God's Dynasty

The moment both sides collided, Gabriel was certain of victory.

Ryan's sword was already visibly curved, and Gabriel was sure that it would definitely break due to the impact.

The only weapon he believed Ryan had was a dagger, and a few knives hidden in his body.

However, contrary to his thoughts, the sword did not break but rather there was only a shattering noise. Ryan had managed to catch the opponent's attack!

Gabriel opened his eyes wide in shock.

"WHAT!"

After that, he quickly performed several more attacks in succession but the result did not change. No matter how many times he was shocked, Ryan's sword did not break.

There were a few reasons as to why Ryan's sword did not break.

First, Ryan had understood the swordsmanship of Gabriel and began receiving attacks in a way that would allow him to not receive as much damage as possible.

Just before the collision, the sword was pulled back right before Gabriel's sword would perform a powerful shock allowing Ryan to absorb the shock and also reduce the burden on the sword.

Second, Gabriel's Aurora was fading.

'I wasted too much power!'

Gabriel was just a beginner who had just became an Aurora user, and as such the total amount of Aurora in his body was insufficient.

In addition to that, his emotions caused him to use as much Aurora as possible to slay his opponent and now that Ryan is dodging his attacks he was running out fast.

"SHIT!"

As the aurora surrounding the sword became less and less distinct, Gabriel's movement began to slow down. The aurora which was strengthening his body was starting to run out.

'This guy is a monster!'

Clearly in the beginning, Ryan was an opponent that should have been defeated easily.

He was of course annoyed at Ryan running away and using miscellaneous tactics in order to hinder his chase but he gouged that his opponent was at a level where he was able to decapitate him in just a few hits.

'This is dangerous, I have to kill you now!'

His heart which was filled only with hatred and remorse now turned into fear and jealously.

He did not even want to imagine what kind of monster this kid would have been if he was trained properly and reaching his full potential.

"YOU FUCKING MONSTER, TAKE THIS!"

An aurora which was slowly fading away begun to shown much brighter than ever before and along with Gabriel's roar he had mustered enough strength to swing his sword towards Ryan.

Ryan saw this and clenched his teeth before he defended himself with a sword.

SHIIIIIIIING

The moments the swords collided, Ryan's sword broke like glass.

Ryan then quickly blew the air in front of him, and the fragments of the sword flew towards Gabriel's face which was what Ryan wanted.

Ryan who did not want to miss such an opportunity drew a dagger from his waist and stabbed it quickly towards Gabriel's exposed neck.

The feeling of soft flesh being sliced which he had became accustomed to while living as a executioner as a child was transmitted.

Blood gushed out like a fountain between Gabriel's hands which wrapped around his neck.

"GAAH!"

Gabriel pursed his lips trying to say something at Ryan, but the air from his lungs could not pass through his vocal cords and after making a hissing sound for a moment, his body collapsed on the ground.

After being certain of Gabriel's death, he leaned against the tree next to him and collapsed.

"Win… win at all costs…"

He suffered lots of cuts and his muscles which were not used to Gabriel's swordsmanship screamed leaving Ryan render-less on the tree.

However he knew staying here any longer would be suicidal.

The middle-aged Aurora user was still there, and he knew that if he faced him that no matter how much he struggled, he'd be killed.

"Ugh…"

Whether it was because of the lack of blood or breath, his body begun to tremble. After struggling to get up, he moved quickly to get out of the battlefield.

***

After that, Ryan continued to run away until dark.

He did not run away mindlessly, he had erased his traces in many different ways such as walking on logs and climbing trees moving from tree to tree.

He doesn't know how far he has gone, but something strange caught Ryan's eyes as he was catching his breath on a tree.

A wooden door, clearly man-made was installed in front of a small cave.

'A home? Or a temporary camp?'

Ryan walked in and found out why there was no lock.

'This…'

This was an alter, made to serve a god.

'Was it made by people of a village nearby?'

In large towns and cities, temples were built in order to worship the seven gods, but small towns could not afford to do so so they built a small altar to replace the temple.

It seems that this altar was made for that purpose.

'It's been a long time since I've seen a statue…'

Ryan's father wasn't a religious man, and Ryan hardly ever went to a temple as a kid. Even more so now ever since he had sold himself to the mercenary group.

After closing the wooden door behind him, Ryan sat down in front of the statue staring at it.

Suddenly, Ryan had felt the urge to pray more than ever.

The group he was apart of now was annihilated and his only hope of learning Aurora was now lost. Now, in a situation where he had no idea what to do, he figured outr the best time to pray would be now.

When he was an executioner, Ryan would recite a prayer whenever he had slit the throat of a person he had killed. Now, he would recite the same prayer.

"War God, protect me please."

At the same time, Ryan's consciousness was cut off.