Every Immortal Ring had a special cadence to it. Much like how Mental Realm Masters could use Chanting to increase the strength of their Visualizations, certain Immortal Rings could be summoned with greater speed in battle by reciting a mantra that suited them. This was why during his battle with Izril in the dream world Osiris, Ryu had heard him say 'Blossom Forth'.
However, the trouble was that Ryu's mantra was far too overbearing. Even though common sense told Arteur that this was all that it could be, he had an unwillingness to accept it. In fact, he was unwilling to accept it for more reasons than just this.
Once one stepped into the Dao Pedestal Realm, Immortal Rings could no longer be summoned. Only very special techniques allowed for the continued use of Immortal Rings, but in most cases, the Immortal Rings would fuse with the body once one cleared the Path Extinction Realm.
The fact that Ryu was summoning his Immortal Rings meant that there was a very strong likelihood that he wasn't in the Dao Pedestal Realm. And… This reality enraged Arteur all the more.
However… There was no changing the result.
At that moment, everything within tens of kilometers of Ryu was suddenly blown away. Thirteen Immortal Rings, radiating a dense dark gold qi took form. Their manifestation alone repelled Arteur and his sword, sending them flying backward for several hundred meters before they could final stabilize themselves.
Ryu stood in the skies, qi rolling toward him from all directions. The temperature began to plummet at such fast speeds that the ground and buildings cracked and splintered, shrinking in on themselves too quickly.
Ryu brandished his Great Swordstaffs, his hair gaining a sparkling sheen of ice as his pair of crystalline blue wings exploded in size, from just one kilometer in both directions to ten.
With a step forward, ice petals formed beneath Ryu's feet with hardly an attempt. He rose just a single Great Swordstaff in the air, his momentum so frightening the repaired split in the clouds above suddenly became a cyclone of raging white, blue and black.
Arteur stabilized himself in the air, his gaze still painted over by a crimson.
"The Scarlet Clan is still so weak." Ryu said plainly.
Arteur's eyes widened, his rage so palpable that veins danced across his forehead and forearms. It felt as though he might burst at any time.
'Small Realm.'
The moment Arteur felt the change around him, he realized how serious the situation was. He no longer dared to hold back, his own Small Realm forming in an instant as he held his sword before him.
The dividing line between the Path Extinction Realm and the Dao Pedestal Realm was among the largest because it was precisely after crossing this divide that one would be able to transcend the use of Heaven Grade techniques and step into the league of Mystical Grade ones…
If this Ryu thought that he would just keel over, he was sorely mistaken.
Arteur's lips gave way to a fiendish grin. He had felt the weight and heft of Ryu's Bloodline just a moment before. It was shocking that he actually found it so difficult to move the blood of someone barely at the beginning stages of the Blood Tempering Realm. But, that made it all the better. When he drained this bastard dry and stripped him of his Bloodlines, he would really like to see if he still had the face to be so arrogant.
"[Blood Manifestation: Nine Pillar Formation]!"
? ?? ??-?? ???. ??? At that moment, Arteur's veins became a bleeding red. They wiggled beneath his skin like crimson snakes with minds of their own.
It was then that nine streams shot out from Arteur's body, forming the nine separate pillars. Each of them was a hundred meters and almost a tenth of that thick. They surrounded the battlefield between Ryu and him completely, sealing them off from the outside world.
For the first time, the atmosphere seemed to stabilize for everyone but Ryu.
Ryu, himself, felt as though his blood was rolling and like his Immortal Rings were being starved of qi, tainted by a dense bloodlust that only seemed to be growing thicker and thicker.
Ryu's arm was still raised into the air, but even his crystalline blue Great Swordstaffs were beginning to reflect more and more of a crimson hue, their translucent surface dancing with the color of blood and death.
Veins continued to wiggle about Arteur's body, his sword brandished before him and the glow in his eyes only becoming more sinister with every passing moment.
Ryu suddenly shifted to the side, his body flickering out and back into existence as he dodged an imperceptible strand of qi.
Arteur's gaze narrowed, not only because Ryu had actually managed to dodge, but also because of the indifference painted on the latter's face. Not only had Ryu made no attempt to not become trapped by his technique, his arm was actually still raised in the sky as though nothing had happened.
Arteur activated his technique once again, trying to latch onto Ryu, but once again, the latter dodged. This time, there was a clear paling of Arteur's face. Just because a Dao Pedestal Realm expert 'could' use a Mystical Grade technique… Didn't mean it was easy to do so.
"Didn't you hear me the first time?" Ryu said coldly. "The Scarlet Clan is weak. Has always been. Will always be."
At that moment, Ryu's Immortal Rings trembled. The call for qi was so fierce that the barrier Arteur had formed almost instantly shattered.
Shards of translucent, crimson glass fell from the skies even as Arteur coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, his heart threatening to beat out of his chest.
'[White Serpent's Dance: White World].'
Ryu's blade descended.
The world seemed to lose all its color, washed with a white light that covered everything. It felt like everything had gone back to the beginning, left with nothing but a blank canvas to build it all back up again.
Even without seeing the strike land, those spectating knew that Arteur was finished. Ryu was, of course, of the same opinion. Or, rather… He would have been had it not been for his [Third Perspective].
At that moment, an old man with a hunched back, half closed eyes, and a hand trying to rub out an ache in his spine was walking through the skies. His pace seemed so slow, even to the point he could pause and mumble to himself from time to time.
And yet, he was completely unaffected by Arteur's crimson barrier, Ryu's a Immortal Rings, or even the soon to clash attack.
It seemed like he had perfect timing, appearing before Ryu's swing by 'accident'.
"Oh my… Tsk, tsk."
The old man reached out a wrinkled hand, shattering Ryu's [White World] with a single palm.