The Martial Unity

Out of all the nations that they had visited together, Amare found herself resonating with the Nest of Terra more than any other.

The place stirred her mind.

Everywhere she went, she would find flashes of a distant past.

Of a different past.

“I… I have come here before,” she murmured as she walked across the City of Martia.

Her tone was profound.

She felt as though she was discovering who she was simply by walking through the city that unearthed memories buried deep within her. She found herself immersed in the spell of the town.

She was especially in love with the Martial philosophy of the Nest of Terra. Martial Art was art. Simply the thought of it warmed her heart from within. If not for the Gen Temple, she would have wished that she was dropped off as a baby in the Nest of Terra. To be able to practice Martial Art as an art form of expression would have been wonderful

Even at that moment, she looked forward to learning this art form. This desire grew deeper and deeper as she watched the heartfelt and emotional movements of the Martial Artists of the Nest of Terra, expressing themselves through their Martial art form.

As Rui had pointed out, Gen Martial philosophy was not incompatible with Terran Martial philosophy. Together, the two would imply that everything was an art form. Everything was a way to express one’s self through mastery of everything.

She wondered how strong she would get if she were able to harness the best of what Terran Martial philosophy had to offer and harmonically merge it with Gen Martial philosophy.

Just what kind of untold power awaited her in this extraordinary fusion of philosophies?

How far would she get in fulfilling her Martial drive of living a life of endless fulfillment and satisfaction if she lived every moment of her life to express herself in every action?

“How wonderfully heavenly that sounds,” her smile was heartwarmingly positive. “I think I will learn more about myself and get closer and closer to Nirvana if I embody both Gen and Terran Martial philosophy.

Of course, learning to embody Terran Martial philosophy meant that she would probably grow less and less ‘pure’ as far as Gen Martial philosophy.

Contrary to popular belief, she was not particularly repulsed by this. While she was regarded as the purest embodiment of Gen philosophy, that was more so in reference to her Martial Art rather than her personality and temperament. Genism espoused patience and stoicism, which she was far too enthusiastic and excited about life to possibly embody. She had also undergone the purity ritual simply because that was the norm in the Gen Temple.

“I just want to live a life of as much satisfaction and fulfillment as possible,” she skipped through the City of Martia, reaching the other end of the city, confronted with open tunnels that led one into the endless labyrinth that stretched to untold distances.

Normally, she wouldn’t have done something as foolish as going into the tunnels by herself, potentially getting lost within the limitless labyrinth of tunnels within the Nest of Terra. At the very least, she would have taken someone as reliable as Rui if she was going to do something that scary.

And yet, she did it nonetheless.

“Nggg…” she flinched as a greater surge of memories erupted within her at the sight of the tunnels.

An instinct deep within her propelled her forward into the tunnels and the labyrinth outside civilization.

She walked and walked and walked.

Never once stopping.

She didn’t know why, but she felt driven down a strange path that she had never even seen before. She left the city, following a convoluted tunnel network across the labyrinth that has spread far and wide in between and beyond the hundred cities of the Nest of Terra.

The Nest of Terra was one of the very most largest nations in terms of utilized volume. Its territories were half comprised of tunnels in between cities that had been created over the span of many centuries. It was the result of a process that had begun long before the Age of Martial Art had come to be. A process that had begun even before Martial Art existed.

Nobody could possibly know their way through the massive hive of a labyrinth that infested itself in between cities, one that was so expansive that it put even the Shionel Dungeon to shame.

And yet, she found herself almost in a state of hypnosis, walking through a particular set of tunnels.

As though she had been there before.

She walked and walked and walked.

She found herself winding through the countless paths there were to take.

She walked as though she had walked them before. In truth, she had no idea where she was going.

She moved almost by instinct.

Even as she gazed at tunnels she had never seen before, a faint memory would flash in her mind, overlapping what she saw perfectly.

She walked the path that she saw within those memories, going deeper.

After hours of walking, she had gone so deep that even the lights installed in the tunnels were long gone.

She was drowned in darkness.

Far, far away from civilization.

And then, she fell.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!!!

RUMBLE!!!

The ground of the tunnel all around her broke, crumbling as everything around her fell.

Everything fell downwards amid a crack between landmasses that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.

Stopping herself would have been elementary and simple.

Sky-walking away and blasting off all the rubble on falling down with her would have been elementary for a Martial Master of caliber.

And yet, she didn’t. Her body simply went limp as she allowed herself to be carried away to untold depths.

All because her instincts told her to.

Her heart, her soul, felt a deep sense of familiarity at its depths.

BOOOM!!!

She landed with a tremendous explosion as the crack between landmasses curved off, growing flatter and flatter.

Yet, that wasn’t what drew her attention.

No.

What drew her attention was the old man who sat at some distance away from her. On his head was a rock.

A large rock.

Larger than anything other she had ever seen, stretching endlessly in all directions.

It was the Nest of Terra.

The entirety of the Nest of Terra weighed down on his head.

The bedrock, the landmass, the cities, the people, the civilization.

All of it rested on his head, physically weighing down on him with an extraordinary weight.

His unfathomable eyes directed a profoundly transcendent gaze at her while she stared at him with unadulterated shock.

And yet, the words that escaped him shook her even more. “S̴o̶ ̶y̷o̴u̸ ̶h̴a̷v̵e̷ ̶f̴i̴n̶a̶l̶l̸y̴ ̵r̸e̴t̷u̷r̸n̸e̶d̴,̵ ̷P̴r̷o̶g̵e̵n̴i̴t̵o̵r̷.̶”