Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

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Niuran wasn't a man of many words. Fiends tended to have their personalities shaped and warped by their favored element. So even after Ryu said these words, and even when he attacked, he didn't react much at all.

With a casual strike, the spear flickering in and out of existence in his palm cto meet Ryu's blow.

A curious light lit in the depths of Ryu's pupils. He didn't think much of the odd appearance of the Fiend to begin with, but even he was having trouble understanding exactly what it was he was seeing.

BANG!

Air rippled around them and a layer of force stopped blade and fist from meeting.

However, with an indifferent gaze that looked like a literal pool of water, Niuran's spear lost its form, flickering out of existence and suddenly wrapping around Ryu's arm.

It surged forward, appearing before Ryu's throat in the blink of an eye.

Ryu felt a sense of danger pervade his mind. He couldn't seem to see exactly where the blow would land, as though it still had the possibility of undergoing a myriad of changes. If he acted too confidently, he could end up harming himself.

'Fascinating…'

Ryu's aura flared, and he summoned the Immortal Sakura. In an instant, gorgeous spinning and fluttering blossoms descended from the skies, blocking every calculated point.

Niuran's expression finally showed schange, albeit slightly.

Still, what happened next put Ryu on the edge of his seat once more?

The Ice Phoenix Heavenly Patterns used to protect his blossom cracked and shattered like wet tissue paper.

The spear ripped a path through and pierced into Ryu's skin.

A blast of chill entered Ryu's body, and the spear was about to burst all the way in when he suddenly flickered backward, warping space around him.

Ryu blinked. He had already felt that his Ice Element wasn't properly listening to him when he first cacross this young man, but he didn't expect that the swould be true even when it was reinforced with Heavenly Patterns.

Less shocking than that, though, was the fact that he still needed smore tto adjust with his SpacetSoul Nature, as the folds of reality in this place weren't exactly the same.

At the stime, the movement technique he always relied upon in battle, [Absolute Domain], couldn't be used either because it relied on comprehending the constellations and star charts of this world.

Regardless, Ryu's gaze lit up.

This Niuran was strong.

And what impressed Ryu the most was that they were both at the True Sky God Realm.

Niuran was taken aback for only a brief moment before he continued his attack.

The spear cin waves and Ryu read and reacted. He dismissed [Immortal Sakura] since it would only be a hindrance in this battle and he had yet to incorporate the methods of the Ash Treants into it.

Ryu's body flickered with lightning and a discarded his other battle methods. Gorgeous blue scales erupted across his body and he grew in height until he met the tall stature of the Fiend.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The skies above stormed, and Ryu unleashed a flurry.

Spear and fists danced, but soon Ryu's entire body seemed to beca weapon. His elbows moved as fluidly as his fingers, his knees soaring as sharply as his kicks.

In terms of power, the two seemed perfectly even, especially since Ryu was warned not to use his Chaotic Silk Meridians in this world lest he risk being hunted down by any and everything.

But in terms of skill…

Ryu's fist shadows filled the skies. He seemed to have begun to copy the chaotic assault methods of the Fiend.

His attacks seemed both real and illusory at the stime, and it made it difficult for Niuran to grasp. For a moment, Niuran even began to second guess his own judgment. Had he misunderstood? Was Ryu actually just an unawakened Fiend?

He suddenly looked up into the skies as a bolt of lightning descended.

Niuran accelerated backward. One of his legs, the one that seemed formed of the water element, glowed and veins of darker blue appeared in their depths.

Lightning was obviously his perfect counter, but that didn't mean that he feared it.

His mouth opened, and he unleashed a roar.

Under the sudden rampage, the bolt of lightning that had been about to fall onto a cracked, red soil instead fell into a steadily growing pool of water.

The land shattered, and the raging rivers in the distance trembled.

Ryu realized what was happening before it did.

A deep trench was suddenly cut between this location and the nearest river.

…

In the distance, Venaru and Furmalda were swiftly catching up. When they saw the changes, their eyes widened, and they looked at one another.

They knew that Niuran would only do this if he was in trouble.

They both landed on the ground at once, each on the opposing side of the trench. With a stomp of their feet, magma erupted out of the earth and the trench was split further and further apart.

In that instant, the trench connected with the raging sea and with a BOOM! a connection was formed.

The waters surged forward.

The pair of brother and sister didn't stop as they ran along the trench, making it wider and wider as they accelerated to their fastest speed. They couldn't let anything happen to Niuran.

…

Ryu's pupils constricted. They had such strong control over the elements, stronger than anything Ryu had ever seen.

Now that he thought about it, even for Ancient Beasts, elemental control was secondary to the Paths they followed. Phoenixes were about Life, Death and Reincarnation first, long before they were about flames or ice.

But these Fiends…

They seemed to breathe and eat these elements. They were the elements, and the elements were them.

A fiendish grin spread along Ryu's face as his aura skyrocketed, billowing in waves.

"[Earth's Gate], open."

BOOM!