The Martial Unity

Chapter 3548: Who Are You?

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

A maelstrom of attacks converged upon the five Martial Sages of the defensive convoy who gritted their teeth, pushing themselves to the limits as they gritted their teeth as they struggled to withstand the onslaught that the tekvores unleashed upon them.

An army of tekvores had emerged out of nowhere, threatening to crush them where they stood, and unleashing an astronomical barrage of aquatic sonic blasts.

More shockingly, the endless barrages that the sonic blasts seemed to all superimpose constructively, creating a summed wave of force that struck the Martial Artists and the submarine that housed one of their most important VIPs. Waterweaver could sense that each individual tekvore was not that powerful, but somehow, whatever was controlling them had mastered constructive power superimposition.

The environment was already quite dark, save for the glowing magma at the very bottom of the ocean, while the bubbling water streams that emerged from the lava and magma veins roared in their ears, disrupting some of their sensory techniques.

However, that alone didn’t explain how the tekvores had managed to get so close to them without triggering their sensory and surveillance measures. Regardless, it wasn’t something that they could spend time thinking about when they were being attacked by a barrage of attacks, each more powerful than the next.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

Waterweaver gritted his teeth as his eyes grew bloodshot. “If you think that this is enough to stop me, then you’re sorely mistaken!”

He roared as he unleashed a powerful shockwave through the ocean, canceling out the sound blasts generated by the tekvore army in the distance.

BOOOOOOOMMM!!!

The canceled attacks left an ocean that was devoid of any obstacle.

It created an opening that the Martial Sages could exploit.

WHOOSH!

They charged, surging through the ocean waters with an aggressive charge as they reached the tekvore army in the span of microseconds.

“It’s over now.” Waterweaver’s eyes flared with rage as he unleashed a destructive water current, threatening to annihilate all of them.

BOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

And yet, his eyes widened as a shocking plummet in the temperature of the water froze his attack into solid ice and killed its momentum before it could reach the tekvore army.

“…What?” Waterweaver’s tone was stunned.

WHOOSH

From behind the tekvore army, a dark, feminine figure emerged. Her shining white long hair spread through the water, growing longer and spreading wider as each individual strand of hair separated from every other, gently maintaining its position in the water even as she drifted forward with it.

Her body was bare, but her skin was an inhuman, artificial paper-white, as if plastered in it from head to toe. Waterweaver could sense that both her skin and her hair had profound interactions with the water that exceeded even his deep understanding of hydro-manipulation.

However, there was one thing that he could sense.

She was much stronger than the rest.

Her cybernetic eyes widened, glowing with power as her hair began to quake and her skin began to quiver.

BOOOOOM!!!

Waterweaver’s eyes widened as the water around him began boiling with destructive force, threatening to scald even him.

“Rargh!” he snarled as he moved away with a single wave of his hand while his comrades attacked the female tekvore.

She was not the only one, as they came to learn.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM…!

They gritted their teeth as wounds emerged from their body, caught off-guard by numerous other tekvores hiding in the depths of the ocean, once more magically bypassing their sensory prowess.

What was especially surprising was the fact that there were only two other tekvores, and they were enough to handle four Martial Sages. Perhaps not all that surprising considering it was a known fact that ascendant tekvores were thrice as strong as Martial Sages on average.

Thankfully, they were also three times as rare.

They also knew, from personal experience as well as from intelligence from the Psycher’s interrogation of Plasmatron, that the tekvores had one crucial weakness too.

“Your brains are as vulnerable and squishy as those of a normal human!” Waterweaver unleashed a tremendous barrage of attacks on the female tekvore.

BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOOM!!!

She froze each of the water attacks he unleashed, her hair and skin glowing with each action, leaving chunks of ice that floated up to the top of the ocean, rapidly melting from the warming oceans. Her hair and skin glowed once more as Waterweaver leaped away, evading the swell of boiling water around him and the lightning crackles.

BOOOOOOOM!!!

Ordinary boiling water would have been of no harm to a Martial Sage; it wouldn’t even tickle, but she infused such great heat energy into the water that she reduced it to high-energy plasma that could sizzle even his skin.

Waterweaver’s eyes sharpened as he understood her system of attack better. He knew that ascendant tekvores were those who hyper-specialized in a technology and those tekvores who had successfully replaced all parts of their body except their brains with technology.

In this case, he suspected he understood what technology she specialized in.

“Hydronics.”

It was a field of technology that used water as a medium of thermal transfer for heating or cooling, normally used to regulate the temperature of buildings and other infrastructure.

She was using a more advanced version of it that involved laser-cooling and laser-heating. Her skin was responsible for cooling water into ice while her hair strands were responsible for heating water, allowing her to become a powerful force beneath the surface of the ocean.

He even grudgingly respected her decision to super-specialize in such a niche form of water manipulation, and yet his expression was one of disgust.

“You are the same.”

His voice permeated through the bubbling and roaring waters of the Great Void Ocean.

His eyes sharpened.

“You are the same as all of them. All of you are the same person!”

He could sense her despair and misery.

She wanted to scream, but had no mouth.

She wanted to cry, but could shed no tears.

She wanted to die, but was forced to live against her will.

“Who are you?!” Waterweaver roared.

[I am NOVA… and so are you.]

His eyes widened as a fleet of siege submarines emerged from the darkness behind the tekvore army with its siege weapons pointed at him, unleashing a tremendously destructive aquatic shockwave siege.

BOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!