The Martial Unity

Bodhisattva Maitreyi shook her head. “That method will no longer avail you. Now that you have unlocked all your memories and have discovered who you are, you will need to actively reach out to get power, rather than simply obtain it by virtue of living. Your extraordinary talent for kinesthetic learning has reached its limits.”

Amare heaved a sigh.

She knew that her grandmother was right.

For most of her life, she didn’t actually train; she simply lived her life and grew stronger just by virtue of that.

From this point on, that would no longer grant her any power.

The issue was that she didn’t have any affinity for the standard kind of progression that Martial Artists went through.

Purchasing techniques, reading them, gaining a systematic and qualitative understanding of the techniques and then learning the technique that way was something that she was simply not good at.

There were different kinds of learning.

Audio-visual, qualitative, literary, observational, and kinesthetic, among others.

Most people possessed seem balance of all of them.

And one needed a balance of them if one was going to be able to read technique blueprints, understand them and then master them.

Amare, on the other hand, scored almost zero in all of them except for kinesthetic learning.

In turn, her kinesthetic learning was maxed out beyond genius levels.

If she made an action, that action engraved itself in her muscle memory forever. She would be able to redo it over and over again within nanometer and nanosecond precision and accuracy.

“High principles…” she murmured with a knowing tone. “I need someone to teach it to me in a way that I can understand.”

That was exactly what the Shield of Gaia had done when he taught her the Dance of Terra.

He didn’t teach her the theory of seismic radiation or earth-bending.

He simply taught her how to dance.

That was something that Amare was good at, and thus she gained absolute mastery over it at shocking speeds.

“I need someone who understands me,” she murmured with a longing tone. “Someone who knows what I’m like and knows what I need.”

Her amber eyes darkened as she found her thoughts returning to him once more.

She heaved a sigh, getting up.

“I’m going to go train.”

She departed from her quarters, heading towards the northern mountains so that she could meditate in isolation.

The chill cold of Northern Kandria made it a relatively deserted and barren part of the nation, making it the perfect place for her to clear her mind and try to focus on getting stronger.

WHOOSH!

The chilly breeze of the blizzard that blew over the north brushed past her body as she surged deep into the mountains.

The winds were volatile and uncertain.

They were wet in sharp contrast to the dryness that the Kandrian Empire was most accustomed to.

The Unfolding had caused the ice in the North to melt, leading to greater moisture in the air and the winds.

It was just one of the many environmental changes that had spread across the entire north.

STEP

She arrived atop the peak of a mountain to isolate herself and figure out a path forward while getting recent happenings out of her mind in solitude.

And yet, she didn’t have solitude.

She wasn’t alone.

She turned around slowly with a knowing expression.

She found herself staring at him, of all people.

His pitch black hair and eyes stood in sharp contrast to the snowy white environment around them.

Moreover, she could sense his very presence from a long, long distance away.

He had come searching for her.

She had no idea why.

What more was there to be said?

She didn’t know.

Despite her resolute farewell, she found herself gazing deep into her eyes.

Her amber eyes grew deep with longing desire.

And yet, she remained silent.

She didn’t trust herself to speak.

“Amare.”

His voice was buried in the blizzard of the North.

And yet, she could hear him perfectly.

STEP

He drew closer.

STEP

STEP

STEP

STEP…

The two of them found themselves standing before each other.

She resisted the urge to pull closer to him.

She couldn’t help but gaze deep into the darkness of his pitch-black eyes with longing desire, though.

He was right in front of her.

“…You have changed.”

Those were the exact same words he had said to her before.

And yet, his tone was different.

“But I can change too.”

Her eyes widened at those words.

A confident smile emerged on his face as he uttered the most nonsensical thing Amare had ever heard in her life.

“I can adaptively evolve to love you.”

“…”

The contrast between how silly his words were and how serious his tone was too humorous to bear.

Even the blizzard seemed to grow silent at those words, as if taking a moment to stare at Rui dubiously.

She stared at him with a dumbfounded expression before bursting into laughter.

Rui tilted his head as she nearly keeled over in hearty, mirthful laughter.

It was the first time since she had woken up, perhaps, that she had such an ecstatic expression of joy.

The solemn severity of the air made way for a playful mirth.

Rui found himself scratching his head about what part of what he said was funny.

But at least she was laughing.

“Oh dear…” She finally calmed down, wiping tears from her eyes, before gazing at Rui with a longing, affectionate gaze.

“…I suspect no one in the history of human civilization has ever uttered those words, Rui Quarrier.”

Rui smiled wryly.

She grew a little more solemn as a sad smile emerged on her face.

“And only when you learn to love me will you fulfill your Project Water?”

“There is that too,” Rui remarked with a knowing expression. “But…”

He gazed at her.

“I want to love you.”

His tone was calm.

“I want to love all of you.”

He gazed deep into her eyes.

“If you give me a chance, I’m sure I can do it.”

She gazed at him, stunned and speechless.