Chapter 4010  A Disaster

"This is a disaster of the highest order."

The voice of Minister Ru hung in the air as her expression crumpled with grave severity. Her tone of voice reflected the grim atmosphere in the emergency governmental meeting being held in the Vargard Royal Palace. The gathered ministers and other governmental officials were each silent with reckoning as they confronted the reality that they had been thrust in.

At the head of the table was an empty seat, behind which was Secretary Claris who simply hung her head with a hint of sorrow. Although she hadn't liked Rui early on in her time serving as his secretary, she had come to grow on him. Especially after he avenged his father and created an even better world than Emperor Rael. According to the intelligence that they had gotten, the Emperor of Water had ceased to exist, as all Martial Transcendents before him had. He had saved them from the two alien invasions with his tremendous power and now, he had paid the price.

And while he had saved the entire world, the entire world would be reeling from his disappearance from reality.

Ru gripped her stomach a little as she felt tingling nervousness at what was to unfold. She remembered how bad the situation had been after the Emperor of Harmony had died. It had resulted in a political storm that would have consumed the entire world. With Rui, it would be a hundred times worse. It would be a political storm that would consume all of Gaia, for that was how important he was to the entire world.

She heaved a deep breath, shaking her head.

What was done was done.

Rui had sacrificed himself for the sake of the entire world, and now, they needed to do their best to protect his legacy. "We need to accept reality," Minister Ru spoke grimly. "Rui Quarrier is—"

CLACK

The door swung open, revealing a familiar figure standing at it. He wore his royal attire as well as a crown atop his head diligently, demonstrating that he still took his role as Emperor seriously.

His presence, however, was truly drew their attention.

The gathered cabinet of ministers weren't ordinary people. They were each psychologically trained human beings such that even the aura of a powerful Martial Sage wouldn't be able to shake their composure at all.

They had been trained rigorously to maintain their emotional composure specifically in the face of power beings who could inspire fear in them just by the sheer gap of power between them and ordinary humans. Otherwise, it would be impossible for Ru to negotiate roughly with Martial Sages face to face without complete capitulation.

This time, however, that composure had completely eroded.

Chills ran across their skin at the very sight of him. His very existence made shivers run up their spine. They felt an inviolable and absolute sense of power. It wasn't rough or loud.

It didn't shake heaven and earth like Martial Sages did.

And yet, it was absolute as the laws of physics themselves. His presence bore down on causality itself, as the very nature of reality bent underneath his presence. They sensed that they were no longer in 'reality' as they understood it, but rather were subservient under his reality. They felt as if they were beneath a looming universe of water hanging above their heads. More water than they had ever felt in their entire life.

As if water was at the very root of reality.

In that moment, they felt overwhelmed by the presence of what could only be described as a god.

A Martial God.

Such was the power of a Martial Transcendent.

"Sorry I'm late," Rui remarked nonchalantly, closing the door behind him as he walked over to his chair heaving a deep breath. Each and every single person in the emergency meeting froze where they were as their mouths dropped, their eyes gaping at his very real existence. STEP

STEP

STEP

Each step he took seemed to send ripples across reality itself, causing the very law of physics to quiver in his presence. If he exerted too much effort, then he would simply unravel reality as they understood it.

STEP

"Thanks for taking over while I was gone, little sister," Rui told Ru, nodding at her appreciatively. "It's good to know that I have people I can count on."

"Sir…?" Secretary Claris gazed at him with a stunned expression. "You… exist?"

Rui tilted his head at those words, shifting his chair before taking a seat. "Well yes, I'm not fictional, if that's what you meant."

He turned towards the gathered ministers, who were still frozen where they sat. "Alright, what's the agenda for this meeting? Sorry, I didn't look at the docket, I was too busy admiring how cute Ria is when she sleeps."

"…"

"She's truly adorable," Rui heaved a pained sigh, placing a hand on his chest. "You just can't get over it, and it makes you want just scream and the roll on the floor with how cute she is—"

"How are you still here?" Ru demanded with an incredulous expression, her words cutting through his nonsense. "Are you really Rui?"

"…Yes?"

"But you became a Transcendent!"

"Correct."

"But the price of the Transcendent Realm…"

"Got over it." Rui shrugged lightly, like he hadn't just uttered something completely crazy. "Not a problem. Wait, is that why you guys are here?" He directed a sweeping gaze across the cabinet of ministers and the other high-ranking government officials.

"We received intelligence that you ceased to exist," Minister Ranea huffed lightly, shaking her head. "You made us worry for no reason. Why didn't you report that you were alive the second you made it back?"

"The answer to that is relatively obvious." Raul smiled at Rui knowingly. Rui's expression grew sheepish at those words, scratching his head as an awkward smile emerged on his face.

"It must have been because of Ria," Minister Ru huffed lightly, flipping her golden hair. She felt silly for even fretting as much as she had, just because this doting father was too smitten with his own daughter to bother paying attention to the finer details of protocol. "Let me just put in a preliminary report so that we can quell the storm that you created."

She shook her head with a hint of endeared dismay as a small smile emerged on her face. Indeed, Rui's presence had become as prominent in the as the sun itself, and yet, he himself hadn't changed one bit, never once losing his grounded humility, and never once allowing power to get to his head.