Chapter 16

Three days have passed since Ryuu performance on the market square. For all the fun and excitement he felt during it, he most certainly never expected people to explode like that. Like a pulver barrel everyone seemed to have become musical enthusiasts and were looking into him for either guidance or exploitation.

Ryuu never would've guessed that the King of Rock'n'Roll had such a big effect on the devils. It was beyond anything he could've anticipated. While he wanted to spark a little flame he seemed to have broken a dam. This issue stemmed from the severe boredom devils were suffering nowadays.

With all the wars over and no major conflict, devils were getting bored and started seeking challenges in each other once more in order to relieve their urges. The reason behind the success of the Rating Games can also be traced back to this.

Devils love anything related to fighting because that's what Lucifer made them for in the first. When he took Liliths' flesh to create the other three Maous and the seventy-two pillars of the underworld his intent behind that was war and the desire of world domination.

Lucifer did eventually fail in his ambition when God decided to take the maous down with him after sacrificing most of his powers in order to seal Trihexa, Emperor Beast of Apocalypse.

Without him to chain them down those guys were going to cause too much trouble for the world and most importantely; for humanity.

Given the chain of events it is safe to assume that if God so desired, he could've annihilated the devils long ago. After all even in his battered bruised and completely exhausted state he took down Lucifer, Beelzebub, Asmodeus and Leviathan.

This further cements the theory that God deliberately arranged the "evil" in order to spread his faith and keep an equilibrium between 'good' and 'evil'. Another reason as to why God did what he did could be his fear of corruption.

"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely," were the words of John Dalberg-Acton himself.

Maybe God saw himself becoming a monster due to all the power he had gathered, or maybe he wanted to make sure that his children continued to have a purpose, other than silently rotting away in heaven. Only assumptions can be made with no concrete evidence, Ryuu thought that the answer may lie in the depths of heavens' system.

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Ryuu was currently on his way to the arena for his final battle. Regardless of the outcome, it would him to disappear from the underworld for a while; either he broke through and sought out the Monkey King, or he'll die trying like the fool he is!

Standing before the building that housed the arena he closed his eyes and took a deep breath thinking 'this is it'.

Everything he did in the past ten years lead to this point. The final breakthrough to thoroughly break his chains of destiny (A/N: Rakudai Kishi) and to pave his way to become something more; something extraordinary.

Ryuu new he couldn't take it easy now. In fact there is no easy, or proper way to win this. It would be a clash between extreme technique against superior power plus technique. Ryuu being the former power.

As he made his way down to the underground arena people were looking at him with a solemn expression. By this point they've understood that this lunatic has come here not to stirr trouble, but to hone himself. When they saw his face it reminded them of their comrades in the past battles; going in with everything they have, ready to sacrifice their lives if it assures them victory.

Out of respect towards his attitude no one dared to make trouble for him today. Even his opponent, whose name is funnily enough Teuchi (A/N: yes, I just did it) came in a timely manner and behaved professionally. He stood proudly at 6'1 with short greenish-blue hair and sharp purple eyes. His expression serious and his battle intent surging outwards as he touched the hilt of his chinese-style sword. (A/N: Jian)

In response to this Ryuu too flared up his battle intent. Crackles filled the atmosphere. While Teuchi was a refined stone, Ryuu was a polished and dense stone. Both trying not to give each other even an inch. Alas, despite his best efforts it was clear that Ryuu was the weaker party in this brief clash.

This didn't make people look down at him, instead it made them respect him even more. While not entirely warrior-like in the way Asgard was, people here could appreciate a promising youngster like him.

The same refree from Ryuu's previous match was making the announcements. He too carried a solemn expression and looked at both participants. No words were necassary. They just nodded.

Seeing this the refree gave Ryuu one last look. Feeling the cold determination and boderline madness in the eyes of the youngster he shuddered. Without wasting any more time he simply said, "go."

Not a moment later both were rushing at each other with high speeds. While Teuchi was relying on his superior physical prowess, Ryuu was using short ranged [Flash Steps].

He was using a few drops worth of his demonic energy and compressed them under his feet, followed by a sudden release of his hold onto the mass of energy which caused a controlled combustion and catapulting him forward similiar to a piston in a car engine.

One after another he'd move in a zigzagging fashion to confuse and approach Teuchi. He couldn't risk just jumping straight at him, given Teuchi would simply bitch slap him out of existence if he's not careful.

Seeing his move was very suprising to everyone. Not only did the brat dare to proactively attack, but his manner in which he approached Teuchi the swordsman made them dumbfounded. In all of their life no one has ever seen such a clever use of pure energy.

Some were actively taking notes of what the brat did. They would later try and replicate it, just to fail miserably and possible permanently harm themselves.

Without a perfect control of ones energy attempting a controlled energy combustion is suicide, regardless where on the body they do it.

When they finally faced each other up close Teuchi swung his sword faster than the eye could see, while Ryuu aimed a fist at his chest. He didn't bother using his meagre reserves a body enhancement. Instead he decided to use the combustion trick he learned for the [Flash Steps] and apply it onto his ellbow, giving him more velocity behind his attack.

Because of Ryuu's low reserves one can barely detect a shift in his energy. The only time it would be clear was when he emptied everything at once, thus making Teuchi misinterpret his plans.

Thinking Ryuu was using nothing more than physical might made him decide to bear the damage since he was curious just how much the brat could do. In order to mitigating as much damage as possible Teuchi started focusing his energy onto his chest, giving him something akin to a mana breastplate.

Teuchi wasn't going for the kill, instead he wanted to test the boy in front of him to see how far he can struggle. His fast and precise sword slashes were all over his upper arm, carving something akin to a flower onto Ryuu.

At the same time Ryuus' fist connected with his chest followed by another combustion coming from his knuckles. Something Teuchi didn't expect.

What accured next was an explosion followed by a cloud of dust. The sounds of flesh being cut apart and brones breaking were echoing through the gloomy arena. The exchange of attacks was so fast that only a few "experts" in the crowd were able to make head or tail out of it.

Slowly the dust settled letting them see the outcome of that exciting first exchange.