The Martial Unity

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!

The embodiment of the Noosphere grew desperate under the destruction that Rui unleashed upon it. Each blow drew blood. Each blow inflicted greater wounds. Each attack ravaged its flesh.

It shifted forms once more, this time adopting the existential information of Lashara, his adoptive mother. She wore the dress that she always did, a large gown with her hair tied in a bun. Her visage was older than he remembered, for she had passed away after he had. “Be safe, my precious son,” she smiled at him with love and affection, gazing at him with motherly eyes as she always did. “May my love always reach you.”

His eyes grew deep as the blood-red suns within them shone with even greater emotion. It was exactly the kind of thing she would say. Indeed, his adoptive mother was the only person who had the ability to worry for him, no matter how strong he got. Even if he was the strongest man on the continent, she could never stop worrying about his well-being. Even her final words reminded him of the letter she had written for him, a poem to convey her love.

“Thank you, mother.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

He ravaged her embodiment with such great force that its appearance shifted once more to the countless people that Rui had known and met in the past, long passed away.

It wounded his heart.

And yet, he pushed through.

For the sake of the future.

For the sake of the world.

For the sake of his daughter.

Alice, Farion, and even his grandmother once more, as if one time wasn’t enough. A flood of memories surged across the entirety of his mind as he overcame the emotional agony of killing the people he had loved in the past over and over. It was excruciating to strike an existence that embodied his father, his adoptive mother, and his family from the orphanage. Memories of his early life washed over him. He had been but a boy back then.

A young man.

A young Squire with the greatest of ambitions.

Decades had passed, and he was now the Emperor of the Kandrian Empire and the de facto ruler of the Panama Continent, and the strongest Martial Artist alive. “You truly were the Antithesis.” Master Deivon smiled at him as Rui blasted him. “Sacrificing myself for Lord Virodhabhasa; no death is of a greater honor.”

Rui’s expression tightened.

The Master had given his life to delay Master Uma from reaching him; if not for that, Rui would not be where he is today.

“Thank you.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The embodiment shifted her existence once more, bringing about a darker figure in his life.

The woman whom Master Deivon had fought to protect Rui from. Master Uma.

She wore the same religious attire of a Master Bishop in the Virodhabhasa Faith, gazing at him with deep and boundless piety within her elderly eyes. “The time has come, Lord Virodhabhasa.”

She spoke to him with a tone of reverence.

“The foretold apocalypse.”

Her expression was one of reverence.

“And your deliverance unto salvation.”

His eyes blazed with intensity.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

His fist ravaged the bloodied embodiment as she shifted once more, bringing about a deep, distant ghost of the past.

Chairman Deacon.

It was from so long ago that Rui had almost forgotten about the man’s very existence. But there had been a period in his life where this man was the most significant thing in Rui’s life. The threat he posed to Rui and his family had defined the trajectory of his life very early on. “You fucking basta—”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Rui didn’t give a damn about him. If the embodiment of the Noosphere thought that it would have an impact on him, then it was deeply mistaken. “Time to end this.”

WHOOSH

In the blink of an eye, he charged forth towards the embodiment of the Noosphere.

Not with a blow.

But with both arms, wrapping around her waist.

It was a take-down.

CLASP!

Before she could even react, he swiftly took her down, destabilizing as they weightlessly flew across the chamber of creation, crashing into its walls.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

“̸̧̺̠̲̭̩̺̊́̉͆́̉́͋̋̔̌͆̾͜Ŗ̴͓̹̘͙̲̞̪̱̙̙̈̆͋͑̚ͅg̵̨̢̫͉͖̹̘̥͉̻͇̩̙̰͐ͅḥ̸̡̢̖̜̥̦̘̲͚̉̃̔̀̌̉̏̇̂̉̉͐̽̔͘͜ͅͅͅ…̸͈̦̘̐͛̐̑̑̈́̇̄͑̌̔͊̈́̄̌!̶̧͚̐̂͊̅̇̋͜”̴̢̨̙̬͇͖̜̪̍̃ she choked as squeezed her neck, immobilizing her arms with his legs and pressing her neck with his hands against the glowing Transcendent exotics that clad the entire wall. RUMBLE!!!!!

The blood-red suns in his eyes shone with blinding brightness as she struggled and thrashed where he held her, trying to land blow after blow against him. And yet, True Water was still active.

SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH!

Her resistance merely ran into water that smoothly adaptively evolved to the incoming blows, as water did. On top of that, he could use his waterification to squeeze her throat and grapple even better, for the fluidity, making it even more impossible for her to resist.

“…!̸̧̤̳̠̝̤̬͋͘͝” Her eyes widened with panic.

Panic across the entirety of every mind she embodied as she struggled to even make a sound with how intensely he squeezed her. His body, flowing like water, allowed him to smoothly focus or distribute his compressive pressure as he pleased, making it impossible for her to escape.

Pure desperation emerged in her eyes as she searched the Noosphere for something. For anything. Anything that could destabilize her opponent.

And in the very final moment, she found it.

WHOOSH

Her appearance shifted into a woman with light olive skin and a facial structure similar to that of Rui’s. She wore the ethnic clothes traditional to the Silas Clan, while her eyes were of a deep, dark brown.

His eyes widened with shock.

“Mother…?”

Not Lashara, his adoptive mother. But his biological mother. The woman who had died giving birth to him.

The woman who had given him his name. A name that meant reincarnated in the Silas dialect. He had seen her only one time.

When he was born, or reborn, rather.

He froze as she gazed at him with equal parts of maternal affection and pious reverence.

It scarred his soul to choke the life out of his own biological mother.

A horrifying, traumatizing experience.

Yet, he gritted his teeth as tears emerged deep in his eyes.

This would be the second time he killed his mother.

“I’m sorry.”

His voice was deep with sorrow.

“I’m so, so sorry.”

She smiled at him with a love deeper than words could describe as she raised her hand to his face. The faintest whispers escaped her mouth even as he choked her air supply.

And yet, he heard her nonetheless.

“You… have…” she whispered in the Silas dialect. “…grown well.”

Her brown eyes lost their light as a final whisper escaped her.

“…just as everything promised.”