Ryu had spent what felt like the whole of his first life fighting against this woman with nothing more than his words. But, honestly, he had never taken her too seriously.
He was naïve.
No one was much of a threat to him when he had the behemoth of the Tatsuya Clan to his back. He could joke around as he pleased, poking his finger at the noses of World Sea Realm experts like they weren't worth much as a mere mortal.
It didn't help Ryu take Mistress Holy Wing seriously when the tandem of his parents, even while not being in the World Sea Realm themselves, could take her on with ease, let alone what his grandfathers could do to her.
However, it was this very woman that he never took seriously that had become the disgusting underbelly of the betrayal of his family. She orchestrated everything, pulling at the strings of his life as though it was her puppet to puppeteer, and while all his grandparents were dead, while the fate of his parents were still yet unknown, it was she who stood here completely fine and healthy.
She had every right to laugh at him, to sneer at him, to look down upon him and turn up her nose. She had done what Ryu could never do.
She lowered her head for billions of years, enduring humiliation she would never normally have to, all for the sake of her goals.
And now she stood here today as the victor, facing Ryu while standing before a throne she had proudly placed atop his mother's head.
Ryu's blood was like a flowing sea of black oil. Dark fire raced across its surface, pumping through his veins and the valves of his heart. His fury had reached a level where he couldn't even properly put it into words, a point where his expressions could no longer convey what it was he was feeling on the inside. However…
The abyss of his eyes could.
They swirled like two black holes, lacking even an event horizon. There wasn't the slightest hint of light. Staring into them felt like staring at the end of all that was, the final destination of Existence itself.
Ryu reached out a hand, causing his Great Swordstaff, stuck in the ground tens of kilometers away, to rip out from the earth.
The rock and land around it fractured in one instant, then collapsed entirely in the next, leaving an abyss that burrowed right through to the Blossom Plane.
Ryu reached out his other hand, causing the same devastation to be wrought. He didn't seem to care if the entirety of the Shrine World collapsed. This woman would die here today.
BANG!
Ryu's Great Swordstaff collided with his palm, the reverberating impact of the wind causing a tempest of violent air to spin out in all directions, whipping Mistress Holy Wing's hair back.
At that moment, Mistress Holy Wing's expression curled into a sinister smile, her gaze roaming over Ryu.
"Dual wielding polearms? You lost your family and suddenly don't even know how to properly train anymore? How pathetic."
Ryu stepped forward, the neck of ice beneath him quaking as he launched himself forward, his Great Swordstaff swinging down with the momentum of the world.
"Valeska Sanctus. Today is your death day."
BANG!
Mistress Holy Wing unsheathed her sword with a deathly speed, her pink diamond eyes flashing.
The pause of their blows only lasted a single instant before space imploded, their subsequent strikes being unleashed like a furious avalanche.
Mistress Holy Wing's singular sword wasn't even a single meter long, and yet she wielded it like a war hammer, a battle lust flooding forth from her eyes as a mad grin spread across her face.
Ryu was completely expressionless, his blades wreathed in flames, his strikes only steady becoming more and more powerful.
He bore down on Valeska, his momentum undeniable, his will impossible to be infringed upon. He faced her mad dance with the calmness of a suppressed inferno, the breath of oxygen fueling his foundation to greater and greater heights with every passing moment.
His twin Great Swordstaffs rose into the air, their polearms bending wildly as he struck downward with both at once.
Valeska stepped to the side, raising the flat of her sword to block.
BANG! BANG!
Her throne shattered, her body being sent flying off of the proud head of the Ice Phoenix.
Ryu's blade raised into the skies, a bolt of pitch black lightning striking down to his command and concentrating into a single line.
He slashed outward, and yet this blade of condensed lightning wasn't aimed for Mistress Holy Wing at all.
In the distance, a shrill roar sounded as Kagan was split in two. He had been stuck at the barrier of space Ryu had put up, trying to push his way through. However, with just a thought, Ryu had reaped his life. Or so it seemed.
"<Fate Reversal>."
Kagan's body suddenly fused back together, another ball of Fate appearing before Ryu, balancing on the tip of his blade. The tangle of ripping violence pulsed wildly, doubling in size, then doubling again, and then again.
With a single whip of his wrist, Ryu sent the ball of Fate flying into the surging tide of Martial God Sky Gods, causing them to be thrown into even further chaos.
By the time he was finished, Valeska had crawled out of the ground, her pinkish aura flourishing as she roared, bursting through the earth and charging back up.
"Go back." Ryu said coldly.
He blinked and vanished, his body appearing before her flying finger in an instant.
The sole of his feet connected flush with her face, his downward momentum accelerating until they crashed into the earth again.
BOOM!
The ground rose like a tide around them, blocking out all the light.
Valeska tried to brandish her sword, stabbing toward Ryu's crotch like the sinister viper she was.
However, Ryu's Great Swordstaff flickered, clanging against her blade and sending it almost flying from her hand.
BANG!