Chapter 597: How Disappointing
“Finally…” Ryuk muttered beneath his breath as he raised his gaze to the cloaked figure before him.
The figure was shrouded in black robes that concealed every detail, crouched low to the ground.
One hand gripped a staff wrapped in white bandages, Abyssal Flames bleeding through the cracks, while the other cradled the fading ashes of Morne, drifting slowly into the wind.
“You ever felt the pain? The pain of losing a life?” he asked.
Silence consumed the area.
The only sound was a haunting howl—a piercing scream radiating from beneath the robes of the figure before him.
“Morne was a great companion, but death is merely a delayed truth. I saw this coming years ago.”
“Why should I mourn a truth I’ve already accepted?” he replied, lifting his head to meet Ryuk’s gaze.
From beneath the shadowed hood, a pair of crimson eyes gleamed.
They exuded an aura seemingly capable of incinerating the world with sheer intensity.
Yet Ryuk searched for something else—and failed to find it.
He looked for emotion.
Sadness?
Anger?
Joy?
But there was nothing.Only emptiness. Hollow. Lifeless.
He turned his eyes away, instead focusing on the skeletal hands peeking from within the dark robes.
A sharp glint flashed through Ryuk’s gaze as his heart thumped loudly in his chest.
“Familiar?” the robed figure asked as Ryuk’s stare remained fixed on the bony hands woven into the darkness.
“They’re mine…” He whispered, and a sinister chuckle echoed across the world, slicing through the air like a blade.
But Ryuk’s face betrayed no change, no reaction.
“You mean to say, they used to be yours…”
“But now… not anymore.”
“And soon enough, your heart, lungs, and brain will cease to be yours too…” the figure added with another malevolent laugh—one that could have sent a chill crawling up the spine of even an Apocrypha-stage being.
But for Ryuk, it did absolutely nothing.
“You’ve become weaker…” he said all of a sudden, and the laughter stopped dead in its tracks.
“I remember the dreams vividly. The nightmares.”
“I can still feel the chase.”
“A fear so great, I couldn’t even look at what was chasing me.”
“I used to imagine… if a presence in a dream could make me tremble so, how terrifying would it be to face it in reality?”
“How powerful must such a being be?” Ryuk continued, slowly unfurling his bloodied fingers as he turned to meet those crimson eyes.
“But now you stand before me… and I feel nothing. Not even a flicker of fear.”
“You must have gotten weaker. Far weaker than I remember…”
In the next instant—
KAAABOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!
A tremendous wave of energy exploded outward, colliding head-on with Ryuk.
CRAAACCKKKKKK!
The earth beneath him shattered instantly, black cracks forming a massive chasm as gravity seemed to increase by over a thousand times, leaving a seemingly endless abyss where Ryuk formerly sat.
The figure slowly floated downward into the abyss, staring at the bottom boy who remained seated, despite the devastation around him.
Blood dripped from Ryuk’s nose, ears, and eyes, cracks over his skin, leaving a growing puddle of red beneath him.
“You Have No Idea What Calamity Has Just Descended Upon You, Little Dark One…” the voice echoed in his ears as Ryuk slowly stretched his broken hand outward and pushed himself upright.
He wobbled staggeringly on his feet, droplets of blood splattering onto the ground.
PLIT
PLAT
“The being so powerful… so fearsome in my dreams. The strongest foe I thought I would ever face… is nothing but a thing that rages at truths…”
CHUCKLE
A dark laugh escaped Ryuk’s lips as the realization struck him.
He raised his head and stared up at the figure descending from above—and all he felt was… disappointment.
“What calamity has descended upon me?” he asked, followed by a deep, ominous laugh.
The floating figure paused mid-air, crimson eyes narrowing when it noticed a strange, dark-and-crimson aura undulating from Ryuk.
A singularity began spinning into existence around him.
Three eyes opened on his neck, Void runes etching themselves into his flesh.
But that wasn’t all.
From atop Ryuk’s forehead, his horns began to elongate—golden dots of light at their tips vanishing, replaced by seething crimson sparks.
His body expanded rapidly, violently bursting from its mortal shell to give rise to a seven-meter-tall demon, cloaked in red scales.
Claws glowing with a purple energy so dense, they looked sharp enough to tear through a star’s core.
‘He’s unlocked his Knull Transformation… and he possesses Hurricane Energy… He’s mastered it?’ the cloaked figure thought, eyes fixed on Ryuk’s purple claws and terrifying form, watching the singularity collapse in on itself—birthing a black hole around him.
The sheer weight of his aura tore the land apart.
Craters sank deeper, swallowed whole by the force that surrounded Ryuk.
From disdain and uncaring calm, the 7th Calamity’s expression slowly warped into caution as Ryuk’s power continued to surge upward, relentlessly.
Then, suddenly—
CRAAAACK!
A golden bolt of lightning tore from the heavens, crashing down on Ryuk with divine fury.
Smoke burst across the battlefield, choking the air.
And when it cleared…
The seven-meter demonic figure had grown into a fifty-meter colossus—a monstrous silhouette sculpted for war with deep blue draconic scales layered over burning crimson ones.
‘He’s awakened his Draconic Bloodline, too,’ the figure thought, more stunned than before, as Ryuk’s aura skyrocketed even more.
Then, his scarlet and crimson hair took on a faint white halo. Frost began creeping over his body, several scales morphing into shimmering white.
The 7th Calamity stared wide-eyed as another transformation began.
But this time…
This time, the aura was so great, so dreadful, it shattered the cautious mask on the 7th Calamity’s face, replacing it with ultimate horror.
[Host Has Activated Knull Transformation!]
[Host Has Activated Draconic Overlord!]
[Strain on Host’s body has tripled!]
[Host Has Now Activated True Skill_ FrostBorne Calamity Dragon Transformation!]
[Strain on the host’s body has quadrupled!]
[Stamina is being rapidly drained!]
“All my life, you have shown me nothing but fear. Now…It’s My Turn!”