"What the hell..."
The motion of Ryuk’s suspiciousness, the stopping and the retreating, the crocodile jumping out of the lava and landing back into it, splashing lava towards Ryuk, took long to describe, yet it happened in a little no more than three seconds, shocking Ryuk speechless.
His natural instinct wanted him to dodge the tiny lava splashes coming towards him, but Ryuk stopped himself at the last second, standing still and letting the tiny splashes of lava fall on him.
He didn’t know if the blocks behind him were one such crocodiles too, pretending to be rocks.
STTTCCCHHHHH
A loud sizzling noise was made as Ryuk unconsciously shut his eyes, waiting for the pain of lava falling onto his skin. But it never came.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the splashing lava encased in a white-blue ice ball before tehy all fell back into the lava, accompanied by a sizzling noise.
SSSSSSSSSSSS
A faint hiss resounded around Ryuk as he felt the soft skin wrapped around his neck. The figure was none other than a snow-white python with flickering blue eyes.
"Thanks for that, Isha..." Ryuk thanked as he focused his attention around him.
Right now, all the remaining platforms on the lava that Ryuk could use to keep moving forward suddenly began moving up and down, circling around him. Soon, dark pitch-black eyes peeked from underneath the lava.
All the suspended platforms before him were actually lava crocodiles!
"A total of 10. This would have been difficult if I hadn’t reached the Perfection stage..." Ryuk mused silently, and without wasting any more seconds, his hand stretched out as he whispered,
"Activate Frost Veil."
Instantly, powerful mist began spewing out from underneath Ryuk’s feet, and then the air around him began getting colder and colder, the temperature dropping increasingly.
Before the crocodiles could decide to attack their prey, the lava, which was their territory and their ace for the battle, was instantly reduced to solid blocks.
The change in temperature was unlike anything the creatures had ever witnessed, and immediately, they backed up with speed.
’A moment of hesitation.’
That was when Ryuk moved.
BAAAAANG
BAAAAANG
BAAAAANG
The heavy sound was that of Ryuk heavily stomping onto the eyeballs of the closer crocodiles.
The momentum of the kick was enough to make brain matter gush out of the crocodile’s gigantic maw, instantly blowing out any vestige of life around them.
Without wasting any more seconds, Ryuk’s punches erupted with power, splashes of lava and ice flying around the area. He cracked down on each crocodile with horrific speed, a punch to their eyes enough to rupture their brains.
Ryuk had been able to easily see how thick their crocodile hides were, and he instantly shifted his attention to their eyes, which seemed like the only weak spot worth targeting.
And giving it a try, the eyes were truly where their weakness lay.
In less than 30 seconds, the place had once more been reduced to silence. The ice and mist slowly cleared away, revealing Ryuk standing alone with the white python curled lazily around his neck and the levitating bodies of lava crocodiles floating on the lava, obviously deader than dead.
"Worth an exercise..." Ryuk said as he resumed his running.
With the crocodiles mostly dead, he was able to continue his path without much trouble, and soon he appeared at the end of the place.
"A...a dead end?"
Ryuk wondered as he looked at the pitch-dark walls in front of him.
But quickly, he noticed something as Isha automatically disappeared from his neck, having been sent back into his Pet World.
After Isha’s disappearance, Ryuk walked towards the dead end and found glowing runes of various handwritten symbols all over the walls.
Slowly stretching his fingers out, his hand paused an inch from the lettering before he touched them.
They were cold to the touch, and the instant he made contact, the gentle blue light the walls were radiating instantly changed into pitch-black runes.
The letters quickly realigned themselves, coming together like a formation, forming a new set of runes.
The transformation had been incredibly quick, taking less than a few seconds, and Ryuk instinctively pulled back his hand while stepping back.
He then asked in his mind, "Hey system, can you translate what these runic symbols are sayi...?"
His thoughts were interrupted as an overwhelming aura surged out from the runes. The ominous wall collapsed, revealing a vortex.
Immediately, the ground beneath Ryuk fractured as he shot back with speed.
Yet he still too slow, as three long fingers easily wrapped around his side and caught him from behind, instantly dragging him into the runic lines.
The vortex immediately closed after Ryuk’s disappearance, the runes returning to the wall and glowing a soft blue, almost as if nothing had ever happened.
---
The world around him twisted rapidly, making it impossible for Ryuk to make sense of his surroundings.
It was like thousands of notes of information were being passed into his head. So much so that he felt as though he understood everything all at once—then, new information would come in, making him forget all he had previously learned.
The cycle continued over and over.
The information overload gripped his head so powerfully it felt like his brain would explode.
Blood slipped out from the side of his nose and lips as he tried his best to focus on a single thing from the torrent of information flooding his mind.
Magnifying it endlessly, only then did the rest of the information fade away. Instantly, Ryuk’s eyes snapped open as he felt the ground solidify beneath his feet.
But looking around, Ryuk’s jaw dropped, and his mind nearly froze.
Right now, he was in a throne room.
No!
More of a "thrones room", as there were two thrones, and two people sat upon them.
"I...I don’t understand..."
"Welcome, the weakest of us."
’Who...’
’What...’
’An illusion?...’
Various conjectures came into Ryuk’s head as he looked at the scene before him, trying to make sense of it all, yet failing to do so.
Right now, before Ryuk, was another set of Ryuk himself!