5 The God and The Devil

---"*sob* It's good that you're back... Ryuu.", her sweet voice with a hint of childish tune welcomed that desolate-sounding raspy voice of Asura Ryuu's.

---"Since that day, when they condemned us, I've strongly believed that you'll succeed.

You gave me countless surprises even when we were up there, why would I not believe you'll make one more, the biggest surprise of all?"

"Heh...", a self-depreciating and mocking sigh found its way out from Asura Ryuu's shaking head.

"I underwent this gamble out of desperation but why did you follow me, silly girl..."

The girl stood up and took a step forward as a devilish smile found its way to her face. Her tail fully extended and under strain magically disconnected from the tree and the sharp tip appeared on its end.

So it turns out, she wasn't bound to the tree but chose to be as such voluntarily.

Step by step, she came in front of the kneeling Asura Ryuu bound by nine chains. Her slender finger split open as a starry liquid-like fluid swirled around it like a furious coiling dragon, the dragon's head breaking open the skin on her finger and drawing blood.

Instead of the usual red liquid, what should be the usual blood, on the girl's fingertip was a golden-black drop of blood essence that emanated an overbearing aura threatening to swallow everything and filled with profound laws accessible only to Gods, as it found its way to Asura Ryuu's forehead.

On his forehead, an emblem with a pattern resembling a Devil Dragon's head with four horns manifested in the same color as that drop of blood.

One could even say that drop of blood turned into the shape of that emblem and assimilated itself with Asura Ryuu's soul.

His closed eyes, overflowing with incredulity, suddenly shot open when he felt that drop of blood falling on the space between his eyebrows. But it was already too late to say anything to stop the girl from doing what she did.

You may not know clearly what occurred there, but it was equivalent to giving one's own life to someone else. That drop of blood is the true essence of every living thing. It's not the blood of the body - it's the blood of the soul, the "Spiritual Blood".

The Spiritual Blood always came as only one drop in every individual, and it always had a golden glow mixed with a color which most accurately represented the Spirit to which it belonged. Each drop of Spiritual Blood had its own distinct aura, much like what fingerprint represented for humans.

At this moment, Asura Ryuu had two drops of Spiritual Blood in his Soul World - one was his own and another was his master's which he had just received. But in all actuality he only had one which was his master's Spiritual Blood.

The reason being his Spiritual Blood had been damaged when he was 'up there' in The Realm of Gods before undergoing the risky gamble of life and death and turning out as a victor.

The Spiritual Blood was a foundation for each God and it was a taboo in their world, but even that taboo had been touched upon when he had broken the rules of The God Realm in order to save his loved one.

As they say, in love and war there are no rules.

In a short span of a single breath, all the Gods in The Realm of Gods gathered at their location when Asura Ryuu had lifted the nine chains binding his master - the demon girl, and with them the seal which sealed the last living devil of the Heavenly Devil Tribe.

The price he paid was enormous, or at least that's how others would see it.

The saying: "Falling from Heaven to Hell", although was an exaggeration when used, this time was true.

Earth was a separate Realm in itself from The Celestial Realms filled with Spirit Energy.

On Earth there was not a speck of Spirit Energy, only what was called the foundation of everything existed - the matter. That's precisely why it was designated as hell for residents of The Celestial Realms.

All living things on earth were sinners of The Celestial Realms - every blade of grass, every human, every animal. Even the kind and lovely ones - they were all banished to hell, which was a world where nothing existed. Well, at least that's how they saw the world with no Spirit Energy.

In The Celestial Realms even ants and rocks could gather Spirit Energy and evolve endlessly, aiming for the Heavens, but there was no possibility of that happening on Earth.

The crime Asura Ryuu had committed was too heavy for the Gods of The Realm of Gods to gather their Divine Energy and obliterate his existence, hence he was sent straight from their world to hell for eternity.

The usual punishment for heavier cases was one life cycle at Hell and then one could again reincarnate into The Celestial Realms upon reaching the end of their life down there, but his was an eternal banishment in the Hell. Such was the fate of The Realm of Gods' sinner.

But will Asura Ryuu give way to their will even if the entire world had turned against him?

Haha, they may as well just wake up from such a dream.

That was why he decided to start anew and seek vengeance in the future that is, if he could pass the Nine Cycles of Life and Death - The Nine Trials of Samsara.

Each chain binding him was his battle trophy of one Trial of Samsara which had been broken. Only if all nine were broken could one discard their own Soul and get a new life - the tenth life which was built on the foundation of the previous nine, and that was Asura Ryuu's final life on Earth, as well as the one he had first remembered of.

This meant, upon dying in that life, he could once again return to The Celestial Realms by reincarnating.

What Asura Ryuu never expected was that his journey would actually give birth to his Spirit Avatar - the Starry Tree.

The Starry Tree actually wasn't dead anymore - it was brimming with life such as leaves made of heavenly rivers and galaxies serving as fruits while all black holes connected to its roots. It was a magnificent sight, alright.

The Spirit Avatar is a state of Soul when it evolves beyond the level of Gods, but Asura Ryuu didn't know that. An important thing to note is that his Spiritual Blood, Spirit Emblem and cultivation were destroyed but not his soul. His soul had to remain intact if he were to be sent to hell, and this was precisely the mistake that Gods had overlooked.

It was a play of fate for the two of them, although a favorable one.

Every God had their Spiritual Blood and Divine Core, but only one in countless generations had a Spirit Avatar.

Because of that, nobody knew what function Spirit Avatars had, but something which even Gods didn't have surely can't be any less important than Spirit Emblem or Spiritual Blood.

But leaving that aside, instead of giving an answer to his question, the girl actually handed over her life to him entirely.

---"In life and death together, remember?"

Asura Ryuu's mind flashed with memories of that moment and he could only nod his head as he recalled past events.

"Um. In Life and Death together, regardless of how many there are. That was our pledge, little devil."

When she heard 'little devil', the girl's heart melted as she remembered countless times he called her like that. She had no name and didn't want one, but this fellow gave her a nickname and was so shameless to claim that he didn't name her and she can't hate him for calling her Little Devil since it wasn't her name.

Hearing him saying that again, she finally saw the usual Asura Ryuu once again after thousands of years being in his shadow. It all paid out in the end, she thought in her heart.

Naturally, tears came flowing out by themselves like rude guests barging into someone's home with no invitation, but these guests were very welcome this time: "Welcome back, Ryuu."

That sentence was the last thing spoken in this space, as the two of them embraced each other in a powerful hug, unwilling to let go of the other for a long, long time.