Hours later, Ryu walked out of the forest with a little creature obediently sitting on his palm. His body was still covered in slowly faded thin marks, one of which was even across his brow, running down his forehead and almost taking one of his eyes. It was clear that he had had a number of close calls dealing with this little one and yet it was nothing more than half the size of his palm.
The creature was a small butterfly. Compared to a mortal butterfly, it was easily twice as large as it should be. However, compared to what one would expect from an Eleventh Order Beast, it was far too small, so small, in fact, that Ryu was almost certain it had the Adept Body Sin Talent much like Nemesis did.
However, this actually wasn't the case.
One way for a beast to maintain a small size as they rose through the Orders was to have the Adept Body Talent, but this wasn't the only way. One had to remember that the reason beasts grew so large was because their bodies were too powerful to keep in a small form factor. However, not every beast had a powerful body.
The second method of having a small body as a beast was to not have a powerful body at all. Despite being an Eleventh Order Beast, this little butterfly was as fragile as a Tenth or Ninth Order Beast. These kinds of beasts didn't rely on the power of their bodies, but rather the strength of their talents. These talents often used special kinds of qis or effects, making these beasts like living, breathing techniques rather than living beasts.
This little butterfly's talent obviously revolved around the thin lines of silk it could so rapidly spin. Before Ryu had stepped foot into that forest, there had been nothing around him. And yet, in the blink of an eye, he was surrounded.
That also went to show the second talent of this little butterfly was its speed. To be able to accomplish such a feat around Ryu, its speed definitely rivaled Sky Gods, if not being beyond.
On top of that, it was a gorgeous little creature. It had four delicate crystalline wings which radiated with sky blue runic patterns. Its body itself glistened with sparkling motes of light as though it was constantly raining crystals around it as well. This was definitely one of the Heaven's more beautiful creations.
What was most shocking, though, was that this particular species wasn't one that Ryu had ever heard of despite its power. It seemed infinitesimally close to an Ancestral Grade Bloodline, but it wasn't quite there yet. It would probably have to pick good mating partners and hope for a great talent in two or three more generations before it could break through that barrier. But, it could just as easily fall to the wayside and never produce such a descendant.
Creatures were highly intelligent, just as intelligent as humans, but the trouble was that their main focus was themselves. The little butterfly didn't care about setting up future generations because it only wanted to find a method for it to improve personally, for it to cross that final barrier. While logically it could do as Ryu thought, it likely wouldn't and this little butterfly would end up becoming the closest in its line to approach that penultimate height.
The creature probably knew how high the odds were stacked against it, that was why it took the risk to attack Ryu despite feeling such danger coming from him. Swallowing and refining highly talented humans was a crude but effective method of breaking down barriers, maybe even more so than finding natural treasures or seeking enlightenment.
The little butterfly had chosen to gamble, and unfortunately, it lost, unable to do anything about its fate.
To this little one, Ryu's Ice Phoenix Blood was probably like the intoxicating call of a drug. It had to have it, and wanted badly to have it. In fact, if Ryu was correct, maybe a reason it had even managed to reach this stage at all was due to the perpetual frost brought about by his mother's seal. If that was the case, it was no wonder that it would be attracted by his blood.
Ryu did, in fact, have a large selection of concentrated Ice Phoenix Blood he could give to this little one. But, he wasn't in any rush to.
As he had said, if this little butterfly survived the coming battle, then he would give it a chance. After all, he could just reward a beast that had tried to kill him just because. At best, this was just a slight convenience. The creature happened to be in his path so he took it along. He didn't expect it to make any great impact on the coming battle. In fact, he was fully expectant that it would die.
That was a fate Ryu had no intention of putting Little Rock, Nemesis or Little Gem through. So, this little one would just have to take the brunt of it.
A while later, Ryu's footsteps came to a halt one more time. This time, there was no lurking danger in the surroundings and everything seemed normal. But, it was most definitely far too normal.
Ryu began to walk again, his steps becoming odd. All of the snow he stepped upon seemed to reform perfectly to his back and eventually, there was no change to them at all. He moved erratically and without pattern until suddenly…
When Ryu reappeared once more, he stood in a room shrouded by darkness. The caress of death touched his cheek, filling him with a kind of dread he was all too familiar with, the kind of dread that one could only experience once in a lifetime.
However, in the face of this dread, Ryu smiled.
"I have already faced death once, and I sniveled and cried like a baby. Such a thing won't ever happen to me again, that I can promise you."
A surge of wind whipped about before the call of a bird suddenly echoed for what felt like thousands of miles.
In that moment, the white flame within Ryu stirred.