The Martial Unity

"Oh, come on!" Kane complained. "Doesn't that mean I cannot ever see you fight?"

A small smile cracked at the edge of Rui's mouth. "I'm afraid that's true. If you want to see me fight in all my power…"

His eyes sharpened as his tone grew stronger. "…you will need to become a Martial Master."

Kane's eyes grew more intense.

Not wanting to fall behind Rui was one of his greatest motivations.

"Will do. Just you wait, man."

Rui's smile softened. "I will. But for now, do as I say. Make sure you don't perceive my Martial Embodiment. I'll ensure you don't, too, but I will be busy fighting Master-level beasts. Thus, I need you to make sure you do the same as well, got it?"

"Gotcha."

Rui's passive Martial Mind allowed him to sense the minds of others, as he had long known Martial Masters were able to.

Rui could sense the burning drive of Kane rising even higher than it had ever been. He could sense a variety of emotions across the entirety of his mind, spurring him down his Martial Path and towards the Master Realm.

It was strange to perceive all these emotions themselves. It was very different from reading nonverbal communication.

No, it was as though he was perceiving emotions themselves in their own actual existences of matter, energy, and information. He could read the emotional makeup of his friend at each moment, watching the dynamics of his mind in real-time.

It was uncomfortable.

He felt like he was violating the privacy of his friend. Privacy of mind was, in many ways, a God-given right that each human being was entitled to.

Except Martial Masters could completely disregard it.

He heaved a sigh inwardly before ridding his mind of those thoughts as well.

"Alright, with that warning, it's time," Rui's eyes narrowed.

A glint of excitement flickered in the depths of eyes.

Soon, he would have the opportunity to fight to his heart's content.

Soon, he would have the opportunity to exercise the full depth of his newfound power.

Soon, he would be able to test the limits of his current state of power.

"Soon." He turned to the Divine Doctor with a pointed gaze. "Do not make our lives more difficult."

The man stared at Rui with a frozen smile before closing his eyes and plucking a particular artifact from his utility belt.

It expanded into a sphere, which opened in half.

WHOOSH

Rui carefully manipulated heaven and earth to extract alien flora lifeform, severing its root connections with the flora root hive beneath the land, along with enough soil, perfectly fitting it within the sphere.

CLASP

The sphere was sealed shut before reducing itself and everything within it to the size of a marble, completely isolating itself from the outside.

For a moment, nothing happened.

"Now what?" Kane murmured. "Mayb—"

RUMBLE!!!

The three of them froze as the very world shook to its roots.

Rui felt a tremendous amount of ripples through space-time with Riemannian Echo as Heaven and Earth shuddered alike.

And then, it happened.

It happened abruptly.

Faster than even Rui could react.

POP

The manifold disappeared as space-time uncurled instantly.

Suddenly, the small planetoid was no more.

The world became flat in Rui's senses, extending far, far beyond his senses.

They had returned.

They had returned to the wide, vast world of Gaia.

They had returned to the Beast Domain.

They had returned to the Mellow within the Master-level belt of the Beast Domain.

The dungeon was exposed to the rest of the world.

And it was hardly gone unnoticed.

Who could possibly ignore a hundred-kilometer-wide patch of land appearing out of nowhere?

Who could ignore the ripples across space-time that spread from it?

Most importantly, who could ignore the mouth-watering bounties that lay at the center of the dungeon?

Certainly, not the twelve Master-level beasts in the surrounding Master-level regions around the Mellow that had sensed it almost immediately.

In an instant, they made a decision.

"Go." Rui's voice betrayed a hint of excitement and enthusiasm.

Kane didn't need any more advice, grabbing the containment unit and the Divine Doctor before bolting with the man at top speed; as Rui instructed, he shielded his senses as much as he could with a breathing technique conjuring up thick air behind him.

Rui was not worried about them losing their way. The Divine Doctor knew his way through the Beast Domain, or else he would have died a long, long time ago.

There were more important things he needed to pay attention to.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook violently as twelve Master-level beasts arrived at extraordinary speeds and horrifying momentum.

Each step they took ravaged mountain ranges.

Shattered regions.

Wiped out local life.

Life was at the mercy of these regional hegemons.

Life was at the mercy of these living calamities.

At the mercy of these breathing catastrophes.

A small smile cracked at the edge of Rui's mouth as he beheld his opponents.

A crystal-furred ape, the size of a hill, rushed in from the south with greed in its eyes, uncaring for the sheer devastation that it left in its wake.

A Sun Eagle with wings the size of a city flew in at enormous speeds from the north, rushing it at speeds that dwarfed lightning.

A pair of twin dragons surged from the east, spiraling about each other as they lit ablaze the very atmosphere in the wake of their travel.

BOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOM!!!

A golem the size of a mountain slowly walked towards the Mellow from the West, step by step,

Yet, each step it took was no different from an apocalypse in the local region.

Yet, those weren't all the creatures Rui perceived converging onto the Mellow.

No.

He saw more.

A mirror cobra whose scales reflected all light.

A phoenix.

A basilisk.

A kirin.

A colossal centipede.

A heavenly whale.

Swiftly, these twelve beings of immense power converged onto the core of the newly exposed Mellow Dungeon.

And all hell broke loose.

-