An Old Man.
Long white beard, with tints of purple all around.
Eyebrows so thick, they covered half his face.
A moustache that blended into the beard like wisps of cloud.
Yet what captivated him the most were his eyes.
Eyes of purple—within them, the unraveling of the cosmos.
Worlds being burned and fading. Loop-holes of time and dimension.
They stared into Ryuk’s very soul, captivating him into silence.
And then—
The word rang out through his mind, reverberating through Ryuk’s existence:
"Hurricane Energy is The Ink Upon Which New Eras Are Written."
"The Only Spell That Can Break This Illusion Called Reality."
"Those Who Carry Its Curse Are Bound to One of Two Sure Realities," the Being said—his voice, though slow, made Ryuk’s heart thump faster, even though he still failed to fully comprehend those words.
"Either they fail like the rest who have ever borne the curse—suffering the same fate as the Erasure of the Eras... or be the game-changer that ends this unending illusion."
"And now, you have also become one of those scarred by Hurricane."
The instant those words were spoken, it shot out with terrifying speed.
The eyes of the sage before him shone with an incredibly bright light that pierced sinisterly into Ryuk’s own.
The ripple of power that emanated between both of them shook the entire realm, dispersing the various realities and energy realms present around them.
Ryuk’s mouth opened wide, his face stuck in excruciating pain as he floated off the ground—
His eyes slitted into brilliant purple that shone brighter than the sun as the light from the sage eyes continued rushing straight into them.
Quickly enough, a mark of purple runic tattoo began brushing itself onto Ryuk’s neck, reaching downward and coating his body, and after what felt like a millennium passing—
Something happened all of a sudden.
The energy rushing into Ryuk from the sage was seemingly severed by something.
Something so fast, no one saw it coming.
And then—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
A horrifying explosion that devoured both the sage and Ryuk, blowing the entire realm into non-existence.
______
When his gaze snapped open, a ripple of purple burst throughout the entire soul space, filling everything for a while before it all came to a stop.
When it receded, he found the sensation of sight returning to him, and then came the sensation of self.
His eyes looked around, picking up on everything surrounding him.
The first thing—
The white-scaled entity that was slowly rising from the ground, having been blown away initially by the explosion of light from Ryuk’s motion of opening his eyes.
It sat up on its butt, shaking its head to clear away the stinging pain, but when it opened its eyes and looked up—it found a hand extended toward it.
Blue milky-white lights gazed into purple ones.
Words unspoken.
For a long moment, until the scaly white being finally extended its hand to the purplish tattoo-covered one, and both clenched together before the white-scaled entity was raised back to its feet.
A nod of acknowledgment.
Then Ryuk turned away from him, his eyes gazing into the surrounding soul space.
It had all come together in his mind.
His last memories—of his fallout with his Bloodline Manifestations, of choosing to take the Hurricane Essence, the memories he witnessed, the cloaked being he met, the realization he was faced with, and the cloaked being’s final words.
All of this he could remember with such scary vividness that just thinking back on it made him feel as though his mind was being teleported right back to when it happened.
But he diverted his attention to his surroundings.
Right now, he was back in his Soul Place—but what stood before him wasn’t familiar.
His previous soul place was a throne room divided into two colors: blue and red, the colors of his dual bloodlines, and a singular throne at the center.
But now—
There was no such thing as a throne room.
It was a familiar void.
A void of darkness, with tiny motes of white and purple energy glinting all around like stars embedded in the void.
Apart from these endless voids of white and purple dots of light—
There was nothing else.
Nothing.
The Soul Space had completely changed.
"You did not expect it?" The voice—crisp and clear, almost feminine in tone—spoke from behind him, prompting Ryuk to turn his head to the source.
It came from none other than the New Draco—the manifestation of this new bloodline that he now possessed.
Its face was plain, all emotions seemingly hidden, but to Ryuk, it was as clear as day when he looked into its eyes.
Within them, he found something—
A mix of curiosity and apprehension.
It reminded him of the time Isha was born, and how she had given him that look—
The look of curiosity from one newly born, just beginning to learn about the world.
That alone had led Ryuk to many truths.
But now, he turned away again, taking a couple of steps forward.
"I did not expect it..." he agreed, looking into the empty Soul Space. But he continued:
"But I knew something was bound to change in their absence. This much, I expected..." he explained, pausing with a faint sigh before turning to the manifestation and uttering:
"That form is not yours. What aim do you have in concealing your true form?"
It was a sudden, bizarre question—one that didn’t seem to relate to anything prior.
Yet the scaled white Draco was visibly shaken, eyes rippling in disbelief.
"You can see through my real form?" it asked, shaken.
But all it received in return from Ryuk was silence but that alone was enough answer.
Eventually, it took a deep breath, pausing in its steps as its eyes shut closed. And Ryuk watched silently—
As the form of the being before him began to change.
From a firmly muscled, towering, masculine-looking Draco—
Its form changed immediately into something entirely different.
From a 3-meter-tall male to a 1-meter-tall female.
Its face changed, giving way to an oval-shaped, elegant face. White draconic scales covered parts of its cheek.
A gown of white draped around its body, the ends dragging onto the floor behind it. Its white hair extended and lengthened until it became a flowing, shimmering waterfall.
And now, Ryuk understood.
This new bloodline was of a feminine nature.