Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu exhaled a slow breath, but his fluid movements didn't stop. 

The cognitive dissonance in this mind seemed to only be growing fiercer as his movements became more perfectly timed and accurate. By the end of the first section, he was moving before the pattern even completely formed, reacting instantly to its changes and manipulating his staff accordingly. 

Just like that, the last pattern was complete and the first platform flickered, a ray of light shooting up into the skies. 

BANG!

Ryu let the weight drop from the end of his staff, shaking his head, unsatisfied. He didn't seem to care about the rays of light shooting into the skies even those Surf was reacting as though he had seen a ghost. 

"This… You… This…"

The only way to get the platform to react like this was if Ryu was both at or below the Path Extinction Realm, and had defeated the proficiency record of not just this city, but all of them. 

The issue with that was that these proficiency records were also tied to the training rooms in the main Armament Guild. What did this mean? It meant that every Virga Clan genius had just been outclassed by a youth wielding a staff with a single hand. 

"Run the first section again."

"Huh… What?"

"I said run the first section again."

"Ah… Oka… Okay!"

Surf didn't know why Ryu would want this instead of moving on, but he had no choice but to oblige. He didn't really have a choice in the matter. This was clearly a young man he couldn't afford to offend. 

Down below, Yaana's expression glowed, gazing toward Ryu's back with a worshipful look. She almost seemed to want to swallow him whole. 

Ryu shot into action the instant the first section turned on once again. But, his brows were even more tightly furrowed. The more proficient he got, the more foreign the staff in his hand felt. It was almost as though it was fighting back against what he wanted it to do, as though he was pushing it against its nature. 

With Ryu's pupils, he felt as though he could hear the true will of anything so long as he listened for long enough. The whole world seemed to sing to him, allowing to see hidden sides of itself that it had never shown another. 

For a moment, he forgot about all the pain racking his body, he forgot about the crowd around him, forgot about the blazing light reaching into the skies… 

All he saw were the paths of light before him and the staff in his hand. 

A mighty aura suddenly began to emit from the staff. Its normal body, having not a thing special about it, suddenly seem to come alive. It responded to Ryu as though it was one with him, trying to allow him to learn more of its secrets, as though it was begging and pleading that he do so. 

The strongest strike of the spear was [Pierce]. The strongest strike of the glaive was [Sweep]. The strongest strike of the halberd was [Slice]. 

All of them relied on the uniqueness of their blades to achieve this effect. But… The staff didn't have a blade. So what was its strongest strike? 

No, the question itself was more profound than just that. The root of what decided what a powerful strike was with a weapon was its blade. At least, in the context of the spear, glaive and halberd… The unique of their blade is what made their most powerful strikes so powerful. 

But once again… The staff didn't have a blade. So what was its most powerful strike? What inflicted the most damage. 

The staff in Ryu's hand began to release a fearsome aura. It gained a violent tendency of its own, whipping and writhing about as though it was truly a living, breathing flood dragon. 

The crowd was left in a daze. Could the staff really be so violent? Why had they never seen any expert release such unbridled rage with one before? Why was it that their blood was running slow even while their hearts were beating fast? Why did it feel as though their feet were nailed with the ground and enveloped by liters of cement? 

Completely against convention, the staff in Ryu's hand began to bow wildly. It refused to remain straight, bucking and raging about as though it had a mind of its own. And yet, Ryu still completed the first section with ease. 

"Again."

Another pillar of light shot into the skies. 

"Again."

Once more, another stream of light split the clouds above. 

"Again."

The crowd watched with an undisguised numbness as Ryu broke his own record again, again and again. It was as though he didn't have limits. Every step he took was forward, even a sidewise translation seemed to be beneath him. He only knew how to progress. 

After the seventh time, Ryu finally moved on to the second section, but his performance was even more domineering. He repeated the challenge again and again, without pause. It was clear that he had only left the first section not because he was done with the game or scared to progress, it was rather because it had just become far too ease for him. Progressing in it was meaningless. 

The whipping and raging winds of Ryu's staff lashed out against the crowd. Surf could no longer reman standing on his platform and was directly flung away. If not for Yaana being kind enough to lend him a helping hand, there was no telling just how far away he would have flown. 

By this point, the young woman who had entered the crowd was stunned speechless. Watching Ryu tear through the sections she hadn't even been able to reach, eviscerating records, she suddenly felt wholly inadequate. 

Her face blushed with both embarrassment and fear, thinking of the kind of expert she had just judged so blatantly. With how sensitive someone on Ryu's level was, there was no way he couldn't tell, he just couldn't be bothered to deal with her at all. Why would he care what an ant thought about the way he did things? Did he need her permission to do anything? 

"Next section." Ryu said plainly, moving on to the fifth. 

By this point, Ryu's Connecting Heaven Realm limiter on himself was already reaching its limit. But, he didn't seem to care. As though reacting to his own weakness, the staff responded in kind, lightening its weight and making itself easier to use. 

Ryu had never felt a weapon respond in this way before. He realized that his Pupils were opening up a whole new world to him, a world that allowed him to truly see into the mysteries of all things…

What was so special about the staff? It was the simplest weapon there was. A stick carved into a perfectly straight, flexible and strong rod. It didn't have a blade, it seemed as benign as it could be… 

But didn't that also make the answer to what was its most lethal point obvious too? 

The answer was simple: All of it. 

BANG!

The wind pressure of Ryu's movements in the ninth section made the entire foundation of the game rock. The building in the surroundings swayed and their glass windows cracked. 

The staff in Ryu's hand seemed to let out a roar, its brown exterior glowing a blinding golden light as a pillar of light fell from the skies. 

Whether it was the [Pierce], the [Sweep], the [Slice], or any other maneuver, the staff was capable of displaying a primal sort of power. It wasn't reliant on a blade, it relied on nothing more than your own brutal and brutish strength, the kind of power that could level mountains and crush the earth. 

A blade might sunder the skies, but a staff forced it to collapse, to whine, wane and tremble beneath its strength. 

BANG!

Even as the pillar of light fell, another rose up. The light of this record was so blinding that it could be seen from the other cities of the Armament Guild. There wasn't a soul in the city that didn't look toward it, their gazes filled with awe and curiosity. 

Ryu's aura soared and broke through several realms. By the time it stopped, it had reached the Monarch Realm, suffocating all those around him. 

Ryu exhaled a light breath, swinging the rod lightly. Even a casual whip caused the wind to whistle and the rod to shimmer with a hidden crimson. 

In a single step, Ryu had crossed the Ruler Realm and entered the Monarch Realm. It felt mind numbingly easy, but simultaneously incomplete. For example, even now, Ryu didn't have a Birth Phenomena to his back. 

Ryu's Tatsuya Saintly Weapons had manifested a Birthed Phenomena even at the Heir Realm. To him, it was embarrassing to step into the Monarch Realm and still not have one. But, this was the struggle of building your own legacy. 

'I guess I like you more than I thought I would.'

Ryu smiled lightly, looking at the rod in his hand. He felt somewhat fond of it now for some reason. 

At that moment, a commotion took hold of the crowd as several individuals began to push through. It felt like everyone was being violently awakened from a dream they had just been in. 

Below, Yaana couldn't help but frown, because one of them was the very young man who had caused them trouble at the front gate earlier. He was practically bandaged from head to toe, moving with the help of two men.