Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

"Urghat!"

A monk roared out from a long ways away, the blazing aura of several Sky Gods and World Sea Realm experts blazing.

Ryu laughed into the skies, the blood falling around him seeming to sparkle.

Those voices of despair, that rage and hatred in their voices, that fury. He loved it. He could feel it seeping in from all sides, the sort of unbridled, maleficent carnage and demonic will aimed right toward him. It fueled him, it made his blood rage, his heart beating like a rumbling earthquake.

Where were these emotions of theirs when his Tatsuya Clan was being slaughtered? When his grandfather's Kunan Clan was being uprooted? When the places his grandmothers had called home all their lives were being razed to the ground?

They were angry? Good. Feel more of it, experience just a fraction of that hatred and despair, that carnal sin of fury.

A raging black-red flames erupted from Ryu's battle as he roared with laughter. The blood, corpses and even some unfortunate living beings around him all burnt to ash, mixing in with the heavily falling snow and turning a land of white into one of grey and darkness.

His flame had evolved to a level it had never touched upon before. Not only did it seem to feed off his own rage, but it took in the rage of those around him, growing hotter and hotter, more furious and more unforgiving.

Ryu's Dragon Soul erupted, unable to be contained by him any longer. A coat of illusory crimson scales covered him from head to toe, his upper garments ripping apart to reveal a torso so ripped that it was possible to see every bead of sweat Ryu had put into it, every swing of his sword, every endless night of relentless training.

He would ruin everything in his path, slaughter every last bastard that deemed to believe him and his family to be ready and waiting for them on the chopping block.

At that moment, the Demigods could no longer remain unmoving. Ryu's onslaught had seemingly already killed everything beneath the Cosmic Seed Realms, his aura alone overwhelming them to the point they could only crumble and die.

That day, he had shown a different side of the Path Extinction Realm. It had suddenly become a meaningless Realm, one without bounds and limitations. Or rather… It felt that anything that touched Ryu's palms would become like so.

Demigod Lioche landed like a mountain before Ryu, standing amidst the flames as his Metal Soul Nature flourished, blocking everything and deflecting it. However, even after just a few seconds, his silvery armor had gained a pinkish hue, the heat making him sweat.

Still, Lioche's fury was beyond just this. The rage Ryu felt, he too felt. His woman had been snatched from him far too early, even her body's fate remaining unknown to him. He had already run away once before, causing a shadow to be cast over his heart. This time, he wouldn't rest until the point he could rip Ryu limb from limb.

Even before he had finished resolving himself, Ryu's fist had already appeared before him.

He rose his shield to block, his feet digging into the tough ground.

Much of the snow had been melted by Ryu's rampage, leaving what should have been easier land to anchor upon. However, Ryu seemed to have forgotten about everything, rage consuming him and his pupils slitting vertically.

BANG!

Lioche stumbled backward, his eyes widening. But before he could recover, Ryu had already attacked again, then again.

Ryu's body moved about as though he was a raging beast rather than a human. He flickered and vanished, appearing again and again while attacking in anyway he deemed fit.

Fists. Legs. Elbows. Even his illusory tail viciously whipped at Lioche.

Under the astonished gazes of all those around, a Demigod World Sea Realm expert was being overwhelmed by sheer fury.

Ryu seemed to take Lioche's expressions as a slight. He thought his rage could match up to his? He thought his resolve was so grand? That it was comparable to his, Ryu Tatsuya's?

Did he believe that just the loss of a single woman was enough? Did he believe that a single event of darkness was enough to encompass the black abysses that Ryu had experienced? Did he believe that he could stand before Ryu, tall and proud, even beginning to understand his emotions and what lay in his heart?

"How dare you!"

Ryu's fist blasted through Lioche's shield as though it was nothing more than a thin sheet of aluminum. His voice boomed, his punches flying forward like streaking black-red meteors. 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝙢

Dragon Claw.

Ryu's illusory arm expanded, resonating with his Dragon Soul.

The earth trembled, mountains collapsing in the distance even as he struck downward.

Lioche's expression changed. Was he really going to lose again? Just like that? Was this the level of humiliation that he would experience?

Space split into six, the momentum of Ryu's Dragon Claw making it feel as though a furious Red Dragon was swiping down upon them all. It was aimed for Lioche, but the imagery was painted into their hearts.

Just when Lioche was about the suffer the same fate, the remaining Demigods shot forward. In fact, it wasn't just them, the Kings and Queens of the Martial Gods all charged. The death of the others was one matter, but the death of a Demigod spoke volumes about something entirely different. They couldn't allow it.

A Demigod carried the highest prestige. They were the closest things the Martial Gods had to the pinnacle of what their race should be, their greatest prides and joy.

Four more Demigods of the World Sea Realm shot forward, their attacks meeting Ryu's claw all at once.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Ryu's illusory claw shattered, a rebound forcing his hand back and exposing his chest.

A fifth Demigod brandished a bow, releasing several arrows in rapid succession, all of which appeared before Ryu's chest in the blink of an eye.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! PCHU!

Three clanged off of Ryu's Dragon Soul, all of them drilling into the very same spot until the point the fourth pierced through, flashing through Ryu's chest and piercing into the ground behind him.

BANG!

The ground imploded, the strength enough to dig a trench that stretched an entire mile and reached a point of over a hundred meters at its deepest point.

The power of the arrow seemed to remind everyone just how powerful the enemies Ryu faced were if just a single one of them could cause so much damage to the Shrine Plane of all places. That kind of arrow, touching your flesh, should have been enough to force you to implode from the inside out.

And yet, aside from stumbling backward for just a moment, Ryu didn't seem to react to the fact he had been injured at all. His aura flourished, the clouds still crackling with lightning above raging on.

He roared in the skies, a beam of blue lightning over 20 meters thick crashing down from the thick clouds.

The archer's expression changed, kicking their movement technique into high gear and dodging out of the way as fast as they could.

Their body flickered and vanished.

BOOM!

A pit of impossibly vast depth appeared in their place. But, when said archer appeared again, the entire left of their body had been scorched, their clothing falling apart and their skin alternating between flaking black and growing red blisters.

Tribulation Lightning!

Fury lit the archer's eyes as they brandished their bow again, aiming as Lioche and the four other Demigods surrounded Ryu all at once.

Ryu arms flared out, the lightning in the skies heeding his call.

The thick pillar that had fallen before reacted, zooming out of the ground and toward him with a speed that could hardly be tracked with the eye.

In an instant, Ryu's claws were coated with radiant sapphire blue lightning. He condensed it all with his Lightning God Talent, concentrating the Lightning so much that its Fundamental Runes became abundant enough to be seen with the naked eye.

Ryu's two lightning gauntlets looked almost like solid blue metal, sparking with arcs of beautiful sapphire lightning from time to time while complex runes swam about their bodies.

Ryu rose his claw into the air once again, activating Dragon Claw.

His arrogance knew no bounds. He had countless techniques at his beck and call, countless talents at the tips of his fingers, but he still chose to use the very same Talent that the Demigods had only just dispersed.

He wanted to show them that it didn't matter what they did. It didn't matter how much they prepared. It didn't matter how much fury or embarrassment they felt, how much rage boiled inside of them at the thoughts of his actions or his presence.

He would not only slaughter every single last one of them, he would humiliate every single one of them.

He was Ryu Tatsuya, the scion of the Tatsuya Clan and, as far as he was concerned, the last Tatsuya on Sacrum.

He would make the phoenixes sing his name in adoration, the dragons roar his name in praise... the Martial Gods whisper his name in fear.

"My breath can split the skies in two. My claws can split the world in six. Who are you all to stand in my way?"

Ryu's claw descended.

Arcs of vicious lightning and sparks of raging flames followed its descent. His fury seemed to paint the world in his own visage.

He would make sure they all felt his wrath on this day.