"RYUK KNULL!"
The loud call rang out, and it came from none other than the white-haired man who jumped out of the hatch, striding towards Ryuk.
"Finally, we meet."
"Believe me when I say I’ve been looking forward to this day for a very, very, very long time." The man said, his smile wide like a long-lost uncle reuniting with his nephew.
"Come give me a hug!"
He said, arms opened wide to the side for a big hug, but he was stopped halfway when Ryuk stretched out his palm, pausing him in his steps.
"Do I know you?" Ryuk asked flatly.
The question made the man pause, lips opening and closing, eyebrows twitching as he slowly lowered his arms, rubbing his chin as if deep in thought.
"Hmmm, now that I think about it... I really never left behind a clear clue of myself."
"That’s weird. I thought I did."
"Or was I thinking you would have felt me in some way?"
"A feeling? Real or imagined. Or..."
And for the next ten seconds, everyone watched in silent stupor as the man continually yapped over and over again, completely lost in his train of thought.
"Knock it off, Seer!" The hooded lady snapped, slamming her shoulder into him and sending him stumbling aside.
She stepped forward towards Ryuk, her hand shifting out, and golden light coalesced, forming a gigantic bow and arrow that was pointed right at Ryuk’s face.
"You scarred my sister’s face. I won’t let that slide," she said, about to pull the arrow back when Seer appeared between them, arms spread wide in front of the arrow.
"Hey hey, Zayra. Remember the order: We bring him back without a scar!"
"Fuck off, he’ll heal before we get back to base."
"I’ll say we shouldn’t risk it. What if he doesn’t heal?"
"Fuck off my range, Seer. Or I don’t mind skewering you both..." she spat out, shifting her aim at Seer, and soon enough it became another unending skirmish between the two.
This left just the golden-haired girl from before and the little blue-haired girl, who skipped forward towards Ryuk, pausing three meters away from him.
"Ryuk Knull is your name, right, Mister?" the girl asked brightly.
Ryuk’s eyebrows furrowed,
"Yes."
"Great! My name’s Finx! And we’re all from the A.E.R., which stands for Anomalous Existence Regulation," she said with a cheerful smile.
Ryuk hummed.
That was obviously the first thing someone should have said, yet it was the youngest of them who actually bothered.
"On the order of Lord Asgard, one of the seven Lords in A.E.R, we’e been instructed to bring you back to base for a meeting with him," she explained.
"And might you know why Lord Asgard would request an audience with me?" Ryuk asked, watching her twist a strand of her knotted blue hair around her finger.
"Actually...no. But according to protocol, you’re most likely being invited over for the same reason as most others: your Anomalous Existence..."
"My Anomalous Existence?" Ryuk asked.
"Yes, Ryuk."
"According to the information we have on you, you’ve grown far beyond the natural peak of your world."
"Endearth, the lower realm you came from, has its highest cultivation at the Eternity Stage, with only a single person reaching Pseudo-Apocrypha."
She pointed at him lightly, her tone still sweet but serious.
"But not only did you shatter that, you went on to grow from the Apocrypha Stage, to the Exignis Stage, and then to the Nihility Stage, your existence repeatedly undergoing substantial changes with every breakthrough."
"On this basis, you’ve been designated as an anomaly. Wouldn’t you agree?"
"So, Lord Asgard wishes to know the secrets behind these changes, doesn’t he?" he asked with a beaming, cute smile that the girl returned with a happy nod.
"Exactly."
"But even more important, he wishes to enlighten you about your new existence, and how to live with it," she said. Noticing Ryuk’s furrowed brows, she added,
"You’ve been recognized as still carrying an inferior mindset about yourself, even though your anomaly value marks you as fundamentally a superior being."
"This disharmony in mindset will bring nothing but chaos, and, on your level, it will deal a massive blow to the chaos level in the universe."
"An example being what you just had going on with the Frost Wyvern, taking over the minds of others against their permission or willingness, and almost destroying their strongest, which could have left the Kingdom unfurling into a chaotic mess."
"Your existence brings chaos due to the disharmony of an inferiority mindset and superior power."
"Lord Asgard senses this and invites you over," she explained lengthily as Ryuk hummed.
"You might not know, but in A.E.R, we have many other life hierarchically superior beings such as you."
"You’ll meet them, learn to balance your power and mindset, and achieve harmony."
"This brings order to the universe, and helps our big task at A.E.R., which is maintaining order in the universe."
"This is why we want you to come with us to meet Lord Asgard," she finished just as the squabble between Seer and Zayra subsided.
All eyes turned to Ryuk.
He nodded slowly for a moment before speaking.
"While I do have a place I need to be, I suppose I don’t mind taking a quick detour to your base to meet this Lord Asgard."
"Yayyy!" Finx cheered, leaping into the air.
"Don’t be dumb, Finx, he’s being sarcastic," the golden-haired girl said with narrowed eyes as Finx’s happy jump came to a stop, and she looked at Ryuk, who burst out into loud snickering.
"You really expected me to just jump into the ship and follow you to some A.E.R. organization tasked with maintaining the Universe’s order, whilst also possessing beings as ’superior’ as me, but somehow whose name, I’ve never heard before?" he said with a scoff of disbelief, as Finx shrugged her shoulder.
"Well, it’s all for the benefit of both of us, so...I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t."