The Martial Unity

“You might be surprised, but there actually isn’t much to tell despite many people seeking to know much about her,” Mother Vyia remarked. “She is a shadowy existence. No one knows her real name, Ecclestia is just what we elves call her. No one knows what race she is of. No one who has fought her has lived to tell the tale. Almost no one who has watched her fight has lived to tell the tale. She is a mystery, but she has defeated each and every single person she fought in the top ten on top of that, there are rumors that say that she is immortal.”

Rui raised an eyebrow. “What…?”

It was absurd that there was such little information on a person of such great interest.

“No one knows anything about her but she still somehow managed to defeat many of the strongest powerhouses in one go?”

Mother Vyia nodded. “She seeks out the strongest and she has defeated all of them without any defeat thus far.”

Rui frowned. “That just seems impossible to believe. You’re telling me not a single person knows anything about her?”

“Correct,” Mother Vyia remarked with a wistful expression. “But there’s no mistaking that her combat power is at the very highest echelon.”

“…” Rui wasn’t even sure what to say to that.

And yet, his pitch-black eyes lit up as a small smile of excitement emerged on his face.

“Sounds fun.”

Mother Vyia heaved a disapproving sigh. “Regardless, coming back to our earlier topic. I don’t know how you compare to the Dragon Emperor, especially if you can’t reliably bring out your maximum power in battle without consequences. The dragon emperor of the Ryu Clan is the strongest therianthrope to have ever existed. Their clan comprises therianthropes who bond with monsters of myth, of ancient humanity born from genetic editing and breeding to create dragons, the most powerful creatures of fauna to have ever existed…”

She closed her eyes.

“They have great scales made of powerful metals that can withstand a truly extraordinary amount of power. Their bodies contain an absurd amount of mass packed with astronomical densities, leading to unfathomable amounts of power within them. They are the apex of predators constructed from reptiles, the most devastating predators in the history of this world.”

She opened her eyes as her elderly eyes returned to meet his intrigued gaze.

“And among them, the Dragon Emperor is a complete dragon who has completed his Convergence of Beast and has merged with the strongest of dragons into a true dragon.”

She appeared to have expected him to be awed by her words.

But Rui simply smiled.

“Dragons are not the strongest species.”

Mother Vyia raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“For one, there are jormungandrs,” Rui replied. “Named after the original Jormungandr who rules the Great Nam Ocean.”

Mother Vyia thoughtfully nodded. “It is indeed true that the great serpent is also one of the reasons that the therianthropes have been whipped into action, although that comes as a part of the magnificent exotic fauna of the Panama Continent. They are attracted by both the land and the sea animals that are a part of the Panama biosphere. However, I wasn’t aware that the serpent was that large by virtue of its species as opposed to its own individual power.”

“It is certainly the most powerful species and being, both, in this world at the moment,” Rui remarked. “But even if I ignore it, I wouldn’t say that dragons are the most powerful species at all. After all…”

He shook his head.

“Why would I fear a dragon when I have fought a chimera?”

Hell, the chimeras he had fought, both times, had assimilated dragons in them.

Mother Vyia frowned at his words with a hint of confusion. “What is a chimera?”

“Never mind,” Rui shook his head. “Regardless, coming back to the point, you’re not certain that I can defeat the Dragon Emperor in combat.”

“Regrettably, yes,” she replied with an apologetic tone. “If we had more data on both of you, I’m sure that I could give you a more definitive answer, but for now, this is the limitation of our knowled—”

“It’s fine.”

Rui’s firm voice cut off her regret.

A wide smile emerged on his face.

“In fact, I would say this is ideal.”

He gazed at his hands, clenching them into fists, feeling a surge of power emerging from across his body.

His nerves tingled with anticipation.

The ocean of darkness within his pitch-black eyes stirred.

“Doesn’t the prospect of fighting a dangerous enemy you know nothing about excite you?”

“It actually would concern me,” she honestly replied. “It would scare any sane person. If other Martial Sages are anything like you, then I think that you fellows might be as irrational as the therianthropes. Maybe even as irrational as the giants.”

Rui shrugged with a mischievous smile.

“Guilty as charged.”

She shook her head wordlessly before returning her gaze to him.

“So, what do you intend to do?”

Rui sipped some more of the soothing and euphoric tea that she had made for him.

“For now, I will leave as soon as possible,” Rui remarked. “Perhaps in a few days, after relaxing with Amare after our long reunion. I owe her at least that much after being separated from her for three months.”

Especially when it was his fault, and he didn’t suffer from her absence due to being unconscious.

“After that…” his eyes lit up with excitement. “We will head to Kiriket and rendezvous with the Gajanan Clan and figure things out with them. My priorities are to stop Kiriket from becoming our enemy and, ideally, make them our ally.”

And get a good fight from it if he could.

“That is ambitious,” she remarked knowingly. “How do you plan to do that?”

“There are ways,” Rui replied. “There are several conditions that need to be fulfilled from what you have told me. The first being that Shenlong needs to be stopped. As long as his Authority of Alpha is in effect, we will not have any peace. The second is that the pro-war coalition needs to be broken, and the largest weakness in the coalition, from what you have told me, is the Harmonist Faction.”