Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu stood in silence for a long while. 

He suddenly remembered now that it wasn't just his flames that reacted like this. His Great Swordstaff Inheritance had weakened severely from its peak, resulting in some oddities he was facing today. On top of that, before he awakened his Storm Talent, his Lightning Inheritance had also fluctuated wildly, undergoing several breakthroughs and recessions… 

Ryu couldn't wrap his mind around exactly what was happening. That was, until something wild clicked in his mind. 

What if a year off his life wasn't the only thing he was losing?

Ryu stared off into blank space. Just how much of his life was under the control of some invisible entity he couldn't even lay eyes on? He didn't even know who he should be blaming or if there was a person to blame to begin with. 

At the same time, without Ailsa by his side, he had been far more susceptible to these things happening to him. If Ailsa had been with him, in all likelihood, she would have realized that something was wrong long ago. It was impossible for him to have gone through it all so blindly. 

First Ryu had thought that the perpetrator was Sarriel. Then he thought that it might have been the Dream Wraith that the Silver Touch Branch had captured for the sake of creating their fake world. And now he felt that it might very well be the Phoenix Sky God who was responsible. 

And yet, even now, Ryu didn't have a true answer. 

To this day, Ryu still wasn't sure of how to think about Sarriel. Her motives seemed clear enough: Use him to get the Inheritance left behind by his grandmother. After all, there was no way that Saintess Kunan would allow Ryu to die before her like this, but at the same time, there was also no way that she'd give the final resources of the Ice Phoenix Clan to an outsider. So, this seemed like Sarriel's only option. 

But, were things so clear cut? 

The main issue here was Sarriel's temperament. With her pride and arrogance, why bother going through so much trouble to begin with? Now knowing her true self, there was simply no way that Sarriel would demean herself to the point of trying to seduce Ryu in return for a favor. It simply didn't line up with who she was as a person. 

The true Sarriel would more than likely just swing her sword at Ryu, more willing to use force to meet her goal than anything else. Wasn't the rest of it all a waste of steps? It simply didn't make much sense at all. 

If it was really all an act, that was fine. But, why would Sarriel go as far as to even allow Ryu to kiss her? It smelled of a conspiracy Ryu couldn't wrap his head around. It was exactly because of this that Ryu still hadn't quite given up on the idea of Sarriel being responsible for all of this. 

But then there was the Dream Wraith. 

The Dream Wraith truly seemed like a suspect as well. Not only would it have the ability to do something like this with the enigmatic powers of its Demon King Clan, but it seemed to have gained a motive to do so as well. 

There was only one reason for that: … [Reanimation]. 

It could not be understated just how much of a scourge this technique was. In the hands of the wrong person, it could cause yet another catastrophe of the martial world, truly resulting in the end of this Era. Ryu could say with great confidence that there was absolutely no way that the Martial Gods would *ever* hand away this technique as a prize for their trials. 

The only explanation that Ryu could think of was that the Dream Wraith had chosen to do it of its own volition. 

As for exactly why the Dream Wraith would do this, Ryu wasn't certain. However, in a hypothetical situation where the Dream Wraith was, indeed, responsible for the loss of year to his life, Ryu could come up with a very plausible situation. 

IF the Dream Wraith took a year from him, it was very likely that it knew everything about Ryu now. In fact, it might even know more about Ryu than even Sarriel could dig up with her Truth Pupils. In that case, it would know the kind of fury Ryu harbored and the revenge he had planned. Why wouldn't the Dream Wraith want revenge against the people that had captured and forced it to do their bidding?

Finally, there was the Phoenix Sky God. 

They were an enigmatic existence. There were countless stories of endless variations related to this person. In some stories they were male, in others they were female. In some they were a beast and in others they were a human or a Faerie. In some folk tales they were born from a rich family from on high and in others they were born from the lowest of the lowest slums. 

Despite not having a single cohesive story, their name reverberated throughout the ages. This alone made them standout in comparison to all others. 

The importance of constructing a narrative around your name, to build up legends and feats, couldn't be understated. Only in this way could your name ring through the martial world. And yet, the Phoenix Sky God had done the exact opposite. 

As a result, this was the only one of the three suspects Ryu couldn't even begin to guess the intent of. The Phoenix Sky God could have any number of goals that could potentially sweep Ryu up. Ryu himself simply didn't have enough information to even hazard a guess. 

Like this, Ryu had three viable answers but no solution. To make matters worse, even if he managed to figure out which of the three was responsible, just what would he do about it exactly? 

As though all of this wasn't terrible enough, now that his Inheritances had risen then fallen… Bringing them back up to the level they had once been at would be almost impossible!