The Martial Unity

Chapter 2715: Theistic Conversion

While Rui patiently narrated his past with the Virodhabhasa Theocracy to Amare as they entered the nation, news of his arrival had spread to other parties as well.

Far away from the nation in the defensive battlefront against the Beast Incursion sat a man.

A Martial Master.

His silvery-white hair swayed in the breeze and in the tremors of the heated battle between beasts and Martial Artists.

His deathly eyes remained fixed on the horizon with a chilling gaze.

Clouds gently caressed him as they passed him by. The mountain he sat atop was enormous.

It was a mountain of corpses.

The corpses of Sage-level beasts and monsters.

RUMBLE…

The heavy presence of a Martial Sage weighed down upon the world. ”Lord Virodhabhasa,” the female Sage knelt before him. ”I have just received word that the final Master-level seed has just arrived at the Virodhabhasa Theocracy.”

He didnʼt so much as stir at her words.

His gaze remained fixed on the horizon.

”We believe that he is here to compel the nation to partake in the Solution of Harmony and equip the Martial Artists of the nations with the power to fight off the Beast Incursion in the absence of the Martial Sages.”

The man closed his deathly eyes softly.

”The time has come, Sariawar.”

His voice was light.

His tone was ominous.

Sage Sariawar smiled at him. ”Yes, Your Divinity. It is time to show the world that it is you and you only who is the true Antithesis.”

His eyes opened.

They flared with blood-curdling bloodlust.

”I will baptize my Divinity in the blood of the fraud.”

He got up from atop the mountain of corpses.

His cold gaze slowly shifted, fixing themselves on Sage Sariawar.

”You have been a loyal servant for the past twenty years, Sariawar.”

”Nay, Your Divinity, I have been merely doing my duty unto the one true Antithesis who will deliver us from the Era of Darkness.”

His deathly eyes remained fixed on her prostrating form.

”Your labor will be blessed when I ascend to godhood.”

”Yes, Your Divinity.”

”For now, return and…” his deathly eyes narrowed. ”Prepare.”

”Understood, Your Divinity. I shall take my leave.”

She swiftly departed from the battlefield, moving towards the Theocracy.

A smile emerged on her face.

The past twenty years of her life had been among the most significant years of her life. They had moved her atheistic heart for the first time. She had beheld the magical power and potential within him all those years ago in the Virodhabhasa Theocracy in the Virodhabhasa Contest.

The power to raise and raze Martial Paths.

For the first time in her heart, she experienced the revelation of the divine.

It was an experience that had shaken her. It had shaken her contempt for the Virodhabhasa Faith despite being one of the Sages of the nation.

She realized that, just maybe, this absurd religion was not entirely nonsensical. All thanks to the miraculous power she witnessed within a desperate Squire that had shaken her unbelieving heart.

She hadnʼt been won over entirely, however.

How could a Martial Squire go on to fulfill all the absurdly godly feats ascribed to the Antithesis?

She couldnʼt bring herself to believe it.

And yet, there was something about him that drew her attention and her interest.

She couldnʼt quite put her finger on it. And thus, she simply watched.

She watched as Master Uma assaulted him, only to be protected by Master Deivon. She saw the drive and desperation for power that it evoked within him. If there was any chance that he was truly the Antithesis, then having an intense drive was the bare minimum.

And thus, she allowed it. She committed treason by killing Master Deivon and planting Master Uma in the Panamic Martial Federationʼs eastern headquarters, which he was sure to visit after becoming a Martial Master.

She wanted to see if her faint intuition and feeling about his… specialness were true or not. Thus, when approached by Guildmaster Bradt, she accepted his offer to guard the Shionel Confederation.

All so she could observe him closer.

To either validate her tingling instinct about him or refute it. He had vastly exceeded her wildest expectations in the past twenty years.

Not only did he become the youngest Senior in history, but he killed his archenemy and then returned to the Kandrian Empire, shortly after which the revelation of his royal blood shook her. He went on to dominate the Throne War and, shockingly, decided to decline the throne. Instead, he found the mythical Divine Doctor and broke through to the Master Realm.

From there on, he simply shattered her expectations over and over and over. Watching him first hand overcome Prime Minister Edward in the war for allies with his genius. Watching him fighting dozens of Masters, finding a hundred at once, becoming a pillar of hope and a deity of salvation in the Era of Darkness before going on to fight two Sages and even defeating one of them fair and square.

Each time she updated her understanding of him and her expectations of him, he went ahead and shattered them once more, treading uncharted territory within the Sage Realm.

And here they were, twenty years later.

A once nihilistic atheist had been turned into an almost full-blown believer. She studied the Virodhabhasa Gospel inside-out and backward-front, familiarizing herself with every word in the holy book.

She was almost there.

She had almost entirely surrendered her heart and soul to Lord Virodhabhasa.

She had almost entirely been convinced of the absolute and fundamental truth that was espoused in the Virodhabhasa Gospel.

All that was left was one final test that she had prepared for him. Her current Master.

”One last tribulation…” she whispered. ”One last test, and I promise I shall be yours to serve for the rest of my life. So please…”

Her hand rested upon her heart.

”Please be everything that I imagine you to be.”

And such was the story of how a disillusioned and contemptuous atheist had found her God.

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