Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Almost the instant Ryu finished talking, the skies were filled with flying treasures. The first to appear were, of course, those in courtyards adjacent or nearby to Janus' own. But very quickly, there were others.

None of these people were part of Janus' scheme, however. Rather, it was because of the appearance of Heaven's Gate that they had come. It was not a phenomena that could be ignored in the slightest, and Ryu had already known the kind of commotion it would cause. In fact, that was part of the reason he had used it in the first place.

Soon, however, those that Janus had called forward personally would arrive.

Ryu had, indeed, seen it. The hidden formation was multifaceted. Any activation of it would mean that Janus was in great danger to begin with, and if it was destroyed it was even more of a sign. The moment it had been activated, the individuals with the most investment in Janus had likewise already appeared.

Countless gazes landed on Ryu, and just as many seemed to widen.

How could they not recognize Janus? He was a Holy King. He might not be among the Hegemons, and he was nowhere near the best of the Holy Kings either considering how close he was to falling off the genius path, but Ryu was clearly radiating the aura of a True Sky God and he didn't even have a single scratch on him.

And then there was Elena's existence. They had all taken note of this woman long ago, and she clearly seemed to be with Ryu. But where did this man come from? Or maybe even more importantly than that, where did the beast she was riding on come from? They didn't just make obedient Omniscient God Beasts on the verge of becoming Lord Beasts, it just didn't happen.

Their gazes landed back on Ryu who had a hand through Janus' chest. The latter coughed up blood from time to time, but he didn't dare to move as Ryu tossed his body around as though he was a sock puppet.

The rage in his eyes was extremely subdued at the moment, not spilling forth even after he spotted exactly those he wanted to see.

At that moment, the crowd of flying treasures was forced to part beneath the majesty of two people, both of whom were exuding the aura of the Omniscient Sky God Realm. Behind them, there was a single young man wearing robes of pristine white aside from the golden branches and the singular pauldron formed of black scales on his right shoulder.

This young man looked young, extremely so. Only about 16 or 17 years old, and yet, he exuded the air of a Lower Perfect Sky God that somehow felt no less inferior to the two Omniscient Sky Gods he was following behind. In fact, if one looked more closely, it felt that less than following them, they were escorting him... it was just a few word difference, but it was a difference that weighed as heavily as a mountain.

"Janus?!"

One of the Omniscient Sky Gods called out in shock. She had rushed over here, but she expected to see her son on the losing side of a great battle. She never expected that she would come to see his life hanging on by a thread.

Her gaze flashed like lightning when it landed on Ryu, but she frowned when she noticed Elena a moment afterward.

"You..."

There were only two explanations, but she felt like one was entirely inappropriate and yet somehow also made the most sense.

It was either this was Elena's husband, the one she talked about so much. Or, she had finally given up on that trash and found someone else to rely upon. It wasn't like the Martial Gods weren't known for the promiscuity, not many would bat an eye to her change.

However, Elena had been so oddly staunchly opposed despite receiving many decent offers. Had she finally grown tired?

Both explanations had reasons that didn't seem to make much sense.

On the one hand, it was too out of character for Elena. But on the other... how could someone from a small world defeat her son with so little effort.

"Unhand him," she said coldly.

Ryu shook Janus, causing him to cough up another mouthful of blood. It almost looked like he was asking: "him?", and this only infuriated his mother all the more.

Janus' mother was on the verge of asking Ryu if he knew who her husband was, but when she looked toward Elena... she knew that she would only be humiliating herself by attempting to do so.

"En... rika..." Janus wheezed out.

The young man frowned when he heard this. He had been only really curious about the Heaven's Gate, which was why he had bothered to come at all. But he didn't expect to hear these words. Why was Janus mentioning his sister?

"... She's... dead..." Janus pushed out again.

Ryu didn't make any attempt to stop him, and Janus likely knew this as well.

The young man felt like he had been hit by a bolt of lightning.

"What?"

He only spoke a single word, and it didn't even seem to have much strength behind it, but all the qi in the skies flowed in reverse...

Except for the qi in one area.

The air around Ryu was so stable and unmoved that it painted the picture of a calm lake.

Janus struggled and pointed a bloody finger right at Ryu. But because they were so close, he ended up weakly hitting him first.

Ryu shook his wrist and tossed Janus away. The latter landed in a pile of rubble and in an instant, all the blood on Ryu's body vanished.

The second Omniscient Sky God was wearing robes eerily similar to Enrika frowned. How had one of their own died? This was just a casual visit.

"Let's cut to the end of this farce, shall we? Are you going to attack one by one or all together?"