Ryu didn't know how long the comfortable feeling lasted for. In an irony of all ironies, he completely lost track of time, or maybe it was that it had become almost meaningless to him. After he had seen through the final layer of distortion casting a veil over the world, it felt like time and space had just become yet another variable no more complex than any other facet of the world.
Most believe time and space were the most complex of the elements, but Ryu couldn't bring himself to feel that way. In fact, he even felt that it was the simplest of them all, the most straight forward, the most fundamental.
How could they not be? They were the only two that one would always feel no matter where you were, no matter what you were doing, no matter what your goals or aspirations were, no matter what your station in lilfe might be.