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"Kid, the difference between us isn't something you can close with Heaven's Gate. I would advise you to save yourself some pain. Heaven's Gate might be useful if the gap between you and another is only a small measure, but it won't help you cross a vast ocean."
Ryu reacted like he hadn't heard a single thing, he pulled his injured arm back as he continued to press down with the first.
His arm was torn at the forearm but he activated <Fate Reversal> almost instantly.
However, just when Ryu was ready for his arm to reattach and for him to swing down with a second blade, his eyes suddenly pulsed with pain, his <Fate Reversal> failing and a continuous rain of blood falling like a flood from his scaled arm.
Xalvador raised an eyebrow. "I don't have the patience of a saint, brat. I would advise you not to try to play around with my Fate again."
Anyone wouldn't like a person toying around with their Fate. It felt like forcefully attaching your body to a collection of strings and allowing someone to pull you along. The more powerful you were, the more you would abhor such methods. It was just the cold and hard truth.
If it was anyone else who had tried to do something like this to him, Xalvador would have already struck to kill. But, he seemed to have more patience with this brat before him for some reason. That said, he still had no intention of letting Ryu do as he pleased.
Blood fell from Ryu's eyes, but he didn't seem to notice at all. In fact, even the shock of his <Fate Reversal> failing shrugged off his shoulders, his intent blazing to life.
"<Fate Reversal>."
Rather than targeting Xalvador again, Ryu used his technique on himself, causing an enormous ball of Fate to appear between the two of them. In the blink of an eye, it doubled in size. And then, it doubled again.
Xalvador's finger flicked to the side. Taking a step, he retreated as his eyes narrowed.
Ryu didn't linger on why his ball of Fate was so much larger than others despite his injuries having arguably been much less than Elena or the Ruin Master Guild Head's. All he cared about was the fact this arrogant man before him had retreated.
"HA!"
Ryu stabbed his Great Swordstaff into the ground, slamming out a palm.
The sphere of Fate had grown into a violent swirl of madness. Arcs of black and violet lightning, shattering chards of space, deep lines of twisted Fate Lines and Chaos Qi swirled about, its density so great that it almost formed its own event horizon.
Ryu grabbed his Great Swordstaff out of the ground before the sphere even made it halfway toward its destination, his gaze turning toward the half dead body of Mistress Holy Wing. In retreating, Xalvador had left an opening and Ryu simply didn't care about anything other than killing this bitch.
His twin blades stabbed downward, backed by all his fiery momentum.
The wind crackled and popped before he even gathered up his full momentum, his polearms bending into perfect crescent arcs, eking out every ounce of power that could be found within his bones.
Ryu's fury caused the flames in his eyes to rage, some of Mistress Holy Wing's bones and flesh being crushed just beneath the wind pressure alone.
However, before Ryu's blades could fully descend, an arcing kick appeared from seemingly nowhere, a shin of steel blocking them in one instant before sending Ryu flying in the next.
Ryu was certain that he had never felt such strength in his life. His arms broke once again, his blades reeling back so far that they cut into him as his arms were bent into awkward angles.
"<Fate Reversal>!"
Ryu's arms snapped back into place as he flew through the air like a bullet. His mouth opened wide, his canines glistening as he roared.
A beam of Dragon's Breath collided with the newly formed ball of Fate sending it flying outward with an even greater speed than the last one.
Ryu oriented his body in the air, slamming a foot down toward the ground to change his backward momentum into an impetus forward.
The cartilage in his knees ripped around, his achilles tendon snapped, and his quads and hamstrings ripped off the bone. And yet, he propelled himself toward Xalvador, roaring <Fate Reversal> once again.
Xalvador's brow furrowed. Fate wasn't something to be toyed with so easily.
That erratic energy that formed whenever Ryu ripped Fate out of someone and left it untethered was a backlash of the universe's laws itself. It was still manageable to deal with this here since the backlash of the laws were related to Sacrum, a medium sized world. But, if this was a large sized world, or even in the True Martial World itself, an explosion of Fate like this would be enough to severely harm if not kill him.
Even now, he had to be more careful. It seemed that he had underestimated Heaven's Gate a bit. Xalvador was certain that Ryu wouldn't be able to pull Fate into an untethered state if not for his current boost in strength.
But, that was the other odd part. As far as Xalvador knew, even Heaven's Gate shouldn't be able to do this. There was something else odd going on. Ryu was breaking too many rules, rules that shouldn't be breakable in the first place, not unless you had stepped into the Chaotic Sky God Realm. Only then could you start pulling apart and reforming the laws of the universe as you saw fit.
The issue with that conclusion was that there was no way Heaven's Gate could bring Ryu to that level.
Xalvador squinted, the blinding light of the charging sphere of Fate obstructing even his vision somewhat.
In the end, Xalvador snorted. Fine. He would get a small bit serious.
Despite his status, he had a bit of a soft spot for the women in his life. None of his sons got the same leeway his only daughter did, and no one else could talk to him the way his wives and concubines could. As such, he had given Ryu a much longer leash than he usually would only because he had heard Elena's scream.
However, if Ryu mistook that for him being soft, he would be very sorely mistaken. If he had to choose between his daughter's happiness and his own pride, he would choose the latter ten out ten times without the slightest hesitation.
He was Xalvador Sanctus. His arrogance had no bounds and his dignity would not be trampled upon.
Since he had decided upon something, he would follow it through to the very end. And when he entered such a state, no one could make him change his mind, not his wives, not his mother, not even his own daughter.
"Since you want to die, come die."
Xalvador's finger stretched out once again. But, this time, the momentum behind it was akin to a lofty sky.
Ryu couldn't see him clearly behind the curtain of volatile light the sphere of Fate had caused. However, he could feel it as bright as day. It was a Dao, a Dao so powerful and without limit that he could even begin to see where it began, let alone where it ended.
"Split."
Xalvador commanded coolly, his finger pressing forward. It seemed to move slowly, but the speed was unlike anything Ryu had ever experienced.
The sphere of Fate was severed in two, its ties completely eradicated. However, the pulse of the finger continued to spiral forth, piercing through Ryu's hovering and soul and then between his brows before he could even react.
Ryu's head snapped backward, his spine severing, and his flesh almost being torn from his shoulders. His mind entered a daze, forgetting everything. His rage, his fury, his purpose… He couldn't seem to remember any of it.
All he could hear was a ringing in his ears and a scream that rocked the skies. It was a scream of pain and agony he had never heard before, but he would recognize that voice anywhere. It was his wife…
Within the Incubator, he could hear muffled sobs. He recognized them too. They had promised themselves to remain quiet, to not distract Ryu while he fought the battle of a lifetime. And until now, they had kept that promise. In fact, even right this moment, Ryu could only barely hear them at all, and only because everything else seemed to have gone blank.
The second ball of Fate that had formed from Ryu's broken leg exploded without his control keeping it under wraps, his body being enveloped in an explosion with a magnitude that shook the foundations of Sacrum.
Xalvador clicked his tongue, picking at his ears.
"Goddammit, now I have to listen to all this ridiculous screeching and sobbing."
He didn't even want to look in his daughter's direction as he cringed.
"Ah, whatever."
He shook his head, picking Mistress Holy Wing up by her ankles and swinging her half dead body over his shoulder without a care for her pain.