The Martial Unity

Once the four of them settled in the living room, Kane looked straight at Rui with a knowing expression. "So, how's the true world been going? I imagine you've been up to some crazy shit. Word on the street is that you were the one who killed the Dragon Emperor in the battle that caused those cracks in the ocean floor to occur and let out all that negatron matter."

Rui smiled wryly. "That's correct… it was an unfortunate side effect. And it was mostly the fault of the Dragon Emperor. That madman had a tremendous amount of raw power, allowing him to scar the very planet itself with his extraordinary force."

"That's actually crazy that a non-Transcendent being would be capable of that," Kane stared at Rui with an expression of disbelief. "Just how strong was he?"

"Very," Rui admitted. "It took me everything I had and becoming a Martial Transcendent to actually win."

Both Kane and Fae widened their eyes at those words. "You're a Martial Transcendent?!"

Rui smiled. "Yep. So is she, by the way."

Amare smiled proudly as she rested her head on Rui's shoulder.

"I must be sleepy." Kane rubbed his eyes, shaking his head. "Congratulations to the two of you. That's an incredible achievement. It makes me feel safer now that the world is growing more and more dangerous. We're back to having four Transcendent Candidates and one step closer to getting a Martial Transcendent once more."

"You have truly grown strong, Rui." Fae shook her head. "I could never have imagined that you would become a Transcendent Candidate this quickly when we first met in the second round of the Martial Entrance Exam."

Rui's expression grew amused as he recalled their first meeting from sixty-seven years ago.

It felt like a different lifetime.

"You beat me pretty soundly back then," Rui mused.

"I should have relished that moment more," Fae muttered with a hint of regret. "Oh well, I still get to tell people that I defeated the Rui Quarrier. I just keep silent about the fact that it was before he became a Martial Artist."

They burst into laughter at her joke, enjoying the moment of peace.

It had been a while since Rui had had the opportunity to simply relax with friends, just like old times. The Martial Academy had been fun because he had had friends with whom he had relative parity at the time, making him feel like he was among equals.

Now, he had almost no equals, save for Amare and Ieyasu.

One of whom was his lover, and the other was now an enemy that he had decided he would kill.

The other top ten were also largely enemies, except for Mother Maeria. And yet, while she was a friend, they were so different from each other that they had almost nothing in common aside from their power and the fact that they had experienced the Transcendent Fear.

She was a literal tree and had been a light elf before that.

What life experience did they have that could allow them to connect?

NOVA was someone who could have been an interesting friend, but she wanted to dominate and control the world just as the Dragon Emperor had. He would have enjoyed jousting with someone who was clearly more intelligent than he was on a nominal basis.

"Maybe I should start a family once I complete Project Water," he subconsciously murmured out loud before he even realized it.

Amare blushed even as she beamed at him. "That sounds wonderful. We can set up a home in the Continent of Genora where we can spend some time. With the flux of negatron matter emerging from the Great Void Ocean, we can also go back and forth between the Genora Continent and Panama Continent quite frequently."

Rui nodded, immersed in thought. "That's true."

He put his arm around her, pulling her closer as he felt her warmth.

"You two are so cute." Fae heaved a sigh, turning to Kane with a displeased expression. "You can learn some romance from your best friend, you dolt."

"Wha—" Kane did a double-take as Rui smiled at his expense. "Tsk tsk, poor Fae."

"Truly." She heaved a sigh. "I had to make the first move so many times. Tsk tsk."

Kane sulked with a wry smile as they laughed at his experience.

Baby Runark took in the boisterous atmosphere with a curious expression and fascinated eyes, absorbing everything that was said. "Gugugaga…"

"That's right, my precious baby~" Fae cooed at her little baby boy. "Your father is no good at romance, isn't that right?"

Runark laughed with delight, almost as if he understood the joke.

They could all sense the pure joy and delight within the child's mind.

"Man…" Kane heaved a wistful sigh. "This makes me wish that the Unfolding had never happened. What a wonderful little sheltered world it would have been if we had just defeated that horrifying eldritch chimera and then everybody lived happily ever after. Instead, the training wheels got removed, and we got exposed to dangers much greater than that of the Beast Incursion."

His words made the air grow more serious. What he had voiced was not a niche opinion by any means. In fact, it was a highly popular and common opinion among the common people and the masses.

Of the four of them, two were Transcendent Candidates, while another was a Martial Sage, and the fourth was a Martial Master. They were very detached from the struggles and the plight of common people, whether it was material or mental, and even then, Kane felt overwhelmed with everything that was happening.

One could only imagine how much anguish the common people of the Panama Continent.

"Our civilization has been dealing with existential crises for a long time." Rui heaved a sympathetic sigh.

Even if he was very happy that the Unfolding had happened, he could understand that he was in the minority.

Most people had desired an age of stability in the Era of Darkness.

Instead, they got slapped in the face with the Age of Unfolding immediately after, with six continents and a whole new world surrounding them, greedy for their esoteric resources.