Ryu turned his focus back to [Elemental War God], not minding Sarriel's antics. He faintly felt that this klutz was quite amusing. But, that didn't mean he had any intention of lowering his guard around her.
Ryu hadn't begun to Visualize [Elemental War God] just yet because he was extremely confident. He had instead spent all his time with Balaur soaking up as much knowledge as he could. Now, he felt like he was ready.
For now, Ryu could only complete the Staff Stage and the Outline Stage. He would have to leave the Skeleton Stage until he was ready to break into the Immortal Ring Realm. For an absolute genius, this would take about 900 years. Without outside influences, Ryu was confident in whittling that down to a couple hundred at most. But, even that was too slow for him. He hoped that this Tri Palace would give him some surprises.
With a thought, Ryu began to complete the Staff Stage.
After some back and forth discussion, the Master-disciple duo realize that the staff form wasn't the most conducive to Ryu's battle style. If the Visualization hindered Ryu from using his twin Great Swordstaffs, then it would be more of a detriment to his strength than a benefit.
In truth, the staff wasn't the most efficient form of the Staff Stage. Balaur had chosen this form and name because he didn't wield any weapons. As such, he used this Staff Stage as a replacement for any exceptionally dangerous situations where he would have no choice left.
However, this wasn't the case for Ryu who had his Great Swordstaffs.
Normally, Ryu would have to figure out everything from this point on his own, trying to modify a technique left behind by a Sky God. But, this was where the benefit of having a Master shone through. Let alone struggling, it took Balaur barely a few seconds to modify everything Ryu needed.
The result? A grimoire.
According to Balaur, this form would synergize with the Vein Stage and Wheel Stage to a perfect degree. And, even without touching those stages, it would give him access to some of their abilities.
Ryu began to Visualize his grimoire. He imagined an elaborate cover filled with thick, ancient pages in between. He separated the grimoire out into sections, each section or part housing a different Element. Then, within each part he began to store chapters.
These chapters was where the true strength of the Staff Stage would make itself known. Not only would they help Ryu to absorb Elemental energies far quicker and skip over his reliance on Essence, it would also be able to fine tune his control over the Elements.
It was hardly five minutes later when Sarriel, who was still wiping her nose, blinked her pretty violet eyes, watching as a large grimoire over a meter tall began to appear before Ryu.
At first, it was illusory. But it slowly became more and more solid until eventually, it looked no different from any other book you could reach out and touch.
His eyes still closed, Ryu took a deep breath.
At that moment, as though the energies of the world had bowed to him, Elemental energies surged toward the grimoire, making it light up with all sorts of beautiful colors.
It was then that the cover of the grimoire completely solidified. Its surface looked carved of an ancient oak. It was quite odd for a book, but the olden aura it exuded felt just right, especially when golden vines began to grow out from the wood, giving the grimoire a beautiful texture.
Ryu's eyes flashed opened. As though awakened, the pages of the grimoire began to rapidly flip.
With a thought, a ball of fire appeared in Ryu's palm. It happened so quickly that he couldn't help but narrow his eyes. Not only was it far thicker than he could have accomplished in the past, it came together tens of times faster. And, the shocking part was that he didn't need to use Essence to accomplish it either.
The ball began to spin rapidly. Then, it split into ten that instantly grew to the same size as the first. Then each of those ten split into ten once more. In the blink of an eye, a hundred fire balls hung in the air, each no smaller than the size of Ryu's head.
Without even trying, the fire balls maintained pace with Little Rock, changing shape to Ryu's whims.
From balls, to arrows, to spears. By the end of it all, Ryu morphed them all into perfect replicas of Little Rock.
A hundred flapping birds rose into the skies, ripping through the descending snow without the slightest hints of mercy. Even in this restrictive world, Ryu felt like he could accomplish almost anything… Just how powerful, then, would his Ice Elemental energies be?
With a snap of his fingers, the flying birds of fire vanished into sparkling embers, fluttering around beneath the clouds as though they were also dancing snowflakes.
Ryu's grimoire flashed, its pages rapidly flipping away from the Fire Element to the Ice. But the instant it did, it felt as though the world had come to a grinding halt.
Despite their speed, the winds paused.
Ryu's eyes widened. Reacting quickly, he dispersed the Ice Elemental energy before it could come together, a faint shock hidden within his silver pupils.
Sarriel shivered, the tips of her long ears frosting over. Even Little Rock gave out a call in dissatisfaction, blaming Ryu. Luckily, though, the little one didn't wake up under all the commotion.
Ryu patted Little Rock's back. "Sorry, sorry."
"Qi! QI!"
Ryu smiled but didn't say anything more. Had he not stopped in time, he would have encased them all in a prison of ice. Even if he would be able to break out of it, it would definitely take Little Rock a while to recover especially against so much Extreme Yin.
'How powerful…' Ryu muttered.
Shaking his head, he decided that Little Rock's back was definitely not the best place to test this. Instead, he began to work on the Outline stage. He was looking forward to wearing robes he didn't have to worry about burning to ash all the time.
As expected, it didn't take Ryu long to succeed.
The next few days passed by in a blaze. On the fourth, Ryu looked up, his gaze growing cold.
They were here.