Dream of The Beginning

After Ishtar has disappeared, Ryan undid the domain [Ruins of the End]. He smiled wryly at her threat, 'Are you telling me to rob the Empire's treasury?' 

The amounts of gem that Ishtar wanted as her tribute was quite a staggering number.
It was likely that such amount could only be possessed by an extremely large force. And in this world, the known largest force should be the Empire... 

Ryan shook his head lightly, 'Robbing the Empire doesn't seem like a bad idea, maybe I should really try it once later.' 

However, his face turned cold when he suddenly looked over a certain direction inside the forest. Noiselessly, Ryan flicked something toward that direction. 

An almost imperceptible black light quickly shot past the night, piercing straight into its intended target. 

Amidst the darkness enveloping the forest, there was a particular bird whose eyes seemed to contain wisdom unlike other birds. 

Of course, considering that particular bird was a familiar of one of the Blood Breed's familiars, that much was to be expected. With its connection to its contractor, it was able to share what it saw and sensed across far distance, thus making it an efficient scouting patrol. 

At this moment, this familiar was still doing its usual routine, patrolling the Empire's forest outskirts, when its gaze fell on a certain area in the forest. There might not be anything looking strange at that particular place, yet it was still able to sense an unusual flow of air around that place. 

'Hmm. That's...?' 

At that exact moment, it suddenly felt an extreme sense of danger approaching it fast. 

Puchi! 

Before it managed to react, a hole the size of peeble suddenly appeared on its chest, piercing thoroughly from its front to back. The last sight it managed to catch was a black-robed figure who suddenly appeared at that particular site. 

'Tyrant's leader–! Why's he here...?' 

Since it was linked with its contractor, it was also told to remember the important figures of each teams. 

Although [Tyrant] might not have reputable fame before, but it was a team comprising of ten Arcane Art users with unknown abilities. It would be foolish to neglect such threatening newcomer just because it had no apparent reputation. 

'No! It's not important why or how he is here.' 

Its job was merely to patrol and gather information wherever he was tasked. 

With the Blue faction already gathered themselves in the Empire's lot, the other teams would be likely enemies rather than allies. 

'...what's important is to let the Boss knows about this soon!' 

For the confusing matter like the motive of this Tyrant's leader, it'd let the higher-ups thought about that themselves. 

As the light in its eyes dimmed, a streak of scarlet light flashed from inside its body, flying stealthily toward the Empire Capital... 

"Fucking peeping tom. You just had to appear when the mood's good...!" Ryan cursed. 

Now that Ishtar and Ereshkigal already returned to the Altar World, he was all alone in this cold night. Really, such a shame~ 

And there he was going to get some 'action' just then… 

"That's that I guess." 

Well, he could just have his fill later on. Since he had no other things to do, he'd better off clearing his head for training again. With that notion, Ryan immediately seated cross-legged as he initiated [Origin Tempering Art] to refine himself. 

[Origin Tempering Art] – this technique sought to absorb the fortune from heaven and earth to refine his essence, utilizing external and internal force to temper his physique into one of the primordial gods. Just like the primordial goddess Tiamat. 

Although goddess Tiamat might be a god from lower-level dimension, but she was still one of strongest beings in that world. Not to mention that her Divinity mainly revolved around creation and evolution; both components allowed Ryan to have great potential and adaptability rate to deal with myriad changes. 

Soon, a faint humanoid silhouette gilded in gold was shrouding Ryan as he immersed himself into practicing [Origin Tempering Art]. This was Ryan's divine avatar born from practicing this Art. 

The greater his accomplishment in the technique, the better pronounced his divine avatar would be. As of now, his divine avatar only barely resembled Ryan, at least enough to recognize that it possessed his features… 

Countless bubbles of pale gold light were slowly gathering from the surrounding forest with Ryan at the center. Those were the life essence of the land and creatures; a gathering of vital energy. 

This world might not possess discernible mana or spiritual energy, but as long as the world had living creatures inhabiting it, such world would also possess vital energy. It was the foundation for living activities, usually contained by living creatures and prosperous lands. 

What Ryan did was simple; he forcefully extracted those vital energy from surrounding land and living creatures through [Origin Tempering Art]. He stole their fortune, used their life essence to refine his physique, thus evolving his state of existence further. 

As times passed, his divine avatar also gradually became more refined, slowly transforming from ethereal to corporeal. 

In that deep of night, glittering starlight cascaded downward, shrouding Ryan within ethereal light as he kept absorbing vital energy from heaven and earth. 

Fallen leaves, yellowed and dried after their essence was absorbed, slowly fell around him. They seemingly formed a boundary which separated Ryan with the world… 

'Path of the Stars. The slumbering Lone Star… where would I find clues about them?' Ryan gradually opened his eyes. 

His gaze seemed to peer deeper into the vast night skies, penetrating through array of stars as a streak of purple light flashed through his eyes. 

…even with his innate eyes [Heaven's Gaze], Ryan was still unable to find the so-called 'Path of the Stars' stated in his current task. 

[Second Trial – Awakening of the slumbering Lone Star] 

[Seek the Path of the Stars amidst the disorder of destiny; awaken the slumbering lone star cursed in its own folly.] 

[Success Reward: ???] 

[Failure Punishment: ???] 

[Time Limit: 354 days (365 days)] 

[Completion Rate: 5%] 

That degree of completion rate was gained from his interaction with Ieyasu and Sayo in these few days. However, it didn't seem to increase in the slightest lately. 

'...Looks like I need to hasten my trip to Imperial City,' Ryan smiled faintly. 

Since it didn't seem like he would gain more completion rate just by interacting with those kids, he wanted to try looking for more clues in the Imperial City. 

Within such site of central influence, there should be one or two participants gathering there, right?

As for now, 

Two people who bore high resemblance to Ryan materialized in front of him. 

A pale white young man with vicious aura shrouding his entire being. He donned a dark-red battle robe, bare-handed, a pair of jet-black demonic wings unfurled on his back. 

"Oh, you are more 'energetic' than usual, main body," 

One of Ryan's avatars, the Demon King avatar, grinned lightly as he felt a stronger energy within his body. It was more than their usual capacity. 

"Heh. I bet he's just that frustrated for not getting some steamy actions from the girls, mate." 

A knight wearing silvery white armor, wielding the Sacred Lance and a huge shield, laughed loudly when he saw Ryan's expression darkened. 

He was Ryan's other avatar, the Sacred King, wielder of the Sacred Lance. 

"You thought it's funny? I am you, you are me. Since I didn't get any actions, you two also didn't get to tap them booties, you dolts!" Ryan sneered with a sour face. 

Golden runes flowed throughout his body, manifesting a set of Divine tattoos. Two pair of new arms grew behind Ryan, and a divine ring materialized as his crown. 

This was his divine god form, a manifestation of [Origin Tempering Art]. 

Human. Demon. God. 

These three aspects made him whole, each referring to his distinct aspects of strength. 

"And whose fault was that? You should have hold on to Ishtar tighter! It isn't like she's that opposed to it. Damn!" 

"I ain't no an exhibitionist," Ryan shrugged lightly. 

The Sacred King who was strangely quiet suddenly spoke, "Can't you just materialize a female version of ourselves?" 

"…" 

"…" 

Both the True Demon avatar and Ryan was looking at him, speechless at his nonsense. 

They both wanted to say, 'Go fuck yourself,' but… that's literally what the Sacred King spoke of… 

Even so, honestly speaking, imagining the female version of the Sacred King... if there is one, she'd probably looking like a fine gal knight?? 

A beautiful female knight with long, silvery white hair. Her aura solemn and sacred, her thick armor hiding her finely-toned and proportional figure. 

As for the female version of True Demon avatar, she'd probably looking like a fiery gal with some S qualities? 

A chilli pepper; burning hot, but endearing. 

Now that Ryan thought about it, they didn't look half-bad, alright. He could somewhat understand why there's a saying like "It takes real men to be best girls." 

'...I must be getting crazy,' Ryan cursed in his heart. 

After all, his avatars were all him in the end. Their thought also stemmed from himself, be it consciously or subconsciously. 

"No need for more useless chatters. Just like the usual, let's start." 

Ryan stated indifferently as his aura peaked. He immediately flashed in front of the Sacred King avatar, sending a direct punch to his face. 

"Oi~ oi~ you're going to leave this seat hanging?" The True Demon avatar grinned as he blocked Ryan's fist from reaching Sacred King avatar. 

Yet, his feet suddenly launched toward the Sacred King, kicking him straight in his guts! 

"You two… I just proposed an efficient idea for our trouble, yet this is how you repaid me? You're really asking for a damn beating, fuckers!" 

The light from the Sacred Lance shot out, sending Ryan and True Demon avatar flying. 

"Now we're talking!" x2 

Since [Origin Tempering Art] needed both internal and external exercises to temper oneself, this was one of the methods that Ryan concluded to get the fight he needed for refining his physique. 

Until the first sunlight reached out from the far horizon, just like the previous nights, these three idiots started to attack each other in relentless fights within the shroud of [Ruins of the End] domain… 

Royal Palace of the Empire, inside the [Blood Clan] guest chamber. 

"Tyrant's leader is sighted nearing the Capital? Alone?" 

Claudia, the current representative of [Blood Clan], slightly frowned when she heard the news brought by her subordinate. 

"One of my familiars only managed to catch his figure briefly before it's killed. We still don't know whether he is really alone or not." 

A red-haired man spoke calmly from the side. He was pretty nonchalant despite the death of his familiar; he could create more of them with ease after all. 

"…is that so?" Claudia retracted the scarlet mist around her as she fell into her thought for a while. 

'The preparation for that matter is almost finished, it's just the timing that hasn't been fixed yet.' 

Rather than betting on the chance of having pig teammates while they took up their mission, the Blue Faction chose to eliminate some potential troubles early on. 

And, if the chance arose, they really didn't mind to do an even bigger mess. 

'The Red Faction is also on the move already.' 

During this turbulent period, several assassination attempts had occurred on the Empire's political and military leaders. While they managed to repel some assassination attempts, they were unable to completely block the Red Faction's killing strikes. 

'Now, there's also the addition of the [Tyrant],' Claudia was quiet. 

After pondering for few moments, her gaze gradually turned sharp. She looked toward that red-haired man, "Sound him out. The trial's mission assigned to him, evaluation of his abilities, and his general alignment; I want to know them all. If possible, see if he's qualified to enter a temporary alliance with us, sir Gregor." 

"Roger that, my lady." 

The red-haired man nodded calmly before he saw himself off politely. 

Gregor Vanderburgh was a servant from Claudia's mother lineage. He was a Transcendent expert who excelled in assassination and reconnaissance, tasked to assist and protect Claudia during this Trial. 

'Uncle Gregor should be able to deal with him properly.' 

Claudia believed in his experiences and foresight. As for why, that was because Gregor managed to assassinate several half-step Deity experts on his missions before. He even had a history of killing a true Deity at some point in his life. 

With this world's limit of Transcendent rank, Gregor's abilities should be more than enough to evaluate [Tyrant]'s representative. 

Even to eliminate him, if the need arose. 

Moreover, even if she overestimated Ryan's ability and evaluated him as a Transcendent Ranker, she felt that her uncle Gregor should still be able to handle him. 

"Hm?" Claudia seemed to feel a little breeze for a moment there. 

"Probably just my imagination." 

After seeing there was nothing strange, she dismissed it lightly as she then returned to her training. At same time, an imperceptible sneer seemed to appear briefly on her face before it disappeared. 

'They're still fall short, indeed.' 

They might be allies, for now. However, things might be different after they finished their great undertaking. 

At that time, whether one would get short end of the stick or not should depend on their own ability. 

. . . 

"Ishtar and Ereshkigal have already reached the late-stage of creating their 'residence'. They're pretty fast." 

"It isn't strange, they were once a true-blue goddess after all. Something like rebuilding their own shrine should be piece of cake, even more so with all the help this realm provides us." 

"…are you sure we should do it without him?" 

"*sigh* I know what you're worried about. But, do you really think that he is completely unaware about this matter? He's keeping his silent because he could also feel it; he couldn't recklessly approach those two guardians. After all, the stronger he is, the stronger those guardians become." 

"…fine. We shall proceed with it after Ishtar and Ereshkigal finished consolidating their 'residence'. But, how about yourself, Hinako? Don't you think he's got the right to know about your case?" 

"…" 

Hinako Akuta became quiet. She looked faraway at those towering Divine Pillars, looking deep in thought. 

"…not now. I'll tell him myself when the time is right," Hinako smiled calmly as she shook her head. 

'Moreover, he probably already has an inkling about my matter too. After all, back then…'