The Martial Unity

RUMBLE…

Ria paused as the ground tremored a little underneath her feet. Her attention moved downwards as she tilted her head with a hint of confusion.

“Why is the ground shaking?”

RUMBLE…

“Hahaha! This feels fun!” Runark jumped up and down upon the tremoring ground. “No, this feels scary…” another child muttered with a fearful tone as tears began emerging in her eyes. “I don’t like this…”

“Don’t be scared, I’ll protect all of you!” Runark declared bravely, before turning towards Ria. “I’ll protect you too, ok?”

She turned towards Runark, nodding with an affectionate smile as Runark began stomping the ground with his feet, as if trying to punish the ground into stopping its shaking. “Here! Take that! Rgh!”

At a distance, Kane and Amare watched their kids play with the other kids as they frolicked about the cordoned residential area underneath the depleting light of the twilight sky. The street lights were off, making it even darker. Amare had instinctively wanted to refuse Ria when she asked to go to play with her friends at the Quarrier Orphanage, but she had ultimately resigned herself to her daughter’s wants. Especially if it kept her distracted from the fact that her father hadn’t come to see her, something that was unheard of as far as Rui was concerned.

Kane heaved a deep breath as he shifted his gaze to quivering lands with a knowing expression. “This… doesn’t bode well.”

Kane was in the know, of course, as a Martial Sage and a close friend of Rui’s. Rui was an investigative expedition deep into the depths of Gaia to confront an alien entity that could be the reason behind all the eccentricities of the Panama Continent. It was a matter that concerned the fate of the world, a matter far beyond the capabilities of even a Martial Sage like Kane, of whom there were a dime a dozen.

“He’s doing something way beyond me, as usual,” Kane smiled knowingly, returning his gaze towards Runark. “And as usual, he will succeed.”

Amare turned towards Kane with a hint of admiration for his undying faith in his best friend, before shifting her gaze back at Ria, who joined Runark in stomping the ground to stop their shaking.

She admired Ria for being brave despite the slightest slips of seismic radiation. Naturally, she made sure to remain extremely close to her daughter, while keeping her powerful senses primed for anything larger and more dangerous, her Realms of power, were active, but hidden, allowing her to react sooner.

“You don’t have to be so wound up,” Kane told Amare knowingly. “Rui is capable of making the impossible possible. This isn’t wouldn’t even be the craziest thing he’s done, if you asked me.”

“I know, my return to life is one of those impossibilities,” she remarked knowingly. “But… I have too much to lose, it makes me… nervous.”

She felt the depths of her chest tingle with a familiar sense of anxiety. It was a deeply unpleasant feeling, like something was trying to crush her heart in a vice.

“Hey.” Kane drew her attention with a strong tone of voice, directing a serious gaze. “Have some faith.”

A smile emerged on his face.

“Rui is not in the business of not pulling miracles out of his ass when the circumstances demand it.”

*****

RUMBLE…

Mother Maeria frowned as tremors washed over East Genora, causing her main body to quiver. She turned towards the seismic readings displayed on the screen with a concerned expression in her elderly sapphire eyes.

The data revealed a truly violent surge of seismic radiation emerging from the depths of Gaia. The data also showed a three-dimensional hologram display of the active seismic energy absorption systems that clearly drained seismic radiation of almost all of their energy. RUMBLE…

The fact that there was still any left at all to cause even minor earthquakes spoke of the sheer volume of seismic radiation that was emerging from the point of maximum fear.

“What do you think?” The Divine Doctor asked, studying the data of the sweeping seismic radiation across Gaia. “Geology isn’t really my area of expertise.”

She turned towards him with a serious expression. “Whatever is happening there, it seems clear that Rui has failed to merely conduct an investigation.”

The Divine Doctor nodded. “Based on the sustained period of time we’ve been detecting seismic radiation across Panama and the true world, it can be inferred that he’s likely ended up in some kind of conflict.”

“Teleporting back won’t be easy, given how long it took him to teleport to the point of maximum fear,” Mother Maeria remarked with a serious tone of voice. “He won’t be able to return until he has fully resolved the entire matter. That will be taxing, especially since it’s unclear when he’ll be done.”

“Do not underestimate him.” A slithery whisper of a voice emerged from an active communication terminal. “He’s not someone who will go down easily. He has reached a truly astonishing rank of power as a Martial Sage. I do not believe there to be any forces that can defeat him as he is now.”

Mother Maeria’s expression grew knowing as she directed a pointed glance at the active terminal. “Except for yourself.”

She sensed a hint of mirth from the creature on the other side of the communication channel. “As I am right now, I’m incapable of posing a threat to anybody. More importantly, keep an eye out for anything that is able to pose a threat to him. I do not wish for anything to get in the way of what he is doing.”

She waved her hand, causing a two-dimensional hologram to light up, revealing several spots marked on a map of the world. “We have a good trace on the location of almost all of the top-ten powerhouses and their challengers. I am right here, of course. Sister Vyia is in the other half of the continent. Sentinel Prime is on Sentinel Island with his people and his restored warriors. I doubt he has any plans of leaving his people again anytime soon. The others, whether it is the Immortal Phoenix, God’s Hammer, Suneater, all of their locations are known, except…”

Her eyes sharpened.

“Ecclestia.”

The strongest pathwalker in Gaia.

Her power was beyond fathoming.

So much so that even people who fought her could not describe her power.

She heaved a deep breath as her tone grew more serious. “To this day, we haven’t found a trace of her existence…”

Her elderly eyes sharpened.

“I just hope that this means nothing.”