Ryu - I Am The Liberator

Standing in a bloody pool, Ryu's body was in tatter's deep rending wounds oozing with blood and dark sludge.

His right eye was sliced now blind, and his left arm was torn off.

How many times did he try to use his Sanguine Burst? Chanting "Liberate O' Sanguine." Only for the damn blood monster to mock him.

Berate him like a weak fool!

'Why won't it work...'

Ryu felt frustration, his mind constantly rushing, now moderately numb to the pain from his body being destroyed and resistant crushed.

"Kukuku"

"Surrender that body. Let me become the master."

"C'mon, you know I can handle those three flesh bags well. I'll use them well!"

"You lack the will to murder."

"The path of blood and destruction is forever closed to you because of that woman! Hahahah!"

Ryu didn't respond, his chest breathing slowly as the immortality brought by his technique began to absorb the pool of blood beneath him again, repairing his wounds, fixing his bones and starting this fight.

'This is the twelfth time he has crushed me, and I have only learned that he doesn't regenerate.'

'Is it because this world, this core, this place is mine?'

'That's why he wants to become the master!'

Before he could use this information, the blood devil rushed at him.

Yes, the word demon was a mere mask. To hide the vile true nature of this technique and the true meaning behind the chant

"Liberate O'Sanguine."

Sanguine was the Devil born from blood, destruction and carnage.

The devourer of life.

An immortal evil god that seeks the perfect heir.

*Bang*

Ryu's body was sent flying as he used the Nine Ring Broadsword to block the blow across his chest, cracking slightly as it stopped its full power.

The Devil's foot lingered in the air before flashing forward, following up with an axe kick the same style as Ryu's family.

Except there were no gaps, faults or mistakes as Ryu's body twisted to the side, rolling his wrist with the heavy blade with a brutal slash across the Devil's flank.

"You wretch! Unable to become a devil, wasting the talent and affinity with his inheritance!"

"Shut up." Ryu spat, cracking his neck from side to side.

His hand dragged the broadsword along the blood pool, watching the Devil adjust before it took the stance to attack once again. It seemed the attack cut deep as the movements in Ryu's eyes were slower.

"Hey, why can't you use techniques other than my family's?"

A small guess, a flash of inspiration.

"You!!"

'Yes, you are not the blood devil or his heir.'

He was pushing his huge sword over one hundred and thirty centimetres long, more than five fingers wide, and thirty centimetres being the long, elegant handle with a blue and silver colour shimmering in the dark blood moon above them.

The Devil couldn't use the Blood Devil Absorption Technique.

The Devil couldn't use Sanguine Burst or Scarlet Rush!

"What are you doing? Pointing that stupid sword that stinks of her vile essence at me!"

Ryu didn't respond, taking a long breath, his eyes and mind looking into his own body, feeling the changes and movements of his body.

Watching the flow of his Qi, the way his Inner and outer core and the mantle acted like a miniature planet.

When he absorbed blood qi from the air, it was refined by the three layers before being stored in the inner core.

His mantle would purify the blood qi using the impurities from the other person to make the mantle's earth more fertile.

Then, the outer core would purify and condense the blood qi into a jelly-like substance that trickled slowly into the ruby red core and became his permanent qi, no longer linked to the person he killed.

The first three layers existed to purify, distil and deprive enemies of their blood qi.

'And the Final Layer of the Earth Cycle is to make that jelly-like qi....'

'Mine!"

Ryu's eyes slowly opened with a flicker of red light emanating from his body like a thick aura, blood pumping through his organs, muscles and body, surging like a raging ocean storm.

The Devil tried to attack, but its body was now frozen, with the tip of Ryu's sword sliced through its cheek.

Now unable to move due to the heavy aura coming from Ryu.

"Fake Devil."

"Shut up! Ryu, don't think you've won because I cannot move!"

"Hahaha."

Ryu laughed at the blood monster.

There was no fear, worry or pain in his expression as he breathed with a slow, constant pattern while watching the unsightly and pathetic fake before him that was shouting, screaming and acting like a child who had lost his toy.

'The apocalypse took us by surprise, right?'

'We are worried about Mother, Sebastian and even Father, right?'

'You were heartbroken when Aya died, no?'

'Yet tell me, Ryu...'

'Why do we tremble like a pathetic child standing in the rain?'

'As if waiting for our mother to coddle us?'

His eyes were clear, and he knew why this happened, and it was all due to his rash nature and actions taken during his enraged state.

"Why are you so calm!?"

"Why do you look at me with such peaceful eyes!?"

The demon began to rage, but Ryu increased the pressure from his blood qi as it began to condense around him, making the demon tremble.

Ryu's beautiful crimson eyes glistened as he reached saturation; every ounce of his blood qi now squeezed out of his inner core and swirled through his body.

"Tell me, why do you act so unsightly?" He asked the demon, with a voice that lacked anger, hatred or displeasure.

"Do you think I would cut you away, even if I win?"

Finally, the monster stepped back as Ryu advanced one step, inching forward, but their distance was the same.

"!!!"

It did not speak, only snarling and lashing out, but the powerful blows that tore Ryu apart were gone...

Only a 19-year-old boy with black hair down to his shoulders, crimson eyes and a handsome face with his face filled with fear as he trembled.

The monster was Shirogane Ryu.

And Shirogane Ryu was...

"Liberate."

...Ryu was the Devil all along.

"O' Sanguine!"

With the words spoken, Ryu's entire body was wrapped in a bright crimson aura, his eyes and skin changing to a darker shade.

He didn't feel pain, didn't feel weak, didn't feel cold or heat, only the sensation of pure power.

His muscles swelled, his blood vessels expanded, and his heartbeat and breathing turned erratic.

"Let's go."

Ryu's hair was now snow-white, flowing in a spiked style, swaying around with the crackling blood qi that flickered from his body, condensing his muscles and filling the entire spirit world with a bloody colour.

He didn't fight but offered his left hand.

"If we are to become a Devil. Why must I discard my feelings and desires? Such a stupid rite of passage. I refuse!"

"!!!"

"Let's become a Devil together," Ryu spoke with a smile as the image of him and all his insecurities and weak feelings stood with a shocked face, mouth wide open.

There was too much to know and many things Ryu had no idea about regarding this mysterious Sanguine system and the techniques he was bestowed.

However...

Would it mean discarding his love for his mother, respect for Sebastian and his father or the brotherhood with those three idiots?

Haha.

'I would rather stay a mere human!'

"But you might lose your position as the heir! Your immunity... power and strength what if we lose it!?"

Ryu stepped forward, shaking his head.

"I don't care about it, after all. The only power I need is my own, which I've honed over a decade. And even so..."

"If he's searching for an heir, why would he want them to follow his path? The guy is a fucking devil... Not some holy monk in a temple or divine being up above."

The weak Ryu placed his hand inside the strong, powerful Ryu in his Half-Devil form before feeling himself absorbed, like blood qi... slowly, the final missing piece he lost the moment he performed a rushed and incomplete Sanguine Burst returned to its place.

Taking a deep breath, Ryu could feel something likely the system, or maybe it was Sanguine himself.

"Since he was called 'The Liberator', why would he seek an heir who doesn't follow the same path."

Say he was to lose everything given to him by others...

The powers the system gave him; he was merely Kurogane Ryu, the heir to the unorthodox Kurogane assassination school of combat.

Without his family style, Kurogane Ryu was just Ryu, the beloved son of his mother.

And with everything taken away...

What would Ryu become?

The pressure of existence listened as if it could hear his thoughts, feelings and desires!

"Then I will become the Liberator and take those things back."

A trembling atmosphere caused his skin to crack and blood to flow from his puny body, but Ryu still held his sword, pointing to the skies.

"Liberate O'Shirogane!"

The moment he chanted those words, there was a pule inside his chest, a wave of blood qi throbbing... the qi from his weak seal... his pride as the son of Kurogane Genji, the student of Sebastian this was not a chant to empower himself, but to absorb, accept and solidify his path.

A path for Kurogane Ryu alone.

The words are a symbol of where his heart lay.

Silence.

The pressure faded.

Rather, it began to tremble... As if laughing at his words and heart.

[Good! Good! My Heir! I Accept your challenge!]

[COME!]

[Find me and show me your path.]

[Ryu]

[Hahahahaha!]

It was a deep, melodic male voice that sounded completely different from the system's normal words—suddenly, the world cracked, and his heart was light.

There was no guilt, anger, frustration, fear or grief.

As if that existence had 'liberated' him of those feelings, although he could still feel they did not cloud his judgment anymore.

The next moment, countless system messages popped up.

But the only one that made his chest feel peace was a single line.

[Cultivation Stage: 4th Layer of the Earth Cycle (Crust)]