The Martial Unity

WHOOSH

Planet Pinky sped through outer space at high speeds, although it didn’t look particularly fast relative to the massive scale of the planet. It simply rotated and revolved as it had for billions of years, entirely normally and ordinarily.

And then, all of a sudden, it became bigger.

The sphere expanded in volume instantly.

But not identically.

Its surface changed as an entirely new section of the planet previously hidden within the manifold was revealed.

It was an Unfolding.

For just a picosecond, Planet Pinky was whole.

And then, it was destroyed.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A devastatingly powerful gravitational wave erupted from the unfolded land, destroying everything. The crust was blasted to smithereens like the shell of an egg, while the mantles were gouged with extraordinary force, exposing the core of the planet, which was, of course, made up of negatron matter, though not nearly as much as that of Gaia Prime’s core.

The planet was torn apart, reduced to rubble as esoteric and normal matter was hurtled outwards at high speeds, overwhelming the gravity of the mass. The extraordinary lifeforms that existed within Planet Pinky, the macrobes and their primitive civilization, were wiped out in the blink of an eye.

Exobiologists and explorers would mourn their death and destruction, undoubtedly, but not Ria.

Within the floating manifold tree, her expression was one of determination.

’I must get home as soon as possible. Only Dad can heal my friends.’

He would heal her friends. He had to.

”Captain, can you hear me?” She immediately activated a special communication unit that directly communicated with the Stellarch through nano wormholes. ”The operation is complete. Please come immediately; we have urgent need of three stasis chambers.”

Two of them for the friends that she had failed to revive. She had ensured that Siliscia and Sternon’s bodies were preserved as well as she could so that her father could take it from there.

The other one was for the manifold tree she was in. The tree had emerged from the tremendously destructive gravitational wave unharmed.

It wasn’t too long before the Stellarch identified the manifold tree among the massive amount of rubble generated by the destruction of Planet Pinky. The spaceship quickly tractored the tree as a whole into a prepared stasis chamber.

The moment the doors to the stasis chamber were closed, the chamber activated a teleportation function, removing the five pathwalkers from the cavity in the tree and out of the chamber before immediately activating the stasis field.

VMMM…

Immediately, the manifold tree was frozen. Each and every single atom and molecule in its body was tightly held in place with extremely powerful quantum gravitational tweezers, unable to move so much as even a picometer.

For all intents and purposes, the tree was frozen in time.

This was a measure that had been prepared in the design of the ship. Ria knew she would need to pick up manifold trees. At the same time, she had been warned that they were extremely dangerous.

Thus, the Stellarch’s design came with a stasis tractor field and stasis chamber that was present within a dock that was easily accessible from the outside. It allowed the Stellarch to firmly imprison the manifold tree without giving it much opportunity to retaliate in any way.

”Miss Ria, congratulations on your…” Two crew operators greeted her before stopping in silence at the four of her teammates lying around her.

”Get these two to a stasis field immediately,” she commanded them with a serious voice, gesturing to the bodies of Siliscia and Sternon. ”Keep these two in ICUs in the medical wing. Ensure that their conditions are constantly monitored. I want a diagnosis on their conditions immediately.”

”Understood, Miss Ria.”

She watched as Siliscia’s and Sternon’s bodies floated midair in tubes, frozen in a stasis field while Misha and Runark were teleported to the medical wing, followed by a concerned Ria, who never left their side.

The more time she spent with the revived Misha and Runark, the more she felt like something was off with their mental conditions. Although she hadn’t had the opportunity to think about it that much until after she had finally returned to the safety of the Stellarch.

Her amber eyes grew more and more concerned as she studied their minds.

She had been able to sense and comprehend brainwaves extremely well even as a Martial Master thanks to possessing a Martial Body that was designed to engage with causality. But after becoming a Martial Sage, she could virtually decode minds simply by being in their presence.

That was why she could tell from the activity in the cerebral cortex of both Misha and Runark.

’They’re conscious.’

They were clearly conscious, but their bodies were as still as that of a coma patient. Despite their cerebral cortex being conscious, their bodies seemed disconnected from their minds. Even as the doctors of the medical wing placed them in special diagnostic chambers, her own senses had outraced them to realize what was happening.

’Their neural cortexes are… bioelectrically isolated from the rest of their minds,’ she realized with a horrified expression. ’They’re conscious, but consciousnesses are completely isolated from all information from the outside world. They’re isolated in a prison of their own subconscious minds.’

She couldn’t even imagine just how utterly torturous that was. To be conscious, but to be disconnected. To be utterly helpless, drowning in nothingness for who even knew how long. The internal clock at which the mind operated flowed quicker than the real world, making the experience that much more excruciating.

”Miss Ria, I’m pleased to inform you that their vitals are remarkably well. Their bodies are rather shockingly devoid of wounds or anything of the sort,” the doctor in the medical wing told her, studying the data collected by the diagnostic chambers. ”Yet, we have observed some neurological anomalies that are rather concerning. For now, we would like to observe them and gather more data before we come up with any kind of preliminary diagnosis.”

”…Can you put them under for the time being?” Ria asked with an almost terrified tone of voice. ”I think… they are suffering.”

The doctor hesitated before heaving a deep breath. ”Miss Ria, this infirmary was not intended to be an exhaustive medical facility. We only have the tools we need to keep patients alive for the time it would take for the ship to get back to human civilization. I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do beyond keeping an eye on them.”

She gritted her teeth, clenching her fists.

”…I understand.”