The Martial Unity

In an underground facility in the Martial Union settlement sat a lonesome figure. He sat on the ground with folded legs and his arms resting on his knees.

He had donned his combat attire, as opposed to the formal attire that he had grown accustomed to wearing in the past three months.

His black hair was unkempt, an increasingly rare sight to see due to his position.

His visage was hardly strange or unusual, yet almost everyone standing in the room as him would be paralyzed with primal fear. The fear that came from a great threat to one's well-being and life.

Not only had Rui donned his strongest mind mask as usual, but his mind which had been consumed with the diplomatic mission for more than three months had entered a state it hadn't in recent times.

He had ejected all considerations regarding his mission from his previously scattered mind. For the most six hours, he had been honing his mind on his Martial Art and Martial Path. It took him a while to gather the entirety of his focus, conscious and unconscious.

His eyes were closed, yet it wasn't the darkness that plagues his vision.

He saw a path.

One he was standing upon.

It stretched on forever onwards and upwards.

It winded on and about.

Yet it wasn't just the path that drew his attention.

What the path winded through was equally eye-drawing.

Calamities and catastrophes of all kinds made any attempt to try and reach the end of the path

a terrifying path, yet it

out to him.

path he wanted to walk

while since

it. Yet, now that he was here, he realized how long it had been since he had actually come down here. It used

('…A blunder.')

but feel

diplomat was a new and refreshing experience. It was even enjoyable, yet now that he was immersed in his Martial Path, he realized that it could never compare to the path

('Never again.')

against his senses drawing his

STEP

STEP

STEP

know, it has been fascinating to see your work as a diplomat. I had completely predicted that you would be able to ace this mission when Derun informed me of

his

his pitch-black eyes had grown a

edge of Senior Ceeran's mouth. "It's not even a contest, in hindsight. Look at you, if I was a little sleepy, I might even mistake you for a Martial Senior. What a potent aura. I can't wait to see how strong it will be when you

"I'm assuming it's

about, you

inform me of that yourself, you know?" Rui remarked as