The Martial Unity

“I’m going to need your help for this to be a success.”

Rui’s voice hung in the air with a calm and composed tone as he found himself gazing at several individuals. He sat upon an ergonomic electro-reactive memory foam couch that seemed to be alive, bending to accommodate the shape of his body. He found the Esocline Federation’s obsession with technologizing everything a bit excessive. There was no need to go this far to try to technologize everything. The couch was so comfortable that it was frankly a little uncomfortable.

Still, he ignored the sofa, limiting his attention to several individuals seated opposite him.

“Oh dear,” the Esoterist remarked with an amused smile as he directed a glance at a beggar seated next to him. “I don’t know if all of them are going to be too alright with that.”

“You’re damn right I’m not,” the Beggar Sage growled at Rui. “I still haven’t forgotten how you stole my immortal sages!”

“I didn’t steal them,” Rui huffed lightly, shaking his head. “I only told them the truth and offered them a better deal.”

“It’s the same goddamn thing!”

Rui heaved a sigh, ignoring the fuming Beggar Sage, before turning to the other two. “I need your help as well.”

The Divine Doctor lightly stirred before shrugging.

“Very well.”

“Hey!” The Beggar Sage barked at his old friend. “You’re not supposed to give in that easily!”

“Your stubbornness is truly fitting for a beggar,” the Psycher remarked with a vibrant, youthful voice. His body was that of a hemosapien that he had transferred his consciousness to. His blood-red eyes glistened with a deep, profound sense of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. He turned towards Rui, studying the Transcendent’s presence before nodding lightly. “You certainly are a Transcendent, alright. Your presence reminds me of that of the Astral Sovereign.”

Rui raised an eyebrow with a hint of curiosity. Very rarely did he have the opportunity to compare himself to the other Martial Transcendents in the distant past of human civilization.

“And how do you think I compare to him?”

The Psycher blood-red irises did a once-over about Rui as he pondered the question, studying his presence. Rui’s power was undeniable, of course. The very fabric of reality had been reduced to the surface of water. As if the entire universe was simply an image reflected to him from a calm, tranquil surface.

As if he could disrupt all of reality with just a wave of his hand.

It was a very different feeling from the sensation that he got from the Astral Sovereign.

The Psycher shook his head. “I cannot say, unfortunately. The reality is that the two of you may be fellow Transcendents, but you’re so different from each other that it doesn’t even make sense to compare.”

Rui was hardly surprised by that remark. The reality was that Martial Transcendents were each very different from each other. The only thing that they had in common was that they used phenomenological uniformity to intervene in reality by altering the information defining it within the information dimension. Beyond that, Martial Transcendents were so radically different from each other that they were fundamentally different existences altogether.

“Well, that’s a shame,” Rui remarked with a sigh. “More importantly, are you on board with the plan?”

The Psycher raised an eyebrow. “What could you hope to achieve from a psychologist like myself?”

“If I want my ambition of conquering ten thousand stars in ten years to be achievable, then I need to account for every variable,” Rui remarked with a serious expression. “Including, and especially, the human mind. I need someone to look over the proposals that the Shepherd is working on and account for the externalities of the human psyche. Specifically…”

His eyes sharpened. “The matter regarding the psychological impact of space travel and the psychological impacts of becoming a multi-planetary civilization.”

It was something that nobody had spent too much time thinking about, since human civilization had always been quite far from truly becoming an interplanetary civilization, until very recently of course. Rui was already taking many risks by privatizing space expansion, so he wanted to account for as many variables as he possibly could. The Psycher smiled. “Sure, I don’t mind helping at all.”

“Great, then I’ll send you the—”

“Not for free, of course,” the Psycher interrupted him.

Rui raised an eyebrow. “I’ll give you as much gold as you want—”

“Come now, did you think you would get away that easily?” the Psycher chuckled. “You know I don’t care for silly shiny metals.”

Rui heaved a sigh with a hint of a wry smile cracking at the edge of his mouth. “Alright then, what do you seek?”

The Psycher’s expression grew more serious. “I seek confirmation or denial of the theories of the nature of reality and consciousness that I shared with you. You have become a Transcendent, which means that you have gained the power and the perspective upon reality to be able to confirm or deny the truth.”

“Oh, that’s it?” Rui raised an eyebrow. “I could have told you that your theory on consciousness was accurate even before I became a Martial Sage.”

WHOOSH

Suddenly, his hand rose up in the air involuntarily, without any input from Rui.

The Esoterist and the Beggar Sage looked perplexed at that. “Er, is that supposed to mean something?”

“Hah, he’s lost his mind.”

But the Psycher and the Divine Doctor understood what had just happened with their deep insight into the mind and body.

“He just moved without any neural impulses from his brain,” the Divine Doctor remarked with a curious expression. “Or without any intent,” the Psycher widened his eyes. “Who moved that hand?”

“He did,” Rui pointed to his body.

“Who?”

“My body-consciousness,” Rui calmly replied, stunning the psychologist. “I applied your principles to the human body and discovered that the human body has its own consciousness. I have used that in battle ever since. And now that I’m a Martial Transcendent, I can guarantee you that almost everything you said is spot on.”