The Martial Unity

The twelve beings were pleasantly surprised at the sudden appearance of rich bounties attractive to their senses.

Yet their expressions darkened as they felt a familiar aura.

An aura they instantly recognized.

It was an aura of power.

Ordered, directed, controlled, and driven power.

The most potent powers they had ever faced.

A Martial Master.

An incomprehensible existence.

Despite the diminutive bodies that ought to have been lacking in power, they radiated unfathomable peril.

With tiny physicalities devoid of any extraordinary substance or extraordinary power, these unfathomable beings were still somehow so powerful that Master-level beasts could not even withstand a battle against them without tag-teaming with other Master-level beasts.

Within a moment of beholding the Martial Master at the center of the newly exposed dungeon, the twelve Master-level beasts instantly made a decision.

Kill the Martial Master together, then dispute territory.

Initially, they were intent on competing amongst themselves.

That all changed the moment they sensed a Master-level beast, arriving at a temporary alliance with each other.

This was nothing new.

The less unintelligent Master-level beasts had all long learned that Martial Masters could not be bested in a fair fight. A culture of teaming up when one showed up to their region was very much the norm.

With the twelve of them, they would surely not lose.

Or so they thought.

"Come."

Shivers crawled down their spine as the very foundation of Rui's existence altered, radiating horrifying peril.

His very being changed at its very root.

One moment, he was merely human in his appearance.

The very next?

He became a void.

A flowing void.

Endless dark nothingness itself.

It was nothing, yet everything all at once.

The twelve Master-level beasts stiffened, frozen, as a horrifying flood of information flooded their entire minds.

It was painful.

Agonous.

Excruciating.

Yet, it wasn't overwhelming.

These were creatures who had lived for many centuries, emerging victorious within the depths of a hellish Beast Domain.

They weren't done in so easily.

All twelve converged onto the Martial Master at once.

Yet, his eyes were fixed on a single one of them.

The one closest to Kane and the Divine Doctor.

"Breathing Crucifix." His eyes glared into the crystal-furred ape coming from the south, paralyzing it on the spot as the creature collapsed.

It couldn't breathe.

Not even an ounce of air.

Try as it might, it struggled, suffocating on the ground as its movements dullened.

Simultaneously, his Martial Embodiment changed.

The void flowed from one state to another, changing from an endless dark nothingness into a crucifix with chains that swept around the crystal-furred ape, shackling it.

The other eleven grew graver as they witnessed the Martial Master effortlessly dispatch one of the twelve in a single go with hypnosis.

They needed to erase him as soon as possible.

"That's not happening," the black-haired Martial Master grinned as he read their minds with a combination of his Master-level mind sense and the SOUL System, even as the twelve Master-

level beasts converged on with horrifying power and momentum.

BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!

A terrifying amount of power converged onto Rui.

Yet, it couldn't so much as touch him.

WHOOSH

Rui smiled as he effortlessly evaded the attacks of Master-level beasts one after another, weaving past all of them with the grace of a dancer.

Why spend all the effort to block their attacks when he could simply step out of the way?

It was the most objectively superior option.

His grin widened as his Martial Mind blazed into full power, activating the Angel of Laplace, the Tree of Life, the VOID algorithm, the SOUL System, and the ODA System all at once.

It was effortless as the astronomical processing power of the Martial Mind could effortlessly accommodate all these systems of thought simultaneously.

A supernova of information erupted from deep within the depths of the mind.

A maelstrom of knowledge.

Of thought.

The Angel of Laplace showed him the past.

The whole past.

The entire world reversed as he beheld the very world lines of each entity throughout the grand calculus of the universe.

The VOID algorithm simultaneously showed him the future.

He beheld the journey of the twelve entities through the space-time continuum into time yet to come.

He beheld the very future he sought to bend.

Together, the VOID algorithm and the Angel of Laplace elevated his awareness to a higher dimension of reality.

His consciousness had expanded into the fourth dimension.

Yet, that wasn't all.

The Tree of Life showed him the most optimal reality out of the entirety of the Yggdrasil System, while the SOUL System unearthed their deepest thoughts and feelings.

It unearthed their 'souls.'

The past and future.

Soul and life.

His Martial Mind encompassed all of them, giving him absolute awareness of all of them.

"Muspelheim."

BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!

At that moment, an otherworldly realm of vengeful fire had descended across the entire Mellow.

In an instant, the earth, which supported the life above and beyond it, melted into bubbling white-hot lava.

The air, which nourished the biosphere, erupted in crackling plasma, ravaging all life it touched.

The devastating power of the Muspelheim domain had reached such an enormous level that in merely an instant, entire mountain ranges disappeared, leveling the entire region into a dystopia that fit right into Dante's Inferno.

"ROOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!!!"

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

"ARGHRGRHRGHRHRHHH!!!!!"

Of the twelve, only four could withstand Muspelheim to continue the battle.

The basilisk, the phoenix, and the twin dragons roared in defiance as they converged on him. Rui grinned, revving up the domain as he confirmed that Kane and the Divine Doctor were far enough to not be caught in it.

The two twin dragons shot at him at extraordinary speeds, reaching him in an instant with tremendous velocity.

BOOOM BOOOM!!!

Rui withstood the powerful impacts, with a solid guard as he absorbed their attacks with Flux Earther, using it to fuel Muspelheim even more as the heat elevated even higher, roasting the other eight alive.

WHOOOOOOSH!!!

Rui's eyes narrowed as an inferno from the phoenix, even hotter than Muspelheim, arrived from one side as a wave of lethal venom erupted from his other side from the basilisk.

-