The Martial Unity

It became the foundation of all breathing, whether for self-sustenance or for martial arts. And only now, when he applied to Martial Artists across the entire continent, could he notice this fundamental flaw and exploit it to negate her attacks ever so slightly.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Attack after attack, the Noosphere blasted him with an endless onslaught. And yet, his defensive prowess only rose, growing stronger and stronger as he constructed a predictive model that allowed him to predict each and every single attack.

See through each and every single weakness.

Autocorpus reacted instantaneously, allowing him to obtain just the slightest of shifts to prevent the worst from happening.

And yet, he was just barely hanging on despite this.

Each blow still inflicted damage.

Each strike still hurt him.

Each attack threatened to bring him closer to death.

And yet, he endured.

And he pushed forward, throwing a powerful and blindingly fast attack to her head.

She perceived that it would not reach her.

WHOOSH

His fist missed her head by several centimeters as the very fabric of reality bent it out of the way, matching her perception of him.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

His head rocked, barely having shifted out of the way to minimize the damage. His powerful mind processed every ounce of information he could get, foreseeing several more attacks just nanoseconds before they came.

Just enough for Autocorpus to move out of the way just enough to protect his life.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Each blow threatened to ravage his broken ribs even more.

Even if he managed to evade instant death, he still endured even more damage, throwing a wild haymaker at her in defiance.

BANG!

The attack struck her cheek.

And yet, it didn’t so much as even budge.

Because she perceived it as so.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Rui vomited blood as a devastating impact ravaged his gut, causing him to grow dizzy. He staggered unsteadily and weightlessly through the underground atmosphere of the creation chamber, struggling to maintain his consciousness.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

His vision began darkening.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

His mind began fading in and out.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

His cells began dying.

And yet, even in death, she gave him no reprieve.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Blow after blow, he redirected.

He shifted.

He twitched.

He chose the moment of action to occur after her perception became reality, allowing him to just barely diverge from it in time to prevent an instant death.

And yet—

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!!!

DRIP DRIP DRIP…

Blood gushed from every single orifice across his entire body as he arrived upon the verge of death. A threshold that he had never been closer to in his entire life. THUD

He slammed into the walls of the chamber of creation, his body weightless and motionless. The blood-red Suns in the depths of his eyes began flickering unsteadily as the embodiment of the Noosphere drew closer to him.

The gaze of the Noosphere fell upon his dying self, as the faintest flicker of sorrow emerged on her radiant, paper-white face. As if the countless people within her mourned his death.

She opened her mouth, gazing at him with sorrow and guilt.

“Know that your death comes despite the collective desire for your survival within usK̴n̴o̵w̴ ̷t̶h̵a̷t̸ ̷y̷o̵u̷r̷ ̷d̷e̶a̷t̴h̷ ̴c̴o̷m̷e̴s̷ ̵d̴e̸s̷p̸i̶t̶e̵ ̵t̷h̸e̸ ̷c̴o̷l̶l̴e̸c̴t̵i̸v̴e̷ ̸d̸e̷s̵i̶r̷e̷ ̷f̷o̶r̸ ̴y̷o̵u̴r̴ ̵s̵u̷r̸v̵i̸v̷a̵l̴ ̶w̶i̴t̴h̴i̸n̶ ̸u̶s̴.̸”̶.”

Her words were caked with regret.

Her voice was a cacophony of overlapped voices from trillions and trillions of people before her. She represented their collective desire.

Their desire for him to survive.

And yet, she raised her hand, directing one last deep look at him.

She perceived his death before swinging at him with all of her power.

Time slowed down in his eyes as he struggled.

He pushed.

He strained himself to the limit.

And yet, try as he might, he couldn’t defy reality.

He couldn’t defy her perception of reality.

The perception of reality of each and every single conscious human being in the Noosphere of the past.

It was an absolute cosmological limit.

Each and every attack he threw missed.

Because she perceived it.

Every ounce of damage he inflicted was negated because she perceived it.

Every evasion. Every defense. Every act of resistance merely postponed the inevitable.

Reality was what she perceived it to be.

He was who she perceived him to be.

…

Deep within the depths of his mind, the faintest of thoughts emerged.

A single question.

‘What if she perceived me to be Water?’

RUMBLE

The blood-red suns within the depths of his eyes shone with power as that one singular question caused an explosion within his mind. An explosion of Water.

RUMBLE!!!!!

In that moment, he poured each and every single ounce of his energy, of his mind and consciousness, of his very being into one final act of resistance.

“Void of Water.”

RUMBLE!!!!!!!!

The world shook.

It shook as his Martial Embodiment heightened to unparalleled realms of power, allowing him to reach extraordinarily intense singularities of information. The illusion became so intense and domineering that it was indistinguishable from reality.

So much so that it affected the Noosphere’s perception of reality.

It allowed Rui to survive the reality of his death.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The devastating attack was still powerful.

But it did not mandate his death in accordance with reality.

It allowed Rui to defend himself, even if barely. His arms had flown together, weaving a hasty guard that just barely managed to prevent his heart from being crushed.

The impact left him reeling.

His body burned with excruciating pain.

Every cell in his body was drowned in so much pain that it exceeded even the Body Evolutionary Process of the Squire Realm.

And yet, the pain meant he was alive.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The blood-red suns in his eyes shone with blinding brightness as he continued pouring more and more power into the Martial Embodiment, making it stronger and stronger.

In hindsight, he should have realized this mechanism.

Her perception became reality because of the Noosphere’s collective influence upon the information dimension.

It confirmed what he already knew: that the mind could have an impact on the information dimension and thus on reality. However, rather than following the path of self-maximization and elevation to the point where it could do it by itself, the virus chose to rely on the Noosphere to use the power of the collective to alter the very fabric of reality itself.

Their collective perception, when resonating and united, could alter reality.

Then the solution was simple.

It had been right there in front of him the entire time.

He just needed to alter her perception of reality.

He just needed her to see what he already knew.

“I am Water.”

RUMBLE!!!!!