The outburst from Ryuk surprised them, and they looked at him with narrowed eyes.
But then, he felt a hand grab onto his shoulder, and as he raised his gaze, he met flickering blue eyes staring back at him.
"I can sense your will for power. It is strong, but there’s also a hint of helplessness," the blue-scaled Ryuk said, as Ryuk’s folded fists slowly relaxed.
"But I have a way. A way to give you power. I don’t know if you’re truly ready for it because of your incomplete body..." the blue-scaled Ryuk continued, as Ryuk’s eyes narrowed.
"I can bear it!" Ryuk suddenly declared, but a chuckle rang out from the lips of the dark-scaled Ryuk, who sat on the throne and watched from the side.
"Do you even know what you’re going to bear at all?" the blue-scaled Ryuk scoffed.
"I don’t know what it is, but I am sure I can bear it..." Ryuk replied firmly.
Ryuk knew well that he had potential.
These two figures in front of him were parts of himself, and somehow, he felt they were powers he had yet to unlock.
Even more, they seemed to be vastly stronger and more knowledgeable than he was.
He needed them.
He needed their power, and he couldn’t give in or show the slightest sign of weakness.
Faintly, in his heart, something told him that if he was ever to survive the apocalypse that would soon come for him, then these two people were major cards in his hand.
"Hahaha..."
"Hahaha..."
The sound of laughter suddenly rang out, and when Ryuk turned his head, he found it coming from the dark-scaled Ryuk, whose eyes flashed with an abyssal red light.
"You say you’re ready for it? Ready for our power?" he asked, as the blue-scaled Ryuk also chuckled at him.
"You have no body, weakest one. Power needs a vessel to bear! How do you hope to bear our power if you have no body at all? All you have is the little blood flowing in you, but even that is not enough..."
"You weird Nanobody seems strong to you, but it’s just trash. Nanobody, technology—those are just inferior paths of cultivation. To call them cultivation at all is a shame on its own," the dark-scaled Ryuk explained.
Ryuk opened his mouth, ready to argue that his Nanobody was that of an Annunaki, an ancient race—but he closed his lips, his shoulders sinking. Something the other Ryuk saw as a sign of defeat.
"You may have no vessel to contain power, but you do have your soul and consciousness. Those are vessels of power. The power of the Will!"
"That can be cultivated," the blue-scaled Ryuk said, as the dark-scaled Ryuk harrumphed coldly.
"Don’t be stupid. His soul is weak. If you give him even the smallest fragment of your will, his soul flame will be extinguished, and he will die," the dark-scaled Ryuk snapped.
But the blue-scaled Ryuk slowly turned his gaze to him.
"And if you passed him your dark will, he would become a mindless dark beast, ruled by its desire to devour all things. He would cease to be himself and become nothing but a mindless creature. What’s any better in that?" the blue-scaled Ryuk retorted, and the dark-scaled Ryuk quieted down.
"If we’re to wait until he’s strong enough to bear our power, that time won’t be coming anytime soon, and he might as well be killed by the Knulls."
"Either path leads to his death. So, why not risk it?"
"All or nothing. Don’t you agree, young one?" the blue-scaled Ryuk asked, as Ryuk’s heart unnervingly thumped harder within him.
Looking into the eyes of the blue-scaled Ryuk, he could see that one of the runic lines in his irises was shining with a bright, insane light that shook Ryuk to his core.
"I understand!" Ryuk said, but his eyes flashed in shock the next second when—
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP
Something ripped straight into the side of Ryuk’s chest, tearing out from behind him.
It was none other than the claws of the blue-scaled Ryuk.
Ryuk stared in shock into the flashing runes in his assailant’s eyes, blood pouring from his lips.
"Wh...why?" he asked in confusion and regret as he felt life rapidly leaving his body. But the smile of the blue-scaled Ryuk only grew wider.
"For your own good," he replied to Ryuk, whose last vestiges of life finally faded away.
His head dropped limply to the side, but still, his body was held by the blue-scaled Ryuk, who raised Ryuk up on his feet with his hand still pierced into his chest.
Slowly, he closed his eyes.
The last thing he heard was—
"It all ends once he’s gone, Pride. It all ends."
But the blue-scaled Ryuk paid no attention.
His eyes fully closed, and they both stood in the same position—Ryuk with his feet dangling in the air, droplets of blood raining down, while the blue-scaled Ryuk held him, his indifferent expression morphing into one of seriousness.
---
Coldness.
Intense coldness.
That was what Ryuk first felt as his consciousness finally faded away.
It was dark. Pitch dark.
But then something began appearing—a weird blue light, slowly magnifying toward Ryuk. While lost, he stretched out his hands towards it.
Slowly, he moved them, until finally, he grabbed at the light—and in the next instant, he was rapidly pulled into somewhere different.
BAAAAAAAM!
The ground shook heavily as Ryuk crashed into it, a groan of pain leaving his lips.
But then, he felt himself regain control of his body, and with a single tap of his foot, he jumped away from where he was, rapidly appearing three meters away, and senses tuned to the max.
When Ryuk looked in front of him, though, his lips parted in shock.
----
A/N:
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In and Out_SnowySmoos