“Haa… Haaa… Bastard, what are you— Huh?” Before Anzac could complete his sentence, his eyes became hazy, and the world seemed to rotate; everything appeared to move in slow motion.
Thud
Before a small sound accompanied by eternal darkness shrouded him.
“Commander!?” Other individuals, seeing their commander’s head flying, felt their eyes deceive them; everything moved much faster for them to even react and help him.
SWISH
Without any delay, all twelve of those people rushed towards the young man standing with a cold gaze, looking down at the now lifeless body filled with blue blood oozing out of the slited neck.
SWOOSH
Seeing them all rushing towards him, Ryuk swiftly shrouded himself in Ether before vanishing and closing the distance with them; his approach was to deal with them one at a time.
Ryuk’s body may seem fit, but he was reaching his limits too. Without any movement for five years, he was now on the battlefield with individuals stronger or at his level.
Right now, his only support to win this battle was three things: *Shunya*, his Ether, and the System.
While battling these people, he knew all his previous battle experience was nothing compared to these powerhouses.
His fighting style was personally taught by Wang and Alisia themselves, allowing him to keep up with them, but he lacked experience.
From the start, even though things moved according to his approach, his body was not keeping up with the relentless fights; it was completely healed, but fatigue lingered.
Normally, when someone’s muscles and bones are healed, new ones take their places, and in this process, the strength of the old ones is lost.
While the new ones may seem thick, without any practice, one’s own body feels alien.
CLANK
His sword collided, and instantly taking a leap, he kicked the man while activating his *Shunya* at the same time.
While using it in a fight, he felt the cost of Nullifing others’ energy was his own Stamina—it was falling at a rapid pace.
SCHLKT
He directly beheaded the other one while utilizing his Amber aura to increase his speed; he had already dealt with two of them.
This battle depended on how fast he could solve all these situations; the only thing he needed to avoid was anyone far stronger than Legendary Level arriving here.
BOOM!
“AGGGHHH!” One of the individuals was thrown with his energy core completely depleted and collided with the remains of the battleship.
“Kugggh!” Another one met the same fate, thrown without anything to support him due to his depleted energy core.
‘All of them are Imperfect.’ While battling, Ryuk had already noticed that all of them were except Anzac, whose strength was at the Early Stage of Legendary; everyone until now was just at Legendary Imperfect, with energy stats only at that level.
Making the overall battle much easier since he could just nullify their core and use his strength of Peak Epic level, enhanced with Amethyst Ether, which had reached the amount of Early Legendary.
SCHLKT
Finally, he pierced his sword into the last remaining individual, whose eyes widened with horror, seeing all of his comrades being killed by the same hands that gripped the hilt of the blade piercing his heart.
THUD
The fallen bodies lay on the ground, marking the end of a battle that had taken a large chunk of Ryuk’s overall stamina.
“Haa…” Exhaling his breath, the sword in his hand slowly vanished within him, and everything fell into peace.
The whole area, surrounded for miles, was filled with heat emitting from the burning battleship, the smell of burning flesh filling the air with a sharp stench, and the metallic smell lingering throughout the place.
Standing in the middle with the now vanishing sword, Ryuk turned his gaze towards the dome covering the Branch Family members, wondering why it hadn’t vanished yet.
DING!
[ Host, Enormous Killing Intent Detected]
ALERT!
[ Leave this place Instantly!!]
‘What is happening—’ Before Ryuk could inquire any further, a voice reverberated in the place, instantly erasing all the fire, and even the aura surrounding Ryuk’s body.
“For a mere kid, you seem to think very highly of yourself.”
‘!?!’
Suddenly turning towards that voice, Ryuk’s eyes fell on a woman, shimmering in white light, her aura instantly illuminating all directions, making the moonlight appear much dimmer in front of the illumination from her ethereal body.
‘System, what is she?’ Ryuk could guess the figure belonged to a soul projection, but it felt different from just a mere astral form; it felt more alive.
“Hm, so, are you talking to that thing inside you?”
‘!?’
thud
Suddenly startled by the whisper in his ear, Ryuk stumbled, unable to understand how that figure instantly came beside him without any trace.
[ Host, Your soul withstood an Attack just now ]
‘What?’ Unable to comprehend the meaning behind the System’s words before realizing this was a similar situation to when he first met Jenny, encountering such a projection that tried to attack his soul.
But, he didn’t feel any attack, making him understand that his *Shunya* had just protected him.
“So you can Nullify Soul Attacks too, interesting.” The woman placed her finger on her lips, looking at the young man in front of her, her long eyelashes framing soft, perky lips with a humid gaze fixed on him.
‘!?’
‘Did she just—’ Suddenly, seeing a soft smile forming on the woman’s face, Ryuk swiftly shrouded his body in Amber Ether.
tap
A delicate finger tapped on Ryuk’s chest.
SWOOOSH
Instantly, all his aura was banished, as if it flew away into tiny particles, leaving behind his body while his widened amber eyes were fixed on the woman, not understanding how his ability still didn’t nullify her energy even after she touched him.
“Hm, so it takes 0.0044 seconds for your ability to take effect.” The woman nodded, confirming her doubts about how fast his ability could nullify energy on making contact with it, leaving Ryuk standing with a perplexed expression.
‘System!, Overdrive!’ Seeing how he was seen through like an open book, it was impossible for him to hide things now; only one thing remained in his mind: this woman was far too dangerous.
[ Overdrive (Energy Stats Rising):: 〖LEGENDARY〗 – -» 〖ZENITH〗 ]
WHOOOOSH
His aura burst out, and within that blink of a moment, his body got shrouded in Amber Ether, enhancing his speed. Before moving himself, he landed a swift and heavy kick on the woman.
BOOOOOM!
“Hold it!” All the Branch Family members, even within the dome, felt the land beneath them instantly turning into several pieces, breaking with a shockwave moving throughout the land around a mile.
CRUMBLE
The aftereffect of that kick had destroyed the foundation of the remaining spire, which was already half broken, causing it to completely fall, while a mile area was plummeted to the ground due to the force.
“So, your true strength is Zenith Rank, hm, but it seems Imperfect.”
Another voice reverberated with the dust filling that place, scattering and revealing an ethereal figure stopping that thunderous kick with mere aura, not letting it make contact.
SWISH
“Ugh.” Ryuk, seeing how things were going completely in the wrong direction, gritted his teeth before calling out his sword and without any delay sliced at the woman’s neck.
From an outer perspective, his decisions may seem too fast, like he kept revealing his secret weapons, but in reality, the enormous pure killing intent falling on his body was too overwhelming.
It was like a monstrous being’s hot breath falling on one’s heart; the beating became faster, blood flowing through veins crossed all limits.
In that situation, Ryuk was sure only death awaited at this moment, and to somehow avoid this, he needed to give his all.
CLANK!
“Hoo, is this her sword?” Looking towards the glimmering sword, the woman felt amused, remembering the bond linked with this blade to its previous owner.
‘!?’ Ryuk’s blade was blocked by the woman’s forefinger, her face filled with amusement, as if looking down on him like a mere child’s play.
Right now, Ryuk was facing True Strength.
“Haaa… haaa…” His already exhausted body started to give up in that situation, while Overdrive kept providing him energy, it was swiftly depleting; 15% of the Energy belonging to Conduit was burned just to maintain his present strength.
SWOOSH
“…” The woman narrowed her gaze, feeling all her energy core drying at an uncontrollable pace, understanding that it was all part of the young man’s plan to use the sword as a medium to transmit his ability.
A simple miscalculation in her equation was: This young man’s swift thinking.
“It’s enough for the games.”
“Wha—”
Hearing her words, Ryuk tried to retaliate, but his actions seemed much slower for him to keep up with the upcoming collision.
BANG!
SWISH
“KUGHH!” With widened eyes and a bent body, elevated in the air, Ryuk’s gaze reflected the kick his abdomen just withstood. But unlike his, which caused a shockwave, the speed at which he was hit felt much faster.
BOOOM!
Faster than the speed of sound, his body was thrown, but in the middle of the air, before his thought process could kick in, another force directed at his back launched him towards the ground.
Right now, his mind’s thinking seemed much slower than the upcoming barrage. Collisions were colossal, and before pain could bombard his mind, another force hit him.
BAAAM!
“Aghh!—THUD.” A huge sound resonated through the space, which was 83 miles away from the place where the fight had started, proving the distance his body was thrown with each impact.
SWISH
Arriving there, the woman leaned in before clenching Ryuk’s neck and directly lifting him, as if telling him to understand: You are just a mere frog who left his well.
“Ughh!” Holding that delicate hand gripping his neck with enough force to crush his bones, Ryuk’s face turned crimson due to blood blocking in them.
drip
As the force on his neck increased, blood started to trickle from Ryuk’s mouth, small flesh visible within those crimson fluids.
His eyes started to become heavy, but within those moments, his mind finally tried his last efforts to survive.
‘System, Activate Conduit Dom….’
