The Martial Unity

The very foundation of who Rui was had been shaken to its very roots.

The words of the Divine Doctor were more painful than anything he had ever experienced in his entire life.

Pure horror erupted from within the depths of Rui's heart at the revelation.

RUMBLE!!!

Heaven and earth shook as the world mourned alongside him.

A single quivering whisper escaped him.

"I'm not John Falken…?" The light of terror lit up in his eyes as his body shivered, entering a state of shock.

The very root of his identity had been ripped out.

Ripped out with apathetic cruelty.

"Correct," the Divine Doctor grinned with amusement. "The soul transference ritual is a method created by the Beggar Sage, the Psycher, and, of course, the Divine Doctor. We each play an equally important role in the ritual. I handle all of the creation and production of the vessel with the goal of reducing the probability of incompatibility between psychology and physiology. I adjust all anatomical, physiological, and biochemical parameters to be close to that of the original's body. My skills are so supreme that the impossible becomes not only possible but plausible."

Rui stared at him with raw horror, frozen in shock.

"The Psycher handles the optimizing mental states for the vessels. Using his extraordinary understanding of mind, he puts both the donor and inheritor vessels into truly extraordinarily deep trances, certainly vastly deeper than this dungeon or Martial Artists do, without which extracting every memory is absolutely impossible." The Divine Doctor's tone was clinical. "The Beggar Sage is the greatest genius of information, knowledge, and epistemology. He handles the transference of information. You cannot even begin to fathom how extraordinarily difficult it is to transfer the actual information of memories. The soul transference ritual is an impossible miracle that can only occur when the three of us pool in our extraordinary prowess together. And yet…"

He stared at Rui with fascination. "…here lies an inheritor we never created."

He turned away from Rui as his eyes wandered about with curiosity. "It certainly isn't possible for this to have naturally occurred. If it was done by a conscious agent, then they either independently arrived at the soul transference ritual or…"

His eyes grew more intense. "…or stole it from us. Yet, just knowing the means and mechanics isn't enough; without our skills, the ritual would be impossible. Or so I thought…"

He turned back to Rui with curious eyes.

"This is impossible…" Rui whispered. "This cannot be. I am John Falken! There is absolutely no way that I'm not!"

The Divine Doctor laughed.

He laughed heartily.

He laughed heartily at the symphony of Rui's despair and denial.

He laughed heartily even as Rui glared at him with murderous rage.

RUMBLE

"You." A horrifying amount of rage and bloodlust emerged from within the depths of Rui's eyes. "I will kill you."

His voice distorted with hellish fury.

The very world is distorted under the maelstrom of Rui's emotional distress.

"I will kill you."

Yet, the Divine Doctor only laughed harder. "Fool. Do you really think death means anything to me? Think about what I have just informed you. I am not the Divine Doctor. I am simply a quasi-clone who is subconsciously convinced he is the Divine Doctor to prevent the inevitable subconscious psychological distress that emerges with identity discrepancy. Even if you kill me, my death will only activate the many other quasi-clones kept in stasis throughout Panama."

At that moment, the avalanche of rage and bloodlust disappeared as horror lit up within the depths of Rui's eyes. "Other quasi-clones…?"

"Correct." The Divine Doctor sneered. "As of this moment, two-hundred and fifty-six inheritors of the Divine Doctor exist. Spread across Panama and beyond in the Great Island Belt. How do you think I survived death from Martial Sages? They can use their nation-wiping power all they want, but they can never kill the Divine Doctor's legacy. Even if they kill any particular inheritor vessel, another shall take its place. Do you see, little deluded inheritor?"

The Divine Doctor smiled cruelly. "This is even more powerful than immortality. This is eternity. The Divine Doctor's legacy is infinitely more meaningful than his life. Death is as meaningless as it is inevitable. All materia must come to an end, but information…"

He tapped his head. "Information is not shackled by causality. That is why you may kill me if you wish; it does not take away anything from me. But, if you kill me…"

He sneered. "Who's going heal your father?"

Rui glared at him with hatred.

His eyes flickered with horror, rage, and a maelstrom of other emotions.

Yet, in spite of the emotional distress that stirred within the depths of his heart, a spark of rationality remained.

He could not kill the Divine Doctor.

He could not do that.

He simply could not.

It would undermine everything he had worked hard for.

It would undermine everything in the past five years. Three years of a voyage through the Beast Domain and two years of preparation in the Mellow Manifold would be rendered utterly meaningless.

He simply could not do that.

At the very least, he needed to heal his father.

Perhaps after that, he could kill him?

Yet, the thought of that simply brought him more misery.

It was a tantrum.

The man had simply told him the truth. The very truth that Rui had asked him for and negotiated for.

What was the point of getting angry at him?

Who was he to get angry with him?

Who was he?

RUMBLE

The world shook.

Horror, terror, rage, despair, and misery converged within the depths of his mind.

They converged into a singularity of extraordinary emotional intensity.

And then, they exploded.

"AAAARGRGRGRHAGRHAHRGRHRHRGARGRH!!!" A horrifying eruption of emotion washed over the entirety of the Mellow Manifold as the weight of the revelations of the Divine Doctor truly settled inside his mind.

And they were too much.

His condition had originally been very poor because of the battle with the chimera; he simply could not handle the emotional distress that had been brought about by the Divine Doctor's revelations.

His eyes rolled upwards as his body loosened.

THUD

He collapsed unconscious.

The Divine Doctor studied him for a moment before making the prudent decision to heal him to absolute perfection.

"This inheritor is of extremely high value to the Divine Doctor even if he definitely will never break through to the Sage Realm..."

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