Ryu vanished into the cloud of smoke, his footsteps so light that a single tap to the ground sent him zooming forward several hundred meters.
His pupils flickered from side to side at blinding speeds, quickly finding blind spots amidst the beasts and using them to slaughter wantonly.
Ryu's figure was like a fluttering wind, appearing to the backs of unsuspecting beasts and lighting them afire in a furious blaze with his halberd.
Like clockwork, the enraged beasts would lash out at those around them, furious that the end of their lives was quickly approaching and causing a cascading impact toward the overall situation.
Yet, in all this time, no one managed to lay eyes on the culprit. Ryu was too fast, his cloak's abilities too heaven defying, and his craftiness too overwhelming.
Ryu avoided the Seventh and Eighth Order Beasts, slaughtering his way through swaths of Fifth and Sixth Order ones. However, there was only a small time this would work, and Ryu was well aware of this. It took not even a minute for him to light the entire valley in battle. Then, without hesitation, he planted his foot firmly into the ground and shot toward the pillar that surrounded the hatching egg.
As though on command, dozens of beasts shot forward with him. Beasts of this level were no less intelligent than humans. They saw how the situation was going and could even tell that someone was instigating it, but for some reason, no matter how hard they searched, they couldn't find this person.
Thinking to this point, they knew that the wait and see approach wouldn't work any longer, so they shot toward the egg.
The sight of the baby Griffin's phenomenon was truly jaw dropping. Even on the ground of the valley, it was impossible to see the form of the egg. Instead, there was a pillar of blinding white light that pierced the clouds above in the way.
The gloomy cover that perpetually covered the Moon World burst apart into concentric circles, rippling outward like the waves of a calm lake suffering the throw of a stone.
Without suspense, large swaths of beasts that sharped for the pillar were repelled backward. Some of them were even incinerated to ash. Their lineages were simply too poor and weak. But, this was exactly what Ryu had planned for.
His cloak wasn't all powerful. It had some striking weaknesses of its own.
For one, he was unable to disappear before the sight of even the weakest individual if they had their senses trained on him, whether that be their eyesight, or their Spiritual Sense. Secondly, the higher the cultivation of the being he wanted to hide from, the higher State of Meditation he had to enter, or else he would risk being found. And, thirdly, his invisibility didn't make him lose his substance. That meant that his invisibility could be interrupted by a sufficiently powerful physical or energy-based event.
In this case, even though Ryu was certain that the pillar wouldn't be able to rebuff him so easily, the act of him interacting with it would most definitely dispel his invisibility. So, he needed a cover. The blood and gore of dying beasts would just have to be enough.
Ryu fluttered into the barrier beneath the writhing corpse of a massive Yin Beast.
The moment he entered, he felt like a fish in water. The energies that had blocked so many beasts before him was almost like a refreshing rain of dew to the Tatsuya Clan Scion.
Of course, not all of the beasts ended up in such a sorry state. In the pillar with him, Ryu could see several Eighth Order Beasts who had made it to this point. In fact, they could see him as well.
With all the wild qi fluctuations within this pillar, it was obviously impossible for him to maintain his invisibility. That said… That was what his Necromancer half-mask was for. If it was impossible to hide from everyone, at the very least, those who could see him wouldn't be able to sense his unique qi signature, nor his physical features. About the only things they would know about him was that he was male, and that he was a human.
Several roars were suddenly aimed toward Ryu. If these beasts weren't sure before who caused the chaos, they were now. Of course they could leave it to a human to instigate such slaughter.
Ryu swept his gaze over the massive beasts he couldn't lay a finger toward and walked forward unperturbed. In this sort of environment, they should worry about themselves. If they let up for even a moment, the backlash this phenomenon would cause them would be irreparable.
Ryu had gone through all of this trouble so that these beasts wouldn't be able to stop him from entering this pillar. But now that he had, he didn't need to spare them more than a glance. Everything was working perfectly so far.
He dashed forward, leaving the roaring beasts in his dust.
'Ailsa, how much longer will this phenomenon last?'
'Depending on the species and strength of a phenomena, anywhere from a few seconds and minutes, to even days. But there's something strikingly odd about this one… It's different.'
'Different good, or different bad?'
'… As in this phenomenon is far weaker than it should be. If not, there's no way Earth Grade beasts like the ones we just passed would be able to enter at all, even if they are of the Eighth Order. Only if they were of the Ninth would they have a chance.
'This baby Griffin is likely very weak even by the standards of their branch Clans.'
Ryu nodded. He didn't mind this too much at all. In the end, and Ancestor Beast was an Ancestor Beast.
From the barrier to the center of the pillar of light, there was easily ten kilometers of space. However, with Ryu's current speed, it took him no more than a few seconds to cover it. He didn't take any chances at all, activating his Impose Realm Wind Inheritance to its fullest extent.
In a few blinks, Ryu had made it to the egg. He wasn't very surprised that it was massive, standing at what seemed to be easily five times his height.
'… Griffin eggs shouldn't be this white either.' Ailsa said slowly. Ryu could sense the gears in her mind turning.
'What do you think I should do?' Ryu asked. 'If I put it away now, wouldn't the phenomenon disappear? There might be ten kilometers between me and those beasts, but that's a blink of an eye to them…'
No matter how fast Ryu was, he was under no illusions that he was faster than even the slowest Eighth Order Beast. When cultivation reaches such a high level, such distances are nothing but child's play. This was why he hadn't dared to simply run through the barrier without stirring some chaos first. If he hadn't, those beasts could have definitely killed him with a single glance before he even made it into the pillar.
If he put the egg away now, would the qi fluctuations dissipate quickly enough for him to cloak himself before those beasts locked onto him? That was simply impossible. To make matters worse, the egg disappearing would still weaken the fluctuations enough for the restricted movements of those beasts to become far less so, putting him in even more danger.
As if this wasn't bad enough, if he tried to simply move the egg without putting it away, the pillar would move along with it, making such an action useless.
Ryu felt a major headache coming on. He was beginning to realize that he hadn't thought this through enough.
'I have a solution.' Ailsa said. 'If I didn't, I wouldn't let you come here. I know you're always reckless when it comes to these kinds of things.
'I'll slip the egg into the Ethereal Plane. There'll be a small lag in the Phenomenon as a result. Use that time to exit the ten-kilometer radius.'
Ryu's gaze brightened.
The phenomenon was occurring on the Real Plane currently. If Ailsa did as she said, there would be a sort of disconnect or interference for just a moment. Due to that lag, for a split second, it would seem like the egg was still here when in reality, it was already in Ryu's Incubator.
'… But, you'll need to run faster than you did to get here… much faster.'
Ryu's expression became covered with a piercing cold. He silently felt the changes in his body. Then, he spoke the words he had heard Edwin speak before.
"… [First Pulse. Release]."
The land beneath Ryu's feet shattered, a violent boom sweeping out as a fierce red aura billowed from his body.
'I'm ready.'
Ailsa nodded.
The next moments happened in a flash. The egg fading to the Ethereal Plane. Ryu taking it into his Incubator. The Phenomenon fluctuating. Ryu shooting off into the distance like a meteor streaking through the skies…
It was a race against time.
