1538 Artifical Triggers
"…And since then, I've been fighting. In missions, operations, and commissions…But I haven't felt my Martial Heart awaken ever since then," Kane sighed, sitting opposite Rui as they enjoyed a cup of tea while Kane narrated his visit to the Arrancar Household to Rui, keeping a few embarrassing details from him.
Rui found his tale to be fascinating, especially the part of how he apparently had gained a massive advantage due to his prolonged youth. It made sense in hindsight, something he should have figured out. Thankfully, he would benefit from it nonetheless.
Regardless, he put that matter aside for the time being.
His friend needed his help, after all.
"I don't know what to do, at this point," Kane sighed.
Rui had thought that there wasn't too much to be lost by breaking through a few years later than earlier, but apparently, he was wrong. Kane was twenty-eight, just like himself. The later he broke through, the less of his prime he would be able to maintain.
There was almost nothing anybody else could do, this was a hurdle that ordinarily only the Martial Artist themselves had to face and overcome.
Unless, of course, they were also friends with Rui Quarrier.
Rui had not forgotten the fact that he triggered Senior Frinjschia's Martial Heart by threatening to break their path, inadvertently discovering a way to trigger the Martial Heart.
The way Rui went about it was not by challenging their Martial drive. What Rui did was threaten to destroy the means by which they would fulfill their Martial drive.
People pursued power for a variety of reasons. Many people pursued power for the sake of power itself. Many pursued it for wealth, prestige, influence, glory, and a variety of other reasons.
However, the power that they obtained was undoubtedly their only path to fulfilling these various Martial drives.
So what if something threatened to cripple that very power itself?
What if someone threatened to destroy the power that they had cultivated to fulfill their Martial Path?
Without that power that they had cultivated, they would not be able to fulfill their Martial drive. Thus crippling their cultivated power was the same as crippling their Martial drive. To someone who pursued wealth through their Martial power, crippling their Martial power was no different from crippling their wealth. The same was true for every desire that served as a Martial drive, all of those desires were threatened by the destruction of the Martial Path.
This was effectively identical to threatening the Martial drive, the same kind of threat that triggered the Martial Heart.
Thus, Rui had essentially discovered a way to trigger the Martial Heart by threatening the Martial Path that served to fulfill the Martial drive.
He had never so much as breathed a word about this to anybody else. Not even Senior Xanarn or Kane. It was just too revolutionary. The fact that four Martial Masters already knew about it was a headache, the fact that one of those four was downright hostile to him was an even bigger headache.
He did not need more trouble.
Yet, now that he was faced with Kane, he couldn't help it.
"Kane…" Rui drew his attention. "Let's change places. I have something to tell you."
"Ok…" Kane frowned, wondering where this was going.
"The Mantian Forest…no, that won't work," Rui murmured. "We'll have to leave the country. I don't feel safe even uttering it within the Kandrian Empire. Far too many powerful Martial Artists with powerful senses."
Kane had no idea where Rui was going with this, but he followed suit. To Martial Artists, traveling over such great distances was something that was not that big a deal, given their speed.
They quickly traveled across the nation, exiting it after passing through the transit port. It was only after Rui took him to the very top of a tall mountain in a surrounding forest, scanning the entire place for an hour with his senses did he feel confident enough to divulge the secret.
"I can trigger the breakthrough to the Senior Realm," Rui whispered as low as he could.
"What?!" Kane's eyes widened with shock.
"I'm serious," Rui reassured him. "I can do it."
"…"
Kane knew that his friend's capabilities and growth were beyond exceptional, but what he was suggesting was revolutionary.
He wasn't even the most informed person, yet even he could predict what would happen if the world learned about this.
All hell would break loose.
Pretty much every Squire-level or Senior-level force and above had some number of Martial Squires who were considered grade-ten or close. If these forces gained the ability to trigger breakthroughs, then they would gain several more Martial Seniors instantly.
On a continental scale…tens of thousands of Martial Seniors would be born very rapidly!
That was a titanic amount of power. A single Martial Senior was more valuable than a strategic inter-continental missile and a nuclear bomb rolled up into one. Ten thousand of them could trigger apocalypses.
It was game-changing. The Martial community at large would do everything in its power to gain this ability while individual organizations and nations would go to war not only to possess this ability but also to attack any entity that did come to possess this ability.
He felt a shiver climbing up his spine as he stared at Rui in disbelief.
"…But there are risks," Rui added. "If you're not ready. If you're Martial drive isn't strong enough, then you'll be unable to trigger your Martial Heart. In turn, your Martial Path will either be cripple permanently or damaged at the bare minimum depending on how early I notice the failure. It will leave a deep psychological scar on you that may very well be there forever."
Those words broke Kane out of his reverie. Of course, it would make sense if there were some downsides. Even natural and normal breakthroughs to the Senior Realm were associated with the risk of death.
One was pushed past their limits, if they didn't activate their Martial Heart, then they would probably die in most cases.
