There was no noise, not a single sound buzzing into Ryouiki's ears, despite the surge in all of his senses since the moment the elderly man had adorned the five rings. Ryouiki also felt weightless, as if he were drifting through an ocean—an ocean that was not full of water...but air.
The elderly man tried to breathe through his nose, but no oxygen entered his lungs; he gasped audibly, but nothing entered his mouth. Was he still alive? Did he pass away? What happened to him?
Then, Ryouiki opened his eyes.
An entire plane of red and empty space—so vast that not even all the oceans on Earth combined could compare. In the far distance, with incomprehensible sizes, there were hundreds upon thousands of crimson-red pentagrams, swirling mindlessly as they floated in the empty realm for seemingly eternity.
"...What is this... place?" Ryouiki mumbled curiously, his eyes darting to all corners of the endless space.
Suddenly, Ryouiki's eyes shot open.
"I can still hear my voice... so I'm not in space, am I?" The elderly man murmured, his bewilderment inclining.
The pentagrams that hovered in the distance appeared to be cosmic in their size—so far away, yet dwarfing the elderly man completely. They appeared to be bigger than planets, if not much larger.
"So this must be an extension of the Shirugeto... something that nobody has known other than the gods..." Ryouiki deduced, glancing down at his rings.
However, how could the man escape? The Shirugeto, or an equally potent curse, is the only way to leave such a realm.
Without warning, a voice pierced Ryouiki's ears: "Even amid battle, your obsession for curses is all that captivates you. I could've had you under my thumb if I were not so cognitively nullified."
Ryouiki spun around, searching for the source of the voice.
"Yuso!" The man shouted, spotting the redhead floating in the air before him. "You've taken this too far! I doubt that you can even begin to comprehend the Shirugeto's full capabilities! I gave you that as a temporary boost!"
The evil-eyed male stared silently at Ryouiki, his countenance unreadable. Yuso continued to float in empty space for numerous moments; though there was no source of time, the metaphorical atmosphere felt heavy, and each of the redhead's actions felt significantly prolonged.
Yuso, tilting his head, proceeded to say, "Our fight's not over, Ryouiki. Complain all you want, but I will not stop until you are dead."
In response—*SHRRRMM*—Ryouiki's rings illuminated brightly, fueling the elderly man's body once again. The white-robed man had no choice but to engage in combat with Yuso—he was trapped in the Shirugeto's pocket realm, with no possible way out.
"You leave me with no other options, Yuso! I will just have to tear your eyes out to leave myself!" Ryouiki proclaimed, arching his legs before hurdling himself at the demonic redhead.
Willingly, Yuso flung himself at the elderly man as well, his Shirugeto spinning clockwise. The two, once again, clashed, exchanging physical blows at speeds faster than light itself, but that did not prevent the radiating pain from spreading from each successful blow.
After trading attacks for an unknown amount of time, Yuso eventually flattened his right hand, his palm shining a vibrant red, materializing a spiraling pentagram that was instantly launched forward, slicing Ryouiki's left leg and happening to cut the limb from the knee and below.
"Grrrgh!" The white-robed man held back a howl, gritting his teeth.
Yuso scoffed. "Even though you are much more powerful than before, the amount of years you have spent holed up has ruined you as a warrior."
Ryouiki clenched his sliced leg, forcing the limb to regrow immediately. The bare limb, although fresh, was as strong as ever. The elderly man scowled as he lifted his head to glower at Yuso with utmost animosity.
"You haven't seen half of what I am now capable of, boy!" Ryouiki bellowed, his face crinkled with rage.
With all the rings glowing majestically, Ryouiki shoved his fist downward, causing an expansive tsunami of magic to expel outward, a ring of multi-colored magic flying out into the ether of the red realm, and managing to sweep up Yuso in the blast.
The attack spread over an unfathomable distance, reaching as far as the distant, floating pentagrams millions of kilometers away. The aftermath resembled the appearance and size of a galaxy. Following the end of the large-scale assault, colorful steam began to rise from Ryouiki's body, mirroring the magic of the five rings.
"Giving myself an Aura Amalgamation is much more detrimental to my physical health than I had initially thought..." The elderly man exhaled, his breath too labored to speak properly.
Currently, there was no sight of Yuso—the blast must have wiped the redhead out, potentially obliterating the Demon of Adonai permanently. However, that was not as planned: Ryouiki needed the redhead's Shirugeto to escape the realm that he was stuck in.
"I let my emotions take over... If I had done such a thing back on Earth, more than just our solar system would have been gone..."
The moment Ryouiki had dropped his guard, he sensed something faint, feeling as the sensation grew larger as moments passed. Then, his eyes broadened.
"Graagh!"
Swiftly, a redhead had reappeared, impaling Ryouiki with multiple stone spikes that emerged from his right palm, the wound in the elderly man's body spilling a pool of blood that hovered in space.
Yuso had returned, unscathed.
"Look at you, becoming so weak from such an ineffective attack. I almost pity you, mostly due to you being my former master." Yuso mocked the elderly man with a patronizing tone, clutching him by the collar of his white robe.
Ryouiki clutched onto Yuso's arm, pulling himself closer. "You need me, Yuso! Killing me would only make you delusional! Your mind is still entangled with fallacies! I can free you of them!"
"Who created those fallacies in the first place, Ryouiki?" Yuso queried rhetorically, shoving the stone spikes further into the elderly man's torso.
Coughing up blood, Ryouki forced out more words: "I did it for you! I liberated you of your past struggles!"
"Did you?" The redhead asked venomously, his eyes shining brightly.
A flash of realization was present on Ryouiki's face, with concern seeping through. Yuso was not going to listen to reason; the redhead was going to kill him, make him suffer, and erase his place in reality as a whole—the elderly man could not simply let that happen.
"... I did... which is why I will regret having to end you here!" Ryouiki suddenly exclaimed, his green ring illuminating vibrantly, conjuring multiple green hands to launch the redhead far away.
Once the distance was made between the two, the elderly man created several thin tendrils of green magic and shot them toward Yuso. Currently, his top priority is escaping the realm full of pentagrams, and his key is the redhead's eyes—the Shirugeto.
In a burst of crimson light, Yuso's body disappeared, only to repeatedly reappear as he dove through every green tendril that was thrown his way. A tendril had briefly been inches from the redhead's left eye, but swiftly a pentagram spiraled into existence, stopping the tiny line of magic.
"It seems like you have a plan in mind. Unfortunately for you, my eyes are no longer your toys." Yuso spoke boldly, his voice reaching the elderly man's ears.
Ryouiki scowled. "They aren't meant to be used by children, either."
"You killed that child years ago, Ryouiki." Yuso barked, his hands balling into fists. "And if memory serves right, I'll be fifty-three years old next year."
"But you still possess the mind and body of a kid! Don't forget that you've been preserved for more than half of your life!" The man in the white robe shouted.
Without warning, a barrage of mental images flooded Yuso's mind, his past returning to haunt him once again.
XXX
{Flashback}
It was a straight path, with trees lining the sides. A group of armored troops marched onward, silent but determined. A red-headed male blended in among the soldiers, his black kimono vastly different from the warriors' armor.
"Hold it, men!" A bulky troop commanded, lifting his right arm.
Silence swallowed everyone in the vicinity, confusing the red-headed male with his heterochromatic eyes, one blue and the other green, darting all around him. After squandering multiple minutes, not a thing was discovered.
"What is it, commander?" One troop questioned, his rough voice reaching the bulky man who stood before the entire group.
The commander narrowed his eyes. "Something is out here with us... Protect Yuso!"
Suddenly, four troops surrounded the heterochromatic redhead, their armored bodies isolating the child from most external forces.
*SWOOSH!*
An arrow coated with yellow magic emerged from the trees, piercing the commander through the neck, his bulky body colliding with the ground instantly.
"Guard up!" One troop hollered, hastily raising their glowing blades.
From both sides of the group, front and back, warriors leaped from the forest and onto the path, surrounding the troops in a matter of seconds. During this, the redhead peeked through small openings in his bodyguards' huddled bodies, spotting the unfamiliar warriors closing in on them.
The unknown warriors were concealed under cloaks, with masks veiling their facial features indefinitely; although their identities were hidden, their intentions were not.
And with the blink of an eye, all the troops were dead, lying all around the heterochromatic redhead. Looking down, the redhead could see a sword shoved through his chest, and before him, the last living troop was wide-eyed and afraid as he shook sporadically.
XXX
Yuso merely gazed at the elderly man for numerous moments, his Shirugeto beginning to spur wildly. "What did you do to the rest of my memories, Ryouiki?"
"If you're getting more of them back, that means I'm losing control over you..." Ryouiki huffed, his eyes concentrated on the redhead floating a few feet away from him.
The demon-eyed male gritted his teeth. "You used to tell me that I was preserved to be protected, to return to the world as a catalyst to change the three nations to what they once were. Now, all I see is a pathetic old man who's desperately trying to subvert the old king—Reiwa Takuetsu."
"You are all truly monsters...! Your entire wretched family!" Ryouiki screamed, anger bubbling within him.
"My..." Yuso paused, "...family?"
"If you kill me, you'll never truly know who you are! Your faded memory is all that you'll soon have left! Without me, the darkness is all you will call home!" The white-robed man asserted, directing the majority of his ire at the redhead.
Yuso went quiet, his head tilted downward. Then, after a short period, his hands started to glow to accompany his shining eyes. "But killing you would mark the advent of a change, 'my' change."
"What are you blabbering about!?" Ryouiki demanded with a shout.
Slowly, Yuso stretched his arms outward. "This entire realm, I've learned, is under my control... this was a power unforeseen, and I plan to discover more and break my limits as a simple man—all of that will start with ending you, a withered warrior with an Aura Amalgamation and previous master."
"I won't let you win, Yuso!"
The redhead's eyes spun faster. "You are the chains that hold me back, and now I will free myself after all these years!"
The fight between pupil and master resumed once more.
XXX
A little bit of character development for Yuso! And the next chapter will be the conclusion to this fight! Want to see how it turns out? Stay tuned for more! After this fight, we will still have to see what happened with Regashi and Hades and what had become of their first encounter! Beyond that, Tanjo's training will surely influence his power after some time has passed! See ya!
Have a Great Day!
Peace - Cr1ticalz_