"I’m back,"
He muttered silently, opening both eyes, but then there was a difference.
His right eye was the same as before:
Blue with crimson star-like dots.
But his left eye was different:
They were pitch dark, with not the slightest white, and from their depths, dark lightning faintly crackled.
He turned to his left arm, most especially to the back of his left hand, and noticed a circular dark tattoo with lightning occasionally crackling outwards.
"I can’t fully get rid of it?"
Though he had gathered it in one place, it was like the dark lightning had stained his soul, making it hard to erase.
But then, Ryuk shrugged it off.
So far it does not prevent him from using his elements; then, it was fine.
His right hand, which had already regenerated, reached out, and a dark glove appeared, purchased from the system shop.
It was a lightning-suppressing glove, and it did work, though the lightning symbol still shone from the glove.
But at least lightning itself wasn’t spilling out.
He donned a simple white long-sleeved shirt and trousers just as he sighted the Ice Dragon that appeared out of the clouds, puffing into a cloud of smoke before a scaled lady raced out, and embraced him tightly.
"Thank you, Isha."
_______
With him having, in a way, obtained the Logic Core, there was only one more thing he needed:
His soul.
And that could only be obtained from the First Calamity.
The idea of using the Knullic String domain to try and find him occurred to him, but something also told Ryuk that it wouldn’t be that easy.
He had only found the Second Calamity due to Void, after all.
But then he remembered.
’The Second Calamity. She might be able to give me the location of the first.’
Stretching forth his hands, a rift bloomed into existence at the tip of his fingers, quickly widening to reveal a garden of red roses and blue lilies.
Ryuk stepped through it.
____
The second he stepped in, she felt his presence, turning her silvery eyes towards him.
"You survived..."
She said, taking a step forward, and in the next moment, she was right before him.
She had faded into ashes, and now here she was.
It created a mixed feeling in Ryuk, and he couldn’t help but ask:
"Do you feel... weird?"
Eravel’s hand faintly touched the mark on her forehead.
"I feel like it was taken away for a moment."
"I have grown too attached to survive without it, and yet here I am," she mused confusedly before her eyes steeled, and she asked,
"I died, didn’t I?"
"Yes, you did."
He replied, not hiding it away from her.
"And you brought me back to life, something that goes against the laws of reality, so you got punished by the Heavens for it."
She completed, piecing things together.
"But...why did you keep me alive?"
Eravel asked, turning to him, and Ryuk’s brow creased.
He had initially thought he might have known her, but standing before her right now, she still wasn’t really familiar.
Then... why?
"I want to know the location of the First Calamity."
He replied, and an almost imperceptible glint of disappointment flickered in her eyes.
Still, she replied,
"Before your arrival, I got a command from Knull to return to the Knull Domain."
"He must have realized that each of us fighting you solo would lead to our destruction, so he planned to bring us all together to fight you at once."
"Does that mean the First Knull Calamity is back in the Knull Domain?" Ryuk concluded, and she nodded.
"He should be."
"The Knull Domain,"
He mused beneath his breath.
He had been specifically avoiding that place due to Knull’s existence.
But now he had not much choice.
But at least that place now had all he needed.
His last missing part held by the 1st Calamity and past knowledge possessed by Knull.
"Knull and the First Calamity aren’t the ones you should be worried about."
Eravel suddenly said, bringing his attention.
"What do you mean?"
"Knull has sought help in case he fails to stop you."
"He thinks he can fail to stop me?"
"No," Eravel replied with no doubts.
"Knull is too arrogant and powerful to welcome the idea of his failure."
"Most likely, some of the Ancient Knull Elder must have convinced him to have a backup plan, just in case," she explained.
’If they’re having a backup plan, then I really must have knocked them off their comfortable seat,’ Ryuk thought, almost grinning in satisfaction, but then his expression slightly faltered.
"A backup plan that can succeed even when Knull himself fails!?"
Whatever that is must be incredibly dangerous.
"It’s the Hurricane Knull."
Eravel said to him, and a lost glint flickered in his eyes before, all of a sudden, the words resounded in his head, and realization dawned on him.
_________
"Fortunately for us and unfortunately for you, another person was born with Hurricane energy at that same time, so you became disposable!"
________
He remembered those words.
They were from Zar’kul.
[A/N: Chapter 601 – Devouring a Calamity]
He had indeed made mention of another Knull being born with the ability to control hurricane energy, which made the Knulls afford to rip him apart piece by piece.
"You seem to be aware of her existence,"
Eravel called out, noticing his expression.
"I didn’t know it was a her, only knew there was a Knull who also controlled hurricane energy," he replied.
"Well, you know now."
"Zar’kul has asked for her return."
"She may do so, she may not. After all, she listens to no one but them."
"But if she does, and she finds you, she’ll kill you," Eravel spoke, and Ryuk chuckled.
"You sound quite confident in her abilities."
"Have you seen a god before?" she suddenly asked as Ryuk’s eyes furrowed.
He had seen those races a couple of times now.
The first was when he had gotten Iris, and her god family had come for her.
The woman from the garden, who was the creator of the system, was also a god from a different reality.
And finally was that Angelic being that had declared itself god and tried to judge him.
"Sounds like a yes."
"What’s one thing you would say about them?" Eravel asked, and Everlearn’s brow creased slightly before he replied.
"They’re hard to predict and all overwhelmingly strong."
Every one of those gods was crazily strong.
Some of them reduced him to half-death with a single attack, and the woman who created the system held a power he couldn’t even grasp.
"What have gods got to do with the Hurricane Knull, though?"
He asked, confused as to how that correlated with her.
"Knull, The Manifestation of That, Dark."
"Theth’Vogarth, The Knull of Carnage."
"You know the title of the Hurricane Knull?" Eravel asked, pausing her breath before calling out:
"Ashra, The God Destroyer."