The Martial Unity

The thought that the tekvores had found a smooth and mass productive way to produce Transcendents from their peak pathwalkers was alarming. Even Dwight turned towards Argenton with a glint of wariness in his eyes.

Argenton simply shook his head in response to Rui’s question. ”That’s not possible, fortunately. My phenomenological uniformity was not merely a product of the prismatic lattice brain, but rather because of the fusion between a phenomenology of light and my knowledge and understanding of light.”

Rui’s eyes lit up as he understood what the tekvore was conveying. ”I see, so the madness of trying to fuse all your thoughts, emotions, and experiences into one phenomenon is necessary in order to become a Transcendent as a tekvore.”

Argenton nodded in response. ”The fusion is necessary, but not enough by itself. A tekvore needs to create a brain with a mode of consciousness that is based on the fundamental essence of their technological mastery, such that their phenomenology is entirely built on top of that fundamental essence. In my case, I turned my consciousness into a holographic construct, entirely derived from light and everything that I could experience—my phenomenology, that is—was made up of light.”

”And because you’re fusing all your thoughts, emotions, and experiences, your holographic phenomenology was fused with your knowledge of light,” Dwight realized. ”Without the knowledge and the depth of understanding of light, you would not have achieved phenomenological uniformity, and you would have just gone insane.”

”In particular, their knowledge needs to be not just deep, but extremely broad as well,” Argenton explained. ”Not only do I have a core understanding of what light is, but I have a vast understanding of all its traits and even its applications. In this regard, nobody can best me. Not even Bodhisattva Maitreyi.”

Martial Artists didn’t necessarily need to develop a scientific understanding in order to become Transcendents, after all. Plenty of Transcendents became Transcendents without possessing even a shred of scientific knowledge.

Had Argenton’s knowledge been even slightly lacking, the fusion of his knowledge and phenomenology would not have been enough to create phenomenological uniformity, and he would have suffered a total and complete insanity.

”Out of all the breakthroughs to the Transcendent Realm that I have seen, this is easily the riskiest and most dangerous.” Rui shook his head.

He didn’t envy the tekvores for the tribulations they had to face to become Transcendents. In comparison, the worst a Martial Artist could do was stagnate. There was no chance of a Martial Sage dying in their attempt to become a Transcendent.

”It is a breakthrough that is compatible with the ethos of our Path,” Argenton replied with a matter-of-fact tone. ”Do you think assimilating technology into our bodies is entirely risk-free for us? Not at all. Unlike a lot of the other paths, we take risks simply by the very nature of our power. Besides, it is only fitting that the breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm occurs when we shed our final root of mortality and become one with technology.”

Rui nodded. Every Path was different; he had long learned that. The tekvore breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm was an active process rather than a surge of serendipity the way it was for Martial Artists and craftsmen.

”I can’t help but notice you said ’fortunately’ when you said that the mass production of Transcendents is not possible,” Rui raised an eyebrow. ”You don’t intend on trying to keep this method a secret, do you?”

Argenton remained silent. In truth, he was planning to monopolize the method and hide it from his fellow tekvores. He was different from Rui and Dwight in that he didn’t have the same affection or bond with his race. He didn’t mind being selfish with his knowledge and preventing them from making progress, but he knew that the Emperor of Water would not allow that to happen.

Rui narrowed his eyes with a light huff. ”Don’t even think about it. Our civilization needs more Transcendents.”

Argenton heaved a sigh. ”Very well then, I’ll share the method with others. I suppose there’s no point if the arakai manage to overrun everything.”

Rui nodded before directing a more personal interest towards the new Transcendent. ”So what exactly are you capable of with your new power? Do you think you can take me on? You want to go a few rounds? Don’t worry, I’ll share with you the method of remaining.”

Although, Rui suspected that Argenton would have already figured it out. After all, the man broke through by transferring his consciousness. He had absolutely no need for Rui to intervene in that matter. In fact, Rui didn’t even understand his prismatic lattice brain technology whatsoever, so he couldn’t help him even if he wanted to.

The tekvore directed a knowing glance at Rui, before shaking his head.

”I’ll pass.”

Rui frowned. ”What? You don’t want to try out your new power?”

”I am not a battle maniac like you,” Argenton snorted. ”Not to mention, have you forgotten what our fundamental power is?”

Rui’s eyes lit up. ”Cultivating technology.”

In this case, cultivation broadly referred to both developing and assimilating technology. The tekvores were the only Pathwalkers whose paths were based on two distinct processes rather than one.

Martial Artists specialized in violence.

Elves specialized in nature.

Dwarves specialized in creation.

Giants specialized in consumption.

Evolutionaries specialized in adaptive evolution.

But tekvores were equally predisposed to the creation and assimilation of technology. Both aspects were equally important. However, neither aspect had a direct application of violence.

”I see...” he murmured. ”So you’re similar to Dwight in that your Technoverse is not directly applicable in combat.”

”Although I have not yet exercised my power, I believe I have a good understanding of how I must apply it,” the tekvore remarked with a serious tone of voice. ”I believe that I must cultivate technology at a layer of reality that only Transcendents are able to access.”

Rui’s eyes lit up at those words. ”Metaphysical technology. You intend to cultivate technology that engineers reality itself!”