The Martial Unity

CLACK

Ria tightened the belt around her exo-Martial attire before turning to look around at the rest. ”Everybody ready?”

The four of them nodded at her. ”All prepared. Let’s overcome this final hurdle and go back home.”

And with that, they continued trekking deeper into the center of the manifold. Their pace was slower this time. Even though they wanted to get out as soon as possible, they knew that they couldn’t afford to be rash in this particular place.

The environment around them was eerie, filled with a dense mist that obscured even her extremely potent senses to a great extent. The other four were practically running blind outside of their immediate environment. As if their senses had been reduced to that of the average human being within that zone.

The blue sky had grown dark due to the setting blue star, while the air hung with the fresh smell of the vegetation around them. They soon entered an empty enclosure at the center of the forest, with no trees, no distinct flora, and no fauna.

In the distance, they saw the silhouette of a glowing white figure. It seemed to be radiating light, based on how much the mist scattered it, giving the tree a halo of sorts that made it feel like it was otherworldly.

The closer they got, the more it took shape.

The more it took shape into something that they recognized.

”This…!” Siliscia gasped. ”This is the manifold tree! There’s no question about it! It looks just like all the images that I’ve seen!”

And she had seen images of the Kandrian manifold plant, which was a much younger specimen. The specimen in the distance was a fully grown tree in comparison, making it much more valuable than even the manifold tree. As long as human civilization was able to get its hands on the tree, it would be able to generate much bigger manifolds, a priceless asset that would significantly improve the chances of humanity surviving.

”So that’s the manifold tree, hm?” Sternon raised an eyebrow with interest. ”First I’m seeing of it. The Kandrians really monopolized something like its for years on end, huh? I’m super-envious.”

”Hehe, what can I say, my godfather and dad are both impressive men,” Runark grinned. ”I heard that they were among the people who discovered it.”

”One of the most exotic species of life that we have ever documented, based on my understanding,” Misha remarked with an engrossed expression. ”It is truly a miracle. It’s a shame that it doesn’t have a circulatory system that would be of any use to me, but it is nonetheless very remarkable.”

”I finally found a manifold tree after all those years of searching!” The elf almost dashed towards her long-desired objective.

CLASP

Ria’s hand shot, grabbing onto the elf’s shoulder with hardened, pressing fingers that dug into her flesh.

”Ow, what are you doing? Stop tha—” Siliscia froze when she turned to see the expression on Ria’s face.

It was an expression of horror.

”Ria?” Runark immediately tightened. There were very few things that could cause her to react in such a manner. Not even Martial Sages could make her react in such a manner, certainly not the junior ones anyway. Regardless, he knew that Ria was capable of maintaining her calm against ordinary opponents.

”Do you not see that…?” she asked with a shaky tone of voice, her amber eyes never once moving away from the manifold tree.

”See what?” Misha asked with a particularly concerned tone of voice, turning in the direction that Ria was staring with her cybernetic eyes enhanced.

Yet, not even her cybernetic eyes could compare to the sheer potency of Ria’s senses.

”Are you alright, Ria?” Siliscia asked with a concerned tone of voice.

”It’s right there,” Ria pointed to a branch on the tree.

Atop its branches was a misplaced, but very familiar figure. One that simply didn’t belong there, in the manifold or even in the world.

It was a humanoid figure.

As they drew closer, the other four began catching glimpses of what Ria had already seen.

They saw a human.

Or at least, a highly humanoid figure.

Its anatomy was indistinguishable from the homo sapien anatomy. It had four limbs attached to an abdomen, with a neck leading to a head on top. Its skin was an inhuman paper-white, as if it were a corpse.

But its face was the anomaly.

Its face was devoid of any features.

It didn’t have eyes.

It didn’t have a mouth or a nose or even ears.

It simply had a faceless head.

”Impossible…” Misha managed to squeeze in with an unusually shocked tone of voice.

”What…” Ria squeezed with an utterly stunned expression. ”What is that?”

Every instinct in her body told her to stay away from the humanoid being as much as possible. She could feel the sheer amount of power radiating from the creature’s body. It invaded the environment, utterly terrifying all life within its vicinity.

She could feel her nerves tingling with a nervous energy, making her want to get out of the place as soon as possible. She could tell with a single glance if they tried fighting that creature…

’We’ll lose.’

For a creature that inspired as much dread in her as this one did, it was surprisingly nonchalant in its posture atop the manifold tree. It lay with its back flat atop one of the thick branches of the tree in a relaxed manner, its hands underneath its faceless head, as if supporting, while its legs were folded, propped up, with one knee folded over the other.

It was the kind of posture that one might take while taking a break from work, a rather relaxing posture to get some rest in. But more than its nonchalant pose, what was especially shocking to her was the fact that it was very distinctly humanoid, so much so that it was almost impossible to explain by itself.

Could it have been a fluke?

She knew that a lot of the other lifeforms that she had run into on Planet Pinky, but this was beyond uncanny. It wasn’t just vaguely humanoid. It was very much decisively humanoid. Somehow, the creature, whose body was nominally male, despite not having male genitalia.