The Martial Unity

Chapter 3342: Unyielding Egos

The Fear gripped Mother Maeria’s heart as she froze, paralyzed by the terror.

It was soul-wrenching.

It shackled the heart, preventing her from truly surrendering herself to nature.

It was beyond anything she had experienced since the last time she had discovered it.

”You can do it.”

Rui’s encouragement pushed her, drawing her attention to him.

His eyes were certain.

He gazed at her with a solemn seriousness.

His presence helped her regain a modicum of her composure, anchoring her back to the real world instead of the Fear that continuously sent chills across her skin.

She closed her eyes as she continued resonating with her sisters, trying to surrender herself entirely. Her mind and power spread across the entirety of East Genora, trying to diffuse into nature, trying to become one with everything.

Her consciousness spread far and wide, trying to overcome the barrier between herself and everyone else.

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

The world shook as she began taking steps.

She began take steps to a higher state of life.

She could feel herself reaching out to a higher echelon of life in the Tree of Life, uncharted territory in the branch that elves resided in. She could feel herself ascending to a higher level bit by bit as her consciousness began dispersing across East Genora.

Her resonance with her kin ran deeper than it ever had before, allowing her to reach truly extraordinary levels of overlap with everybody else.

She could feel their emotions.

She could feel their thoughts.

She could feel their distress.

She could feel their anguish.

They had been through much in recent times, even if it was of their own causing. The failure to kill Rui, the death of Mother Mara, and the ensuring Giant Invasion of absurd magnitude that had cracked even their homeland dominance.

The Mothers of Nature of East Genora had seen better times.

She could feel their suffering as if it was her own.

Even as she continuously dispersed her consciousness, she began to understand its true nature.

She began to understand the relationship between her consciousness and the universe itself.

”The universe exists because I witness its existence...” A stunned whisper escaped her.

Mind and reality.

The borders between the two had always been foggy.

Where did the mind end, and where did the universe begin? Where did the universe end, and where did the mind begin?

These were age-old questions of metaphysics and ontology that philosophers had wrestled with for millennia.

And yet, the truth had become evident to her.

The secret truth about the relationship between mind and universe.

It was more profound than she had ever expected.

It was a relationship that exceeded her wildest fathoming, and yet it could become the source of infinite power if one could harness it.

She reached out.

She reached out to the universe itself.

As her mind overlapped with the others, diffusing into nature, nature was all she saw.

Nature was all the universe was to her.

”To discover nature in the smallest of grains of sand to the mightiest of galaxies...” Pure realization dawned on her. ”That is the path to a higher embodiment of nature.”

Her realization was the final push she needed on her end.

She abandoned everything.

Her ego.

Her individuality.

Her pride.

Her separateness.

They were merely shackles.

Shackles to achieving Oneness with Nature.

That was what Transcendence manifested as in the light elves.

It was not a solo venture.

It was not an individualistic venture as it was in the Martial Path.

It could not be achieved alone.

It could only be achieved together.

All of them had to abandon Separateness to achieve Oneness with Nature together so that they could elevate their mind beyond the shackles of causality and become one with the universe itself.

She was ready.

Her soul, her mind, her very being... all of it was on the very cusp of Oneness.

And for just the briefest of moments, she achieved it.

She set one foot.

No, one toe into a higher Realm of existence.

A higher Realm of power.

”Ah...” A whisper of pure bliss and enlightenment washed over her. ”T̸h̴i̵s̷... This is the power of a higher Realm!”

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

Rui’s eyes widened with shock as the world shook.

It shook violently as Gaia witnessed the birth of a higher echelon of existence along the Nature Path.

An elf had tapped into the power of the gods.

Rui gaped at the vessel of Mother Maeria with a shocked expression as he sensed... absence.

Her consciousness was no longer within the vessel.

In fact, it was no longer within the tree.

It had spread far and wide by virtue of Oneness.

She was everywhere.

She was everything.

She possessed the power to reshape the entirety of the Genora to her will.

She possessed absolute control.

Absolute power.

The Resonance of Nature that all of them fueled together became their greatest source of power.

And yet, it only lasted a moment.

For one moment, Mother Maeria had set one foot, no, one toe, into a higher state of existence and of life.

The very next moment, it collapsed.

The Resonance of Nature began crumbling.

”No...” she whispered as realization dawned on her.

It was not her inadequacy that held them all back.

It was everybody else’s.

The Mothers of Nature of East Genora, try as they might, were unable to shed their ego and individuality.

It was too much to ask.

It was defined who they were.

It was the product of centuries and even millennia of labor for many of them, leaving them entirely unwilling to abandon it.

Try as they might, their individuality and ego impeded their enlightenment.

It hurdled the diffusion of their consciousness.

It barricaded against true overlap in their resonance with each other.

’Rgh...! This is too much!’

’I... I’m not able to dissolve into nature!’

’I want to... but I can’t follow you, Elder Sister!’

’Forgive us for shortcomings! We have deprived you and all of us of a higher echelon of power!’

The Mothers of Nature felt a profound burden of guilt as they realized their inadequacy had sabotaged their elder sister’s Oneness.