

The Divine Doctor’s eyes widened at those words.

“What better opponent than myself?”

He stared at Rui with a hint of disbelief as Rui continued uttering crazy things one after another. “You’re really going to indulge in your most destructive impulses as a Martial Artist at this critical juncture?”

“…It’s not just impulsive.” Rui clenched his fists. “I would rather not die than have to make this clone to take my place. And in order to that…”

His eyes sharpened.

“I need more power. I need as much power as I possibly can get. But unfortunately, I have hit a bottleneck.”

“I find that hard to believe, considering you’ve had an astronomical growth rate that didn’t seem to slow down even after you became a Martial Sage,” the Divine Doctor commented.

“I’ve emptied out the tank,” Rui replied. “Mirror neurons. Chaos. Esoteric matter. I’ve gone down the list in the past six years. Outside of gaining enlightenment to slowly make my way to the Transcendent Realm, I’ve largely finished everything there is to explore immediately.”

“…What does this have to do with fighting your clone? You said it yourself, this clone is weaker than you, right?”

Rui’s eagerness returned. “He is weaker than me. Much weaker than me. If he tries to fight me through ordinary means, he will be utterly defeated. Which is why…”

His eyes brimmed with excitement. “…he must rely on extraordinary measures.”

The Divine Doctor’s eyes widened as he finally understood what Rui was aiming for. “You want him to use that power.”

Everybody was familiar with that power, even it’s name was not publicly known. The world had been drowned in water when Rui had been teleported to East Genora.

It had been drowned in water when he fought the Dragon Emperor.

People knew of its existence.

An extraordinary power that seemed to have no limits, but one that he seldom used for the brutal drawbacks that came with it. Rui nodded with a serious expression. “It has allowed me to go beyond my limits and create magical things that I couldn’t even dream about. It’s a special state of mind where my very existence resonates with my Martial Path and I become closer to Water.”

That was why, despite achieving extraordinary cognition with a combination of a passive Megamind and accelerated neurology with his Anthean half, he could never quite replicate the kind of power that he came to possess with Gigabrain.

“Every time I use it, I tread into uncharted territories that I cannot reach otherwise. Even though he is weaker than I, I believe that pushing this clone beyond his limits into deploying this ultimate power will allow me to harness whatever power he ends up creating,” Rui continued with a serious expression. “It will make me stronger. Which will increase the likelihood that I will survive. And so…”

He directed a pointed gaze at the Divine Doctor.

“Wake him up.”

The Divine Doctor heaved a deep breath.

“Fine.”

His attention returned to the computer as he deactivated the tranquilization systems.

Minutes passed as they waited with bated breaths.

Then, the clone opened his eyes.

Pitch-black eyes filled with an ocean of darkness within them.