"You just sound like..."
BLEEERRGH
"A sore loser... who couldn’t accept his defeat."
Odette said, as Ryuk hummed silently before nodding.
"You’re right. I don’t accept defeat," he said just as the notification appeared.
[Epic Quest: Defeat a Nihil, Has Been completed]
"Are you happy now?"
The words rang out from Odette’s lips, and Ryuk’s hands moved, ripping them out of the void.
He watched falling down the Void without moving, but right then the panel flashed:
[She’ll die from those injuries.]
The system panel flashed, and Ryuk simply remained in the Void, humming beneath his breath.
[The quest has been completed Ryuk.]
[Don’t tell me you will really just watch her die... after all... that?]
"All what?" Ryuk asked.
[Stop acting like some edgelord. You know what I’m saying!]
It fired back at him, and Ryuk’s eyebrows knit for a while before he responded.
"Everything we were was just like Morgaine said."
"I admired her... due to her strength, due to the fact that she rendered me helpless even after I gave it my all."
"It was the first time I gave it everything and still failed."
"But now that I’ve won, that admiration would naturally fade away, and all we have ever been will be nothing."
He responded.
[Has it, though? Has your admiration really faded off?]
[Do you feel any different now after you won?]
"What do you mean?"
[Some fights are better lost than won, Ryuk. You’ll never be the same again if Odette dies, trust me.] it said.
Ryuk’s eyes remained steely cold, even as Odette disappeared into Ammamora’s atmosphere, rapidly plummeting to the ground.
But then, his hands clenched into a fist.
He glitched out of existence, and in the next moment he re-appeared in the skies, his hands reaching out and grabbing Odette’s arms.
She was stopped just a few meters away from crashing into the sea.
Carrying her in a princess’s carry, a light flashed from his hands as a golden pill appeared.
He tried to place it in her mouth, but then—
SPAAAAT
She spat it out and it fell into the sea.
"I... do... not... want your... pity," she forced out, though her teeth clenched the next moment from pain.
"You’ll die..." he said curtly with a deadpan expression, but her expression didn’t change.
"I’ve delayed... that, long... enough," she said, dark blood flowing out of her lips faster.
"Why... though..." she suddenly said, and Ryuk watched as her hands shakily raised up, brushing against his face.
"Why... do I... feel... so... sad still?" she whispered as tears, pearly silver in color, flowed down her face.
"I don’t... want... to leave... you,"
Her hands faltered and fell to the side, eyes losing their light.
A flicker of light flashed in Ryuk’s eyes, his deadpan expression thawing, and his eyes all of a sudden turned teary.
’How could I be so foolish.’
His claws shifted to his neck, and he tore open a gash on the side of his neck before lowering down.
She could feel it.
Even through the darkness that wallowed against her, it was like a ray of light piercing through the gloom.
Her eyes opened and she saw the drop of blood that came closer and closer within reach.
Her lips unconsciously parted, fangs growing, and she gently pierced it into his neck.
The sensation she felt could not be put into words.
It felt like life itself, the purest of it, was being sent into her.
But was that the reason?
The reason for this warm feeling she felt in her heart.
Her strength and her breath rapidly returned, and then came reason, causing her eyelids to flutter open as her lips parted.
The first thing she saw were those eyes, shimmering purple dusted in pink motes of light.
The sight of them should have sent her into fiery anger, but something else occured to her causing her to ask:
"Why?"
"I want you to live." He responded.
"But why?"
"I..I don’t know."
He whispered turning away and avoiding her gaze.
But he couldn’t hide it, the pink blush on his face.
’And I thought I was the only one who felt that way...’
Her hands suddenly shifted to claws, and then scratched at Ryuk’s hands and then let go, resulting in her falling into the water.
He looked at the scratch mark on his wrist, before he also sinto the ocean, but she wasn’t far away.
She was just a meter away, and her hands reached out, suddenly pulling him closer, and their faces appeared mere centimeters apart.
Heart pounding hard, both purple eyes staring silently into each other.
Odette’s lips moved, though no words came out.
Still, they made Ryuk’s eyes widen in shock as Odette’s eyes shut closer, her face turning away.
But then, she suddenly felt a hand gently cradle her face, and she opened her eyes, only for them to widen.
It was soft and warm, gently pressing against her lips.
It was his.
A fiery wave rushed into her blood, and her eyes shut closed.
Her hands reached for his back, hugging him tighter as she kissed him in return.
In that moment, nothing mattered more.
Not the fact that they were sinking deeper and deeper into the sea, and eventually, they parted, both with faces covered in pink.
"I love you too..."
His voiced carrying even through the water all around.
A line of tears unconsciously streamed down her face, only to fade into a tearful smile as they both reached out, falling into another deep kiss.
Odette had no idea when it started.
At first, she had simply found him interesting because of that unique Knullic transformation of his.
Even though she could have ended him when they first met, she chose not to — at first, because of the transformation:
She wanted to know how he came by it, and what his relationship with Theth’Vorgath truly was.
But even more was his otherworldly potential. His being able to resist her in a fight for so long, even while being two major stages of cultivation less than her.
She had simply found him quite impressive at first, but...things started to change, and eventually, she had realized something she always thought would never happen for a being like her:
She had fallen for him.