The Martial Unity

“Stop…” one Martial Sage broke down sobbing as tears gushed from his eyes. “STOP! PLEASE STOP!”

Rui tilted his head with a hint of disdain. “It seems the explosion in the quantity of Martial Sages has caused a collapse in the quality. We will have to think of a way to rectify this in the future. But for now…”

His ethereal eyes sharpened. “Die.”

WHOOSH

He charged forth, rushing at high speeds at the Martial Sage, who experienced a spontaneous mental breakdown.

“ARRGHHHHHH!” He held his head, screaming in pain as his eyes rolled backwards.

Rui paused, widening his eyes as he realized what was happening.

“He’s losing his Enlightenment of Self,” he muttered, watching the man’s body shake like he was possessed by a ghost. “We have heard this could happen, but to actually see it happen…”

A hint of contempt emerged on Rui’s face. “We have never seen such a fragile Martial Sage. It is actually disgusting.”

Their eyes widened at what followed.

CRACK!

He crushed the Martial Sage’s, no, the Martial Master’s head under his feet, killing him in an instant, before directing a sharp glance at the rest of them. Chills crawled across their skin as pure terror emerged in their eyes. “Such weak Martial Sages should not be allowed to exist.”

Raw fear emerged in their eyes as they backed away.

Any desire to resist his regime was crushed.

Any motivation to try and kill him was long snuffed.

He may as well have been a Martial Transcendent to them with how astronomical the sheer gap between them was. It was precisely at that moment that Sage Marhan leaped at him once more with a destructive gait and extraordinary power.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

RUMBLE!!!!!

Rui’s eyes sharpened with a hint of severity as each step the Martial Sage took began crumbling the floor and the entire establishment, spreading destruction everywhere he went.

The ceiling cracked and broke, as did the walls and the floor. The destruction spread quickly through the structure and down the foundations and through the very bedrock of the entire establishment.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

RUMBLE!!!

By the time Sage Marhan reached Rui, the entire fortress was destroyed as earthquakes spread through the entirety of Longmin City. His heavy blow blasted into Rui with extraordinary power and speed.

RUMBLE!!!

And yet, Rui effortlessly negated the attack with a single finger.

The combination of his body-consciousness and his Anthean physiology has astronomically empowered techniques such as Body of Water, which were already one of his most powerful techniques. RUMBLE!!!

He could easily absorb and negate even peak Sage-level attacks like they were a child’s playful punches. And yet, it was Sage Marhan who smiled viciously at Rui despite that. Even the sight of Rui effortlessly negating his most powerful attack with a single finger did not faze the seasoned veteran of a Martial Sage.

RUMBLE!!!

The world continued quaking with destruction.

“You’re strong,” Sage Marhan admitted. “Extraordinarily strong. I now see that three hundred brittle Martial Sages are not enough to even pressure you. Fair enough. But…”

His smile widened malevolently. “I just turned off the conflict containment systems, which is why there is so much destruction.”

RUMBLE!!!

Sage Marhan’s smile curdled with vicious malice as his fierce eyes bore deep into Rui’s.

“Can you protect the people of Longmin City from the collateral damage of this battle while fighting all of us?”

The air grew perilous with danger as the despairing Martial Sages sensed the faintest of opportunity for survival. Their eyes lit up with ferocious desire to survive as they understood what Sage Marhan was hinting at.

“ATTACK AS HARD AS YOU CAN!”

“CAUSE AS MUCH DESTRUCTION AS POSSIBLE!”

“DON’T LET THE CITIZENS ESCAPE!”

“HAHAHA! WE’RE GOING TO ROAST EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN LONGMIN WITH THIS BATTLE!”

“WHAT’S THE MATTER, YOUR MAJESTY?! PROTECT THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE SO MUCH!”

Their expressions grew demonic with cruel malice and vindictive malevolence as they ruthlessly weaponized the entirety of the population of Longmin City as human shields against Rui.

“Tsk.” Rui tutted with irritation as his expression grew serious. He could squash these insects by himself in an instant if he wanted, but it would spread mass destruction across Longmin City. Collateral damage had always been a reality of Martial battles that Rui was accustomed to, but this time, he knew that it would be devastating to his regime if millions were genocided in its pursuit.

Time slowed down in his eyes as he assessed the situation. The earlier steps from Sage Marhan had already caused some destruction to spread across Longmin City, along with thousands of casualties. The destruction was lighter than one would expect because of the fact that their elevation above the ground in the Sage Assembly Hall was high, but from this point on, each attack would reap millions.

‘I can’t afford to dodge anymore,’ he realized. ‘I also need to do something about the passive energy radiation that their attacks cause. And I need to do something about the Martial Embodiments.’

Thankfully, his translucent body had caused the intensity of the information flood to reduce, but sustained exposure could still cause brain damage. These extenuating circumstances demanded true adaptive evolution from him, finally forcing him to get serious in battle.

“Bring it on,” Rui growled. “We will crush all of you without causing a single death.”

His ethereal eyes flared with determination as he activated the Forge of Creation for the first time in the battle. A single remark escaped him.

“Domain of Containment.”

Using the Scriptures of Terra, he created an earth-centric domain that used his mastery of earthbending to prevent the transmission of destruction through land. He didn’t have an equivalent of the scriptures for heaven manipulation, but air was a much worse transmitter of destruction than earth, so he didn’t need it.

He also manipulated the optical density of the atmosphere, making it much more resistant to light, making the entire domain opaque to outsiders, protecting them from the Martial Embodiments.

Sage Marhan’s grin widened. “Keeping the power of hundreds of Martial Sages can’t be easy even for him! ATTACK! ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK! KEEP YOUR DISTANCE FROM THE POISON AND ATTACK HIM AND THE DOMAIN FROM AFAR!”

RUMBLE!!!!!

The battlefield rapidly degenerated into a maelstrom as the surviving Sages dedicated the sum totality of everything they had to attacking Rui.