After recovering himself through a short rest, Ryuu decided to fly towards the base of sacred hill and continued through foot to the peak.

This was to preserve his full power when he needed them the most.

The entrance to the sacred hill itself was clearly visible to the naked eyes, the sacred hill was filled with fog while the outside the area was without any fog, as if it was unnaturally separated.

Ryuu raised his hand as he wanted to touch the mist, but barrier of air pressure had prevented him from doing so.

‘Barrier, but I can’t simply break them apart…’ Ryuu sighed

He turned on his spirit sight and observed the area around him before he approached in front of a tree and focus upon the bark. There was an amulet on it and was shining continuously, showing that it was in effect

Ryuu wryly smiled as he saw the amulet, it was the same amulet he saw at his home.

‘I guess that confirms their involvement…’

Ryuu muttered before he raised his right index finger and touched the amulet.

The swirl of mana that was being absorbed to the amulet was suddenly dispersed and caused the amulet to lose its function and no longer shine.

The mists contained in the sacred hill was gushing out from one of the area as a result of the barrier disappearing.

Ryuu quickly stepped forward to the sacred hill before the disabled amulet was shining again, locking the mist once again alongside with Ryuu. Although, he didn’t paid heed and hiked to the peak.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Ryuu delve deeper towards the peak of the hill, the atmosphere was staring to change and the mist was denser, making it hard to find direction and see through the area.

He was already halfway inside the territory, which was forbidden to other people by ignoring the wind barrier. The vegetation at this area was diversely different from the one he could find before, perhaps due to the effect of the barrier and the hosted god.

His feet frequently tangled onto a vine that was growing on the ground as he walked into the small trail, thus he stopped at some point to take the vines out from his feet.

Even at the horrible treatment, Ryuu heart was delighted as he was looking at some of the plants in the area, sometimes he would stop at it excitedly.

This time he stopped upon a pond where he could see black flowers was hovering on it.

‘Oooh! [Dark Lotus]! I didn’t expect I could find such a rare plant, it’s also in batches…’

He swiped his index finger really fast, creating a wave of pure energy and cut the flower part of the lotus, leaving the stem alone and put it inside his nearly filled pouch. There was a tinge of regret felt from the boy.

‘I should’ve brought a bigger pouch!’

His greed was distracting him from his original purpose

As he hiked even deeper, the alignment of the flora in the region was becoming more distinct, the dark and violet-theme plants starts to become innumerable it obstructed the visibility even more, alongside the increasing mist density.

Soon enough, Ryuu’s iris turned blue as he moved further inside. His mind was filled with ideas while evading the obstacle with great agility.

‘The concentration of flora in this region’

‘I’m starting to doubt whether it’s a [God] they’re sealing in…’

‘Oh… I’m almost at the peak.’

But as he was thinking, he could see a bright light from afar and he hasten his pace and reached the end of the darkness.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The moon radiated, granting the surrounding area with light.

In front of Ryuu was an open space, around 200 meters in diameter, there was a temple resided in the midst of the empty space, as if the entirety of the area was concentrated towards that particular spot.

Ominous was the feeling it exuded; the temple in front of him was completely engulfed in dark energy except for the door, making it impossible to see the decoration used on it.

Coincidentally, it was the reason of the earthquake that he felt earlier as the temple had been absorbing a huge amount of mana that cause imbalances in its flow.

Ryuu had grabbed his sheathe as he grew wary of the temple in front of him and approach despite the danger that may occur within.

As he came closer, the concentration of mana was too dense for him to see, thus he decided to deactivate his [Spirit Sight].

After he his eyes was no longer sensitive to mana, as well to elemental energy. He could barely see the appearance of the temple.

Rather than temple, it was closer to an abandoned shrine, where the frame had shown weakness and frail enough to break if someone were to step at the stairs leading to the inside.

With caution, Ryuu moved forward with careful steps and opened the wooden door with his left hand, while holding his right hand onto the sheath. As the door was opening, a fragrant akin to lavender could be smell alongside a strong gust of wind that made him flinched for a moment. He could sense another presence inside the shrine.

After the gust dispersed,

The scenery in front astounded Ryuu to the point he released the grip of his right hand as he locked his sight upon a presence.

There was a girl around his age; she was locking her feet with both of her hand.

A complexion was so fine, a skin without blemish, a silky silver hair long enough to touch the floor.

She had an appearance that was blessed by the heaven.

After dazed for a while, Ryuu regained his composure and removed his sandals and made his entrance without permission and stood in front of her, which was only a meter away from his touch.

Up closer, he could sense the guard the person in front of him; a word uttered from her.

“Go away”

Ryuu looked at the hostile woman for a second, while thinking

‘A strong killing intent… Is she an abandoned [Deity]?’

“Leave, if you don’t want to be killed” A simple word uttered from the girl

Ryuu ignored her and instead spoke calmly,

“The earthquake, was it because of your fault?”

She raised her head; her violet iris was peering at Ryuu.

“If I said no, would you believe me?” A soft voice, to the point it would be inaudible if it weren’t for the complete silence around.

Ryuu was rendered speechless by her word, it was impossible to agree with someone through a single word.

“As I thought, humans are all the same…” Her eyes was filled with certain fierceness, although her expression was still calm and stoic.

It was the gaze of hatred,

‘This girl… She decided to distrust other people’ He looked at her with a serious mien, her expression at the moment evoked nostalgia in his heart.

Somehow, he wanted to believe in her.

The feeling overflowed throughout his mind, he smiled wryly at her.

“I’ll believe in you…”

Ryuu looked at her, his eyes was filled with determination. It was to show that he was serious at his word

…

‘This girl, had lost hope in the world too, like I was before’

The girl stopped for a moment, speechless. Then she stood up, her height was the same as the Ryuu.

She was looking downcasted, as her hand gripped so hard as if the anger inside of her was about to explode.

Opening her mouth, the same soft voice was muttered but now in fury

“A lie”

“Go Away!”

‘… She completely ignored me’

As Ryuu heard the word, he became guarded and quickly dashed outside the shrine.

His eyes quickly turned bluish and he once more became sensitive towards the flow of mana. The girl was casually standing in front of the door while looking at him, she raised her right hand and then a golden spark starts to reverberate above her.

Soon, the reverberation exploded. From it was a weapon, the length of the weapon was at least around two meters and the thickness was at least half a meter.

The weapon was completely jet-black, like a black mirror. While it was covered with a white aura on its surface.

Ryuu was astonished and sweated slightly at the sight of the weapon in front of him

‘No way… [Divine Weapon]’

‘A [Greatsword]… Moreover, of the tabooed [Light] and [Dark] elements.’

Ryuu unsheathed his wakizashi and then he shouted towards the girl.

“I don’t want to fight with you, can we solve this matter through other means?”

“Disappear!” She shouted towards him, she held a sword that was thrice her size and swiftly charged towards her enemy.

The wooden floor was damaged by her step as it created a hole from her place, the burst of speed made her reached Ryuu in a second.

Her stance had already lowered and she slashed the huge towards him with a great speed.

‘Shit! Why all the sword user I met in this world are so quick’

Ryuu retorted as he jumped backwards to avoid the sword’s trajectory as the image of his mother appeared.

Although, Ryuu had successfully dodged the great sword, a sudden cracking sound could be heard and caused the surrounding area around her to be filled with yellow thunder. Some of these thunders grazed Ryuu mercilessly, burning the clothing he wore.

‘Gah! It hurts!’

He mocked himself over the painful, burning feeling.

The jump had created distance between the two and Ryuu’s body had been fried by the thunder, as there were light bruises everywhere. He became depressed and regretted his decision to come for a moment.

‘Fighting a [Deity] like this… Aaah, I want to leave already’

But, Ryuu’s dismissed his thought and stood solidly against the girl while focusing to the battle.

 “[Hoshino’s Sword Art: Flame Wave]”

The wakizashi was brimming in flame essence.

He made a slash to the air, a red wave-like attack that flung towards the berserk girl. As the wave came approaching her, yellow spark had been emitted from her body and collided with the wave before it touched her and disappeared.

Ryuu didn’t pay heed and starts to swing his sword at a fast speed; a shower of red wave was charging towards the girl. However, the red waves were completely decimated by the spark; it was shown the power difference was quite large.

She didn’t just stand idly and rushed forward while holding her huge sword, and trying to get a direct hit.

Ryuu would escape as she got into range by jumping backwards and sideways while swinging his sword at all opportunities, creating waves of attack that was impossible to evade.

All of this was possible because a great sword had some delay, which gave time for Ryuu to launch his counters.

Even so, the relaxed expression and bright smile he wore as if he was playing with the girl whose, although her attacks were still sharp and skillful, anger had been shown from her tighter grip and explosive killing intent as she tried to chase the mouse that had disturbed her sleep.

The ground was filled with holes as the battle progressing against the girl.

She decided to stop moving and coldly look at him while fending the last wave of attack with her Greatsword.

Ryuu noticed the change of action and decided to observe while keeping a safe distance from her.

This time, she threw the heavy blades up above and caused it to disintegrate and reconstructed a twin great blade, this time the sword was golden but a dark layer had caused the golden color to dull. On the blade was a carving of ancient inscription and its size was twice as huge

She threw the heavy blades up above and it a spark was formed and ate those swords and reconstructed a twin blade, this time the blade was golden however a dark wave had encircled it. The blade carving was an ancient inscription and it was a bit smaller than the previous one.

‘Annoying’

Then, she quietly muttered a word inaudible to Ryuu,

Her body had suddenly clad in dark aura and she disappeared from the area.

Rather than disappeared, more like she had melded with the shadow.

Ryuu was surprised at first but he focused his eyes and look for the change in flow of mana. He could sense the mana concentration around her as she was absorbing the mana for her skill, thus determining her location.

However, there was no way for him to see the presence of the girl as she was engulfed in darkness.

He decided to raise his guard by solidifying his stance and intensifying the amount mana into his blade, as it was getting brighter in flame essence.

The girl starts to charge; there was no sound of her steps, making it harder to determine her speed and location.

He could only refer to his instinct and sixth sense,

‘There!’

He directly reacted by moving his body 180o and made a slash his small sword.

Suddenly, the girl appeared from the darkness and had slashed with both of her blade towards Ryuu aggressively.

“[Release, Flame Wave]”

The sword, his weapon was engulfed in red flame and was sprayed into a firestorm directly towards her. The flame attacking range had engulfed all of her body but the dark element clad her body had fend off the flame and there didn’t seem to have any effect in reducing her speed as her twin swords launched directly towards the sword and Ryuu.

Loud collision between the weapons had caused Ryuu’s wakizashi to be destroyed into two easily due to the difference in sheer force and the Greatsword sharp edge had impacted Ryuu directly and blew him away from the area, towards the dense forest and broke down few trees while smoke was formed by the dust.

After the cloud of dust had fallen down, the ground area was left with nothing but the girl who had wield weapons which was larger than her size on both hands.

‘As expected, fighting a [Deity] is quite a tall task.’

‘Regardless, she was at the peak of that level. Perhaps she was a famous [Deity]’

‘Now… I’m just making excuses for the lack of my ability.’

Ryuu chuckled and then he coughed blood as he leaned on the tree that had been broken by the impact earlier. His internal organ had been damaged and his bone cracked, but none of them were serious.

“Foolish human.”

She approached towards Ryuu and stood in front of him, this time she had looked at the man with an expressionless gaze. This time, there was no longer killing intent and pressure emitted from her.

He looked at her face, which was now clearly seen without the aura that had engulfed her, as well with the help of the moon. He was actually quite surprised by the girl in front of him and he sighed in relief.

“You are even prettier now. I’m stumped.”

Being six years old, Ryuu made honest comment about the girl jokingly.

One of the sword on her hand suddenly slashed just hairbreadth away from his flesh, his face paled.

“Wait2! I give up.”

He agitatedly waved both of his hand, while pleading to have his life spared.

In her heart, she knew that although the person was not able to injure, lest to kill her. He would be able to escape easily.

She then uttered up a question,

“Why didn’t you flee? While you had the chance to do so?”

Ryuu chuckled and then answered it firmly.

“Because I know someone similar to you long time ago”

“So I was thinking it’ll be nice to save you from becoming like him.”

‘From loneliness, from betrayal’

His heart was thinking of those words.

“…”

“It’s a nuisance, fighting a bug who didn’t try its best.”

She released her twin sword and it was disintegrated into thin air and her presence was no longer hostile, it was the proof that she spared him from death.

Sighing in relief, Ryuu closed his eyes and focused the surrounding mana to hasten his recovery while leaving the bare minimum of focus to the surrounding.

Left alone, the girl was dumbfounded; the person in front of him had flirted with her just few seconds ago, but the next time he treated her like the air.

Although, there was no dissatisfaction seen from her face.

Somehow, her eyes started to waver and became glassy, but it was hardly visible thanks to her violet eyes and her cold demeanor.

An indescribable attraction caused her hand to touch the boy’s hair as he was recuperating.

“Perhaps… Just this once.” She softly opens her mouth.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, as the two of them had been conversing on the side. The dark energy nearby the shrine was getting denser, causing the shrine’s frail foundation to crack even more. The dark energy engulfing the temple was trying to release itself to the surrounding land, causing the shrine to creak and wobble.

Continuous violent tremor was occurring due to this dark energy and the shrine was like glue that held them in place.

After few shocks, the creaking shrine was no longer able to hold its weight and wrecked into ruins. Black fog was starting to seep out from the holes of the wreck and shrouded the whole sacred hill with darkness, making it impossible to see the hill from outside.

After the girl realized of the happenings,

Her wavering eyes and the fragility she emitted earlier had disappeared as she dashed to the broken shrine.

In front of the site, she could see the origin of the black fog was coming from the center of the shrine and somehow was materializing into an entity. Raising her hand, she summoned her great blade from the thin air and made a striking posture.

As she focused her mind onto her weapon, the sword was swirling in light energy and brimming so brightly trying to fight off the darkness clouding the entire place.

The swirl then focused into the tip and creating a magic circle with <電>of the great blade and without hesitation she pointed the circle towards the temple.

A flash of lightning spark was summoned from the magic circle and was chasing towards source of black fog, causing an explosion on contact and a blazing fire remaining on the ground.

A long, loud screech reverberating around as the lightning pierced the black mass apart. Although, it didn’t seem to disappear and in retaliation it was absorbing the black fog at a faster rate, causing some of the black fog covering the hill to disperse and let more light to seep through.

The girl didn’t seem to give up and repeated her attacks, causing more lightning to strike the mass.

However, her attacks didn’t seem to cause real damage while its materialization was getting more solid and less ethereal.

It was forming into a shape of a human, only its upper body was visible and it didn’t seem to have a lower body. Although, all of the body were shrouded with a thick veil of dark energy with the exception of the wicked face.

The appearance of the being made the surrounding grass and trees decaying as their life force was being absorbed. Its hollow eyes were fixed on the person that had attempted to injure it, while summoning multiple skulls cloaked with the same dark energy.

It pointed one the right finger onto the small girl, all the skulls under the command launched itself while clacking its teeth in delight.

Readying her great sword, she gripped her greatsword tightly with both of her hand as she waited for the skull to come at her striking range.

She made a wide swing with her weapon, slicing the nearest skull into halves.

At the same time, yellow sparks were discharged from her body that pierced through the other skulls.

All of the skulls that were hit by the sparks exploded without any resistance and disappeared.

With that exchange, the girl was already in battle with the unknown being that had come out from the shrine.