The Martial Unity

Chapter 4259: Webs and Water

The Strehegeld Star System shook with the power of two Transcendents. The very fabric of reality seemed to exist in a quantum superposition of two different states.

Of two different themes.

Of webs and water.

Somehow, reality was an image dancing on the surface of water, and yet, it was also a web at the center of which was none other than the returning Divine Mother. The powerful Transcendent being slowly returned to the surface of the planet as she walked across the web of reality itself. The pathwalkers and homoararchnoids that occupied the surface of the planet only saw a star at the epicenter of a web that covered the entirety of the gray sky.

A star that descended upon the surface of the planet one more time in a graceful, elegant, and gradual manner.

STEP

She returned just ten meters away from Rui. Her expression smoldered with wrath, her six eyes glaring into Rui’s existence like daggers, as if she were trying to incinerate him with just the intensity of her glare. Yet, her body language betrayed composure and control.

She didn’t snap and go berserk.

Instead, she sized Rui up. Her six eyes washed over him from head to toe slowly as she studied his very existence.

As much as his interference angered her. As much as being deprived of the valuable, priceless specimen that was Ria irritated her. As much as being challenged on her own little turf, humble as it already was, enraged her, she maintained her composure.

Her opponent was not ordinary this time. That, she could tell with a single glance, even without the fact that he managed to send her flying with a single blow. More than anything, what made her choose a measure of restraint and caution was the fact that he was the same caliber as her.

’An administrator.’

Among all the forms of life in the universe, those homoarachnoids whose affinity with webs was so high that they could intervene in the greatest web of them all, the Meta Web, were known as Administrators.

They could impose their power upon the very web of information that governed reality itself.

Civilizations that had Administrators like the Divine Mothers of the homoarachnoids were generally much, much more powerful than those without. When Oo—o- had told her about the hundred-light-year civilization that had expanded from one star to ten thousand in just thirteen years, she had been faintly intrigued by the sheer pace of acceleration, but she simply hadn’t taken it seriously.

Before the vast expanse of the homoarachnoid civilization, a civilization so small, however fast it expanded, was simply no threat.

She could not have dreamed that this little mote of a civilization would have its own Administrator.

Of course, she recognized the human male before her, although she wasn’t even sure if he could classify as a member of the same species. She recognized him as the father of the extraordinary universe-eyed specimen that she wanted to get her hands on.

Yet, in Ria’s memories, he hadn’t come off as anywhere nearly as imposing as he did now. The Water that he displayed right now was so powerful that it could push back against what should have been a completely unchallenged monopoly of reality.

The memories of Ria showed an ephemeral and unfathomable man of a father, but one who put her at ease, made her feel comfortable. It was the paternal side of the Emperor of Water, the side that he showed only to his daughter, and the only side of his that he showed her.

Her six eyes sharpened as they bore deep into the ethereal depths of Rui’s eyes.

She couldn’t so much as even glance at the virtually limitless web that was his mind. Her six eyes widened as she felt a web of light that flashed within his brain and mind, containing so much information and knowledge that it may as well have been its own universe.

Moreover, she wasn’t able to extract an advantage against his Martialverse when it came to wrestling control of the theme of the world around them.

She wasn’t able to make the world more of a web than it was water.

However, she didn’t allow him to wrest control of the world around them in his favor either. Their respective phenomenologies maintained a tense and unyielding tension as they tugged for control over reality.

In this particular domain of conflict, they were evenly matched.

The air was tense, electric with peril. A powerful silence hung in the air as the people around the two powerful Martial Transcendents couldn’t help but glance back and forth between the two godly beings with grim severity. Whether homoarachnoid or human, neither side was particularly pleased by this turn of events.

The situation had completely escalated out of their control, regardless of how powerful they were.

They could only wait for the two beings to resolve the issue.

Their fates were on the line.

The outcome of the battle would determine whether or not they survived.

”Kane.”

Rui’s voice permeated through the very fabric of reality as it reverberated through past, present, and future. His tone was calm and composed. It bore the luster of wise patience. He spoke in a manner unbefitting the tension that hung in the atmosphere.

”...Yeah?” Kane barely managed to squeeze out with a tense tone of voice.

”Take Ria away from here,” Rui spoke to him simply, never once taking his eyes off the Divine Mother.

”Papa...” Ria’s amber eyes widened. A part of her felt bitter that her father was sending her away even though he had just gotten there. Yet, the more mature side of her understood that it was for her own safety.

She was simply too weak to be anything other than a liability in that battle.

That weakness grated on her.

The regret of weakness filled her heart as she simply lowered her head a little with a crestfallen expression.

Kane immediately got up, hurriedly rushing towards Ria with a tense expression. ”Come on, kiddo. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

The Divine Mother’s eyes sharpened.

”I am afraid I cannot let that happen.”