The Martial Unity

RUMBLE…

The battle had shaken the world.

From its very epicenter incepted countless natural disasters across the entirety of the Panama Continent.

Martial Sages were calamities in human form.

They were apocalypses bound to a Martial Body.

This was especially true for those who stood at the very peak of the Sage Realm. When they acted, the world was at their mercy.

Countless earthquakes ravaged the Panama Continent.

Floods, tsunamis, volcanoes, and many other natural disasters emerging from the flux of energy that the battle between Sages had created. The many disturbances that had occurred with not just the battle but also Rui’s Martial Embodiment had caused the war between the Human Domain and the Beast Domain to halt as both monsters and humans scrambled with fear plaguing their hearts.

The event had gone even beyond the Panama Continent, affecting the islands around the continent and even the Great Nam Ocean.

It had affected the entire biosphere.

THUD

Bodhisattva Maitreyi collapsed to her knees, exhausted.

“Huff… huff…”

Even with Rui’s crucial help of sabotaging the Gu poison, the battle had been one of the most taxing battles that she had ever fought in her entire life. The Demon of Asmodeous had proven to be powerful enough to require her full power to dispatch of him even with Rui’s participation in the battle.

She directed a tired gaze at Rui, who simply cradled Amare in his arms with love and warmth, holding her close to him.

His Realms of power had receded as even he had finally reached the end of his extraordinary stamina, having exerted tremendous power to break through to the Sage Realm, heal himself, resurrect Amare and then help kill the Demon of Asmodeous.

His pitch-black eyes simply remained fixed on Amare with love and sorrow.

Even at that very moment, he could feel her horror she felt in her heart at never being able to meet Rui ever again.

At being trapped within a world of darkness.

Her consciousness was trapped within the cerebral cortex of the brain.

Unable to communicate.

He couldn’t even imagine how horrifying it was. “I’m sorry.”

He whispered to her. “I am the reason that you are suffering.”

He brought her closer as he pulled her into a tight embrace.

He didn’t know what to do.

He didn’t know how to help her. He couldn’t think of a solution.

Was this price to pay?

Was this the price that he had to pay for his arrogance?

He violated a fundamental law of the natural order.

He resurrected the dead.

Only for her to be drowned in an endless world of darkness, pain, and suffering.

“You are the reason that she has returned.”

Bodhisattva Maitreyi arrived before him with a light step.

She bowed her head lightly to him with respect and gratitude.

“I, Maitreyi, am forever grateful to you for returning my granddaughter to the world of the living.”

Rui’s gaze remained fixed on Amare.

“I was the reason she died in the first place.”

He closed his eyes.

“I was arrogant.”

This wasn’t self-hatred.

He knew he was being arrogant because he had gained Enlightenment of Self.

He had gained a complete understanding of the psychology of his mind.

His repeated successes one after another had deluded him into thinking that he couldn’t fail.

Because he had overcome everything before, he would overcome everything one last time.

He was wrong.

Dead wrong.

He had failed miserably.

There wasn’t even the slightest silver lining with the outcome of the Gu.

Every single resident of the Gu was dead.

Braindead under the weight of his Martial Mind or dead because of the ferocious battle between peak Sages.

All the Sages were dead too.

The Demon in his insanity of cultivating death had killed off all twenty-one Martial Sages.

That meant all of this had been for nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

“No.”

Bodhisattva Maitreyi’s tone was wise.

She gazed at Rui with immense respect.

“We have gained you.”

Humanity had gained Rui the Martial Sage.

With a single step into the Realm, he had demonstrated an unfathomably godly power.

He had adaptively evolved to a poison that was regarded as the embodiment of death.

He resurrected the dead.

He destroyed the source of the Demon’s peril, allowing Bodhisattva Maitreyi to fell him. She could even sense within him the same Gu that existed within the Demon of Asmodeous. It was a power that he had tamed.

A power that he had harnessed.

With the power that he possessed, he was an absolutely priceless asset to all of humanity. One that would help them overcome the greatest apocalypse that had swept the entirety of the continent. In that moment, a profound premonition erupted from within her. Without the Dawnbringer, there would have been no hope for human civilization. With the loss of the Gu and one of the four Transcendent candidates, they were less likely to overcome the Beast at the very center of the Beast Domain.

He was no longer merely a pillar of hope and salvation.

He was the very foundation upon which all their hope and salvation was built.

And yet, he didn’t care.

He didn’t care for any of that. He didn’t care about the strategic outlook of human civilization.

He only cared about one and only one thing in that moment.

“Amare…” A faint whisper escaped him. Bodhisattva Maitreyi’s gaze grew sorrowful as she gazed at her still granddaughter, sensing her internal distress.

“Do not lose hope, Dawnbringer.”

Her tone was wise.

“If death is not absolute, then nothing is.”

She gazed at him with profound eyes. Rui stirred at her words as he held Amare closer to him. “Are you going to do nothing?” she asked. “Are you going to give up, after going as far as to overcome death itself?”

Her eyes intensified.

“Are you going to give up? When she’s so close? So close to returning?”

Even as he gazed at her, the questions stung at him.

Was he going to watch her suffer for eternity within her mind?

Was he going to live his life knowing that he was responsible for her suffering?

Was he going to watch her sleep helplessly for the rest of his life?

The answer had always been there. “No.”

His tone was intense.

“Never.”