The Martial Unity

“We have received intelligence that the Blood Cult is moving, Madam.”

In her office, Arastia’s blood-red eyes sharpened as she skimmed through the reports that the intelligence wing of the Blood Humanist Society had gathered. The report detailed a mobilization of nuclear-powered warships, indicating a more large-scale operation than the kind of tactical operation that they were planning.

The report detailed movements in the Larngard Star System, a binary star system deeper in human civilization that the Blood Cult had managed to completely conquer for themselves very early on, using it as a manufacturing factory for more blood humans to create, indoctrinate, and train, while also serving as a base of operations.

It was the base closest to the Strehegeld Star System, where the infected world lay.

“Sarlon appears interested in the infected world, still…” She narrowed her eyes. “This feels fishy.”

“I agree, Madam President,” the hologram of the intelligence director seated opposite her in her office nodded seriously. “We believe that they might have a different objective for this operation.”

She heaved a knowing sigh. “Maybe I should give up any hopes for building a family one day and just undergo a hysterectomy.”

“They would be able to undo that if they ever got their hands on you, Madam President. And your own healing factor would regenerate that.”

She heaved an exasperated sigh. “Their fixation on me is disgusting. It makes me feel dirty with the mere knowledge that that bastard Sarlon wants to do what he wants to.”

It was one of the reasons that she hadn’t started a family. The moment she bore a child, that child would become the target of the Blood Cult for possessing the blood of the Kandrian Royal Family. “It’s an irrational goal, not to mention heinous, but that’s par for the course for the degenerates of the Blood Cult,” the intelligence director remarked. “It’s especially silly because they think they are being discreet about what they truly want.”

This was the problem with organizations and groups that were fundamentally irrational. Because they were irrational, they could undertake logical actions based on a grounded understanding of the world. While their intelligence apparatus was certainly more sober, the Blood Cult had transformed from a research group pretending to be a cult into an actual cult after the birth of the hemosapien children. This meant that even when they thought they were being discreet, that was simply in their warped worldview. The Blood Humanist Society immediately detected the oddities that made them suspicious about the true purpose of this operation.

Especially since such incidents had occurred in the past.

“Their goal doesn’t even make sense considering the fact that my elder brother is not going anywhere. He’s immortal. And he has no intention of abdicating the throne,” Arastia pressed her palm against her forehead, feeling a rising headache. “What is the point of even trying to get your hands on an heir to the throne of the Kandrian Empire?”

“They believe that they can dethrone the Emperor of Water once they achieve Transcendence, Madam President,” the intelligence director heaved a sigh. “The simple reality is that ever since the Emperor of Water shared with all pathwalkers the Truth about Transcendence, every group of pathwalkers who have achieved potential singularity believes that they can cross the threshold and achieve Transcendence.”

Arastia stirred at those words, her blood-red eyes stirred in thought. She recalled how she had gone to visit her elder brother in the Kandrian Empire after she had become a Blood Sage several years ago. She had become eligible to hear the secret of Transcendence from the Martial Transcendent himself.

She had left the throne room and moved to the very core of her soul.

The information dimension. Phenomenological Uniformity. Enlightenment of Transcendence. These were such extraordinary thresholds for her to reach, especially when no hemosapien had ever reached Sagehood before. She closed her eyes as she recalled his words.

“Y̸o̵u̶r̸ ̴P̴a̸t̴h̷ ̵t̷o̷ ̸T̷r̴a̵n̶s̶c̸e̸n̶d̸e̶n̵c̶e̴ ̴w̶i̸l̴l̷ ̴b̷e̴ ̶d̴i̴f̸f̷e̵r̷e̵n̴t̸ ̴f̴r̵o̶m̶ ̴t̴h̴o̸s̶e̶ ̸b̴e̶f̴o̷r̴e̸ ̵y̷o̷u̴,” he had told her with a calm, ethereal voice that resonated against the very flow of time, permeating into the future, present, and the past. “Y̷o̵u̸ ̴w̷i̴l̷l̷ ̸n̸e̴e̵d̴ ̷t̸o̵ ̴f̴o̵r̶g̸e̶ ̸i̶t̶ ̴o̷n̴ ̴y̵o̸u̴r̴ ̵o̴w̸n̵ ̴f̷o̴r̶ ̸t̸h̵o̸s̶e̶ ̸w̵h̴o̵ ̷c̸o̴m̴e̸ ̵a̶f̴t̴e̵r̸ ̶y̷o̷u̵.”

Her words had resonated with her in her soul. Beholding the power of a Martial Transcendent always made her feel insignificant. It was what kept her ego in check as one of the most powerful pathwalkers in human civilization and a member of a genetically superior race.

But before the might of Transcendence, it was all but meaningless.

Unfortunately, she had absolutely no idea what the path to Transcendence looked like for blood humans. The Blood Path shared commonalities with the Martial Path, of which it was the daughter, but there were major differences.

The Martial Path was highly individualistic, but the Blood Path wasn’t. Everybody had the same Blood Path, the path of hemokinesis, the ability of the Blood Goddess from whom they had emerged. She had no idea what phenomenological uniformity meant for them. She simply heaved a sigh, shaking her head. It was not something that she could figure out in a short amount of time, especially in the Era of Expansion.

While the artificial breakthroughs had accelerated humanity’s paths down their, well, Paths, it had actually made things harder for pathwalkers to reach Transcendence.

The Enlightenment of Transcendence was the product of wisdom born from sheer, raw experience spanning centuries. Even the Emperor of Water had needed a century to achieve Transcendence despite being an unprecedented prodigious genius and having obtained a headstart with his inherited memories.

The only thing that reassured her was that it was highly likely that nobody in the Blood Cult was any closer to Transcendence than she was.

“More importantly, what is the consensus on the intelligence wing on the potential threat that this poses to me?” Arastia asked with a serious expression.

“Our analysis suggests that the scale of mobilization increases the possible measures that they could take to capture you,” the director warned her. “We do not know what they are planning. Ideally, I would advise you to drop participation in this operation, but…”

Her blood-red eyes sharpened. “Not an option. I cannot allow myself to be scared into inaction just because of some evil scumbags. I will see this through to the end.”