The Martial Unity

Her golden eyes brimmed with determination. “That is the difference between what you are proposing and the current state of the Martial World. Because Martial Artists can generally leave nations and organizations, it means that unreasonable regimes are unsustainable. It creates a primitive form of checks and balances that pushes back against the oppression of lesser Martial Artists. But with what you are proposing…”

Her tone grew even stronger as she built more momentum. “There are no alternatives, and thus there are no checks and balances. You will become an unchecked tyrant of the Martial World who ruthlessly enforces his regime on his lesser, giving them no option to volunteer or withdraw.”

Her words earned a round of applause and words of agreement from many of the braver Martial Sages who felt relieved that the princess could understand and articulate their positions so eloquently and clearly.

And yet, it was not enough to deter Rui.

“The Martial Primordial was an unchecked tyrant when he ended the Reign of the Master Realm upon breaking through to the Sage Realm for the first time,” Rui reminded them with a calm tone of voice. “Is there anybody here who will declare his actions evil?”

His retort bit hard, completely dispelling the certainty among the Martial Sages in their expressions.

The Martial Primordial was a legend among legends, perhaps the only Martial Artist who earned more prominence than Rui had before he became a Transcendent. The gathered Martial Sages, many of them old enough to remember when he was the undisputed pinnacle of Martial Art and the Martial World, could not bring themselves to criticize his forceful subjugation of the Martial World.

Princess Ru wisely avoided biting that bullet, sensing the shift in the atmosphere at the mere mention of the Martial Primordial.

“Do you really believe that you are the same as the man who dispelled an age of evil?” She gazed at him with a dubious expression. “Are you going to stand there, as you threaten the Martial Sages who trusted you, and tell me that your actions are as great as those of the Martial Primordial?”

It was a good line of attack, appealing to the regard that people had for the Martial Primordial to make it difficult to bite the bullet on the comparison.

“I do not believe that I’m as great as the Martial Primordial, but I do believe that my actions fall in the same category as his,” Rui clarified. “His actions brought greater prosperity to the world, and so will mine.”

“The fact that your vision for the Martial World has earned the opposition of so many Martial Sages is proof that they are not the same,” Princess Ru firmly disagreed. “Your assertion for the claim that it will bring prosperity is also ultimately baseless. You may have an immortal sage advising you, but that does not mean that all of your political projects will be a complete success and lead to a utopia. Your vision of change is crude, and your subjugation of Martial Art will reduce the incentives of people becoming Martial Artists.”

“The incentives to becoming a Martial Artist cannot be reduced,” Rui shot back. “Those incentives are innate because the power is innate. It is real power. People become Martial Artists because of the innateness of the power. Regardless of what their Martial drive or ultimate goal, from the most simple money-minded motivations to grand ambitions, power is why people pursue Martial Art.”

“And what good is innate power when an overlord tyrant will impose a special regime of law and order upon you specifically because of your power?” Her golden eyes remained firmly fixed upon his. “It seems that in your regime, there are those who would rather choose to be a normal person than a Martial Artist. Your regime will kill some of the largest drives that drive people to become Martial Artists. The desire to emerge from the oppression of other Martial Artists is one of the strongest drive for Martial Art in an age where the number of Martial Artists has skyrocketed but the population has reduced.”

“There are other ways to incentivize the growth of Martial Art beyond criminal immunity.” Rui countered. “It does not need to stem from the death and destruction of life and property. I can incentivize breakthroughs to the Sage Realm by granting immortality to those Martial Sages. I can break Martial Artists myself through triggered mass breakthroughs. We can create very structured forms of reward for Martial growth. Look at the other civilizations in the true world, they have managed to impose law and order upon their pathwalkers, more than us at least, and have still managed to have a more developed and prosperous civilization than ours. The elves, the tekvores before NOVA, and the evolutionaries, are able to achieve prosperity and power without sacrificing one for the other.”

“They are different species and have different psychological and behavioral genetic traits from ours,” she fought back, refusing to let him get the upper hand in rhetoric. “We are homo martialus. We had an age of violence and war before the age of Martial Art. We are innately more violent than even the evolutionaries and the elves, and certainly far more violent and less social than the elves. Comparing our civilizations is fallacious. As for your proposal of incentive structures for growth…”

Her eyes bore into the ethereal depths of his black irises. “An incentive is not an incentive if people are forced to accept it. It is only when people are able to refuse that your incentives will be put to the test. Otherwise, there will never be harmony between your regime and the people you seek to impose it on. And rest assured…”

Her expression hardened.

“I will not stop representing the voices that oppose your tyrannical regime,” she declared with a firm tone. “Even if you ascend the throne, I will fight to bring back the harmony you will have destroyed with your maniacal vision of chang,e and I will dedicate the rest of my life to impeding your tyranny!”