The Martial Unity

An attack to end the battle.

One that would define the future of the Kandrian Empire and all of East Panama.

And yet, he didn’t land the attack.

No.

The one to land it was Rui.

BOOOM!!!

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

A thundering Yin-Yang Spear empowered by Flowing Canon and Outer Convergence devastated Ieyasu’s ribcage, breaking some of his bones.

He shook.

Not from the impact or the pain.

But from the shock.

The shock of not being able to read Rui’s mind anymore.

He stared at Rui in horror as he struggled to discern his thoughts. Try as he might, the trusty sensitivity to minds that he had been born with was failing him for the first time in his entire life. It shook him.

He stared at Rui with horror in his eyes.

“How did you—!”

BAM!

Ieyasu staggered as his nose broke from the jab that struck his face.

He didn’t see that jab coming.

Despite possessing a predictive model on Rui, he didn’t see the jab coming.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Rui’s expression turned fierce as he blasted Ieyasu with attack after attack. There was no hint of arrogance in his fists.

Only ferocious determination.

He hadn’t forgotten how close to defeat he had come to just before this. If his ultimate plan of adaptively evolving to Ieyasu’s Soul Eye technique had not paid off in the final moment, he would have lost the battle then and there. If not for the ultimate plan, he would probably be dead right now, and Kandria would be doomed.

A simple yet elaborate plan born from a series of deductions and inductions over the span of decades.

After their first battle twenty years ago, Rui had suspected that Ieyasu’s sensitivity to thought came from sensitivity to the electromagnetic radiation released by the electrical activity of the brain.

His hypothesis had only gained more credence after he had discovered that the mind sense of the Martial Mind was based on a similar principle.

Thus, it had begged the question.

Would a Faraday cage be able to suppress his Soul Eye technique?

Rui hadn’t been sure.

It depended on the electromagnetic frequency and which part of the brain it came from. Different parts of the brain released different ranges of frequencies, which made it extremely difficult to hit the nail on the head. Without that, it was not possible to create a Faraday cage that could cripple his Soul Eye technique with minimum energy demands.

The only way to find out would be trial and error.

Thus, Rui had commenced his ultimate plan to adaptively evolve to Ieyasu’s Soul Eye technique from the very inception of their battle.

He had created a small, almost microscopic domain that functioned like a Faraday Cage around the parts of his skull that covered the frontal lobe of his brain. He relied on the Niflheim domain to create a superconducting microdomain that could isolate electromagnetic radiation from the brain.

By making it a microdomain, he ensured that it required very little of his attention and energy to run, thereby also making it harder for Ieyasu to read his mind to understand what his plan was. He also buried the information deep in his gigantic Mind Palace to make it even harder for Ieyasu to discover his intentions.

And it paid off throughout the entire battle. He had been maintaining and altering his Faraday cage domain in countless trial-and-error experiments until, eventually, he ran into the right parameters for the domain to insulate the frequencies of EM radiation that Ieyasu relied on.

It saved him in the nick of the moment, facilitating the turning of the tables.

And thus, he successfully adaptively evolved.

He successfully adaptively evolved to Ieyasu’s greatest power.

Never again would Ieyasu ever read his mind ever again.

BAM!!

Ieyasu staggered in a daze as a jab blasted him in the jaw. The ferocity in his eyes could not hide the shock that Rui had inflicted on him. To be deprived of a technique based on a sense organ that had been with him his entire life was disorienting.

The psychological impact of the shock was bad enough, yet what was worse was that his entire combat sense was built around the technique. It was extremely difficult for him to adapt to fighting without it because there had never been a moment in his entire life where he had to.

He even lost access to the VOID algorithm as he could no longer sustain the Megamind technique. Thus, losing all his power to cope with everything that Rui had going for him. The only thing he had going for him was the fact that he was in a much better condition.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!

Rui blasted him with fierce aggression, attack after attack, as Ieyasu defended himself as if his life depended on it.

And it did.

Of the two of them, Rui was in a worse condition.

His stamina was almost entirely depleted. He could feel his body slipping as his vision grew increasingly hazy and blurry from the sheer amount of blood loss.

He had suffered far more damage.

There wasn’t much time left. If he failed to not only equalize the battle quickly but also take Ieyasu down before the battle ended, then the Kandrian Empire was doomed.

It was not enough to survive.

He also needed to kill Tokugawa Ieyasu once and for all.

If Ieyasu survived and returned to the alliance, then they would gain access to the power of breakthroughs since everybody had seen him copy Rui. There would be no way to keep it from them anymore.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Ieyasu’s expression grew grave and severe as the reality of the battle finally dawned on him past his emotional shock.

The combination of the VOID algorithm and the SOUL System was too much. So long as he couldn’t deal with these two powerful systems of thought, he would never be able to defeat Rui.

Yet, Ieyasu, despite his emotional turmoil, sensed Rui’s physical weakness.

Profuse bleeding from the countless punctures in his body inflicted by the Vacuum Palms from before. More broken bones than intact.

Torn skin, flesh, and muscles from the Gyroblast Fists.

A single realization dawned on Ieyasu. Rui was just one critical attack away from defeat.

That was all it took. That realization shook him out of his turmoil, birthing a ferocious determination.

One critical attack.

That was all.

That was all he needed.

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