Ryuji pulls himself up using the Katana in his hand and strands straight.

'Ah, Life can never be simple can it?'

He rushes towards White once again. Ryuji was just a Dormant human... Actually no, he was a broken one since his core was Ashened and not dormant. On the other hand White was an Awakened Warrior with a core that was At the very least, Embered.

Fighting such a powerhouse was not an easy task for Ryuji, especially one that could augment himself using the strength of his servants. He could feel if this was the fourth of Spider's power, then he definitely had no chance against her in actual combat. And that girl was this guy's slave... He was glad in a way that he didn't have to fight her instead.

But right now, in front of him, he definitely had to do something about this guy.

Both Ryuji and White clashed in an intense battle.

Ryuji's battle hardened instincts and White's devious feints and barbarous power were a direct counter.

Ryuji was slowly getting accustomed to fighting at his speed, since White had gotten considerably slower since he started wielding the sharp Scythe.

...But his attacks had also become much more deadly.

Everytime the Scythe cut him, he felt sharp burning pain in his body, needless to say, Ryuji cut White a lot of times too, but not nearly enough...

While Ryuji was bleeding buckets, the old man seemed practically immune to bleedings and lacerations. Or maybe Ryuji just couldn't cut deep enough through an Awakened's skin.

After a few minutes of clashing their weapons, White and Ryuji backed off, trying to catch their breaths.

White was the first one to soeak:

"You are pretty good with the sword, yeah?"

Ryuji, who's still breathing heavily speaks with a grim tone:

"Yeah... I never stole from another."

White's eyes narrow, displeased with the taunt directed at him and got into his stance again, a dark resolve in his eyes.

He currently had the body of an awakened, so his recovery was much faster than Ryuji who still felt like his lungs were on fire.

Before even having enough time to recover, Ryuji and White clashed again, this time it's obvious who's the one pushing the other one back.

Ryuji's lungs are on fire just from the amount of oxygen his body lacks from that fast expenditure rate, yet he needs to keep going if he doesn't want his head sprawling on the floor a second later.

He cannot make a mistake.

But no matter what he does, and how hard he fights, that monster doesn't seem to slow down even by a bit. He keeps attacking and attacking and attacking and attacking. And all Ryuji can do is defend.

He needs to find a way to turn the tides, or everyone will be doomed. 

Ryuji's body is bleeding all over, his makeshift clothes turning from white to red. The lacerations are building up.

... He needs to do something fast.

After almost another minute, they both had to make distance between them again. It seemed the effect of White's Aspect was slowly turning back.

He was at his limit too.

Ryuji steadied himself, his katana trembling slightly as he raised it. Then, he stepped forward deliberately, his movements sluggish and desperate-He was just too tired to even fight properly now, he wanted some air.

The older man sneered. "Pathetic. Just lie down already." He lunged with his scythe, aiming a wide slash meant to cleave Ryuji in two.

But Ryuji was ready. At the last moment, he twisted his body, letting the scythe graze his side. The blade bit deep, and fire erupted through his nerves, but Ryuji gritted his teeth and ignored the pain.

As White pulled the scythe back, expecting to revel in his victory, Ryuji pivoted sharply. He drove his katana forward, the blade piercing White's side just below the ribs.

"Got you," Ryuji hissed, twisting the blade to ensure maximum damage.

White stumbled back, his grin faltering for the first time. Blood seeped from the wound, staining his pale garments. He clutched his side, glaring at Ryuji with a mix of fury and disbelief.

"You... little..." White's voice was low, his words dripping with venom.

He suddenly dismissed his scythe and summoned a Spear made of polished Red Wood. It's blade made of sharp stone, making it possible to both thrust and cut with the weapon.

Before Ryuji could understand what was happening, White was holding the spear back, ready to throw it at Ryuji, his muscles clearly visible from his skin that formerly seemed to hang a little from his arm, now looking stretched in a weird way.

He threw the spear at Ryuji, having no time to dodge, he could just put his sword Between himself and the spear, but as soon as the spear collided with the sword, it shattered. Ryuji's sword shattered in a million different pieces, and the spear then immediately impaled Ryuji in the absomen, a few shards of his own sword bury themselves into Ryuji's body and face causing his wounds to burn.

Before Ryuji could process, a sharp pain, or more like a burning sensation permeated his whole body and Ryuji screamed in horror. The speed and force with which the spear collided buried the spear's tip in the ground, along with Ryuji hanging on top of the spear like a Kid's toy.

Slowly, White's body went back to normal and the abormal powerful aura he was emitting retreated. White mockingly giggles and turned his head back, walking towards the stone the boy was at.

Ryuji looks at the wide canopy of the crimson leaves on top of them, blood flowing down the spear slowly.

How could he... Lose like that? How could he die like that a second time? There was no way. There was no damn way.

He knew he could do something. He knew he had something. Ryuji doesn't know for what reason he did it, but he thought of summoning the runes that described him once again.

Everything was the same, except one thing... The story he possessed...

[The Saviour Of A Thousand Happy Dinners]

These runes burnt with an otherworldly flame. Erasing everything else from his mind, Ryuji bent his upper body up to get a good look at White. He held his hand back in the same way White had done so to impale him a moment ago... And Concentrated. He concentrated on the runes and suddenly, he felt the flames encompassing the Story he possessed flowing into his arms, filling then with newfound strength, his muscles buldged up until Ryuji started feeling a slight pain in them.

After that, Everything was a blur. Ryuji let out a war-cry and threw the remaining hilt of his sword back at White, White glanced back at Ryuji and... His head exploded in a mist of blood.

The hilt had connected with White's head almost immediately, making his head explode and blood rain down from the sky.

Suddenly, a roar sounded in his ears. Those were the runes.

[You have slain an Embered Warrior, Sarco]

Almost immediately, the spear buried in his abdomen disappeared into a rain of sparks and he fell to the ground...

After a while of just intense pain and the dizziness he had in his head, the boy appeared from behind the stone, horrified looking at the decapita- Ahem, Pulverized body in front of him. He is even more shocked to see the samurai laying on the ground, holding a hole in his abdomen leaking a lot of blood...

'S-Sir?!'

But before Ryuji can say something to the boy, he passes out from the exhaustion and dizziness from the blood loss.

**

He only wakes up after a while, The boy crying by his side. As soon as he opens his eyes, he looks at the boy trying to cover the wound so that no more blood flows, but ofcourse, it'll not stop now.

Ryuji lifts his head and notices a figure emerging from a distance. It's only when the figure gets closer that Ryuji can recognise them. 

Wounded Spider was carriying our Bloodsoaked Zen back to them. She fell to the ground as soon as she reached Ryuji along with Zen, breathing heavily:

"You really killed that bastard huh?"

Ryuji coughed and groaned, barely surviving. A little blood spews out of his mouth onto his cheeks, "Barely..."

Spider glanced at the hole in his abdomen, "Yeah I can see..."

Ryuji glanced at Zen laying on the corner, "Is he alive?"

Spider replies with a certain indifference in her voice, "Yeah. He's just lost too much blood."

Ryuji coughs up some blood again and manages to speak hoarsely, "You managed to kill that thing?"

Ice replies, "No... But it's soon gonna be tore apart by those skeleton creatures... They are endless... I was trying to hold him back as much as i could since he gave me that order"

Spider glanced at the pulverized headless corpse near her legs and kicked it.

"But as soon as you killed him, I was finally free.... Free to do anything i want... Not bound by the words of some sadistic sloth. So i came here... But by this time the weeping brother was too wounded."

Ryuji looks at Spider with a little curiousity, he wanted to understand aspects a little, even if he was about to die, "What is your Aspect even related to?"

"Time."

'Ah... That explains it...'

After a few minutes of silence, Spider quickly gets up from her spot and approaches Ryuji.

She holds his hand and then almost suddenly, he feels two warm orbs of energy reaching inside his heart through his arms.

The runes said gently:

[You have Received a Soul Bond,...]

[You have Received a Soul Bond,...]

[You have Received a Soul Bond,...]

Ryuji didn't bother to read their names:

"I don't have a Soul Core. They will be much more useful to Zen or this boy, since they will both live longer than me, and the Soul Bonds wouldn't be destroyed within them."

Spider said with cold indifference, "I don't care about that. These Soul Bonds were given to me by that crooked old man. I don't want anything that has something to do with him to be anywhere near me. It's better for them to turn into nothingness when your existence is erased instead of being in the same realm as me."

After finishing her sentence, She swiftly turned away and started tying Zen to her back, then she looked at the boy and asked, "Do you want to rot away with him too?"

The boy felt shivers run down his spine and he looked at Ryuji, feeling scared and unsure.

Ryuji looks back at Spider and says:

"He's asking if you want to eat him too."

She looks at the boy back and replies, "My time in this realm isn't over, and it'll probably not be over for a very, very long time. I still have a path to walk, a path full of struggle and horror. I don't care about your divinity and all that stuff. If you want to come with me, follow. If you don't, run away."

The boy looks at Ryuji and then back at Spider. Her eyes are opened now, letting Ryuji see the soul behind them. It is a pure, untainted soul of a saint. And a warrior with a clear path in front of her. With that, he nods and the boy slowly gets up, walking to her.

"Could you do me one last favour?"

Spider looks at him and shrugs:

"Sure. If it doesn't involve fighting The Weeping Brother now."

Ryuji coughs again, his voice even worse than before, "My Soul carries divinity, just like the boy's... I don't know why it was undetectable by the creature or anyone else. But, since I am about to die, please take my Soul Core back with yourself and hand over my Tears Of Divinity to Zen and Ice... I want them to reincarnate"

Spider nods, "Sorry. I feel something approaching. But i will take your Soul Core. I will use my Aspect on your chest, and you will die, not immediately, but you will. You won't feel any pain, just, slowly, the inevitable death that awaits you will arrive just a little earlier."

Ryuji turns his head, "Suit yourself."

Spider approaches Ryuji carefully and places her hand on his chest, suddenly, he feels a little empty where his heart was. He looks back to see Spider and the boy off, but she had already left, along with Zen and the boy.

Ryuji was utterly alone, again. He was about to die.

A second death in the span of not even a month.

As Ryuji waited for his inevitable death, he wanted to take one last glance at his runes. He had ignored them ever since the day he read them for the first time. The runes were totally useless to him since he had an Ashened core. Damned Taijin. But he wanted to glance one last time at everything he had here.

He thought about the runes, and they slowly manifested themselves in front of him:

Name: Ryuji Sora

Soul Core: --

Rank: --

Attributes: --

Stories: [The Savior of a thousand happy dinners]

Soul Mark: [Divinity's Unwanted Child]

Soul Bond: [-Rogue-], [-Rogue-], [-Rogue-]

Soul Path: --

**

The description of the Soul Core disappeared.

His Attribute [Child of a God's Grace] disappeared. His stories and Soul Marks were the same, but his Soul Bonds showed three new additions, each saying the same thing [-Rogue-].

He decided to check them out, but no matter how much he thought about the Soul Bonds, he couldn't bring the runes to tell him anything about it. 

So he decided to read the Story that had saved him instead. He was getting colder and definitely didn't have more time:

[The Savior Of A Thousand Happy Dinners] - "You have accomplished a heroic deed on your home planet. A thousand people are eating happily because of your sacrifice. As long as you are fearless, Hope and Happiness will follow wherever you go."

- 1 hidden attribute-

He read the description once when his eyes landed on the runes written below it again.

'i totally forgot about this! How could I even!'

He immediately commanded the runes to open their description and he was presented with:

[Gratitude Is The Same As Praying] - "It might come back when you need it the most."

'Okay... That's not very helpful.'

It looks just like a normal attribute with a weird and... Probably useless ability, but it's burning brightly, just like his story was burning when he had summoned it and turned a huge old arrogant and deceptive old man into stew for Abyssal Creatures.

Ryuji didn't know what he was expecting... But he wanted to try whatever it was. So he commanded the runes to summon the flames...

He felt nothing. No flaming strength came into his body. He didn't feel healed at all. He didn't even feel a slight energy entering his body... But the flames surrounding that hidden attribute was gone, as if Ryuji used it.

But Ryuji couldn't care anymore. His strength had already left his body, and the coldness was taking over. He started feeling a deep pain in his chest, which was travelling through a small point to every nerve in his body, and finally reaching his brain. Then, Suddenly, he felt nothing at all. There was nothing left to feel. Nothing left to touch. Nothing left to think about. It was over. Ryuji was dead.

But the runes suddenly screamed, they thundered through Ryuji's entire being, not caring that he's dead: 

[The Warriors of the Noble Dragon's lineage fought for a thousand years, Earning the respect of the one that ruled them. Yet, Noone claimed them but Death.]

After a while, The Runes softly announced again:

[Your call has been heard.]