The Martial Unity

Of course, he was confident that his influence vastly surpassed that of those two, but they had undoubtedly gained a lot of leverage. He didn’t want to suppress them to try to maintain his dominance, since that would unnecessarily antagonize two powerful people. They had leverage that made this much more difficult than it used to be.

What if they learned about his daughter?

What if they started entertaining ideas about her?

The potential she represented was limitless.

His expression darkened.

He could tolerate a lot of things. He wasn’t power-hungry, at least politically. He didn’t mind sharing responsibility and reign with them. But when it came to his daughter, his bottom line was actually extremely high.

If he had to burn down human civilization to keep her safe, then he wouldn’t even hesitate.

It wasn’t even close.

Thankfully, Dwight was a man of honor, and he had great respect and gratitude. Argenton, however, was a scoundrel. Rui hadn’t forgotten what he was like before he got humbled. He was a menace. And his ego had returned after breaking through. At most, he was more pliable than he used to be, but Rui did not trust him the way he trusted Dwight. Dwarves were generally honorable and valued their word, as a matter of culture.

Tekvores were different. Rui hadn’t failed to notice that Argenton had yet to announce his breakthrough to the world. He clearly wanted to amass enough strength to back up his status as a Transcendent.

’He’s planning something.’

Rui suspected that, for all the trauma that NOVA had inflicted on him, he was cut from the same cloth as her. Now that he had the power to take over Tekvorian civilization, there was a chance that he would do it.

The only reason he wouldn’t was that he feared Rui. He should have known that there was no way Rui was going to allow him to do another NOVA with the tekvores. It was detrimental to human civilization, especially at a time of war. And it would suppress future Transcendents.

That was likely another reason that Argenton wouldn’t endeavor to do exactly what NOVA did. It was only a matter of time before the other races broke through and became Transcendents. And it was only a matter of time before Martial Artists became Transcendents. He alone wouldn’t be able to keep so many Transcendents in check. He needed peers among the tekvores to build a stronger tekvorian bloc.

Rui could only hope that he would be more farsighted and wiser than his predecessor.

He shook his head, turning back to Kane. ”Let’s continue. I want to master hyperdimensional maneuvering as soon as possible.”

Although it was just one aspect of hyperdimensional Martial Art, Rui wanted to get a firm grip on it before he moved on to something else. Hyperdimensional motion was arguably the most important and valuable to him at the moment. It prevented him from being trapped.

Space-time interdiction measures wouldn’t be able to stop hyperdimensional motion whatsoever; they were categorically different. He would be able to escape from virtually any trap that his enemies prepared for him through these means.

The two of them resumed their training, continuing intense sparring sessions as they rapidly mastered hyperdimensional maneuvering to greater and greater extents.

The war continued raging on with great intensity in the meantime. Much to the shock of the arakai, the humans managed to prevent them from fully capturing Arima III. Despite the three battle fronts that had broken out, with the arakai going all out with their superior warships and highly coordinated Web of War, the humans managed to hold out.

Their fleets became smaller and thinner, with exclusively dwarven ships which increased both their nimbleness and their durability. Smaller fleets meant easier maneuvering while retaining the magic of dwarven craftsmanship.

Once the humans fully accepted that their weapons were useless, they stripped their ships of gun barrels and weapon systems, reducing their weight and energy consumption. Making it easier for them to launch their pathwalkers at enemy arakai ships.

The pathwalkers themselves grew better and better at sundering arakai ships. Many of them were equipped with powerful weapons that could destroy ships with just a handful of attacks. And the strongest among them had begun even to overwhelm prothanite with such weapons, much to the shock of the arakai.

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”It. Must. Be. That. Legislator,” Divine Mother —o-o—o gritted her teeth as she watched a battleship being ravaged by Sage Scarlett Vermilion of the Britannian Empire, who was part of the newest generation of Transcendent Candidates. Not only was she a Transcendent Candidate, but she had also recently acquired a longsword that had extraordinary qualities.

With a single glance, the Divine Mother could tell that the longsword was a Legislated product. It seemed to have altered laws with qualities associated with life and harmony, allowing the blade to be exceptionally durable, lethal, and harmonious with its user.

In order to kill such a powerful pathwalker, they would need to deploy not one or two Divine Children, but multiple. Initially, the powerhouses of human civilization could be rivaled by Divine Children. But the gap had begun steadily widening to the point where even Divine Children struggled to fight complete monsters like Sentinel Prime or Arastia. Sentinel Prime could take on entire war fleets by himself, fighting the horrifying webnoughts head-on.

While Arastia protected entire planets and the surrounding space infrastructure by herself, drowning an entire world with her very own blood, creating an invincible blood fortress that the arakai struggled to pierce.

She didn’t fare well in spaceborne battles, so Central Human Command had entrusted her with the duty of preventing the arakai from consolidating human land.

Most of the other top twenty-five were also powerful enough to be able to operate independently, creating countless mini-battlefields across all three battlefronts. The most annoying part was that their interdiction force couldn’t stop the humans from opening wormholes into the star system, preventing the arakai from being able to execute their strategy of isolation -> control -> consolidation -> expansion.

Out of all the civilizations that they had invaded, the humans were by far the most resilient.