The Martial Unity

The appearance of the massive giant clearly threw off the expectations of the laminar army; the sheer size of the Suneater was so great that not even the laminar army appeared prepared for the natives of the infected world to produce a giant of such tremendous power.

Not even the laminar integument leader could bring itself to ignore the titanic creature even as it converted the photons comprising its consciousness into an attack permeating through Rui’s body.

“Creature. Big. Powerful. How. Possible?”

VMMMMMMMM!!!!!

“Rgh!!!” Rui gritted his teeth as he resisted the laser that the laminar integument permeated through his body with an astronomical amount of power. His face was taut with effort while every ounce of his power went into protecting himself from an attack that would have eviscerated almost any other pathwalker in the world.

He was in no position to engage in conversation with the laminar integument. The blood-red suns within the depths of his eyes flared with blinding brightness as the Forge of Creation began weaving together a technique that would adaptively evolve to such tremendous amounts of power.

The key was to allow it to flow through him.

He couldn’t afford to resist.

The damage that light inflicted upon him came from the resistance he offered it. He needed to allow it to simply follow through him. He relaxed his muscles, relaxing his entire body.

He relaxed every cell in his body, as even his body-consciousness relaxed.

Even the molecules comprising of his body seemed to relax as his metabolism calmed down. Even his atoms, and the particles that composed it relaxed. They stopped resisting the light.

They stopped fighting back.

They stopped interacting with it.

They stopped interacting with the electromagnetic force itself.

WHOOSH

The tremendous attack that the laminar integument permeated through the very fabric of his body passed through as the attack existed in a different plane than his body.

The laminar integument reacted with surprise at the changes in his body as he used the opportunity to extract his arm with force from the cavity in the integument’s body.

WHOOSH

He put some distance between them with a hint of displeasure on his face, never once taking his eyes off the powerful creature. He had stabbed the creature twice, and both times he was the one who came away regretting it. It had many tricks up its sleeve, making it very difficult to harm the alien lifeform.

“Electromagnetic. Decoupling. To. Negate. Light. Beam.” The laminar integument mused as it beheld him. “High. Principle. Leveraged. Spontaneously. Is. Part. Of. Martial. Path?”

The creature was clearly interested in the power of the Paths, and so far, the Martial Path appeared to draw its attention the most, given that Rui was the one who was holding it off. “Martial Artists learn to tap into high principles as they grow stronger and stronger,” Rui replied knowingly. “The Path allows us to tap into principles of the laws of reality.”

“What. About. Source. Realm?” It asked with a hint of greater curiosity. “Source. Realm. Tap. Into?”

His expression grew more serious. He still didn’t understand the nuances of the mind of the laminar integument, so he didn’t know what kind of state of mind it was in or what kinds of emotions it was experiencing, if it was even experiencing emotions at all.

His mind surged as he calculated the best way to answer that question. It was possible that revealing the existence would guarantee the destruction of their world, or it was possible that it would become their ultimate guarantor.

Unfortunately, he simply didn’t have enough information.

That was what he needed.

He needed more information.

Thankfully, the question the integument asked him was a good hook for him to extract information.

“Why do you ask?” Rui stared right at it as the light in his ethereal eyes flickered. “Are you able to tap into the information dimension?”

“No.” The laminar integument honestly replied, apparently incapable of deceit. “Our. Civilization. Incapable. Tap. Into. Power. Of. Source Realm. We. Searching. For. Power. To. Tap. Into. Source. Realm.”

“You’re searching for the power to tap into the information dimension?” Rui raised an eyebrow as he caught the strange detail. “Searching, not innovating or inventing?”

“All. Technology. Attempts. Tap. Into. Source. Realm. Failure.” The laminar integument floated midair gracefully as its body glowed with the light of its photonic consciousness. “Technology. Not. Possible. Only. Possible. Through. Mind. Through. Consciousness. Categorically. Outside. Technology.”

“…Why do you search for this power outwards instead of inwards then?” Rui raised an eyebrow.

The laminar integument’s light grew intense. “Much. Time. Ago. Our. Source. Realm. Sensors. Detect. Major. Source. Realm. Changes. In. This. Galaxy. We. Search. For Source.”

Rui frowned at those words.

The alien was suggesting that they had detected major life forms in the world that were capable of tapping into the information dimension. Was it referring to the alien virus? If so, then that would explain it, since the alien virus could clearly meddle with the information dimension to a limited extent.

But there was another possibility.

“How long ago did you detect the changes in the information dimension?” He asked with a hint of curiosity.

“⋏⟟⋏⟒ ⊬⟒⏃⍀. Ago.” The alien replied innocently.

Its unit of time was derived from the amount of time it took for a signal of light to move from the epicenter of its body, where the source of light was. And the number of those units was the time ago it was referring to.

When he converted it into Gaian time, his eyes widened with realization. “Roughly nine years ago.”

That was around the time that the Transcendents had intervened into the expanding gravitational wave from the manifold tree, causing them to disappear.

Was it just a coincidence?

He found it to be unlikely.

He suspected that the laminar integuments had managed to detect the Martial Transcendents and were looking for them to get their hands on the ability to intervene into the information dimension. The question was why? Why were the laminar integuments looking for the power to intervene in the information dimension? Was it just to obtain more power? Or was there more to it?

Unfortunately, it appeared that the laminar integument was unwilling to give him more free time.

“Stalling.” It launched a series of phasing tendril whips at him, seeking to crush him where he stood.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!