"So this is the fourth Calamity, huh. Talk about being on a different level."
Ryuk mused beneath his breath as he looked at the shadowed knight before him.
He radiated no aura, save for the thick shadows that surrounded him, but what truly made Ryuk know he was powerful was his army.
The weakest among them stood at the Apocrypha Stage, and they numbered in the thousands.
There were a great number also at the Exignis stage, and Ryuk sensed about 400 of them!
Imagine a thousand Apocrypha stage beings, along with 400 Exignis-level beings, descending upon a planet.
Could such a planet ever resist invasion?
Even Ammamora would be overtaken in mere minutes, and most likely erased in an hour.
With Achylles’s hand raised, sword pointed forward towards Ryuk, he uttered a single command,
"Devour."
ROOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!
GROOOOOOWWWWWLLLL!!!
Powerful roars and howls exploded outward toward Ryuk, the shockwave alone forcing him backward.
But that was only the beginning.
Like a storm given form, Achylles was already charging forward at the head of his own shadow army.
"This is it," Ryuk muttered, a ferocious glint in his eyes.
"Finally... a worthy opponent."
He threw his head back and,
ROOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!!!
A thunderous draconic roar drowned out every sound on the battlefield.
A pillar of blazing golden energy shot into the air from a rune right on top of the wide draconic forehead, erasing the gloomy skies of the Knull, then,
BAAAAAAANNNNG!!!
The radiant energy slammed back down like meteors, this time divided into twelve, and striking various areas of the battlefield.
When the light finally faded,
ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!
ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!
ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!
ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!
ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!
_____
Twelve powerful roars echoed out as twelve colossal dragons emerged from the golden light, surrounding the advancing army.
They paused from the encirclement yet reacted immediately as they divided, running towards each dragon.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!
Like blades of light, the various draconic Ryuks tore through the army, a violent collision of forces erupting across the battlefield.
From above, a shadowy being slipped out of the void.
Achilles had reached him, his hefty shadow sword raised high, its edge pointed downwards.
"Achylles’ Misery: Evergone Death Strike."
A simple downward stab, yet the monumental power it carried cracked the earth beneath Ryuk’s feet, opening a vast abyss.
It was not destroyed by force but by absolute corrosion.
Ryuk’s entire body turned pitch-black before he could even move a single muscle, paralyzed instantly, and when the sword finally pierced through the center of his head.
His massive draconic body disintegrated into stone dust as Achylles dropped down into the abyss, his gigantic dark sword stabbing into the ground.
But once more, he was gone, already a shadow.
Reappearing in an instant before one of the Draconic Ryuk on the battlefield, Achylles cleaved forward another arc of death, reducing another of Ryuk’s draconic forms to ash.
And once more, he was already gone.
...
Ten seconds.
That was all it took for all 13 of Ryuk’s draconic images to be erased.
Yet ten seconds was also all it took for the 12 Draconic Ryuks to bring down 300 Apocrypha stage Shadow Devils, and erase 99 Exignis stage Shadow Devils.
Massive shadowed bodies lay cleaved open across the ground, claw marks seared into them like scars of daylight, piled high like a mountain of death.
In mere moments, the battlefield had become an abyss.
But it all seemed to have ended with no more Ryuks, but then, Achyles hmmed beneath his breath.
"I sense you."
The words left the knight’s throat as he lifted his gaze to the cleared sky, still holding motes of gold.
But no more words followed.
Instead, Achylles raised his sword, clenching it tight within his grasp, while his other hand formed a seal.
"Knight of Darkness."
In the next moment, a 3,000-meter-tall gigantic phantom of a dark knight appeared behind him, clutching an equally massive sword.
"Dimensional Ends Cleave!"
He swung forward, and the phantom mirrored his strike.
The air split apart as the blade extended into space, its edge suddenly disappearing for a fleeting moment as if it had escaped this reality.
KAAAAACHHAAAAAAA!!!
The sound of something shattering suddenly echoed out; the massive sword exploded into shards of darkness, and in the instant that followed, Achilles vanished from where he stood.
A heartbeat later,
A scorching beam of destructive light crashed into the ground where he had been, slicing straight through his army and erasing them to nothing.
He rose to his feet and turned upward.
There stood Ryuk.
But this time, he was absolutely different.
Beyond magnificent.
It wasn’t flesh, nor was it draconic scales.
If there was a word that came to Achylles mind, it was machine, but that wasn’t entirely true.
It was something in between everything...something higher.
A masterpiece of engineered beauty: sleek, radiant, and terrifyingly flawless.
Achylles’s shadowed eyes easily pierced through that metallic form, witnessing seams of nanoscopic particles shifting and reassembling like living armor.
Between those plates pulsed rivers of soft blue light, tracing along his body like constellations.
Each pulse released ripples of energy that wove into the surrounding space.
Unlike his previous draconic body, which was chaos incarnate, this new form was control itself.
Broad-chested yet sculpted with streamlike precision, muscles defined by rippling plates of titanium-white, outlined by flowing golden filaments that pulsed with a hidden rhythm.
His long, regal arms hung at his sides, their surfaces layered with elegant armor lines.
Right now, his right palm was held outwards, with a glowing nano-nozzle shimmering faintly with remnants of destructive energy.
It was what had not only destroyed his phantom but also wiped out a vertical line of his army.
He turned his head downward, eyes settling on Achylles.
The first thing noticeable was the two golden horns crowning his head—smooth, curved, and humming faintly with power.
Thin streams of electric light ran along their edges, forming runic codes that flickered in and out of existence.
His hair was short, metallic white, streaked with faint motes of gold.
This was Ryuk’s New Annunaki Form.
An already peak racial technological form further evolved down to the deepest cell by an evolution card.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting," Ryuk said.
His voice wasn’t speech; his lips did not even move an inch.
It was like data, being sent straight into Achylle’s own mind.
And then, he vanished.