The Martial Unity

It struck him all at once.

Like a truck hitting him moments after he realized it.

“We’re about to become a father.”

It was hardly his first time realizing such an obvious fact of the matter, and yet it felt like he had only just truly grappled with this realization. He felt as if he had been in a stupor as to what it meant to truly father a child, and only now, as his child was soon to be born, did the full weight of this reality bear on him like a mountain.

He was going to have a child and a true family, something he had never imagined he would do for most of his life, or lives. As John, he had made attempts at finding a wife and starting a family, but a combination of his immense dedication to Project Water and the fact that he had crippling asthma prevented him from truly starting a family.

As Rui, he had never thought he would start one simply because he was even more dedicated to Project Water in this life. A family would always get in the way, he thought, and would eventually become a weakness. And he had been right for the most part. However, his thinking had slowly changed over the decades as he became increasingly stronger, eventually standing at the pinnacle of the world, almost unrivaled and unparalleled in his power. As the completion of Project Water drew closer and closer, he could feel the growing void in his life.

The number of things that could even begin to pose the mildest of challenges had hit almost zero. He emerged victorious in a battle with three of the most powerful foes he had in the world, and his most recent domination of three hundred Martial Sages only further strengthened that sense of purposelessness.

How many things were left that he couldn’t adaptively evolve to yet? There was Jormungandr, perhaps the Suneater would pose a challenge, having achieved his Giant Mind, there were the Transcendents who would return eventually, there was the virus that they were working on searching for, and of course, the Fear.

Beyond that, it was merely astronomical events like supernovas, neutron stars, gamma ray bursts, and black holes, but even that was merely a matter of time, as far as he was concerned.

It had reached a point where he could count on his fingers the number of challenges left to fulfill. It caused the intensity of his drive to wane a little as he grew increasingly deprived of stimulation for his adaptive evolution.

Indeed, it was the journey of Project Water that sustained him rather than the destination.

And as the journey began coming to an end, he found himself longing for more purpose.

Perhaps that was one of the quieter reasons he had decided to become Emperor. Or rather, he knew it was one of the quieter reasons thanks to his Enlightenment of Self.

It was also why he decided to start a family with Amare. And now, he discovered a whole new world of emotion and realization as Amare entered labor. A loud scream of pain from Amare broke him out of his reverie as he shook with shock, turning and drawing closer to her

“Amare?” He held her hand with both of his, and an expression of terrified concern emerged on his face. “What happened—”

He froze as she screamed even more, her pupils dilating out of focus as her head fell back and her face slackened. Raw terror emerged in his face as Rui sensed that her blood flow to the brain was reducing, causing her to grow light-headed.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

The monitors that displayed her vitals began alarming loudly as the doctor barked orders to the nurses with a hint of agitation in his voice.

He turned towards the nurses and the doctor. “What is—!”

For the first time since her labor started, he sensed fear within their minds. “What’s going on?” Rui demanded, only to be ignored despite his status as the most powerful man in the world.

He turned back to Amare, whose expression began slackening.

“Your Majesty, please remain focused on her, engage with her, and try to keep her responsive,” the doctor finally addressed him, never once taking his eyes off his task. “She’s going into maternal shock right now due to the pain and internal hemorrhaging vaginal bleeding. There have been complications in the childbirth process. She experienced uterine rupture, and unfortunately, the partial healing that her Martial Body is automatically doing is causing perinatal asphyxia.”

His eyes widened at those words as his expression crumpled into one of terror. Even if they didn’t explain what it was, he understood enough of the nomenclature to understand what that meant.

Deprivation of oxygen for the child during labor.

“We ordinarily suppress healing factors precisely because of this reason, but hers has somehow managed to remain active despite the drugs we have injected her with,” the doctor gritted his teeth. “At this rate…”

If not for the stool placed behind him, he felt like he would have collapsed unconscious right then and there. He fell into the stool as he felt lightheaded for the first time in a long time, his vision blurring a little, and a sense of weakness overtaking his body, while his sense of balance grew disrupted, causing the world to feel like it was spinning.

‘Get your shit together, body-consciousness.’ The brain-consciousness cursed. ‘Amare needs us!’

The body-consciousness metaphorically nodded as the two of them quickly restored composure to Rui.

When he opened his eyes, a glint of determination emerged within them. He turned towards Amare, pressing his hands into hers. “Just hang on for a moment, we’ll be back right away.”

He turned to the doctor. “Keep her stable until we return.”

The doctor nodded, uncertain of what Rui wanted to do. The medical team worked relentlessly to deal with the multiple life-threatening complications that arose during childbirth while Rui teleported away.

WHOOSH

He arrived at a familiar wooden cavity illuminated with bioluminescent flowers, with many botanical biomachinary spread across the biolab, with two figures turning towards him upon arrival.

“Welcome back,” Mother Maeria raised an eyebrow. “The meeting is tomorrow thoug—”

He ignored the Mother of Nature, heading straight to the Divine Doctor.

“Come with us right away!”

He didn’t even bother waiting for a response. He patted the man on the shoulder, teleporting both of them away in the blink of an eye back to the Kandrian Empire. Rui was not about to try one of his own solutions of biotechnology on Amare while she was in labor with their child. He didn’t trust himself.

He was going to have the greatest doctor in their civilization handle the matter himself.