A profound tsunami of power erupted from deep within Rui's mind. It spread far and wide, washing over the entirety of the Valley of Prisms. In just a moment, he had grown almost unrecognizable. An incomprehensible sense of peril radiated from him.
It was different from the palpable power that the Gatekeeper exuded. While the Gatekeeper had reached unprecedented levels of power within the Senior Realm in the pursuit of physicality, Rui was different.
He had attained unprecedented power within the Senior Realm in pursuit of the power of thought alone.
Armed with the SOUL System at hand, Rui's capacity to adaptively evolve to his opponents had risen tremendously, and he had constructed a nascent Martial Mind, the likes of which might never have been constructed in the Senior Realm in history.
The VOID algorithm, the Angel of Laplace, and the SOUL System were three mighty cornerstones of his nascent Martial Mind, each dwarfing the Martial Minds of his peers and contemporaries.
Then, there were minor systems of thought that partially revolved around them, such as the ODA System of the Pathfinder technique. It made his aim extraordinarily good with pure deductive thought alone.
In addition, there were smaller mini-systems of thought, such as the Hypnomatrix system of thought, which was essentially a simple one-step framework of evaluation on which and how much of each hypnotic technique he ought to use.
Together, they came together to form his nascent Martial Mind.
Waiting to be awakened.
Rui opened his eyes.
An endless darkness stirred within the depths of his pitch-black eyes.
An endless void.
He glanced at his hands.
"Hmmm…" His eyes sharpened.
He knew he had gotten stronger.
There was just one issue.
"How much stronger…?" He murmured.
He didn't know.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})He was unable to intuit his current level of combat power. He could make very educated guesses on how powerful the SOUL System was in its output, but it became even harder to estimate how much stronger it made him and what caliber of opponents he could defeat.
STEP
Kane landed atop the mountain from the skies, glancing at Rui with a knowing look. A wide smile emerged on his face as he recognized the sight before his very eyes.
"You bastard," he grinned. "You did it again."
He had experienced this sensation twice in the past.
Once when Rui became the strongest Martial Apprentice.
And when Rui became the strongest Martial Squire.
Looking at Rui again made a truth quite evident to him. He had become the strongest of his Realm once more.
"You want to test your new power against me?" Kane asked enthusiastically.
Rui's eyes shifted slowly, meeting Kane's. His long hair fell over as he tilted his head, sizing Kane up.
"You've grown stronger too…" he muttered. "But…"
He shook his head. "I know you far too well. Even if I try not to, I cannot help but subconsciously use the adaptive evolution that I have gained from knowing you for all my time as a Martial Artist."
At this point, his familiarity with Kane had reached a stage higher than that of anybody else. Even if he wanted to, he could not treat Kane like he was fighting against a stranger.
This biased any evaluation of the SOUL System.
"Fair enough," Kane admitted. "Then why don't we do this? We fight, except this time, your Martial Heart is restricted."
It was an absurd proposition.
The Martial Heart was the gap between Realms. It was the reason that Martial Seniors could kill Martial Squires with a single attack. The idea that a Martial Senior without a Martial Heart could fight one with it was absurd.
Yet, Rui didn't immediately dismiss the proposition.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"I'll ditch the knives," Kane offered.
"…Also, the Void Step technique," Rui added.
"Fair."
"Also the Fulminata Godspeed technique."
"Alright."
"Actually, you'll have to ditch all techniques."
"Oh, come on." Kane grinned. "What are you scared of dying?"
"Yes, actually." Rui stared at him incredulously.
"Fair enough." Kane shrugged. "Alright, no techniques and no weapons. That definitely makes me much weaker than a grade-one Martial Senior. If not for my Martial Body, I would be no better than a quasi-Senior."
"That's the point," Rui remarked, getting up. "The gap between Realms cannot be bridged by skill alone."
The two of them stood opposite each other.
"Well, let's see you handle the raw power of the Martial Heart alone without one," Kane smirked.
"Hmmm…" Rui took a neutral stance. "Alright."
Kane took a speed-related stance. "It's going to be difficult to stop myself from using any techniques, but…"
His eyes narrowed.
A maelstrom of peril erupted from him.
"Here we go."
WHOOSH!
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})He appeared before Rui at speeds that far exceeded that of sound, thrusting a powerful kick into Rui's gut.
BOOM!
A powerful kick slammed into Rui. Ordinarily, such a weak kick would have been a trivial matter for Rui to halt. Yet, he didn't have his Martial Heart.
He didn't have the power to stop the kick.
WHOOSH!
The kick launched Rui an enormous distance away. He flew kilometers in seconds, crashing into an adjacent mountain.
BOOM!
STEP
Kane arrived at a crater spanning an entire district, studying it. "Are you dead?"
CLACK
A boulder shifted as a hand emerged from a large pile of rubble.
As did a voice.
"I'm starting to think you want me dead."
CLACK
Boulders, rocks, and sand shifted as Rui emerged from the rubble.
He was entirely unharmed.
Yet Kane wasn't fooled.
"Nemean Blossom and Weaving Blood," Kane whistled knowingly. "That's what you used to survive the last time you got kicked by a Martial Senior without a Martial Heart."
He was referring to the story Rui had told him about almost dying at the hands of a newly broken-through Martial Senior back when Rui was still in the Squire Realm. Rui had avoided death by rapidly shifting between Nemean Blossom and Weaving Blood, allowing him to generate the illusion that he had come away unharmed when, in reality, the Metabody System had burned a lot of energy to allow for that.
"As for wanting you dead…" Kane smirked. "I dunno about that, but I do have some payback to give you for the last year and a half."
