The Martial Unity

Rui found himself isolated in a meditation chamber with, seated on the hard floor with legs crossed and fingers interlocked. He closed his eyes as he began meditating, ridding his mind of superfluous thoughts. He began honing his focus, gathering his concentration to enhance his effective mental prowess.

It was something he used to do more frequently in the past when he was weaker, and usually when preparing for a battle with someone much stronger than him. To meditated and concentrated his mind on a single task and on a single matter. He had grown stronger since those days, to the point that he rarely needed to engage in such measures to deal with a vast majority of threats, if not all. But this time, he felt the need to bring himself to the absolute peak of his mind.

The day had come.

The day had come to confront the alien entity.

The Fear.

He still didn’t know how these two were connected, whether they were one and the same, whether one was a part of the other. But he did recall what his clone had said.

“It is everywhere.”

The same thing as what Ieyasu had said. Both of them had said that it was everywhere. He didn’t quite understand what it meant. How could it possibly be everywhere?

He had experienced it himself, of course. But his clone was wiser than he was when he did it, having inherited all the enlightenments that Rui had gotten over the years, increasing his understanding of the nature of reality itself.

Part of him worried that it was beyond their hands entirely. That it was a problem so extraordinary that it could not be solved by anybody, not even Martial Transcendents.

Another part of him scolded that pessimistic thought. Unless it was a law of physics that it could not be done, it was within the realm of reality.

He freed his mind of such thoughts as he continued gathering his mind, enhancing his mental state until there was nothing on his mind anymore. Strangely enough, he found that it was actually harder than it used to be. In the past, he used to be able to enter such a state of mind relatively quickly. Now, however, his mind was filled with thoughts that he was unable to let go of very easily. ‘Ria.’ His expression softened as his mind was filled with memories of his daughter from the day she was born to today, her first day at school. ‘Five years really passed in the blink of an eye.’

It passed him faster than he had expected. One moment, she was a newborn baby, the very next moment, she had become a five-year-old. He found it particularly hard to rid his mind of thoughts about her, even if it was easier to do so with everything else.

It passed him faster than he had expected. One moment, she was a newborn baby, the very next moment, she had become a five-year-old. He found it particularly hard to rid his mind of thoughts about her, even if it was easier to do so with everything else.

He heaved a deep breath.

‘This is for her.’

It was why he gritted his teeth and put her out of his mind as well, completely isolating his thought and focusing entirely on gathering his mind for one and only one purpose.

To eliminate the threat to Gaia.

His mind began sharpening into a razor-sharp blade while his attention converged into a singularity. While he prepared for his mission, the world slowly began preparing for the coordinated Gaian shield. All civilizations across the Gaia began diverting power from industries, from the public sector, from manufacturing hubs, and began redirecting it towards their underground energy absorption and negation systems, designed to harness geological energy within Gaia and to protect the citizens of Gaia from intense geological activity.

Most of these systems were deep underground comprising of countless plates, rods, roots, or whatever iteration each civilization had, that could, when mobilized to the maximum extent, absorb a lot of energy that permeated through Gaia. This included the Panama Continent.

“Please remain calm, there will be a temporary blackout for many more energy-intensive services!” An announcement went through the Kandrian Empire.

Fliers were put up, explaining what was happening with the energy supply, leaving citizens puzzled as to what was happening. Why in the world would they need to redirect energy to their seismic energy absorption systems?

00:50

There was no explanation for that. The announcement spread throughout the Kandrian Empire and even the Panama Continents as the Panamic Alliance coordinated a shutdown across the entirety of the continent, redirecting all of its energy to their recently implemented seismic energy absorption systems.

“Mama, what is happening?” Ria turned towards her mother with a curious expression. “Where is papa?”

School had ended, and she stood with her mother outside the campus, where Runark had also reunited with his father. The late afternoon sky was still bright and cloudless, while winds swept over them amid the ongoing announcement.

Amare smiled at her daughter with a bittersweet smile, lifting her up in her arms and giving her a deep hug.

“Mama?” Ria asked with an innocent tone.

“They’re preparing for a battle.”

“A battle?”

“Between a bad guy and your papa.”

Her eyes lit up. “Papa will win!”

She smiled at Ria.

“I’m sure he will. Come, let’s go home.”

She walked back with Ria at her request. The little girl enjoyed the sights of walking through town more than simply disappearing and appearing back home. Ria watched with an intrigued expression as to how the general populace reacted when experiencing the temporary shutdown.

Nobody was pleased, of course, even if it had been announced ahead of time to minimize disruptions. There were still plenty of people who only learned of it for the first time, and even more who were irritated despite having been warned of it ahead of time. A similar scene unfolded in other civilizations as well, causing varying degrees of chaos and disorder. The elves were the most orderly about it, having extraordinary cooperation and unity among them. The Mothers of Nature of both halves of elven civilization had informed their people of the shutdown just one time and each and every single elf had learned it.