The Martial Unity

The past two months had been revolutionarily different for the Blood Goddess. Released from her golden prison, she was entirely unsure how to live a life outside of the set path she had followed.

Within that set path, she had always retained a lot of free will. In fact, within her duties, she had even greater authority than the Blood Lord himself.

And yet, they never allowed her to use that authority to defy the set life path.

Half her time was spent in pregnancy, while the other half was spent training her Martial Arts for the sake of empowering her Martial Body. The more she fought, the more she trained, the more her body would naturally evolve. She had exhausted other means of blood evolution, including blood evolution treatment.

Thus, she pursued Martial Art for the sole sake of evolving her genes and becoming an even more valued treasure.

Now that that was gone and she was free, her life was hers to lead.

It was thrilling and exciting to choose to live life the way she wanted. It was a soul-soothing relief not to have to give birth to babies continuously.

And yet, a gaping hole of uncertainty had filled her heart.

“…What do I do with my life?” she murmured.

Her body language and demeanor have changed significantly in the past two months. Before, she believed in her own destiny as the seedbed of human evolution, partly with force and partly as a self-embraced destiny to preserve her sanity. But that mask had shattered in her battle with Amare and was permanently destroyed when Rui set her free.

Her suffering was gone, but the purpose that she believed she had was also gone.

She felt relief but emptiness at the same time.

“You don’t need to know what to do with life right away,” Amare’s tone was kind and warm as she gently comforted the Blood Goddess with a light embrace, patting her head. “You don’t have to decide right away. Nobody is born with an understanding of the purpose and meaning of their life. You build purpose for yourself.”

“Build purpose for myself…” the Blood Goddess stirred with comfort in Amare’s warmth. “What do I need to do for that?”

“You see…” Amare’s tone grew wise. “Purpose is the bond between yourself and the world. A bond you build. To do that, you need to explore yourself and explore the world. Only then can you find, build, your purpose.”

“Explore the world…” the Blood Goddess murmured. “That’s why you should come with us.” Amare smiled. “Rui and I are traveling the world to help people.”

“…Help people?”

“Rui makes them stronger, and I make them feel better,” Amare smiled. “Or at least, I try my best to.”

“…you are very good at it.” The Blood Goddess turned towards Amare with affectionate appreciation. “Is that your purpose?”

“Part of it,” Amare replied thoughtfully. “I want to live a satisfying and fulfilling life. Helping as many people as I can is certainly part of that.”

The Blood Goddess stirred. “…My purpose used to be passing on my blood to the world through my children. But with the extraction of my eggs, that purpose is gone, as is the pain, suffering, and burden that came with it. This empty feeling is unpleasant. Biologically, I’m still extremely young, I will live for many, many centuries thanks to all the longevity treatments that I have undergone to preserve my fertility. What am I going to do in all these centuries?”

It was truly an unsettling and scary thought.

And yet, she wasn’t consumed by fear.

“I have so much I want to see and want to do,” she muttered with a hint of excitement. “My entire life was filled with longing for things out of my reach. Perhaps now I will be able to get my hands on the things I longed for.”

“I’m sure you will,” Amare smiled, patting her head with affection as though she was her little sister.

This was despite the fact that the Blood Goddess was older than Amare.

“Say, can I ask you something… sensitive?” the Blood Goddess asked with a solemn tone.

“Of course!”

“What happened in our fight… towards the end?” the Blood Goddess asked. “It was almost as though you became a goddess in mortal form. It was power, unlike anything I have ever seen in the Master Realm.”

“Ah…” Amare’s smile grew a little bittersweet. “Grandma told me not to tell anybody else, but…”

She smiled at the Blood Goddesss, “you’re like my sister now!”

The Blood Goddess grew uncomfortable at Amare’s unabashed affection towards her.

She had only ever been revered on a pedestal.

She had never experienced such a personal love from a person who had come to understand her and see her for who she was.

“You see, I…” Amare began with a serious tone. “I have the memories of the Progenitor sealed inside me.”

The Blood Goddess frowned. “The Progenitor?”

“The first Martial Artist,” Amare explained. “She who spread Martial Art across all of human civilization.”

“…I have never heard of her.”

“It was so long ago that not a lot of people know about it,” Amare mused knowingly. “I draw my power from internalized experiences, so when I unlock her internalized experience of many centuries, I gain a powerful rush of power that I normally don’t have access to.”

“…That’s incredible,” the Blood Goddess remarked. “But why do you have the Progenitor’s memories sealed inside you?”

“According to Rui, a certain man probably implanted them in me as a baby through hypnosis before placing me in front of the gates of the Gen Temple,” Amare quietly told her.

The Blood Goddess’s blood-red eyes narrowed. “…That’s horrible. Who would do such a thing to a newborn infant?”

Amare smiled uncertainly. “That’s what Rui said, too. But I don’t think of it badly. After all, they also placed me in front of the Gen Temple, which led to living a wonderful life in the temple with my family and grandmother, you see?”