He roared out in anger, but was silenced as the tri-echoing voice continued.
"Approximately an hour ago, an aura struck Ammamora, resulting in planetary disasters..."
"Disasters?" Ryuk muttered.
"The entirety of free-flowing water in Ammamora shifted its colour, with possibly yet-to-be-identified changes beyond that."
"What’s worse is that all living bestial creatures fell into slumber, neither awake nor dead, and finally, all our techno-communications, including the Ammanet, have shut down."
"Even our Amma Comms right now remain offline."
"We have traced the aura responsible for this disaster to this exact position, and right now the sensors are pointing directly at you."
Silence followed for a while, and the Angels noticed Ryuk lowering his gaze.
They followed his line of sight.
There, they saw it: His pillar-like legs dipped into the coloured sea.
"The sea beneath me... could it be somehow connected to the flow of water in all of Ammamora?" he asked.
Some of the Angels’ expressions grew grim, and one muttered:
"Norminga Bay is the center of the entire free-flowing water across Ammamora!"
"Well, I guess you have your answer for why the water changed color, then," Ryuk replied before turning his attention away from that.
"As for the beasts collapsing and Amma Comms shutting down... I don’t know."
"But most likely, it’s the ripple surge from my awakening," Ryuk explained.
"And it’s still surging right now," the tri-echoing Voice replied, as all glanced at the ripples of light still filtering out from the runes etched onto his body surface, diffusing into space.
"Seems like your newly awakened aura is the source of the disaster afflicting Ammamora."
"Can you rein it in?" they asked, and Ryuk turned to the runes on him, but then the panel flashed.
[You can. But it won’t be happening now. You’ll only be able to do that after you acclimate yourself with this new power of yours.]
The system notification blinked before he even tried.
’If it’s causing crises like disrupting technological devices and rendering beasts unconscious, that’s indirectly disrupting the lives of possibly millions.’
’I can’t just do nothing...’
He thought, and in the next moment, he inhaled deeply, then exhaled before falling silent.
Silence reigned, but the Angels didn’t interrupt, simply looking at him.
All of a sudden, they watched as the lights all over his body, diffusing into the air, began to congeal around him, snearingly forming a lengthy cocoon of light.
The cocoon engulfed his entire body, rising like a tower.
Then, all at once, it began to shrink, collapsing lower and lower until it stood before them at eye level, no longer forcing their necks to crane up or down.
It cracked, dispersing into motes of light and revealing an entity.
It was none other than Ryuk, having lessened from his previous titanic height to just about 3 meters.
But suddenly, some of the Angels stepped back, shielding their faces as though retreating from fire, and truth be told, Ryuk at that moment was like a flame made flesh.
The space around him warped and seared, peeling apart as though scorched, while dark gashes tore open and vanished, revealing the chaotic imbalance of the surrounding space.
That alone revealed the truth.
"I can’t fully rein it in..." Ryuk responded.
"But at least the aura is only diffusing in a concentrated, smaller space around me compared to my previous larger size, where the body surface with space was much larger and hence spreading more aura."
He looked downwards at the sea, and now that his legs were out of it, the water colour was starting to recede.
"A day maximum, and I’m sure the water will reduce back to its previous colour."
"The aura in the air should also disperse, meaning all of the beasts and the technological devices should be awake soon."
"I’ll keep a mental note to stay away from the cities for now..." he concluded.
The tri-echoing voice speaking after.
"We have no reason to believe or trust you."
"Hmm?"
"Your presence alone made the entire Ammamora undergo a Grade-X level evacuation."
"If, for whatever reason, you revert to your titanic size, we will be forced to initiate a second Grade X evacuation. You, of all people, should know how costly such an operation would be to our world."
"Besides, this event must have fractured the trust Ammamorans and non-Ammamorans have in this planet."
"If we tell them the threat has passed and it happens again, we will lose trust — and, worse, crucial diplomatic ties."
"Other races will likely abandon the planet out of fear.
"So, a ’I’ll make a mental note to stay away from cities’ is far from enough," they said.
Ryuk paused for a while, his eyes darting here and there before they paused on them, his serious expression fading to be replaced by a grin.
"So, the end result is: ’I’m afraid we’ll have to put you into custody,’ to put it... formally for you," he said, and they replied,
"As you can see, what is at stake leaves us no choice..."
"Oh please, I can see how desperate you are in your heart to understand what I meant by Racial Evolution Cultivation," Ryuk said, as he raised his right hand above his head and bent to the side, the whirring sound of machine and bone ringing out.
"To watch an archguard recorded to be nothing but an ordinary Apocrypha stage level being suddenly becoming a 10,000-meter-tall entity whose power wave alone is enough to force the planet into an X-grade level evacuation," Ryuk said, one of his eyes opening to stare at them.
"Only a fool wouldn’t be itching to know more, and even if you had to do a couple of experiments here and there to realize the whole truth, it will be worth it, won’t it...and who knows, maybe a few unlucky deaths?"
Ryuk said, rising upright after the small warm-up.
The chasms appearing here and there, around him, slowly spiking up in frequency of occurrence, showing further destabilization of space, and even more angels were forced to back further away from the searing wave of aura.
"I understand what is at stake and my answer is...NO!."