"So, you’re back now, feeling like you now have a choice?" Elder Celine shot back as Ryuk opened his eyes, and they both watched as his eyes began revolving with the blue vortex once more as he turned to look at Elder Celine.
Immediately, Elder Celine’s eyes flashed as she looked at her own hands and watched the hair on them standing on end.
"Yes, I do. And it would be faster than you blinking..." Ryuk called out calmly, using the words she had used on him the last time, resulting in a scoff from Elder Celine.
"I doubt that."
"Trust me. You don’t want to find out," Ryuk responded, as Elder Celine’s eyes slowly began changing, turning into a serpentine line form.
But it didn’t take long before she noticed Ryuk’s eyes changing too—his normal blue irises morphing until they also formed a straight line like hers.
A serpentine aura snaked through both of them, and Elder Celine’s eyes flashed in shock. The same went for Queen Snowardo, who couldn’t help but notice the rapid change Ryuk was exuding.
His aura had changed—from something ’humane’ to that of a beast, just like Elder Celine.
"You? You’re a beast?" Queen Snowardo said, snapping Ryuk out of it.
He blinked his eyes, and as fast as that, Ryuk’s serpentine eyes had changed back to normal.
"You’re not a human!" Elder Celine said with more than enough certainty.
That aura. That was the aura of a beast—it was anything but human.
"Yes, I’m not," Ryuk responded without a care in the world, as they both reeled in shock.
But Ryuk had his eyes closed, distant, feeling the coldness that radiated through his throat as he took sips of the drink in his hands.
"You? What are you then? Does Isha have any idea about that?" Queen Snowardo asked, as Ryuk opened his eyes, scoffing.
"Human or not. What does that change for her?"
"Does it stop her from being Isha that I know, or stop me from being the same Ryuk that she knows?"
Ryuk asked as he took a long sip and then placed the cup back onto the table.
"But to be fair... it might change both of your perceptions of me, but honestly... I don’t really care that much either."
"In fact, I wish it did. So I don’t have to come back here again!" Ryuk said as they watched his eyes change once more into that serpentine state, but then it began receding when a minute of silence passed.
"You’re glitching in and out of your beastly form. That happens to the Newborn Hybrids. So whatever you are, you’re still new to it..." Elder Celine muttered under her breath as Ryuk’s eyebrows furrowed.
"Newborn Hybrids?" he asked, noting that word as Elder Celine’s eyes flashed, realizing her slip-up. But then Queen Snowardo continued.
"Yes. We Nagas are hybrids. Hybrids of our race, Icios and Frost Wyverns," she said, as Ryuk’s eyes flashed in shock.
"Hybrids? You Nagas are hybrids!?" he asked in disbelief, as Elder Celine turned her gaze to Queen Snowardo.
"You sure you want to reveal to him your ancestry secret?" she asked, as Queen Snowardo shrugged.
"If that will make him feel safer, with him being a hybrid too, then it’s fine by me."
"And Isha already noticed that. It’s only a matter of time before she reveals that to him personally," Queen Snowardo said, as Ryuk’s eyebrows furrowed.
To learn that the Nagas were actually hybrids was quite the shock.
But then, it now made sense why the Frost Wyverns decided to settle with the Nagas instead of the other Ten Families.
It was because they were one of their ancestors in the first place.
It made sense to know, but it didn’t change much for him. So in the end, he only shrugged it off.
"That’s surprising to know, but I don’t care too."
"Why are we having this meeting anyway?" Ryuk asked, as he finished his cold drink with a long sip.
Queen Snowardo’s eyes flashed before she moved her hand toward the mug to pour some more for him, but the mug was grabbed by Ryuk faster before she could touch it.
"I can fill my cup up..." he said to her as he filled up his cup, before laying back the mug on the table.
"Because I need to know if your reason for being absent from Isha’s life was truly because you were in a ruin. We want to know if Isha will be safe with you or not," Queen Snowardo said, as Elder Celine added in.
"Since you’re substantially looking quite different from the previous Ryuk we knew too..." she added as Ryuk’s eyebrows furrowed.
"And what does that mean?"
"What’s with the horns?" she asked, as Ryuk narrowed his eyes before he asked,
"Do they look evil or demonic?"
He replied as Elder Celine furrowed her eyes at those horns, as if truly considering his words, before she responded.
"It actually doesn’t. Radiates a bit of an aura of royalty to it... Something that doesn’t fit the previous Ryuk, too..." she added as Ryuk grinned.
"I’ll take that as a compliment..."
"My point is the horns make it hard to really know if it’s you or not..." Elder Celine said as Ryuk took a long sip of his drink before responding.
"I am Ryuk."
"The horns, the new face, the glitching beast form—none of that defines who I am. Isha knows that more than anyone here does, even more than me."
"So she’ll be safe and fine by my side, just like how she was safe and fine before I was forced to relinquish her to you," he said to Elder Celine, whose eyes narrowed, annoyance flickering in them.
But then Queen Snowardo picked up the real problem.
"You’re still mad about what happened in the past."
"You’re mad at yourself for giving Isha up. You felt like you gave her up because of your weakness..." she said, as Ryuk’s eyebrows knitted.
But then they relaxed as he took another long sip before he exhaled a cold breath.
"I didn’t feel like I gave her up. I gave her up! And that too because I was weak!"
"If I were strong like I am now, back then, then I never would have agreed to that dumb deal, which I didn’t have a choice but to accept."
"I never would have had Isha snatched away from my side."
"And I hate her for that." He turned his attention to Elder Celine, whose annoyed expression flashed in realization and then reverted back to normal.
Now she understood the reason for Ryuk’s anger—and it wasn’t what she had thought.
The realization made her eyes soften a bit.