Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

[Author's Note: there's been some confusion. Lord Black Worm and the Fading Star Sect Sovereign are two separate people]

The Twin Reaper didn't just say these words, but his short scythes seemed to tremble with pleasure at the same time, pulsing with happiness as though they had a mind of their own. At the same time, the dense fog around him doubled, then tripled, acting much more like a Domain than a mundane rush of qi.

He took a step forward.

"How ironic. A destroyed Sect I hate to the bone, and yet now I have to appear here to defend it. Tell me, kid. What number did I appear at."

"Fifth," Ryu replied with a smile.

Twin Reaper tilted his head and looked toward the Throne hovering to Ryu's back.

"Fifth when you have a Throne already? And you managed to make it this far with a Fragmented Sky God cultivation base? I guess we're both not too bad, huh?"

"You could say so. Though, one of us is much more handsome."

The Twin Reaper laughed uproariously; he didn't seem bothered in the slightest by Ryu's comments.

"Let me guess, it's that odd Dao of yours that's gotten you so far. You want to play with the mind of Death, boy?!"

The Twin Reaper suddenly vanished, appearing before Ryu so fast that he looked no different from a blur of fog to most eyes.

Most eyes.

By the time the Twin Reaper had even twitched, Ryu's stance had already shifted. [Absolute Domain] erupted and his body danced with Silver Runes.

He took a step back, just barely dodging the short scythe that seemed to want to disembowel him. The Twin Reaper was truly a vicious man. Ryu had never seen someone that would rather watch his guts spill out than just chop his head off and get it over with.

Even more interestingly, the Twin Reaper didn't follow up with an attack. He stood right before Ryu, just two meters away, and lifted his attacking blade. On it, there was a single drop of blood.

Ryu looked down at his belly, raising an eye when he saw that he hadn't dodged completely. There was a thin line of blood, not even a half centimeter deep. It was already healing beneath his powerful healing factor, and yet it still came with the chilliness of death.

He hadn't felt it at all, and according to his eyes, he had most definitely dodged. This Twin Reaper could fool his eyes?

Ryu dismissed it. There was something else going on.

With a flick of his wrist, his robes were thrown off, revealing his toned torso and a pair of loose white pants that fluttered beneath the stars. Since his robes were ruined, there really wasn't much of a point in wearing them any longer.

"You actually dodged," the Twin Reaper said, feeling somewhat perplexed and amused at the same time.

"You have odd tastes," Ryu replied with a relaxed expression.

"What, disembowelment? You don't like that? Everyone likes to go for the head, but where's the fun in that?"

Ryu chuckled. "Sounds like the sign of a troubled childhood to me. Have you thought about therapy?"

The Twin Reaper grinned. "Still trying to use that little Dao on me to find a weakness? I'm sorry to inform you, but I had two very loving parents. They died of old age, happy and fat."

"I don't know, the fact you keep bringing up my Dao tells me you're more wary of it than you claim to be."

"Hoho, you have a sharp mouth, kid. I admit it, I'm not as good at talking as you are. But what I am good, is killing."

Ryu's stomach, which had just healed, suddenly erupted with black fog. It seemed to wait for the instant his wound closed to rip it open again, a large amount of black blood flying from Ryu's lips at the same time.

Twin Reaper's laughter echoed like a cross between the howl of a wolf and the cackle of a madman. It only grew louder as Ryu fell to a knee.

"You know, handsome little pricks like you are the kind I enjoy killing the most. Some sadistic bastards like me prefer more tender women, some truly sick bastards prefer children, but I'm a real man.

"You could call it jealousy, I don't mind. Though, that isn't what it is. I just appreciate seeing that pride and confident glint in your eye dwindle away, peeled away piece by piece until there's nothing left.

"It's something better than true Death, don't you think? Who cares if I chop off your head? If I disembowel you? I would even be happy to leave you alive if there's nothing but Death left in your eyes."

...

The Seventh Heaven was drowned in the laughter of this man. Even grown men and women felt a chill down to their very bones, a fear that pervaded them from an instinctual and hidden place. They couldn't control it even if they wanted to.

Death was one thing. Being stripped of your sense of self and losing all desire to live at all was a different matter entirely.

Aika clenched her fists hard, grinding her teeth to the point it seemed that her teeth might crack beneath the pressure.

The reaction of the others was about as one might expect. Many watched on in excitement, ready to see this Ryu fall. There were even Dao Lords among them, lofty existences that should have never had a care for such a youth in the first place, and yet they did.

The only one among the others that didn't have this expression was Fairy Azure. Instead, it was worry that dotted her beautiful features.

...

The Twin Reaper walked forward, his laughter slowly fading as he squatted before Ryu, using the flat of his blade in an attempt that looked like trying to lift his chin up.

However, what he didn't expect was that Ryu's gaze would meet his on its own.

There was none of the despair or "Death" that the Twin Reaper expected at all.

"A stubborn one, huh-"

"Speaking about Death before a Dark Phoenix... don't you think you're very laughable?"

The cry of a phoenix echoed through the air and Death Flames shot appreciate a pillar into the skies.

Ryu's finger suddenly became the only existence in the world to the Twin Reaper. It pierced right through his eyes brows and he only had time to widen his eyes in shock.

Ryu slowly stood to his feet, a light of indifference in his eyes.

Why did everyone think that he had to target something else dark about a person for his Dao to work? His Dao worked based on any and all information. The only method for the Twin Reaper to have been unaffected by the news of the Dual Radiance Sect's decline was if he truly didn't care one way or another. The moment he reacted with excitement, he had previously fallen into Ryu's palms and he hadn't even noticed it.

"My Dao isn't something the likes of you can understand."

These were the last words the Twin Reaper heard before his avatar faded away.