Part 1: Fate
Ryuk went out early in the morning to a wide, open field located on the outskirts of the kingdom.
He saw vibrant green grass growing all around the field, and right in the center, he saw a giant stone standing tall.
The legendary martial artist Saptyle was sitting calmly on top of that giant stone.
Saptyle looks exactly like a striking, high-tier warrior.
His physical appearance follows the body concept art of a slender male samurai character with long, messy dark blue hair tied up into a spiky high ponytail, with several loose strands framing his face.
He has incredibly sharp blue eyes and a highly confident, smug smirk playing on his lips.
He wears a bright pink, open-chested yukata robe decorated with large, dark purple cloud patterns woven around the bottom hem.
Tied tightly around his waist is a simple white cloth sash holding two legendary katanas—one with a deep red scabbard and one with a bright blue scabbard.
Over the pink robe, he wears a loose, mid-length blue haori jacket featuring white geometric diamond symbols on the shoulders and a traditional Greek key wave pattern along the lower edge.
He is wearing simple traditional straw sandals with bright blue straps on his feet.
Sensing a presence, he slowly looks back over his shoulder at Ryuk.
"Yo, you are Ryuk, I suppose," Saptyle says with a relaxed, casual tone.
"Yeah, master," Ryuk says immediately.
Ryuk deeply bow his head and come down straight to his knees on the grass.
And he stayed there to show his utmost respect to him.
"Don't you ever do that in front of me," Saptyle says sharply.
"You are a proud, independent swordsmen."
"Not a lowly slave to anyone," Saptyle says.
"True swordsmen never bow their heads to another person."
"They are the ones who make others bow down to them."
"Even if your opponent is still significantly stronger than you, you won't do that under any circumstances," Saptyle says calmly.
"Yes, master, I will absolutely obey this lesson from now on," Ryuk says, and he quickly stand up and said that with a firm voice.
In his mind, Ryuk began to carefully observe his new mentor.
"Master Saptyle looks very calm on the outside right now."
"But I can feel a dark presence... like if I do something wrong or say something wrong to him, then he will not hesitate to kill them in that exact place without a second thought."
"I should be extremely carefull around him at all times."
"After all, he is officially known as the legendary East sword Saint," Ryuk says to himself, breaking into a cold sweat.
In the world of Tenzu, Sword saints are those rare individuals who completely Master one specific swordstyle in the world.
There are a total of 6 legendary swordstyle Saint titles preserved in history.
They are:
1. East sword Saint
2. West sword Saint
3. North sword Saint
4. South sword Saint
5. Demon sword Saint
6. Beast sword Saint
And according to the ancient laws of martial arts, there could only be one living saint for each style at a single time.
And to successfully become a reigning saint, you have to physically defeat the previous sword saint in a duel to the death.
And you must also completely master your chosen swordstyle completely.
And Saptyle is currently the legendary, undisputed East sword Saint.
The ruthless Demon.
That is the terrifying, bloody title given to Saptyle by his enemies.
"Well, well, well."
"Let's officially start our lessons from the very beginning," Saptyle says, hopping down from the giant stone.
"Sure, I am ready," Ryuk says, gripping his hilt.
"Let me first know the full potential you have reached so far in your personal training," Saptyle asked, looking him up and down.
"I have successfully reached the advanced Ancestor swordstyle till now," Ryuk says proudly.
"Huh.."
"Well, well, well."
"You already have unlocked the legendary ancestor swordstyle at your age?" Saptyle says, raising an eyebrow.
"That is a profound style which usually took at least 10 long years to properly learn."
"Even some veteran sword masters also can't able to unlock this advanced form in their entire lifetimes."
"How much total time it take for you to learn this form?" Saptyle asked curiously.
"It took me around 2 years of constant practice," Ryuk replied honestly.
"What...!"
"Really!?" Saptyle exclaims, his smug smirk breaking for a fraction of a second.
"Then you are exceptionally, terrifyingly talented," Saptyle says with genuine surprise.
"I only managed to learn this skill some days ago."
"So that's exactly why I am not a true master at this form yet," Ryuk says, keeping his humility.
"Then I have officially decided exactly what I need to teach you," Saptyle says with a wicked grin.
1st training:
You must sit perfectly still on the jagged rocks beneath the roaring waterfall for 2 continuous hours.
2nd training:
You must complete the brutal forest target and aim training course.
3rd training:
You must engage in a direct, unrestricted physical fight with me every single afternoon.
Ryuk become completely shocked and horrified seeing this insane training list.
He makes a hilarious, funny face hearing all the intense training modules.
But regardless of his fear, from now on, he have to do this exact training everyday without fail.
Saptyle turn his back casually and started to walk forward to show his designated training place.
Wanting to test his master's reflexes, Ryuk swiftly throws a fresh apple directly at Saptyle's back.
And right before the fruit hits Saptyle's head.
It got instantly cut into a million perfect pieces in the air.
Saptyle did the entire action without even seeing the fruit or moving his main body an inch.
"I now fully understand why he is universally called the ruthless Demon," Ryuk says, swallowing hard.
Then, from that very day forward, Ryuk's hellish training has been officially begin.
Every single morning, he has to stay in the freezing waterfall for a continuous, grueling 2 hours.
The heavy water slammed into his skin, and at the end of the time, he became very tired and physically drained.
Then, without any rest, he immediately entered a dense, dark forest nearby.
Where Saptyle sets up a massive array of lethal traps to train Ryuk's target and aim training.
The moment Ryuk when entered the training room area of the woods.
Suddenly, a massive volley of lots of sharp katanas launch at Ryuk from the tree lines.
Ryuk dodge does flying katanas with extreme difficulties, swinging his blade to parry.
Then, giant heavy logs tied tightly with old rope attacks at Ryuk from above.
Ryuk forced his tired muscles to move and cut those swinging logs in half.
The nightmare doesn't stop here at all.
Suddenly, the ground gave way, and Ryuk fell straight into a hidden trap pit.
Where multiple sharp, upright katana are standing at the bottom, ready to impale him.
Ryuk twists his body and saves himself with immense difficulties.
His heart was pounding with absolute fear and adrenaline.
And the most brutal fun factor is that Ryuk have to survive this absolute hell for 2 straight hours without using any of his internal powers, just relying purely on his raw skills and normal swordsmanship.
During that terrifying training session, Ryuk almost cried many times from the pure exhaustion and pain.
Then, after surviving all those daily morning training courses.
Ryuk would finally reach Saptyle's personal resting spot.
He always found Saptyle doing peaceful meditation on the grass.
And he saw a vibrant, bright green aura was flowing smoothly through his master's calm body.
Then, sensing his arrival, Saptyle stand up slowly.
Then, the daily afternoon battle begins.
The rules of this battle is with normal sword skill without using any external power or aura.
Ryuk tried his absolute best, pushing his blade to the absolute limit.
He attacks with a fierce overhead strike.
And he follows up with another rapid attack.
But Saptyle was superiorly fast, moving like a ghost.
He was even super fast, easily out-speeding Ryuk's perception.
Saptyle is widely known to be one of the most fastest person in the entire world of Tenzu.
And during these spars, Saptyle doesn't even use his actual sword at first, dodging with his hands behind his back.
But later on in the duel.
When Ryuk get completely tired and sloppy.
Saptyle finally uses his one katana drawn from one of his two katanas on his waist.
And with a single flash, he slice the whole land below Ryuk's feet into microscopic pieces.
And it was a highly advance level of the legendary Demon swordstyle.
That was the terrifying style Saptyle was using against him.
Seeing that overwhelming, terrifying display of power, Ryuk immediately surrender on the spot.
Because he deeply fears Saptyle's inner nature.
He knew that if the master shows absolutely no mercy, then.
Saptyle could easily give him Ryuk his worst, most painful death possible.
And so, this became his endless loop, and Ryuk Start his day everyday by first doing his brutal 1st training and his 2nd training, and then he would go straight to Saptyle's place to fight him in the afternoon.
But no matter how hard they fought, Saptyle never ever uses his 2 swords together for his signature East swordstyle.
He always exclusively uses a single blade for the demon swordstyle.
It clearly shows that Saptyle firmly believes that Ryuk is simply not comparable and not worthy enough for his true East swordstyle yet.
Feeling his warrior pride slighted, Ryuk always rush himself to the absolute limit.
And he do the exact same grueling training everyday.
He fails and gets beaten down everytime.
But he never give up, standing back up with grit.
He trains exceptionally hard.
Even when his body started to stop working properly from the immense fatigue and bruises.
But he still stubbornly do his training through the pain.
He kept fighting in the desperate hoping of finally seeing Saptyle using his 2 swords at the same time.
Because deep down, Ryuk want to fight a true sword saint in his full, unrestricted power at least once in his life.
All though it doesn't matter to him if he die or if he stay alive after the clash.
He just wanted to experience a fight against Saptyle once with his legendary East swordstyle active.
If he could achieve that goal, then Ryuk have absolutely no problems by dying like that on the battlefield.
And during his stay, everyday Ryuk find Saptyle doing some surprisingly peaceful works around the estate.
Like, sometimes he do quiet meditation in the garden.
And sometimes he do humble farming in the muddy fields, planting crops.
And it was clear that he felt immense pleasure and serenity in doing it.
And sometimes he would walk out and talk kindly with the local kingdom childrens.
And he would always keep a bright, genuine smile on his face during those times.
Looking at him, it feels like a notorious, Ruthless Demon has suddenly becomes completely good.
It was as if he had finally finds his true inner peace after a lifetime of bloodshed.
Ryuk clearly notice this side of him.
Saptyle genuinely like this small but deeply happy moments of everyday life.
And a bright, warm smile always stay stamped in his face during these peaceful tasks.
This gentle man is absolutely not that bloodthirsty demon Ryuk used to know from the historical rumors.
Then, oneday when Saptyle was casually walking through a quiet, open field.
A suddenly, a mysterious person jumps out from the shadows and attacks Saptyle with a massive, roaring fire ball ritual.
Saptyle didn't even flinch, and he cut that incoming fire ball into a million pieces without even seeing it with his eyes.
He slowly looked back over his shoulder toward the attacker.
That hostile person is completely covered from head to toe with a Dark black cloak.
Seeing their opening attack fail, that cloaked person use a another rapid sequence of multiple fire ritual attacks straight at Saptyle.
And they also immediately uses a massive wave of boiling lava ritual on Saptyle to melt him down.
Faced with the incoming disaster, Saptyle doesn't do anything drastic.
He simply stood his ground, maintaining his elegant posture, his clothes rustling in the heat.
Then, in a single millisecond, all the incoming ritual attacks of that cloaked person got cleanly cut into billion micro pieces in mid-air.
The slash was so precise that it even cuts the literal atom itself, neutralizing the threat completely.
Realizing they stand absolutely no chance in physical combat, that cloaked person is gonna retreat back into the shadows.
Then, out of nowhere, many invisible, rapid energy slash got hit directly on that fleeing person's body.
It was done with absolute perfection by Saptyle's demon swordstyle.
And he moves his sword so incredibly fast than everyone watching doesn't even saw his actual hand movements.
Then, Saptyle calmly put his hand Infront of his own face.
And he rise two fingers up and bend them sharply, then he asked directly to the bleeding assassin.
"Who exactly are you, answer me immediately otherwise your next available option is instant death," Saptyle says.
A terrifying, dark, and dangerous face completely appeared on Saptyle's face, replacing his gentle smile.
Then, Ryuk quickly appears from the bushes, running to his master's side.
Then, seeing no way out, that cloaked person use their last resort and activated a massive, forbidden ritual.
A massive, glowing crimson ritual circle suddenly appears high up on the open sky above the field.
This specific ancient ritual is bound by absolute laws; it can't be destroyed or countered by any physical blade, it absolutely have to happen no matter what.
This is the absolute, unbreakable rule of this devastating ritual.
And this massive ritual will inevitably create a massive wave of total destruction on the entire Fate kingdom below.
If Saptyle wants to stop this impending doom from wiping out the innocent people.
He has to physically jump in and take all the catastrophic damage directly on himself.
All though if he takes the hit, he will definitely die from the sheer force of the impact.
But here is the brutal condition forced upon him.
Without a single moment of hesitation to save his peaceful kingdom, Saptyle jumps straight in toward the center of the circle.
"What..."
"No way..."
"Does it actually mean master is gonna sacrifice his own life right now?"
Ryuk looks up with wide, trembling eyes at Saptyle who is ready to sacrifice himself for the world.
"Master....!" Ryuk screams at the top of his lungs into the roaring wind.