The Martial Unity

2926  Belonging in the Future

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

The Reverend of Reckoning calmly allowed the jormungandr to indulge in its primal bloodlust, launching countless strikes after strikes at him while he peacefully evaded the serpent. Unlike Damian, he didnʼt attempt a mindless, destructive offensive onslaught.

He didnʼt need to.

He knew that within the enormous body of the serpent, there was bound to be one line of attack that was most optimal among others, dealing the most damage for the least effort.

Identifying that in the body of what a continent-sized serpent should have been absolutely impossible for almost any Martial Sage.

And yet, for Jinryong Namgung, it was as easy as breathing.

”Your Order is transparent.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

A devastating blow ravaged a point on the serpentʼs body.

An attack that was invisibly small compared to the size of the serpent.

And yet—

”SSS!!!”

RUMBLE!!!

The serpent writhed with agony as its scales shattered with ease, as though made of glass. These same scales that would have remained unscratched even to the combined onslaught of most of the other Martial Sages simply crumbled under the weight of his attack.

He had identified molecular weaknesses and critical points in its molecular structure and had chosen to target the creature where it was at its absolute weakest. Every object had a critical point in it where it was the weakest and most vulnerable simply due to the fact that no object was uniform on a molecular level. This meant that each object had some molecular deformities or vectors along which there was minimal molecular reinforcements.

Sage Jinryong Namgung was able to identify all of them, and the most critical of all of them with his comprehension of the order underlying the physicality of a being.

It made his attacks a hundred times more effective as far as damage infliction went compared to that of the average Martial Sage.

Unfortunately, he was dealing with a jormungandr.

A single moment of carelessness was all it took.

WHOOSH

One moment, he was about to strike another critical point along the body of the serpent, the very next moment, the jormungandrʼs strike had come, depriving him of any opportunity to escape.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

The devastatingly powerful jaws of the serpent crushed down with a tremendous force, snapping him shut within its body.

”Patriarch Jinryong!”

”Release the Reverend of Reckoning!”

”Attack the serpent!”

Before they could even aid the serpent, its body shook violently as a tremendous source of resistance and power began fighting back.

He was not dead.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world around them shook even more violently as the jormungandr began coiling its body with its head buried in the center, leveraging the sum totality of its physicality to crush the Reverend of Reckoning within its jaws.

And yet, not even this spectacle was the most attention-drawing battle in the entirety of the battlefield.

That prize would most certainly go to the fourth pivotal battle.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

The entirety of the world shook as a nigh-infinite onslaught of escalating attacks was traded between Rui and the abyssfeeder. The sheer intensity of their violently aggressive barrage of attacks escalated to extraordinary levels.

And it only grew ever more intense.

WHOOSH!!!!!

The very fabric of space and time warped under the sheer velocities and momentum that Rui launched himself with. The astronomical speed at which he moved was so high that it began slowly approaching the cosmic speed limit of the universe.

With each step he took, his relativistic mass began increasing at an alarming rate.

In accordance with Einsteinʼs Special Theory of Relativity, the faster one moved, the more mass they gained.

Under normal or even ordinarily fast velocities, the increment in mass was negligible.

And yet, what if one moved at extremely high velocities?

What if one moved at speeds that were approaching that of the very speed of light itself?

WHOOSH!!!!!!!

RUMBLE!!!!!

The sheer speeds at which he moved were so extraordinary that his momentum may as well have impaled the entire planet. The very fabric of space and time bent under the weight of his being as he launched himself with ferociously astronomical speeds.

His death strike, laced with Gu, flashed forward with unfathomable power.

To an unfathomable collision.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!!!!!

The very fabric of space-time collapsed under the astronomical intensity of the collision.

It gave birth to a singularity.

To a black hole.

One that lasted a single nanosecond.

Before fading out of existence.

RUMBLE!!!!!!!!!

The titanic surge of energy that emerged from the collision sent a destructive shocwave across the fabric of heaven and earth and space and time that would have wiped out half of all life on the Panama Continent.

If not for the Beast Domain isolating and insulating their destructive power, ensuring that it didnʼt leak into the Human Domain.

The sheer intensity of the collision batted Rui away as he absorbed much of the energy of the abyssfeeder with the combination of the Body of Water and Anti-Spiral. The two techniques were extraordinary by themselves, but they resulted in an unfathomable synergy, allowing him to absorb energy from his opponent as though he himself were a black hole.

With each ounce of energy he absorbed, his returning leap was fueled with even greater energy.

Allowing him to achieve an astronomical velocity that exceeded the previous attack.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!!!!!

Collision after collision ravaged the world around them with tremendous power that only escalated with each passing impact. Ruiʼs attack grew stronger and stronger with each passing attack, allowing him to unleash even greater and greater impacts.

And yet, it wasnʼt the source of his strength.

The true source of his power rested in the depths of his mind.

His pupils dilated as time slowed down in his blood-red eyes.

Even his astronomical velocities were reduced to that of a crawl.

His gaze was fixed on the abyssfeeder.

Not on its present.

But on its future.

His subconscious mind delivered him prophecy after prophecy of the future.

His conscious mind delivered him prediction after prediction of the future.

The sum totality of his mind transcended the present.

It belonged in the future.

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