The Martial Unity

When Ria saw her father, she had felt a surge of hope. Now that she had become a Martial Sage, she understood just how absurdly powerful her father truly was.

He was beyond reach.

His power wasn’t rooted in materia like hers. It went beyond materia. She could faintly sense that it was absolute. It existed in a plane of reality that she couldn’t even fathom. Like he belonged to a higher dimension of life, merely descending into a lower one that couldn’t control his power.

’If anything can save my friends, it is this power.’

She dragged him through the Stellarch, taking him to the medical wing of the ship urgently and hurriedly. If not for her father using mild misdirection and hypnosis to ensure that none of them saw him, her identity would have been revealed to the crew and staff of the ship then and there.

She took him to the units containing her friends, turning towards him with a pleading expression.

”Papa. Save them. I know you can.”

Her father’s expression shifted as his ethereal eyes swept Siliscia, Sternon, Misha, and Runark. His eyes glinted with familiarity, turning towards her with a hint of genuine surprise in their depths.

”You tried resurrecting them.”

Those words made her feel even more reassured. If her father understood what was happening, then it meant that he was very well rehearsed with these matters.

”Runark and Misha came back, but… they won’t wake up,” she clenched her fists. ”Siliscia and Sternon… I wasn’t able to bring them back at all. Please papa. Please…!”

Her voice cracked as she held back a sob. Her father’s expression was gentle, of course. He smiled at her reassuringly.

”I will do everything in my power.”

He turned towards Runark with a serious expression. Out of the four here, he was most concerned about his godson. He loved Runark like his own child, and seeing the man like this was visibly painful for him.

He walked over to the bed where he rested, pressing his palm on his forehead, closing his eyes.

Rui had lamented not having this power when he brought Amare back. Now, he had been given an opportunity to almost undo the regret. It was rather therapeutic for himself as well. He delved deep into Runark’s mind, activating his Martialverse. He generally disliked using his Martialverse for singular events since it was annoying to constantly have to shift to new bodies and prepare new bodies, since each body was handcrafted by him.

This time, it was worth it though.

Thought was Water. As was the mind.

As was the connection between consciousness and the rest of the mind.

And thus, he allowed it to flow. Neuron connections that had gone silent suddenly activated, as a surge of electrical activity flooded across his entire mind. The mind returned to a normal state within a minute.

Runark’s eyes opened slowly.

”Runark!” Ria rushed to his side as tears began to flow from her eyes, clouding her vision. ”Runark, are you alright? Can you hear me?”

”…Ria?” A weak, despondent whisper escaped Runark as he slowly turned towards her, before his eyes widened with shock. ”Ria!”

Ria lunged for him, hugging him tightly as she sobbed. ”…I’m so glad you’re back. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for everything.”

Runark’s eyes watered as he realized what was happening. ”I’m… I’m back! I’m actually… I’m actually…!”

He choked as his voice cracked.

”…It was hell,” his voice quivered gutturally. ”…A whole year in darkness... I thought I would never escape…”

Ria’s expression crumpled as her joy cracked, leaning back. She gazed at him with horror in her amber eyes. ”A whole year? What do you mean by that? It’s only been five days.”

”The experience of the flow of time within the mind is very different from the actual flow of time in the real world,” her father quietly told her, having already begun unshackling Misha from her mental prison. ”I can only imagine how horrifying that must have been. You are truly strong in spirit, Runark.”

Ria turned towards Runark with an expression of alarm.

She couldn’t even utter any words. Tears simply fell from her eyes, flowing down her face.

”Ngh…”

Her head turned towards Misha, who opened her cybernetic eyes, her gaze shifting towards the Emperor of Water, who stood over her. ”…How do you feel?”

”…Like I’m dreaming,” Misha whispered.

Her cybernetic eyes shifted to Ria, who came to her side with an expression of sorrow and puffy, red eyes. ”I’m sorry. This is all my fault. It must have been hard. It must have been difficult.”

”…Actually, it was remarkably soothing,” Misha whispered. ”Just silence and darkness. Almost therapeutic. I did a lot of thinking. Shame it didn’t last longer.”

Ria’s head jerked back in a double-take as the Emperor of Water smiled. ”You have a good eye for friends, my daughter. But unfortunately…

He turned towards the stasis chambers where Sternon and Siliscia’s bodies floated with a darkened expression.

”…not all of them are coming back.”

Ria turned towards him slowly with an expression of dread. ”W-what does that mean? You can bring them back, right?”

Rui heaved a deep breath of regret, shaking his head.

”They’re gone, Ria. There’s nothing I can do. I’m sorry.”

”But you’re a Martial Transcendent!” she insisted with a more desperate tone. ”You’re the Emperor of Water! You can do anything!”

”I am not omnipotent,” Rui replied with a calm, composed tone, never taking his eyes off the two bodies. ”The list of things I can’t do isn’t the largest, but this… this is among them. The information is inaccessible.”

”You can use the Angel of Laplace. You can use it with your Transcendent powers. You can look back even further and better than I can.” Her voice was emotional. ”The information exists! Information cannot be destroyed!”

”…Information cannot be destroyed, but unfortunately, integrated information can,” he spoke with a tone of resignation. ”Even if I personally visit the location they died, I would not be able to retrieve their consciousness. Not even with the power of a Transcendent.”

He turned towards her with a solemn, sorrowful expression.

”I’m sorry, Ria. But they are dead.”

Those words caused the dam to break, causing her to sob uncontrollably.