"Yes, Grand Papa." Eliana was the first to call out as she scurried to the man's side, coming to hug his waist.
"We heard the sound of things falling to the ground, and we decided to check in, only to find him awake and causing a ruckus," she said, pointing to Ryuk before pointing to the fallen books from the shelves.
"Isn't that right, Filliana?" she asked the dark Complexioned girl who still stood by Ryuk's feet.
Filliana looked at the shelves and at Ryuk, before looking at her Grandpa and then back at the Eliana, before she nodded her head reluctantly.
"Eliana...is..right." she said, but then—
HAARRRUMMPH!
A loud harrumph echoed through the room, and both girls' spines stiffened.
"Eliana! Do you think I'm blind?!" the man asked as he yanked his waist from the girl's clingy hold, and she hugged her hands to her waist before coquettishly asking,
"Why do you think that, Grand Papa?"
"I can still see traces of Filliana's Aetheris on the walls. You started a fight, against my orders."
"Isn't that right, Filliana!" the man asked, as Filliana bit her lips before replying.
"That's right, Grand Papa. Eliana started it first though."
"You shush it!" Eliana screamed as she prepared to speed towards Fillian, only to watch her legs running in the air as her head was picked up by the man whose silvery eyes turned to look at Eliana, who could only smile coquettishly.
"Sorry, Grand Papa. It was truly my fault… actually, it's partly. Just 25%. Fillian is the one to be blamed the most..." she whispered the half sentence but yelped in shock as the man released her hand, resulting in her falling to her feet all of a sudden.
And then the order came.
"100 Runic Pattern Memorization, from 888 to 999. You have just three hours, and I'll be asking Sir Rhyvian to test you after..." he ordered and Ryuk watched both girls' faces paled, and before he could blink, they were out of the room as fast as lightning, the door slowly shutting itself back.
"Huuuuu," a deep exhale left the man's lips before he settled as he turned his expression back to Ryuk, walking towards him.
Even though this was a figure he had never seen before, Ryuk didn't feel the slightest tinge of caution in him to resist the man.
He watched as he arrived before him, looking into his eyes.
But then—
A bright halo suddenly flashed from his eyes, instantly finding its way into Ryuk's as he felt himself lose control for a second, unable to come to terms anymore with reality.
Instead, the world turned completely white, but still, he could hear—
"Hmmm, interesting."
"Really interesting."
"He really fused well with that Annunaki-Prime model we incorporated into him."
"Unbelievable."
"But then, there seem to be some little malfunctions."
"Let's see."
"Hmm. Speech loss—a result of an error in bio-augmentation leading to a misfiring between organic brain areas and synthetic implants."
"In his case, speech centres, especially his Broca and Wernicke analogues have essentially fallen out of sync, leading to the rare phenomenon of 'Ghost Speech.'"
"That's easy to fix."
WHIIIIRRR
WHIIIIIIRR
WHIIIIIIRR
"Done. And Ummmm"
"Oh. Memory loss, arising from a corruption in his Quantum Core?"
"Now that's troublesome."
"It seems to have arisen from a misalignment in his individual mind core, causing his past memories to become inaccessible, appearing as the common amnesia."
"Could the data have been lost due to fusion?"
"No, not really. All signs are good."
"This might mean the data hasn't been lost, but rather the neural routing pathways have been scrambled—similar to corrupted indexes in a database."
"Must have arisen due to my overexcitement. That's not too difficult to fix..." the voice resounded through the world that was as white as a clean sheet.
And then, the whirring sound once more began as Ryuk felt clarity slowly returning to him.
But then—
A powerful stream suddenly rushed into his brain as he felt the white world around him shake.
Memories after memories began appearing—
Starting from he was a boy, hunting and killing Mutated Beasts, the death of Uncle Bob, moving to Grade B, the Fallen Genius' fight, arrival in the Ascension Academy, the trial ground, Finding Asteralaxia confronting the Knulls, the Contract Grimoires, fight with the Runic Guardian, confrontation with Antares, and finally, his collapse in the room, along with bright flashes of light that enveloped him before his senses could be fully robbed.
And then...
The white that filled his gaze dispersed as he felt the world clear up once more, amidst his chest heavily heaving.
But then came the wizened gaze before him, staring at him with a peculiar light.
"You understand now?" he asked, as Ryuk held his head before he turned his gaze to his hands, looking at their form.
Now, everything felt so distant.
Like he had been transferred into another body.
"Where? Where am I?" he asked, the first question that left his lips, as a revolving office seat appeared from the side and the man took his seat opposite him.
"You're currently in the Royal Home of the Silvery Rune Family. You were discovered amongst the garbage heaps of Interdimensional Sewages."
"Literally gates that push out garbage from other worlds onto ours. You were found by one of the sewage cleaners and brought to me... more dead than alive."
"But with a little bit of headache, I was able to patch you up to what you are now," he said, as Ryuk's hand gazed at the sheet and pulled them off.
He was served in a simple shirt and trousers, but he could see through his cloth and could notice the same blue robotic gem installed all over his legs and arms.
There wasn't even the slightest amount of skin on him. It was all blue gem and robotic.
But then, his eyes flashed in cautiousness as he unconsciously moved his hands to his chest.
BAADUUUMP
BAADUUUMP
BAADUUUMP
The beating sound of his heart managed to calm him, as his hand moved up to his throat, feeling his lungs—and a bit of shaking was all he needed to find his brains within his skull.
Ryuk exhaled loudly in relief after that.
'My brain, lungs, and heart are still there. Very good.'