The Martial Unity

The alien virus targeted Rui’s greatest weakness as a Martial Artist.

The people he had sworn to protect.

Whether it was the Panama Civilization.

Whether it was the people of the Kandrian Empire.

Whether it was his family.

His daughter.

He had many, many weaknesses.

It didn’t matter how strong he was if the alien virus could get its hands on even one of them. It was certain that he would capitulate if he managed to obtain a hostage. But, in order to actually threaten human civilization, it needed to disable the seismic absorption systems of the The blood-red suns in his eyes blazed with a ferocious bloodlust.

“I won’t let you.” His voice was one of grim reckoning.

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

The world shook as he unleashed his Tide of Samsara upwards towards the crust. Ordinarily, letting such a powerful poison go berserk that far away from him was extremely dangerous, for it could hurt innocent people.

But the Tide of Samsara was not mindless.

It possessed its own consciousness.

It’s own intelligence. It knew exactly what Rui wanted to do, allowing him to smoothly control it even at a distance. He deployed the Tide of Samsara to protect the organic roots that served as the method of protection for the Panama Continent.

And yet, he was too slow.

The poison couldn’t move fast enough through the mantle. Even if it could move through pores, that took time, as it was an extremely limited throughput. “Rgh!” He gritted his teeth as he activated the negatron matter within his body, trying to open a wormhole.

And yet, the alien virus was already aware of that trick.

VMMM!!!

The very fabric of space and time tightened as the alien virus deployed Transcendent-grade esoterics to keep the fabric of reality itself locked, preventing him from manipulating it.

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

Rui activated Etherea Corpa, trying to escape by becoming intangible, or making his Tide of Samsara intangible so it could cross through a large amount of distance quickly.

That, too, was foreseen by the alien virus. It was a master at integrating information, having already created predictive models on him to figure out what he was likely to do.

Quantum tunneling. Scriptures of Terra. Domains.

Nothing he tried worked.

Nothing he had worked.

He couldn’t simply unleash destruction upwards, for it would harm the Panama Civilization. The alien virus had thus already held human civilization hostage to an extent and now it sought to do so even more.

Even the solutions he created with Gigabrain, whether they involved obscure principles, could not allow him to protect the seismic energy absorption systems first.

Not a single thing he could do was able to stop the virus from reaching the seismic absorption systems in place.

Reaching and utterly destroying them.

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

“No.” Rui’s eyes widened as he watched the bacteria of the deep biosphere assault the plant tissue of the roots, rooted deep underground into the crust, absorbing seismic energy from the depths of Gaia.

The bacteria were armed with esoteric matter, relying on the power of the exotic matter at its disposal to overwhelm the energy absorption systems. The roots began disintegrating bit by bit as the bacteria of the deep biosphere began consuming them at a voracious rate.

More and more seismic energy began leaking onto the surface, threatening to wipe out all life.

RUMBLE!!!

On the surface of the Panama Continent, a wave of seismic energy washed over the entire continent.

“We are detecting serious seismic radiation emerging deep from within the mantle of the planet!”

“What the hell happened to the seismic absorption systems?!”

“We’re getting emergency alerts of serious damage being inflicted to the organic root systems, sir!”

“What?!”

“Something… something is actively destroying the roots!”

In the headquarters of the Department of System Affairs within the Panamic Alliance, the director and his subordinates watched with horror as the various screens lit up featured a display of the roots of biotechnological systems in place.

They were rapidly disintegrating.

“What…” the Director murmured with horror. “What the hell is that?”

“Sir, according to our preliminary analysis, the roots are being assaulted by colonies of deep bacteria!” An analyst informed him in panic. “The deep bacteria, normally much deeper within Gaia, known to be docile and harmless, are somehow destroying our roots! We have obtained samples and are now trying to analyze and develop counter solutions, but—”

“It’ll be too late,” A horrified whisper escaped from the director. “The whole continent is experiencing earthquakes even with the seismic absorption systems activated at their maximum setting. That means the very moment they collapse…”

His voice trailed off as the darkness of the night sky outside seemed to come alive, consuming the bland light of the ceiling lights, infecting their hearts.

None of them had the courage.

None of them had the courage to even say what they knew would happen to them once the roots were consumed. The earthquakes would magnify astronomically, wiping out all life within Panama, save for the most powerful lifeforms on the continent.

Everything would be destroyed.

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

The alien virus gleefully consumed the organic root systems deep below the surface of the Panama Continent. The root systems were simply unprepared and unequipped to deal with a voracious assault of esoterically armed deep biosphere bacteria.

“NO!” Rui’s eyes flared with grave desperation as he watched the sum totality of the deep biosphere consume the roots before he could reach them. “STOP! YOU’LL DESTROY EVERYTHING!”

His Tide of Samsara coursed through the world as fast as it could, trying to cross hundreds of thousands of kilometers of lava and magma as fast as it could, pushing itself beyond the very limits as it surged upwards, struggling to reach the roots in time.

It failed.

He failed.

Rui’s eyes widened with horror as the blood-red suns in his eyes were entirely destroyed.

A single voice entered his mind.

It was of alien origin.

Conceived of alien thought.

Yet, it contained the unmistakable sound of malice.

“Y̴̨̪̏̃͗̈́̔̈́̐̊͘o̶̡̧̫̬̖̟̯͇̤̮̱̘̙͕̺̊͆̈́͘u̵̞̩̲̞͓̮͘ ̷͇̼͎̪͇̫͇̼̼͂͐̄̈́̔̏̆ͅl̸̡̰̱͓̱̺̭̉̀̅̐̉͂ớ̶̥̜͚̎͆́̽̋͋̓͐̒͋s̸̡̥̣̮̠͔̲͈̣̹̳̯̯̟̈́͑́͒̈́̋̐̇̾͜͝e̸̱̘̔̇͗̋͌̓̓̈́́́̈́̇.̷̡̛̯̘̙̳̫̪̫͒̇̈́̏̄͘ͅ”̵̥̬͎͔͔̱̎̇̓̊͌̋̀͊̌͝”

The alien virus unleashed a wave of destruction across the surface of the Panama Continent.

RUMBLE!!!!!!!