Chapter 2270: The Third |
BOOM!
The attacks fell from above in a continuous rage.
Ryu had neglected one thing. Or maybe it was because it was impossible for him to have possibly taken it into account in the first place, especially when his own Fate was being twisted and changed so far around himself that tracking what was happening was becoming impossible.
Every time he reached this point, he always made the same decision… because it was the smartest decision to make.
If he was struggling with getting back on time in order to fix things, then he needed a stronger and stronger anchor. The best anchor he could think of was his soul itself.
But the stream of Fate and Time was fighting hard against him.
Logically, it should be easy to make it back on time. He was literally going back through history in order to have enough time to train to reach this point. If he was going back trillions of years in order to train, then he should have all the time in the world to make it to this point.
But if things were so simple… then how could it be a paradox?
Why was it that Ryu had to suffer the death of his family and Clan again and again? It was precisely because he was going back in time in order to save them in the first place.
The Heavens wouldn't be able to allow such a thing to happen. At this point, Ryu wasn't fighting against just a single Heaven, from one corner of the world, but he was instead fighting against every single one of them at the very same time.
This was the sort of plight he was in right now.
It had to be remembered that originally, Ryu had only gotten his Perfect Blackbody from the Death Shrine in the first place. Before, he had been born with what seemed like an extraordinarily weak soul until everything changed that day.
What Ryu didn't know was that it wasn't the Phoenix Sky God that had left his Perfect Blackbody Soul there for him, but rather that it was an action on his part and his part alone.
But by now, Ryu had left his soul behind, pushing it through the stream of time more times than he could count.
One failure after another was building up until it grew to the point that it was too much.
And this time, just when Ryu thought that he would simply send his soul through the stream of time again to act as an anchor, trying to push it back further so he would have longer to fight against the Heavens' unwillingness…
He had finally stretched himself too far.
It was abrupt and cruel, savage and unexpected… much the same way things in the cultivation world always were.
Ryu died.
His soul couldn't make it, and because he had left himself open, thinking that he would have the time he needed to place his Perfect Blackbody Soul where it was needed, he didn't consider defense.
He was ripped to absolute shreds, and the irony of it all was that he didn't even have the time to react to it.
Ryu had lost count of the number of times he had done this to opponents, ripping their hearts and dreams out of their very chests and crushing them just when they had the faintest light of hope.
And yet, this time, it was he that died in this way.
High in the skies, the three men stood there in silence. Though their expressions hadn't changed, there was a shock there in their hearts.
Half of them was still expecting another foot to drop, another devious scheme on Ryu's part to flip and change everything.
Before they had known it, there was the indelible mark of Ryu's Title on their souls. They had already begun to intimately understand just what the Title of Ryu Tatsuya meant, and it made them feel fear in ways they honestly never expected until this moment.
But after a long while, with the world still in silence, they realized that everything was truly over. There was no other foot coming.
It was just them and their armies.
Slowly, their gazes turned toward one another, and then to the Shrines down below.
The Phoenix Sky God was finally forced to make her appearance, expecting much the same ending as always. But she had no idea that her husband, the man she thought had probably sent himself back in time once again, was no longer among the living at all.
"Kill."
No one knew who spoke the word, but another bloody battle descended onto the plain.
The Phoenix Sky God was finally forced to make her appearance, expecting much the same ending as always. But she had no idea that her husband, the man she thought had probably sent himself back in time once again, was no longer among the living at all.
And she didn't know even until she and the others breathed their last breaths…
Time was too warped, Fate was too scrambled. But in the end, Ryu had learned a valuable truth…
When he first started his life, the Heavens were his greatest enemy. Their unfairness was the reason he had never succeeded down the path he truly wanted to…
As he matured, he realized that the Heavens were just a neutral judge, standing high above everything else and simply watching it all unfold in silence.
But he had still been arrogant, thinking that he could take from the Heavens what he wanted and accept what it gave when it was convenient.
Today, he had learned something else.
The Heavens were patient.
They might not win immediately, and they might not win resoundingly, but they would certainly always win in the end.
No matter how powerful you were, the ultimate paradox of everything that was lay right in front of you…
How could you become more powerful than what birthed you? Than what had birthed everything?
The irony was that Iam, who seemed to have won now, would probably have to watch his Title crumble sometime in the future as well. After all, the Heavens were the only Almighty that there was.
**
In the depths of a space disconnected from time and reality, two men stood across from each other, both huffing out heavy breaths.
On one side, there was the Nameless Immortal God…
On the other, there was Ryu Tatsuya…
Ryu stood there, his body dissipating slowly, not because he had lost the battle, but instead because the Nameless Immortal God had stalled him for long enough.
He had finally stretched himself too thin, and the paradox was causing him to crumble. How could he live when his younger self was now dead?
"It seems you've lost," the Nameless Immortal God said calmly. "Pulling me out of retirement to fight like this, you really do have some nerve."
"Lost, huh?" Ryu looked out into the distance, silent for a long while. "Why did you come to stop me?"
"Your existence is an inconvenience for me. My daughter is out there living her best life, if you make the Heavens crumble and everything restructures itself, I'll either have to break my promise to my little girl, or let her sort through the chaos herself. I don't feel like doing either. So ruining your day is the obvious option."
Ryu nodded slowly. Sounds like something he would say.
Why would he care about someone else's family over the security of his own? They were similar enough.
But then Ryu smiled as the last wisps of him became an ashy storm fluttering into the wind.
"Unfortunately for you, you're also just as arrogant as me. So you didn't bother to lift a finger until I was this close to succeeding."
The Nameless Immortal God's eyes narrowed. Then, he understood something.
Releasing a sigh, the Nameless Immortal God turned and vanished, his voice echoing from a distance.
"Luckily for you, I'm not mad enough to kill you. My daughter will be fine. Sacharros don't lose."
"What a coincidence. Neither do Tatsuyas."
As these last words of Ryu echoed, his pupils were the last to vanish into a wispy storm of ash.
Then, it all began to swirl into one another before dispersing through the range of time.
The Perfect Blackbody Soul, a Talent born from the Heavens, known for its endless ability to adapt, change, and take on new abilities.
Spacetime was the first.
Fate and Karma were the second.
And now, after having been stretched through a perpetual, endless timeloop…
Paradox was the third.