The Martial Unity

2908  Emergent Lifeform

While the battle between the Martial Sages of the Virodhabhasa Theocracy raged on in a frosty wasteland, the Blood Cult found itself in the depths of an endlessly lush, green forest.

The trees were titanic, kilometers in diameter and reaching deep, deep into the sky beyond the limits of the eye. The verdant greenery of the flora was truly stunning, suffusing a profound euphoria and a sensation of nature.

The immense green vegetation spread about a massive distance, its great branches and large green leaves forming a massive canopy that hid the ground from the exposure of the Sun.

And yet, Blood Lord Vrukshus narrowed his eyes with suspicion.

The forest drew his suspicion, for some reason or another.

For one, he couldn’t detect even the slightest of fauna.

The entire region was devoid of the chirping birds or the squeaks of critters. He couldn’t even detect insects or microbes, much to his shock.

It was like the entire region had been wiped clean and rendered sterile.

The Martial Sages of the Blood Cult stiffened at this revelation.

It was deeply disturbing to know that this region was so profoundly sanitized of all forms of life outside of the plant kingdom. It was highly unnatural and was almost certainly proof that the region’s conditions were profoundly suspicious. As scientists pretending to be cultists, they knew that there existed a microbial culture and life everywhere unless one specifically took measures to do so in an isolated environment. That was why it was so unfathomable that there was no such thing when it came to the forest.

And despite the absence of the microbes, the vegetation and flora thrived.

“…Despite?” Blood Lord Vrukshus’ eyes widened. “No…”

His expression grew grave as his Realms of power blazed with life.

“It’s because.”

RUMBLE!!!!!

Immediately, the entire forest began shaking as all the flora began converging upon them predatorily and aggressively. Trees became mobile, roots emerged from the ground, and leaves turned into profoundly sharp blades.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

One moment, they were simply moving across the forest in peace.

The very next, they had been attacked by the entirety of the forest.

Blood Vrukshus gritted his teeth with a grave expression as he activated his blood upon the converging attacks.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

His body was mangled.

Broken.

Torn.

Impaled.

His entire body was ravaged.

Not even his brain was spared, with several root spikes sticking out of his head.

And yet—

SPLAT!

He extricated himself from the entanglement with the roots painfully, still alive, before his entire body snapped back into one piece, entirely unharmed.

His Blood Path was immortality, allowing him to heal and regenerate from virtually anything. He possessed a degree of innate recovery that exceeded even the fruits of the Tree of Healing of the Sekigahara Confederate. His immortality was what made him a peak Martial Sage.

The other Martial Sages had each relied on their own innate Blood Path, deploying the full power of their hematological enhancement to produce powerful effects that granted them advantages over other Martial Sages.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

One Martial Sage grew inflamed with fires enveloping his entire body, relying on blood that could tolerate an extraordinarily high degree of oxygen, facilitating a degree of combustion.

“Hyargh!” the Martial Sage roared, setting ablaze the entirety of the forest they were in, unleashing an inferno that spread across much of the forest, reducing it to ashes. Another relied on her blood to produce and conduct electrical current, allowing her to wield powerful electricity that could be used to enhance her speed and offensive prowess. Another Martial Sage of the Blood Cult deployed his blood as a hydraulics system not just to redirect power, but also to maintain the balance, utilizing the principles of angular momentum and rotational dynamics.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

Blood Lord Vrukshus gritted his teeth as he watched the forest recover, heal, and regenerate from the damage that they inflicted on it even faster than his immortality. His gaze shifted across the entire forest as he noted the vast influx of nutrients and organic tissue from across the entire forest to heal the roots and trees that attacked them. “A hive hybrid lifeform?” Blood Lord Vrukshus’ eyes lit up with a profound expression of shock.

The entire forest was a massive emergent lifeform formed from individual trees and other flora lifeforms, spanning across a massive continent. Each individual tree acted like an individual cell in a multi-cellular organism, contributing to a much greater organism that emergently arose from their conjugation together.

A sentient predatory forest that healed with a surplus of nutrition and tissue, with roots across the entirety of the continent. An internal circulatory system of blood allowed them to pool in all their power and information, allowing the forest to function at the effective level of an extraordinarily powerful quasi-Transcendent creature of the very highest magnitude of power.

One that could push not just a peak Sage, but also a whole slew of other Sages to their very limits.

The Blood Cult was deeply moved by this revelation, even as an endless ocean of tissue vast enough to cover the surface of a planet, converged upon them to wipe them all out where they stood. The mad scientists grew deeply intrigued by the specimen that they were facing, eager to study even as they fulfilled their mission of exterminating it.

“I has bought portable instruments with me just for this very case.” The Blood Lord grinned with intense excitement. “Let’s take samples of all kinds to study back home when we get back!”

While the other Martial Sages fought with immense seriousness, the Blood Cult indulged in a venture of scientific inquiry, stalling their progress against the sentient lifeform, rendering them as slow and ineffective against their starting region as the Martial Sages of the Nest of Terra were against the golems.

The battle between the Blood Cult raged on as fierce Martial Sages were rendered into no more than excited scientists eager to conduct many tests and experiments on the exciting new specimen.

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