But, when he rose up into the skies and reached a hand out, ripping a hole in the formation that protected the city, everyone froze, their eyes lighting with fear.

To even see this level of formation with one’s eyes took a level of skill they couldn’t fathom. But, to then also proceed to rip a whole into it, and so casually at that, they couldn’t wrap their minds around just what was happening.

However, what was clear at that moment was that Ryu held their lives in the palm of his hands. Without this city, facing this world head on would be asking for death. At that moment, even Zanlis froze, his face alight with hesitation. He too didn’t dare to take things to this level.

Ryu descended from the skies, trudging into the castle. His aura seemed to scream that he wanted to be left alone, a heavy darkness hanging around him.

The air crackled and popped around, his emotions being hardly kept in check as he disappeared from the view of most.

The youths who remained gazed toward one another, apprehension gripping their hearts. But, what they were maybe more worried about than this was how their second tiger would react to all of this. Compared to Zanlis, he was much less cool headed. He was the kind of man who would die for the sake of his pride.

If he came here and started to rampage without a word, what would they do if Ryu just destroyed the city formation entirely? Even if that guy could survive until maybe finding another city, what would they do, exactly? How many of them would survive such a thing?

At that moment, many of them began to wonder if coming to this place had been the right decision in the first place.

…

Ryu turned a gaze toward Sarriel. At the moment, the look in his eyes was frighteningly cold, even to the point it seemed his silver eyes had gained a blue glow to them that radiated a frigid air.

Seemingly sensing that this wasn’t a place he should be present, Niel took a few awkward steps back, exiting from the castle’s Keep.

The Keep was a place that was relatively off limits for most who entered this city. Since they hadn’t decided on a ‘top dog’ yet, neither Zanlis nor the other supposed tiger had called it home. But, Ryu obviously didn’t care about this. He had cut a straight line toward this stone building, slamming the doors shut without the input of anyone else.

Niel found himself outside the Keep, coughing somewhat awkwardly. Following Ryu was really going to be the death of him one day.

He had thought that Ryu was getting better, even beginning to warm up to people and surprisingly… smile? It was quite a shocking change, indeed.

But, it felt as though just a single conversation had brought him all the way back to step one. Niel could only hope that maybe Sarriel could help drag him back. But, once again, Niel was definitely overestimating the relationship between the two of them. The reason Ryu wanted to speak to Sarriel alone had nothing to do with wanting to seek comfort from her.

Standing within the bottom floor of the keep, Ryu faced Sarriel. If he had the mind to look around, he would quickly realize that the Keep was in far better condition than practically anywhere in this city.

There were long, luxurious, red carpets, elaborate chandeliers sparkling of gold and silver hanging above, and even a wide set of double stairs that met together on a higher floor.

However, what was most intriguing about the Keep wasn’t its decorations of grandeur at all. Rather, Ryu could easily sense numerous and countless densely packed formations fitted all around the Keep.

These formations, though, didn’t seem prepared to activate until one attempted to move on to a higher floor. In addition, the formations ready to activate on this very first floor were actually quite benign.

From what Ryu could tell, the formations here were designed with several spatial functions in mind. One part of these spatial functions could bring him to other parts of the Keep. The other half of these functions was connected to a different world entirely. As for what this world brought, Ryu couldn’t be bothered to care right now. His entire being was focused on Sarriel.

At this moment, having been forced off of Nemesis’ back after the big guy noticed Ryu wasn’t very happy with her, Sarriel was standing on her own. She actually looked quite pitiful…

Her legs were wobbly and weak, her face was flushed down to her cheeks and even to the tips of her ears, and her breathing was still labored. It seemed that she hadn’t recovered much at all. The disappearance of the support Ryu’s Life Flame had been giving her only made everything worse.

However, the current Ryu was at the point where even her beauty didn’t move his needle even the slightest bit. His eyes didn’t roam, his lower belly didn’t warm, in fact, his body had become no different from a living block of ice. The pressure he exuded only seemed to become greater and greater, his air of a Monarch involuntarily seeping out from his very being.

”What do you know?” Ryu asked, his voice even.

Sarriel’s sparkling violet eyes met Ryu’s gaze, but at the moment she seemed to be on the verge of tears. If it wasn’t because she was scared that speaking might make them spill over, she probably would have been shocked into speaking as soon as Ryu’s words ended.

But, she had a feeling that if she started crying now, rather than gaining pity, she would just make Ryu angrier.

”I… I…”

Sarriel failed to hold it back, her tears spilling over and drenching her cheeks. She hiccupped, having so much trouble catching her breath that she went light headed for a moment and stumbled forward.

Ryu’s brows wrinkled.

Sarriel fell to her knees, balling. Her legs splayed, her butt touching the ground. She tried her best to cover her face with her hands, but her dainty palm and slender fingers weren’t doing a very good job of it at all, especially when her trembling ears made it obvious what was happening behind it.

”I… I lost my parents too…”

The words were simple, and probably only spoken as the last exasperated cry of a girl at the end of her rope, yet they seemed to pierce through Ryu’s heart like a javelin.

He stood frozen, his arms crossed over his chest, his white hair waving about under his turbid aura.

This was the world of cultivation. Those who were murdered before their time, reaped while they still had their own dreams, aspirations… their own families, were simply too many to count. Even in a single breath that Ryu took, how many more had died? How many lives had he taken personally that were just like this?

Ryu moved about the world as though his goals were the only ones that mattered, as though the world revolved around him, as though he was the only one who knew what suffering was.

Just a small change in his psyche caused by information he should have likely already guessed, practically caused him to lash out in the most violent of ways.

Just because he wasn’t crying, screaming, shouting, waving his limbs about and stamping his foot, didn’t mean that he wasn’t throwing a tantrum. Sarriel’s words seemed to make Ryu realize that he was doing exactly that.

’Quite pathetic.’ Ryu thought to himself.

He looked toward Sarriel’s crying figure, the radiant blue in his eyes slowly fading.

He had been wallowing in self pity for a long time, over a thousand years in fact. Ever since his seventh birthday, had he ever done anything but pity himself?

Ironically, Ryu felt that the version of himself with his memories still sealed, that small blind boy without any power or strength, and without anyone but an old Imperial Doula to love him… Was the strongest he had ever been.

That boy still knew how to smile, he still knew how to laugh and have fun. The world seemed to hate him… He knew this and couldn’t do anything to change it, yet he still faced the world with a straight back and a sarcastic smile.

It was quite funny. When Ryu awoke that fateful day after Granny Miriam’s death, he washed himself clean of everything that was that small boy. The only reason he even participated in the Coronation Games was for the sake of laying the seeds he needed to destroy the Tor Kingdom.

Back then, he had always thought it was a step forward. But now, he felt as though he had done an about face that day and had been walking in the wrong direction all this time.

Ryu took a step forward and took a single knee before Sarriel.

Reaching a hand toward her, he peeled her hands back and cleared her delicate face of her hair, helping her wipe her tears.

”I’m sorry.” Ryu said lightly.

This immaturity of his… He felt that he had carried it for long enough.