"Very good job, Void. You saved my life," Ryuk's voice rang out through the silence as he rubbed Void's head.
The creature was sitting on his shoulder, as he scrubbed beneath its cheek, resulting in a peaceful purring sound.
Suddenly, three balls of dark-coloured bun-looking objects appeared in Ryuk's hands.
Void's eyes widened in joy, and it quickly swallowed them all in a single gulp, belching out loudly as its stomach bulged faintly.
"Hey, I protected you too!" Aster said, and Ryuk rolled his eyes.
"You were the reason this happened in the first place. You should've warned me that stepping back on the Ruin Guardian would lead to problems."
"You just said, 'Don't turn back,' as if you owned me," Ryuk said with a loud humph as he stepped down from the air, coming to rest on the ground, his eyes looking at the fractured space.
Then his eyes narrowed, as he felt the earth suddenly rumble powerfully, as if an earthquake was ongoing.
"I hate earthquakes..." Ryuk mused out loud.
"It's not an earthquake. It's the Ruin Gate!" Aster's voice sounded beside him as he turned to her with a raised eyebrow.
"Piece it together."
"A Ruin Guardian. It's Death."
"And now a runic gate."
"Obviously, one is there for the other, and now that he's gone, we have fulfilled the permission to enter the ruins it was guarding."
"Quite the harsh ruin though, if the requirement to enter it is by killing its guardian."
"Those types of ruins aren't common..." Asteralaixia said, and they both watched as a gigantic dark grey gate slowly made its way from beneath the ground, rising higher and higher into the air, until it towered above them for a good 20 meters.
Its powerful aura was enough to instantly stabilize the broken space around them, quickly mending it in an instant.
"Such powerful Aetheris Energy. And so overpowering too," Ryuk mused to himself as he looked at the gate and the dark grey aura oozing out of it.
It was the same as the aura of the power the Ruin Guardian was using.
And it was Aetheris—yet it held so much power that Ryuk felt his heart thumping.
Aetheris wasn't a strength-type of energy. It was more of a calming, soulful energy.
But this... this was something else.
"So what do you think? Quite the place to hide away, no?" she said, and Ryuk's eyes flashed before he turned to her with furrowed eyebrows.
"This is most likely a portal to a trial world. Like the one I entered to find you!" Ryuk said, and Aster nodded slowly before saying,
"And?"
"How, Aster? How do you easily keep finding these gates?"
"You found the previous one that contained Aetheris, and now, you've found this one too?"
"These are undiscovered gates, or they would have been guarded by the Interdimensional Gate Embassy. So these are newly found Runic Gates,"
"Not to mention that most interdimensional gates are in Grade A—and very few in other grades."
"How are you easily picking gates up in places where their concentration is abysmally low?" he asked her, and Aster grinned widely.
"I'll tell you on one condition," Aster said..
"What's that?" Ryuk replied.
"You tell me what that technique of yours is. How did you get your hands on such a powerful manual?" Aster asked, as Ryuk looked at her curious eyes that were dying to get that technique.
And that was when the thought occurred in his head, and his eyes flashed.
'She probably wants to know it because she had tried to faintly fight back against the art to save me.'
'But then, her dimension power which she had been pretty confident off had instantly been ripped apart by the technique's use—something that must have caused quite the shock in her.'
'That's a power that even she herself can't ignore.'
'And now she wants to learn it and know it—most likely to sense its weakness or even learn it herself so she can counter it in the future.'
'You're very sleek, Aster. Very sleek.'
"You know what?" Ryuk said as he shrugged his shoulder before he resumed stepping toward the runic gate.
"Forget it," he completed.
"Hey! Why?" she asked as she picked up after him, soon coming to arrive before his side.
"No particular reason. Just like seeing that proudful face of yours getting refused..." he teased as Aster scoffed quickly, wearing her normally immortal-being expression.
"Forget it then. Not like I don't have another way to counter it anyway. Was faintly curious about it, and now I've lost interest..." she said, as Ryuk grinned in his head.
'Seems like I was right. Is she preparing for an eventual fight with me in the future in case I become an enemy?' Ryuk thought to himself before shrugging it off.
Soon, both of them were just 1 meter from the gate, and Ryuk paused.
"So, any other heads-up before we step in?" he asked, as Aster shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know much, except that ruins which only open if their guardians are killed are powerful ruins."
"The guardians exist to slaughter any weak being that comes close to the structure, so being able to defeat the guardian is like a requirement to enter it."
"That Ruin Guardian can be almost called an Eternity-stage expert."
"So the barest minimum to enter the ruin is to be at least of the Eternity stage in cultivation."
"Meaning it might be harder than those 'Lord-raked Gates' that are in those A-grades," she said mockingly, as Ryuk shook his head.
"Tell me, those stages of the Interdimensional Gates aren't called Lord-ranked in the Upper Worlds?"
"Yeah. They are called 7th Floor Lower Grounds! You all here have a way of always slapping 'Lord' onto every little thing."
"Anyway, we can step into this ruin and be separated. So survive, okay?"
"If you don't come out three days after I exit, I would assume you're dead and just move on," Aster said before stepping forward and touching the gate, which let loose a color of dark grey energy before a shimmering portal veil opened up on its surface.
Aster stepped in and soon disappeared.
Ryuk paused, looking around him, before he looked at Void, who gave a confident "MEOW," excitement in its eyes as it looked at the opened portal.
He heaved in before he made his choice.
"I guess I can use some interdimensional gates to lie low for now. Let's get in Void..." he said before stepping into the gate, which soon closed up and the entire monument withdrew itself into the ground, the world turning into an endless area of grey once more.