A figure landed right into the deepest crater of the Abyss, and silence covered it for a while.
Ryuk’s eyes spun wildly in their sockets.
He tried to raise his body, but he failed to feel it.
His two front limbs had been ripped off, along with one of his back legs, leaving just one limb barely holding him up.
Cracks and cuts laced every inch of his body, and where his right eye should’ve been, a deep axe-shaped wound throbbed.
BUUUURRSSST
He hacked up a couple more mouthfuls of blood as his form began breaking apart.
[Hurricane Energy: 20,000 (-17,000)]
[Remaining Hurricane Energy: 3,000]
His colossal form disappeared, the remainder of his energy unable to sustain it any longer, and he returned to his weakly looking human form.
Rolling off his back, his hands bored into the ground beneath him and pushed against it, rising to one knee.
He muttered:
"Buy one more High-Grade Healing Serum."
[One High-Grade Serum bought]
[-210,000 Purchase Points!]
[Remaining Purchase Points: 0!]
The system panel blinked.
A vial appeared in Ryuk’s hand, and he downed it in one gulp, shattering the bottle in his grasp.
"GHHHHHH!"
A groan escaped as electrifying energy surged through his veins.
His wounds closed, the slash sealed, his endurance returned, and he forced himself back to his feet.
As he raised his head, he saw her, slowly descending from the Abyss sky.
Her once dull, dark eyes were now flashing like candle flames in a storm.
In her grasp were two massive axes, oozing with an aura so thick Ryuk couldn’t even begin to comprehend it.
But one thing he knew for sure was that these weapons were far beyond Divine Grade, capable of cleaving through his colossal form like it was butter.
Her grin stretched wide into a feral maw, her dark hair thrashing wildly around her.
"Back on your feet again after all that beating?" she said.
A pillar of dark energy blasted from her, slamming into the Abyss below and piercing straight through the sky.
"Just how long before you’re finally done!?"
Her words resonated deeply within Ryuk’s soul.
His teeth clenched in fury and disbelief as he watched the energy storm swirling around her.
She was like a sun — a star whose core would never run out.
Every time he was beaten to the ground and rose up, he would be faced with her flaring with double the previous power that had been enough to beat him to the ground previously.
And with every defeat, she flared with more power, and more power, and more power.
He was close to his last leg, and she was now radiating an aura twice as strong as when she’d first crushed him.
This was a gruesome battle — not just of pain, but soul-crushing despair.
Every time he stood back up, she returned twice as powerful as before.
There were cracks in her armor, some holes even, revealing she had taken hits.
But every cut on her body had healed. To Ryuk, it felt like fighting for nothing.
"I can still fight..." Ryuk whispered beneath his breath.
He slammed a foot into the ground, launching into close combat.
"I can still win" he muttered, and in the next instant, his form glitched.
He reappeared in the air—
BAAAAAAAAAANG!
A shockwave tore through the sky as his fist collided with her axe.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP
Her second axe came cleaving toward his left shoulder, but hit nothing but a fading image.
Ryuk swerved, dodging the strike and slamming a leg down toward her head.
BAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNG
Once more, his leg struck her axe, but this time its edge was turned upward, carving a deep line through his knee.
"Tch,"
Ryuk punched forward, aiming for her stomach — only for his fist to smash once more against her weapon.
Suddenly, she flashed, and all Ryuk saw was a knee magnifying toward his face.
KAAAAAABBBBOOOOOOM
His body was flung backward like dead weight, slamming into the ground and carving the Abyss even deeper.
TRICKLE...
White blood dripped down his nose.
He dragged himself out of the crater, only to collapse to a knee, coughing out another mouthful of blood.
His skull was caved in, with a diagonal slash running across his face.
’She’s gotten thrice as strong as before,’ he cursed under his breath.
[She’s not getting stronger, Ryuk.]
[She’s slowly releasing her reserve, doubling her output every time you get back up, and now tripling it.]
[In short, she’s just playing around,]
The system notification blinked.
A truth Ryuk couldn’t comprehend.
Even after awakening his Sigil and receiving a boost in power, he was still losing, and she hadn’t even reached her peak yet?
STEP
STEP
STEP
Footsteps echoed, and when he raised his head, all he saw was a thigh before him.
Looking up, her grinning face was barely an arm’s length away.
Ryuk’s arm jerked up, delivering an uppercut straight into her jaw.
Her face tilted skyward, a line of blood rushing out from her nose and into the air, but then, she grinned, a mixture of insanity and enjoyment.
Her eye flashed with another rune, and then,
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP
Her axe came cleaving downward toward his ribcage and pinning him to the ground instantly.
She raised the axe upward again, and dangling off the edge was Ryuk.
With a slight twitch of her grip, he fell to the floor, blood oozing from a deep arc carved into his chest.
A glimpse of his faintly pulsing white heart was visible through the wound, the sight of it sending her breath ragging with desire.
He remained motionless after, and she crouched on one knee, face-to-face with him.
Closer than ever.
Ryuk felt the urge to claw at her face, but he had nothing left.
He had some endurance stats, but the weakness wasn’t just physical; it came from his soul.
He had fought, and lost, and kept rising again and again, until something inside him finally refused to get back up.
He had reached his limit.
"Finally done?"