The Martial Unity

"Begin!"

BADUMP

Their Martial Hearts flickered into power the moment the battle commenced.

And that was when Rui saw the Sun.

The Gatekeeper's Martial Heart shined a brilliant, blinding white light that was more than an order of magnitude more powerful than any other Martial Heart Rui had ever seen in his entire life.

Yet he was unable to admire it.

Not even the briefest moment passed before the Gatekeeper leaped at Rui with an astronomical speed.

He had already arrived in just a matter of microseconds. His fists converged on Rui, threatening to crush him with a single blow.

It was within Rui's prediction.

WHOOSH!

He managed to evade it.

Yet the same could not be said for the very world around him.

BOOM!!!!!!!

Heaven and earth roared as a wave of destruction emerged from the attack. A devastating shockwave the likes of which Rui had never seen erupted from the collision. It spread, expanding as it engulfed everything.

The sheer concussive force of the shockwave shattered the foundations of the bedrock it touched as it spread from the epicenter. It spread through the battlefield and the skies for several kilometers, ravaging everything it engulfed.

STEP

Rui landed away.

He was frozen.

Frozen in shock as he beheld the destruction that the Gatekeeper unleashed upon the very world itself.

The battlefield had been ravaged. Where Rui once stood was the epicenter of a crater that spanned kilometers in radius. A profoundly deep scar had been inflicted upon the very world that bore their battle.

The attack hadn't struck him physically, but it sure did strike him mentally.

The destruction he beheld was in the same tier of power as the quasi-Master-level bomb that Chairman Deacon had surgically implanted into his body.

single whisper escaped

"What is this…?"

RUMBLE

as the

over five centuries," the Gatekeeper solemnly remarked.

narrowed

thousand more

moment, Rui felt a chill crawl up his spine. He felt something he hadn't felt in battle

Fear.

come!"

weight of his gargantuan body, his speed

swing was hurled at

WHOOSH!

as Rui crouched, cleanly avoiding the

WHOOOOOOSH!!!!

enormous power of the swing caused shifts in pressure in the atmosphere across the northernmost peak of Kandria, altering the entirety

was far from

of powerful blows at Rui, each with the power to crumple his body into an

None of them connected.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

even if narrowly. The man surged forth, launching a devastating barrage of powerful, heavy

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

sharpened with intensity as his concentration and focus heightened even more, reaching unprecedented levels. He could not afford to make even a single mistake. There was a zero tolerable margin of error, for even a single

defend against the Gatekeeper's attacks. The man was so titanically powerful that he would shatter any and all defenses that Rui could possibly

FLICK

a small cut emerged on his face, evading a

not the attack that cut

No.

the sheer air pressure around the attack generated by its power that had managed to break his

the Gatekeeper appeared before Rui once

BOOM!!!!!

sphere of destruction emerged as his attack barely missed Rui once, punishing the world

the Gatekeeper had already

BOOOM!!!!!

eyes with a grave expression, successfully managing to evade the attack,

WHOOSH

BOOOOOM!!!!!!!

and perhaps even the last, phase of the battle had taken shape. A single truth had become

Kandria was weaker than

regarding this matter. As far as any physical parameter went, the Gatekeeper was absurdly stronger. Thus far, Rui had been pushing himself to desperately avoid

WHOOSH!