"Warships. Subpar." The laminar integunt leader continued. "Spacecrafts. Subpar. Spacefighters. Subpar. But. Infantry. Superior. Powerful. Seek. Explanation."
It expressed that even as it unleashed an onslaught of attack of tendril attacks. It leveraged the power of esoteric matter and dark energy to allow those attacks to phase through the very fabric of reality, appearing on his neck with a sharp edge.
And yet, not even that was enough to land so much as a scratch on Rui.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH
The attacks crashed into after-images, crashing into empty space where Rui had been just a nanosecond prior. Rui, on the other hand, teleported his attacks on his opponent's body, launching a powerful jab to pierce the concentric lamination of the jellyfish-like alien.
It was within its prediction.
A tendril attack phased upon Rui before his jab could reach the jellyfish.
A devastating impact that would have eradicated an entire planet.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! And yet, a combination of Aqua Existentia and Outer Divergence allowed him to survive an attack that would have erased almost any other pathwalker alive. He smoothly absorbed half the impact, redirecting the other half away.
Only to find a dozen other tendrils phasing on his body.
WHOOSH
He teleported away, putting so distance between them as the two entities simply hovered in space silently.
"Seek. Explanation." The sa set of light signals erged from the laminar integunt as the alien lifeform insisted that Rui explain how the infantry of Gaia was so powerful.
Rui fell into silence for several monts as the blood-red suns within his eyes shone with blinding brightness. His mind pondered whether he ought to answer the alien lifeform's question. They had diverging interests, and even if Rui could understand its motivations and even respect them to an extent, this creature was trying to destroy Gaia, civilization, and his daughter.
They were not friends.
And yet, at the sa ti, he ca to the conclusion that giving an explanation to the laminar integunt would only work in his favor, not against it.
"They are strong because they follow paths," Rui explained through the flickering blood-red suns in his eyes. "They follow paths of power that allow them to get stronger and stronger with effort, discipline, and other conditions. We call them pathwalkers in our world."
This seed to intrigue the laminar integunt.
"Pathwalkers." The alien remarked through light pulses with a hint of what seed like the alien equivalent of interest. "What. Paths. They. Walk."
"There are seven fundantal paths at the mont," Rui explained, ignoring the Blood Path for the sake of simplicity. "The Martial Path. The Nature Path. The Beast Path. The Technology Path. The Creation Path. The Giant Path. And the Path of Adaptive Evolution."
He gestured to himself with a hand on his chest. "I am a Martial Artist. I follow the Martial Path."
The more the alien learned about them, the more fascinated it seed to grow.
"How. Paths. Make. Strong."
"Paths are when the dinsion of potential of a being is attuned in one direction," Rui explained patiently, partly stalling. "They allow for entities to grow progressively stronger, often in ranks or Realms, and they grow stronger and stronger."
That seed to truly move the laminar integunt, as the light that composed its consciousness began to flash more brightly. "What. Paths."
It pressed him for a deeper explanation, unsatisfied with his more general explanation.
Rui's eyes sharpened a little. They were entering classified information territory, but if he could get the laminar integunt to believe that they were special, then they would likely increase their probability of survival.
He had already co to the conclusion that, as a civilization, the laminar integunts were light-years ahead of Gaia. Even the mighty world ship behind the jellyfish-like alien in the distance was likely one of many, many such ships. The operation that they were conducting against Gaia was a standard operation, from what he gathered. Generally, no civilization deployed more than a minute portion of its army for specific operations, such as assaults and destruction.
He didn't know if the laminar integunt would see a verbal promise through to the end if they did manage to survive long enough. And even if it added up in ga theory, it was possible that these creatures had a fundantally different kind of logic.
He needed to create as many reasons not to want to destroy Gaia.
He already noticed that the other laminar integunt infantry were weak and underwhelming. They didn't possess the kind of power his opponent did, which ant that they didn't have paths, most likely. It was curious why this particular specin he was fighting was strong enough to equalize him, even when he used Gigabrain and even gained an advantage, but that was sothing to consider after they survived the imdiate threat.
At the sa ti, he was aware of the risks. If they found the power of paths attractive, then they would undoubtedly try to research them.
Through force.
But if he, if they, could survive that for just so ti, then they would have gained so real leverage.
"Paths are information-phenona," Rui remarked. "I describe paths as any lifeform whose internal information attunent is very high. This ans that the underlying patterns describing their existence are attuned enough to facilitate a 'path' of power."
This seed to truly stun the laminar integunt as a large wave of light erged from within the laminar integunt. "You. Know. Source. Realm?"
Rui furrowed his eyebrows at the difference in nonclature, but it was clear that they were referring to the sa thing. "Yes, I do. I call it the information dinsion. It is the source of all reality, and its contents describe reality and causality."
"Unexpected," the laminar integunt remarked with pulses of light. "Not. Expect. Limited. Primitive. Civilization. Know. Source. Realm."
Rui clenched his fists. He didn't think the laminar integunt was being snarky, given that it could not hide its thoughts from him by the very nature of its existence. However, the fact that it called them a limited and primitive civilization despite seeing their quasi-Dyson Spheres and their space force only confird his greatest fears.
They were dealing with a civilization that likely dwarfed theirs in power, quality, and scale.
This species survived the explosion of their planet more than 187,000 years ago, which ant that they were a multi-planetary species even back then. He couldn't even imagine how strong they were now.
It was all the more reason.
He was confident he wouldn't lose any individual battle, but he knew that Gaian civilization had its limits in space warfare.
"You. Will. Captured. Turned. Test. Subject. After. Infected. World. Destroyed." The laminar integunt declared with no weight, as if it were just another Tuesday. "Pathwalkers. Must. Studied. Experinted. Paths. Must. Research. Must. Harness."
The light within the depths of the laminar integunt flared with intensity.
"Surrender."
RUMBLE!!!!!
The very fabric of space and ti shook as the laminar integunt unleashed upon him enough destructive power to destroy one hundred worlds.
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