The Martial Unity

Rui's words were profoundly intriguing to the Divine Doctor.

His eyes remained fixed on Rui.

Yet, the clinical curiosity that lit up within them only grew stronger.

"You."

Rui's dark, cold eyes turned towards the Divine Doctor, meeting his gaze.

The Divine Doctor studied the darkness that stirred deep within the depths of Rui's eyes. Yet, not even the mildest ounce of warmth could be detected amidst the deep curiosity that characterized his gaze.

He would dissect Rui apart in a heartbeat if he was strong enough to do so.

"Fascinating."

He stared at Rui, evaluating him. "A Martial Master who decided to pursue the sciences. Truly fascinating."

Rui tilted his head slightly. "…I am not a Martial Master."

The Divine Doctor's frozen smile faltered, crumbling ever so slightly.

His mirthless, detached eyes intensified.

"…What?"

Rui furrowed his eyebrows. "It is exactly as I said. I am not a Martial Master. I am a Martial Senior."

The Divine Doctor's gaze grew chillingly intense, slowly turning to Kane.

Kane, too, stared at him quizzically.

The Divine Doctor's inhumanly detached eyes returned to Rui.

His gaze remained fixed on Rui.

"You mean to say…" His voice flickered. "…this is your innate capacity for thought?"

"…I suppose you could say that." Rui's tone was frosty.

The Divine Doctor smiled.

It was a chilling smile.

Inhuman.

The smile of a creature that didn't understand such an expression of joy.

That of someone who smiled to deceive.

He walked towards Rui, never once taking his eyes off the man. Kane's expression sharpened nervously as his body stiffened.

STEP

He arrived before Rui.

Rui's dark, cold eyes met the inhuman curiosity that lingered deep within the depths of the Divine Doctor's eyes.

CLASP

He put a hand on Rui's shoulder. "I have reconsidered my decision regarding your request. I shall heal your father after you allowto conduct an invasive neurocranial examination inside your head."

The darkness within Rui's eyes stirred.

A chilling gaze peered into the Divine Doctor's eyes.

Yet, the doctor remained unperturbed, his frozen smile never once changing a shade.

The atmosphere froze, growing chill as Rui's gaze intensified.

The tension boiled as the air prickled.

"Reach for my head, and I'll kill you on the spot." Rui's menacing voice oozed with peril as his dark eyes glared at the Divine Doctor.

Yet, the doctor didn't so much as flicker in the face of the chilling warning.

He closed his eyes.

"Shame."

He turned around, losing interest as he walked away from the duo.

"Wait." Rui's perilous gaze softened.

"And why would I?" The Divine Doctor merrily made his way away from the two of them. "It appears we are unable to give each other what we seek."

"I won't allow a madman like you anywhere near my brain," Rui growled.

"But you'll allownear your father, eh?" A hint of derisive amusement flashed in the depths of the inhuman eyes of the Divine Doctor.

"Yes, actually," Rui's words were sharp. "I cannot trust you, but that doesn't mean I have nothing else to offer."

"I care not for mere rewards." The Divine Doctor huffed. "Besides, any agreement is ultimately meaningless since we cannot leave this place."

Those words finally got Rui turned to pay attention to the world around him. What would have been the very first thing he'd have done when he entered this place had been delayed by finding Kane and the Divine Doctor, who had consumed his attention immediately on arrival.

by finding Kane and the Divine Doctor, who had consumed his attention immediately on arrival.

It couldn't be helped.

He had searched for this man for three years in the Beast Domain and more than a year prior to that after he'd learned about him from his father. This was the ultimate objective of the voyage that he had taken.

The key to solving all his problems since his return to Kandria.

His senses expanded far and wide, stretching deeper inland as he tried to get a stock of what this isolated world was like. He rose to the air, elevating to get a good look at the world they were in.

"This…" His eyes, normally devoid, widened with shock.

The first thing he noted was the absurdly high degree of curvature of the horizon.

Just a hundred meters of the ground had been enough for him to spot the curvature of the horizon!

Even back on Earth, one needed to reach more than ten kilometers to catch even the slightest glimpse of curvature with the human eye.

On Gaia, that height was orders of magnitude higher!

If he hadn't known better, he would have thought he was on a small planetoid in a different world.

Yet, that wasn't the most stunning revelation that bore itself to him.

The inland of what appeared to be an island was occupied by nature.

Yet, it was abnormal.

His senses experienced tremendous sensory resistance the deeper they went, but he could sense extremely abrupt and radical shifts in the fauna and flora at certain boundaries.

A gradient of flora and fauna grew thicker and larger as the land grew elevated higher and higher as if displaced.

Unfortunately, he knew exactly what they meant.

"Open dungeon…"

"That's what the Divine Doctor had toldtoo," Kane murmured, having caught up to him. "What exactly are they?"

"…They're dungeons that are similar to the Serevian Dungeon that the two of us of cleared a long tago. Except that this is definitely of a far higher caliber than the Serevian Dungeon.

His senses were significantly hampered the closer they tried to get to the center of the open dungeon that he saw before him.

"I have never heard of a dungeon so powerful that it warped space to such an extent, creating an extrinsic four-

dimensional manifold. A literal pocket dimension," Rui grew grim. "This is definitely one of the most esoteric dungeons that we have ever cacross. Not even the Elder Tree knew about its existence, clearly. Otherwise, it would have informed us and warned us about it."

This, along with prior information that Rui had on the Mellow, allowed him to develop shypotheses.