"Hmm, the lava stopped flowing. That’s weird?" Ryuk’s voice rang out through the darkness, surrounded by a dark, putrid aura that completely covered the airspace in the cave around him.
It was pitch black, and somehow, even the lava, which ought to be red, was black instead, explaining the darkness in the area.
But after he had silently floated forward for about an hour, he couldn’t help but notice the dark lava, which had previously been flowing restlessly, had suddenly ceased all movement.
He turned back, his gaze zooming forward into the distance, and that was when he realized—the exit of the cave had been closed.
"That’s quite the thriller..." Ryuk muttered to himself, but his senses flared around him, unfurling for a couple of miles to monitor the surroundings, and he also slowed down his speed, his senses tuned to their maximum.
The cave had locked up on him, and the red lava had turned black, along with black mist swirling through the entire area.
It was safe to say things weren’t looking particularly good.
But just after 30 minutes more of floating, he finally reached the exit of the cave, which looked like the door of a tunnel.
And when he stepped outside—
He was surprised to feel a new, cool breeze blasting onto his face as he looked around, noticing green, red, and blue petals of flowers all around the area.
It was a peaceful garden, seemingly without end, but then Ryuk noticed something peculiar.
As he raised his gaze, he found a little girl, about six years of age, surrounded by tiny golden threads in the air, hanging down helplessly.
The girl’s eyes were closed, her golden-red hair falling over her face, and her body remained tied up by the stream of golden threads.
It was like she had climbed up there and gotten herself tied up in the threads, but then Ryuk’s brow creased as he looked at the ends of the threads and noticed they somehow dipped into the empty space bizarrely.
A couple of suspicions flashed in his mind, and he felt a numbing feeling that something was wrong with the entire area around him.
"Huh?" He mused to himself as he looked up again, just in time to notice the little girl caught in the golden threads suddenly struggling frantically, her hand reaching toward her neck as Ryuk watched one of the golden strands squeezing her throat.
She trembled to make it stop, flailing terribly.
"HELP!"
Her voice—so heart-throbbing—resounded.
It was so soft, so angelic that no man would resist looking at such a beautiful girl getting her life squeezed out by golden threads and not try to help.
But Ryuk remained in the same position, his eyes narrowed in suspicion and focus as he looked around the surrounding area more intensely before suddenly scoffing out loud.
"Really? This is your best move?" Ryuk asked with a scoff of mockery under his breath.
The little girl twisted more, seemingly losing her last breath of life, but Ryuk remained unbothered.
"Imagine coming out from a cave, thousands of kilometers deep underground, in an area where most would be burned to cinders."
"And when you stepped into it, it shut behind you, giving you no choice but to continue forward."
"It has no exit in sight, covered completely in dark aura, with the red lava somehow having become dark, putrid lava.
"You continue down this cave, and it opens up, just for you to find a beautiful garden with a cool breeze blowing, and right above your head, there’s a six-year-old golden princess seemingly hanging in the air by threads, which look like something she got herself into?"
"And now, she’s begging for your help all of a sudden?
"’Oh, please save me. I am just a golden little princess in a beautiful garden who got herself tied up by threads. Please save me..." Ryuk said, imitating the cry of a little girl as he looked up at the golden-haired figure and delivered a good laugh as much as he didn’t want to.
"Honestly, whoever falls for this illusion of yours must be the world’s most celebrated idiot of all time." Ryuk’s unimpressed voice rang out, and a "Tch" resouned through the area.
Immediately after, Ryuk floated up, hovering a little from the garden, and he watched as the entire garden shattered into pieces like glass, and in the next instant, everything had changed.
Looking around, he found himself standing at the edge of a waterfall.
A waterfall, all right—except that it wasn’t water falling, but pitch-black magma, rushing down with thunderous force and crashing into the abyss below.
And above his head, the view had also changed.
The golden threads had been ruled by enormous, thick, crimson-colored chains that tightly wound around the figure of the golden-haired girl, whose body suddenly changed until she became a 2-meter-tall lady with eyes that contained abyssal light and flowing pitch-black hair, along with porcelain-black skin.
She had four horns—two on top of her head, short and pointing to the sky, and another two sticking from the sides of her ears, curving outwards in front of her, crimson in colour.
On her body was a dark dress, old and worn out, barely able to cover her figure.
As she turned her pitch-black eyes to Ryuk, her mouth opened wide—
But it wasn’t a mouth.
It was a maw, one that didn’t have any holding in its cheeks, along with pitch-black devilish teeth and a long, snaky tongue.
"Well, worth the shot," the lady said, cracking Ryuk an evil grin as his unimpressed gaze locked onto her before he turned away and looked at her crimson chains and the waterfall of pitch-black lava beneath him.
"Talk of a prison that can’t be escaped..." Ryuk muttered to himself as a loud scoff blasted in his ears from above him.
"I’m not imprisoned here. I’m simply biding my time—for my revenge," she cajoled devilishly as Ryuk turned back to her before he unironically replied:
"You won’t be getting any revenge if you’re trapped here, and you’re obviously trapped here."
"You did your illusion to make me cut open these golden threads, which would have severed you from those red chains. So, you obviously want to get out of here, but you can’t. These golden chains won’t allow you."
"So you needed a scapegoat to do it for you." He analyzed as the lady’s pitch black eyes settled on his figure, her smile receding.
"You’re quite smart for a ladyboy. Seems like I misjudged you from your appearance."