Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's movements became more and more erratic. It was impossible to tell which direction he would go and when. Sometimes he chose the best option to dodge, sometimes the second best, and at other times the third. Sometimes he would attack rather than dodge at all, distorting the future path of the battle with a subtle grace. He would move up, and then abruptly downward. To the right, then suddenly up. To the left, and when it seemed he would change his trajectory again, he would continue, or even sometimes come to a complete stop.

When equaled with the [Absolute Domain], to say that Ryu was easily ten times more powerful than when he came into this round wasn't an exaggeration at all, and this was the case when the Protector Spirits and their boost to his overall strength was ignored.

The drastic change made Ryu wonder how much more he had left to unearth, how much more strength was buried within him that he had ignored in favor of chasing after more talent.

This was a product of his own mistakes, his own arrogance. He was too used to being the most talented person in existence. Before he had left Sacrum, that was what he truly was. He could crush everyone around him with his talents alone, there was still a small need to unearth its secrets, but he had always just relied on his base abilities to do so.

Was it really doing his best to unearth his talents if he just relied on one of them-his Heavenly Pupils-to casually see through everything? Just how much stronger would he have been if he had truly taken all of this seriously?

In truth, much of Ailsa's teachings were also geared toward elevating his talent levels, but he didn't blame her at all. The fact that she could raise his talent at all when it was already so great by Sacrum standards just showed how excellent of a Life Partner she was.

Beyond that, he was already guaranteed to reach the pinnacle of Sacrum, it was only a question of how much he lapped everyone else.

But now... he was behind, so far behind that he couldn't quite see where the pinnacle lay. Forced into a corner, and without a route to increase his talent in a short time, he was forced to pick up what he had and forge it into gold.

There's more, I know there's more!

Ryu's gaze blazed. He had improved so much in just a few weeks, he knew there was more to gain.

He knew that this was because of his Origin Flame. His ability to process and tend toward efficiency was on a completely different level. This boon was far greater than what he had thought it would be. He had spent so much of his life with an Origin Flame, but not until now did he know what it truly meant to have one by his side...

But that also made him realize that there was more to be had.

Ryu suddenly vanished again, his body appearing with a sharp forward momentum that came to an abrupt stop.

He utilized another method of combat that he had learned in that time.

Gathering up the momentum of the twisting of space that had suddenly come to a stop, he transferred it to his blades. His strength exploded and his once forward momentum was perfectly transmitted to his blades.

The faster you moved, the heavier you were, this was the law of the universe, of all of Existence. He had learned to gather up the strength of his abrupt stops using his Spacetime Soul Nature and then use them as a bludgeon to crush his enemies.

Each one of these things were just small changes, slight tweaks, and yet when they were built up into the fighting prowess of a single person, it was like he flooded the world with his strength, each drizzle, each tiny droplet, coming together to form a furious tsunami that toppled his enemies.

The roaring turtle spirit was smashed into the ground, its great shell, filled with runes and patterns flared in protection, causing Ryu's mighty strike to come down like nothing more than a glancing blow, but Ryu seemed to be prepared for that.

His great swordstaff came to another sudden halt and the surrounding folds of Spacetime gathered and pooled together. He raised his second great swordstaff and swung down with new momentum, plus the old.

It glanced off once again, but Ryu repeated the process, swinging his other great swordstaff, then he repeated again, gathering the other. The violent storm of blades descended in a continuous, furious barrage.

His skin glowed with runes, his bones creaking and bending beneath the continuously increasing might, but as though he had lost his mind he continued to strike, again, and again, and again, each powerful swing coming stronger than the last.

BOOM!

The turtle spirit's four powerful legs gave out, its body crashing into a crater of its own creation and its shell cracking like a fragile egg.

Ryu raised both of his great swordstaffs, a violent swirl of black lightning and black flames gathering into one as he roared and swung down a final time.

The turtle spirit was obliterated. From head to toe its body was ripped to shreds and then burnt to ash, torn apart like a pillow filled with goose feathers, and incinerated as though it had stood there to be cremated.

Ryu landed heavily on the ground, sucking in a deep breath as the surrounding winds raged, pouring into his lungs. For the surrounding several kilometers, winds poured in, a heart shuddering hurricane forming as Ryu filled his lungs. He swallowed so much that his wounds burst at the seams, pooling over and dripping, but he didn't seem to care as he unleashed a roar.

Flames billowed from his mouth in a cone that swallowed the clouds above.

He was battle hungry. He hadn't taken a rest for weeks, but he still wanted more, needed more. The feeling of constant improvement was addictive and he never wanted to give it up.