Chapter 4657 The Gap in Power

The problems he faced were great and demanded his immediate attention. The fact that he still chose to make time for his daughter and his family spoke to how he loved her. It had been too long since the three of them were united and together once more. When he thought back to the memories that future Amare had shown him, he was grateful that they had averted a future where he cursed Ria with the burden of patricide. Amare seemed to have similar thoughts, because she pulled Ria into a deep, emotional hug, pressing her head into her heart.

"We will always protect you, Ria. Always," she whispered as she patted her head and stroked her hair maternally, causing Ria to grow a little embarrassed.

"I’m not a kid anymore, you know?" she muttered in protest. "I can protect myself. I’ve grown strong now."

Yet, she didn’t pull herself out of her mother’s embrace. She missed her mother, especially when she was in a poor state of mind. Her mother had always served as a firmer parent, especially because her father was always too affectionate and soft on his daughter. In many ways, she felt more reliable despite the fact that her father was stronger and the Emperor.

"Speaking of growing strong," Rui remarked with a more energetic tone. "Shall we put that to the test?"

A challenging smile emerged on his face. "I want to see how much you have grown in the past half year as a Martial Artist. Your stories are engaging, but your fists will tell the truth. It will be a good opportunity to resurrect our family tradition."

To her credit, Ria didn’t back down from the challenge. She nodded. "Alright... I’ve also wanted to test my strength against you, Dad. You too, Mom."

Her amber eyes glinted with challenge, the way her mother’s often did. She wasn’t a battle freak the way they were, but she enjoyed her Martial Art, and she craved power. She carved the power that she could feel from her parents.

Her father’s existence seemed to have elevated to a higher rank than before, though the changes were more material in nature. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but her father’s body seemed to have grown more real. More solid. More multi-dimensional. Her father’s Martial Body was a work of art that vastly exceeded her comprehension.

He had upgraded it in so many ways, so many times, that it encompassed multiple Realms of power beyond just the Squire Realm. She suspected that just his body was well beyond her ability to fight.

Her mother’s Martial Body, in comparison, was more normal and comprehensible, but it was her Martialverse that eluded Ria.

She felt like she was suffering from double vision when she looked at her mother, because she could faintly sense the presence of two Martialverses, not one. But surely that was impossible, she thought.

Regardless, she would explore their power herself when they sparred with each other for the first time in years.

This had been a tradition they had followed as a family for years until Ria departed for the frontier at the age of sixteen. Each of them would spar with each other. Originally, her parents had been sparring with each other, but a young Ria wanted to partake in that not because of Martial Art, but simply because she was attached to her parents, so they accommodated her by simply play-sparring or training with her each to make her feel included.

The stronger she grew, however, the more serious the spars were.

And now, she was a Martial Sage, and they were both Transcendents.

They quickly relocated to an isolated sparring arena, one with a vast arena and state-of-the-art energy absorption systems meant to allow even Martial Corporeals to go all out without any trouble.

STEP

Ria stepped forth, wearing traditional Martial attire. She tightened the belt around her coat, which rested on top of a Martial vest. The attire looked out of place on her, and it reflected her discomfort. In the past two years, she had worn exo-Martial suits that fitted her perfectly with a lot of ergonomic features. They had become her bread and butter, especially since she spent extended time in them.

Traditional attire didn’t suit her tastes anymore, but she knew that her parents were obsessed with it. She walked onto the arena, stretching her body and lightly bouncing on her feet to loosen up.

Her father simply stood opposite her, having donned his archaic attire as well, before taking a simple neutral stance against her.

The battle began with his word.

"Begin."

WHOOSH

The moment he uttered that word, she shot at him with all of her Realms of power flaring with full effort. She knew that she couldn’t even remotely draw out an ounce of power from him otherwise. She knew that even with this effort, she would only be able to draw out an iota of his full power.

Rui’s ethereal eyes lit up at the speed that his daughter displayed. The flush of materia prima that flowed through her body was far greater than any Martial Sage should have had six months after breaking through.

More than anything, he admired how serene and tranquil the energy was. Most Martial Sages were like nuclear power plants. Their bodies and Realms forcefully harnessed materia prima in a very violent manner, the way that power plants contained the energy released by nuclear fission with great measures in order to convert it into usable energy.

However, Ria’s materia prima behaved more like the waters of a river passing through a water wheel that peacefully harnessed that power. The raw energy of matter released by the efficiency brought forth by the Martial Soul harmoniously flowed from every cell to the movements she made with unerring efficiency.

WHOOSH

In a matter of barely a few nanoseconds, her palm had already reached for his abdomen.

And yet, it got no closer.

FHOOSH

Ria’s eyes widened as a single touch was all it took to redirect her attack away. Her father’s hand reached out with a tender softness, the same tender softness with which he would caress her cheek and pat her head.

That same tender softness effortlessly undid her attack.

It illuminated the astronomical gap in power between them even without the Transcendent Realm.