Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

It was an eruption of blood and gore.

Everywhere the ball of Fate passed, agitated beyond imagining, it ripped through everything it could find. Like a pent up ball of mass destruction, it shredded everything in its path, mincing Sky Gods to pieces as though their lives were worthless.

Ryu took a step through the air, appearing before the Human Beast Sky God. The man that had once loomed tall and large over him could now only look at him eye to eye. And yet, he still seemed to be a large measure smaller, his aura being completely snuffed out and grinded to nothingness before Ryu.

In truth, Ryu didn't really understand why it was that this man was here. Nothing particularly made sense. Most Sky Gods that Ryu had seen here were lurking in the surroundings, not wanting to get involved and only caring enough to come here to spectate.

Of course, these sort of fence sitters were still traitors in Ryu's eyes. They saw invaders coming here, taking their land, their resources, and all they did was sit on the sidelines. They had no backbone and none of the fortitude a true Sky God should have.

"Ah, I see."

Ryu looked at the Human Beast Sky God as though he could see right through him, the abyss of his eyes freezing the latter in place.

"Your brows are marked with lust, your yang has long since overpowered any semblance of yin within your body. You can't proceed unless you have powerful women to bring into your bed and what? You thought that my wife was a viable candidate? It seems you truly know how to overvalue yourself."

Ryu's voice seemed calm, but the coldness of his words sent shivers down the spines of all those who heard it.

From beginning to end, the Human Beast Sky God couldn't take his eyes off of the dark shadow that hovered before Ryu's forehead. It felt as though it held the mass of the world, warping everything in its direction, even attention and senses themselves.

Ryu reached a finger forward, his actions causing the Human Beast Sky God to struggle and fight back harder. But, even those muscles of his, capable of flattening worlds, destroying planets and ripping holes through the sky couldn't do a single thing.

Ryu's finger paused.

"Struggling?"

His head tilted to the side, observing the Human Beast Sky God as though looking toward a rat stuck in a cage.

"Are you wondering why it is you can't move? As a Sky God, you can't even see the Lines of Fate? How could you even call yourself a Sky God, then?"

Ryu's eyes might have been black, but what he could see was far beyond just this. The world around him was drawn into colorful lines and probabilities. However, unlike in the past where he could only observe these lines, when he commanded these strings of Fate to move, they complied. When he commanded them to stay still, they complied. When he commanded them to kill…

They complied.

Ryu's finger tapped forward, a thin line of black flames ripping a tiny hole through the Human Beast Sky God's throat.

The thin line was like a laser tearing through the world, splitting space in two ripping a cut through the Shrine Plane that tore into even the Blossom Plane beneath it, wreathing both Planes in fire and destruction.

The line of the flames suddenly expanded into a wide blast as it exited the Human Beast Sky God's throat, a blast that would have wiped out everything had Ryu not retracted his hand.

The Human Beast Sky God stood in place, his eyes opened wide. His muscles stopped spasming, his feet rooted in place.

And then… He began to collapse.

A gentle gust of wind crumpled his body into floating pieces of ash, leaving behind nothing more than a Godhood that vanished soon after.

Ryu retracted his finger, taking another step through the air and appearing before the retreating Acrus Clan Sky Gods. The words of True Sky God Arcus still rang in his ears, and yet it felt like an entire lifetime ago.

A rain of arrows instantly bombarded Ryu, the Supreme Blacksmith and True Sky God, releasing everything they had. Their faces were filled with a frantic light as they unleashed all the trump cards they had.

And yet, Ryu simply strolled forward. He didn't block, he didn't raise his guard, he didn't even levy an attack. However, in shocking faction, as though the two Sky Gods had never shot an arrow in their lives before, every single one missed.

Ryu didn't shift his direction, he didn't even speed up his pace, only walking in a straight line from start to end.

One would think that fear had gotten the best of them, that their hands couldn't' stay steady enough to aim properly, but this couldn't have been further from the truth. Between the both of them, they had nocked and released an uncountable number of arrows in their lifetimes. Even if fear had taken root in their very souls, their muscle memory and training would have taken over. And yet, none of it seemed to work at all.

True Sky God Arcus suddenly released a sad laugh, lowering his bow. For the first time in his life, his bow slipped from his fingers, a beautiful Origin Grade treasure crashing down from the skies and destroying a mountain before with its sheer weight alone.

He realized that the skill between him and Ryu was far too great. Even if Ryu didn't move an inch and he stood here shooting all day, not a single one would connect. He was certain.

Despair colored his heart black. He realized that his trillions of years of work and effort would end here today, all because he wasn't smart enough to side with the scion of a ruined Clan. The irony wasn't lost on him in the slightest.

He didn't even notice when his head was severed from his body, spinning through the air with the same worthless weight just as everyone else's was. In those final moments, his title of True Sky God didn't matter in the slightest.