The Martial Unity

Ever since he began inheriting the Elder Tree's understanding and knowledge of the biosphere of the Panama Continent, Rui's daily life had become brutally simple.

He woke up and immediately began subjecting himself to torture.

This period of his daily life was characterized by screams and maniacal laughs that merged together in the greatest audition for a horror film that Gaia had ever seen.

Once that was done, he fell asleep instantly.

It was a beautifully simple life.

It was also a brutally simple life.

Ecstasy and pain became his reality during the influx of sessions. Pain from the inheritance of knowledge and ecstasy from finding the patterns of life that would go on to become the fabric of his Tree of Life predictive model.

Yet, the moment the sessions ended, he felt empty.

He felt like there was a hole in his heart.

A void.

He felt incapable of ecstasy or pain outside of the times when he was pursuing his Martial Path by accepting the Elder Tree's database on the biosphere of Gaia. It was as though the extremely heightened pain and ecstasy he felt during the inheritance sessions came at the cost of feeling pain or ecstasy at any other moment.

In a way, the mind sort of adhered to a law of conservation of emotion.

One could only feel so much of a certain emotion or feeling.

That included pain and ecstasy.

The more one experienced it, the more the mind would adjust its sense of normality to make it the new normal.

It appeared that his mind had worked overtime in that regard.

It made the inheritance sessions more palatable, yet any time he was conscious outside of that…it was dark.

Each morning Rui woke up, he felt dead.

Detached.

Cold.

If was thought the inheritance sessions squeezed out everything he could experience, and what was left was an empty husk of a human.

His Martial drive still drove him forward.

It actually only grew stronger, yet it no longer evoked emotion from him outside of the inheritance sessions of agony and ecstasy.

It was difficult to explain.

He didn't understand.

Some mornings, Rui would stare at his own hands listlessly.

A single recurring thought would often flash through his mind.

'It would be so easy to kill myself with a Sympathetic Death Lance.'

Surely, death would not feel more empty than he currently did.

He closed his eyes. "Begin."

Kane wished to speak to you.

Rui's eyes were vacant.

Hollow.

"Begin."

…Understood.

Soon enough, the screams of agony and laughter of ecstasy began. His vacant eyes, devoid of life, finally lit up.

The Tree of Life awaited him.

At this rate, he could reach it.

Yet, at what cost?

He didn't know.

He didn't want to know.

Days, weeks, and even months passed.

An enormous amount of information had filled up his Mind Palace. Species by species and world by world, he filled up with depths of his Martial Mind.

His understanding of the biosphere of the Beast Domain rose astronomically.

So much so that it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was one of the greatest authorities on beasts and monsters of this domain, perhaps only the very greatest of scholars or someone like the Ecologer was above him, but there was no doubt that he had access to truly groundbreaking intelligence that could greatly advance humanity's interests in the Beast Domain.

He could write papers on various hypotheses and scientific theories that could go on to revolutionize ecology.

He could probably propose a holistic taxonomical framework that integrated every single species, esoteric or non-esoteric, in a single track. In fact, he could probably create an evolutionary chain of species and make educated guesses about the last unifying common ancestor of all life.

Yet, he didn't care for all of these pursuits.

No.

He only cared about what all this information could do or his Martial Art.

That was the sole reason he weathered on without losing his mind.

He suffered and suffered, persisting only for the promise of the ability to adaptively evolve to all life in the world.

The end came abruptly.

WHOOSH

His awareness returned to the world around him. He was drenched in sweat and grime. His body was restrained by the powerful roots of the Elder tree.

"Huff…Huff…" He felt life draining out of him, growing listless and detached.

His eyes grew cold.

"Why did you stop?"

The Elder Tree stopped only when his brain needed rest. Usually, that meant he fell asleep very quickly. But he felt wide awake, even if tired. It had only been a few hours since they began.

I have nothing left to transmit to you.

"…What?"

Congratulations, you have successfully inherited the entirety of my knowledge of the biosphere of the Beast Domain. I can safely say that you have not suffered any neurological damage. However…

Rui remained detached, unmoving.

…the same cannot be said for your psychological and mental health.

Rui didn't move.

A single remark escaped him.

"Oh."

The Elder Tree stared at him warily.

It was truly astonishing that Rui managed to process such an enormous database of data within just six months. The Elder Tree had not been kidding when he said that he was not confident that Rui would manage to come away with his mind intact. So much so that he had Rui pass on his priceless knowledge from another world before it was lost forever.

Yet, even the Elder Tree had to admit that it had to eat its words.

Rui processed every single iota of data it threw at him for six months straight.

"Good."

Rui's voice was detached. Before he could even think–

STEP

Kane appeared before him, finally getting a good look at him awake for the first time in months. Rui had avoided speaking to him when he woke up for months on end, choosing to jump into the inheritance session immediately.

He had raced when the Elder Tree informed him of the conclusion of the inheritance, looking forward to finally speaking to his friend after a long time.

Yet, what he saw only drew horror from deep within his heart.

There he sat.

Without a shred of emotion in his eyes.

An endless void stirred deep within their depths.

"…Rui?"

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