The Martial Unity

Rui’s tone was bewildered.

For much of his life, he had assumed his black hair and eyes were just a genetic divergence. Perhaps an ancestor of his parents possessed such a genotype that had passed down to him. He found it rather strange that it was so rare, but never thought more of it. Until now.

Even as he died, his black eyes bore into those of the demon’s.

He sought the truth.

“…You have but five minutes left to live.” The Demon’s voice was faint.

And yet, he wasn’t wrong.

Rui’s body had grown darker.

A pitch black darkness that consumed all life and all light began devouring every inch of his body, darkening just a shade with each passing moment. The corpses that had fallen prey to the poison had been rendered entirely black, blending into the darkness of the Gu forever.

Rui’s resistance was extraordinary. Even with a Transcendent-Grade treasure, resisting the notorious fabled Gu poison of the Demon of Asmodeous to any extent was an extraordinary feat of the highest order.

“…A feat worthy of a reward.”

The Demon of Asmodeous’ tone contained just the faintest ember of respect.

“Then…” he continued with a chilling murmur. “Hear the truth as you succumb to the truth.”

His pitch black eyes bore deep into Rui’s.

“I am older than the Age of Martial Art. I have lived a long, long life and borne witness to many, many things in this entire world. Among them are people like us…”

He gazed into Rui’s dying eyes with malevolent darkness. “People with marked with darkness.”

He closed his eyes. “The first Marked person that I ever met was none other than the person who taught me Martial Art. The person who taught all of Gaia Martial Art. The very Progenitor of Martial Art.”

Rui’s eyes widened with shock.

In that moment, his dying condition, the poison coursing through his being, the life that it stole from him. None of it consumed his mind anymore.

He instinctively wanted to refute the man’s words.

And yet, he couldn’t. He simply gazed at the Demon of Asmodeous with a shocked expression as he recalled all the memories of the Progenitor that he had seen in Amare’s memories.

All of those memories were from the perspective of the Progenitor herself, of course.

Not once had he actually seen her hair or eyes.

“She was just like us…” the Demon of Asmodeous opened his eyes. “She had potential to change the world with her own power. And she did. She gave the entire world Martial Art. She altered the very destiny of this continent. I…”

The darkness within his eyes seemed to spill over to the entire world.

“…intend to do the same.”

The poison in Rui’s body seemed to grow stronger.

Rui’s complexion darkened.

His breathing grew strained and ragged.

His heart palpitated uncertainly.

“You see…” the Demon of Asmodeous’ tone was blood-curdlingly malevolent, “this Gu… this place… this abyss of death…”

The dark bloodlust that boiled in his eyes was more intense than any other that Rui had ever seen in his life.

“…is simply a part of my cultivation technique,” the Demon of Asmodeous enlightened him with a horrifying revelation. “The endless cycle of death, the endless cycle of rot, the endless world of darkness. All of it…”

His tone grew even darker. “All of it was for the sake of refining my poison. The more death I inflict, the more death I absorb, the more potent my Gu becomes. I will…”

A chilling glint of determination flared in his pitch-black eyes.

Just the faintest hint of the horrifying ambition within the abyss of his eyes.

“I will spread the Gu across this entire world.”

Chills crawled across Rui’s skin as blood began oozing out of his body.

Black blood.

It spilled from his ears.

It trickled down his nose.

It dripped from eyes.

His complexion grew darker and darker, melting into the darkness of the Gu.

He was dying with each passing moment.

And yet, in that moment, the only thing that consumed his attention was the sheer magnitude of the horror of what the Demon before him had uttered.

“The Beast Incursion… the Era of Darkness…” he whispered. “They were made for me. They have shown me the way. They have given me the power to drown all of humanity in a Gu. Not just all of humanity…”

A microcosm of darkness flared in the depths of his eyes. “But all of life everywhere.”

Terror gripped Rui’s heart at the sheer malevolence in his declaration.

“The Beast Domain. The Human Domain. The Great Nam Ocean.”

His dark eyes threatened to swallow all of Gaia in their depths.

“I will consume all life in this world, and any other, to fuel my Gu.”

His tone was deathly.

“All living beings will facilitate my ascent into the Transcendent Realm.”

In that moment, a single realization dawned on Rui.

‘This man… this man is a greater threat to human civilization than the Beast Incursion is.’

Rui’s resistance flared with desperation.

His will to live.

His will to fight.

His will to make it out of the Gu alive.

They flared to extraordinary heights of intensity.

He needed to live, to escape, and to warn the world.

‘I need to tell people.’

He gritted his teeth even as his body died with each passing second.

‘I need to tell people about the threat of the Demon of Asmodeous.’

He clenched his fists even as he felt the Gu poison coursing through his body, furiously fighting the Rebirth born from the combined power of the Fruit of Healing, and the Soul Retconned Weaving Blood and the Hungry Pain technique.

“Even among the Marked, you are an anomaly, Rui Quarrier Silas Kandria,” the Demon of Asmodeous whispered with a chilling tone. “Your death should be absolute. No antidote exists for the Gu. Not even the legendary Divine Doctor can save you. If I leave you be, you will die on your own. And yet…”

The pitch-black depths of his eyes grew certain.

“…And yet, I sense that I will regret it if I let you live any longer.”

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