Looking at the entire Apex Realm unfurling into chaos, Ryuk could only stand there, numb, as he watched Isha gliding around with boisterous laughter.
"Can I feel it too? Actually, I ought to be the only one that feels it…" Ryuk muttered to himself.
But then his eyes flashed as he landed a loud slap on his face, the pain jolting him awake.
"No, no. I can’t get jealous now. There’s something… I can feel something…" Ryuk mused as he looked at Isha forming hundreds of objects instantaneously from every snowflake in the air.
Her power had momentarily increased, and his brain flashed with speed, processing thousands of hypotheses and discarding them just as quickly—until he came upon one that made his eyes widen in shock.
"That’s it! That’s it! It’s Isha! Isha is the last formula to form my domain!"
Ryuk exclaimed loudly into the space as Isha turned, raising an eyebrow at him.
"That’s it. It’s Isha. The Ice power is what formed the basis of all this. I got the Ice power, then absorbed the Ice Apex Energy, and then formed the Ice Apex Core, which eventually evolved into the Apex Realm. All of these sources have been Ice."
"But I forgot that I was never born to control Ice. Ice was never really mine. It was Isha’s. It was an inherent power from Isha. Isha owned the Ice Apex Energy. Now that I’m trying to manifest my will onto the Apex Realm to make it form an Apex Domain…"
"Only my will is not enough. I need Isha’s will—the will of the true source of power. If only my will is used, the domain will be imperfect since the true source of it is no longer there."
"Isha is the source of the Ice power. That explains why she suddenly feels so much control over the domain. That’s why it easily bends to her will."
"It’s because even though I have cultivated the Ice Apex Energy from the start, it was Isha who was the true source of it."
"And now, it needs her will. Isha owns the true source of the Ice power, and I have built it to this level. But one of our wills alone isn’t enough to form a domain. Isha won’t be able to form the domain on her own because even though she’s the source, she wasn’t the one who built it."
"She will never achieve absolute control. But I alone wouldn’t be able to manifest the domain fully either, even though I was the one who built it. Isha was the one who laid the groundwork for it."
"Only with our will together can we manifest it."
"But how? How do we merge our will together?"
Ryuk questioned himself as his brain worked quickly, his eyes scanning the Apex Realm—until they caught something.
"Wait. The Runic lines!" Ryuk muttered under his breath as he looked at the runic lines that seemed to stretch across the entire domain. His eyes flashed.
"I have been wondering what these runic lines were for and what they do. But now, I think—no, I know—these runic lines form something…" Ryuk stared in front of him, where the ground below Isha was floating, and realization dawned on him.
"Isha has suddenly grown so much when she arrived in her realm, and somehow, the runic lines extend all over the realm."
"It never occurred to me before that I needed to fill up these runic lines because they were so big. But what could I fill them up with? Perhaps, perhaps, all of these runic lines could form one solid image of something…" Ryuk mused.
"Isha, come! Come!" Ryuk beckoned to Isha, who flapped over to him in an instant, appearing behind him.
"Fly up, as high as you can!" he stated.
Immediately, Isha landed on an arc before exerting strength and instantly soaring into the sky.
She soared for close to 3,000 meters into the endless space before finally coming to a stop, holding her position. From this perspective, the entire Apex Realm seemed like a tiny pebble.
Ryuk and Isha’s eyes flashed as they finally saw the image that the runic lines formed on the ground.
"Is it me, or does that thing form my image?" Isha’s voice rang in his head as a brilliant light flashed in Ryuk’s eyes.
It was the image of a frost wyvern lying on its belly. The claws, the wings—everything matched perfectly, and Ryuk’s eyes widened.
"That’s truly it. To manifest the domain, I need to fill up the runic lines. And right now, the runic lines are in the shape of Isha’s body."
"This is it. Once Isha covers the runic lines completely, the final piece of the puzzle will be complete, and the domain will manifest itself…" Ryuk mused before immediately turning to Isha, explaining everything to her.
"A domain, huh?" Isha muttered at the end of it all.
"So all I have to do is fit my body into the shape of that runic line, right?"
"Exactly!" Ryuk stated.
"But, um, I’m not that big, am I? I mean, we’re 3,000 meters above, and that’s why it looked like it would fit me at all. If we get back down and compare to the runic line, I’m like a tiny pebble. How can I get that big?" Isha asked, her brows furrowing.
Ryuk whispered in her ear, "Well, you didn’t will yourself to be big before you became that size, did you, Isha?"
"No, I didn’t," she replied.
"The realm listens to your will, does it not?"
"It kinda does."
"Then what if you willed yourself to grow big? Really big—with your will. Do you still doubt you can pull it off?" Ryuk asked her.
Isha’s eyes widened in realization, and in the next instant—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The entire Apex Realm quivered as if a mountain had slammed onto it. The slates of the runic lines on the ground began shining with an incredibly bright light.
Isha soared downward with speed, leaving Ryuk standing in the air. But his eyes were fully on her figure as they flashed, discerning all of the hidden runes of the Apex Realm brightening up.
And quickly—Isha’s form began widening and widening.
"Finally… finally! It’s happening!"