The Martial Unity

“I told you, didn’t I?” Kane’s cold, murderous voice sent chills up their spine. “You’re going nowhere.”

WHOOSH!

In the blink of an eye, he had already reached his next victim.

SPLAT!

In a swift maneuver, he decapitated them, moving on to his other victims one after another.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!!!

In less than a second, twenty-six Martial Masters died.

“Monster…!” the Sekigaharan Master’s eyes grew grave.

Kane surged to him as his daggers shot forward to kill him.

And then, he froze.

He froze.

He froze as a horrifying bloodlust swept over him.

RUMBLE!

He froze as the heaven and earth themselves contorted under the weight of nine Martial Sages.

Nine enemy Martial Sages.

Raw terror filled his eyes as the wrath of the Martial Sages of the Sekigahara Confederate converged upon him while the lone surviving Master of the Master-level force leaped away to his superiors with desperate relief.

“How dare you?”

Gone was the composed nonchalance of the Sage Shinken.

At that moment, an unfathomable fury beyond anything Kane could even begin to comprehend appeared on the face of the enemy Martial Sage.

A single command escaped him.

“Die.”

RUMBLE!!!

Heaven and earth roared in agony as the horrifying power of a Martial Sage converged upon Kane.

Yet, fate had reserved his departure from life for another day.

“Only a maggot targets the son of the man he couldn’t defeat.”

Kane’s eyes widened as a familiar figure appeared before him, shielding him from the unfathomable power of a Martial Sage.

BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

Sage Shinken’s eyes widened as the Devil himself intercepted the devastating attack he had unleashed upon Kane. “…Father?” A single whisper escaped his son as he beheld the man he feared most protecting.

Sage Damian met the shocked gaze of his son from the corner of his eyes.

“You did well.”

Kane’s eyes widened with shock as he detected unabashed pride in his father’s voice. There was no chastising, or grumbling, or berating.

Just pride.

It brought warmth to the depths of his heart.

“Damian…” Sage Shinken shivered with rage. “You dare…”

A wide grin oozing with contempt and malice appeared on the Devil’s face. “What’s the matter? Did I irk you?”

“YOU DARE!?”

RUMBLE!!!

The world shook under the wrath of a peak-grade Sage.

The Devil bore the bloodlust of nine Sages, yet he didn’t so much as flinch. If anything, he only grew more excited.

“You were foolish to come here,” Sage Senpu gritted his teeth as he tried suppressing his fear. “You cannot fight the nine of us by yourself. Especially when your condition is much worse than ou—”

“Shut up, you little shit.” Sage Damian grinned wider. “I may die, but…”

A horrifying, blood-curdling bloodlust emerged from him, giving chills to eight of the nine Martial Sages.

“…but I’m confident I can kill at least five of you weaker maggots before I die.”

Their expressions grew grave as they saw the maniacal malice that consumed his eyes.

“So what’s it going to be?” His bloodlusted smile widened as far as it could, crumpling his face. Sage Shinken gritted his teeth as his rage only grew.

He could fight Damian head-on with no issue, yet he wasn’t sure that he could protect his peers before Damian got to them. He was a static defensive Martial Artist who fought only for himself with a selfish Martial Art that didn’t care for others around him.

The others were even more hesitant.

Their fear of the Devil of the Kandrian Empire was very real. They wanted nothing to do with him, ever.

Furthermore, by their standards, they weren’t very far from the Kandrian Empire. There was an extremely high chance that the other Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire would detect the battle and come running to aid their friend.

In other words, it would easily be the trigger for the second Sage-level battle.

However, they were too exhausted to go through another battle.

If they exhausted the power that their Martial Heart provided, they would be rendered extremely weak and vulnerable, potentially being weakened enough to be assassinated by Martial Masters as they retreated to the Sekigahara Confederate.

That could not be allowed to happen.

Perhaps in other circumstances, they would have been in the mind to risk it, but not this time.

After all, this risk had actually happened against their Martial Masters.

They pushed it for too long, weakening themselves too much until they were hunted by the Martial Seniors of the Kandrian Empire.

Could they be allowed to take the same risk?

Sage Shinken clenched his fists as he struggled to suppress the sheer amount of frustration he felt boiling up.

“…Retreat.” A single whisper escaped him as he turned around.

The Sekigaharan Sages gritted their teeth with helpless resignation and shame as they turned their backs on a lone, wounded, and exhausted Martial Sage heading back home, taking home the lone surviving Master of the war with them.

“Fucking maggots.” Sage Damian snorted, ensuring they heard his words. “Bunch of spineless wimps. My son has more balls than all of you combined, you hear?!”

They were all but gone.

“…I dunno if that’s true, father.” Kane heaved a sigh of relief as he finally stopped feeling like he was at death’s door, gazing at his father with a dubious expression. “Like my Martial Art is literally about running away.”

“Which is why they should be ashamed for being even more spineless than you are,” Damian grumbled with derision. “Still…”

His attention returned to his son.

He grinned, nodding as he sized up his son as a Martial Master. “Not bad. Not bad, indeed. You’ve broken through to a far higher grade in the Master Realm than any other Master I know of, except for him, of course.”

He snorted at the thought of the man who his son chased after. “Still, you’ve got some ways to go before you can match him. That one is a monster.”

Kane lit up at those words.

His father rarely complimented anyone, and even when he did, he usually offered the bare minimum.

“Heh, Rui is the best.”

“Hmph, don’t be proud of another man’s achievements.”

“I’m a man. Aren’t you proud of my achievements?”

“That doesn’t count! Also, who said I’m proud?!”

Father and son bantered as they headed back home.

And thus, the battle between the Sekigahara Confederate and the Kandrian Empire finally came to an end.

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