The Martial Unity

Kane’s eyes widened at those numbers. Of course, he knew that the number of Martial Sages had ballooned over the past thirteen years; he had never actually known the full count of all of them.

This was especially the case when Martial Artists were increasingly spread out across thousands of stars as opposed to being on one planet. Thus the density of Martial Artists had not exploded to such an extent.

He remembered a time roughly eighteen years ago when human civilization had only three hundred Martial Sages. Then the Psyker created his Enlightenment of Self AI model, and five years later, they got their hands on three thousand Martial Sages. Martial Sages only grew more and more ubiquitous, growing like grass until they became extremely ubiquitous.

The same was true for all Realms below.

Breaking through to them was no longer a matter of risk; it was a matter of time and energy.

The Apprentice Realm had basically become an elective in all physical career paths. Passing it was a matter of not being incompetent and willing to work hard like one would any other topic. The Squire Realm’s pain and risks had also disappeared with modern genetic modeling. Quantum computers systematically explored all possible genetic mutations of an individual within certain parameters while artificial intelligence identified compatibility. It became a smooth process with a one hundred percent success rate.

Senior breakthroughs and Master breakthroughs had also been hacked with mass breakthroughs through advanced three-dimensional simulation and neural stimulation technology.

It made sense that eighteen years down this explosive path of improving Martial technology, Martial Sages would eventually number in the dozens of thousands. He heaved a sigh, knowing that it was only a matter of time before they would catch to the Corporeal Realm and flood it as well.

Thankfully, his best friend had yet to figure out a way to hack Corporeal Realm breakthrough. Unlike the other Realms, the Corporeal Realm was a much more continuous process to reaching a point rather than an acute breakthrough event. The only thing comparable was the Squire Realm, but the difference in difficulty between the two was astronomical.

”If I’m the sole Martial Corporeal on this ship, that means I’m the strongest among them and will probably be expected to be the tactical commander or leader of sorts, right?” Kane raised an eyebrow.

”The Space Force does not expect you to explicitly command them, but it is no secret that Martial Artists are beholden to their superiors on the Martial Path,” Mr. Seaton explained with an apologetic tone. ”So yes, the Space Force hopes you can lead by action.”

”And what action am I supposed to lead by, again?” Kane asked with a hint of dissatisfaction. ”You’ve explained the armada, fleet, and the ship in detail, but not my exact duties.”

”The Empiercer LXXVI will be deployed towards small-craft formations from the arakai side,” his liaison quickly informed him, transmitting to him several files detailing operational guidelines. ”You’re specialized in speed, evasion, and potent, but concentrated damage. The Space Force will not make the mistake of throwing you against one of our enemy’s battleships that have hulls so powerful they can likely withstand attacks that can shatter moons. Instead, you will be deployed to clean up tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of small-craft fleets. According to Gaian Space Force, the arakai deploy countless ’webcrafts’ that vary in size, but are quite durable and particularly vulnerable to piercing damage, rather than blunt force.”

Kane understood what the Gaian Space Force expected of him.

Basically, they wanted him to mow down as many small crafts as he could. They were right in that he was not equipped to inflict great damage to mighty warships. Theoretically, he could chip away at their hulls with billions of attacks until he breached their interiority and then go on a rampage, but there were many Martial Artists who more suited to destroying these warships.

”I can do that,” Kane replied with a relaxed expression. ”It’s easy to farm those weaklings at FTL.”

His Corporeal body was an FTL warp drive that could manipulate the negatron matter within his body to allow him to move through space at extraordinary speeds, and he could do it with the fluidity of a Martial Artist’s movements. The arakai webcrafts were simply doomed in the face of such absurd speed.

”However, that is only one of your duties,” Mr. Seaton remarked, as if to dispel Kane’s confidence and certainty. ”Another one of your duties is to engage high-grade combat individuals. According to our intelligence sources, the Divine Mothers don’t merely mass birth the broader arakai population. They also dedicate great resources to birthing special arakai that are born with great esoteric power in their bodies. These divine children, as they are known, are especially powerful, far more so than the average ascendant arakai. You should be familiar with them according to our intelligence.”

”I am,” Kane remarked as he recalled that strange black arakai that fought Arastia. Of course, Arastia being the unstoppable powerhouse that she was, almost crushed it in battle. But he sensed enough of a threat from that being that he would need to keep his guard up if he ran into one in battle.

He didn’t think he would lose, though.

He wasn’t confident of victory, however. One of his constraints was that his own body couldn’t fully withstnd attacks that he inflicted when moving at top speed, which crippled his offense. But the biggest constraint was that his tempered invintium daggers melted when he abused them at FTL speeds. This was despite the fact that he had commissioned the daggers from Elder Sage Steth of the Bournvyrne Empire.

He needed stronger weapons.

’I really should commission that new Transcendent as soon as possible.’ As a Martial Corporeal, he had the clout to get a meeting with human civilization’s second Transcendent. He could also ask Rui, although he knew his friend was extremely busy at this moment.

However, he could only imagine the sheer number of projects and priorities that the new Transcendent was swamped with. He wasn’t sure if he could rank high on that list, but he decided he would transmit a commission request to the Bournvyrne Kingdom one way or another.