The Martial Unity

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world serpent pushed itself to the limit, exerting pressure on one Divine Mother: the Mindstitch. It had narrowed its target to her because it realized that stopping this Divine Mother was more important than any other goal.

Although it was very much out of the loop on what was happening these days, the serpent could sense that the other Divine Mothers were trying to free the Mindstitch to exert her Verse on the pathwalker they had captured, whom it recognized as Argenton. The serpent was surprised that the unpleasant tekvore had managed to step into the Transcendent Realm, but it mattered not.

It could tell that the stakes of this battle were high. God’s Hammer would not be fighting so desperately if there wasn’t a lot at stake. The serpent truly had no clue what this was all about or who these aliens were, but it didn’t need a reason to join its nominal allies.

Even as it fought, its vision blurred from time to time. It felt flashes of pain, and its nervous system fired, causing spams to spread across its giant body.

This was undoubtedly the work of the Mindstitch. Even though it was slow and tedious, the Mindstitch progressively destroyed its mind, reducing its cognitive function. What shocked her, though, was that despite the serpent having its mind destroyed, it continued to maintain her attack vector, forcing her to waste valuable phenomenological stamina to defend herself. The more power she wasted, the lower the chance that this operation would succeed.

”Just. Die!”

RUMBLE!!!!!

The Shredder continued to ravage its body with her slicing nets while the Mindstitch accelerated with the mental destruction of the serpent. The former didn’t strictly need to do what she was doing, for any results with physical attacks would be much slower than mental attacks, to which the serpent was more vulnerable, but the pride of the Shredder didn’t allow her to back down.

For there to be such a giant creature that could withstand the destructive onslaught of her and her sisters. That was truly enraging to her. At the same time, God’s Hammer understood that the intervention of the World Serpent was something that gave them a rare chance to avoid the fate of total doom.

It became a berserker that sought to utterly annihilate its opponents even at the cost of its own destruction.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Its Hammer struck Divine Mothers with the force of exploding planets, forcing them to redirect even more of their Verses to defend against his attacks. Just the Transcendent esoterics in their body wouldn’t be enough. Even though arakai esoteric technology exceeded that of human civilization nominally, that didn’t apply to a Transcendent’s handiwork and the power that dwarves imparted to their creation. The scale difference also meant that their raw defenses weren’t enough.

If it was just the serpent and the mech, they would not have been nearly as pressured. But what was truly irritating was that Argenton also exploited the pressure that the two exerted to pressure them from within the little web prison they had created for him. Converting into light, attacking them with his solid and superluminal light.

He even used one of the trump cards that he had developed recently, which was to give light mass even when it was in its wave form. He Legislated the laws of reality to permit an interaction between light and the Higgs field within his body, allowing light to have mass, which it normally did not.

This allowed him to create attacks that moved at the speed of light that had genuine substance, creating truly devastating attacks that further taxed the Webverses of the Divine Mothers.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

RUMBLE!!!!!

A beam of heavy light struck the Webslinger’s young body, causing the girl to cry out in pain, forcing her to exert more power to keep Argenton in check.

Although there were the four of them relative to three weaker beings, their goal was not simple. They needed to extract memories from Argenton’s mind, which required much more control than if they were to simply destroy Argenton. That was why the three weaker beings were able to successfully frustrate them, because they were just strong enough to prevent the four Divine Mothers from achieving their goals.

”At. This. Rate... we. Might. Run. Out. Of. Stamina!” The Mindstitch gritted her teeth as she slowly eroded the mind of the Jormungandr.

It was not ineffective.

The serpent’s body spasmed and shuddered. Its attacks had grown more sluggish, more volatile, and more incoherent. But somehow, the serpent managed to preserve the most important parts of its consciousness, using the other parts of its mind as an information meat shield so that its core consciousness and memories would remain intact.

But even that was a self-destructive strategy, no different than God’s Hammer. And unlike the mech, the serpent couldn’t be reconstructed. It was a living being. Not an artifact.

Far away in the distance, Rui’s expression grew somber as he caught a glimpse of the serpent’s eyes in the middle of his battle with the leader of the War Faction. Its pupils were sharp and pure black. Within their depths was simple acceptance.

”Jormungandr...” Rui gritted his teeth.

He could sense what was happening to the serpent. Every instinct in his body wanted to turn away from the battle and head back to his friends, but the Divine Mother before him refused to let him escape her.

’It is of no consequence.’

The distorting, collapsing voice of the serpent echoed within Rui’s mind.

’I have lived a long life, much of it drowned in darkness at the depths of the ocean. Thanks to you, I experienced freedom, but... that alone does not sustain a purposeful life.’

The serpent’s emotional make-up was different from that of humans. He didn’t have capacity for deep regret. He didn’t need such an emotion.

’If this sacrifice protects Gaia, then it is worth it.’

Even as he faced the leader of the War Faction, pushing his physicality to the very limit, Rui’s expression was grim. A melancholy that didn’t belong on the battlefield could be seen in his ethereal eyes.

Yet, his sadness didn’t halt his fists. It didn’t dull his ferocious Martialverse from wrestling with the Webverse of the Divine Mother for reign over reality.

A single remark escaped Rui as the fierce sharpness returned to his eyes.

”I will never forget you, my friend.”

RUMBLE!!!!!