The Martial Unity

He didn’t need to eat; he didn’t need to sleep; he didn’t need to rest; he didn’t even need to catch his breath.

Conventional stamina was infinite for Rui in his current stage. His cells could absorb radiation, could convert matter into energy, could absorb matter with breath alone. He reset his neurons to mimic the effects of good sleep. He could keep his mind in top-tier form at all times.

His motions grew smoother and smoother with time as he built a foundation of muscle memory, accelerating the process with certain neurochemical tricks to build muscle memory better.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH...

His fists whipped through the air faster and faster each time. His brief flashes of ’lesser’ existence grew deeper and more noticeable as he made use of the dimensions of motion in the higher dimensions more than before.

The biggest change, however, was to his psychology.

Even after becoming hyperdimensional, his psychology lagged a little. He had spent more than a century conceiving of a battlefield as three-dimensional. To suddenly be not only fully aware of higher dimensions but seamlessly integrate them into his thinking was a tall order to ask.

Most Martial Artists his age would not be able to adjust their mindset too quickly.

But Rui embraced the change. He was Water. To be solidified was the anathema to his existence. He willfully shed his old mindset born from a lifetime of experience and embraced a new one. His psychology flowed, like Water, from one state of mind to another.

Once he established a basic mastery of the movements, it was time to upgrade.

He needed active resistance to field test his new techniques.

”You dragged me away from the battlefield just to train.” Kane stared at Rui with disbelief, his hands resting on his Twin Winds.

His demeanor had changed a lot in the span of a month and a half since hostilities reignited. He had grown more intense. His casual, playful side had diminished a lot. Being in an intense, destructive war would do that to anybody, especially when Kane bore a great responsibility. His beard had grown, giving him more of a grizzled vibe than the lighter presence he used to have. Rui had taken some measure of responsibility by being aware of the basics. The casualty numbers alone helped him understand Kane’s intensity.

”You’ll be doing more good for human civilization by helping me train,” Rui remarked shamelessly. ”Besides, I think you’ll like what I’m about to show you. You were born for this.”

One of the first people that Rui thought of when he mastered the motion aspect of hyperdimensional reality was Kane. Rui could evade dodges even when they touched his body by moving to the hyperdimensional layers of reality, becoming intangible by virtue of hyperdimensional evasion.

It was even more overpowered than Etherea Corpa, which was intangibility via severing his connection with the Higgs field, and that itself was a technique created by his clone using Gigabrain.

Kane raised his eyebrow, growing more curious. Rui rarely looked this excited these days. The last time he had said such words to Kane was when he introduced him to the Corporeal Realm, which had been a game-changer for Kane, allowing him to become among the strongest Martial Artists ever.

”Hit me,” Rui told him plainly.

Kane raised an eyebrow, perplexed, but obliged. His palm sharpened, jabbing at Rui with such speed that it blurred out of vision.

WHOOSH

His hand passed right through Rui’s body.

As if it was an empty image.

”This? This is just Phantom Step’s feint,” Kane scoffed. ”I’ve seen you use this technique a million ti—”

He froze as he realized the error in his judgment. It was not a feint because the image of Rui’s existence hadn’t dissipated. He just thought it was Phantom Step because the resemblance was high.

But the image was real; it was Rui. He could feel the familiarity of Rui’s mind and soul within the image. But the substance was gone. It was as though he had turned himself into a hologram.

Rui smirked at Kane’s reaction. ”Welcome to hyperdimensional Martial Art, my friend.”

Those words made Kane’s ears prick. He had heard of hyperdimensional stuff. Apparently, it was the underlying principle of the prothanite-laced hulls of the arakai. Central Human Command had already informed them that the cutting-edge institutions of human civilization and the best physicists and pathwalkers were already making great progress in understanding how to counter and leverage hyperdimensional reality.

Kane hadn’t realized that Rui had also been working on the same principle.

”Interesting,” Kane murmured as he directed his senses towards Rui’s state of existence. He existed, but... he felt less real.

He could also feel that Rui had moved when Kane had attacked him, despite the fact that his body was stationary. As someone who specialized in motion and especially evasive motion, he could intuitively sense that Rui had done just that even though he hadn’t moved.

The contradiction was something he was unable to unravel.

”What is this? What does this have to do with hyperdimensional whatever?” Kane frowned.

Rui considered the question. The answer was very complicated. Probably more than what Kane could comprehend. The man had failed to master Etherea Corpa because the matters of quantum mechanics and the Higgs field were extremely complicated even on an intuitive level.

He offered a basic analogy.

”I am evading your attack by moving in invisible directions,” Rui replied. ”There is more to this world than you can perceive. I have recently tapped into these directions, and I can freely evade all attacks, including omnidirectional attacks, by evading in these invisible directions.”

Kane’s green eyes lit up at those words.

Just that explanation alone allowed him to understand how compatible he was with whatever this new branch of Martial Art was that Rui had invented.

”Can I... master it?” he asked skeptically. Usually, nobody could replicate Rui’s miracles. It had taken him great effort to turn Autocorpus into its own Realm.

”You can.”

Rui’s voice was encouraging. All he needed to do was alter the laws of Kane’s body. Since Kane wasn’t a Martial Transcendent, he wouldn’t have to worry about his body disappearing. It would be a permanent upgrade.

”I will help you achieve this power, and then we will master it together, hehehe.” Rui smiled with anticipation, patting Kane as he activated his Martialverse and his newly created Legislator Mode, altering the laws in Kane’s body.