The Martial Unity

The blood-red suns within the depths of Rui’s eyes grew brighter as he found himself facing off against an onslaught of destructive attacks. Rui surged forth, rushing right into them.

WHOOSH

With Etherea Corpa, he smoothly bypassed each and every single attack, heading straight towards the jellyfish-like alien. His feet pressed against the very fabric of space, allowing him to propel forward with remarkably impressive thrust.

The laminar integument simply watched him, knowing that striking him wasn’t going to be easy since he was severing his connection with the Higgs field to be massless and substance-less. However, what the alien entity did know was that he would need to materialize if he wanted to land a single attack on it.

That was the opportunity that it would use to take him out with a powerful, concentrated attack. Its consciousness was photonic in nature, which meant it had enough raw reaction speed to catch him the moment he materialized to try to harm the jellyfish-like alien. As Rui surged forth, he balled his hand into a sharp jab, thrusting forth at the laminar integument. Yet, the moment he arrived at the alien’s bell, the creature unleashed a powerful onslaught of attacks on his very existence, making it impossible for him to materialize once more, lest he be annihilated by the tremendous attacks from the laminar integument.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!

The attacks phased through his body, as if he were a ghost, devoid of any substance and matter.

He emerged on the other side, turning around as he stared at the laminar integument with a hint of dissatisfaction on his face. The powerful jellyfish alien nailed the timing perfectly each time he tried using Etherea Corpa. The technique certainly allowed him to negate its offense, but it also ended up negating his own offensive prowess. The laminar integment didn’t even need to turn around to face him; it was symmetrical across the axis of its body. It faced him each moment of the battle.

“If. Not. Engage. Then. I. Destroy. World,” the laminar integument insisted, basically warning him if he reduced this to a game of dodgeball with his intangibility, then the alien entity would shift its attention from him to Gaia. It had a good understanding of what his goal was and how he was trying to achieve it. Stalling through conversations that the laminar integument found interesting or curious, stalling through meaningless exchanges. His goal was to stall for long enough so that they would reach the promised point where the laminar integument would have no choice but to evaluate their power as high enough to join rather than oppose.

The laminar integument knew that, refusing to make his life so easy. It insisted that the he take it on directly rather than stalling through tricks.

“Fine.” The blood-red suns in his eyes blazed with blinding brightness as he charged forth for real this time, running into an onslaught of attacks that converged on him.

The tendrils of the laminar integument seemed to phase through the very fabric of reality, somehow reaching as if it spawned on his body. Attacks that should have been inevitable.

Unavoidable.

And yet—

WHOOSH

He shifted to the right just moments before one converged on him, allowing him to redirect it with Outer Divergence while absorbing what impact there was with his Aqua Existentia, charging forth with sharp hands. He was absent of primordial seed, having used all of it in his battle with the alien virus. Now he needed to rely on his innate prowess. He knew that the creature could heal extremely quickly; most likely had something to do with the superfluid. that flowed across its internal body. In order to kill the creature, he needed to overwhelm it with damage while withstanding everything that it threw at him. WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!

He redirected a series of attacks from the laminar integuments, absorbing the remaining impact. Each attack would have utterly shattered entire worlds with the sheer force behind them, curling the very fabric of space and time with the energy density.

And yet, the gentlest of touches was all it took.

WHOOSH

Rui smoothly redirected each and every single attack, allowing him to withstand any and every impact from the laminar integument as he drew closer, eventually arriving before the bell of the jellyfish-like alien.

Even as his jab charged forth, piercing the laminar integument’s body, countless attacks phased right on his body, inflicting tremendous damage upon him.

But instead, he merely absorbed the impact, using it to fuel his attack upon the laminar integument.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

If the laminar integument could feel pain, it certainly didn’t reveal it. Instead, the opening through which Rui’s attack pierced merely tightened around his hand as the light within its laminar body began shining.

Rui’s eyes widened as the photonic network comprising its consciousness brightened to an extraordinary degree, reaching unfathomable levels of intensity.

The very photons that were the basis of its consciousness were converted into a powerful attack that permeated through his hand and across his body in a devastating attack.

“Got. You.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The devastating attack permeated across his entire body, threatening to utterly annihilate his entire body.

“Rgh!!!” Rui gritted his teeth as the sheer force of the electromagnetic attack vastly exceeded any other attack he had ever withstood in his entire life. On top of that, the laminar integument seemed to lock up the very fabric of space and time, making it much more difficult for him to become intangible. It forced him to ensure that his body interacted with the attack that coursed through him.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The light began burning the very nuclear structure of the atoms that came together to create the biochemistry of his body. It threatened to utterly erode and destroy even his body-consciousness, something that sent alarm bells across his entire existence.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Any other pathwalker under the sun would have succumbed to the sheer destruction that the laminar integument inflicted through his body. But Rui’s eyes flared with blood-red suns that shined with blinding brightness.

“Bring it on.”

He activated the Forge of Creation, rapidly constructing a technique to help him survive the pure destruction that the laminar integument had inflicted on him.

RUMBLE!!!!!