The Martial Unity

“NOOOOO!!!” Rui roared with horror as he watched the devastating wave of seismic radiation surge upwards, threatening to inflict a calamity upon the surface of the Panama Continent.

It would have been his greatest failure.

And yet—

WHOOSH

It didn’t happen.

His expression slackened with shock as he watched the seismic energy dissipate.

He watched it dissipate into Gaia.

WHOOSH…

Just like that, it was gone.

Converted into heat.

Sound.

Radiation.

Anything except for the destruction of civilization on the surface of the world.

If the alien virus could feel shock, then it did.

It had unleashed a tremendous attack just to show Rui what would happen if he kept resisting his doomed fate.

And yet, its threat had disappeared.

It had been made to disappear by a greater force.

RUMBLE…

The world around him was pure lava.

It gently covered him protectively, making him feel warm from head to toe.

He felt a gentle pressure mounting on him.

The same kind of pressure one might have felt from a deep hug.

VMMM…

VMMM…

VMMM…

Waves of seismic energy washed over him gently, as if he was being patted on the back periodically in a comforting manner.

In that moment, he felt as if he was in the warm embrace of his mother.

A protective, affectionate presence.

He understood.

He understood whose presence it was.

He understood who had intervened.

It was none other than Gaia herself.

While the bacteria of the deep biosphere could indeed exert great control and power through the medium of the mantle, it was not the only entity that possessed such control.

And it was not the greatest authority on the planet.

For who could possess more authority over her body than Gaia herself?

She had intervened.

He didn’t know how.

But the planet was her body.

She most likely had power over it that he couldn’t fathom, but like a human patient, she couldn’t get rid of her viral infection by herself. She had at least managed to intervene at the very final moment.

She protected human civilization.

She protected humanity from being taken hostage.

“Thank you.”

Rui’s voice was one of genuine gratitude.

VMMM…

VMMM…

VMMM…

Waves of seismic radiation washed over him through the blindingly hot lava surrounding him.

Yet, it was merely warm to him.

It enveloped him.

In a protective, maternal manner.

It reminded him of a sensation a long, long time ago. When he was within the womb of his mother as an unborn child. He felt a strange sense of familiarity with the presence around him.

This same presence had brushed him for just the briefest of moments as he was born.

He had always thought it was his mother.

But only now did he realize that there had been another.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

His voice permeated the world as the blood-red suns in his eyes shone with blinding brightness.

“It was you who reincarnated me.”

A wave of seismic energy washed over him in a single pulse.

He didn’t know what it meant.

But his intuition faintly told him that it was a pulse of affirmation.

But there was more.

More than he was unable to decipher.

Gaia was an unfathomable lifeform, even to him.

He could sense her integrated information.

Which meant that, just like his body, she was undoubtedly conscious.

And had conscious experiences.

She was capable of thought.

And yet, that didn’t mean it was possible for him to understand her. The nature of her life was unlike anything Rui had ever seen in his entire life. Her mind, her consciousness, her thought, her very life, was beyond his comprehension.

And yet, he knew that she was responsible for his reincarnation. There were only two entities that could have gotten their hands on the information of his lifeform. One was the alien virus, and the other was Gaia.

She must have done it out of self-preservation.

She was not willing to go down without a fight.

She was not willing to do everything within her power to survive.

Thus, she must have taken measures.

She must have come up with solutions.

Among them must have been something as ambitious as reincarnation.

Reincarnation of a person who was likely to thrive in a world with Martial Paths.

What kind of person would such a person look like?

It would not be an actual martial artist, no.

It would be a man who dedicated everything to martial art even though he couldn’t have it for himself.

Out of a sheer maddened love for martial art.

And that was exactly who John Falken was.

From her perspective, there was no one else who was likelier to become a Martial Artist and thrive. Project Water and the VOID algorithm, a lifetime of dedication to understanding martial art with his mind. And someone who would never dare let go of the opportunity to become a Martial Artist once given.

He was exactly who she needed.

She had given him a new life.

A new family.

A new path.

And now, she had protected Panama, Kandria, and his family.

She had unburdened him of this leverage.

“Thank you.”

His voice was one of true gratitude.

“Thank you for everything.”

The blood-red suns in his eyes shone with blinding brightness and a boundless determination.

“Allow me to repay the favor.”

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

The world shook as he recommenced his extermination of the deep biosphere. Given that Gaia herself had protected him, he could only assume that this was exactly what she wanted. To destroy the alien consciousness that had infected Gaia.

Even if it came at the cost of the deep biosphere beneath the Panama Continent.

“That is exactly what I will do then.”

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

The Tide of Samsara continued its rampage across the Panama Continent as began decimating the bacteria of the deep biosphere. It snuffed out the very complexity that life thrived on, utterly and thoroughly exterminating the very foundation of the alien consciousness. RUMBLE!!!!!!!

It was overwhelming.

The alien virus consciousness desperately fought back.

It desperately fought back with everything it had.

And yet…

It was to no avail.

Rui mercilessly, ruthlessly, maliciously exterminated the very existence underpinning its consciousness.

There was nothing that could protect it. Nothing that could protect it from his wrath.

Nothing could stop him.

No esoteric, no tactic, no strategy, no trump card.

There was only death.

That realization sank deep into the alien virus.

It was to die.

It was to be exterminated.

It was to be eradicated.

It was to be defeated by the victims of its own machinations.

The Tide of Samsara brought it to the very brink of death and destruction.

Beyond hope.

Beyond salvation.

And thus, it activated the final contingency of its life. One that would only be activated when it was on the very verge of death and destruction itself.

It accessed the information dimension.

The collective consciousness born from the systems of integrated information of the Not to try to manipulate his information and destroy him.

No, it had already tried that with the Noosphere.

But to send ripples across the information dimension.

Ripples that would spread across the galaxy.

Across the universe.

It was a signal.

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

Rui’s eyes widened as the very fabric of reality began to shake. Waves washed through space and time, through reality itself.

Through information itself.

The ripples through the information dimension caused extra-causal changes in reality. RUMBLE!!!!!!!

They washed over him, changing his hair color, changing his height, changing his weight and other physical, material realities of his body. They lasted just a moment, returning to normal once the wave passed his information. They spread outwards.

Beyond the mantle.

Beyond the crust.

Beyond the surface of the world.

Beyond Gaia.

Beyond the solar system.

Beyond the galaxy.

They spread to the entire universe.

RUMBLE…

Countless light-years away, those very waves reverberating through the information dimension washed over a certain object.

It was a perfect sphere.

Its surface flickered with flashes of light emerging from deep within the many layers comprising its existence, as if pixels across an entire screen lit up and darkened discordantly. It was the size of a solar system.

RUMBLE…

As the waves of information washed over it, the sphere quivered, experiencing existential changes that left as fast as they came. The titanically enormous sphere recorded the changes to reality before transmitting a single, alien message to an unknown authority.

[Infected planet detected in sector ⋔⍙⌇⏃⌇⟟⏁⍜⌰] [Recommended action: Extermination.]