The Martial Unity

“She missed you so much.” Amare’s voice reached Rui as he tucked his sleeping daughter in bed. Rui’s ethereal eyes softened with a hint of regret. “I know.”

“I missed you so much.” He turned towards her with a sorrowful smile.

“As did I.”

He extended a hand out towards her, beckoning her to him. She gazed at him for several moments before softening her amber eyes as she made her way towards him, settling in his arms.

She didn’t need to say more, for he understood.

As did she.

Rui had gone far out of his way to accommodate time for both of them in his busy daily schedule over the past five years. He even took Ria to work or worked from home, despite all the inconvenience. He had made sure that he would be a good father without compromising his duty as the Emperor of Kandria and the leader of the Panama Continent.

But he had completely disappeared over the past few weeks, something he had never ever done before. That showed just how extremely important and severe the matter he was dealing with was. He wouldn’t do this if it weren’t absolutely necessary for him not to be distracted even in the slightest.

“All the preparations are complete,” Rui replied. “Tomorrow. The seven civilizations and the entire true world will coordinate an energy redirection later in the evening towards maximizing their seismic absorption, negation, and stabilization, to mitigate any risks that may or may not manifest as I confront the source of the Fear.”

Amare’s amber eyes sharpened. “…Should I come along?”

“That would be assuring, but…” He shook his head. “One of us needs to be with Ria. Not to mention…”

He told her about the clone.

Her eyes widened with shock. “You created an identical clone of you before you metamorphosized and fought with him to copy his Gigabrain techniques?”

Rui nodded. “Then I sealed him. If I die or something bad happens… he will take over.”

She gazed at him with a shocked expression. “…And then what? Will Ria just have a new father identical to her old one? Or not even, given that he wouldn’t be translucent. She would notice the difference right away. And I’m not making love with a clone of you.”

Rui smirked at those words. “Trust me, I made sure that he inherited all of my lovemaking adaptive evolution.”

THWACK!

Rui chuckled as Amare smacked him on the shoulder with an embarrassed expression.

“Identity is information, Amare,” Rui remarked, shaking his head. “That clone is Rui Quarrier as much as I am. I’m certain about that. This is all for the sake of Ria. That is why I have no qualms taking this risk.”

He turned towards her with a serious expression. “One more thing… when the time for my confrontation with the Fear emerges… You need to be prepared.”

His ethereal eyes sharpened. “If anything happens to this world. You need to be prepared to teleport away with Ria to the Panamic Space Station and make sure to take a spaceship to one of the other terraformed elven planets. Whatever happens, you can’t allow anything to happen to Ria.”

Amare’s expression hardened with grave severity at those words. She hated that the situation was so risky that Rui felt the need to tell her that. She simply steeled her will, nodding with grim seriousness.

“I will.”

Rui heaved a deep breath. “Of course, I don’t think anything like that will happen. But… I want Ria to be safe no matter what.”

She nodded at him, resting her head against his chest as she felt his powerful, calm heart beat. Their relationship had changed over the past five years, growing from one of passion into one of trust and mutual understanding. They didn’t have the same youthful desire for physical intimacy as they once had. Ria, instead, had become the symbol of their love. Now, almost everything they did, they did with Ria in mind.

“You should get some rest,” Amare told him, knowing full well that he didn’t need it. “If tomorrow is that important. Then you should get some sleep so that you’re at your peak.”

Rui nodded.

“I’ll do just that.”

The two of them quickly went to sleep on either side of Ria, who was fast asleep. Rui closed his eyes as he fell asleep for the first time in a long time. He also dreamed for the first time in a long time.

He found himself standing on his Martial Path.

An old, familiar dream.

One that he had dreamed many times in the past.

And yet, there was something different.

The path forward was visible.

He could see the future.

What he saw beggared his wildest fathoming.

RUMBLE…

The path took him down.

Into the depths of the world.

Deep underground, through the crust, and into the mantle, towards the very core.

And it emerged into the universe.

A vast cosmos with countless galaxies of different sizes and shapes. They clustered together to form clusters and superclusters, connected with cosmic filaments that spanned the entirety of the universe in a cosmic web.

A grand reality that was larger and more magnificent than anything one could even begin to fathom. It contained unfathomable depths.

When he opened his eyes, it was already morning. He had forgotten about what he had dreamed.

He felt refreshed in a way that was different from the neurological reset he did to his brain whenever it grew drowsy. It was psychologically comforting.

“Maybe I should sleep more often.”

He often used the night to train in the manifold, because training was the one place he couldn’t take Ria to. WHOOSH…

He got up, turning towards the cool morning breeze blowing from the windows that brushed past them, gazing at the early light of dawn emerging on the horizon.

Today was the day.

He turned towards his dozing daughter, poking at her soft cheek. “Time to wake up, baby girl.”

Ria stirred as Amare slowly woke up, turning towards him with soft affection in her amber eyes, before she shifted her gaze to the sleeping Ria, kissing her on the head.

“Let’s go, Ria. We have the first day of school today.”