The Martial Unity

Chapter 3344: Relationship With The Universe

The Mothers of Nature expressed their regret and guilt to Mother Maeria once more before eventually following her words and bidding her goodbye as they retreated into themselves to truly introspect on their own shortcomings.

Mother Maeria heaved a deep breath before turning her softened gaze towards Rui.

”We have much to speak about.”

”It appears we do,” Rui remarked with a knowing expression. ”But, before that, are you certain about just letting them off the hook just like that? I dunno about you, but if someone sabotaged my Transcendence? It would be over. I would destroy them. I would annihilate every shred of their being out of existence.”

”I can imagine,” she chuckled knowingly, as she simply sat down cross-legged within the dimly lit cavity they were still within, in her true body. ”However, I feel no capacity for hatred and resentment in my current state of mind. I have abandoned my ego and pride. As well as my individuality. I don’t experience anger anymore. Everything is the way that it is for a reason. And I believe in that reason.”

She directed a serene smile at him that contrasted sharply with her prior aloof self.

It reminded him of how people changed with the Enlightenment of Self, although it was different.

With the Enlightenment of Self, one understood the causality underlying one’s being. However, that did not mean that one lost one’s ego and pride, and it absolutely did not mean that one lost one’s individuality.

Rui was not devoid of an ego, even if he didn’t possess a large one. He certainly wasn’t devoid of pride, although he liked to think of himself as more humble as to the reasons that got him to where he was.

And he was overflowing with individuality; it was a necessity for the Martial Path.

He found it interesting how the Nature Path and the Martial Path differ in different ways.

Both paths required a profound realization that altered them in profound ways, but the enlightenments were different and entailed different things.

It must have boiled down to the innate differences between elves and humans.

”Well, good for you,” Rui remarked calmly. ”Still, I know for a fact that you reached Trancendence for just the briefest of moments. You must have experienced the godly power of that realm, did you not? You must also have experienced Fear to a great extent, right?”

She nodded. ”Indeed, I did.”

She gazed at her hands with a serious expression.

”It was even more intense than what I had experienced before. It was a Fear that plagued my very soul and every iota of my being. If this is what living with Transcendence is like, then it is truly more of a curse than it is a boon. To have the power of a god, but to be shackled by terror that exceeds anything that any mortal would experience...”

She shook her head.

”Perhaps one of the reasons I’m not disappointed is because it is more of a curse than a boon,” she mused in deep thought. ”It certainly isn’t something I would wish on even my worst enemies. Although I suppose I don’t have any enemies anymore. We are just iotas of nature in the grand scheme of the uni—”

”Let’s keep the philosophy aside for a minute,” Rui raised a hand, sensing a long, thoughtful philosophical monologue that was undoubtedly going to take away from what he was most interested in. ”Since you have achieved Transcendence, I’m sure you understand what the source of its power is, right? Can you describe to me what that source of power is?”

She gazed at Rui knowingly.

”It is your relationship with reality. It is your relationship with the universe. That is the source of Transcendence.”

Rui frowned as he fell into thought. ”Well, at least it’s better than the answers that the Martial Transcendents gave me. Still, it is vague.”

”It is ephemeral,” Mother Maeria mused. ”Vocabulary is too primitive to convey what it is. It is a qualia. Something that is beyond my ability to communicate. You will have to experience it for yourself to actually understand what it is like.”

”...I see, I had expected as much,” Rui replied, engrossed in thought. ”My relationship with the universe, is it?”

He felt that that was intuitively correct.

Each time he had made an insight about Adaptive Evolution and what it was, he felt was deepening the overlap between his Martial Path and the world itself. Perhaps one day it would grow to swallow everything, and perhaps that was an important step in the direction of Transcendence.

He didn’t know.

”And yet, I sensed the power that I had achieved was merely a part of a much deeper expanse of power,” she remarked knowingly. ”I merely set a single toe within Transcendence, and I had already come to possess more power than I had ever thought was possible. I cannot imagine how powerful one would be if one fully sets foot within that dimension of godhood.”

Rui’s eyes lit up as he thought about what the Martial Transcendents had told him about the Transcendent Realm.

That it was incomplete.

That they too had merely set a toe in within the dimension of power.

It appeared that the Nature Path may also have mimicked that same pattern. Perhaps it was something that had to do with the Realm of power itself.

”What do you intend to do from this point on?” Rui raised an eyebrow at her.

”...Good question,” Mother Maeria remarked. ”There is much to do. Much to correct. But for now...”

Her gaze shifted toward the East.

”I suppose I can defeat the giants and win this war.”

Her eyes sharpened.

”With Suneater slumbering, they have nobody who can match my power.”

RUMBLE!!!!!!

The world shook as Mother Maeria mobilized her extraordinary power, reaching an echelon of power that exceeded her previous limits. Rui gazed at her with amazement as he felt a truly astronomical amount of energy erupt across East Genora.

Her elderly eyes remained as profoundly ephemeral as they always had been.

”Begone from our land, Giants of Samarkha.”

RUMBLE!!!!!!