Chapter 18

With every heartbeat the radiating blood red touki condensed a bit in the middle of Ryuus' chest until it was fully contained. For the crowd this was a rather confusing event, since the touki radiated off of him together with his heart beat.

Ryuus' heart stopped beating for a moment because it simply couldn't take the pressure of his newly awakened touki. The heart wasn't the only issue though. His insides were a mess, blood vessels popped, bones broken, organs failing and so on.

His body reflected those injuries on the outside as well; his skin cracking everywhere and blood spraying out of him like a fountain.

All of this left Ryuu cold, he knew that something like this was gonna happen and therefore prepared something. After all forcefully tearing something off would have consequences.

He rummaged through his clothes to find a sealed wooden box looking like a wine storage box. Due to the seals it survived everything, albeit barely.

Many were lifting their eyebrows at this. It wasn't unheard or frowned upon to bring something inside a fight, but never did it occur to them that the arrogant behaving brat would make such preparations.

Teuchis' expression was solemn, whatever it was inside their, it would be bad new for him. He like everyone else waited with batted breath for the reveal just to see a familiar crimson red bottle.

No one would've assumed Ryuu bring a Phoenix Tear inside the battle, the risk of breaking would scare most of the participants out of the idea. Not to mention the financial aspect of it.

Not bothering with the gasps and weird looks Ryuu just downed the bottle and activated a seal he placed upon himself beforehand. The seal would limit the healing power of the phoenix tears in order to use it's medical properties to strengthen the body from the inside out.

Ryuu then looked at Teuchi who had a look of despair in his eyes followed by a resigned sigh. Not that it bothered him all that much since he achieved what he came for and made a big commotion he knew he wouldn't leave without difficulties anymore if he didn't do it know.

So he activated a transportation circle before anyone could react and fled the scene. But not before he screamed, "I'm done here bit*hes!" Leaving everyone stunned, including Teuchi.

<Line Break>

Ryuu was currently lying by a river near his hut. His wounds still aching and his blood leaking everywhere, though the amount reduced significantely after taking the Tears. After lying down for a few minutes he decided it was time to head back and tend to his wounds.

Dragging his aching self into the hut while he would occasionally puke out some blood, bone pieces and flesh. After arriving he lifted his [Transformation] technique which he was barely able to hold up and stripped to get a better look at himself.

He then used some potions to make himself vomit, cleaning himself from the inside. When he was done puking he went into the bathroom and tried his best to wash off every bit of dirt it was a very arduous and painflul process, but a necassary one.

He needed to be clean in order to heal properly. Once he was clean and clothed he sat down on his bed with a lot of different pills in his hands. Those were supplements and nourishments he'd need in order for his healing plan to work.

Followed by a crap ton of food and then knocking himself out with magic. After all he still needed to provide energy for the overcompensation process.

All of that was necassary to get the most out of the tears like he'd planned beforehand. They wouldn't just repair him, he'd force his body to start an overcompensating process to make his bones sturdier and his muscles denser. Any left over energy would go to his blood vessels.

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As Ryuu lay there on his comfortable little mattress something magical was happening to him. The sapling within his soul was releasing a soothing and revitalising green light that permeated him and flowed from the inside out healing everything on it's way.

It seemed to resonate with the Tears in his system making the energy abolish the seal he placed upon himself and speed the entire process up. The quality of the healing light was many times superior to the Tears.

<Line Break>

It took thirty six hours for Ryuu to finally wake up. The first thing he did was checking in with his clone. Luckily nothing happened to him and no one bothered with him.

Ryuu decided it was time to get out of bed and check on himself. He was even more nervous than during the rituals since unlike before he didn't have an inkling what exactly was going on and was thus being unable to correct any potential mistakes.

Lucky for him that the little sapling was beyond anything he could comprehend right now. It not only perfectly healed his injuries and strenghtened him, it also smoothed out any rough edges in his genetic material.

Devils were artificial lifeforms not unlike homunculi therefore at times they develop issues like a rapid loss of vital energy or a dissonance of soul and body which leads to what devils know as the "sleeping disease".

How Ajuka didn't realise this despite having already created a possible cure through the Evil Pieces is beyond Ryuu, but to each their own.

His mind, body and soul were now in perfect harmony. His weakness to light and holy magic was gone. He was now just as susceptible to it as any other human would be.

His reservers weren't growing by the minute, but his demonic energy was denser while it keept its smoothness. To top if all of he now had access to touki.

Thinking about it he tried calling upon his newly acquired energy by coating his hand it. What suprised him was that it changed color; from a bloody red to a translucent black not unlike the Uchiha familys' amaterasu if a shade lighter.

Touki reminded him a bit of Nen, atleast appearance wise. Maybe it was a subconscious thing from his part that made it look that way he'd have to check-in with the Great Sage.

Right now though, nothing mattered aside from testing his new limits and consolidating what he already has.

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Panting and sweating heavily, Ryuu just stood there in awe of the devastation he was able to cause. The ground around him was riddled with holes, broken rocks everywhere and air was laced with clouds of dusts. All in all a very magnificent picture in Ryuus' eyes.

Seeing the effect the release of the chains brought he suddenly burst out into a song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel.

Unlike their version though his was an indication to the fact that he was now able to reach any heights and is no longer bound by any restrictions.

Once he was done giving his feelings a way out he calmed down and went into seclusion putting on finishing touches on his [Super Alcohol Barrel] and also preparing a list of strong and important figures that are currently alive and might be good peerage members.

He also made plans to screw over the council big time and allowing Serafall some more free time. If anyone could see the terrifying grin on his face right now, they'd probably shit their pants.

The poor council never saw it coming