Ryo awoke to the faint smell of cherry blossoms and the soft hum of cicadas. For a moment, he thought he was dreaming, but the familiar weight of his battered body and the dull ache in his side told him otherwise. He cracked open his eyes and immediately recognized the place—a small, serene village nestled in the shadow of Mount Hanakai. The sight of its wooden bridges arching over tranquil streams, the distant laughter of children, and the quaint tea houses lining the cobblestone paths filled him with a bittersweet nostalgia.

Mount Hanakai, was originally destroyed, when the Greek and the Nordic pantheon's Champions waged war around it's world. Ultimately, the planet was utterly bombarded by the champion of Thor Odinson, Valrik Stormshield and lost to the vestiges of history.

"Well, I'll be damned," Ryo muttered, pushing himself upright. "It's like I got thrown into one of those sappy travel brochures.

As he stood, a wave of dizziness hit him, forcing him to lean against the nearest cherry tree for support. His violet energy was barely a flicker now, the aftereffects of his desperate escape still coursing through him. He glanced around, half expecting Halcion to come crashing through the idyllic scenery with that obnoxious glowing halberd, but the Arbiters were nowhere in sight. For now.

"Guess that chaos implosion trick worked better than I thought," he said, grimacing as he touched the still-raw wound on his side. "Yay me. Gold star for effort."

The village's peace was a stark contrast to the chaos he'd just fled. But Ryo knew better than to let his guard down. He needed time to recover, and more importantly, he got reminded of how he got till this point.

Flashback

It all began in the Abyss—an endless, ever-shifting void of darkness and chaos. When the Ancients and the gods had betrayed and stripped him of his powers and cast his spirit into that forsaken realm, Ryo had thought it was the end. The Abyss wasn't just a prison; it was a place designed to unmake you. The chaos there devoured everything—memories, magic, even sanity.

For years, Ryo's existence had been a blur of pain and disorientation. He had no form, no voice, no sense of self. He was little more than a whisper lost in the cacophony of the Abyss. But then, he discovered something peculiar about the place—time didn't flow properly there. A moment could stretch into a century, or a millennium could pass in the blink of an eye.

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"So, what did I do?" Ryo said aloud, as if recounting the tale to an invisible audience. "I decided to embrace the crazy. If the Abyss wanted to eat me, I'd make it choke like a lady."

He'd learned to absorb the chaotic energy of the Abyss, letting it replace the magic he'd lost. It wasn't easy—the process was agonizing, and the energy was wild, untamed, and devoid of any elemental affinities. But it was power. Pure, raw power. And Ryo wasn't about to waste it.

"Sure, it's like trying to ride a lightning bolt while juggling flaming chainsaws," Ryo continued, pacing now as his memories flowed back. "But hey, I've always been a sucker for a challenge."

Over decades—or perhaps centuries, he couldn't be sure—Ryo had slowly rebuilt himself. Piece by piece, he molded the chaos into something he could control. The process nearly drove him mad. There were times he'd lost himself, screaming into the void until his voice was nothing but a phantom echo. But he'd held on, fueled by one thought: revenge.

When the time finally came, he used the Abyss's chaotic nature to his advantage. By focusing all his power, he created a time rift that flung his spirit into the quietest corner of the multiverse—a time before he got selected for the Game of Eternities . a small, forgotten plane where he could anchor himself. The process left him weakened and vulnerable, but he'd been lucky. He'd found a woman who'd recently suffered a miscarriage. Then he used the unborn baby as the vessel.

"Yeah, not my proudest moment," Ryo admitted, scratching the back of his head. "But desperate times and all that. She got to keep her sanity, I got to keep existing. Win-win, right?, Mom, please be safe"

The flashback ended abruptly as a guttural roar shattered the tranquility of the village. Ryo turned just in time to see a massive, hulking beast burst through the tree line, its eyes glowing with malevolent energy. The creature's jagged claws gleamed in the sunlight, and its maw dripped with an ominous black ichor.

"Oh, great," Ryo groaned, rolling his shoulders. "Not even five minutes of peace. Can't a guy have a moment to enjoy the scenery without some ugly critter trying to eat his face?"

The beast charged, and Ryo barely had time to summon a flicker of his chaotic energy. He sidestepped the first swipe, ducked under the second, and planted a kick squarely in the creature's ribs. It barely flinched.

"Alright, plan S," Ryo muttered. He grabbed a nearby stick and waved it at the beast like a sword. "Back, foul beast! Or I'll poke you! Repeatedly!"

The creature roared again, clearly unimpressed. Ryo sighed. "Guess we're doing this the hard way."

He tapped into the meagre reserves of his power, his violet aura flaring like a dying match. "Time to remind you who's boss, Fluffy."