The Martial Unity

One moment, a destructive wave of extraordinarily intense light threatened to destroy them.

The very next moment, however, it was gone.

Negated.

Adaptively evolved.

Supreme Commander Anthea narrowed his eyes while the Martial Sages widened theirs with shock.

Shock and ecstasy.

Not a single one of them failed to recognize him.

“…Rui!” Amare’s expression lit up with delight and ecstasy.

“Your Highness…!”

“Dawnbringer…!”

A wave of overwhelming relief and charged emotion bore heavily on the atmosphere.

The air boiled with emotion.

And yet, Rui didn’t acknowledge them.

He didn’t regard them.

No, his gaze was fixed on one and only one person.

One being.

An ethereal being beyond fathoming.

An ephemeral invisibility left only a faint silhouette

As though his very existence was that of a higher plane beyond their fathoming.

He slowly lowered himself from the sky, gazing down upon Rui with an impenetrable gaze.

He gazed into the boundless darkness within the depths of Rui’s eyes.

A boundless void of unfathomable power.

Within it, he sensed a hunger.

A hunger he recognized in himself.

A hunger for adaptive evolution.

“Ah…” the faintest murmur of dawning realization escaped the Supreme Commander.

He understood what he was dealing with in that moment.

“You negated the light attack with destructive interference.”

His ethereal voice was knowing.

“You used my own power to adaptively evolve to my own attack.”

Deep understanding lingered in the depths of his immaterial eyes.

“You follow the same path that we do.”

Rui remained silent even as he beheld the Supreme Commander with a deep gaze.

“You are one of us.”

The Martial Sages widened their eyes with shock at those words. They were so outrageous that not a single one of them could even bring themselves to respond to the absurd declaration.

STEP

He arrived before Rui with a soft step, gazing deep into his pitch-black eyes.

The air tingled.

It tingled with a faint, perilous tension.

“We evolutionaries…” he began with a deep, ephemeral voice. “We identify ourselves not with blood….”

His tone grew more intense.

“Nor with physicality.”

His gaze grew deeper.

“Nor with DNA, nor with geography, or with politics… No, we identify ourselves with a single criterion.”

The air boiled with tension.

“Our Paths.”

His ethereal voice was clear.

“The evolutionaries follow the Path of Adaptive Evolution and the those who follow the Path of Adaptive Evolution are evolutionaries and so…”

He gazed deep into Rui’s eyes.

“I hereby declare you an evolutionary.”

The Martial Sages widened their eyes with shock and bewilderment.

“I hereby declare one of us,” Anthea continued with an ephemeral tone. “I hereby declare you our brother, and so…”

He raised his hand to Rui.

He beckoned him.

“Join us, brother.”

The Martial Sages shook where they were.

They shook as their expression crumbled with shock.

“Join the Evolutionary Army as the evolutionary you are.”

Anthea’s tone was gentle and beckoning.

And yet, it contained an edge of force.

He wasn’t just requesting Rui.

No, he was commanding him.

“Take your place in our ranks as we commence our glorious conquest of this continent, this planet, and eventually…” his tone was chilling. “…the entire galaxy.”

He gazed straight into Rui’s eyes.

“With your power, you can easily become my right-hand man,” he continued with a calm, coaxing voice. “With your command, you could easily become second-in-command of the entire Evolutionary Army. That’s not all…”

His ethereal eyes directed, a deep knowing gaze into Rui’s eyes.

“We can help sate your hunger.”

Chills crawled across the skin of the stunned Martial Sages at those words.

“We can help you progress your Adaptive Evolution more than the primitive indigenous species of this continent ever could.”

Horror emerged in the eyes of the Martial Sages as they understood how alarming this offer was given how obsessed Rui was with Project Water.

“Rui…” A worried whisper escaped Amare.

He hasn’t yet rejected the Supreme Commander’s offer.

Anthea’s raised hand extended further, beckoning Rui’s.

“What do you say, my brother?”

The air grew heavy with anticipation.

The atmosphere grew electric with peril.

It was an absurd offer.

There was no way that any Martial Artist would accept joining the ranks of the Evolutionary Army and play make-believe that they truly were evolutionaries. Just the very thought of it was disgusting to all of them.

And yet, Rui’s silence was chilling.

He simply gazed deep into the depths of Supreme Commander Anthea’s eyes.

“And…” Rui’s voice was but a whisper. “…what if I were to reject your offer?”

Supreme Commander didn’t so much as change a shade at the question.

“You would be deemed a traitor to our race,” he calmly informed Rui with an ephemeral tone. “We actively hunt all evolutionaries who aren’t a part of the Evolutionary Army, and we would do the same to you as well.”

His ethereal eyes bore deep into Rui’s.

“We would hunt you for the rest of your life.”

The Martial Sages gazed at the Supreme Commander as they came to understand just how demented this species was.

They were absolutely mental.

They had an obsession with their Path of Adaptive Evolution.

And yet, what they feared even more was the fact that Rui had yet to slam the offer down with a defiant and contemptuous attitude that they would have hoped to see. It normally would have been unthinkable for a leader of human civilization to join the evolutionaries, but even though he was committed to Adaptive Evolution, it wasn’t impossible, given that they offered to help him grow stronger with Adaptive Evolution.

“I would be lying if I said I’m not considering it.”

Rui’s tone was calm.

Composed.

Supreme Commander Anthea gazed at him deeply, waiting for his answer.

“I would be lying if I said it wasn’t tempting.”

The Martial Sages grew alarmed at those words.

“But…” Rui’s voice grew chilling. “…If you truly follow the Path of Adaptive Evolution, then you should already know my answer.”

His words were cryptic.

And yet, a glint of understanding emerged in Anthea’s ethereal eyes.

A small smile of perilous anticipation emerged on Rui’s face.

“Overcoming all of you… Adaptively evolving to all of you will bring me closer to Project Water than joining you ever could.”

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook.

It shook as Rui activated his Realms of power.

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