Chapter 22

It took twenty-two days for Ryuu to receive any response from Tiamat. During the time he was camping outside her cave given that it was the most secure location to do so, inside the familiar forest.

She was very much aware of him, but since he didn't bother her and even left a few reserve casks for her, Tiamat felt generous enough to let him be.

When the familiar came to fetch him Ryuu was quick to comply. He then saw Tiamat and beside her a small old monkey youkai whom he identified as the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, the Monkey King himself, Sun Wukong!

Very much aware of his presence the Monkey King and his battle partner started staring down at him while Tiamat just gave him a nod and disappeared back into her cave.

Whatever it was that's going on between them, she wouldn't care. She had already fulfilled her part of the bargain by egging the Monkey King on until he promised to come over.

Without them doing anything Ryuu already began feeling pressured. With every step he took he started sweating a bit more. When he finally stood before those behemoths he straigthened his back and gave a respectful bow while introducing himself.

"Thank you very much for answering my summons, Great Sage, you as well Jade Dragon. My name is Ryuu and I'm a common devil."

He then straightened himself back up and waited for their reaction. Just as before a silent pressure bore down onto Ryuu but je couldn't do anything besides gritting his teeth and wait.

Fifteen minutes; that's how long it took for the Mischievous Dragon to finally answer him, "you said your name is Ryuu, huh. Not bad at all, to patiently take all of that while trying to hide your unease.

You said you're a common devil right, I haven't seen a pure one of those in a long, long time. I honestly didn't think they still existed. You might be already aware but allow me to introduce myself, I'm Yu-Long, the Jade Dragon one of the Five Great Dragon Kings.

Nice to meet you, brat," Yu-Long said with a prideful smirk on his face. It took Ryuu a lot of restraint to not pop a vein on his forehead right now.

Meanwhile the Great Sage chuckled at the antics of his partner and began introducing himself as well, "it is nice to meet a polite young devil such as yourself, young Ryuu. As you are already aware I'm Sun Wukong and there is no need to call me by my old titles.

Now, I know this might be rude but whatever you have to tell me, do it quick. The Heavenly Emperor is not known for his patience and if I take too long he'll get angry and I don't want to deal with an angry God of War."

Feeling the no nonsense aura Ryuu readied himself and said, "I need to become your legacy disciple." Shortly after he said these words, the very atmospehere around him seemed to freeze.

Both the Great Sage and the Great Dragon King went from passive to active with their pressure leaving Ryuu breathless. It was incomprehensible to them how a little devil dared to call them to him just to ask that, leaving them a little pissed.

Wukong's stare bore deeply into Ryuu as if to peer into his very soul. Feeling threatened by whatever was going on, the sapling within Ryuus' soul let out a majestic golden light to form a protective barrier around him suprising the Monkey King and his companion.

'What is that light and why does it feel like Asgard's Yggdrasil' they wondered. This small incident was enough to break Ryuu out of their supression.

He tried to compose himself and quickly explained himself, "please calm yourselves I wouldn't dare to call you just for a small matter like that," he added with a bitter smile.

The monkey youkai just gave him a stare as if to tell him 'go on'. Ryuu closed his eyes before channeling his demonic energy, suprising the battle duo.

They both knew he was just a common devil without an ounce of noble blood in him. They also knew about the restrictions placed upon those devils. Knowing all that and seeing Ryuu channel the powers' of a mid-rank with perfect control and no delay in their energy manipulation left them a bit dumbfounded.

"You.. how is that possible," the Jade Dragon asked in a very unintelligent way making his partner chuckle again and leaving himself grimacing.

Ryuu looked into their eyes and could see that they'd only accept the truth so he gritted his teeth and told them how he broke the "Chains of Fate" as he calls them through the use of rituals and strict training.

The duo could tell that he was telling the truth, but their instincts honed over millenia was telling them he was missing something, something crucial in his explanation. Maybe Ryuu himself wasn't aware of an additional factor that made his rise possible.

Eventually the monkey youkai looked at him with a much lighter gaze and said, "while all of this is certainly impressive, why should I take you in as a disciple, much less my legacy disciple?"

Ryuu was very conflicted right now. On one hand he wanted to tell him the full truth, but on the other he wanted to do nothing more than just screw the plan and run. He eventually chose to compromise.

"I can't tell you the ins and outs of my plans without lying to you, Great Sage," he said. But this only added to the Monkey Kings curiosity.

Ryuu then continued, "all I can tell you is that I'm preparing for something serious. So serious in fact that it could leave our world as we know it in ruins."

Not believing his words Sun Wukong asked him to repeat himself, but this time he had his Senjutsu running at full throttle to check whether or not the brat dared to lie to his face. Yu-Long too looked ready to lunge at him for joking about such matters in front of his presence.

"Our world is in danger from both the inside and the outside," Ryuu said, his voice carrying a sense of finality in it leaving both monkey and dragon speechless with a feeling of dread running down their spines.

The brat knew something; something they didn't. And this knowledge has him running himself ragged in hopes to acquire power strong enough to protect not only himself, but the world in it's entirety. Feeling his resolve the battle duo decided to give him a chance, "tell us as much as you are willing to."

The duo gave him a final ultimatum; tell us something or we are done here. A quick contemplation later he decided to tell them about Evie Etoulde, how they are warring amongst themselves for eons and how the evil machine god and his followers wish to conquer this world.

He told them about Great Red's postion as a guardian and how the second in command of the evil god could quite easily decimate the Dragon of Dragons who is known to be the strongest existence in this world.

Yu-Long could feel his partner's heartbeat spiking, indicating that the brat was telling the truth, or at least believed himself that he was telling the truth. He himself could feel dread and fear building up.

As a powerful dragon himself, he more than anyone understood just how much power the Dream Dragon has. Even a hundred of himself together would barely offer him a scratch. But to think that the lackey of an evil god could just come and nearly casually kill him made him wonder if it was even worth it to put up a fight.

Before he was able to lose himself in his fears though his partner gave him a tap on his snout with his staff and pointed it at Ryuu. Yu-Long then remembered that despite being weak and burdened with this knowledge, the little devil chose to fight.

The look in Ryuus' eyes lit up a fire in Yu-Long, 'If this brat can do it why shouldn't I, the Jade Dragon be able to do it,' he thought.