"You can’t be planning to take on a vortex of Knulls all on your own, are you?"
The voice resonated behind Ryuk—none other than Aster—but her eyes flashed when she saw it. A dark crimson aura surged all over Ryuk, dancing on his shoulder.
Ryuk’s crimson eyes were now flaring with an incredible, murderous aura, yet his face remained emotionless as he looked at the Knulls advancing toward him.
Ryuk could see them well now.
His worst foes.
The creatures he hated the most in his life.
The Knulls were a special group of creatures in that they were no different from mutated beasts.
Even the Knull that had killed Uncle Bob had taken the shape of a bird. And that was how the Knulls were.
Some of them looked like tigers. Some looked like lizards. All took various animal forms, with a few distinguishing features—some had five legs instead of four, some had five tails instead of one.
But if there was one true distinguishing factor between Knulls and mutated beasts, it was the shadows.
Yes, the Knulls oozed out a strange, shadowy energy.
It wasn’t Apex energy at all.
In fact, their energy was a devouring force—one that swallowed every trace of Apex energy in the air, consuming it to bloat its own presence.
The life was drained away from the ground as they marched forward with ferocious intent.
But Ryuk looked beyond them—to the dark vortex from which they had poured out,
By the side of the vortex, his eyes could still see five gigantic fingers pulling the vortex aside, and allowing Knulls to pour out, though he couldn’t see the body of the one to whom those hands belonged.
All he knew was that it would be an incredibly gigantic being. And the aura from those fingers sent chills down Ryuk’s spine.
"If you want to stop the Knulls, the first thing you ought to do is close that vortex. If you know a Light Vortex Purifying Art, you should be able to do that..." Aster said to him.
But Ryuk had his own plans.
Seeing the countless Knulls rushing toward him, he slowly raised his hands.
His ring finger interlocked with his middle finger, and then he whispered:
"Domain Expansion!"
The words, though merely a whisper, seemed to have been uttered through the loudest speakers, echoing through the entire world.
Ryuk’s lips parted once more, intense ice energy curling from his breath as he completed the incantation.
"Winter’s Solace..."
RIPPPPPPPPLLLLLEEEEEE
Immediately, the entire ground beneath him became covered in a complete world of ice and snow, which rapidly spread outward from beneath his feet.
The frost expanded into the distance, reaching the Knulls and freezing them in place.
Within seconds, everything became a frozen wasteland.
The air around Ryuk turned into solid blocks of ice and stopped blowing.
The Knulls themselves were paused within their steps, locked in their positions, completely encased in ice, unable to move an inch.
[Mana: -200!]
[5 More Mana Will Be Depleted With Every Second of Domain Activation!]
The system notification flashed as Ryuk stretched his hand to the side, a large ice sword forming in his grasp. And in the next instant—
KABOOOOOOOOOM!
The ground beneath him exploded into nothingness as he surged forward with speed.
Appearing before the frozen army of Knulls, his sword slashed outward, sending a storm of ice that instantly ripped apart every Knull standing in his way.
But Ryuk didn’t stop there.
He leaped, racing forward in a straight line, his ice sword cleaving outward toward the front Knulls and shattering them into pieces.
An absolute massacre began as Ryuk weaved through their figures with breathtaking speed, sending bodies blasting apart in the wake of his movements.
"Powerful... His Frost Energy is very powerful enough to freeze lower Knulls in their steps... Just what grade of cultivation manual is he using?"
Aster thought to herself in shock as she watched the entire army of Knulls get taken out one by one.
Ryuk’s sword did not fail to reduce the Knulls to nothing.
As he continued flashing forward, the system notification kept blaring red with light.
He could feel himself moving closer and closer to the vortex.
Thirty meters away from it.
[Mana Completely Depleted!]
[Domain Will Now Be Canceled!]
Instantly, Ryuk’s domain reeled back, and a loud splash echoed into the air, making it seem as if a rain of blood had been frozen.
With the creatures no longer frozen, all they met was their own inevitable fate. But Ryuk had everything he wanted.
He was now thirty meters before the vortex.
"A Light Purifying Art? I don’t have such a thing..." he muttered to himself as he grinned widely.
Immediately, Ryuk’s disappearing ice sword lengthened even more, borrowing Mana form Isha in the Pet world, growing to nearly 10 meters in height.
Then, he held it up, channeling every single bit of energy Isha possessed into the blade, causing runic lines to appear all over its surface.
His gaze moved to the fingers pulling the vortex open.
And then—
"Fall!"
Ryuk commanded, and the gigantic Ice sword fell down like the blade of a god—freezing space itself yet shattering it in the same moment.
The fingers of the Knull reeled as if sensing the danger from its side. But instead of drawing it into the Vortex, it took a sudden swipe at Ryuk instead.
The attack detonated in his face, tearing through the air.
But the claw never reached Ryuk before his sword, shot down, and instantly ripped apart the fingers
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
In that instant, the fingers fell out of the vortex, a powerful wave of dark energy surging outward from it.
Ryuk could barely hear the muffled roar of pain and anger before the vortex itself twisted into a close, sucking itself inward—until it disappeared into nothing.
Silence reigned completely over the area.
Ryuk exhaled, cold air leaving his lungs before he turned his gaze behind him, finding only a single person standing there.
It was Aster.
But then, he noticed all of the Knulls in the air, slowly fading into ashes as their enormous bodies disappeared into nothing.
"Surprisingly weaker than I expected them to be..." Ryuk mused to himself, furrowing his brows before he made up his mind.
"Time to leave."
[Secret Quest Completed!]