The Martial Unity

Gaia and the civilizations atop her were at a loss for words for everything that had happened. Even the most powerful pathwalkers were stunned by the mind-boggling sequence of events that had unfolded. From their perspective, Rui had asked all civilizations to activate their seismic absorption systems to the maximum while he conducted an operation on the supposed alien entity within Gaia.

Then, they got invaded by aliens.

Then, they got invaded by even more, bigger, and more dangerous aliens.

And now, they were saved by water.

It was truly incomprehensible. And yet, while the Martial Artists celebrated at the acquisition of a new Martial Transcendent, Amare’s expression had shifted from delightful and ecstatic to grave and severe.

Her amber irises were filled with reckoning.

“We’re alive!”

“Thanks to His Transcendence, we survived!”

“All hail Emperor Rui!”

While the Martial Sages behind her cheered, she knew what the consequences to the Transcendent Realm were. She knew that now that he had intervened in reality to such an extent, he would have to pay the price.

Far away at the edge of the solar system, Rui also knew that.

WHOOSH

Even as he floated in space weightlessly, he took just a moment to enjoy the infinite beauty of the cosmos. Infected with a cosmic meta-virus that sought to gain dominion over the greatest power, it was, but he still found it to be profoundly beautiful, unlike anything else. The light from the distant stars came together to weave a tapestry of beauty unlike anything else he had ever seen.

He knew what was about to happen.

And yet, just because he knew, it didn’t mean he was prepared to disappear just yet. He had known about this consequence of Transcendence for many years, of course. Ever since the Martial Transcendents disappeared right in front of him so many years ago, he knew that the price of intervening into reality itself was ceasing to exist within that reality.

That was why he had prepared contingencies.

WHOOSH

His existence began growing ethereal as he slowly began to fade out of reality, hovering in outer space. He had less than a minute left.

His ethereal eyes sharpened as he activated the negatron matter within his body, immediately opening a wormhole, teleporting himself to Gaia.

Not to any random location.

No.

But to a specific facility.

One where his clone was being stored. WHOOSH

He immediately arrived before the tube of liquid that hosted his body, hovering within it unconsciously with a breathing apparatus attached to his nose and mouth, along with syringes attached to tubes piercing into his blood vessels and other devices attached to his muscles, designed not to let them atrophy while he was unconscious.

WHOOSH…

Rui’s hand had already disappeared as his arm rapidly followed. He immediately got to work, recognizing that he didn’t have even a single moment to waste. He activated his Realms of power one final time, even as he ceased to exist out of reality.

He commenced what was perhaps the craziest experiment he had ever conducted in his entire life.

It was a little more than a gamble.

But he was confident that, at his current stage of power as a Martial Transcendent, he was capable of succeeding.

He activated his fading body, heart, mind, soul, and Martialverse to conduct a single operation.

Consciousness transfer.

Ordinarily, this was impossible. Even if the electric impulses from his brain were going to disappear, even if he transferred them from his brain to the clone’s brain, they would cease to exist nonetheless. The information associated with his existence, in particular, would cease to exist no matter what.

But what if he created an identical copy and destroyed the original?

The original would cease to exist as the information associated with its existence would withdraw from material reality, while the clone would continue to live on. When the original did return, he would return an empty husk, for his consciousness would have already been transferred.

In the past, he would have had an existential crisis over such a horrifying reincarnation.

But now, he knew better.

Information was identity.

Identity was information.

If there were infinite Rui clones identical to each other at the information level, then each of those clones was equally Rui, as far as he was concerned. He had even acknowledged his clone as a true Rui Quarrier. Of course, ideally, he would not have wanted to resort to such a tactic, but given that he couldn’t afford to disappear at this moment for countless reasons, he was willing to go down this route.

Without even a moment’s hesitation, he continued.

RUMBLE!!!!!

Even as his arm faded, he pushed himself to the limit.

Ordinarily, conducting a consciousness transfer in such a short span of time was utterly impossible even for him. There was simply too much information, and his means of transporting information were limited.

But with his Martialverse, he could push the limit.

This time, rather than simply overlapping his Martial Embodiment upon reality, he used his Martialverse to simply push the limits of what was possible. Even as he activated quadrillions of quantum tweezers to overwrite the clone’s brain and mind with the integrated information of his own consciousness, he used his Martialverse to increase the accuracy, speed, precision, and progress of his overwriting process.

Molecules magically shifted into position quicker and quicker.

Atoms clicked in place instantly.

Electrons flowed as he wanted them with minimal ushering.

Biochemistry changed as he wanted to.

What would have taken hours ended up taking seconds, even as his very existence faded half away all the way through to the very end. The fading of his existence continued from his arm, his legs, reaching his abdomen, and eventually his chest.

And despite the loss of vital parts of his body, he didn’t feel pain, nor did he feel any damage. His body function continued as if nothing had happened. His eyes sharpened as he continued creating an absolutely identical mind, consciousness, subconsciousness, and brain within his clone, compared to his own, Anthean cells, and everything.

Soon enough, he had created an identical copy of his integrated information. And then, he destroyed his own.

In the blink of an eye, all the electric impulses in his brain ceased to exist.

WHOOSH

Rui faded out of reality, devoid of consciousness.

The transfer was complete.