The Martial Unity

The Esoterist introduced more solutions and innovations than Rui had expected.

Not all of them were super impactful compared to his siege weapon innovations and his esotractor, of course. He offered a lot of low-hanging fruits that offered marginal benefits but were still worth it.

Every ounce of help mattered

His overall presentation stretched out for nearly an hour as he discussed a variety of innovations.

The air was still optimistic after he shared all these benefits, of course. But the monotony had cooled off the jubilance. None of the leaders of human civilization were scientists aside from the vice president of the Esocline Federation, who only grew more dazzled by the personal innovations that the president of her nation had chosen to disclose to the rest of the world. Compared to Rui’s bombastic and flashy presentation, he took the academic approach of the scholar that he was.

Eventually, even the Esoterist slowed down before finally pausing.

“We are nearly at the end of my presentation.” He smiled at the gathered leaders. “I have provided many innovations that I believe will qualitatively improve human civilization. Together with the Hellbringer system of thought and surrounding contributions that my esteemed colleague has made, I am confident that human civilization will be able to survive without Sages in perhaps a year of time.”

Indeed, he was not the only one who felt optimistic about this.

Prior to their presentations, a lot of leaders had felt that the solutions that two geniuses were going to provide would simply not be adequate for the plan and strategy of the Emperor of Harmony to be viable.

Now, however, their minds had changed.

They were convinced that there truly was a chance.

Of course, no one could be certain.

There was no way of knowing just how effective these solutions would be when the time came.

Unfortunately, the circumstances that human civilization found itself in were dire. They did not have the leeway to take their time to pursue certainty. They needed to roll out whatever they could. “I have one last innovation to offer before I conclude my presentation.” The Esoterist continued smiling. “In my opinion, this innovation will be the most impactful innovation that I will be providing. In fact, I believe that this will be the single most important innovation that I have ever developed in my entire life.”

His tone was heavy, compared to the light instructive voice he had conducted himself with in the presentation thus far.

“However, in order to understand the significance of this innovation, you must fathom the context that makes it as revolutionary as I believe it will be,” he explained. “Let me begin by drawing comparisons between Martial weaponry and non-Martial weaponry.”

He tapped his suit, causing two sets of three-dimensional projections to light up the podium.

On one hand, there were simple primitive weapons, like swords, maces, gauntlets, spears, and even bow and arrows. Their material compositions were clearly esoteric, and yet the weapon designs themselves were extremely primitive.

On the other hand, there were three-dimensional blueprints of the most complex and sophisticated weapons that mankind had ever created, from aforementioned siege weapons, to other less common weapons of mass destruction, to infantry weapons.

“Do you notice the difference between the two?” The Esoterist smiled. “Weapons of Martial Artists tend to be extremely simple with minimal to no technological presence in them. Simple, but highly sturdy weapons that are constructed from substances that are expressly able to withstand the astronomical pressures they will sustain when wielded by Martial Artists.”

His eyes shifted to the other set of esoteric weapons. “On the other hand, non-Martial weapons abuse esoteric technology to the highest order. They are the most complex and convoluted pieces of human creation.”

These differences were known, but when so clearly and holistically highlighted, it did indeed seem particularly pointed and greater than any of them had ever realized.

“Why does this difference exist?” The Esoterist posed a question to the leaders of human civilization. “Is Martial Art fundamentally incompatible with sophisticated technology? Why are there no Martial Artists who wield esoteric rifles? Why are there no Martial Artists who wield esoteric siege weapons? Why are there no Martial Artists whose Martial Path is gunmanship? Or strategic siegemanship? Why have no infantry soldiers or special forces commandos and operators who wield these weapons broken through to the Apprentice Realm?”

The notions of such Martial Paths were absurd intuitively.

And yet, the questions that the Esoterist posed truly provoked a lot of thought.

Why weren’t there such Martial Artists, as absurd as it felt intuitively?

Was there some cosmic law of the universe that declared ‘nary a Martial Artist shall wield rifles’?

Of course not.

That was absurd.

There must be some factor or mechanism that made it so that nobody who trained in gunmanship or siegemanship could discover their path and break through to the Apprentice Realm. “I believe that I have gained insights into exactly what that factor and mechanism are,” the Esoterist revealed. “The answer, as difficult as it was to come upon, is fundamentally simple. It all comes down to the harnessing of all dimensions of human potential.”

A wave of curiosity spread through the spectators as they grew increasingly engrossed in his explanation.

“Any weapon that is conceptually unable to harness all dimensions of human potential cannot serve as a viable Martial Path.” His smile widened as he elaborated. “Dimensions of potential such as the potential for combat cognition, which is the power of the Apprentice Realm; the potential for evolution which, when manifested, is the power of the Squire Realm; the evolved potential of physicality which is the power of the Senior Realm; and the evolved potential of mind and thought which serves as the power of the Master Realm and so on and so forth.”

A wave of shock spread through the leaders of human civilization as the Esoterist blatantly revealed secrets of Martial Art that were not meant to be revealed to lesser powers!

And yet, nobody chastised him.

In the Era of Darkness, it was foolish to withhold such crucial information that could very easily strengthen smaller and weaker powers. Thus, the highest leaders of human civilization understood why he did what he did.

More importantly, they grew increasingly engrossed in the innovation that he was building towards with anticipation.

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