The Martial Unity

A tentative agreement had been formed between Rui and Sentinel Prime regarding Sentinel Island, although nothing concrete had been finalized regarding the captured sentinel pathwalkers that Ieyasu had hacked. That was a more complicated issue that required infiltrating Acherialis to find and evacuate his sentinel pathwalkers.

They put the matter aside for now; they could visit once Sentinel Prime regained control over Sentinel Island and Rui ascended the throne. Rui made sure to make commitments of intelligence and Martial aid, however. Sentinel Prime was a top-ten pathwalker and a powerful ally; it made sense to earn his gratitude by putting forth a sincere effort in helping him get his people and warriors back.

“So what did you want to speak about?” The Psycher’s calming voice drew Rui’s attention.

Rui’s ethereal shifted back to the man seated opposite Rui on a couch in the head office of the neurotechnology department of Esocline Federation. “You have fully entered the payroll of this nation, have you?”

The Psycher smiled wryly. “It was payment for the Esoterist’s data center services in helping me gain Enlightenment of Self. AI requires large amounts of processing power, and the algorithm created from your system of thought, in particular, consumed an entire data center for a whole year. Not even I can ask the Esoterist such a favor for free.”

Rui’s eyes lit up with interest at those words. “That, right there, is the main reason I wanted to speak to you. I want you to share with me the methodology you used. You have effectively created a technological solution for breaking Martial Masters through to the Sage Realm. That is what I seek. That is what I need. What our civilization needs.”

“And you want me to give it to you, yes?” The Psycher asked with a knowing tone. “But… I’m not particularly in the mood to be generous to you, considering the little coup detat you just pulled.”

Rui’s expression grew complicated.

He found out about the Psycher’s method too late, otherwise he would have tried to get it before he pulled off his coup detat.

“Don’t be so petty,” Rui huffed with a disapproving tone. “It’s not like the immortal sages served you personally. They did what they did for human civilization, and you gave them immortality in exchange. This isn’t all that different. If you care about human civilization as you say you do, then the change shouldn’t be that different, should it?”

“It is different, because now they will be serving the Kandrian Empire, not human civilization.”

“The Kandrian Empire is at the center of human civilization. All benefits will bleed over to human civilization.”

The Psycher shook his head. “If you think that I’m just going to accept that at face value, that it will be as beneficial to human civilization as if they just directly contributed to humanity, then you are mistaken. You have made your bed, now you need to lie in it.”

Rui tapped the armrest of his couch impatiently. The Psycher’s mild resentment was understandable, but it was harming human civilization. The wise immortal sage was undoubtedly aware of that.

“We have enemies,” Rui reminded him. “Enemies that grow stronger every day. We need to make use of every iota of available power.”

“You are referring to the Evolutionary Army, yes?” The Psycher mused knowingly. “That is a known threat. It is also known that this ’generation of miracles’ will need time to mature and grow until they become actual threats, so—”

“No.”

Rui’s grave voice firmly cleaved through the Esoterist’s words. “Those projections are wrong. They are based on incomplete data. The truth is that the Generation of Miracles of the Evolutionary Army will master their power from the very get-go. They will be as skilled as Anthea himself. An entire army filled with elite evolutionaries, the strongest among them will vastly surpass Anthea by orders of magnitude.”

The air tingled with a hint of tension.

The Psycher’s blood-red eyes sharpened. “…That is a deeply disturbing assertion, one that I know you would not make without evidence.”

“The evidence is me,” Rui’s ethereal eyes bore deep into the Psycher’s. “I am half-Anthean. And I miraculously inherited his memories and muscle memory. How do you think I became a master of my Anthean side the moment I emerged out of the manifold?”

“Inherited his memories?” The Psycher’s eyes widened at those words. “Impossible… how can such a thing be accomplished?”

“Biochemical memory,” Rui told him. “He essentially compressed the data with extreme density into each cell, such that each molecule, each atom, each electron became a store of information. And then, when I converted half my brain into Anthean, that information was unzipped sequentially from the day he was born.”

“Wait, are you saying you—”

“Yes,” Rui confirmed impatiently. “I lived his life from the day he was born until the day he died in his battle against me inside my mind.”

The Psycher’s expression grew grave as the atmosphere grew electric.

The implications were horrifying.

“This… this could spell the birth of an army of gods who could overwhelm anything in their path,” the Psycher’s composure crumpled as his tone grew deeply severe. “This is as if each of the new generation of miracles will undergo a soul transfer ritual that will make them inherit memories from their very birth without needing to accelerate body development.

What terrified even Rui the most was that the Generation of Miracles would likely be bestowed with the same gift that he had been given. A second round of mental development, allowing for a genius-level superhuman intellect.

An entire army of evolutionaries who were as smart as Rui.

The very notion of it was utterly terrifying.

“You are right,” the Psycher admitted. “I don’t think you would stoop to such a low lie, and if what you are saying is correct, then indeed, we need to make use of every tool at our disposal, including my Enlightenment of Self AI.”

“Then, you’ll agree to implement for all of our existing Martial Sages?”

“That, I will, I’m just going to exclude you from the process,” the Psycher replied. “The Panamic Alliance has already begun implementing the flora network technology in the Panama Continent, hasn’t it?”

Rui nodded. “With some modification with organic esoteric technology so that the elves can’t hack it, yes.”

“I will collaborate with the Ecologer to integrate my artificial intelligence into the organic superintelligence of the flora network when it is done,” the Psycher continued. “It is the perfect way to use the organic superintelligence. This way, any Martial Master anywhere in the world can use the organic superintelligence and break through to the Sage Realm. Nobody will be able to monopolize my artificial intelligence.”

“Your artificial intelligence?” Rui raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you mean the Esoterist’s?”

“The data center was his, the artificial intelligence is mine.”

“Wait, you have expertise in AI? I thought you were a super psychologist.”

“I have mastered everything related to the mind, including neural networks, which are the fundamental information processing architecture of the human mind, and the origin of consciousness.”

Rui paused at those words as a different topic came to mind. It was not as strategically important as the matter relating to Anthea’s memory inheritance or the Enlightenment of Self AI, but… it was more interesting.

“The origin of consciousness…” Rui’s ethereal eyes lit up with intrigue. “You said you had made progress in understanding the nature of consciousness before the meeting with the immortal sage, care to share?”