The Martial Unity

Rui's eyes lit up with delight as he felt a surge of power emerging deep within Kane. His aura spiked, ascending from the Squire Realm to the Senior Realm in a single moment. Glowing red streaks emerged from his heart spreading across his entire Martial Body, enriching it with the power of a higher Realm.

One moment, Kane was a Martial Squire.

The very next, he had become a Martial Senior.

BADUMP!

BADUMP!

BADUMP!

A rush of energy nourished his entire body. His muscles brimmed with energy as his flesh temporarily grew tougher as the accelerated metabolism from the Martial Heart resulted in thicker and denser cell walls. His bones grew harder and denser as the osteoblast cells in them temporarily increased density.

His Body soared to new heights while Kane gained a deep awareness of his surroundings, seeing things that he didn't know even existed.

BADUMP!

Rui activated his Martial Heart with a smile while Kane's acclimatized to the ocean of power that his body had begun tapping into.

His eyes were still focused on Rui, he almost hadn't realized what had happened.

"Come on," Rui smirked. "Let's kick off your debut in the Senior Realm."

Kane pressed into the ground with as much force he could muster, propelling himself at speeds that approached lightning itself!

RUMBLE!!!

The very land beneath them shook under the sheer force that he applied to it.

WHOOSH!

Rui evaded his attack with ease and stepped away lightly with Temporal Disharmony, a predictive model of Kane's bizarre dagger-maneuvering technique, and Neo Godspeed, who was too strong.

POW POW POW!

He pummeled Kane with blow after blow mercilessly, tracking him down while he refused to go as easy on him as he had before.

They were in the same Realm now, after all. Kane didn't need Rui to hold back, not much at all, anyway.

Much to Kane's disappointment, the battle had grown more one-sided now that Rui truly grew serious. The full power of his Martial Art was beyond Kane was handling when he was fully.

BAM!

A powerful kick landed on his jaw, rocking his head. The accumulated blunt force trauma exceeded the critical threshold causing his consciousness to shut down as he fell down, knocked out.

Rui heaved a sigh as he sat on the ground beside Kane, consuming a potion. The exercise had gone well, considering the best possible outcome had happened. Rui had been afraid for a moment that Kane would succumb to the VOID, but he held strong, managing to push past his limits by the end.

"Alright, I need to get this done as soon as possible," Rui murmured.

He pulled out a set of particularly potent high-grade potions that were capable of rejuvenating even Martial Seniors rapidly after the initial breakthrough after which they would normally be unconscious for days.

These potions could cut the timeframe entirely. The Floating Sect did not have access to resources or esoteric potion-

crafting technology, but the Martial Union did.

He carefully ensured that Kane inhaled the potions, before finally relaxing, thinking about the fight.

There were several things that popped into his mind.

Rui noticed that Kane's Martial Heart was weaker than his own. It appeared that age was not the only factor in determining the power of the Martial Heart, but successive uses of the Martial Heart strengthened it a bit more than last time. If that were the case, it could be treated like any other part of the body. Progressive overload and exercising it to failure would improve it over time as well.

It would also explain why elder Seniors like Senior Zenshin was that physically superior to Rui as well. Not only was he more than ten times as old as Rui, but he had also exercised his Martial Heart across all those years.

It wasn't that problematic, the gap between Kane's Martial Heart and his own wasn't too large.

Yet the gap between their combat power was definitely significant. Rui could handily defeat him with confidence. He suspected that Kane was probably a mid-grade Martial Senior, perhaps on the lower end.

With that in mind, Rui probably started on the upper end of the middle grade, jumping to high grade in a single leap after mastering the powerful Hypnomatrix.

It also reflected the gap between their power without the Martial Hearts. He was a notch or two above Kane with just the Hypnomatrix and Metabody System, with the VOID algorithm, his victory became decisive and even dominant.

Still, Kane probably started off far higher than pretty much any other Martial Senior barring Ieyasu and himself. Certainly far higher than Senior Frinjschia who was at the very bottom of the barrel.

'Speaking of which, her Martial Heart wasn't overwhelmingly powerful,' Rui realized. 'Thus prior to breaking through, physicality determines the power of the Martial Heart more than anything else.'

As Rui pondered over such matters, Kane slowly woke up.

"Ngg…" He groaned as his eyes opened.

It took him a few moments to recall where he was and what happened. But eventually, it came flooding back.

"…Am I Martial Senior?" Kane murmured with disbelief.

"Indeed, Senior Kane," Rui chuckled.

"I can't believe it…" He laughed weakly as he got up, staring at his own hands. "All that time... And you managed to solve it so easily…"

His emotion was palpable, his voice was even choked with emotion, breaking through to the Senior Realm was an overwhelming experience for anybody.

"Well, it wasn't easy, especially for you," Rui noted. "Certainly was not entirely safe."

"Better than any of the alternatives," He turned to Rui. "…Thank you, Rui. I'm forever indebted to you."

Endless gratitude and appreciation filled his eyes.

Rui waved him off. "Don't worry about it, you'd do the same. It's nothing."

He didn't want Kane feeling too burdened to repay Rui, he wasn't interested in being around a friend who stuck around him to repay a debt.

"Wait…" Kane's eyes widened. "I can't activate my Martial Heart!"

Rui smiled wryly, recalling the first time he experienced the same shock. "Your Martial Heart empowers your Martial Art through your Body. It cannot be drawn by the Body alone. The Martial Path bridges you to it, connecting you to it, while the Martial Art is the key to unlocking it. Use a general augmentation breathing technique."