The moment the world fell silent, it was awoken by the sound of something tearing out, and the source was from Ryuk himself.
Right from beneath his chest, a smooth line appeared, and soon, it was ripped open as a figure tore out:
Ryuk, but a much, much smaller form of himself, just three meters tall.
The second he stepped out, the ginormous Ryuk behind him faded into nothing as if he had never existed, leaving just one Ryuk, and he took a step forward, blinking to the depths of the abyss.
He tore off Azraggoth from the nail that had pierced through his head before holding him up.
The Calamity, surprisingly, had yet to die, even with a gigantic hole through his face.
One of his eyes that had survived being skewered through, though dangling with a piece of flesh, looked at Ryuk, and there was nothing but disbelief in it.
He had been defeated!?
But not just defeated, he was defeated with pure brute force and explosive power, something he believed that, apart from the God Races, he was unrivalled at.
But then, ten seconds after, the disbelief in his eyes changed, and Ryuk noticed them turning softer.
They were the eyes of one who had come to terms with fate.
"I..."
The words echoed directly in Ryuk’s mind.
"I... take it... back."
"I... take... it... all... back."
Those were Azraggoth’s last words before Ryuk’s hands forcefully jerked upward,
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!
The massive head was ripped off the body, which fell from the sky.
Red crimson blood poured from the sky like a sea as Ryuk held Azraggoth’s head without much change in expression.
He stretched a hand to his falling muscular body, and immediately it disappeared, stored away by him.
Then he took a couple of steps forward, rolling the head in his grasp around in a circle before,
VROOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A comet blazed across the Knullic sky, but it was no comet.
It was the head of one of their most respected, powerful Calamities, and it slammed into a less populated larvae side of the Knull domain, dragging for hundreds of thousands of miles before coming to a stop.
"De... Devil Lord Azraggoth... has fallen!?"
Even though the massive head lay right before them, the Knulls still couldn’t believe it.
Azraggoth wasn’t just strong; he was a devilish warlord.
Battle and Wars were what he excelled at, and even among the Calamities, he was said to possess enough combat power to rival the Untouchable Three Calamities.
Yet here he was, with only his head remaining, and even that was incomplete, bearing a gigantic hole blown clean through it.
When they turned their heads to look back at the figure hovering in the sky, only now did the realization set in.
A realization that brought fear:
A True Calamity had descended upon them!
With Azraggoth’s death, Ryuk didn’t continue into the city.
He returned to the mountain where he had first perched, his form immediately transforming back to his Beyonder Dragon form, and then he curled atop, closing his eyes.
Even though he had sensed the other various powers that were awakening within the depths of the Knulls,
He wanted them here to step forward toward him with all their belief and courage, only to all be crushingly defeated with their entire armies massacred.
That way, it wouldn’t be that death had found them; it would be that they had willfully walked right into death and hence become prey to it.
______________
"Do not go and meet with him, Marionette."
The words echoed calmly through a Knullic street.
A lady with exceptionally long dark hair that fell over her for meters behind her, stopped in her tracks as she turned to find a creature hovering behind her.
It was a Humano-Knullic creature, its single eye covered in runes, that cast a slight glow upon her face:
A face covered in strings that seemed to hold the flesh together.
"An Emissary of the Ancient Devils?"
The lady replied in her tiny, infant-like voice as the creature bowed slightly, hand to his chest.
"The Ancient Devils do not want you to go meet with him, the son of Theth’Vorgath, as Devil Lord Azraggoth has just fallen..."
It said, but there was no change in the expression of the woman upon hearing the news.
"They fear for you being killed."
"The Son of Theth’Vorgath is perched upon a mountain and not dealing any destruction upon the realm."
"But they fear that if he laid hands upon your strings, he may be able to take over the minds of billions of Knulls across the universe."
"Such an amount of power could push the race to its end."
"Hence, they have requested your retreat," he relayed, and right then, she turned her back and continued to walk, uttering no reply.
"Forgive me," the Humano-knull said.
"But I have orders to stop you if you—"
It was still speaking when, in the next moment,
THAAANG!
The sound of a string ringing out echoed, and the creature suddenly had his own hands held the side of his head.
THAAANG!
On more ringing and,
CRAACCCK!
It suddenly twisted its own head, up to a complete 360-degree turn like a broken doll, wrenching it off its spine.
It collapsed onto the ground a second later, all signs of life fading from it.
The background faded as the sound of resuming steps echoed again and again before it faded off completely.
____________
SNIFFLE!
Heavy sniffing left Ryuk’s massive nostrils, and one of his eyes opened, a silent growl leaving his throat.
He uncurled himself from the mountain and stared ahead, sensing the approach of something.
But then his eyebrows knitted tightly.
He had expected another army next, but there was none; only a single silhouette could be seen.
It stepped forward continuously until it was but a couple of kilometers away.
Now Ryuk could see her clearly.
It was a being like he had never seen.
He didn’t even know whether she could be termed as a being or not, as she didn’t even seem...real?
She appeared to be a humanoid doll, joints held together by strings, the same for her skin, and her skin was unnaturally pale white, which couldn’t belong to a living being.
Her eyes were droopy and dark, devoid of light or emotion.
But she was no ordinary being, as taking a sniff of her, Ryuk felt it:
There was something of his that was possessed by this doll of a lady.